Taken By Storm by Angela Morrison

As part of Angela's blog tour I'm excited to let you know about these two books. Taken by Storm:
Michael’s parents died in a terrible storm and now he is drowning in tragedy. All Leesie wants is to save him. But if she gives into temptation, who will save her?

And Unbroken Connection the sequel to Taken by Storm

 Michael is in Thailand diving his dream. Leesie is at BYU living hers. The one problem is they can't leave each other alon.
Their romance rekindles, deeper than before. They grow desperate to see one another again. To hold one another again. Michael decides there is only one direction their relationship can go and asks Leesie the ultimate question. Her answer challenges everything Michael is and wants to be.
Can she change for him?
Can he change for her?
Enough?

Angela is a very talented writer and you will see her talent in both of these books. Leesie's poems are sheer creative genius. As I was reading these books the thought that kept poping up in my head was "How did she come up with these." Both books were well done and brought insight into the world of LDS youth and what they have to go through. If you like these books then be sure to also check out Sing me to Sleep another book by Angela Morrison.
Angela is also writing the third and final book of Leesie and Michael and posting it chapter by chapter on her new blog-- http://caymansummer.blogspot.com
Stop by her website here.
http://www.angela-morrison.com/

Disclaimer: While I do sometimes receive copies of books I review, it in no way influences my opinions, they are and will always be my own.

First EVER book review.

I just finished reading Intrinsical by Lani Woodland for the third time. I love this book! Alright so now I think I'm supposed to give you a blurb about it. Here I go. Yara is sixteen and fighting the fact that she may be a Waker. A person who can see ghosts. On her first day at her new Prep school she finds her life being turn upside down as she watches as a dark mist attack Brent(a really hot guy) and  decides she must save him. 

Now there is so much more that happens in this book. I thought it was going one way and was completely surprised at what was really happening. Intrinsical is a quick read that I highly recommend. I also advise reading it during the day. I had a very hard time turning off my lights to go to bed the first time I read it. And for those of you who are a heck of a lot braver than me I dare you to read it under your sheets with a flashlight.

Chained Links

   For the last couple of weeks I have been working on some sterling silver bracelets for my husband's aunt. She is going to give them away as gifts. The one turned out to be very simple and easy to complete. But the other has become the bane of my existance. I dream about this bracelet at night. It is horrible. So today I took it to my local jewelry supply store and asked if there was something I could do to fix it. It really wasn't working for me. This is what it looked liked a couple weeks ago. And yes that is 8 gage wire that I made into jump rings. I also flattened them into oval's using some heavy duty pliers.

Anyway back to my story. I went to the store and the owner directed me to a little mexican man who apparently makes these bracelets for a living. So with my husband and daughter in tow we drove across town to this little hole in the wall jewelry place. No one spoke any english and the guy his name was Leo never cracked a smile, but he did end up helping me. So instead I now have. . . this.

Although this is no where near completion it is getting there. But the thing that struck me as odd is the whole time I'm with this little mexican jeweler he kept saying. "That's not the way I would have done it." Well of course it's not. This is the way I've decided to do my bracelet. Because of this I have really been thinking. How often do we do things because that is how everybody else does it? Granted if I had made this bracelet the way Leo does it probably would have spared me a lot of tears and frustration. But I didn't. So just because everybody has done a particular thing the same way for years doesn't mean that there isn't another way of doing it. 

So surprise yourself and start doing things your way. You will be amazed at the results. Trust me I was.

Dreams

I have told very few people that I am writing a book. Of those I have told I am sometimes met with encouraging skeptism and others seem geniunly supportive. But I have decided that none of this matters. I want to write a book. For me being published is a dream that use to seem unobtainable. Now I see it as something that has already happened. I'm very excited for the day when I can say I'm a published author. To me it isn't about the money or fame that could come. It is about me finishing one of my dreams. So to all you skeptics out there: what is your dream? Go get it. The only thing stopping you is yourself.

Persistence

"If I had to select one quality, one personal characteristic that I regard as being most highly correlated with success, whatever the field, I would pick the trait of persistence."
Richard DeVos

Getting Distracted

I have been pondering on if it is good to go to all of these writer conventions and workshops. I went to one in April that was Fabulous and taught me so much. Since then I have gotten email after email of writers workshops I could go too. So here is my question. Is there a point where these workshops become a distraction from our writing?

I have found myself thinking "Oh I could go to this workshop and it would help me so much." And then I realize that I'm using it as an excuse not to write. Now please don't think that I'm saying anything bad about workshops. All I'm wondering is, is there a point when they become more of a distraction instead of a help. Just something to think about.

Being a Rembrandt

When I was taking an Art History class on Rembrandt and Rubens the teacher told us a story about Rembrandt and how he would sneak into the Sisteen Chapel and sketch Michelangelo's work. And then he would tweak it just enough and call it his own. Michelangelo got so angry he actually had the chapel locked and set up camp inside.

I always found this story profound, because we all do it. We read something or see something and think "Oh what a great idea!" Then we take it tweak it just enough and wallah it becomes our own. I can see why inventors are so protective of their ideas. They don't want them stolen. So this is my challenge. I challenge you to come up with one idea that is your very own.