#MondayBlogs: Giveaway Updates, Reading and Writing Updates, Life Updates

Hi Friends!

Life Updates: The Barnes and Noble book signing was a huge success. I got to meet some wonderful authors and fans. I must say, the nurses of St. Francis hospital stole the show! Since this was my first book signing, and I’m a fairly new author, I wasn’t expecting a huge turnout. I would’ve been happy with selling a few books. But after the first hour or so, I was shocked that person after person stood in line for me to sign their books. So what’s the deal? Where were all these ladies coming from?

St. Francis Hospital–where my husband works. He’d told me I had a few fans at his work, but honestly I wasn’t prepared for the number of ladies who came to support me. After the book signing, I asked Dave how he did it–how did he get all those nurses and staff to read my book? His answer: not much. He’d taken our daughter to the hospital with him a few months ago, and she mentioned to one of the staff that she wanted to draw pictures for my books one day. And that’s how it started…

To the ladies of St. Francis Hospital–thank you!

Author signing books Author signing Tamara and Shannon Author signing Book signing author pic

Facebook Giveaway: Some of you may be keeping up with my giveaways on my Facebook page, but if you aren’t, here’s what’s new: Every Tuesday I host a giveaway on my page. The winner receives a Surprise Mystery Package AND whoever that person tagged in their comment also gets a FREE ebook. Last week we had four winners, so odds are in your favor. Click here to find out more–> www.facebook.com/tamaraclairegrantham

What I’m Writing/Reading/Watching:

Writing: I’m working on Silverwitch, Olive Kennedy Book 4 (Book 3 is in edits, yay!) Here’s a very short snippet:

Afternoon turned to evening, and as the wind died down, the field of red wildflowers grew still. The fading light turned their petals a deeper shade—the color of blood. Soon their bright hue would be gone completely, replaced with darkness.

Reading: A good friend recommended a new author to me. His name is Benjamin K. Hewett and I am thoroughly enjoying this book. It’s a quick, entertaining read that is hilarious. I stayed up late last night reading it, (after my husband got called in for a trauma call–different story) which is a big deal for me. I think I actually laughed out loud at one point.DARTSWatching: We watched The Martian last night. I’ve read the book, and while the language bothered me, the math and especially science fascinated me. It was a book I had trouble putting down, as one life-threatening event after another kept cropping up. I really appreciate how the author kept everything so realistic. The MartianUsually I like the stuff with aliens, but Andy Weir made this such a fun read, I didn’t mind. As for the movie–it was entertaining, and the language was def better than the book, but it still suffered from the book to TV curse. You just can’t get into a person’s head in a film the way you do in a book. While movies will always win in the sights/sounds/special effects, they’ll never trump books in their ability to see inside a person’s head. That said, I enjoyed the Martian landscapes, the visual of the potato field, the ending was a little different from the book, but it worked well on-screen. I can see how the book ending would be a little boring on a screen. One beef I had about the movie–and this is small and almost insignificant: at the beginning there’s a scene where Mark’s character (Matt Damon) is pulling out the personal bins his companions left behind. On each bin, his crew mate’s names are written in magic marker on top. But… they’re all written in the same handwriting, except Johansen’s name has an exclamation point at the end of her name, which to me, indicates that she wanted to personalize the bin. If that was the intention, then each name should have been written in differing styles of handwriting, right?

I told you it was a small detail, but since I’m in the business of writing, small details make big differences. To me, that little bit of personalized handwriting would have really made those characters come alive. But, that’s just me…

See you next Tuesday!!!

Comments are closed.