Category: Site Announcements
The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau
Today is Wednesday, so that means I’m posting over at We Heart Reading. My review this week is on The People of Sparks by Jeanne DuPrau, which is the sequel to The City of Ember. Go on and check it out!
Giveaway Winners
Well, my first official giveaway has now come to a close. The winners have been chosen. For category #1, you had to name your favourite historical figure and tell me why. For category #2, you had to name your favourite book and tell me why. Since I love history, I chose the winner in category #1. So, drumroll please.
The winner is Erin for her comment about poor Lady Jane Grey:
My favorite historical figure is Lady Jane Grey. I’ve always felt bad for the fact that she was unwillingly made to be queen and then betrayed and executed such a short time later. Now I wish that she wasn’t always so overlooked by history. Most people don’t know who she is, or that she was handpicked by Edward VI to be queen, and nobody ever seems to wonder why he might have done that.
Since Michelle Hansen is an author and she is the one offering up a prize pack, she picked the winner in category #2.
The winner is James Wymore for his comment about Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut.
Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite book. It was the one I read that made me want to write books that meant something to people.
Winners, I have given your email addresses to Michelle and she will contact you soon about your prize packs. Congratulations on winning and thank you to everyone who entered and tweeted about my first giveaway. There will be more giveaways in the future, I can promise you that.
Guest Posting for The Streetlight Reader
Today I’m guest posting. I know, again. That’s why I announced Round Two of my giveaway today. Anyway, I’m posting over at The Streetlight Reader. It’s a book review on The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer. Clones, opium, friendship, love and drug lords…what more can you ask for in speculative fiction?
Round One: No Winner
No one guessed the answer to ‘What is my favourite operatic aria?’ I honestly don’t blame anyone for the less than enthusiastic response because opera is pretty obscure and my clues weren’t exactly great. So for Round Two of my giveaway, I’ll be asking two questions and there will be two winners!
For those of you that are curious, my favourite aria is ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima’ from L’elisir D’amore by Donizetti. It’s both heartbreaking and hopeful and is probably the saddest part of the entire opera. Especially when it’s sung by The King himself, Luciano Pavarotti.
This isn’t a great recording, but the sheer power and raw emotion of Pavarotti’s voice shines through. For those of you that don’t speak Italian, here’s a link to the English translation. It’s a rough translation and the lyrics are much more beautiful in the original Italian, but you get the basic idea. Even if you aren’t a huge opera fan, this is one heck of a beautiful song sung by the greatest tenor of the modern era.
Experimentation
Well, you guys wanted a contact page, but to do that I would either end up with two layers of tabs (which would be hideous) or end up merging two existing pages. I suppose I could do the latter, but I have found an excellent theme that has a larger navigation bar. It’s called ‘Coraline’ and is surprisingly similar to Pilcrow in that it’s a ‘clean’ theme. Personally, I like it. But what do you guys think of the new theme? Tell me in the comments below!
And if you still have suggestions for further improvement, drop me a line using the new contact page or the comments.