Check out my daughter’s book that I helped contribute to, The Witch’s Prophecy, on Kindle!
You can now download The Witch’s Prophecy for $3.99 on Kindle and Barnes and Noble. For a preview of the novel, you can read the first three chapters here: Chapter 1–Ramla’s Vision, Chapter 2–Dragon Chase, Chapter 3–Lady Adell’s Request.
Happy reading!
Exciting new book. Love it!
I am happy to announce that my book cover is ready. Each of the elements on the book cover relate to the book. There is a good fire scene close to the book’s ending. The eye relates to the Blue Witch, and the hourglass relates to the elf Skylar. This is the book cover that I will publish on Amazon.
Also, I have started up my new author blog at Mystical Pages. This blog will not replace Amy’s Fantastical Writings. Instead, it will be my professional writing blog devoted to my novels and book series, including the Evindoore series. Any posts about writing or young adult fantasy will go on both blogs.
Check it out, and happy reading!
© 2013 Amy Burney
The Magic Kingdom has many different counter service restaurants, some of which are better than others. It also has a selection of full service restaurants (and more have been added since the Fantasyland expansion).
Through all of these dining choices, our favorite Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park restaurant is the Crystal Palace. We love eating in the glass building and meeting our favorite characters from the Hundred Acre Wood. We always love seeing Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and, of course, Eeyore. Somehow, we always end up eating in the Crystal Palace. We’ve eaten there for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Every time we go, we’re always happy to have eaten there.
The restaurant serves a fantastic all-you-can-eat buffet, with menu choices that change constantly. You never know what to expect when you eat there. I remember having some delicious key lime tarts there. You normally find many types of meats, salads, pastas, and breads. There’s also a huge section just for desserts.
Advance dining reservations are required to eat here. The Crystal Palace is arguably the most popular restaurant at the Magic Kingdom, especially with young children that love Winnie. There is always a line of people hoping to get in.
I would highly recommend trying out this restaurant.
The magical story by J.A. Ireland, Maxx Zeqster, Creepy Cases, Sesla…The Enchanted Planet, was a nice escape book. It was a fun book to read, and it contained a very unique twist.
The main character Maxx Zeqster is a Private Investigating Space Alien with a troubled past. Think Sherlock Holmes and Spock mixed in with a little George Clooney. On Sesla, Maxx Zeqster is very easy on the eyes…
The story leads Maxx into a new case involving the missing coterie, Leqtus Kin. In the process of his investigation, he inadvertently stumbles into an unsolved police investigation. Since Maxx’s reputation of incompetence precedes him, both the local police and news media don’t have any confidence in him. These situations soon challenge the troubled detective.
My favorite scene in the book was the Championship Mesnuk game. It was very exciting, fast paced, and had me rooting for the Kinkorx Horned Hares to be triumphant. I found it highly entertaining.
J.A. Ireland’s book is nicely paced, easy to read. Some parts of the story were a laugh out-loud, and others were terribly weird and strange. I enjoyed it.
For more information and his upcoming spinoff crime solving series for readers ages 8-14 go to http://detectivemaxxzeqsterscreepycrawlyamazingadventures.wordpress.com/
You can buy Maxx Zeqster,,Sesla…The Enchanted Planet on Amazon for $.99. You can also borrow it for free through the Kindle Lending Library if you are an Amazon Prime member, and you have a Kindle.
The Help Book Cover
My daughter and I just finished with another Twins book review on the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. We both really enjoyed the novel as well as the film adaptation of the book we watched together the other evening.
The Help was set in the 1960’s south in Mississippi. The book moved the reader through our troubled history of the racially segregated south, civil rights, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King.
I grew up in this period. Although, I grew up in the north, I remember watching T.V. about the civil rights marches, and the riots in Detroit.
One of the parts of the movie that really caught my attention was when the character Skeeter spoke to her New York Editor about the books idea. She wanted to write the book from the Point of View of the Negro maid working for the white families. This editor knew this would shake things up. The editor agreed to this as she wanted to catch these stories while this civil rights thing still had momentum.
Skeeter, when pitching her the idea. explained that Margaret Mitchell made us love Mammy in Gone With the Wind, but no one had ever asked Mammy what she thought about working for white families, and raising the white babies, using separate toilets in whites home, and putting their cups, saucers, and utensils in separate cupboards.
Parts of the story were very compelling to the point of anger. The privileged lifestyles the white women lead was very shallow. They did not see the racism that their society inbred in them.
My favorite character was Celia Foote. Her struggles in the book proved to me that the attitudes of the socialites were not only the superior feelings of race, but also of status. Celia was raised dirt-poor in Sugar Ditch, Mississippi. Her attempts to integrate herself into the local white society proved unsuccessful. She had a heart of gold, and it was difficult to see her struggles too.
The movie followed very well the plot of the book. It enhanced the understanding of how much courage these black women took in standing up and telling their stories, both the good, the bad, and the ugly.
My daughter and I highly recommend this book, as well as the movie if you have the chance. Here’s a link to her review.
My daughter and I co-read the book The Bell Jar by the novelist Sylvia Plath. The novel, set in the 1960’s, is considered a classic coming of age novel. It parallels Sylvia’s own life during her time of depression and later her own suicide.
The main character Esther Greenwood on the onset of the book has it all together. She is an intelligent, achieving A+ college student, accomplishment and awarded by numerous scholarships and grants. She has just won a chance to intern with a New York editor. Esther wants to be a writer/poet. Twelve others have also won similar experiences with placements in their own chosen fields.
In the early part of the book, Esther is shown the high life, parties, clothing, meeting interesting people, all in New York City. However, she does not quite fit in. She always feels somewhat uncomfortable, hanging on the perimeter in social situations, never quite feeling accepted.
She begins to struggle with thoughts of her future. One of my favorite passages in the book was when the author used the imagery of a fig tree to show Esther’s confusing choices.
“I saw my life branching out before me, like a green fig tree. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, another was a famous poet, another a brilliant professor, another an amazing editor, and another was Europe and Africa and South America…..above and beyond these figs were many more figs I could not quite make out.
I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I could not make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
She sees the road before her, after college, with no clear thoughts on where she wants to be, what goals she will pursue. After her New York experience, she hopes to be included in a summer writing program at her college, but doesn’t qualify. She also cannot see a future with Buddy, a longtime boyfriend, who is going off to medical school, and wants to marry her. Esther starts to feel a crushing weight of despair for what will come next for her.
At this point in the novel, Esther sinks into a heavy depression, not eating, sleeping, bathing, and writing. She feels she is living in her own sour air under a Bell Jar. She is looking out at a distorted perception of the world around her. Everyone she knows is moving on, as she just stands still.
Troubled, her mother sends her to a doctor, who administers a series of crude/brutal shock therapies, to cure her. Esther further falls deeper into depression, where every minute she imagines scenarios to end her life. She considers death by cutting, slicing, drowning, gunshot, or hanging herself, finally resorting to overdosing on sleeping pills.
Esther wakes up hospitalized in a private mental institution where the rest of the book finds her in treatments, and more shock therapy. This time done differently where Esther feels the Bell Jar lifted momentarily, allowing fresh air to get in.
The book ends with a question, is Esther able to face the world again? Her doctor feels she is ready, and she is to be interviewed by a panel of hospital doctors to determine her release. Esther relates the idea that there should be a “ritual for being born twice, patched, retreaded, and approved for the road.”
She knows that somewhere down the line, in college maybe, she may still feel the suffocation again of the descending Bell Jar.
I enjoyed the book. I found the author let us gradually in the emotions of depression so heavy that the world moves on, while Esther remains. Parts of the story were hard to read, the brutal shock therapies, and the dwelling thoughts of suicide. The author gave the reader an understanding of this mental illness and thought of hopelessness. I understand, how still today, The Bell Jar is an important read.
For another review from Amy’s Fantastical Writings, click here.
Sailing Past the Statue of Liberty
One of our memorable cruises was a New England/Canada cruise on the Carnival Triumph sailing out of New York, with port stops in Halifax, Nova Scotia and St. Johns, New Brunswick, Canada.
We were in awe as we sailed out of New York harbor past the Statue of Liberty. We had seen pictures of the magnificent statue but had never seen her in person.
That was a spectacular way to start the lovely northeastern shoreline cruise.
As we sailed on the oversold, new, very large cruise ship, we enjoyed the new ship. Even though the cruise was oversold, we were successful at avoiding the crowd much of the time during the voyage.
Halifax Fishing Village
At our port stops of Halifax and we sailed on a small private flat bottom boat to a quaint fishing village. Here we spent time wandering through the small town, did some souvenir shopping, watched the anglers hauling in the boats laden with their catch, and enjoyed some of the local fresh catch of the day.
Bay of Fundy Lighthouse
We had an enjoyable day on the water watching for Minke whales. Minke whales are the native whale of that waterway.
In St. John, we enjoyed a bus ride to the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy is unique as the current runs both ways. During high tide, the current runs inward, and during low tide the current reverses and flows back into the Atlantic. The Bay of Fundy is a beautiful waterway to view.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
We also enjoyed a visit from a Royal Canadian Mounted police officer, on this shore tour. The kind RCM police was very happy to accommodate photos.
After an enjoyable day with Shania Twain music playing at most of the stops, we ventured back to the ship.
As we sailed out to open sea through Halifax Bay, we saw several Minke whales frolicking in the water. Our northeastern waterway cruise, out of New York harbor was a relaxing cruise we will always remember.
Ketchikan Duck Tour
On our second visit to Ketchikan, Alaska, we chose to adventure on one of the more unique shore excursions we had ever experienced: we rode the “Duck” mobile.
What is the “Duck” mobile you may ask? It is an amphibious vehicle that tours both on land and in the water. That sounds interesting we thought. Therefore, we chose this to do when we were in Alaska last summer.
Arriving at the port of Ketchikan, we saw the familiar annual rainfall gauge, and port shopping area. It was cool, drizzly overcast day again, but we were ready for our adventure. We noticed parked very close to the dock the large yellow “Duck” mobile. It stood about 6 ft. off the ground; it had an enclosed roof, windows at each seat for viewing, and a large ladder to climb in order to get abroad.
Our trip was about 2 hours driving through the interior of the Ketchikan area, past the Salmon Ladder, and past several salmon hatcheries. We also drove past the infamous Creek Street, now turned antiques and shopping district.
Creek Street during the gold rush era was the old Red Light District. The street has quite a scandalous history.
Creek Street Prostitution
Taken from ExperienceKetchikan
“The History of Creek Street can be summed up by fishermen, bootleggers, & prostitutes, oh my! Creek Street is known as Ketchikan’s old red-light district. In the mid 1920’s there were over 20 bawdy houses on Creek Street alone! In fact, Creek Street was once home to Ketchikan’s #1 industry prostitution. The prostitutes or working women were frequented by men looking for a little company and some liquor.
During prohibition, Creek Street was the place to go for a drink as bootleggers would smuggle in Canadian whiskey to supply the houses of prostitution and backroom saloons. Creek Street Ketchikan is built over the water and the bootleggers would simply wait until high tide and would row their rowboats right up the stream to deliver their goods in the cloak of darkness. Most of the houses had hidden trap doors underneath the house just to receive delivery!”
We enjoyed learning about Creek Street. We continued from there and explored more of Ketchikan. About half way through the trip, our driver drove us down a boat launch and into the harbor. We were now floating past the boats in Ketchikan’s harbor. We had glimpses of many eagles flying high above the towering trees, seals lying sunning themselves on the rocky shore, and majestic mountain views.
We had a wonderful, very memorable time in Alaska. I hope to go there again someday.
The Star Attraction
I just read a wonderful novel, The Star Attraction, by Alison Sweeney. Alison has many irons, in many fires and wears many hats. She is the television actress that plays the long time character Sami Brady on the daytime soap, Days of Our Lives. I am a lifelong fan and have been watching the show for about 35 years. I grew up watching the antics of our dear Samantha.
This is the first fictional novel by the actress, now author. Her other claims to fame include hostess of T.V.’s the Biggest Loser, author of the self-help book the Mommy Diet, actress for Days of our Lives, wife, mother, and now novelist of The Star Attraction.
The Star Attraction was a very fun read about a Hollywood P.R. person named Sophie. Sophie has a fabulous job rubbing elbows with the Rich and Famous. She struggles to balance it all. Her longtime boyfriend, who has yet to “pop the question,” leads Sophie to question what else is out there. Sophie’s busy life working with star/starlets and managing different Hollywood events soon has Sophie’s life unraveling at the edges. The firm’s new P.R. client has something that has turned Sophie’s barely controlled life upside down. Sophie begins to struggle with what she wants out of life.
I really enjoyed the book. The Star Attraction was a very easy fun read. Alison had me enjoying tales of Sophie’s very busy days, and the choices she made.
As I read the book, I wondered how much similarity there was between the character Sophie, and Ali’s busy life that she leads. As Ali, the character Sophie has many different irons, in many different fires, simultaneously.
I really enjoyed the Star Attraction. It was a fun summer weekend read.
Stay tuned for more news about my daughter’s upcoming book.
I was going to post this yesterday, but I got caught up in revisions. I ended the last chapter of my novel on Wednesday. It was at approximately 98,000 words.
When that last chapter was written (the first draft of it), I felt so relieved. I couldn’t believe that I finished a novel! Wow! I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to finish it, but I found that as long as I kept myself involved with the plot, and kept a personal deadline (August 1st for first draft), I was able to keep myself going. I always do well with deadlines, even if I don’t really feel like writing. I only took a break if I was exhausted, and if I had a splitting headache. Other than that, I kept moving. And I’m so glad I did. I completely agree with this next quote. If I stopped…
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AMY BURNEY YOUNG ADULT FANTASY WRITER
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