Something Glitchy

I've noticed that the previous post with my Q and A from Facebook has made all the other posts below that move to Older Posts.  Sorry for the glitch.  I may need to take off the question and answers for the blog to go back to normal.

Just letting you all know what is going on.

Thanks for your time.

Not A Happy Chappy!

Hi all,

Just a quick note.

I've noticed that the Intense Debate Commenting system on my blog seems to have broken before the Sticky Beak post. I've received comments on both the Sticky Beak and IMM posts but for some reason they do NOT show up. I've even gone as far as reinstalling the commenting widget, making the latest comments pending and then re-approving them to see if that works but to no avail.... My test run surprisingly works though.

I've contacted Intense Debate about this and am waiting for a response. If anyone else has had this problem what did you end up doing?

You can leave a comment if you like, I do still get them but I can't guarantee they will be posted.. or you can email me on melissa@spellboundbybooks.com

I'm seriously stressing here!

Brief Hiatus

Hi all,

I won't be blogging until either Saturday or Sunday of this week due to assignments being due as well as trying to get up to date with some of my review books that need to be read (So I can fill up the weeks with lots of reviews hehe) Hopefully you all will understand that this is only a brief hiatus and I shall be up and blogging very soon.

I'll still be trying to put up the occasional post over at My Alter Ego Charlie but we will see.

Oh before I forget, go check out Harlequin Teen's Facebook page!!  For your chance to interview and internationally best selling author Maria V. Snyder AND win an Ipad 2 all you have to do is like them!!  She's on tour in Australia and New Zealand in August 2011 so don't miss out!

Until the weekend.

Enjoy peoples.

Oh yeah don't forget to check out Felicity Heaton's awesome post on Vampires tomorrow!  Great Read!!

Charlie's here...

Thanks to the awesome Rachel from Parajunkee Design, My Alter Ego Charlie is here!!

Which means a few things..

• Spellbound By Books will be strictly bookish stuff now!
• You'll get a glimpse/flash into Charlie's life (The other me lol)
• Unless there are Bookshelves pics to be posted or guest posts/giveaways scheduled in, Monday's will be post free on Spellbound. - I felt I needed to at least dedicate one whole day to Charlie.

So...

By all means go check out the flashy site!  Tell me what you think!  I'm nervous and excited to have the secret side of my writing and personal stuff so freely posted but you know what.. it's Charlie not me so it's ok *wink wink*

Take Five

What is Take Five, you may ask?  Well, there are a few of you out there that are doing NaNoWriMo and I know what it's like to hit a flat spot, a section where you get completely stuck!  What better way to take a breather than to take off five minutes to read about writing?  See that way your technically still in the zone of writing.

Check it out.  Some really cool stuff there :)

Enjoy and Happy writing everyone!

Halloween Giveaway Deadline and Updates

Thanks to everyone who has commented on the guest posts and entered into the giveaway.  I hope you all enjoyed the great stuff. 

I'll be drawing the 2 winners and announcing them tomorrow on here so stay tuned.

(Meeka_21)

NaNoWriMo is always full on!  I know that last November was a race against time to get those words on to paper/word and I made it in the nick of time.  I even managed to do a half decent job on my story Hallows Edge which I was pretty surprised with.  Mind you, there's ALOT of editing and fixing up needed to be done.

This year I thought my luck with writing would keep going but, alas, not only am I stuck, I'm not liking my story very much.  I have written about 4000 words of Hallows Edge 2 and I'm not sure if I want to keep going.  Right now I'm behind on my goal by about 4000 words and while I know I have still got plenty of time to make it to 50,000 words I'm seriously considering scrapping the idea of writing Hallows Edge 2.

So to scrap or not to scrap... that is the question.  Should I start from scratch while the word count is low, or should I keep going and hope more than anything, the story will come together? 

How is your story going for NaNoWriMo going?  Are you finding it easy, or are you as stuck as I am and want to start again?

Hmm.. Maybe I need to have a good think.

So it's been a little while since I've popped anything up on my site regarding Once Upon a Time.  Assembling everything and making it look super cool is going to be tricky but I'll manage.

Just a note for those of you that may have missed my post.  Without Title was the winner of the Cover and Title Contest.  All the entries were fantastic and that's while I left it up to you guys to take your pick.

I'll be working on getting everything together this weekend so hopefully everything will run smoothly.

Hope everyone has a great night!

A Bit of Variety..

Hey everyone,

I've been thinking about this for a while and am wondering if there's anyone that would like to do a guest post, review or post of some sort on Spellbound By Books?

I'd like to have a bit of variety on my website and sometimes it's not always easy coming up with features and memes etc that will keep others interested.  Also, with Once Upon A Time Project coming to a finish I'd like to have another meme/feature where others can contribute as well whether it be a once off thing or frequently.  No obligations. 

With NaNoWriMo coming up so soon I'm hoping to write my second novel to Hallows Edge.  I might even show Chapter 1 of Hallows Edge on the deadline day of Once Upon a Time Project.  We'll see how that goes since I'm still heavily editing alot of this.  I will be still reviewing books and etc on the blog like I normally do while doing NaNoWriMo, so don't stress.  I'd just like to take a little pressure off posting everyday while this is happening!

So if you'd like to add your 2 cents worth on Spellbound By Books or drop some ideas my way and it relates to anything bookish, author related, writing at all etc I'm all ears.

You can contact me either via the contact section on here or email to melissa@spellboundbybooks.com

Post over at Book Lovers Inc

Hey all,

If you get a chance, check out the YA post I've done at Book Lovers Inc, YA Books That Have Changed You.

Oh yeah guess what? I've joined the Book Lovers Inc gang.  I'm pretty excited about it but if you haven't noticed that I hadn't done a post yesterday on here, it is because I was in the process of doing up my first post for there.  Let me know what you think!

Feedback Please!

Hi,

I'd love to hear what you all think about Spellbound By Books and what I can do to make things better.

Click here for the survey!

I'm back online!

Okay, so I've only been without a laptop for like a day and a half but it feels like forever.  I've lost a lot of stuff but thank god for portable hard drives or I would have lost everything.  So bear with me it might take a bit but I will get the winners of Once Upon a Time Project up as soon as I can!!

Ooh.. Music Monday!

Just wanted to let you guys know that I'm featured over at Book Crazy for Music Monday run by Jenn!

How Aussie Are You?

How Aussie Are You?

Found this over at Manda's Movements who found over at Good Golly Miss Holly. I love these questions because I never go as good as I feel I should so they motivate me to get out there and do more!

There 102 in total so I've changed the colour of the ones that I've done and added extra comments in brackets here and there.  Make sure to take these out if you copy and paste. Give this a go even if you're not from here because they aren't entirely strictly Australian.

How many of these things have you done?

   1. Heard a kookaburra in person. (Had about 4 outside my back door the other morning)
   2. Slept under the stars. (Only done it twice.  It was awesome)
   3. Seen a koala.
   4. Visited Melbourne.
   5. Watched a summer thunderstorm.
   6. Worn a pair of thongs. (Everyday, got a few pairs of em!)
   7. Been to Uluru. (Ayer’s Rock)
   8. Visited Cape York.
   9. Held a snake. (Creepy little buggers they are! We have 19 of  the25 most venomous snakes here.) 
  10. Sang along with Khe San.
  11. Drank VB.
  12. Visited Sydney.
  13. Have seen a shark.
  14. Have used Aussie (and NZ) slang naturally in a conversation.
  15. Had an actual conversation with an indigenous Australian. (Aboriginal)
  16. Eaten hot chips from the bag at the beach.
  17. Walked/climbed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. (I've driven over it though)
  18. Used an outside dunny, and checked under the seat before sitting down.
  19. Seen Chloe in Young & Jackson’s.
  20. Slept on an overnight train or bus.
  21. Been to Sydney’s Mardi Gras. (Haven't YET but how mad would that be!!)
  22. Have gone bush-bashing. (Lots of fun that is!! :)
  23. Taken a sickie.
  24. Been to see a game of Aussie Rules football.
  25. Have seen wild camels.
  26. Gone skinny dipping.
  27. Done a Tim Tam Slam.
  28. Ridden in a tram in Melbourne.
  29. Been at an ANZAC day Dawn Service.
  30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
  31. Held a wombat.
  32. Been on a roadtrip of 800km or more. (Been to Mount Isa in the wet season. Almost lost the Jeep in flooding on the way up! Scary stuff... and here I was worrying about crocodiles LOL IDIOT!)
  33. Seen the Great Australian Bight in person.
  34. Had a really bad sunburn.
  35. Visited an Aboriginal community.
  36. Seen a redback spider. (Guilty of killing them as well)
  37. Have watched Paul Hogan.
  38. Seen Blue Poles in person.
  39. Wandered barefoot in the bush/outback.
  40. Eaten Vegemite. (Good Stuff)
  41. Thrown a boomerang.
  42. Seen the Kimberleys.
  43. Given a hitch-hiker a lift. (Have thought about it... kinda creeped out after Wolf Creek though LOL)
  44. Been to Perth.
  45. Have tried Lemon, Lime and Bitters. (Very Nice)
  46. Tried playing a didgeridoo. (I may have tried...)
  47. Seen dinosaur footprints.
  48. Eaten Tim Tams.
  49. Been to Darwin.
  50. Touched a kangaroo.
  51. Visted the Great Barrier Reef.
  52. Listened to Kevin Bloody Wilson. (Very Funny)
  53. Killed a Cane Toad.
  54. Gone to a drive-in theatre. (Went for the first time this year. Totally Awesome)
  55. Have read and own books by Australian authors.
  56. Visited Adelaide.
  57. Know the story behind “Eternity”.
  58. Been camping.
  59. Visited Brisbane. (Live only 30 mins away)
  60. Been in an outback pub. (Been to the Walkabout Creek pub on the way to Mount Isa)
  61. Know what the term “Waltzing Matilda” actually means. 

  62. Gone whale watching. (Would love to)
  63. Listened to Slim Dusty
  64. Own five or more Australian movies or TV series. (don't own 5 .. no)
  65. Sang along to Down Under. (yeah great song !)
  66. Have stopped specifically to look at an historic marker by the side of the road.
  67. Eaten a 4′n’20 pie.
  68. Surfed at Bondi.
  69. Watched the cricket on Boxing Day. (not into the cricket)
  70. Visited Hobart.
  71. Eaten kangaroo. (It's pretty good)
  72. Seen a quokka.
  73. Visited Canberra.
  74. Visited rainforests.
  75. Used a Victa lawnmower.
  76. Travelled on a tram in Adelaide.
  77. Used a Hills hoist.
  78. Visited Kata Tjuta
  79. Used native Australian plants in cooking.
  80. Visited the snow.
  81. Chosen a side in Holden VS Ford. (Go The Holdens!)
  82. Visited the desert.
  83. Been water skiing
  84. Read The Phantom.
  85. Visited Parliament House.
  86. Gone spotlighting or pig-shooting.
  87. Crossed the Nullarbor.
  88. Avoided swimming in areas because of crocodiles.
  89. Listened to AC/DC.
  90. Called someone a dag.
  91. Voted in a Federal Election.
  92. Have been swimming and stayed between the flags. (when I've been game enough to try lol)
  93. Had a possum in your roof.
  94. Visited the outback.
  95. Travelled over corrugated roads.
  96. Hit a kangaroo while driving. (scary stuff)
  97. Been well outside any mobile phone coverage.
  98. Seen an emu.
  99. Have woken to the smell of bushfires.
 100. Subscribed to RRR.
 101. Patted a pure-bred dingo. (No thanks!)
 102. Seen the Oils live. 

56 out of 102! If I can count properly. Well at least I got over the halfway mark!

Sunday Spotlight at Bookworming in the 21st Century

Totally Cool!! I've been featured over at Bookworming in the 21st Century if you'd like to check it out!