Friday, July 23, 2010

Blog Tour: Chocolate Roses by Joan Sowards

Back on May 11, I did a preliminary mention of Joan Sowards' second novel, Chocolate Roses. Now I'm participating in the Chocolate Roses blog tour. Read my review on August 2. Read the announcement below to find out the prizes you can win:

Love chocolate? Love Jane Eyre?
Then you're going to love the blog tour (July 26-August 6) for Chocolate Roses by Joan Sowards.




Janie Rose Whitaker's world revolved around her chocolate shop until Roger Wentworth and his young daughter moved into the apartment across from Janie's. Anyone would think Roger fit the mold of the "perfect" guy, but soon Janie discovers secrets that could keep them apart forever. Though she resists getting involved in Roger's complicated life, they are drawn further into a bittersweet relationship.

You will laugh, cry, and crave chocolate as you read this LDS parody of the classic novel Jane Eyre.


We have two great prizes up for grabs! Win either a copy of the book (2 winners) or this fabulous apron created by Joan!




All you have to do is leave a comment (along with your email address if it isn't on your blog profile) and answer the following question.

What's your favorite type of
chocolate: white, dark, or milk?


The more blogs you comment on the more entries you'll receive.
All comments must be left by midnight MST on August 8 to be eligible.


July 26
Nichole Giles--Star Crossed Book Reviews
Joyce DiPastena--JDP News

July 27
Deanne Blackhurst--Annie Speaks Her Mind
Tristi Pinkston--*Tristi Pinkston

July 28
Taffy Lovell--Taffy's Candy
Alison Palmer--Tangled Words and Dreams

July 29
Ronda Gibb Hinrichsen--The Write Blocks
C.S. Bezas--For the Love of the Written Word

July 30
Sheila Staley--Why Not? Because I Said So!
LDSWomen's Book Review

August 2
Kerry Blair--Now & Here
Marsha Ward--Writer in the Pines

August 3
Kaylee Baldwin--Kaylee Baldwin
Amy Orton--Amesbury Reads

August 4
Anna del C.--Anna del C. Dye's Blog
Laurie Lewis--A View from the Other Side

August 5
Valerie Ipson--Of Writerly Things
Anna Arnett--Insights and Ramblings from Anna Arnett

August 6
Lynn Parsons--Parsons' Posts
Danyelle Ferguson--Queen of the Clan

Chocolate Roses can be purchased from Deseret Book,
Amazon, and of course your local LDS bookstore.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Cold as Ice by Stephanie Black

Although two-time Whitney Award-winning author Stephanie Black's newest thriller, Cold as Ice, won't be out until August 1, I have to share this review. It totally made me want to rush on over to Deseret Book's website and pre-order it:

I recently read Stephanie Black’s latest release. When I pick up something to read, I want it to be a book, and wow, Black has certainly written a book! One thing I find vital to a book is pages, and this has plenty of pages. The story started right on page 1 and didn’t end until page 296. The ink is clear and dark and the chapter numbers are absolutely consecutive—no flaws at all.

This book contains both male and female characters, with a variety of ages and hair colors. There’s even a teenager! And I’m glad I’m not a character in Black’s books, because they always have huge problems. Can’t one of her characters just get a puppy or a birthday present or have a really fun summer for once?

The writing itself includes punctuation and many different parts of speech, including nouns. Every novel I’ve ever loved has had nouns. This book even has proper nouns.

Things happen in this book, followed by other things. I don’t want to give spoilers, so I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of a plot. If you’re looking for a book to read, this is a book, and can be read.


Don't you just get chills? Wowee! I can hardly wait to read this exciting, scary book.

Okay, I have a confession to make. I lifted this review (with the author's nod) from the Six LDS Writers and a Frog Blog. Stephanie wrote it up and provided it in case the reviewers she was soliciting didn't like the book and felt awkward about finding something to say. Rest assured that anything Stephanie writes is super, and that includes her own hilarious review! Be sure to track down Cold as Ice and read it.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Character Notes: Albert Owen

Let's take a look at Albert Owen, Rod and Julia's youngest son.

You can probably tell, from looking at the photos I chose to represent Albert's physical characteristics, that I've been dealing with these characters for a looooooooog time. How long a time?

If you're too young to know the face, it's Michael J. Fox. I believe I saw him on the cover of AARP Magazine a couple of years ago. Yep, that long a time.

Here's the notes I made on Albert:

ALBERT OWEN
This one will be 14 in December, and he is excitable and fierce, but has done yeoman service while his brothers and father have been gone. He has been overworked, and now that the pressure is no longer on him, he has some spare time to get into trouble in. Albert has a light complexion, with dark brown hair and brown eyes.

The cross-outs I made on the original card show that I was influenced by the photos I found to change Albert's hair and eyes from black to brown. I also lightened up his natural skin tone.

I have to laugh at myself for the way I constructed one sentence above. I'm pretty sure I would now say "he has sufficient spare time in which to get in trouble." Given the years from the time I wrote this until now, I'd better have learned a thing or two!

Albert's role in the WIP isn't huge, but he will play a part, in the area of aiding and abetting
another character.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Let All My Life Be Music (An Offer)

The above is the title of a song of yesteryear. Not the (An Offer) part, just the words before that. I loved the song. At one time I thought about having it sung someday at my funeral. I thought it would always apply to me, and define who I was.

A funny thing for a writer to claim, right? Maybe not. Many creative talents go hand-in-hand in creative persons. Music, art, photography, writing, serious crafting, pottery-making . . . Writers of my acquaintance also make use of those talents in their lives, as a business or for pleasure.

Yeah, yeah, Marsha, but what does that have to do with you?

Quite a lot, actually. I started life in a musical family, and music performance has played a big role throughout my growing years and into my adult years. I've served in my church as a musician since I was 14 years old. Pretty much continuously. I studied theory, composition, and appreciation, both in high school and college. I played viola in high school and college, as well as majoring in vocal performance. I've sung in college, church, and semi-professional groups, and soloed with the Tempe Symphony Orchestra, as well as at thousands of church, school, and local events. I've sung opera, Broadway musical pieces (off Broadway--wa-a-ay off Broadway), art songs, sacred music, and a whole range of others. In fact, I was on the operatic track until Life Happened. Yeah, music has been there for a long time.

Get to the point, Marsha.

I've dabbled a bit in music composition and arranging. Lately that endeavor has sprung up and smacked me in the face, to the extent that for the last two nights, I've been awake until 6 a.m. working on pieces. I've done four this year. One has been performed already. A couple of them are still works in progress. Last night's effort came to me as I was ready to go to bed, and it flowed so cleanly that I've only been making slight changes as I've checked the work on my keyboard. Now I know how Mozart felt. Not that I'm in his pay grade, but the feeling must be the same for the amateur as for the icon.

The current work is an original musical setting of Folliott S. Pierpoint's lyrics known as FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH, written for three-part mixed voices, that is SAB. I wrote it specifically for my church choir, which is very small, and often (make that almost always) lacks tenors. There is no LDS (Mormon) doctrine embedded in the work; it is suitable for church, civic, or school groups, depending on your community.

For a a limited time this summer, I am going to make the piece available for free to several choir directors via portable document format (.pdf) or Finale .mus file, with certain conditions.
  • You let me know what type (church, civic, school, etc.) and how large a choir you direct;
  • You make sufficient copies of the music for your choir and accompanist, and no one else;
  • The piece is not to be shared in any way with others, except through your performance of the work (no giving the sheet music, files, or audio to your Aunt Betty for her choir's use);
  • You perform the piece within one year;
  • You give me feedback on several points that will be explained to you who participate.
I may be reached through the regular channels if you know me, or at marshaw@marshaward.com, or by U.S. postal service at Marsha Ward, P O Box 53, Payson AZ 85547.

I will let you all know here when I have received requests from sufficient choir directors, so you won't have to get in touch with me in vain about participating.

Thank you.

Sunday, July 04, 2010

The Declaration of Independence

Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.
The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)


The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton


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