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Shamless Plug: Vote for my Beautiful Baby, Charlee

Everyone knows I love my dog…don’t they?  Well, you should.  Anyways, A Novel Menagerie is hosting another 2010 Beautiful Baby Contest and there are a ton of entrants in the competition.

How can Charlee compete without votes from you, especially against the dynamic cat duo of Emmy and Finn from Presenting Lenore and Milou of Bermudaonion?

Can’t keep Charlee away from that snow.


Here’s what I had to say about Charlee for the contest:

Name:  Charlee (with two e’s because he wants and needs to be different)
Breed:  He’s a Keeshond, not to be confused with a little Pomeranian or a Chow Chow, and believe me that has happened.
Age:  He’s 12 going on puppy.
Gender:  And obviously from these pronouns, you’ve deduced he’s a boy, though he is neutered.
Why He’s So Loved:        I’ve included my favorite photo of him from this winter’s snow storm in his new outfit.  He just loves snow…eating it, tumbling in it, catching snowballs in his mouth, which leads to eating them, and just running around in it.  He’d live in the snow if I’d let him, but its too darn cold.  I’ve had him since I was a pup when Anna and I were in college and just had to get a dog because we were never getting married and would be old maids anyway.

Go check out the competition and vote for Charlee anyway!

Cathy Buchanan and Saving Niagara Falls

I recently received an email from Cathy Buchanan, author of The Day the Falls Stood Still (click for my review), about the movement to stop high-rise development on the green spaces of Loretto Academy.  Here’s what she had to say.  I urge you to all consider the issue, get informed, and participate.

Lots of you know I’ve helped found Friends of Niagara Falls, a non-profit organization working to preserve the environment and natural beauty of Niagara Falls.  Our first task is a big one: stopping the high-rise development planned for the green space of Loretto Academy (yep, it’s the convent school where The Day the Falls Stood Still opens in 1915), located atop the bluff adjacent to the Horseshoe Falls.

The treed grounds of Loretto frame the falls in nature, a much more fitting backdrop to a natural wonder of the world than a wall of hotels. The high-rises will cast shadows on the parkland surrounding the falls and the falls itself and are expected to increase the number of rain-like days at Niagara Falls, as has been the case recent high-rise development.

Please show our government your opposition by signing the Friends of Niagara Falls petition. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopthewalls/

To get informed and get involved, visit http://www.FriendsofNiagaraFalls.org/

Please pass these links onto friends and family.

Thanks, 
Cathy

FTC Disclosure: Clicking on title and image links will lead you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary, though appreciated.

S-N-O-W

Where’s Charlee?  I think he’s buried in the snow!

We took a little drive today after the streets were relatively clear and the snow stopped.  Looked really pretty, but there is a ton of snow out there.

Here we are hanging out in a parking lot with tons and tons of snow, if you don’t believe me.

What have you been doing this weekend?

Savvy Verse & Wit, Wikio Exclusive

Good morning, everyone! I’ve had my site on Wikio for less than a year, and they kindly informed me that my site has steadily moved up the ranks!  I cannot believe it, and it is all thanks to you my lovely readers!

Wikio was kind enough to even let me have an exclusive and release their February Top 20 list of Literature Websites a few days early.  Please check it out!  For more information about Wikio, go here.

Also, if you enter your information in the Google form below, you can win a book of your choice from the following:

1.  Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran
2.  Loving Mr. Darcy by Sharon Lathan
3.  Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates
4.  The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer
5.  Little Stories by Jeff Roberts
6.  Gold Dust on his Shirt by Irene Howard

Deadline is Feb. 19, 2010, at 11:59PM EST

1 Nathan Bransford – Literary Agent
2 Janet Reid, Literary Agent
3 Maud Newton
4 Leiter Reports: A Philosophy Blog
5 Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent
6 Wild Rose Reader
7 The Best American Poetry
8 Black-Eyed Susan’s
9 One Single Impression
10 LEMON HOUND
11 TLC Book Tours
12 The Written World
13 Editorial Anonymous
14 A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing
15 Writer Beware Blogs!
16 Conversational Reading
17 HipWriterMama
18 Savvy Verse & Wit
19 Enchanted by Josephine
20 Fantasy Book Critic

Ranking by Wikio

Vietnam War Reading Challenge Update, and More

War Through the Generations is now focused on Vietnam War-related reading.

And we had a guest post from Shannon of After the Fire Came a Gentle Whisper about her feelings on Vietnam War literature and what it means to her.  If you haven’t checked out the guest post, you should.  It just might inspire you to join us this year.  You should also check out Shannon’s blog.

Some participants are so on the ball, they’ve already started sending us their review links; check out the first few reviews — My Detachment by Tracy Kidder and In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien.  Other book review links will appear on the Vietnam War Book Reviews page as well as on the main blog pages.  There are many more reviews from participants filtering in, but right now we’re staggering those posts.

If you have any guest post ideas that you’d like to run by us, feel free to email Email Us.

Finally, the winners among the WWII Reading Challenge Participants have been announced.  Interested in seeing who they are?  Check out the list.

My First Bloggiesta!

Welcome to my first Bloggiesta!  I’ve decided to sign-up and makes some progress on this blog and War Through the Generations.

For the War blog, here are my goals:

1.  Get the initial Vietnam War Reading Challenge reviews posted.
2.  Link the books on the WWII list to the Amazon Affiliate page to hopefully generate money to pay for giveaways and shipping.
3.  Add books to the recommended reading list for the Vietnam War Challenge (though I think this will be ongoing)

4.  Check on our guest post submissions for the Vietnam War Reading Challenge
5.  Back up the blog

For this blog, here are my goals:

1.  Add a copyright to my feed (which I just did earlier today–so let’s check this off the list)
2.  Rearrange sidebars to my satisfaction
3.  Ensure all challenge reviews have the appropriate challenge tags, images, and links
4.  Make sure that all challenge book reviews are linked on appropriate challenge pages
5.  Organize Google Reader and makes sure all Vietnam War Reading Participants are in their own folder
6.  Update my spreadsheet of ARC and review books and take stock
7.  Think up some article ideas on writing and editing
8.  Comment on as many posts in my Google Reader as possible
9.  Make sure to post at least the first Virtual Poetry Circle post of the New Year!
10.  Backup the blog

I hope I can accomplish at least some of this over the weekend.  If I even get just the War blog stuff done, I will be happy.

Thanks to Natasha of Maw Books for hosting.

I think I’m going to update this post as I go through the Bloggiesta, so you’ll see more cross-outs as I go along. 

***Update at 6:30PM***


I spent about 1 hour before my nap working on sidebars, woke up at 5PM, and have been working for 1.5 hours on backing up the blog and getting the next Virtual Poetry Circle post ready.  Including the time it took me to read and understand the mini-challenge about adding the copyright to my feed earlier in the day, I’ve spent about 3 hours on bloggiesta so far.  


I’ve started updating the WWII Reading list with affiliate links, but I need a break…so that’s 3.5 hours on Bloggiesta so far.  How are you doing?


***Update 1/10/10***


I’ve made significant progress during Bloggiesta!  I’ve been working on linking the WWII recommended reading books to the Amazon Affiliate page, but this may be a long-term project as it gets tedious and tiring.  


I have checked on the guest posts for the 2010 Vietnam War Challenge and will be drafting the review posts we have thus far from our participants.


In total, I’m up to 7.5 hours spent on Bloggiesta.


Yes, I’m back again and I think I’m done for the rest of Bloggiesta because I want to read some more of my books that are calling to me.  I’ve spent a total of 10.5 hours on blog stuff, and I think that’s pretty good for my first crack at it.  Some of these projects will be ongoing.  


Have fun everyone!

D.C. Literature Examiner Goodies

I know we’ve all be busy with the holidays and reading our new books.

I’ve been busily interview poets and authors on D.C. Literature Examiner again.  You knew I couldn’t resist.

Please check out my latest interview with Poet and Musician John Amen!  We talk about his writing habits, his thoughts on how music and poetry are similar, and what poets he recommends.  Check out the interview here and here.

One of his books, More of Me Disappears, made my 2009 top poetry books list.

I’ve also had the pleasure of talking about John Shors’, author of Dragon House, charity efforts in providing books to street children in Vietnam.  If you’d like to see how well his project has gone or how his book sales are connected to the charity, please go here.

Finally, I had the pleasure of interviewing Into the Beautiful North author Luis Alberto Urrea.  We discuss how movies influenced him, particularly with this novel, his writing, his playlists, and more.  Don’t forget his recommended reading.  Check out the interview here and here.

Urrea’s book made my best of audiobooks for 2009!

I hope you’ll be checking these interviews out in your down time.

2009 WWII Reading Challenge Giveaways

The 2009 WWII Reading Challenge at War Through the Generations may have ended on Dec. 31, 2009, and given way to the 2010 Vietnam War Reading Challenge (signups are still open).

But the fun doesn’t end there for our 2009 WWII Reading Challenge participants!

We’ve got giveaways for all you who participated and even if you didn’t complete the challenge, there is an opportunity to win books.

The best part is that these giveaways are international.

Want to know how to enter?  GO HERE.

Cheers to a Prosperous 2010

I hope you all had a safe and fun night.  Hubby and I spent our time watching movies and eating Chinese food!

If you missed my best of 2009 list, click here.

If you missed by D.C. Literature Examiner interview with John Amen, click here and here.

Also, I’ve posted a new article about John Shors and his work with a Vietnam charity.

The Virtual Poetry Circle will return next Saturday, Jan. 9, 2009.

Have a great day everyone!  I’m reading this weekend as part of the New Year’s Read-a-Thon as well, so I won’t be online much!

Happy Holidays and Presents!

First, I wanted to say that since everyone will have a holiday hangover, I’m going to postpone the 26th Virtual Poetry Circle until the new year!

I wanted to share with everyone the great Secret Santa gifties I received from my LibraryThing SantaThing and my Book Blogger Holiday Swap partner!

Left to right (sort of):  Melissa Dela Cruz’s The Van Alen Legacy, Book 1 of Vampire Academy, Book 1 of The Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith, all of which I received from my SantaThing partner.  Thank you, sjmccreary!

My Book Blogger Swap partner was Staci of Life in the Thumb!  I just love her blog and who could have asked for a better partner!  She sent me Book 5 of the Morganville vampires, Lord of Misrule.  I don’t have any in this series, but the best thing is she sent a Gift card to Barnes & Noble, so I can get the other 4 books in the series!  She also sent some great Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate (she must be reading my blog because dark chocolate is my favorite!).  Some great paper and a pen and a great bookmark as well!  Fantastic gift!  Thanks Staci!

My husband got me a gift I’ve been dying for:  Inglourious Basterds, which came with a CD soundtrack! and Wii Resort

In the background, there are a couple of graphic novels I got for my hubby:  The Last Temptation and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks.  I also got him some chocolate covered pretzels, which he loves, and Blindness, Punisher, and Haunting in Connecticut

Oh, and we have this great video of my husband opening his big surprise before he had to leave for work on the morning of Christmas.  Sorry, he looks really tired.

I hope everyone had a great holiday and received some great bookish goodies; I know I did. It was a very Vampire Christmas! Happy Holidays everyone!

FTC disclosure:  Clicking on links to book and movie titles will bring you to my Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase necessary.

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Holidays from Santa Charlee!
We wanted to wish everyone who reads the blog Happy Holidays!  We hope you have much cheer and happiness.
We had a little photo shoot with Charlee in his new sweater and Santa cap.  If you want to check out the others, they should appear in the photo slideshow on the right sidebar. 

Let it Snow!

Here in D.C. the weather forecasters were correct and we did get a ton of snow.  I have a feeling the city will be shut down for days.  I wanted to share some photos of Charlee in his new hoodie, since he’s losing fur in his old age, and his romp in the snow.

Before we headed out.
Trudging through the snow.
Running in circles.
Having too much fun to go inside.
How’d you spend your day?