Book Review: Gillespie and I by Jane Harris

(Article first published as Book Review: Gillespie and I by Jane Harris on Blogcritics.)

Set in Victorian Scotland, 35-year-old spinster Harriet Baxter is an independent Englishwoman who traveled from foggy London to the bright lights of Glasgow, in order to enjoy her newly earned independence from nursing her ailing aunt. An avid fan of art, she attended the International Exhibition to have a chance encounter with a young artist named Ned Gillespie, who at an early age destroyed his artwork and committed suicide. Through Ned and a chance rescue with Ned’s mother Elspeth, Harriet eventually became a trusted friend to the entire Gillespie Family, making herself a fixture in their lives. The accounts of her life and friendship with the Gillespies were written in a memoir account by the lone, elderly Harriet in her Bloomsbury home. Bearing that this is a Victorian mystery, you as a discriminating reader should be expecting the unexpected in this story, and Jane Harris’ Gillespie and Iexactly illustrates that fact.

To this very day, Valentine’s Day, my family and I immigrated to the Land of the Free a year after the Philippine People Power Revolution of 1986 ended. I personally don’t like Valentine’s Day altogether,¹ but I do have a reason why I’m celebrating with my family.

Even my parents, though married and still very much in love with each other, also hate Valentine’s Day. Yeah.

For me it’s a dangerous day for diabetic people— waste your money on chocolate and dessert and then get overdosed by too much lovey-dovey sweetness that even when you’re bitter, the sweetness still attacks you. [↩]

7 days ago • General, Quick Status • Tags: 25-year anniversary, immigration to the U.S., valentine's day

Book Review: No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty

(First published as Book Review: No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty on Blogcritics.)

No Plot? No Problem by Chris Baty (with its companion kit)

It’s the brand-new year, two months since the end of the novel-crunching event of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and for all the NaNoWriMo writers participated, it is time to go through post-novel composition mode. For the writers who reached the 50,000 word count goal this year, congratulations. For those who didn’t, now is the right time to reflect and re-plan for next year’s NaNoWriMo. Maybe some of these writers decide to just stop at the last day of the challenge, but for those who want to improve their craft through revision of their first draft prose or for those who want to start a brand-new prose for next year’s event, The Office of Letters and Light, the organization behind literary challenge events such as NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, prepared and published a series of textbooks and tools to provide the writers and would-be writers a guide to preparing for NaNoWriMo and tips during the event itself.

The Office of Letters and Light presented so far two textbooks: No Plot? No Problem! (along with its optional companion writer’s kit) and Ready, Set, Novel! writer’s workbook. For this review, I am going to feature the first guide book and its companion novel-writing kit: No Plot? No Problem.

Christmas Woes and a Happy New Year!

I will admit that I haven’t been attentive to my blog lately, but with the final month of 2011, you all know how it goes.

I was definitely looking forward to my Christmas with family last week when the evil monthly cramps attack just had to invade me on Christmas Eve. However, that’s not where the real woes come in. It came when I started to feel nausea on my stomach, and before I knew it, I was vomiting everything I have been consuming the entire day, even my daily tea habit and most especially water. I thought it was one of those times where I feel nausea the first day and then I’d feel well the next day and just wing it through the day. I opted not to go to Midnight Mass for choir because of my unhealthy condition, plus I might pass out in the middle of the mass, which can be very embarrassing.

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53 days ago • Epic Fail, Foodie, General • Tags: christmas, hospital, new year's resolution

Finally finished! Now I can feel free and write articles and reads books and get addicted to PBB. YES!

Posted via BlackBerry

84 days ago • Quick Status

I’ll be active again before the end of the month hopefully. NaNoWriMo and PBB fever.

96 days ago • Quick Status

The word count widgets of NaNoWriMo isn’t available yet so I can’t place a widget of my progress of my novel at this point. So, I’ll just mention it.

As of 12:47 a.m. PST, I’ve written 7,163 words in my novel.

113 days ago • Quick Status • Tags: nanowrimo 2011, word count

I’ve been busy preparing for the upcoming NaNoWriMo 2011 this Tuesday and will be concentrating on writing my novel for the entire month. This would mean that I would be more or less inactive as a contributing writer for Technorati and Blogcritics. Maybe I would sneak in a few articles here and there in between but it won’t be frequent.

116 days ago • Quick Status • Tags: nanowrimo preparation, semi-hiatus

Beverage Review: Eat, Pray,Love,

(first published as Beverage Review: Eat, Pray, Love at Technorati on 10/26/11)

For all the readers and movie enthusiasts around, whenever you see the words “eat, pray, love,” it would automatically remind you of that bestselling memoir of influential writer Elizabeth Gilbert depicting her self-discovery journey in three countries: Italy, where she discovered the joy of pleasure (through eating); India, where she discovered the joy of spirituality; and Indonesia, where she discovered the joy of balance (the balance of pleasure and spirituality). The memoir became a huge hit with positive raves from literary critics everywhere that Hollywood became attracted with the story and produced a film adaptation starring Julia Roberts as Gilbert.
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119 days ago • Beverages, Foodie, Tea, Technorati Articles • Tags: black tea, eat pray love, elizabeth gilbert, republic of tea

Saigon Cinnamon and Chai ♥

I found a recipe for homemade Chai¹ after throwing a bit of a fit that my Starbucks gold card is running out of its value points. I really can’t abuse my gold card this way just to get my dose of tea lattes, most notably Chai, Maccha Green, and Vanilla Rooibos Lattes, and then have to spend more money to add in the card. I had to do something to “cut down” from the Starbucks tea lattes.

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or more commonly known as “chai tea,” which is kinda redundant because “chai” is the Indian (?) word for ‘tea.” In Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog (spelling is “tsa” but it has the same pronunciation) and pretty much majority of the Asian language, the word for “tea” is “cha” [↩]

121 days ago • Beverages, Foodie, Hodgepodge, Special Ingredients and Condiments, Tea • Tags: chai, foodie, saigon cinnamon, tea