Gloria Oren 
Writer, Book Reviewer, Editor, Proofreader.
Writers and Authors – Jo Linsdell
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My good friend Cheryl Malandrinos asked me to help spread
the word about this new book and organization. Since I was
ill for about a month with pneumonia and am in the last
minute stage of arranging my daughter’s wedding I offered to
post something on my blog in lieu of an interview.
Jerry Pollock, President of the organization, wrote a book called
Messiah Interviews: Belonging to God, which he describes as follows:
“The protagonist must satisfy his biblical interviewers?the angel Gabriel,
Methuselah, Chanoch, Seth, King David, Moses, Jacob, Abraham, and the
prophet Isaiah?and prove that he has the wisdom and character to be the
Messiah. As the tale unfolds, the challenges of the interviews go beyond
the protagonist and become relevant to the lives of each one of us.”
Here is an excerpt from the book:
The Archangel Michael is speaking in Heaven:
“We have deliberately chosen a sinner: you, Yoseph, who has
knowingly cheated in science. Yet, you have publicly repented
and confessed your sins to your Stony Brook University
administration; and sent letters of apology to the former
institutions that you attended. Moreover, you have expressed
your heartfelt remorse and your sincere regrets for all of your
sinful actions in your published book, Divinely Inspired: Spiritual
Awakening of a Soul, for all to see. We have intentionally chosen
someone who has suffered horrifically, yet has the potential through
his suffering to look inside and understand human nature. We also
have especially not chosen a tzaddik, the wisest, most righteous,
and perfect of men. We are testing the potential of a simple imperfect
man. If you succeed in answering our questions, you will become King
Messiah, and return to earth to take your place at the End of Days.
If our assessment of you is that you are not the person, we had in
mind, and then we will have failed once again in finding the true Messiah.”
Profits from the sale of this book will be used for charity. To learn
more visit www.shechinahthirdtemple.org
Till next time,
Gloria
Micah’s Child
Lang Buchanan
Dragonon Inc., Mason, OH, 2006
504 pages
$17.95
ISBN: 0-9763398-5-4
“I walked to the back of the room to turn out the lights
on that half of my portable classroom and saw a twice-folded,
handwritten note. Usually, I would have just thrown it away
but not this time. The unrecognized scribble said, “It’s
started again with my Dad. I have hinted about it with my
teacher but not really told him. I wish he were my father.”
Micah’s Child by Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan is a story
of finding oneself and coming to terms with the troubles of
one’s past. Catherine Scott, AKA Cat, a high school English
teacher, mother of two college aged children and wife to
Marshall, lives a life of a socialite amongst the wealthy in her
Atlanta neighborhood. Cat harbors a secret that causes her
grief in the form of self-guilt for the death of her firstborn
daughter years before. Also teaching at the same high
school is the new math teacher, Micah Marlowe, at first a
mysterious character whom we know little about, but later
revealing his very human side. Together they make a
wonderful team both as teachers and as good friends.
Marshall, Cat’s husband, is self-conscious of his appearance,
is a troubled sleeper, and a bit egoistic as seen when he says,
“You know what. I can’t deal with this right now.” Marshall is
dealing with lots of stress due to work issues and family issues.
He’s a lawyer and believes in the all work no play ethic forgetting
things like their anniversary. When Cat mentions it he replies,
“Damn. That’s right…Not this year, Cat,” and asks her to “Help me
pack. That’ll give us a few minutes.”
Cat feels lonely as an empty-nester. Her children are off in college
no longer living at home. Now when Marshall travels for business
she’s alone. That’s when the memories and guilt feelings strike and
she says to no one in particular “If it weren’t for me, she’d be alive.
I let my baby die.”
This makes the reader want to keep turning the page to find out
what did happen to the baby. Though she lives a socialite life, Cat
feels out of place, as she puts it, “Living at the top of the economic
ladder, I was at the bottom rung of despair.”
There’s also a mysterious cloud over the fatherhood of Tess, Cat’s
baby that died. Who was he? Cat tells us it wasn’t Marshall so it must
have been someone from before she married. Not until she tells Micah
Marlowe the story of Tess’s death do we find out. And be prepared for
a shock, because it wasn’t what I was thinking all along while reading
the book. Intertwined throughout is the story of Nellie and David, young
kids growing up in the South. I never really got the reason for this
flashback story line as I kept thinking perhaps these kids were Cat and
Micah as youngsters, not so.
Not only are Cat and Micah excellent teachers, their students adore
them. If we had more teachers like them today who weren’t afraid to
do innovative things in their classrooms, perhaps the level of learning
would improve. Cat teaches English. What high school student adores
English, especially when reading boring writing? Cat has a way of
making things interesting. Much role-playing goes on in her classroom
and aids in learning. When it comes to grammar she has a unique way
of relating to her students and the lives they live. Explaining verbs Cat
tells her class, “Verbs are males because they act up in front of the
female nouns.” She describes clauses as “Women are independent
clauses and men are dependent, just like in everything. Always
cleaning up your mistakes.”
Micah teaches math and brings math to life by experiments, bringing in
speakers, and showing videos. Micah’s motto is taken from Emerson,
“The whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts.” He has a
poster of this hanging in his classroom. Micah explains math as “part of
all of nature; including human nature,” and adds, “There’s a
mathematical reason the spiral of a seashell elicits wonder and a sense
of beauty. Symmetry is the basis of all existence.” But sometimes doing
such things can lead to trouble as was the case with Micah after a guest
speaker appeared in class and showed a video. What happened is for you
to find out when you read the book.
In general, I loved the book and read the whole thing in less than a week.
There was only one part that I had issues with. Monica, one of the
socialite wives, was talking to Rita, another socialite wife, and Cat when
out of the blue she remarked, “Didn’t the Nazi’s make lampshades out of
the Jew’s skins?” Cat tried putting her in place and ending the topic but
Rita didn’t get it when Cat responded, “How horrible.” Rita popped in with,
“It’s true. Can you imagine Shari’s skin as a lampshade?” Cat tried again,
“That’s not even funny. In fact, it’s downright scary.” Rita responded,
“Come on, Cat. I was just having fun. I like Shari. I don’t care if she’s a
Jew.” Cat retorted, “Fun? Do you realize what you just said…”Not only
did Cat feel out of place amongst these elite women, she was also the
most decent and sane one of them all. What I don’t get though is why
this conversational interchange on this topic had to be included to
begin with.
Anybody who works in a difficult population school should read this book
and learn from Cat and Micah, how to bring their subjects to life in the
classroom and how to stand up for what you believe is right. The overall
technique of interlaced back-story, flashbacks, and the main story line
make this a book that is hard to put down once you start reading. It’s
fiction, mystery, romance, and thriller all in one. It brings issues
confronting us today to light. It shows the different opinions of parents
in the school setting and makes you wonder about some of the parents
stances. No wonder some kids are so troubled.
Although both Diane Lang and Michael Buchanan claim that the book isn’t
about them, there are a lot of similarities. Michael is a math teacher and
an archeology treasure hunter like Micah. He wrote the Honduras scene
and all the male parts for Micah. Diane was an English teacher like Cat
and wrote the rest of the book. They both taught at a high school
together at one point but wrote the book mostly by email. The result was
a wonderful achievement for a first novel.
Micah’s Child deals with all kinds of issues from marital problems,
alcoholism, abuse to honesty and good to others. Micah’s Child kept me
on my feet. I didn’t get the meaning of this title until the end but it was
good that way. Read it to find out who really was Micah’s Child. This
book will be a great revelation and you won’t be sorry. So look for Micah’s
Child by Lang Buchanan (notice how the authors combined their names)
and start reading it now.
Till next time,
Gloria
Modern science provided us with a universal method of studying
and mastering any subject. This method, highly successful in
music, wasn’t applied to language because there was a fixed
method of language study in existence long before modern
science appeared. The problem with that old system — it was
invented to apply to languages with mechanical systems of
endings, by which word relationships were indicated, not the
case with English.
English depends mostly on the arrangement of words, and the
key is logical relationship. The student of the English language
must master the logic of sentence structure or word relations.
As for spelling, the irregularities of the English language seem to
have driven us to one sole method — memorizing. To memorize
every word in a language is an unthinkable task.
Language is just as much a natural growth as trees, rocks, or
human bodies, and can have no more irregularities, even in the
spelling, than these have. Science would laugh at the idea of
memorizing every single form of tree, rock, or human body. It
looks for fundamental laws, classifies and groups, having a limit
so it can be mastered. Can this be the solution for mastering
spelling?
Grammar has seven fundamental logical relationships, and when
these are mastered with their chief modifications and combinations,
we know the essence of grammar as if we knew the name of every
possible combination those seven relationships might have.
The mastery of the English language is almost the task of a lifetime,
since only a few easy lessons won’t have an effect. We must make
it a habit of study that will grow as we grow.
Mastering English spelling is a serious journey. First, because the one
to three thousand words spelled in irregular ways must be memorized.
The easiest way would be to classify them as much as possible and
associate those in a way that will help us remember them. Second,
homonyms (words pronounced alike but spelled differently) can be
studied only in relation to their meaning, since it’s the meaning and
the grammatical use in sentences that is the key to the correct form.
So studying spelling means going beyond the mere mechanical
association of the letters that make up the word. Third, the list of
exceptions is so big that we get discouraged as most of these
exceptions are words used every day. If so, what is the use of
having rules anyway?
To begin this task one should begin with the common irregular words
and commit them to memory. The problem of how to do so effectively
begins with those writing spelling textbooks. The problem — mixing
regular with irregular words, common with uncommon and inserting
hard, long words that are used less frequently. These books are little
more that lists of words, and anyone can make lists of common, easy
words so a spelling book with such lists wouldn’t seem worth the money.
But teachers seek the easy way out and simply use these books to
teach by assigning the next page on a regular basis. To change this
and improve the spelling of future generations the chief objective should
be to acquire two habits: 1) observing articulate sounds (what happened
to phonics? wasn’t that what phonics did?) and 2) observing word forms
in reading.
Children can be taught to train the ear by giving utterance to
\each sound in a word, by carefully pronouncing words in
reading aloud. So instead of having a parent always read to the
child, why not share the reading so the child has more
opportunities to practice pronouncing words. Don’t let the child
continue after a mispronounced word, correct him/her and have
him/her repeat it. Only then will the child be trained to hear the
word in the right way. Teachers should speak clearly with clear
pronunciation as the teacher is the true medium of the child’s
learning, not the use of diacritical marks in the dictionary.
Adults can train the ear by reading poetry aloud, trying to
harmonize the sense and the rhythm rather than the sing-song
style.
But the most effective way to learn spelling is to train the eye
to carefully observe the forms of the words in newspapers and
books. But how does one do so? The observation of the general
form of a word isn’t the observation that teaches spelling. The
student must observe every letter in a word. But there is a
problem with this too – there’s a limit to the powers of memory.
For example, in spelling books the list of words may contain
words ending in “ise,” “ize.” or “yse.” This doesn’t tell us which is
which or when to use each. If, on the other hand, we’re told that
“ize” is the common ending, “ise” is the ending of thirty-one words,
and “yse” the ending of three or four, we can memorize the few
exceptions only, making the task easier.
When it comes to regular words the laws we can state with
certainty are few — namely doubling consonants, dropping silent
e’s, changing y’s to i’s, accenting certain syllables, and lengthening
or shortening vowels. Teachers who ignore these principles and fail
to teach them and spelling books that fail to address them are the
source of failure to learn correct spelling.
Students should be drilled on these until they become second
nature as is done in math with the multiplication tables. Unless
they are taught what the regular principles are, they can’t know
how a word should regularly be spelled.
What method was used to teach you spelling?
Were the basic principles heavily drilled in school?
Are you a good speller? If not, what words give you the most problems?
Till next time,
Gloria
Well today I turn 53 and my daughter graduates from University on Saturday.
Am I feeling old? You bet. Where have all those years gone?
The last four just seemed to whip by in such haste.
Yet I can’t fool anyone, not even myself, the age itself isn’t old, it’s the body’s feeling and what it has had to deal with that makes me feel that way today.
Last June I had a spinal fusion and was out of work for six weeks recovering. A reward for that was a trip to the East Coast (Washington D.C., New Jersey, New York and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
A month ago I said goodbye to the rest of the teeth on my lower jaw which were replaced with an over denture. It has been a nightmare since. First of all I was supposed to be able to eat normally within two to three weeks, but now, more than a month this is still not happening. I have lost extra weight and am not happy about it. I need to be at least 6 lbs more than I currently am. Second there were supposed to be only two or three adjustments to the over denture but I have been going in on a weekly basis. Seems that once it is adjusted and feels good, I go home and try to eat dinner, the next day or two it shifts again and doesn’t feel right. Third with my daughter’s graduation and a hectic few months ahead I shouldn’t have to be thinking about this.
So remember the song “I’ll cry if I want to”, well with tears of frustration, and of joy, I will allow myself to cry if and when I want to and try to enjoy my birthday as best I can.
Have a great day.
Till next time,
Gloria
Language is no more than a medium. If it is perfectly clear and pure, we don’t notice it any more than we notice pure air when the sun is shining in a clear sky, or the taste of pure cool water when we drink a glass on a hot day. Unless the sun is shining, there is no brightness; unless the water is cool, there is no refreshment. The source of all our joy in the landscape, of the luxuriance of fertile nature, is the sun and not the air. Language is merely a medium for thoughts, emotions, the intelligence of a finely wrought brain, and a good mind will make far more out of a bad medium than a poor mind will make out of the best.
Language which expresses the thought with strict logical accuracy is correct language, and language which is sufficiently rich in its resources to express thought fully, in all its lights and bearings, is effective language. If the writer or speaker has enough words and forms at his disposal, he has to use them in a way that would be both correct and effective.
Since the first aim of speech is to be understood, the clearer you write the more easily and surely you will be understood. The clearer you write the more clearly you will understand yourself.
Language can’t be acquired, only tested, by analysis, and grammar is an analytic, not a constructive science. To improve the language we need to begin by teaching the mind to think.
Thought and speech are inseparable. Matter and expression are parts of one; style is a thinking out into language. This is literature; not “things”, but the verbal symbols of things; not on the other hand mere “words”; but thoughts expressed in language.
Words are the only currency in which we can exchange thought even with ourselves. Does it not follow, then, that the more accurately we use words the closer definition we shall give to our thoughts? Does it not follow that by drilling ourselves to write in a discerning manner we train our minds to clarify their thought?
Language can’t be acquired, only tested, by analysis, and grammar is an analytic, not a constructive science. To improve the language we need to begin by teaching the mind to think.
The right kind of language-teaching will also give us power, a skill in the use of words, which will enable us to frame advertisements which will draw business, letters which will win customers, and to speak in that elegant and forceful way.
Our language depends wholly on arrangement of words, and the key is the logical relationship. The mastery of the English language is almost the task of a lifetime. A few easy lessons will have no effect. We must create a habit of language study that will grow upon us as we grow older, and little by little, but never by leaps, shall we mount up to the full expression of all that is in us.
Till next time,
Gloria
H. Peter Nennhaus
Quo Vadis, Israel?
Outskirts Press Inc., 2008, 113 pages, $11.95
ISBN: 978 -1- 4327- 1459 – 8
Current Events, Jewish
“Within the turmoil of fears, fury, self-righteous fervor and demonization, nobody in Israel worth his salt would willingly embark on a campaign of atonement.”
As I began reading Nennhaus’s book I had no idea where it would lead. Why? Simply because I didn’t know that Quo Vadis meant “Where are you going?” Throughout the entire book there is no explanation as to why the author chose to use Latin, a language no longer in use, in the title, nor did Nennhaus give the phrases meaning. After reading this book and still confused about its meaning I Googled the term to learn what it meant. Furthermore, as a title – Where are You Going, Israel? – as someone who has lived in Israel for fifteen years including the period of the Yom Kippur War, I say to everyone that Israel isn’t going anywhere. Whether you like it or not the state of Israel is here to stay.
Nennhaus’s solution of moving the land of Israel to the Kaliningrad Oblast is a joke because it isn’t even up for sale; at least I could find no proof of this claim. In 2002 the Deputy Governor of Kaliningrad Oblast, Vladimir N. Prudnikov said, “From 1991 when the market transformation started in Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast is developing as one of the centers for the Russian Federation’s integration into European economy. This was precisely the original concept aimed at developing the region as a bridge connecting the economies of Russia and Europe.”
http://www.cbss.st/documents/cbsspresidencies/7lithuanian/committeeofsenior/
dbaFile488.html
Why would any country put money into large-scale developing of an area they supposedly would be willing to part with, especially when it is the only non-freezing port on the Baltic Sea? If that is too old proof that it isn’t for sale, Kaliningrad hosted the Belarus exhibition just two months ago [Feb 2008]. Sorry but Kaliningrad will never be the new Jewish homeland, though it may once again come to be known as Koenigsburg.
To clarify the main point in the issue I’ll paraphrase the words of a man I highly admire and listen to on a regular basis, Mr. Dennis Praeger, who said just a few days ago on his talk radio show “Israel has always been the land of the Jews known as the first Jewish commonwealth (the First Temple), the second Commonwealth (the Second Temple), and now the state of Israel. There will never, ever be an Israel without Jerusalem. The proof of our existence on the land of Israel was shown many times through archaeological digs. Israel was never, ever, ever Palestine.”
Nennhaus assigns twenty-nine pages to the Kaliningrad Oblast, more than any number of pages allocated to any chapter in the book relating to the topic of the solution to the Israel-Arab conflict. I found this very distracting and it left me wondering whether he really knew what he was talking about.
This is what Israel is really about:
• Pre-statehood we overcame Pharaoh, the Greeks, the Romans, the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms in Russia
• Over 60+ years ago the Nazis herded the Jews like sheep to slaughter. We survived.
• With statehood but no army, Israel, a new state with 650,000 Jews, was attacked by seven Arab nations. Israel’s population was a tough people with nowhere to go but we prevailed. We still are a tough people and we will prevail again.
• Israel became a state on land which was mostly desert. Look at it today. Proof of survival.
• Three of the strongest armies in the Middle East, bearing modern armies and Soviet Russian weapons, attacked Israel in what became the Six Day War (1967). Israel prevailed.
• Today Israel is a thriving country, with its own army, a strong Air Force and a high-tech economy. Israel exports millions worldwide. Large U.S. companies such as Intel, Microsoft and IBM develop their products in Israel
• As stated on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, “From state-of-the-art surgical lasers and intelligent sensors to unique computerized monitoring systems, Israeli devices save lives every day.” Have you heard about the Pillcam? Guess what – it was developed in Israel.
• The only countries in the world to send satellites into space were the U.S., Russia, China, France, England, Germany and Israel.
• The world’s nuclear power family includes the US, Russia, China, India, France, England and Israel. (Israel doesn’t admit it but everyone knows it)
Look back at history. Every nation or culture that messed with the Jewish people was destroyed – but we survived and thrived. If you doubt this than try to answer the following questions: Where has the Egyptian empire disappeared? What about the Romans – who speaks Latin these days? Any news about the Third Reich today? The Jewish people are a Nation from the Bible. From the slavery in Egypt to this day we still speak the same language. Yes our morale is low, so what? Wouldn’t yours be, too, if you were losing so many innocent people including children? But we still celebrate festivals, go on living, and visit friends. We will overcome and win after all. Israel is here to stay, where it is, not in the Kaliningrad Oblast.
Till next time,
Gloria
Shireen Jeejeebhoy
Lifeliner: The Judy Taylor Story
iUniverse, 2007, 186 pages, #16.95
ISBN: 978-0-44544-8
Nonfiction, Biography
“This is my third date with the knife,” she jokes as she sees the surgical resident come in to prep her on the afternoon of October 21. “You ought to put a zipper in. It’d be much easier to unzip me when you want to play with my innards.”
Lifeliner is the amazing, unforgettable story of a young woman who becomes seriously ill at a young age and with the devoted care of her gastroenterologist survives for over twenty years.
Judy Taylor was a woman of great courage and a natural fighter. She was also the first patient ever to be treated with in-home alternative feeding techniques and the first such patient to survive the longest.
Lifeliner is Judy’s story, but it is also the story of her devoted gastroenterologist, Dr. Jeejeebhoy, who improved upon early records of alterative feeding methods and created the Total Parenteral Nutrition system (TPN) and it’s portable versions for home care. For this Dr. Jeejeebhoy was dubbed “King of TPN”.
Judy, trained in nursing, married with three young daughters was put on a new birth control pill in 1966 which caused the development of intestinal blood clots. These clots eventually led to the loss of her digestive system. Until then, this situation meant starvation and death, but with Dr. Jeejeebhoy overseeing her care Judy became his test subject and survived long enough to be able to return home with a brand new home method of alternative feeding. Using this system Judy survived for over twenty years. For Judy this meant being a mother to her daughters, a wife to her husband and the opportunity to live life as she wanted.
Jeejeebhoy, the doctor’s daughter met Judy when her father was invited to a BBQ at Judy’s home and was asked to bring his family. Knowing Judy personally enabled the author to contact people Judy knew and to produce a story that will live on for a very long time.
Jeejeebhoy’s style of writing sets the right pace as we follow Judy’s medical difficulties. If you like reading about medical developments and down-to-earth humanitarian doctors and the relationships that develop between them and their patients, than this book is for you. It is truly a fascinating and eye-opening story which was well written.
What I found especially entertaining was the nicknames Judy came up with for her devoted doctor — Dr. Cowboy and Dr. JeeJee which she later shortened to Dr. Jeej. A very ill woman indeed but her sense of humor shines out throughout her ordeal. This is a must read for anyone suffering from a similar condition as well as any terminal illness that might require alternative feeding such as AIDS, some cancers, etc. If you want a book you can’t put down, get Lifeliner into your hands, you’re in for a wild ride with one awesome woman and the genius of a devoted doctor.
Till next time,
Gloria
As the election campaigns [of 2008] strengthen and get closer I would like to bring an important topic to consider. Many find an easy scapegoat in the small country of Israel but could a country as large as the United States fare any better under the attacks of terrorism.
Read the article and then follow the link to a video that explains it all. Reflect on this a bit and if you’d like post a comment as to how you feel.
Wake up America; it’s not only Israel that’s under attack.
Can America Survive A Nationwide Terrorist Attack?
(NU) – What would happen if loyalists of Saddam Hussein bombed 12 major U.S. cities one week before the presidential election, thrusting the nation and the election into chaos?
Sound familiar? A similar scenario recently took place in Spain and could happen to other European and Asian countries that assisted America in the controversial war in Iraq and who have Americans living in or visiting them.
Many people, including political pundits, believe that more large-scale terrorism will come to American soil and the American people. The broadcast threat by Al-Zawahiri, leader of Al-Queda, that bomb after bomb will soon fall on America has the majority of U.S. citizens frantic with worry. Indeed, terrorism has become one of the world’s greatest fears and concerns.
“New splinter terrorist groups are organizing everyday who want to kill Americans around the world, making our safety questionable for generations to come,” said Bruce Schwartz, author of “The Twenty-First Century” (Park Avenue Press, ISBN # 0-9729076-0-2).
His new novel tells the story of America in the early years of the 21st century but was written in the 1990s, before the events of Sept. 11, 2001. Schwartz’s book warns America about the potential for a nationwide terrorist attack.
His story details the destruction of 12 U.S. cities by Iraqi terrorists, just days before a presidential election and results in America’s second civil war. But Schwartz’s version of civil war is not between regions; it is between classes and races.
“In the 1990s, hundreds of black churches were burned to the ground. Prejudice is rampant, even today, in America,” Schwartz said.
The book’s release during this presidential election year will provoke many controversial discussions on where our nation is headed when it comes to foreign policy, race relations, terrorism and politics. Schwartz portrays the near future as if it were the headlines of today’s news.
Planned Television Arts, Schwartz’s publicists, believe that right now is the perfect time to release this novel because his story could potentially become reality right before our eyes.
This chillingly prophetic novel has received rave reviews because it suggests what America must do to improve our society.
“The Twenty-First Century” is available at http://www.thetwentyfirstcentury.com and all major bookstores.
Now watch this powerful video presentation about the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, I received from Naomi Ragen, a well known author and help spread the truth. There are many myths out there and now it’s time to face the facts.
Till next time,
Gloria
Before I welcome Lea to join us, I must say that if you haven’t yet met her, you’ve been missing out. Lea is one incredible woman. Lea is everything to everyone who knows her. From the members of the Muse Online Conference to the members of her many critique groups she is known as the Mother Hen. So when I say you’re in for a treat today I truly mean it.
I would now like to introduce to you Lea Schizas who never fails to surprise those who know her.
Welcome Lea, it is my pleasure to have you visit today.
Hello Gloria and thank you for hosting my book tour today.
The Rock of Realm, aimed for anyone between 8 and 208, was extremely fun to write. This was one of those books where the characters whispered, yelled, screamed, and ordered me around. they dictated where they wanted to go, what they wanted to say, and what they wanted to do. Surprisingly, I came out of this unharmed.
“Um, what are you trying to say?”
Why, hello Pops. Didn’t know you were going to be here, as well.
“Well, duh, you thought you were going to talk about us and we’d just leave you be?”
Gloria, I’d like to introduce you to Pops, the squirrel, my a la Billy Crystal character.
“I’m real…not a character.”
Anyway…Pops is Butch’s pet. Butch is…
“An overgrown, ordering German Shepherd who I’m about fed…um, Lea, is Butch here today?”
Pops also likes to shoot his mouth and gets into trouble at times.
“I’m loving this. Finally someone tunes into this nut’s antics.”
And this is Jinx, the six-legged hamster who is our fearless guide throughout Rock Kingdom. And Pops, no comments, please.
The story finds Alexandra Stone, the main character, and her best friend, Sarah Breckinridge, reciting a chant taught to them by their English teacher. Suddenly, the two of them, along with Butch and Pops, find themselves in this whole new world.
“Freaky place.”
“Only to outsiders.”
Boys!
“Well, he criticized my home.”
Alexandra Stone discovers a secret her parents kept from her…that she is the Princess to Rock Kingdom. This hurts and angers her but she pulls herself together in order to find a way to get her friends back to their world.
“I love Alex.”
“Me, too.”
Gloria, that’s the first time these two have agreed on anything. Getting back to Rock Kingdom, the only safe haven where Alex can recite the chant that brought them there in the first place is in the Majesty Bedroom. But in order to get there they will have to face several dangerous obstacles and adventures.
“Please, stop, I don’t want to remember them.”
The Braks, the villain’s soldiers, are hot on their trail which adds more suspense, more adventure, and a whole lot of excitement as the story unfolds with plenty twists and turns…
“To make you toss your guts.”
Well, not exactly, but enough to get your stomach all in knots. This is the first book in the series which introduces most of the characters and part of the landscape of Rock Kingdom. In each book, which presently I’ve all ready mapped out until Book 4, will bring you new areas within Rock Kingdom, new characters to shed light on some of the villains and the reasons for their behavior, and the reasons why Alex’s parents kept this world from her.
“There’s a book 2? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Cos you’re not important. I knew.”
I want to thank you, Gloria, for having me here today and looking forward to answering and reading comments from your readers. One lucky reader will win my Rock of Realm ebook just by leaving me a comment or question.
I’ll take the boys now out of your blog.
“Bye, G.”
“It was my pleasure meeting you, my dear lady.”
“Oh stop the suck up.”
And there you have it. Lea, thanks for this wonderful description of your book the Rock of Realm. Better find time to read the rest of it, sounds exciting. Well now it’s time to get your comments posted for a chance to win this wonderful ebook from Lea and almost time for me to leave for work. Have a great day everyone and I will check in to read your comments later.
Till next time
Gloria
Everyone can make a difference in a simple, fun and unique manner.
I just donated 920 grains of rice to feed the poor, practiced my vocabulary for the day, and had fun doing it.
The best part is – it cost me absolutely nothing.
You too can help feed the poor by providing this staple of nutrition.
Head on over to http://FreeRice.com
For every correct word/definition match you get they donate 20 grains of rice. If everyone does it, that will feed a lot of people.
So, why not. It costs you nothing. Feed the brain and feed the poor couldn’t be easier.
Till next time,
Gloria
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