Ninja Writer's Library: Gods, Sweets, and Mad Women plus a Readathon

Happy Friday Book Nerds,

It's that time again when I give you a peek at what I've been reading lately! So sit back and get ready for a bit of a read. I decided to do 5 books this time so I can devote the next Library post to next month's ready event.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians #2: Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan
Here we have the continuing adventures of Percy and his friends.  I managed to read this in a day. I love seeing the modern spin on the Greek tales we grew up with. I also love meeting Chiron's cousins they were so hilarious. A lot of the characters I still see them in my head as their movie versions, which if you love the movies I defiantly recommend the book.

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
This book is a reread, but it's  my favorite and first book I ever read by this author.  Again we're in a small North Carolina town and we have a  woman who finds herself in a bizarre situation involving her closet that leads to new friendships and revelations about her family. In Allen's usual style she spins a modern tale with a hint of magic.
My favorite character is Chloe, I want her car and "problem" with books, just don't know where I'd put them all... Read for it all to become clear. My favorite quote in this book involves iguanas and bikers gangs. Tempting you to read it yet? Yes I urge you to read it.

The Appalachian Trail Hiker by Victoria and Frank Logue
I mentioned this book earlier in my Appalachian Tail post. I didn't finish it, mostly cause it is a guide book for prepping for hiking, if I going to do a hike then this would be a perfect, just not good for a pleasure read, but if you plan any long hiking trip this is the book to read.

The Madwoman Upstairs by Catherine Lowell
If you love the Brontës you might love this. We find the last Brontë descendant, Samantha,  who's dealing with her past, the family legacy both recent and ancestral, and trying to solve the mysteries behind each one.
I couldn't put this down. I kept wanting to find out the truth. I did find myself being surprised a few times by the twists in this tale. One thing I'm just wondering is if the writer was writing it as if Samantha was a reincarnation of Anne Brontë, or just being haunted in her dreams by Anne.
To be honest I haven't read any of these ladies works, maybe one of the poems, but now I have to say I became familiar with their names and a little of their background. I may at least give some of the poems a read, I don't know if I could get interested in some of the other mentioned titles, granted I use to say the same thing about Jane Austen.

Hikers' Stories From the Appalachian Trail by Kathryn Fulton
This is another that I couldn't finish, but I would like to pick up again later. These are collected stories from blogs of hikers of the aforementioned trail. It wasn't a bad read, just wasn't holding my interest  and it was due back at the library, plus I have some planned reading in April, which I delve into more in the next section. I did love reading the accounts of the hikers it did give some good insight to the trail. I really don't know how people manage to hike this.

O.W.L's Magical Readathon 2019

Lastly in April Book Roast is having the O.W.L's Magical Readathon. I've never done it before, but I'm gonna try it. This year she made a careers booklet  you can choose to guide your reading. I decided to do the Journalist or Writer career. The subjects I have to do is History of Magic, Muggle Studies, and 1 other subject I get to choose.  History of Magic requires you to read a book published at least 10 years ago for this I'm going to read Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. In Muggle Studies I have to read something contemporary I've got a couple books on hold that could fit into this First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen or A Map of Days by Ransom Riggs, the fourth book in the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, I think that one take's place in the here and now, if neither of these get freed up I might have to find something else. For my last one which is up to me I chose potions in which I am to read a sequel, so I'm going with The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherine M. Valente, yeah this is a children's book, but I like the song "Wonders" by S.J. Tucker, which comes from the album of the same name, which is about the first book in the series. Fangirl handed the book to me in a store saying I should like it and I recognized  the title and decided to give it a read.

Whew there's a post. Any of you guys going to participate in the readathon? If so what career are you doing and what are you reading? Let me know. I hope you all have a good week end, read lots, and God Bless You!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer and Vampire >vv< Kitty

A Little Dice Naming 2

Happy Friday Friends,

We've made it to the end of another week. So I decided to end the week with another segment of dice naming, where I give names to dice that may or may not need a future shaming segment. I do hope I never have to do that, that is if I ever get a chance to use them. What can I say backwoods great to live in, but hard to find a game group. Maybe I should take out an ad? *laughs* Anyway here's my latest named ones:

This little red translucent 20 sided beauty is Ruby, no clue weather she's demonic yet or not, that's a shout out to my Supernatural Fans.

I love this ones iridescent surface and sky blue numbering. I keep thinking of pearls when I look at it so I dub her Mother of Pearl. I also can't help hear Mr. Krabs from Spongebob in my head.

Now lastly we have 2 d12 that I think are siblings, maybe fraternal twins, they both give off the same vibe. Allow me to introduce Midnight and Galaxy. I don't know why but I feel Galaxy is the older sib.

Midnight

Galaxy

So you guys think they are well named? Do you guys have cool dice names, let me know in the comments! I hope you all have a good weekend, may you have good dice rolls, and God Bless You!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

While Out A Wednesday

Hello again my friends,

I'm gonna start the week with a little blurb about last Wednesday. The "I'm not lost I'm Exploring" Bumper* we saw on a car in front of us I think explained our chilly day. We "explored" a time or two. After doctor appointments we headed to the wilds of Asheville. We partook of Chinese food, I partook of a lot, some of it may have been cause my new med is possibly making me hungry more. Fun... After stuffing our faces we took a spin through downtown, and ended up "exploring" a bit before making our way to the movie theater.

Love the new saying. It use to say "Good Vibes" which is also a good saying.

We saw How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World. It was an ok movie, it had some beautiful scenes. I don't know if it's just me, or the movies, but I have found myself getting antsy before the end of the movies I've been to see recently like last month with Mary Poppins Returns. Maybe it's the anxiety.
Before and after the movie we hit up some Goodwills. At the one we visited prior to the movie I purchased a tie that I'm going to attempt to have turned into a bow tie for my 11th Doctor costume for AARC and Pumpkinfest. I currently lack for my costume a sonic screw driver and making my fez.
After the movie we went to my favorite Asheville Goodwill that has an outlet section.  Downside it murdered my allergies, upside to the trip I was inspired to write a little poem, which I scribbled down at the Applebee's we went to after.

Despite the chill God gave us a beautiful sunset.

I hope you all have a good week, find some adventures, and may God bless you
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

* I don't know if this is the bumper sticker they had, but it was the closest I could find.

Chilly Day Update

Hello on this chilly day my friends,

Since you can tell from the lack of post Friday, I really have nothing to write about lately, I also really don't have anything for to day so I'm gonna take a page from Julie Wunder at Running in a Skirt and tell you about what things are going on in my life right now and the stuff I'm into.

Weather: We got really spoiled with some beautiful weather, I ventured outside for pictures, sadly still was too muddy to do much.  Then last night the temps started to drop and we got a light dusting of snow.  Thankfully it wasn't enough to cause issue on the infamous hill road and freeze it. See our road is mostly a hill and there's one section that barely gets any sun during the winter, so it tends to stay iced up bad after a snow.
I also want to extend my condolences to the families affected by the tornadoes yesterday, I pray God sends you the help you need and strength.

What Am I Watching?: Apart from my regular shows my TV has been going from the Cooking Channel and Food Network to the Destination America channel I think the latter shows a lot reruns of Travel Channel stuff, and maybe other things in that family of channels. Online I've been watching Critical Roll I'm still making my way through the first campaign. I love watching this group play D & D.

Gaming: On the computer I've been playing Dungeon Lords, which is proving difficult, not because of technical difficulties, but mostly cause there's a function where you can resurrect yourself, but it costs. Each time you do it it'll take a stat like strength or intelligence, well I did it one to many time now my strength is low and I'm having to build it back up.
On my tablet I'm playing Guild of Heroes, it's a nice little game to play when I'm feeling bored, and I seem to be having better luck than the other one. Well I was not doing so hot right now.

Misadventures in Cooking:  Besides some crock pot cooking, I've really been enjoying a new way of eating my noodles. I was sitting at my computer wondering what I could eat, and then it hit me wonder how Ranch would taste with them. So I did a web search, of course Hidden Valley® as did Mr. Food® and Myrecipies.com. I just cooked the noodle tossed and instead of seasoning added a little butter and ranch.

Books: Besides my Bible and quarterly I'm not really reading anything right now, I have four books I'm waiting for at the library but each is a long wait time, I may have to clean out in front of my bookshelf where I have a bunch of yet to reads and read something from there.

What are you guys up to? Hope it's warmer where you are. I hope you all have a good week, don't cause too much trouble, and may God bless you!

Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer, Vampire >vv< Kitty, and Mousey~C>

Animal Encounters

Happy Monday my friends,

Here in the backwoods we aren't strangers to various creatures birds, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and deer. But we have received some interesting visitors here lately so I thought I'd take time to share them with you.

The Peacock-
Back in 2018 we get a call from my Granny telling us a peacock was heading our way. Sure enough a peacock came through the field. Ranger our dog started going nuts barking. Which at that point the scared bird took to the trees and stayed for the longest time. I had no clue peacocks were able to get into trees. What's more impressive is how far he traveled, cause the only people in the area we know owns peacocks, and they live a couple miles away by road, further if he went through the woods.

The Pig-
The year of the pig gave us a pig. Once again my Granny called and said she'd saw a big black dog heading our way. Once more Ranger was pitching a fit. Well we didn't see it until it was in the field below our house, and I'm like that's a big dog. Well Mom went out on the porch and met this dog, which turned out to be a pot-bellied pig, our neighbors in fact, who herded him back home. Now one time pigs weren't uncommon I think my family use to keep some, but besides the wild ones I think we had rooting around when I was younger, this is the first pig we've had here.

The Frogs -
Frogs are common here, peep frogs a harbingers of warm weather for us, but here in winter not so common. In NC we recently got a crap load of rain. How much, enough to were two little frogs tried to get in from it. I was going out on the porch and opened the door to find Mousey, Mom and Pop's cat playing with something that hopped into my Dad's shoe, then under the kitchen table when my Dad dumped it out, Pop finally managed to catch it and put it outside, then I saw the second frog hopping.

What's some of the weirdest animals or animal tales you've had? Let me know in the comments. Hope you have a good week and may God bless you.
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

The Appalachian Trail

Happy Friday my friends,

 As we slowly inch toward spring I know a lot of people are anticipating hiking, some may even hike despite it being winter. One trail I know that is being hiked, and will be hiked this year is the Appalachian Trail (AT for short). For the uninitiated the AT is a trail stretching from Georgia all the way up to Maine. And every year there's a hand full of peeps who try to  hike it's entire length.

Max Patch

I've actually been on the trail. I was on the section below Max Patch looking for a letterbox,, it's called Hiking the A-Trail. It's kind of exciting knowing my feet have walked where so many others have walked on their journey either at the start or finish, it depends on where they began. One of the blogger/bloggers I follow Boho Berry is gonna start her journey on the trail next month. Watching her videos on her AT Hiking channel I've been getting interested in the AT. I've come across stories before of it, I'm actually reading a book called The Appalachian Trail Hiker by Victoria and Frank Logue. I don't know if I'll finish it cause it's more of an instruction book for hiking, but I have gain knowledge I didn't have before.

My sister wants to hike that trail at some point in her life. I myself have wondered what it'd be like to hike that expanse of trail, which probably won't happen cause of a few factors, I couldn't devote the time, money, and my mental health particularly the OCD. But I still have to wonder what it'd be like the things I'd see and learn, the stories I'd collect either of my own, or others', experiences. Well even though I'll never walk it I'll follow Boho Berry on her journey and hope she can do it all. Good Luck girl!

Have any of you hiked the Appalachian trail? Or maybe another amazing trail. Tell me about your adventure in the comments. Hope you all have a good weekend full of nature based adventures and may God bless you!
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer

Creative Space in a Box

Happy Monday friends,

Today is another Crazy Ideas time, only this time I actually did the idea, so  this is a bit of Artsy Fartsy Time too. Today I'm going to show of my creative space in a box.

See I have always wanted to have a creative space (I think Keri Smith has mentioned creative spaces in her blog at some point, not 100% sure). Either a place like a writing shed, or even just putting  a shelf near my computer with things I find inspiring, but money and space makes all of these not feasible. Well the other day I was doing some research for a story, and came across this article  from Exemplore about Types of Altars, one was one you could keep in a box and store away when you needed to. Then it hit me hey why not do that with a creative space? So that's what I went and did.
First things first I needed a box. I just so happen to have this purse shaped box my uncle's wife at the time made me for Christmas a couple or so years ago, if you're curious I think she got everything at Micheal's.

I then placed inside things I found inspired me. I don't have much in it at the moment, but I'm sure more will be added as time goes on.

It was only when I was taking this picture that I realized, when opened this thing has a coffin outline. While we only have a few things in this puppy let me give you a close up on the items.
The top have I have some inspirations sayings. It's all attached on with washi tape I got at Micheal's. On the upper slip of paper I have my favorite Bible Verse from Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ which strengthenth me." Be low that I have the first two lines I love from one of my favorite poems Arthur O' Shaughnessy's Ode: "We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams," I put it on this crinkly paper to give it the air it'd been scribbled on a scrap of paper, but I may have to change it out.

Next I have some gumball machine treasures, is that what you call them. The yellow thing looks like it may have been a factory defect, cause it looks like is just half forming into something, so I call in an idea, and I have it in here in hopes I always have ideas forming like it. On the left is a skull cause well every writer needs a skull don't they?

This cute bottle I purchased at my first Asheville Anime Regional Convention. Inside it I put a fake crystal and a couple silver stars, and the tangerine seed I wrote about last new years.

I have this saying decorative stone my folks gave me it says: "Only you can give your special gift to the world".

Lastly, I have this TOMY Micro Dancer. I got this a lone time ago. I don't know why it just makes me smile. This particular one is called Elvie the Daisy Dancer which is perfect since my favorite flower is a daisy and she's got a Union Jack on her shirt, which I love cause I want to visit the UK someday.

And that closes the box on this post. I hope you all enjoy my little creative space on the box, maybe it'll inspire those of you with little space and funds to create your own. If you do share them in the comments below. I hope you guys have a great week, stay inspired, and God bless you!
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer and Vampire >vv< Kitty