Seven Stones by Julia Lee

Morning Meanderings… Let’s Get This PARTY Started!

Published on March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning! Another Saturday is here! Saturdays are my FAVORITE day of the week. The work week is over and usually Saturdays are a day that I have something fun going on.

Speaking of Saturday’s, last Saturday was no exception. After spending the afternoon in a Writing seminar, I sped away to a local gas station where I changed into a dress and went to congratulate my friend Julia Lee at her book launch.

I walked in almost an hour and a half after the launch had started due to the seminar and I was surprised (and excited!) to see how full the room was with people!

Julia Lee, Launch Party, Book Journey — This is the book signing line when I walked in!

I had talked a bit about Julia the week of her book launch for her book Seven Stones when I interviewed her, and then reviewed her book. Julia is so fun and easy to chat with that she is one of those people that when you meet her, you want to read whatever she has written to see if that personality shows through.

She is like a room full of champagne bubbles.

Julia Lee, Book Launch, Seven Stones, Book JOurney — Signing like a pro at her first book release party. I wonder if she practiced? 😉

The event was a lot of fun, the venue, Prairie Bay is known for delicious and unique horduerves such as artichoke chicken pizza, and apple and goat cheese skewers. It was amazing food and great conversation as I waited in line with my friend Christy and chatted up what else? Books.

Julia Lee, Book JOurney, Launch party, seven stones — Still smiling!

Book Journey, Julia Lee, Seven Stones — Sorry Julia, as soon as I took this picture I knew it was a keeper! LOL… it is a rare moment of a quick break in the signing!

What a great first signing! The event was a lot of fun, I caught the tail end of it and had a glass of wine with Laurel from our Library and then went home after a long and productive day.

Today… I leave in about an hour for the library where a few of us are meeting to start hauling some of the books for the April book sale from the library to the venue we will be using. I am kind of excited to start this process and as there are SO MANY BOOKS this time and we are moving off site every little bit we do helps take the pressure off of the big push in a couple of weeks.

Julia Lee, Book Journey, Seven Stones — Stolen… errr borrowed from Julia’s site… the pic with her author cup that I requested! You have to have a coffee cup pic!

You can read Julia’s fun blog here where she talks about the book, the excitement, life stuff, and great recipes!

Seven Stones by Julia Lee

Published on March 20, 2015March 20, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Growing up in Chicago Keilann Douglas didn’t think twice about her Ojibwe heritage. Around her family and peers it was a non issue and Keilann who never liked standing out is fine with that. Yet when Keilann’s father needs to move the family to Scotland for a teaching job everything changes.

Keilann enrolls in the new school along with her younger sister Fiona. Fiona never has trouble fitting in and adapts quickly to the other kids her age and soon has a group of friends. Keilann on the other hand feels like a square peg in a round hole and finds solace only back in the sanctuary of her new home and in the woods beyond her home.

The woods are comforting, the silence covers Keilann like a warm blanket. While exploring she finds an ancient stone circle where at times, a wild-eyed scared girl appears and disappears right before Keailann’s eyes. While at first witnessing such a thing is frightening, eventually Keillann becomes less scared and more curious. Who is this girl and why is Keilann the only one to see her? What is with the seven stones? And how can each of these two girls possibly learn from one another?

Yesterday, I posted a conversation I had with the author of this book, Julia Lee. There is so much that impressed me about this book that when I was reading it recently I had a hard time putting it down as each page led to more questions that I wanted answers to.

Originally when I started Seven Stones I thought I was going to be reading YA book. Yet, once I was into the book I discovered something more. I discovered I was learning about a Native American heritage that I knew little about. Through a young girl and her mother’s eyes, I was getting a taste of the deep heritage that is centered around the Ojibwe. Toss in a little bit of Scotland and their heritage as well and I was surprised to find this book to also be a historical read.

Seven Stones is a book I found to be wonderfully diverse in culture and history. I appreciated what this book had to offer and look forward to what author Julia Lee has in store for us next.

Currently Seven Stones is available at RiverPlace Press and soon will be available on Amazon.

Morning Meanderings… Now That Is How You Are Supposed To Do Mornings.

Published on March 19, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Good morning. Thursday already and it feels good. After yesterdays post about how to move your emails around in gmail to receive what you want in your primary box, it was really nice to wake up this morning and find the emails I enjoy reading right at my fingertips.

After the morning ritual of letting the dogs out, filling their food and water dish and grabbing my lap top, it was nice to sit down with a good cup of COFFEE and open up the Shelf Awareness email and read through it. Usually my morning emails consist of communications with others and jobs I am working on so this was a nice relaxing way to start the day.

Speaking of Shelf Awareness, I can not help but share this fun picture they posted this morning of a sign that is in a book store.

Is that not awesome?

Today is pretty mellow compared to what the week has been so far. I have a lunch meeting and a work out commitment this afternoon and the rest of the day is free. YES! I plan to work on a few projects this morning and then after that I am back home this afternoon – blissful reading is a must. 😀

Enjoy your day and pop back in later when I talk with author Julia Lee and her first book release coming our this Saturday, Seven Stones.

Morning Meanderings… Books, Book Releases, and 11,000 Leprechauns

Published on March 15, 2015March 15, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)16 Comments

And that my friends, is how a week gets away from you.

It was a great week last week that I balanced with work, and coffee dates, appointments, and reading. Oh yeah… I have been reading, as of this mornings list I am 6 reviews behind and that does now happen with me…

until it does.

Freelancing is fun, but it is very easy to find yourself working 7 days a week if you are not careful. I am trying to create work free weekends,but that will not start today. 🙂 That is ok though, because I did take most of Friday off for an overdue meet up with a friend, and then Saturday I ran the 7K in Minneapolis for the annual Get Lucky ST Patty’s Day run; the largest run of the year – 11,000 of us green people doing the 7K in one area, and 20,000 people doing the 21K (the lucky 7 7 7 run) in another part of the cities. I will save most of the pictures for later, but here are a couple samples:

Getting ready to run at the starting gate – that’s a lot of little green people!

Me, pre-run, being Irish helps me fit the part!

And…. books came to my house this week! Lovely lovely lovely books:

Praying Through The Gospels by Sarah Lindbergh (3 copies, 2 for a giveaway!)

The Cake House by Latifah Salom

Control by Lydia Kang

Catalyst by Lydia Kang

LEGACY by Ellery A Kane

Stranger by Harlan Coben

And….

Releasing this coming Friday:

Keep an eye on this one, we are going to have some fun with this title with an author interview that will amaze you later this week and this will be a book to start talking about now.

This morning I made a to-do list to get a feel of where I am at for this week, while I hope to make a nice dent in this list today, it is really something I will be working on throughout this week. This afternoon, book time…. and I know just the book.