Kid Literature blog : March 2014

Monday 31 March 2014

Foggy owls and lions and lambs, oh my! Blogionaire ❤

Spring 2014

Britain woke up to find their cars covered in dusty sand from the Sahara Desert, 2014

and this is no April fool's joke. Unusual occurrences are blowing in from a sandstorm from Africa. Covering the whole of the country! The met office have forecast a ten out of ten for air pollution for London. This dust will cause one of the worst smog's of the year and you can't deport any of it back now, as some of it is full of cat hairs.

You need the correct combination of elements to create this sandstorm, the wind from the South, and the right sort of rain.

Whatever next, and what exactly is the right sort of rain?

Well the right sort has to be light, not too much, just enough to bring down some dust or sand to cover everything. This rain dries quickly leaving the sand residue. Apparently it is not dangerous but warnings are going out to people who are aerobically fit outdoors as there has been more widespread news of respiratory problems among the fittest who work-out in the outdoors.

Bring back the lions and the lambs is what I say! You know the old ditty, March In like a lion, and out like a lamb. READ THAT BLOG HERE kidliteraturetoday.blogspot now-in-march-as-saying-goes

March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers.

whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether you like it or not!

'not'

March and April are good months for me, it is the debut of my long awaited book, my fully illustrated children's book...get it this week for 77p only!

Yes that is right 77p! I am on a mission to RT as many twitters as possible, and all that RT me.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JDG8T3M

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424518

News from 10th March 2014 !

Children's book website is up, and if you tweet me on twitter, a few hours later it comes up on the website, on the page 'what I have been up to today via social media.'

It looks so cool, and if you have a book out and I retweet it, then it also goes up there!

Check it out !

All illustrations are complete! I added three more illustrations and a really cool index profile page of the owls names and pics at the back. This lets readers get a good look at all the characters in the book and become familiar with them.

All of the owls will not be in the first book though, rather they will be in the next book in the series of the little magic owl and his friends.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JDG8T3M

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424518

A lot of work has gone into designing the owls for my book. I am so grateful for all the help sharing and supporting.

Check my progress in my past blogs to read about me, my cats, my owls, and what I have been up to.

Lord Snoots from my book (The real Lord Snoots is Sooty cat

being mischievous at home)

First book sketch - Hello Teeny Pheeny

18/Jan/2014

Welcome into the world of the magic owl Teeny Pheeny!

Pencil sketch is of the first draft of the Magic baby owl That will be going into my book. 18/jan2014

I am working on articles for a health magazine at the moment. So that is taking me away from the book publishing. So I became guilty and set my mind to finishing some illustrations off. I have so enjoyed creating them even though they have took me ages. I am getting some help to complete the formatting in order to get them up as quick as possible. Like I say I have dragged my feet in publishing the children's owl book. The very special children's Owl book. The first in the series. (They are all penned ready to go) sitting like impatient children in the back of a car shouting 'are we there yet!'

Well there is a light ahead. All the illustrations have been chosen out of the hundreds I have drawn. Done! yes done! woop. They are now all ready for the first book, so watch this space, January looks like the month they go out to the public in book form.

So this week I have really enjoyed learning more about health and fitness. It is also making me want to start my yoga classes up again, not partaking but actually taking classes. I can't do everything I want, so I will be have to be content to do my own yoga solo. It was a few years ago I took classes. To remember things that you had put on the back burner and and re-enforce what you used to know and learned was so rewarding. I am so pleased I found the time to research this time, instead of being at college studying it! (Very little computer use in practical studies even in the late 90's).

Adventures of the Magic Owl Land. Hello Teeny Pheeny Out now! >http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00JDG8T3M

If you want to know anything about Yoga, back pain, and treatments and exercises to consider then look at my articles here> more are updated regularly http://www.backpaininfo.co/

Saturday 29 March 2014

Spring forward Fall back.

If I had any spare time at all, spare time, what's that I hear you cry! it would be to go bungee jumping in Honolulu, scuba diving in the Maldives, climbing up Mount Kilimanjaro, or some such getting the juices going activity. In fact it is a bit of a shock to me that people who say they are bored, are not at the very least learning how to speak Swahili, Mandarin Chinese, or knocking out Mandarin Caprioska for breakfast Mary Berry style.

I do not have the time, and especially spare time.
I would love to sit out in the garden on a sunny afternoon, lazing the day away thinking of which wall in the house I fancied painting next, then watching it dry.

Time is indeed going quicker and quicker, for me anyway, and I thought it was because my life was so fulfilling, but apparently it isn't!
The reason it seems as if time goes quicker can be explained scientifically. (Leans to sceptic side here) Scientists can explain it like this: As you get older your memory capacity shrinks and you have less memory cells so you don't hold as much information.

Therefore the older you get the less time you think you have, because you don't store it as well. But you wouldn't remember all that anyway, so let's not worry too much.
I still feel as if I am missing out, hmm.
It doesn't impress me and thank you Miss Know it all, who was so keen to tell the 'oldies' she worked with.
We had only happened to mention how Christmas/Easter comes around so much quicker these days (when you are over 40).

An extra hour's Luxury

In October, when the clocks went back, this is what I wrote.

'As I sit writing a blog on the day the clocks go back in October just gone, (yes, and time has flown by since then) I realised the day had once again completely flown by. I could have sworn I was only onto my second cup of coffee since awakening from a refreshing sleep, which was an hour longer so I had to have noticed that surely.

Nope, I slept right through that particular luxury. On checking times on mobiles and clocks and so forth when I first awoke, the time showed the usual time I get up: Which was 7.30am, and first thoughts were good.
I still had to change the clocks back as I had forgot to do so before retiring to bed. Oh how lovely, I thought, an extra hour to do what I wanted to do, in a time that I had to do it, and all at a leisurely pace. I had really looked forward to this time all week, as I am always rushing about and never ever have enough time in the day etc. So this was going to be me right back on track, this extra hour. I would spend it meditating, soothing my mind (and it needed soothing) and easing it into the day with a leisurely lie in and an even longer coffee time before the world started to nag at me. But the clocks had tricked me, they had automatically changed back themselves! How very dare they! Wasn't I in control over when they changed. I could set it 2 hours back if I saw fit. I didn't. My mind still lives in the days where you had to manually change them back yourself, none of this internet signal lark. Otherwise we will be sitting up waiting at 2.00am to see if they have changed automatically, because we will not be entirely sure that they will do so!

So I would like to decide what goes on in my house thank you very much Greenwich Mean Time, and you can take your signals through the airwaves, or whatever changes the time automatically these days and put your heads together to think of something more useful to do, like tell the correct time, and not adjust it twice a year.'

So where does this time go? The time leaves us and goes to the young ones, as they seem to have oodles of the stuff.

I'm not entirely sure if they even have the talking clock now.
When you need to know the precise time to the second. I hope I find the pause button soon, because it is definitely on fast forward at the moment. Time is a game played expertly by children, and over too soon for many.

Now it is March, and in March we are told, it should came in like a lion and out like a lamb ...but mostly it always seems to go out like a lion too. But they say the UK is going continental now. The little tin island is looking uncannily like the continent in a manner of speaking in regards to the weather. And who listens to the weather forecast these days anyway? Well, we still find ourselves looking it up online, or listening to it on the TV or radio. But we know they are mostly wrong. We know we have as much chance of getting it correct as those in the know with their satellite systems.
Because they are always wrong, and we are always right. You should always listen to your Auntie Mary when her arthritis plays up. You know there is a storm heading your way when she hollers.

Years gone by were totally different. It rained all the time. That all started the year that number 1 tune came out about 'brella ella's' I will not mention the full title in case it.. you know.. changes the weather again.
Although that year we did get a freak week of sunshine somewhere in the middle. So I will try not to be too English and complain about the weather too much. I shall complain about the time instead. Yes those sleep robbing gits! Have done us out of an hours sleep again! That's a vital hour for most people. The farmers these days have a lot more high tech equipment so they do not need an extra hour daylight! What do they do with it anyway?
I know!
They are spending the extra hour in bed!
It is high time we went back to normal hours and not adding and taking hours away willy nilly (at ones whim).

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Now get to bed, It is bedtime! ;) Go save up those extra hours again.

Watch out for the first few copies of my first book out in print. The first batch is signed and dedicated to your reader. This will be shown on my Author page from the 12th of March 2015!
Keep your owly eyes open on my twitter page and facebook page, which are on links in the menu above.
Hope to catch you soon.

Hello Teeny Pheeny by Karen Emma Hall.

The magic owl book and toy out for the very first time in print and extremely plush cuddly. All ready for an Easter gift.

Go to the facebook link in menu for details from 12th of March 2015.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Pancake day

A Mums dilemma as pancake day approaches.
You know it is pancake day when you have to buy a new pan, (tefal this time) because you can't bear to see the kids eat another scraped offering from the old stick pan again, the ones you have to soak overnight to get the burnt bit off the bottom. You hold onto them still for emergencies. I never know why I hold onto them though as I have never had a pan emergency..still time though, so back in the cupboard they go.
So you go out and you buy a non-stick one. Or you get someone else to go like I did, because if you like a good non-stick toss to your pancake then a non-stick pan is the only way to go.
That is why in the supermarkets the lemons are next to the frying pans for a good month throughout February.

Do not go for the pancake mix, it tastes 'vanillary' and it goes thick in the pan and you are left with a claggy mess rolled up in the centre of your new non-stick pan.
Get some flour, (100gms) throw in a dash of salt, 2 eggs and half water(155mls) half milk (155ml)until it is quite runny. If it is runny it makes a better pancake.

So a big no no! for old pans, shop pancake mix and not having your homemade pancake mix runny enough!

As pancake day is more than 1000 years old and the idea behind it is that it was the way to get rid of the leftover scraps.
A genius idea to eat all the goodies without feeling guilty.
And as Ash Wednesday comes straight after, the first day of the fasting, make sure you eat your fill because you don't want to go hungry. gulp.

Once pancake day is out the way we know that Easter is around the corner, and that means yummy eggs again, only chocolate this time. The supermarkets as ever are way ahead, they have had creme eggs in since Dec!

'My pancakes too thin! I shouldn't have to put up with this crepe!'
Written by Karen Emma Hall.. found here most days
and here