GIVEAWAY: E is for Ethics by Ian James Corlett

E is for Ethics - Ian James Corlett

This will be my very first giveaway, hopefully it goes smoothly. Stephanie at BookSparks PR has agreed to give one lucky winner a copy of E is for Ethics by Ian James Corlett. You can view my review here 
A Few Rules:

You must be a US Resident. And You must provide a Street Address upon notification of winning (NO PO BOXES)
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All entries must be in by September 22nd at 9:00AM PST. I will pick a winner using a Random Number Generator.!

I wish you the best of luck!

Disclaimer: Although, I did receive a copy of this book for review, I received no direct compensation for the post.

If you are an author or publisher and would like for me to review your book please contact me directly: lcampbell329[at]gmail[dot]com

Ethically Speaking

Synopsis from Barnes and Noble

Teaching children ethics, values, and morals has become a real challenge for parents today. These topics aren't usually covered in school curriculums, and many families no longer attend religious services, so most modern moms and dads are clamoring for a helping hand.

Ian James Corlett, an award-winning children's TV writer, was inspired to write this book as his own family grappled with this issue. When Ian's two kids were very young, he and his wife started a weekly discussion period he dubbed "Family Fun Time." Every Monday after dinner, they all sat down and Ian would tell his two kids tales about two young children, Elliott and Lucy, who were much like them.

- They hated going to the dentist.

- They were disappointed when a favorite aunt couldn't visit.

- They dreaded raking the leaves in their backyard.

Ian's kids really looked forward to these talks and they hardly even realized that the stories were serving a deeper purpose — to teach tact, understanding, and responsibility. So he decided to write these stories down to help other parents — like you. The result is in your hands: twenty-six simple, clear, original, and entertaining stories for you to read aloud with your child.

Teaching your children values, life skills, and ethics has never been so much fun!

About the Author - Ian James Corlett began telling stories at a very young age. He started with hand puppets and marionettes, which segued to a ventriloquist dummy, which leap-frogged into making animated films, then evolved into student comedy shorts, then led to creating and writing animated series’ and then writing books.
Ian has written for, and/or developed many popular children’s series’ such as The Adventures of Paddington Bear, Will & Dewitt, Lunar Jim and Rescue Heroes. He has also created several original series including his namesake show, BEING IAN.
Ian is also a very well-known voice actor in the world of animation, entertainment and advertising. He is the voice of literally hundreds of animated characters including “The Conductor” on PBS’s Dinosaur Train, “Dad” in Johnny Test, “Cheetor” of Transformers/Beastwars fame and a dozen different characters including “Mr. Pop” in Dragontales. He has been the TV promo voice of Family Channel, PBS and Fox Kids, as well as commercial brands like BestBuy, McDonalds and VISA.
The father of two and husband of one for nearly 30 years, he enjoys hanging out with his kids, travel, and great food. He currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia and Palm Springs, California where he and his family go to escape the drip and drizzle of the west coast of Canada.
Ian’s one “vice” as he calls it, is a love of automobiles. He is most proud of his latest Porsche, a fully restored 1966. But this Porsche is a special one. Ian had it converted to 100% electric drive. With all the classic looks on the outside but sporting ultra modern and environmentally friendly technology under the hood it is Ian’s pride and joy.
Ian’s not-so-secret desire is to be a professional race-car driver and is quick to point out that Paul Newman started racing at 47! (he still has a little time...)
For more about Ian visit, www.ianjamescorlett.com 

My Thoughts: Being a mom of a 4 year old with a mind of his own and a very strong-willed personality and opinions, I was drawn to E is for Ethics when I began reading. I sat with my child and read it to him and he was very into it and was also able to answer the questions in the back and relate them to some of his personal experience. He enjoyed the stories so much that when I was surfing for a picture of the book for my review, he noticed it and mentioned that the book says to be polite and practice patience...LOL. Those must have been the ones that stuck the easiest. Mr. Cortlett, has written a book that will be very helpful to parents, children and even teachers when trying to teach kids values, life skills and the proper way to behave.

I give this book:

DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. These are my opinions of a book given to me by Booksparks PR. These opinions are my own without any influences.

Interview with a….

Since my last review of The Wedding Gift by Kathleen McKenna, I have had the pleasure of conversing with her through email. She is an awesome woman and author. She has 8 books written, four of which are in the horror genre and the other four based on events that have happened in the past. Kathleen agreed to do an interview/questionnaire session with me and I wanted to post and share with my followers and anyone else interested.


Q: When and why did you begin writing?

I was a big Dominick Dunne fan, and so 15 years ago I wrote him, he gave me an awesome lead, I got all excited and wrote an entire paragraph. Twelve short years later I wrote a second paragraph lol, that was 4 years ago, now I've written 8, so I think I might have developed a condition of some kind!

Q: What gave you the idea for the wedding Gift storyline and the town of Dalton, OK?     

My Grandmother was born and raised in Norman OK, the house I saw in New Orleans (the cover house) gave me the idea, but I moved it to my pretend Oklahoma town for my grandma, and also I think Oklahoman's and Texans are so much fun, Leeann, could not have come from one of the older southern cities, she is too outrageous. Years ago a friend from Texas told me I was dumber than a box of hair, so how could I resist the far southwest?

Q: Do you personally identify with any of the characters? Or are they modeled after people in your life?

Sigh yeah well Miz Bethany might, just saying might remind me of my ex mother in law…LOL. The rest of them, I think they are all a little bit of people I've met and really liked throughout my life. 

Q: You have a unique style of writing, how did you come up with it?

LaToya, that's a really good question, sadly I haven't got a good answer, I write in two genres, finding Leeann's voice that came from a really happy fun place in my head, where for example Jim Jones voice came from in another book...I don't even want to think about...uhm, I think some people might say…erm, schizophrenia? 

Q: What titles are forthcoming from you? 

This year I will do book III in my southern paranormal series, and my first non-fiction book, at the end of the year I think I'll just lay in the grass for a week! 

Q:  What books have most influenced your life most?

Well I'm obviously schizo like I said, because my biggest influences are Cider House Rules, Gone with the Wind, The Shining, The Last Tsar, and 30 or 40 thousand other books, but those really never left me. 

Q:  Can you share a little of your current work with us? 

The House on Easton Drive is going to be a lot of fun, Jessie and her husband (no names read book II lol, are living in Willets House with her horrible mother, and dead Miz Bethany, things are NOT working out, so what can you do in a situation like that? Buy a more haunted house…lol.

Q: If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book? 

Mmmm, another great question...I don't know, I don't think so, but....well there is one very weird thing, in The Comeback, book II in the series, I put in a friend of mine, and it's a horror novel so in the book things don't go too well for him, and then last month he died for real in a bizarre accident, and....well all Irish people are superstitious, but this kind of parallels something that happened in another book, so I'm never using people I know again!

Q: Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

Tied!  John Irving because I want to live in the world he writes with those sweet funny people, and the king of horror, I grew up on him, we all did, and there is only one Stephen! 

Q:  What is your work schedule like when you're writing? 

5 pages a day 6 days a week, if that only takes 4 hours great, if it takes 12 that's too bad, but lay down 5, I have NO life when a book is going.

Q: Where do you get your information or ideas for your books? 

It can be anything, a story on AOL a story a friend tells me, a strange history fact...I know its going to be a book if I think about it all day, and then maybe dream about it, from there I start tentative research and the book rules my head until its done. My best friend Claudia has taken over my research and she is AMAZING she digs up the coolest things and it adds a lot. 

Q:  How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

I have written 8 books, 4 horror and 4 based closely on real events. My favorite oooh…wow, books are kind of the children of your mind, so you can't play favorites, the most fun to write was The Wedding Gift, the roughest book was Jungle Rot about Jonestown, but I love them all, though I think I do have a favorite character and that is Jessie. 

Q: What was the hardest part of writing your book?

Easy one, the first 5 pages, if those don't grab me, they won't grab a reader and they are horrible to get out, also its just rough, you have 90 to 120.000 words to go, the book will own you till it's done, and that blank screen..a sad sight lol.

 
 

Best Wedding Gift Ever…Or is it?

About Book: 17 year old Leeann Worthier is the perfect girl in town - or so she says. George Willets is the heir to a booming petroleum business. When they announce their engagement, George's controlling mother is unimpressed, and Leeann absolutely refuses to live with her mother-in-law. So George gives his new wife a house as a wedding gift - a house haunted by the family's most violent ghost.

About Author: Kathleen Mckenna is a transplanted Alaskan who spent twelve years on her first paragraph and now lives and writes prolifically in the opposite kind of desert in New Mexico. 

She has written eight novels to date and recently nearly lost all eight when her laptop and her back-up drive failed simultaneously. At the last count, seven had been recovered.

'The Wedding Gift' is Kathleen's third novel, the first of a supernatural trilogy. The second in the series, 'The Comeback', will be published by Night Publishing in late 2010.

My Thoughts:

First I have to say, I wish I received a mansion for my wedding gift for FREE :-).

However, nothing in life is ‘free’ is it?

The Wedding Gift is a story of a young girl who marries into a wealthy family, receives a mansion as her wedding gift from her groom’s father, but, well, some gifts are not made to be cherished. Throughout the story, I asked myself many times if 17 year old Leeann Worthier who marries 26 year old, filthy rich George Willet, is truly a gold digger, a gold digger by circumstance or as her best friend says, dumber than a box of hair.

Leeann, who is said to be the most beautiful female in all of Dalton, maybe even Oklahoma, was courted by the only son of the wealthiest family in Oklahoma. She ends up pregnant and George being a ‘gentleman’ and in love with Leeann, decides he will be responsible and marry her the week after she graduates high school. Leeann of course is swept up by the things that George has bought her and the promise of the things he will buy her. For their wedding gift, they are given the title to the family owned mansion, Willet House. Isn’t that just the grandest gift ever? Well, not so much. Willet House is haunted and has been the town haunted house since the mid 70’s when George’s uncle and his family (wife and five children) were murdered there; supposedly, by the wife. Guess who she decides to show herself to, yes Leeann. Did she or did she not kill her children? Why is she still in the house? It all unravels when George turns up dead and Leeann is the accused.

I don’t necessarily believe in ghosts, but the story was written with such vivid descriptions that I could see, hear and smell everything the author described. Kathleen McKenna has written a great ghost story that captures the readers and places them in the town of Dalton where everything is happening.

After reading the story, the answer has become more clear to me whether Leeann was a true gold digger, a gold digger by circumstance or dumber than a box of hair. Thing is, she doesn’t have a lot to fall back on besides being the most beautiful girl in Dalton, maybe even Oklahoma, so it was easy to fall for a lavish lifestyle. And for those of us who loves a hero at the end, there is one and again, the description is so vivid, I want to look into those beautiful green eyes…:-)

I give this story: 

DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. These are my opinions of a book in which I was given by Night Publishing. 

Random Thought

I haven't had a random thought posted in a while. I was so consumed with trying to finish The Passage and reading The Wedding Gift and Mockingjay that I haven't been posting anything here. I still come here everyday though. So my anxiety, if that's what I want to call it, got the best of me last night. I had a dream that I wrote a great review of a book that I only read 30 pages of so far. I say a great review, not because the review was great but because I was able to write a review and didn't even know how the book ended...LOL


Now, I keep thinking I have 8 more weeks of school and then I can read as much as I want.

Flyers...I'm finished

The Passage - Justin Cronin

Synopsis:

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.” 

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse.

As civilization swiftly crumbles into a primal landscape of predators and prey, two people flee in search of sanctuary. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is a good man haunted by what he’s done in the line of duty. Six-year-old orphan Amy Harper Bellafonte is a refugee from the doomed scientific project that has triggered apocalypse. He is determined to protect her from the horror set loose by her captors. But for Amy, escaping the bloody fallout is only the beginning of a much longer odyssey—spanning miles and decades—towards the time and place where she must finish what should never have begun.

With The Passage, award-winning author Justin Cronin has written both a relentlessly suspenseful adventure and an epic chronicle of human endurance in the face of unprecedented catastrophe and unimaginable danger. Its inventive storytelling, masterful prose, and depth of human insight mark it as a crucial and transcendent work of modern fiction.

About the Author:
Born and raised in New England, Justin Cronin is a graduate of Harvard University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Awards for his fiction include the Stephen Crane Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. He is a professor of English at Rice University and lives with his wife and children in Houston, Texas.


My Thoughts:
So I finally finished The Passage and I must say, although it felt like it took way too long to finish, I'm glad it did. I know it may not sound like I'm making sense but the details in the story are just that, detailed and although it didn't seem like it would have come back around it did somehow. The end of the story left me hanging and as much as I hate that, I love it all at the same time. Basically, I WANT MORE NOW...LOL. However, I must wait until 2012 I think...FLYERS!!!!!! 


Although I thought the middle of the book did drag a bit, it seemed to have been an essential part of the story as far as the characters go. The beginning was very strong and the ending was even more intense. There were points where I feared for the group, there were times when I cried for the group and there were times when I wanted to yell 'RUN'. As much as I tried to predict the ending of the story or even the ending of sections, I found that I was not able to predict at all. 

I Give This: 

DISCLAIMER: I was in no way compensated to review this book. These are my opinions of a book in which I purchased on my own.

I Have Been Interrogated...

That’s right! I’ve been interrogated! :-) My BFF Pam, from Busy Moms Who Love to Read, featured me today as part of her Book Blogger Interrogations meme. Here’s this week’s post (featuring me):

BBI with LaToya from Reading Through Life…One Page At A Time

Pam is one of my favorite book bloggers, and one of my BFFs that got me into blogging. She actually helped design my blog…well she designed it for meJ. So, please go take a peek! :-)

THANK YOU, Pam!  That was FUN I laughed the whole time I filled it out!