Tag: Terry Pratchett

+Blog Book Tour+ The Dreamosphere by Laura Stoddard

Posted Sunday, 20 July, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

Parajunkee Designs

The Dreamosphere by Laura Stoddard

The Dreamosphere Blog Tour by Cedar Fort

Published By: Sweetwater Books ( ),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFort)
8th July, 2014
Official Author WebsitesSite | Facebook | Twitter |
GoodReads
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Page Count: 208

Converse via: #TheDreamosphere

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Acquired Book By: I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort since I participated in the “Uncovering Cobbogoth” tour. This blog tour will be my second hosting for Cedar Fort & Sweetwater Books! I received a complimentary copy of “The Dreamosphere” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

A Short Excerpt:

“What do you think happens to your dreams after you wake up?”

Gwen shrugged distractedly, too disoriented by her sudden arrival in the remarkable setting to focus. “I dunno. They disappear?”

The unblinking gray eyes of her young companion flashed as she leaned forward. “Incorrect. Every dream you’ve ever had still exists. All of them. They reside in a dimension called the Dreamosphere. It’s where we are right now, as a matter of fact. Each dream basically exists as its own world, or dream-orb. There are thousands and thousands of them, connected like drops of dew on a gigantic spider web. Every dream you’ve ever had, Gwen. They’re all up here. And you can visit them any time you want.”

Tabitha, the enigmatic child who shares this information, has some even more shocking news. Gwen’s dreamosphere is in danger. Someone has been hacking into it—destroying her dream orbs, erasing pieces of her past, and affecting Gwen in more ways than she realizes. Together, Gwen and Tabitha travel through the outlandish landscape of Gwen’s dream worlds to find the person responsible. What will happen to Gwen when all her dreams are gone? What critical clues lie within the pages of her dream journal? And what does Edgar Allan Poe have to do with it all?

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

Laura StoddardBook Synopsis:

What if dreams don’t disappear when we wake up? Haunted by her younger sister’s death, and her unwitting role in the incident, 11-year-old Gwenevere Stoker takes solace in the Dreamosphere—a dimension where all dreams still exist. But when someone begins destroying her dreams, Gwen must find the culprit—or risk losing all her happiness forever. Bask in the mystery and imagination of dreams in this touching, funny, mind-bending children’s tale that encompasses themes of grief, friendship, family, healing, and grand adventure!

Author Biography:

Laura Stoddard was born in Idaho and spent her formative years running amok in the great outdoors. She received her bachelors degree in English Literature from Arizona State University. After being rejected from the masters program for creative writing she decided that she didn’t need a masters degree to tell her she could write, so she started really dedicating her time to finishing the story she’d started months earlier, with the goal of writing a complete novel, and getting it published. The result is her debut novel, The Dreamosphere, for which her own vivid, bizarre, and incomprehensible dreams provided the inspiration. Laura is an adrenaline junkie and will try anything once–or twice–or maybe three times. She can already check whitewater rafting, going down in a shark cage, and skydiving (three times) off of her list. Oh, and getting Lasik. It was five minutes of terror. She enjoys hiking, rowing, reading classic literature, embarking on new adventures and hobbies, volunteering regularly, and spending time with family. She currently resides in Phoenix, Ariz.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.com

The fabric of the dreamosphere:

The Prologue provides a bit of a cursory view into the webbed network of Gwen’s dreamosphere, a world in which nothing is quite as it appears (true to the nature of our dreamscapes!), and yet, there is a beguiling presence of a half man, half vulture bird-like entity that is starting to cause an undercurrent of primal fear. His presence is clearly laced with malice towards Gwen, and her dream world; yet what has triggered his focus and aggression on her particular dreams was not yet revealed as this merely was providing the framework for where Gwen goes whilst she’s dreaming. Her companion Tabitha is quite the hoot, a shapeshifter who is able to transform her body and language as she walks through the dream’s individual orb of existence. I presumed the dreams are contained in an orb of memory – a particular space where the entirety of a dream can exist without harm of disappearing.

As the story progresses the intricacies of how the dreamosphere and the world of dreams co-exist is explained. Part of the dream sequences reminded me of the wild imagination of Terry Pratchett from the Tiffany Aching sequences within the Discworld universe. The interesting bit for me is how Tabitha takes the shape of a squirrel in Gwen’s living reality but can be seen as a young girl (a composite of Gwen’s real-life friend from living on the farm) inside the dreamosphere adventures. She has a most curious nature and I would wager an even more curious story of origin!

Read More

Divider

Posted Sunday, 20 July, 2014 by jorielov in Blog Tour Host, Cedar Fort Publishing & Media, Coming-Of Age, Death of a Sibling, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Diet Weight & Body Image, Dreams & Dreamscapes, Equality In Literature, Fantasy Fiction, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Indie Author, Inspirational Fiction & Non-Fiction, Journal, Light vs Dark, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Shapeshifters, Siblings, YA Fantasy, Young Adult Fiction

World Book Night : from a Giver’s Point of View

Posted Monday, 21 October, 2013 by greylen , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

JLAS_ContribGreylen

Hello all!

I am Greylen, a long-time friend of Jorie’s and a fellow voracious reader. Luckily, my path in life led me to become a librarian, so I get to be around books all the time. I don’t always get too much time to read, being also a homemaker, wife, and cat Mom, but I am forever trying to bring my life back into balance to allow more reading time!

Although I spend a lot of time giving out books and other materials that are free to borrow if you return them on time. Once a year, I enjoy giving away free books that do not have to be returned. For the past two  years I have been a volunteer Book Giver for World Book Night. WBN began in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 2011 and came to the US in 2012. It is always on April 23. April 23 is the UNESCO International Day of the Book, as well as Shakespeare’s birthday. It was also chosen in honor of Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, who died on April 23, 1616 (the same day as Shakespeare).

World Book Night’s mission is to reach out to infrequent, reluctant or non-readers of all ages and socio-economic classes. The books are carefully chosen each year to include a mixture of genres as well as a gender, ethnic, and geographical balance. Also, for practical reasons as all WBN special editions are trade paperbacks, the titles must be available in paperback form. When signing up to be a Giver, you must choose three titles in order of preference.

You may say, well, you are a librarian, why not just direct people to the library? WBN is about meeting people where they are and bringing books to them. Libraries are awesome, but not everyone gets there easily. You may live in an area without much public transportation, for example, as I do. If a person has no car, they can’t get to the library. Also, for someone like the clerk at the local Subway who is working there as their second job in addition to going to school, they don’t have time to seek out what to read for pleasure on their own, but if you put it in their hand, there’s a good chance they may read it in the spaces in between the busy parts of their life.

In 2012, I received my first choice book, Just Kids by Patti Smith. Among 2012’s 30 titles to choose from were The Stand by Stephen King, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I have admired Patti Smith’s music and poetry for many years and read the book when it first came out. It is a memoir of her life as a young artist in New York and her close relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. It is about art and freedom and all sorts of amazing things. I distributed my books with my husband on the campus of his Alma Mater, The University of Maryland, College Park. We distributed books to members of the University’s board gaming group and all sorts of other random people walking around campus or eating dinner and hanging out in the student union. I was sad to keep hearing “who?” when I mentioned Patti Smith but hopefully the people I gave the book to will check out some of her music and be able to answer their own question!

For 2013, I got my third choice book, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I am a big fan of Bradbury so I kind of picked this just because it was him. It had been a long time since I read it. While it is science fiction, it is an incredible story about knowledge and censorship and freedom of information and it is a really ironic yet awesome choice for a program focused on giving out books and spreading knowledge instead of restricting it. There were also 30 titles to choose from for 2013, but two were available in Spanish as well as English this time– Paolo Coelho’s The Alchemist, and Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street. Other titles included Bossypants by Tina Fey, Playing for Pizza by John Grisham, and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

More of my friends participated this year– one friend who is a massage therapist in Los Angeles gave out Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and another friend who works at a homeless shelter gave out Walter Mosley’s Devil In A Blue Dress to her clients and co-workers.  Yet another friend who is an elementary school teacher gave out Norton Juster’s classic The Phantom Tollbooth to the more reluctant readers among her students– you know, not the ones begging their parents to go to the library like I was, but after they get hooked on reading, they probably started. One book can change a life.

My husband’s involvement with the board gaming group at his University has pretty much ceased so we stuck to more local places in our neighborhood to give out books in 2013. A local coffee shop was our launching pad, followed by the waiting room of an urgent care walk-in clinic (what a terrible place to be stuck without something to read!) and just popping in to random stores in a local shopping center. Also a couple of pre-teen girls playing in the woods near our house received copies. It could be a bit beyond their reading level, but being someone who was reading the Complete Works of HG Wells at age 8, I try not to assume anything.

I fully intend to be a Giver for 2014 as well. It is a very simple exercise. You sign up entirely online and your books (20 copies of whichever title WBN has chosen for you) are sent to a local bookstore or other collection point (I picked up from Barnes and Noble) the week or so before WBN. There is no cost to you other than whatever gas you use driving around and giving out books. It is very rewarding and engages you with people of whom you might not talk to otherwise. When people realize you’re not trying to sell anything or convert them to your religion (I make it a point to say I am not giving out religious books), they are pleasantly surprised for the most part that someone is giving out something so cool for absolutely nothing in return.

On October 23, six months before WBN 2014, World Book Night will be hosting a live unveiling of the 2014 titles at 6:30 PM EDT. Giver applications open up on October 24 and I will be signing up on the first day, however they are open until January 5, 2014.

Have you ever given or received for WBN?

Do you plan to sign up for 2014?

{CONTRIBUTOR POST: by Greylen for Jorie Loves A Story}

{SOURCE: Badge post lovely provided by Shabby Blogs, with edits by Jorie in Fotoflexer.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.

Divider

Posted Monday, 21 October, 2013 by greylen in Art, Contributor Feature or Post, Freedom of Expression, Freedom to Read, Literacy Advocacy, Literary Event, Photography, Poetry, World Book Night