May 9, 2013
May 5, 2013
If you haven't had the chance to listen to Chester on the Kevin and Bean show a few days ago, you can do so here. I finally got around to it. It's a quick interview over the phone where he talks mostly about the upcoming MusiCares event. Listen/Download at CBN.
Here's a funny quote:
Here's a funny quote:
"Even after I neutered myself I still had children. It's like the craziest thing."
May 4, 2013
So awesome! Anna received some pre-publication versions of "Learning Not to Drown". Check out a picture and her blog about it below
I’m not one to use the word SQUEEEEEE! lightly. Or ever, for that matter. But good mother of all that is holy, I am holding in my hand a bound galley of Learning Not To Drown.Wish I could have one of those copies, hehe. ;) So excited for the release!
Unfortunately, the book won’t be out until April 1, 2014, the on-sale date that is “subject to change without notice.”
May 3, 2013
Many thanks to Kamila for finding two pictures of Talinda that we hadn't seen from the Stars of the Season events in 2010 and 2012. Credit to the Stars of the Season facebook page.
Anna has posted the date and time for the next book club chat! Read the excerpt from her blog below:
We’ll be discussing How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff on Friday, May 24th at 2pm PST in my Ustream Chat: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/anna-shinoda-s-book-club . If you are in a different time zone and need a little help figuring out when 2pm PST is for you, check out this magical site.
Apr 25, 2013
Apr 24, 2013
Elka tweeted this picture tonight:
Update: Elka added another pic here. :)
Also, I thought it would be a good time to mention that I made twitter albums for twitter pics. I thought this would be easier since twitter has changed their photo host before. You can check out the albums in the gallery: Talinda, Samantha and Elka.
Bon Jovi was a great concert!!! Love my lady friends!!! twitter.com/ElkaBr/status/…
— Elka Brand (@ElkaBr) April 25, 2013
Update: Elka added another pic here. :)
Also, I thought it would be a good time to mention that I made twitter albums for twitter pics. I thought this would be easier since twitter has changed their photo host before. You can check out the albums in the gallery: Talinda, Samantha and Elka.
Apr 6, 2013
The poll on Anna's blog where you could vote for the next Book Club book ended last night and How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff had the most votes. However, since The Boy on The Striped Pajamas by John Boyne was such a close second, Anna decided that it will be the next book we read for book club.
Blog:
It’s midnight here in California, so I’ve closed the poll for voting for the next book club selection. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff barely beat The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. So for our next book club we’ll read How I Live Now, and the book club after that we will read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
Thanks for voting and happy reading!
Apr 2, 2013
In today's chat Anna revealed that the cover for "Learning Not to Drown" has been posted on GoodReads:
There is a pecking order to every family. Seventeen-year old Clare is the overprotected baby; Peter is the typical, rebellious middle child; and Luke is the-can't-do wrong favorite. To their mother, they are a normal, happy family. And then there are the roles we give ourselves. Clare: the ambitious striver; Peter: the angry ticking time bomb; and Luke: a drug addicted, convicted felon who has been in and out of jail for as long as Clare can remember. To Clare, they are a family on the verge of disaster. Clare has long refused to believe her brother is truly bad...he dotes her, doesn't he? But as Clare starts piecing together the truth about her brother's stints in jail, it starts changing the way she thinks about him. It has also changes the way the community views the family. The only thing it hasn't changed is the way their mother feels about Luke. Each time she welcomes him home with open arms and brushes off his crimes as "wrong place and wrong time," Clare can feel a little piece of her happy home life being taken away. And when her mother does the unthinkable--takes Clare's hard-earned college savings to post bail for Luke's latest transgression--Clare has to decide if sticking up for herself and her future means selfishly turning her back on family...or if it's the only way to keep herself from drowning along with them.
Debut novelist Anna Shinoda's raw, gritty, powerful novel cuts right to the bone and brings to life the skeletons the lurk in the closet.
Thanks once again to Sarah for taking notes for Adiek84:
> The chat was moved from tinychat to ustream due to technical difficulties.
> Anna picked this book because I really love books that are able to give me a chance to have an experience that I could not have
> Responses are generally positive towards the book, though it took a while to get into it, it was a good book
> Anna was hoping to have a little more time between meeting wold let everyone have a chance to get and read it. She thanks those who still joined the chat regardless.
> Chat started to lag a little bit but overrall it was good.
> Anna thought she could imagine how it would be like to be a person like Melody, until she read the book.
> The difficulty would be more with the physical stuff Anna summed originally
> When her friend shattered her leg, Anna then realised how the world wasn’t built for wheelchairs but what she wasn’t prepared for what the emotional counterpart
> The conversation gets diverted to people in Melody’s life that didn’t treat her different i.e. Mrs V. Claire her parents and Rose to a certain degree
> The conversation gets diverted to the character of Rose’s and her actions at the end of the book. Both sides presents valid reasons to why Rose did/did not do it. Another question is posed if it would have been done if it was a teenager doing it.
> Anna wished that we got more insight into Rose’s life i.e. what in her life made her brace enough to initially give Melody a chance and what held her back
> We talking about disabled and handicapped programs.
> User NisrinZiani makes a great point about sometimes their potential is higher than ours.
> The conversation gets diverted to the topic of Mr D’s actions and words. ” Mr D was a ” Direct quote from Anna.
> While Anna remains silent the people in the chat talk about how strong Melody’s mother is to deal with a handicapped child along with another small child on the scene.
> Anna wanted to talk about how well the book is written because she thinks it takes a great writer to really put you in the mind of a character especially one that first glance can look unrelatable.
> Anna speaks to Miss Mushrooms, it did take a while to get going not like the last book club book, but that was more typical with a character driven novels verses plot driven.
>Anna was suddenly hyper aware that she didn’t have one clue about much any person knows, doesn’t know, thinks of feels based on their outward appearance and that it goes for all people.
> Anna also notes that when someone smiles, we don’t know if they are really happy. Melody can’t give us many clues as to what she is feeling or thinking without the help of her computer but how much doe we really know about anyone’s inner thoughts and feelings. Unless we are really open to talk to them and get to know them.
> Anna also notes that it’s not only about a girl with physical disabilities, it’s really about all of us. It’s about the need for the human experience of friendship and love, of connecting with each other on another level.
> Anna agrees with user adiek84 about her statement about books are always about all of us, one way or another.
> Anna felt that the more that author reminded us of our similarities to Melody the more her differences disappeared.
> Anna poses a question for the book club participants, of how many of us felt elated when Melody was about to finally tell her mum and dad that she loved them? Or even felt heartbroken that she was left out of the competition?
> Anna admits to crying several times in the book – she had to actually take a break from the book after Melody said I love you. She needed a day or two to just that be before moving forward.
> Anna reveals that her high school was very separated from the disabled kids – also that her best friend teaches at an awesome school that doesn’t have separated classes.
> The topic gets diverted to the topic of inclusion programs in different countries and experiences are exchanged.
> One thing Anna found interesting is what she liked about the book – Melody’s growth in character.
> Anna wants to make sure we all had our thoughts put forward before we start talking about the next book.
> Anna thanks everyone for reading the book with her, as she said, it’s given her a deeper perspective and thinks it is a good one for everyone to read.
> Anna was noting down our ideas for the next book. She is going to make a poll and post links to summaries on her blog.
> The cover page of Anna’s is now available to view on Goodreads.com
> We chatted about various things including cake, Tim Tams and various other things to end the chat.
> Anna had to leave probably due to us talking about food and she too was hungry – She thanked us all for coming.
You can check out two videos of Joe and Heidi's custom made R2D2 wedding cake by Merengue Bakery below:
2 videos of our custom wedding cake @merenguebakery . Came with Rd2d whistling sounds n' all! youtube.com/watch?v=fUbKjV… youtube.com/watch?v=TPzxIq…
— idieh (@HahnHeidi) March 29, 2013
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