Sunday, November 30, 2014

Giveaway

I created a dilemma it seems.
    Since this is the first time
          I have ever written a review

 -- and offered a giveaway
  I probably did it all wrong --
You see - I need names to put in the drawing.

I will get professional help and see what can be done
to solve this problem.    =)

I will ask my daughter-in-law what to do!

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Review of Footprints on the Ceiling


                                                  MINNESOTA GIRLS
Meet Dorcas Smucker, author of Footprints on the Ceiling.  Today I am posting a review of her newest book.  Many long years ago my sister, Ladina, and I met Dorcas and her sister, Rebecca.
We compared notes and discovered Dorcas and Ladina were the same age, and Rebecca and I were close to the same age.  We became pen pals and wrote to each other for awhile.  I wish I could say we all were bosom friends for ever and ever, but we lost track of each other and stopped writing and never heard from each other again . . .  until someone emailed me an essay one day and it was written by Dorcas Smucker.  I asked Ladina about it and we put two and two together and came up with four.  This is the same Dorcas that used to write to Ladina.  Before long I was able to catch up with Rebecca by reading the essays.  After awhile the essays were compiled into books and I ordered them to add to my collection. 
Laugh and cry your way through Footprints on the Ceiling.  Dorcas mentions in one of her other books that her collection of essays can be read slowly, like sipping tea. Usually I find myself reading them through as fast as I can and then starting all over again and reading more slowly the second time. 


When I first saw the cover of Dorcas Smucker's new book a faint memory of a story about Abraham Lincoln came to mind.  He played a trick on his stepmother by lifting small people with muddy feet upside down and high in the air to walk across the ceiling. His stepmom quickly figured it out because she was already familiar with Abe's antics.  It seemed to me that one of Dorcas' crew would be mischievous enough to pull off a stunt like that after reading her other books.

Ordinary Days

Upstairs the Peasants are Revolting

Downstairs the Queen is  Knitting

Tea and Trouble Brewing

There was one small mystery -
the initials beside the footprint on the cover say D.Y.
You will want to enter the drawing
and win this book to solve the puzzle.
(Leave your comments at the end of this post and a week from today
I will put all the names in a hat and my daughter,
Krysta, will choose the winner.) 
Email your snail mail address to me at bluebirdhills80@gmail.com
and I will mail the winner a copy of this book.

Or order the book:

Footprints on the Ceiling is available for $15 per book, postage included. 

You can mail a check to:
Dorcas Smucker
31148 Substation Drive
Harrisburg, OR 97446
US addresses only

If you live in Canada or overseas, email Dorcas at 
dorcassmucker@gmail.com.  You can ask Dorcas for info about
ordering her other books.  You will also find Footprints on the Ceiling on Amazon.

You can follow Dorcas on her blog:
www.dorcassmucker.blogspot.com

You're in for a real treat.  Dorcas Smucker's books are down-to-earth,
funny and sometimes sad.  They make wonderful gifts for your mom
and all the other gals in your family.  Even the guys in your family
will ask, "What are you laughing at now?"



Saturday, November 22, 2014

WagonTrains and Blog Tours


We interrupt this tale of traveling west
(slower than a wagon train)
to let you know about a blog tour.
It is going on as we speak.
You will have a chance to read
about her new book.
There are some interesting bloggers
who have been writing reviews and . . .
you can even enter your name to win her free book.

 Just a little side note . . . 
a week from today I will post a review of that book. 
You will have another chance to win Dorcas Smucker's new book.  
 
Have a good Saturday!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Hurtling along at 75 mph feels so very dangerous even if the road
is a good interstate.  All across South Dakota I kept thinking about
Anne Morrow Lindbergh and her description of driving in her book
Bring Me a Unicorn.*  She was terrified but determined to keep up
since she was following someone else and didn't know the way by herself. 
She was sure anyone reading her words in the future would get a big laugh
at her fear of driving so fast at 45 mph.

After leaving SD we took a little corner off Wyoming
then started across hwy 212 in MT. 
This is a scenic route by day. 
At night it is just dark
  and much busier
    than I thought it would be. 
All the trucks and semis from MT were headed to SD.
All those bright headlights blinded me.
All those semis whooshing past on a two lane road
through Custer National Forest seemed out of place.

I felt like I was in the middle of a history lesson. 
When we drove through last spring Ellis was listening to a
book on cd telling many details of the days leading up to
Battle of the Little Big Horn. 

No one else in the van was interested. 
In fact one young adult from the back seat
phoned us in the front seat and asked, 
"Why are we listening to this?"
After awhile the book started into some gory details. 
Ellis turned it off.

This time no one was troubled by radio or cd player. 
There were just three people stuffed
into the front of a 1988 GMC 4x4 pick-up. 


* "How absurd this will sound in fifty years --
        to be afraid of driving a car at the crawling speed
              of forty-five miles an hour!" 

-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh  in Bring Me a Unicorn