Happy Friday Supporters, Welcome to week nine of Blogging Through The Alphabet with Marcy @ BenandMe.com. The letter “I” will be used to honor the book of the month, but before I reveal the book of the month I just want to give you a quick update on my Amazon Reviewer Ranking. My current Amazon Reviewer Ranking is #58,649 (up slightly from last month). In addition, I have reviewed seven books in June for a total of42 books. If you have a book or a product that you are interested in me reviewing please check my reviewer guidelines. As you may recall, I decided to spotlight one book a month. The best book I have reviewed in the last month. So drum roll please.... The honor for the June 2014 Book of the Month Pick by Corine is...... The Innkeeper’s Dog By Deborah Bence Boerema. About the Book: Author Deborah Bence Boerema was was led to write The Innkeeper's Dog early one Christmas season to fill the drawers of a large wooden Advent calendar for her son, Nathan. Rather than filling the drawers with candy or trinkets that would quickly be eaten, lost, or forgotten, she was given the idea to fill them with pages from a Christmas story. She felt this needed to be a story that would be new to Nathan, and she wanted a story related to the first Christmas in Bethlehem. When she couldn't find a story to suit her needs, she was inspired to write one. She knew Nathan enjoyed stories about animals. The old Christmas carol "The Friendly Beasts" came to mind. In this song, each animal in the stable tells of the gifts he or she gave the infant Jesus. Thinking that Nathan would relate more to a dog than to a cow or a donkey, she was prompted to create the character of Thaniel the Spaniel. Then she set about answering the question of what Thaniel would have given the Christ child if he'd had a verse in the song. The result is a story that became a special part of Nathan's Advent calendar that year. She hope The Innkeeper's Dog will become a special part of your Christmas celebration, too! My Review: How would you feel if you were the only animal in the stable to miss seeing Baby Jesus being born? How about if you listen to all your friends repeatedly talk about how great the night was and all the wonderful gifts they gave Baby Jesus? What if you realized you did not have a gift or talent to give Baby Jesus? These are all things Thaniel the Spaniel faces in The Innkeeper’s Dog by Deborah Bence Boerema. In the story, Thaniel is able to recognize all the reasons he should be grateful (i.e., shelter, food, friends). However, he still struggles with feelings of jealousy, anger, and sadness about missing the birth of Baby Jesus and having to listen to the stories told by his friends about their awesome talents. Even after Thaniel starts working as a sheep dog, he is unable to recognize his purpose. Then, one day, his owner is able to clarify Thaniel’s purpose and help him understand why he does not remember the birth of Baby Jesus. This book is a touching story which relates that God created each of us for a purpose and with gifts and talents. It is packed with discussion points from beginning to end and you may find yourself reading it over and over again to the little ones in your life. Specifically, I think this book can be used in the following ways:
For more about The Innkeeper’s Dog visit: http://innkeepersdog.tateauthor.com/ There are several wonderful lessons there to go along with the book. What is the best book you have read during the month of June? Please feel free to tell me about it in the comment section below. That is all for now. Continue to pray for me as I pray for you, Corine To check out some of my other reviews or the reviews of my books, click on the picture below.
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Greetings Supporters, Hey Supports, as you know I am also Blogging Through The Alphabet with Marcy @ BenandMe.com and we are on letter “H”. So "H" is for Help! My book What is Love was entered into and selected for the UBAWA’S Best Book Cover Contest. The author whose book cover receives the most “likes” will receive a small cash prize, a free book review and homepage feature on UBAWA’s website (this will be wonderful exposure and adverting). From what I can tell, my book is the only Christian and only children’s book nominated. Please help me take home the prize by “liking” my book cover after clicking on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=657137234371980&set=a.657131251039245.1073741850.100002271297049&&permPage=1 You can also help me by inviting your friends to like the photo by either tagging them in the photo/comment section on facebook or coping and pasting the below on your facebook page. "Hey Facebook community, Corine’s book, What is Love, was entered into UBAWA’S Best Book Cover Contest. Please help her take home the prize by “liking” this book cover after clicking on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=657137234371980&set=a.657131251039245.1073741850.100002271297049&&permPage=1 " Thanks again supporters, Please continue to pray for me as I pray for you, Corine Morning Supporters, Hey Supports, welcome to this week’s discussion about how to write a picture book. As you know I am also Blogging Through The Alphabet with Marcy @ BenandMe.com. This week I want to talk about good editing (yes, even picture books need to be edited) in honor of the letter “G”. All of my books go through at least three different editing steps. First I self edit all my books. This is a little harder than it sounds because, like most people, I tend to read what is supposed to be on the paper and not what is really there. However, I have developed the following steps to help make this process easier. -The first thing I do is allow time to pass. The more time that has passed since I last worked on a project, the more likely I am to read the actual words on the paper and not in my head. -Once I come back to the project, I tend to start with reading backwards. I start at the end of the book and read one sentence at a time to work my way to the start of the book. I find that reading what I have written out of order allows me to cognitively separate what is in my head from what is on the paper. -Finally, I use this computer software to read the story aloud to me. I know some people who just read what they wrote aloud but, for me, I feel I always need as much separation as possible between what is in my head and what is on paper. The second step in my editing process is to hire a professional editor. Yes, I know there are computer programs (Grammarly, AutoCrit, Edit Your Novel , etc.) that claim to do a great job of editing; however, they do not catch most of the mistakes a human will catch. I actually did a little scientific research on this one day when I was looking to save money. Basically, I took an article that I had a human edit and ran it through several popular programs. The human won by a landslide. I started to write a blog post about but discovered this post already did the work. You can check it out here: http://www.writers-village.org/writing-award-blog/do-copy-editing-programs-work- If you hire an editor, they may ask about the type of editing you are looking for. Here is a brief summary of different types of editing: -Proofreading or copy editing. This type of editing is typos and grammatical errors. -Line Editing is where the editor looks at the sentence structure, flow, and even the content to make sure it is complete and factual. Most picture books will not need this type of editing. Finally, I have at least two people perform what I call beta reading. This is where regular people who are your target audience read your book. In order to find a professional editor I recommend you ask for referrals. I am currently using Mr. Proof Reader. You can also use http://www.odesk.com Please feel free to share your tips for editing or if you are and editor, please feel free to leave your contact/website in the comment section. Well that is all for now, please continue to pray for me as I pray for you, Corine Good Day Supporters, Welcome to week six of Blogging Through The Alphabet with Marcy @ BenandMe.com. This week I would like to talk about finding joy in honor of the letter F. Can I share with you a secret prayer? One of my heart’s desires is to exude joy. However, it is a constant struggle for me to be joyful. You see, I work full-time as a psychologist in inner city Baltimore. My patients often come to me for help with problems I cannot even image facing, such as surviving childhood trauma or struggling to get their child much needed special education services. Sometimes, they come to me after experiencing the death of a loved one or for help battling a drug addiction that was caused by battling demons in their past. So each day I find it hard to exude joy. I am often left discouraged and wondering what is the point. However, Spreading Joy Daily gives me hope. It provided me with one simple idea each day of how to spread joy; how to become more aware of others and see the full potential each day has for joy. In addition to providing one idea for spreading joy each day, Marie provides ‘nuggets of joy’, also known as encouraging quotes each month. Sometimes I decide to do that day’s suggestions and sometimes I decide to keep reading until I find an idea I want to try. Marie is so committed to spreading joy that she decided to give 100% of the profits to helping others. That’s right, she has zero paid employees; everyone, including Marie, is a volunteer. She loves spreading joy just that much. She is also willing to send you ‘Spread Joy’ cards that you can use to secretly pay for someone’s coffee or meal for free (just send a SASE). To learn more about the Spreading Joy Cards click here. To help get you started spreading joy, check out these two posts:
In tribute to Marie and Spreading Joy Daily, I would like to spread some joy myself by offering a giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a copy of Marie’s book and a copy of my book Why We Give Gifts at Christmas Time. Please leave a comment below about how you try to spread joy and you will be entered to win. I will pick one winner on June 20, 2014. As always, continue to pray for me as I pray for you, Corine P.S. The first sketches of Jaden goes to foster care are in, you can view them on my facebook page here |
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