As promised, here’s Sarah in her backyard, finding her new pretty caterpillar:
Don’t forget …. get your free copy of our e-book Sarah’s World: Sarah and Pcee … available Sat. July 28 & Sun July 29 on Amazon Kindle.
Be sure to tell all your friends to go get their free copy too! Click the link here beginning Friday night at midnight (Sat.12:00 am) thru Sunday night 11:50 pm.
When I started writing Sarah and Pcee, I didn’t have in mind doing any illustrations, because as I have commented on another post, my abilities as an artist are limited. And on top of that, I just wanted to get the story out. So this book has only the cover as an illustration, but we included links to websites that have lots of photos on them.
However, during the process of self-publishing this first book on Amazon Kindle, we were asked: Is this part of a series? We decided we should answer yes; in the course of writing Sarah and Pcee, other stories had come to mind, but if it had not been for that question, we might not have pursued it.
Cindy had been urging me to do illustrations, but I thought, “This is coming from someone who has trouble drawing stick figures, so naturally she thinks I draw good enough to illustrate!” Well, when we were doing our second Sarah’s World book, Sarah looks out the window, I intended to put in pictures that we found on the Internet, but was just having trouble finding good pictures that were public domain -- free to use -- or just the right pictures.
It was then I decided to see if I could draw the pictures we wanted, well enough to let the whole world see. The scariest part to me was trying to draw the girls, Sarah and her cousin Margaret. That book has 7 illustrations, and we think they came out pretty good!
The third book, The Nickname, was going to be a much bigger challenge, because the girls would have to be in different places: the Ice Cream shop, on the swingset, and hardest of all -- looking in a mirror. The 6 illustrations in this book have more to them than the last, and Cindy says I’m getting better and better. Maybe so...
Anyway, that’s really the main reason why our first book did not have any illustrations and the other two do. I have drawn some to go with it, and maybe I’ll post one for you to see here on the blog soon. Noe
Our first book of the Sarah’s World series is going to be available this weekend: Sat. July 28 and Sun. July 29 .... for FREE! We’re very proud of this book, which is about a young girl named Sarah who is curious about the world around her, and like every kid her age, she’s fascinated with all kinds of things, including bugs! She watches in wonder as her caterpillar friend, Pcee, goes through changes she didn’t know were possible.
This Kindle e-book is interactive, with links to websites about the kind of caterpillar Pcee is and the butterfly it becomes, with videos to watch also!
Be sure to tell all your friends to go get their free copy this weekend! Click the link here beginning Friday night at midnight (Sat.12:00 am) thru Sunday night 11:50 pm.
Our son suggested I write something about why bread is square and lunch meat is round. Cindy said a lot of lunch meat is square, except for bologna (pronounced baloney), and she immediately started singing that song... … Now there is something to write about: why is bo·lo·gna pronounced bəˈlō nē ?... Anyway, after our son’s question on square verses round, Cindy commented on the lunch meat that is oval in shape and therefore half a size too long for the bread...
... which led to a reference to the scene in Father of the Bride with Steve Martin buying hot dogs and hot dog buns, not being able to find a package of buns with equal dog quantities. Such is the nature of family discussions! In any case, I have no idea why the square bread and round meat dilemma exists, since hamburger buns are round and hot dog buns are long, each designed to accommodate their respective meats.
It is one of those mysteries of life...
But, I am reminded of what my mother-in-law used to say: “You probably don’t want to know too much about the food you eat.”
I would recommend to all young readers Anne of Green Gablesby L.M. Montgomery. This book teaches wonderful lessons without being preachy, such as ‘life can’t always be the way we want it’ and ‘how we deal with things makes the difference between being happy or dissatisfied.' Anne’s determination to be positive and find joy, even if it is only to be found in making a friend of her own reflection, is very powerful. The story is told in such a delightful way, those who read it are sure to be drawn to her character. And, of course, we also see through Anne’s life at Green Gables that life doesn't always stay the same, and the changes that come are sometimes good and sometimes very sad.
I am so glad I found this wonderful book; I have read it many times and would encourage everyone to at least read it once. You can get this book as either an e-book or paperback... look for it on the Cindy's book store page of this blog, or click the link in the box below. Other links of interest:Life Lessons from Green GablesAnne's Life LessonsLife Lessons from Anne Noe
Some people may wonder how you pronounce this great writer’s name, so I thought I’d inform you: The name Noe is in the Hebrew portion of the Bible, spelled that way in the old King James version, being the name of Noah. It is the Spanish name for Noah, and turns out, the name is also French and Romanian, at least. Many people we know just call him "Noah", but they’re usually older folks. Some say NO, rhyming with JOE-- not Joey, mind you. If you wanted to say it properly in these languages, it would be: no-AY … but you know, with that cute little way they pronounce NO, not quite a long OH sound, but I don’t know how to write it. And actually, the “e” is more like “eh” -- take a listen here: pronunciation of Noe. Or here you can hear it several ways (scroll down to see different countries). This variation in pronunciation can be, to say the least, very confusing! Try doing an Internet search, you’ll find a lot of discussions, because people want to know! Of course, if you’re from Texasand don’t speak Spanish, you just say: NO-e -- long OH, long E
I think my brother Stan has the best way of explaining it to everyone:
“My brother-in-law’s name is A-I-O-U, but we call him NO - E for short.”
I love all kinds of music with the exception of jazz, rap, and heavy metal (or whatever they call that stuff that plays one incessant cord along with some guy screaming instead of singing). Jazz sounds like a group of musicians with ear plugs each doing whatever they very well please. Oh, I know there are some exceptions to this description, where there is what can be called a melody, but by and large the three genres I mentioned just sound like so much noise to me. Every rap song sounds the same, except there are different words.
Now that I have gotten that off my chest, there are two young girls whose musical talents boggle my mind. They are Jackie Evancho and Anna Graceman. The girls are about the same age, which is around eleven or twelve.
Jackie is probably better known than Anna, since she has appeared on many shows and has already sold millions of recordings. I don’t think there is a time I have listened to her sing that I was not really moved by her voice.
Anna Graceman not only has an incredible singing voice, but I believe if what is said about her is true, she is far more talented. In fact, I would say she is as much a prodigy as Mozart. What I mean is, she is credited with writing all the music and lyrics to her songs, and if you were to listen to her songs and not hear the sound of brilliance, I would be shocked.
Thanks to Youtube, people from everywhere can hear the most amazingly talented individuals like Jackie and Anna, whereas in Mozart's day only a very few could hear him and the other talents of his day. Noe
