Who's got talent? YOU'VE GOT TALENT!

Kids

Are

Amazing!

Can we introduce you to Chad's young cousin, Anna. She has a passion for music and made this Youtube video below. It would make great background music to the rest of your blog reading experience, so CLICK IT! :)

Also Chad is going to be a presenter this spring at the Teen Author Boot Camp. It's a fun conference for writers age 13-19 and this year's Keynote speaker is Shannon Hale. (Have you seen my post about Shannon Hale? It's a little obsessive.) 

Here's the deets:

Fun, right? And I've heard great stuff about it (but alas I am much too old to attend.) So if you know kids who write consider this great conference. 

And encourage the kids around you

to become something fabulous

BECAUSE THEY WILL

and you want them to mention you at award ceremonies.http://teenauthorbootcamp.com/

H is for Hale

Hysterical story from Shannon Hale involving a sharpie, regency gown, and underwear.

Books I read in 2011

by Shelly Brown

Here is my list of books I read cover-to-cover in 2011. If we counted books I read a chapter here, a chapter there (most non-fiction that I read) or started but never finished (for one reason or another) this list would be much longer. As it is I KNOW it doesn't hold a candle to some of your lists but I find these lists amusing so I'm doing it anyways.

Beyonders

Twelfth Night

The Barcode Tattoo

Enna Burning

The Thing That Keep Us Here

The Comedy of Errors

Wonderwings and Other Fairy Stories

The Princess and The Goblin

Magyk

The Princess of the Glass

Emma Smith (by Black)

The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Harry Potter 3

Slathbogs Gold

The History of Joseph Smith by his Mother

The Daily Life of Jesus

The Amazing Powers of Spiderman

The Holy Land

Princess Academy

The Footsteps of Jesus

To Kill a Mockingbird

On Holy Ground

Maze Runner

Charles in Charge (Chad got this for me out of the elementary school recycling bin as a joke, but not being one to turn away Scott Baio, I read it. Someone just wrote the pilot as a novel)

Tarzan of the Apes

Goosebumps: One Day at Horrorland (did you know Brandon Dorman did the art for the new Goosebumps?)

The Witch on Blackbird Pond

Nancy Drew and the Dollhouse 

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Hardy Boys: The Spy that Doesn't Lie

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Full Circle

Armies, Angels, and Jackson Boswells Amazing Imagination

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Gaes

Craggbridge Academy

My Ridiculous Romantic Obsession

Courting Miss Lancaster

The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda

Frankenstein

Emma

The Princess Bride

Amelia's Story

The Next Door Boys

If you're curious what I thought about any particular book or whatnot just ask in the comments and I'll tell you. But with this many books I figured that my commentary would get...well...long.

Hot Guys in Doublets: Mr. Tilney

I have been asked what movie is it where the guy wipes the dirt off the girl's cheek.

Answer: Northanger Abbey

One of my favorite Jane Austen books.

I love the innocence. I love the ghost story. I love the lost love and the found love. 

I LOVE Northanger Abbey

I LOVE Mr. Tilney!

He's so sweet. He's so patient. He's so forgiving.

Don't we all need a man like that in our lives?

Oh, and did I mention that he understands fabric and the value of a good dress?

I love Darcy as much as the next lady but if I was being courted by both...Tilney, hands down.

And that is saying a lot.

Have you seen the 2007 Masterpiece Theater's Northanger Abbey? You should. They did a fabulous job. Funny fact: this is the second third film version of this book EVER made. A shame. I hope people make more. 

Look what pavelchekov made: How cute is this?

Did you know that J.J. Feild (Mr. Tilney) is going to be playing the lead in Shannon Hale's Austenland? Yeah, I'm kind of excited about that movie.

(this picture is ACTUALLY from Austenland. It looks as if it was possibly taken without creative release- if it is not supposed to be circulated please let me know and I will remove it)

SO what have we learned?

We need to read Northanger Abbey.

We need to watch Northanger Abbey.

We need to stalk J.J. Feild.

We need to be watching for Austenland.

Class dismissed.

P.S. 

YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT I FOUND!

A blog called Hot Guys in Period Costumes. Wow, maybe all the good idea's ARE taken! :)

Anyways, great minds think alike.

Shannon Hale-author extraordinaire

So unbeknownst to her, Shannon Hale, is one of my idols.

Because she is so relatable-
We both have bald husbands (who are ridiculously nice)
We both did comedy in college (but she knew when to stop- I'll probably be doing pratfalls until they result in hip replacements)
We both have twins (the topics that comes up the most when we see each other...I dunno, once a year)
We're both ravishingly good looking.
You get the idea.

She is really easy to talk to, but I always feel a little silly because she doesn't know that I write (because I don't tell her that I write- what am I so ashamed of?) She also doesn't know that I horde her books like they'll go out of print (one for me, one for my daughter, one for my daughter's daughter...) And she definitely doesn't know that I named my chickens, Midnight, In, and Austenland (we'll be enjoying those babies fried in January 2012.)
Obviously I'm exaggerating.
The chickens are for laying eggs.
But I wasn't exaggerating about Shannon, being an author extraordinaire.

So now that I have poured my bosom secrets out, my blog reading friends (hi mom!) what do you say we lighten the mood with a little Shannon Hale horror stories: OINK SQUEETUS
(Her blog post seriously had me rolling)

Enjoy!
I have some chicken to feed. TILL JANUARY 2012!