I made it!

Yay! I'm on the Cybils Science Fiction and Fantasy panel. I'll be honest, I was afraid I might not make it this year. There's a lot more writers and librarians and "experts" out there now, and I'm still just little old me. :-) But I am truly excited, I get to work with some excellent bloggers, a lot of who's blogs I read quite frequently already! I'm so excited to work with all of you! Here's the complete panel:

Laini Taylor Growing Wings
Charlotte Taylor Charlotte's Library
Alyssa Feller The Shady Glade (YAY!)
Em Em's Bookshelf
Lynette The Puck in the Midden
Tizrah Price The Compulsive Reader
Amanda Blau Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Judges:
Tasha Saecker Kids Lit
Anne Boles Levy The Cybils
Erin Miss Erin
Eisha Prather Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Tanita Davis Finding Wonderland, Readers' Rants

Reminder: Watch tonight!

Sorry I didn't post this earlier! Don't forget to watch the Shadow in the North on Masterpiece Mystery! tonight. I'll be posting a recap later, and I want someone to know what I'm talking about. :-)

Off Topic

Not much time to blog at the moment. I have three papers staring me down right now that are due on Monday. But I figured I'd share this cute little thought with you:

Why can't I get one of these in the mail?

I'll try to be back soon. I've got big plans for the blog (including about 30 posts in draft) I just need to find time to work on it!

Poetry Friday: Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband

So as I mentioned last week, I had the oppertunity to go to a concert of one of my favorite groups, Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband. Although I knew most of the songs they did, there was one in particular from their new CD that struck me. So here's my entry for Poetry Friday:

"All I Need" by Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband
I've been to new york city central park
then headed out to upstate lake champlain
crossed up to montreal and heard a band playing mandolins
while we were standing in the rain
I've seen castle walls and waterfalls
and bridges spanning over Venetian waterways
backpack summer drifting through the mountains
filled with European hostel stays

but all I need is you, here, falling in my arms
and me, there, subject to your charms
and I don't know if I have ever felt this way before
all I need is you

I've sailed out in the San Francisco Bay
And I've seen fireworks light up the night
I've Eaten dinner with good friends
Authentic Mexican patio dining in the moonlight
I've Spent days skiing sunny powdered peaks
And hiking up to Zions where the angels land
I've Dropped off cliffs into the crystal blue
And I've set up tents on golden sand

but all I need is you, here, falling in my arms
and me, there, subject to your charms
and I don't know if I have ever felt this way before
all I need is you

I've been all over the rocky mountains
Splashed in England's Hyde Park fountains
Seen Denali rising up at three A.M.
Watched the wind blow through the red wood forest
Heard the tabernacle chorus
singing songs like angels do in heaven

but all I need is you, here, falling in my arms
and me, there, subject to your charms
and I don't know if I have ever felt this way before
all I need is you

Of course, the lyrics are great, but it is the music combined with the lyrics that make the song so wonderful. I was able to find a sample of the song so you can get an idea of how it sounds:

Of course, you can buy the whole CD from Amazon.com too:

I may come back to Ryan Shupe later. It really is a cool band. You should check it out.

The Ruby in the Smoke

If I had been thinking, I would have posted about this earlier so I could get some comments. Hopefully, some of you were lucky enough to catch the Masterpiece Mystery! adaptation of The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman.

I never really liked the His Dark Materials books, and I say that fully prepared to now receive a beating from literature lovers everywhere. But I loved the Sally Lockheart Mysteries. Sally, Jim, Adelaide, and Frederick remain some of my favorite literary characters. So I was ecstatic when I heard that Masterpiece made a movie out of the first book.

I loved the movie. Loved it. I wish it could have been a little longer, but other than that I don't have any complaints. It has been about six years since I read the book, which turned out really great for me, since I remembered enough details to know the ending, but not how the action arrived at that point. The soundtrack was amazing, and the acting was terrific. And now I'm going to go all girly on you by saying this: Frederick is totally swoon-worthy. But in all seriousness, the action drew me in like crazy. I'm going to have to go back and read the book now, but I hope it won't ruin how much I liked the movie.

If you want the chance to see the movie, The Ruby in the Smoke is available on Amazon.com right now. And tune in next Sunday, because they're doing The Shadow in the North, which honestly was my favorite book in the trilogy (Though The Tin Princess was my favorite. But that's technically a "companion book").

If you really want a taste of the movie, you can look it up on YouTube. I'm not going to post it because of copyright issues. So you can see it there. But you didn't hear that from me!

Kid Lit Conference

So I was going to participate in Poetry Friday today, but I had a huge paper get shunted onto me. Don't you just love college (just one more semester, just one more semester, just one more semester...) I don't have time to create the post I wanted to, so it will just have to wait until next week.

In other news, if you're going to be at the Children's and Young Adult Literature conference in Rexburg, ID tomorrow, let me know. I'd love to meet my readers in person, and I'll be there.

Graphic Designer needed

Anyone know where I can get a logo made? I don't have a big budget, so it needs to be relatively cheap. Any ideas?

National Book Festival

Hey readers! I had this emailed to me today, so I figured I'd pass it on. If you live in the area, go check it out!

My name is Allegra Poggio and I’m getting in touch with you on behalf of the Library of Congress and its upcoming, eighth annual National Book Festival. It’s a great opportunity to meet in-person and interact with some of the nation’s best-selling authors, illustrators and poets, both at the event and online. This year, the festival is providing several online resources that are great for educational purposes!

This free event, featuring over 70 award-winning authors, attracts over 100,000 book lovers of all ages to the National Mall in Washington, DC to celebrate the joys of reading and lifelong literacy.

Sponsored by the Library of Congress and hosted by First Lady Laura Bush, this year the Festival will take place rain or shine Saturday, September 27th 2008 from 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. on The National Mall (Between 3rd and 7thstreets) in Washington, DC. Additional details on the festival are housed here: http://www.loc.gov/bookfest.

Authors, illustrators and poets will interact with festival-goers at seven themed pavilions such as the Children pavilion. The Children’s pavilion will feature several participating authors, including Doreen Cronin & Besty Lewin, who will sign books and give readings from their works.

In addition to the DC festivities, the Library is offering a variety of ways for people around the country to participate in the event online:

-The National Book Festival Young Readers’ Online Toolkit, features information about National Book Festival authors who write for children and teens, podcasts of their readings, teaching tools and activities for kids. This resource shows educators, parents and children how they can host their own book festival.
-Online chats hosted by washingtonpost.com featuring a select group of Festival authors. These live text-based discussions will take place throughout September leading up to the Festival at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/liveonline/index.html, where participants can submit questions and comments any time before or during the live chat.
-Podcasts, also available on iTunes, featuring interviews with some of the award-winning authors participating in the 2008 National Book Festival.

For additional details about participating authors, illustrators and poets please visit, www.loc.gov/bookfest.

And the Winners Are...

The winners of the comment contest are...

Ms. Yingling, Robin_Titan and Becky (Of Becky's Book Reivews). Congrats to the winners! Email me at shadyglade (AT) mail (DOT) com with your top 4 picks from my bookmooch inventory and I'll get you your prize right away!

Thank you to everyone who entered. And don't stop leaving comments now the contest is over. I still love comments. :-)

One more day...

So I'm tallying up the entries for the comment contest. Look for a post tomorrow to see who won!

Until then, I'll be back soon.

I'm Back

Well, if you've been paying attention to this blog, you will recognize the fact that I didn't exactly keep up with it like I mentioned in my last few posts. In fact, my blogiversary was earlier this week, and I'm sure you were expecting a post then

So this is what happened. While travelling back to Idaho to go to school for my last semester, I was involved in a very bad car accident. I rolled my car, pretty much totaled it, and landed myself a brief hospital visit. But don't worry, I'm doing okay. Surprisingly well, actually. Always wear your seat belt! It's what saved my life.

Anyway, I'm back and read to jump in again. I'm going to start tallying up comments for the contest, and I'll be announcing winners soon. Stay tuned!