Tag Archives: reviews

August 5, 2013 · 2:55 pm

Reading Now, Reviews Coming

I am currently reading and will have reviews on the following books.

Date by Mistake, Anthology. From new publisher Entangled.

Dead To Me: Anton Strout

Keeper of Lost Cities: Shannon Messenger. Grades 5 – 8

The Farm: Emily McKay

The Haunting of Maddy Clare: Simone St. James

Sunshine: Robin McKinley. Reread.

These is My Words: Nancy E. Turner

This Perfect Day : Ira Levin. Reread.

Tila Beads and Compassion Suede

As a crafter I have found several products recently I absolutely love. Today I review 2 products and highlight a project from the Beadshop.com. FYI the Beadshop has some great tutorials worthy of a look.

One of my crafting tables for jewelry.

Compassion suede. I am an animal rights activist and vegetarian. I do not wear leather and I feed my dogs vegetarian food. WE live is a cruelty free household. Many jewelry projects I like are made with leather. But why must leather be used when we have the technology to create an alternative. Microsuede fabric is a great alternative. Beadsmith is one of several companies that offer compassion with their faux leather and faux suede stringing materials.

Cruelty free and more. So many colors and a variety of textures are available. It is easy to knot. Some colors have a tendency to bleed if wet but since I refuse to use leather I can deal with the issue. I have seen some feedback that the product doesn’t work well with slide knots and the microsuede probably has that issue. I have only used pleather cord for slide knots and had no problems so I cannot confirm the findings.

Wrap bracelet with faux leather cord.
I used faux leather cord for this wrap bracelet. The cord has held my toggle button with no problem or breaking. I know photo isn’t great, my camera battery is dead so I used my phone. I like to wrap beads and do a herringbone wrap. I have tried Chinese knotting cord for wraps but floss or perle cotton work well also. I also have tried Tuff cord I had on hand for my Kumihimo braiding.

Tila Beads. My first tile bead project was using a Czech bead called a niblette. I liked the outcome but found that the metallic color was not embedded but plated or sprayed on the bead and rubbed off pretty easily. I haven’t seen Tila beads in the craft stores but have found in bead stores and online. Tila beads have 2 holes for stringing and weaving. They come in metallic, opaque, luster and translucent beads. New Tila beads in Picasso style, marbled, are on the market.

Here is a beautiful photo of project for a Tila bead headband project from beadshop.com.
Tila bead Head band from beadshop.com

I used Kevlar thread for most of my bead weaving but this bead works with Tuff cord #1. I use Tuff cord, hemp or waxed cotton when I wrap Tila beads on, called laddering. Tila beads offer a different look to wrap bracelets than regular beads. Tila beads give a different dimension to jewelry making and beadwork, better than the niblet or square beads.

http://beadshop.com/projects/projects/mosaic-headband/shewolf-mosaic-headband

One Line Plot Description (Elements of Writing) Killer Titles?

From The Write Life Lessons in The Art of Writing
4 Elements of a Logline – One line plot description by Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, Summary of Chapter One – What Is It?A log line is a movie/screen writing term for a one or two line description of the story. Snyder says screenwriters can sell their screen play if they have the following 4 elements.

1) Irony. A good story will have a twist. Identify the conflict. Mention the protagonist
(Hero/Heroine) and the antagonist to involve the reader’s emotions.

2) Target Market. For the author of novels this would be the publisher and genre. Does the description provide an idea of the reader/market? A bookstore is divided by genre to engage the target market. Readers that enjoy romance, young adult section, mystery, sci-fi, etc. head to the labeled section. A blurb on the back, though longer, tells the reader what the story is about.

3) Create a mental picture. Does the description give the potential reader a visual idea of what the book/movie is about?

4) Killer Title. Snyder says if the logline has these elements your pitch will be successful. Even better condense the movie for the marquee and – voila!

So we may not be screenwriters, but as authors if we heed Snyder’s advice we have a better chance of selling our book to the publisher and the reader. I thought a look at some well-known books would be interesting.
Killer Titles:
I love all the following books but if someone hadn’t recommended Outlander I never would have read Gabaldon’s work. To Kill a Mockingbird is an intriguing title and Guilty Pleasures means you must buy the book. Fahrenheit 451? It would intrigue but I am not certain the book would sell today on the title alone. Unwind by Neil Shusterman doesn’t work on the title but the one line plot description of “what if your parents could unwind you….” hits the target market. What book titles SELL the book? Do these titles also meet the one line plot description? Do the elements of irony, target market and creation of a mental picture help make the killer Title?
I think the following books may well meet all 4 criteria:Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris and Undead and Unwed by Mary Janice Davidson. What do you think?