Giveaway

Hi everyone!

I've put Rebirth in for a giveaway that's being run by author Kim Scott over on her site. It's a giveaway for a young girl named Liliana, and to help raise awareness for heart defects. Go over and check it out, there are 45 great books and a Kindle up for grabs. And you would be in the running to win a copy of Rebirth!

http://www.kimscottbooks.com/giveaway-for-liliana

Good Luck!

I'm baaacckk

Hello everyone!

So, here we are! Happy Release Day!

Thanks everyone for sticking around. Here the links of a few places you can find Rebirth right now. I'll continually add more as they come up.

https://www.facebook.com/RebirthBookRTM

http://www.amazon.ca/Rebirth-The-Afflicted-ebook/dp/B00BHLHI42/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361250547&sr=1-2

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/287087

http://www.amazon.com/Rebirth-The-Afflicted-ebook/dp/B00BHLHI42/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361250634&sr=8-2&keywords=ravin+tija+maurice 


And, I have to add, any errors in formatting are my own, it was my first time doing an ebook.

Come show me some love! Like Rebirth on facebook, some say hi on twitter @heartbamboo or drop me a line on Goodreads. I would love to hear from you!
If you like the book, great! Tell a friend, post a review, come let me know!

And stay tuned! There will be some new and exciting things to come....and also news of Book 2!

Happy Birthday Queen Mary I of England, or as I call her The Lady Mary

    Any longtime reader of this blog will know a bit about my love for Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I's older sister.

To be quite frank, I have thought of her quite a lot in the months since I lost my mother.
I never knew that grief could be physically painful, and I wonder if some of the health problems that Mary had were related to the grief that she could not appropriately express. I'd already felt like I understood Mary in relation to being set aside for Father's 'new life', but now I feel even more connected to her. Grief is a very powerful and sometimes completely overwhelming thing that no one can understand until you live it.

I've been following a Tudor related website called The Anne Boleyn files for some time now, and I can't say enough about not only the quality of the content but the continually fascinating posts by its creator, Claire Ridgeway. She does an amazing daily posts called 'Today in History' that I look forward to, and have been constantly inspired by.
She has three books, The Fall of Anne Boleyn: A Countdown, The Anne Boleyn Collection: The Real Truth About the Tudors, and On This Day In Tudor History that are available for download on Amazon. I just got them and I am looking forward to digging into them.

Here are a few links to posts about Mary from The Anne Boleyn Files, and its sister sight, The Elizabeth Files: 
http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/4574/happy-birthday-mary-i/
http://www.elizabethfiles.com/mary-i-facts/3598/
http://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/8577/the-birth-of-mary-i-18-february-1516/8577/

 Any suggestions on a Mary related book/site/blog/movie/show I need to know about? Leave it in the comments section, or tweet me with the hashtag #mary and tell me about it! I am always looking for something new to read about her. I'd also love biography recommendations!

So, I ask today that you hug your mother and not only think of Mary and Catherine of Aragon, but of me. Because a time will come when she'll be gone, and you should cherish every single moment.

Happy 1500!

Hello everyone!

Happy 1500!
I have to say, I am humbled every time I look at that counter. The very idea, as I've said, that people read my every day thoughts and my stories is so amazing to me that I don't even have the proper words.

Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for coming back. I hope that you'll keep coming!

I'm hard at work on that formatting, as I'm sure my twitter readers know. It's a complicated process, but its worth it for the product to look nice in the end. And its nice that there are formatting 'rules', so people don't just post things willy nilly and that the readers don't end up scrolling through a ridiculous amount of blank pages. It'll be up and ready to go Feb 20, so keep checking back for the links.
That day is also my 31st birthday!

Tomorrow I'll be spending my first Valentines Day with my future husband, which I am really looking forward to. And shortly after that is Queen Mary I of England's birthday (or the Lady Mary Tudor, as I often refer to her), so I will be doing what I plan on making my yearly post about Mary. It will be her 497 birthday and all.

So, keep checking back for more updates!

New Things!

Hi Everyone!

So, here are my latest updates:

As I'm sure you can see, I've put up a countdown for the release of the ebook - my projected date is February 20th (which also happens to be my 31st birthday!). Keep checking back for links to where you can pick up your copy!

The facebook page is live, and I am in the process of populating it. Go over and hit 'like', there is more coming!

www.facebook.com/RebirthBookRTM

Keep checking back for more stuff!

And how that I'm rolling onto the 1500 mark (pretty good, I think!) I have to admit, I'm pretty overwhelmed by the idea that not only do people want to read my random thoughts, but keep coming back!
So, thank you all!

Prepping for #rebirth

Hello all!

I wanted to fill you all in on my progress, and let you know about the exciting things that will be going on in the next few weeks!

I have decided it's about time that I relaunch myself and my debut novel, Rebirth. So in the next few weeks I will be prepping for the ebook release, which I am planning to have up on Kindle and Smashwords (unless I have some major technical difficulties!), and I am hoping to put the book back in print as soon as possible afterwards. In the coming weeks I will be reestablishing my online presence, creating a new facebook page, tweeting my progress (it's @heartbamboo if you're interested!), and putting up the book info on Goodreads. I'm also hoping to hook up with some great pages and bloggers I've met on facebook that are fighting the good fight for us indie authors. I'll be sure to update this page and my twitter, and the facebook when I get it up and running, with where I'm at and any other exciting stuff.

I also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has stuck with me during this hick-up, I appreciate all your kind words and encouragement! Don't worry, you won't have to wait for Book 2 forever - while all this exciting stuff is going on with Rebirth I am plugging away at editing Book 2 and making it as wonderful as I can. So, stay with me, because it's coming.

And I bet you are wondering what the #rebirth means in the subject of this blog? I will be attaching it to all book related tweets etc leading up to and around the launch of Rebirth. I would LOVE it if anyone who wants to tell me the story of their rebirth, words of encouragement, or fans who read the book by the other name and want to tell me what they loved about it, their favorite line, characters, anything, tweeted me and attached it to their tweet....come show me some love!


That's all for now! Keep checking back for more updates!

Movie Review: Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters

Hello everyone!

I am so happy that I'll have a chance to discuss this movie!
I read a lot of reviews before I went to the theatre, and I have to say that some people's complaints are unnecessary. You don't go see this sort of movie for historical accuracy! While I agree, it wouldn't hurt, but this is a full out action flick and such details are not expected.

The premise of this movie is pretty simple. After the infamous incident that made Hansel and his sister Gretel famous the duo turn into a ruthless pair of witch hunters, complete with leather outfits and some bad ass gear. They end up in a small town there children are being nabbed, but the incidents seem a little different. They discover more then they bargained for on a variety of levels, digging into their painful past and in the form Famke Janssen, the woman I will always know as 'the woman who didn't end up playing Erzsebet Bathory'.

This movie is a fantastic example of 3D used well. There were several times that I jumped when things came flying at the screen - my fiance jumped too, and that NEVER happens! Its gory where it should be, its smart, the CG effects are great, and its an all around fun time.
I love a fairy tale retelling. And while I agree with some other reviewers that there were some occasions to really push this movie that much further that weren't taken, I really liked this movie for what it was. I loved the subtle exploration of good and evil in the form of 'all witches are bad', and I thought the backstory of what happened to H&G's parents and why they did what they did was really well thought out, and the writer's had really done their homework. While I would have liked some things explored further, I didn't expect it from an action movie. This was fun to watch and kept me entertained.
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the title characters are great. I've been a big fan of Arterton since Prince of Persia, and I think she brought the perfect blend of pretty and badass that this role desperately needed. Jeremy Renner has been great in every movie I have ever seen him in, and he did not disappoint here.

Overall a great movie, I think. It'll be interesting to see if they make a second, I will definitely go see it!
If you're on the fence, give it a try. You might be surprised, my fiance sure was. He even said 'it was a lot better then I thought it was going to be'. If you love a different kind of fairy tale mash up, you might enjoy this.
Anyone looking for historical accuracy in terms of wardrobe and small details, this isn't it. The only movie that I have ever heard of that would come close to accurate is The Duchess with Keira Knightley.