I haven’t posted in over a month…and Shannon Hale…

It’s been a long time and I don’t really know why.  I do know that I’m not going to finish the first draft of book 2 before I have the baby.  I’ve been so busy getting ready and the other three kids seem to have taken a lot of time lately.  Oh well.  It will get done eventually.  Hopefully sooner than later.  I haven’t really had a lot to say over the past month, so I just didn’t write.  I’ve gotten a few more rejections, one which was a true disappointment, but what do you do?  I just need to keep on sending out queries and hope to find that one match.

On another note, I read a book I wanted to talk about.  I don’t know how many of you know of Shannon Hale.  She actually lives a few miles north of me and writes for the younger end of young adults.  I’ve read four of her books.  “Enna Burning,” “River Secrets,” “Princess Academy,” (which received  Newberry Honor) and “Book of a Thousand Days.”  The first two on the list were good and I loved the second two.  Now, the first two are books two and three of a trilogy.  I had never read the first of the trilogy.  I didn’t realize there was a trilogy and I figured I’d gathered most of the story about the first one anyway.  And when I liked, but didn’t absolutely love, the second two books in the series, I figured I’d just skip the first one all together.

So, the first book of the series is called “The Goose Girl.”  It was Shannon’s first book.  One of my friends read it and absolutely loved it, so I thought I’d finally give it a try.  Besides, I needed something to read.  And to my surprise, I liked it a lot better than the second two in the series.  It was a great book and I would recommend it to anyone.  My neighbor’s ten year old daughter even read it and loved it.  Just a brief summary:  It’s about a Princess who’s been betrothed to the prince of a neighboring kingdom in order to prevent war.  She isn’t thrilled about it.  In fact, she’s kind of angry.  And then her trusted guard are murdered.  She barely escapes with her life.  And the people who wanted to murder her have disguised one of their own as the Princess and presented her to the foreign prince as his future bride.  The true princess must find a way to prove who she really is…and discover herself in the process.