Freda's Voice

Welcome to the Canadian Thanksgiving/Halloween Edition of Monthly News! I signed up for my first reading challenge for next year. The 150+ Reading Challenge . I read 231 the year before last, and am up to 148 as of today, so I'm feeling good about it. BOOKS: 1. Kiss of Night - Debbie Viguie (recommend) 2. Cherished - Belinda Boring (Book 2, recommend) 3. Deliver Me From Evil - Kathi Macias 4. The Christmas Wedding - James Patterson & Richard DiLallo 5. The Adventures of Miss Upton and the Sky Pirate - D.J. Archer (recommend) 6. Baby, It's Cold Outside - Susan May Warren (recommend) 7. Pretty - Jillian Lauren (recommend) 8. Here We Go Again - Betty White (recommend) 9. Mind Over Monsters - Jennifer Harlow (HIGHLY recommend) 10. 3D Human Body PRODUCTS: 1. Spike Your Juice 2. Poise Hourglass Pads (recommend) YEARLY TOTAL: 148 Books, 1 Magazine, 2 Services, 22 Products, 1 Tv Show, 2 CDS and 1 Movie FREDA'S FAVE FIVE (In No Particular Order

Have you even wondered why some teens are drawn toward things like Ouija boards or psychics? Or why séances are still popular at sleepovers? Does it just have to do with Halloween and that spine-chilling need for a good scare? Or could it be something more? And, as a Christian, should you be concerned? Those questions, as well as some confused reader letters, prompted me to tackle the “supernatural” in one of my teen novels (Moon White, TrueColors, Nav Press). And whenever I write an issues-based novel, I’m forced to research—and often in some dark places. So I began scouring websites, learning more about Wicca and the occult, trying to grasp what was really going on with today’s teens—and how I could write about it in a helpful and relevant way. But, as usual, when I write a teen book, I go back to my own adolescence...trying to connect with my inner teen...and I suddenly remembered a short era when a friend and I got very interested in witchcraft. I had honestly forgotten about thi

MY OVERSTUFFED BOOKSHELF 1. Ashley's New Attitude - Samantha Whitney 2. Summer's Crossing - Julie Kagawa 3. The Meerkat Wars - H.S Toshack 4. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs 5. Jabberwocky - Daniel Coleman 6. The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove - Lauren Kate 7. Busted - Glenn Gamble 8. Liesl & Po - Lauren Oliver 9. The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean 10. Daughter of Smoke & Bone - Laini Taylor 11. Spin - Catherine McKenzie 12. Flirts - Lisa Scott 13. Beach Flirts - Lisa Scott 14. Holiday Flirts - Lisa Scott 15. Moon Spell - Samantha Young 16. Mornings with Jesus 17. The Legacy of Eden - Nelle Davy 18. Heart of Ice - Lis Wiehl 19. Put on Your Crown - Queen Latifah 20. Fairy Tale Flirts - Lisa Scott 21. Queen Pin - Jemeker Thompson-Hairston 22. The Pocket Therapist - Therese J. Borchard 23. God Never Blinks - Regina Brett 24. Forgive Yourself - Allie Sager 25. 12.21.12 - Killian McRae 26. Ponga Boy - Phil Lebherz

The 3D series combines DK's classic reference approach with cutting edge augmented reality technology to create an incredible interactive experience! Lighthearted, enticing, and fun, the text in each book is packed with information to give a comprehensive overview of the subject. But there's more! Spread throughout the book are special activating boxes that indicate the presence of digital pop outs that when held up to a webcam attached to your PC, feature amazing 3D digital animation on the screen! Using the magic of augmented reality, these animations are superimposed on a live image of the book and its actual surroundings, making it appear as if they're really in the room with you-a miracle of modern technology that has to be seen to be believed. Discover the world of the human body, recreated with incredible augmented reality animations! 3D Human is filled with incredible 3D body animations that literally leap right off the page! Through the magic of augmented realit

Give a warm welcome to Lucianne Rivers , author of Thrill Me , her latest in A Caldwell Sisters book. Why don't you check out her website, by clicking her name, and let me know what cool things you found there. ENTICE ME is the final installment in the Caldwell Sisters romantic suspense trilogy, in which Allison Caldwell goes to Afghanistan to find her long-presumed dead father, Zach, with the help of former navy SEAL, Robert Rivera, finding love and danger on the way. Kindle Edition: 207 KB Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC (September 29, 2011) ASIN: B005R3DHW8 Purchase at Amazon Purchase at Barnes & Noble Purchase at Diesel Who or what inspires your writing? My own love life. When did you know you would be a writer? After I gave birth to my baby girl. How long did it take you to write your first novel? Three months...it's never going to see the light of day. What is the hardest part of writing for you? Finding the time. Do you have any writ

Very few people know the truth about Beatrice Alexander. She's no ordinary schoolteacher with a fondness for classic movies. Beatrice can move objects with her mind, an embarrassing and dangerous skill that she's never learned to master - or embrace. After nearly killing her brother by accident, she joins F.R.E.A.K.S. The Federal Response to Extra-Sensory and Kindred Supernaturals is a top-secret offshoot of the FBI that neutralizes ghouls, trolls, and other monsters threatening humanity. Beatrice has no desire to become Buffy the vampire slayer. But F.R.E.A.K.S. offers training to control her power. Also, she doesn't feel like such a freak next to the other supernatural members, including a cute former detective who's a werewolf and an unbearable vampire determined to seduce Beatrice. Despite a natural instinct to flee from hideous, bloodthirsty zombies, Beatrice must prove herself on her first mission to find a cunning necromancer. Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: M

Welcome to Week 49 with me! Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56. *Find any sentence that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple. Alia felt like she was staring into a miniature world, one that might be inhabited by gods or djinn.

BETTY WHITE first appeared on television in 1949 and has gone on to have one of the most amazing careers in TV history, starring in shows such as Life with Elizabeth, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Golden Girls, among many others. She is one of the hardest-working actresses of any era, and her sense of humor and perennial optimism have seen her through half a century of industry changes and delighted millions of fans. Now, during Betty’s sixty-first year on screen, a year in which she has enjoyed a huge resurgence of popularity, her 1995 memoir makes a comeback too. Here We Go Again is a behind-the-scenes look at Betty’s career from her start on radio to her first show, Hollywood on Television, to several iterations of The Betty White Show and much, much more. Packed with wonderful anecdotes about famous personalities and friendships, stories of Betty’s off-screen life, and the comedienne’s trademark humor, this deliciously entertaining book will give readers an entrée into Betty’

Bebe Baker is an ex-everything: ex-stripper, ex-Christian, ex-drug addict, ex-pretty girl. It's been one year since the car accident that killed her boyfriend left her scarred and shaken. Flanked by an eccentric posse of friends, she is serving out a self-imposed sentence at a halfway house, while trying to finish cosmetology school. Amid the rampant diagnoses, over-medication, compulsive eating, and acrylic nails of Los Angeles, Bebe looks for something to believe in before something--her past, the dangerously magnetic men in her life, her own bad choices--knocks her off course again. Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Plume; 1 edition (Aug 30 2011) ISBN: 9780452297340 Purchase at Amazon My Opinion: What a life Bebe lives. This book is like an onion with many layers. Each intricate and part of what develops the story is all the intricacies. I liked it, but am still feeling the impact, so am unclear whether I loved it. I did think it very clever, but sometimes all over th

SHOULD BE READING * Grab your current read. * Let the book fall open to a random page. * Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. * You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given. * Please avoid spoilers! The question of moving Password to the west coast became academic before 1967 was over. In May, CBS had terminated the nighttime version of the show, and while we were sorry, of course, to see it go, it had enjoyed an excellent run in the highly competitive prime-time schedule. However, it came as a shock to all concerned--the audience included--when daytime Password was canceled in September.

Please give a warm welcome to Paul H. Magid , author of Lifting the Wheel of Karma . Why don't you check out his website and come back to tell us what you found of interest. A profound spiritual journey of extraordinary healing and redemption. It is a modern tale that harkens back to the myths of antiquity, about a boy who finds God in the most amazing of ways. Paperback: 192 pages Publisher: Point Dume Press (September 23, 2011) ISBN: 9780984016068 Who or what inspires your writing? What inspires my writing is the desire to share the pursuit of insight and understanding through a creative vehicle, that entertains while it enlightens. We are all here for a reason, a purpose, and the more we can understand and enjoy the journey, the more meaningful our lives will be. When did you know you would be a writer? By my sophomore year in high school I was secretly writing (I say secretly because I was too insecure to tell anyone). I continued in secrecy in college, and fina

Have you tried mixing a Mojito? What about a Rusty Nail? Or a Cosmopolitan? With See Mix Drink, the first-ever cocktail book to offer instruction through info-graphics, making the drinks you love at home is as easy as, well, See, Mix, Drink. This unique, illustrated guide graphically demonstrates how to make 100 of today's most popular cocktails. For each drink, color-coded ingredients are displayed in a line drawing of the appropriate glassware, alongside a pie chart that spells out the drink's composition by volume for intuitive mixing. No other cocktail book is this easy or fun. Instantly understandable 1-2-3 steps show exactly how each drink is prepared, and anecdotes, pronunciation guides, and photographs of the finished drinks will turn newbie bartenders into instant mixologists. Hardcover: 232 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (Oct 19 2011) ISBN: 9780316176712 Thanks to Anna and Hachette Book Group , I have 2 copies up for grabs. Fill in the Raf

Hope finds the hopeless when a storm hits. It's Christmas weekend 1949, and despite the threat of a storm, the townspeople of Frost are determined to continue their holiday traditions, if only as a means to forget the war that they had all just suffered through. But the suffering hasn't ended for Dottie Morgan who lost her only son in the war. She's preparing to wallow in her isolation for the weekend, when Violet, nearly a spinster at age 29, dares to make a request that will force Dottie to publicly revive the memory of her dead son. When a storm traps the two women at home with a strange young man who has an unbelievable confession and a neighbor with more to do with Violet's past than she would like, no one can predict how this Christmas will give them all a second chance. Read an excerpt here and find out the story behind the novel. Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: Ellie Claire (October 2011) ISBN: 9781609362157 Purchase at Amazon Author Bio: Susan Ma

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Welcome to Week 48 with me! Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56. *Find any sentence that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple. His new teammates were nodding in agreement, Steve noted with approval. Contrary to Cougar's solicitous concern, there were all big boys who hadn't come here for a vacation. Hungry, thirsty, or sleep-deprived, their training was to get on with the mission. If they couldn't handle that, they had no business being on his team.

Tilda Upton's talent at finding things with the aid of a talisman puts her on the edge of the dangerous hellhag category. Rather inexperienced in using her magic, she's prone to mistakes. It is one such mistake that lands her in debt to the Chief Royal Inventor who blackmails her into retrieving an Oriental and his machine. But to find the Oriental she needs to intercept an airship and the best way to do that is through piracy. Tilda turns to the notorious Black Jack Knight, a sky pirate known for his cruelty and cleverness who dislikes passengers, particularly of the female variety. Fortunately for Tilda he accepts a currency she can provide—the location of a man who witnessed his brother's murder, a murder which Jack was falsely accused of committing. Together they fight corsairs, a mad inventor and their growing attraction to each other in order to retrieve the man Tilda has been forced to find, only to learn his machine could destroy her and everyone like her. Kindle

Please give a warm welcome to author Rob Loughran , who wrote Tantic Zoo: A Bud Warhol Mystery . Why don't you visit his website, and come back and tell me what you found interesting on there. Tantric Zoo begins at a tantric sex couples retreat in 1987. Amid the cavorting and indulging and groping and exploring one of the campers ends up dead. The surviving campers bury the body and return to their lives. Until 2008 when the body is discovered and forensic anthropologist Bud Warhol tracks the campers down. Bud finds the murderer but also discovers how two decades of guilt has altered and affected the lives of everyone involved with the Tantric Zoo. Kindle Edition: 225 KB Publisher: Bubba Caxton Books, A Division of Foul Mouthed Bard Press (July 23, 2011) ASIN: B005EC6RAQ Purchase at Amazon Who or what inspires your writing? When I finish a great book or short story—or a non-fiction piece—and I’m moved: to laughter, tears, disgust, or delight. THAT inspires me. I want t

SHOULD BE READING * Grab your current read. * Let the book fall open to a random page. * Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12. * You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from…that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given. * Please avoid spoilers! An hour later, the plane lands on a small airstrip, like the one we just left, except instead of being surrounded by flat nothingness, big bulks of black fill the void. There is a control tower and a small hangar but nothing more.

The tree is decorated, the cookies are baked, and the packages are wrapped, but the biggest celebration this Christmas is Gaby Summerhill's wedding. Since her husband died three years ago, Gaby's four children have drifted apart, each consumed by the turbulence of their own lives. They haven't celebrated Christmas together since their father's death, but when Gaby announces that she's getting married--and that the groom will remain a secret until the wedding day--she may finally be able to bring them home for the holidays. But the wedding isn't Gaby's only surprise--she has one more gift for her children, and it could change all their lives forever. With deeply affecting characters and the emotional twists of a James Patterson thriller, The Christmas Wedding is a fresh look at family and the magic of the season. Hardcover: 288 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company ISBN: 9780316097390 Purchase at Amazon My Opinion: This book is sweet like sugar

Welcome to Week 47 with me! Rules: *Grab a book, any book. *Turn to page 56. *Find any sentence that grabs you. *Post it. *Add your (url) post below in Linky. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple. Oliver walks to the first door n the left, and with a bow opens the door for me. This gets an eye roll.

Hello readers! Today it is my pleasure to have Deborah Brown joining us. She was even kind enough to offer a giveaway, but we'll get to that in a minute. Let's talk about her debut novel, Crazy In Paradise . When Madison Westin, the main character, inherits her aunt’s beachfront motel in the Florida Keys, along with it comes a variety of colorful tenant’s – drunks, ex-cons and fugitives. But first she has to wrestle control from her unscrupulous lawyer and a conniving motel manager which will be no easy feat. Madison likes living on the edge so she feels right at home in Tarpon Cove. Bullets fly, a dead body turns up, a kidnapping and blackmail. Madison really has to learn not to leave home without her Glock or it could get her killed. You can check it out on Amazon , if you like. Now it's time for a chat with Deborah Brown... Who or what inspires your writing? It can be anything that captures my interest, a snippet of a conversation, an article on the internet o

Deliver Me from Evil introduces readers to Mara, an eighteen-year-old girl who has been enslaved for nearly ten years, having been sold by her parents in Mexico and then smuggled across the border into San Diego where she was forced into sexual slavery. Readers will also meet 18-year-old, Bible-college-bound Jonathan and his 16-year-old sister, Leah, whose paths cross Mara’s and who become involved in her dramatic rescue. Interwoven between the stories of Mara, Jonathan, and Leah is the heartbreaking story of another young woman in captivity in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, whose past life mysteriously connects to the young people in San Diego. Paperback: 318 pages Publisher: New Hope Publishers ISBN: 9781596693067 Purchase at Amazon My Opinion: This is not a story to be taken lightly. This subject matter of human trafficking actually exists, and it's hard not to be effected emotionally when you read about some of the things these people endure. Kathi didn't lea

Spike Your Juice was developed by a group of Europeans living in California. Having grown up near wine producing regions, they particularly craved a seasonal drink called “Federweißer”. This drink is only available from early September to late October during harvest time. The original Federweißer is known by many names, depending on what wine region of Germany, Austria or Italy you are in. Transportation of Federweißer over long distances is almost impossible due to the ongoing fermentation process inside the bottles. Thanks to Spike Your Juice , you can now make your own sparkling beverage all year long at home. My Opinion: I like this stuff! Maybe it doesn't have the alcohol content I am used to when I drink, but it tastes nice and goes down easy. I do wonder how much alcohol is actually in it after fermenting, since I drank most of a 2L jug and felt no effects. Still it was a nice sparkling beverage. And easy peasy to make. First I chose the juice I wanted to spik