Book Two of The Medoran Chronicles

I’ve got exciting news!

Book two of The Medoran Chronicles comes out in February!

And in even more exciting news!

The cover looks like this:

RAELIA COVER (JPEG)

Just in case you are wondering, “Yaayyy! Oooooo! Ahhhhh! and Wooowww!” should be your by reaction now.

If it’s not I suspect it’s because you haven’t yet read Akarane.

You’ve only got until February remedy that – get reading!

In case you still need more convincing here is the review I wrote when it came out.

Akarnae by Lynette Noni

The evening I finished Akarnae I sat down in front of the fire to write, unordered thoughts swirling in my head.

Do I go with the, “It’s like Harry Potter mixed with X-Men and The Chronicles of Narnia” quote?  Can I describe the pure awesomeness of Alex without giving things away? Characters, focus on characters. No friendships? The ways it’s better than typical young adult fantasy? The fun alternate world? The fantasticness that it is the first of a series…

Stymied by my enthusiasm, I decided to start at the beginning – the title.

People are going to need to know how to pronounce the title so they can find it and then tell all their friends about it.

I pulled the book out and started skimming through the first chapter knowing the phonetic spelling was hiding in it somewhere. Soon the skimming turned to reading, the pronunciation forgotten, and before I knew it I’d read the first quarter of the book again. 

Would I recommend it? Just in case that wasn’t clear, let me tell you again. The evening I finished the book I sat down and accidentally re-read the first quarter of the book- after reading the entire thing in less than two days.

I really liked this book and, because I know you’re still wondering, it’s pronounced Ah-kar-nay.

Now you can go find it, tell your friends about it and then, this is the really important part, after you read it tell me so we can sit down and talk about all the things that make it awesome!

The General Manager

This is Turk.Turk

Turk, otherwise known as Turkey, or Mr. Impressive if you want to get all official about it, is my brother’s dog. In the past few years Turk has been joined in the field by his two half brothers. Trip (my dog) and Sunday, a.k.a. Weasel (also my brother’s dog) and the three of them are amazing.Turk, Trip and Sunday

I could wax poetic on how, when they hunt together, they truly hunt together. Working with each other, blocking birds, covering the field all the while looking like the handsomest trio of pups you’ve ever seen. But those of you who are bird hunters with dogs of your own probably won’t believe me (because, obviously, your dogs are better).  And those of you who aren’t won’t fully comprehend the awesomeness that I’m trying to convey so I won’t. I’ll just stick with amazing.

These dogs are amazing.

One field, three awesome dogs and a limit of pheasants for everyone including my mom the picture taker.

One field, three awesome dogs and a limit of pheasants for everyone including my mom the picture taker.

Turk is getting up in years, he’ll be 9 come spring, which means that sadly his experience in the field is getting tempered by his stamina. Fortunately, he has the young boys, four year old litter-mates, that he’s training up. And yes, I say he’s training them up. My brother and I, we try to help, but Turk is the one pulling the real weight.Turk on the kennel box

Early in our week of Montana hunting the three boys would swarm the field together. Often Turk was the steadying presence for the young dogs as they pinned down a bird. But by the end of the week he was tired, trotting rather than running through the grass. Occasionally, stopping and staring into whatever likely cover we were passing by as if to say, “Hey boys! Get in there!”And the youngsters did. He had taken over as general manager of our little pack of dogs.Turk

But Turk wasn’t completely out of gas.  He was just an experienced dog conserving it for when it counted.

Near the end of the week my brother shot a sharp-tailed grouse. Off it flew over the crest of a hill, running out of steam and going down. Right behind it flew the dogs. Sunday, Turk and Trip lined up and running all out for the retrieve. They were, as I have said, a beautiful sight. And then, as we watched, Turk kicked it into high gear. Always the champion of the long distance retrieve, he was not about to be outdone by those young upstarts.  And the dog that had been trotting about lengthened his stride and started gaining on Sunday as they crested the hill and disappeared out of sight.

My brother and I looked at each other and laughed. Turk retrieving sharp-tail.

Of course it was Turk who came back over the hill, mouth full of feathers, with a look in his eye for the youngsters as if  to say, “This is how it’s done.”

 

Montana Pond

I’m in Montana this week chasing after birds with my dog and taking in the sights along the way…Montana pond

…and what sights they’ve been!

I’ll have more photos then you’ll ever want to see once I get home to my computer and quick internet but until then you can check out Instagram (link in sidebar) for occasional updates! 

Meeting General Grant

I took my children to meet General Grant last weekend. 

He was pleased with the way the war was going and quite willing to tell us all about his writing desk, fancy tent and even show us a picture of his wife. Kids meet General Grant

Later we watched his troops oust a group of Confederate soldiers from their earthen work line of defense, so it seemed his confidence was well placed.confederate soldier

The battlefield was very loud but not too intimidating. Of course by that time we had already met a few of the horses. Abe, in particular, had been loved and petted while we heard all about his training.DSCN0948-(2sm)

And we had visited the artillery camps, on both sides, and learned that they traveled with far more horses than the cavalry, when to plug our ears and who owned the cannons.

That's not an out of focus picture that's smoke from the cannons!

That’s not an out of focus picture that’s smoke from the cannons!

The 1st Tennessee Partisan Rangers had shared a few contraband juice boxes when we visited their camp earlier, so they were a lot less intimidating than they could have been when we saw them rush into the battle.  Confederate TroopsAnd since they had also walked us through how their guns loaded, fired and what they were and were not putting in them we knew just what these guys were doing.

Union troops

Watching the first “casualty” fall was a bit of a shock but yet another soldier had prepped us well on such things when he let us handle his bayonet.

Union Troops

That was right before he introduced us to a few southern belles that taught us everything we ever wanted to know about war time fashion. Which was after we talked to the woman spinning wool but before we spoke to the lady about quilts made for the underground railroad.Aunt Helen and Ivy

So yes, the battle was loud and a little bit intimidating but we’ve already got plans to go back next year!

 

Maybe we’ll see you there? Wade House Civil War Weekend

As a happy coincidence this weeks Go Play, Go Learn challenge is all about engaging with history!

 

C.R. Mudgeon by Leslie Muir and Julian Hector

Would I recommend it?  

C. R. Mudgeon is a hedgehog!

(That meant yes.)

.

.

.

.

.

(Did you need more?)

.

.

.

.

.

C.R. Mudgeon gets a new peppy squirrel neighbor named – Paprika!

.

.

.

.

.

(That was also code for yes.)

.

.

.

.

.

(You still want more?)

.

.

.

.

.

Mariachi band!!!

.

.

.

.

.

(That’s all you get.)

.

.

.

.

.

(For real.)

.

.

.

.

.

( C. R. Mudgeon is waiting for you down at the library, go get him!)

Run! But Only If You Have to.

Running makes me feel fat.

Now hold all your collective horses, I’m know I’m not fat. I’m not worried about it. In fact right now I’m eating an Oreo as I type because I’m active and muscular and except for the cookies (and cake and Diet Coke) I’m a fairly healthy eater but I still really hate running because it make me feel fat.

It’s the jiggle.

Because it doesn’t matter what sort of substance your body is made of, if it’s not a bone, it jiggles. And you know, probably the bones jiggle too – because running sucks like that. And jiggling body parts don’t feel good. They don’t feel good when they jiggle and they don’t feel good when they are done jiggling. They feel flabby and terrible.

Any other active workout leaves me feeling awesome. I like being awesome, so I do it again. Most days I workout, feel awesome and eat cookies. It’s a strategy that’s working for me on all sorts of levels.

It's ridiculously difficult and silly to attempt to take a picture of yourself doing a Les Mills Combat workout. And just the sort of thing I like to do around ten o'clock!

Non-running workouts can make you feel awesome like a rock star and then you take selfies!

But then sometimes I have to run (like when I have five dogs in my house and they need to be more tired) and I don’t feel awesome. I feel jiggly and decidedly un-awesome. Who ever thought to themselves, “Gee, I feel terrible both physically and emotionally now. I think I’ll go do it again tomorrow?” and ever had success with such a plan?

Nobody.

Because that’s a terrible plan, just like running.

Moral: Working out will make you feel awesome. But probably not running because, unless you are made of nothing but connective tissue and bone, running makes you jiggle and nobody likes jiggling. Don’t run if you hate it, find a workout that makes you feel awesome! Then eat cookies and blog about it.