Amanda Harris

Today my husband and children built a TePee. It took half the day, but it is very sturdy, roomy, and the kids think it is beyond Cool  :) View from inside out the front door to the pond. After the  leaves on the trees they used to weave it together die they are going to weave palm fronds into the sides, then it will be rain proof and look even cooler. Will post pics when that part is complete. Meanwhile the kids love that it is camouflaged into the background of trees. I think they are all kinda cool for thinking of it, and spending the day making it happen.

 Feel Free to Subscribe and/or follow. Done with school till fall. This is good thing. It is ironic that I am going to school because I love reading and writing and want to improve those skills to become an author and teacher, yet I have zero time for reading or writing anything outside of assignments. I am looking forward to a selfish summer of reading what interests me, and finishing up 'Slip'.

I am a Freakin Rain forest! I just read this, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/science/21gut.html?_r=1  and I am completely amazed (it don't usually take much). To sum up what it says if your to lazy to click: our bodies (guts) host one of three types of bacterial ecosystems. These bacterial ecosystems are different from each other and and one day can be used to differentiate between types of people the same way blood types do. So I have a bacteria type and a blood type. I am the Amazon! :) What is really fasinating is that the scientist have not found a link between race or sex or age and the bacteria in a gut. So it is not like you just pick up the same bacteria that your family has. So many implications... read the article :)

Feel Free to Follow My Blog!  Also, all comments welcome.

Guest Post By Carla Renae. In the style of A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift.  The original "A Modest Proposal" was written in 1729 by Jonathan Swift, it proposed cannibalism to prevent the starvation and death of millions, but the true proposal he was asking for was in the conclusion about what people should not approach him about. One of my final papers for school is to write my own proposal and how it would work with my true suggested proposals at the end. Please read this and tell me what you think. :) An Imitation of “A Modest Proposal” For the reduction of Murders, Political Corruption, Drug wars and expense of drug related crimes and to produce additional taxes. It is a sad day when one considers the number of drug offenders incarcerated in the United States. We spend approximately $15 billion a year on anti-drug campaigns, incarcerating offenders and cleaning up demolition created by drug wars. There are many advantages to legalizing drugs in the United Sta...

Today on... facebook I read the word 'buddy' in place of 'but he'.  This shocked me more than a little. Then I wondered, if the people who make glaring errors on their posts would be writing at all?  Is facebook ensuring that people who would get zero writing practice after high school get at least a little? Maybe it is a good thing. At least he was trying. :/

So Katie says to me; "Mom why do boys think girls are beautiful?" I reply: "I guess the same reason girls think boys are handsome." Katie: "To bad me and my brothers have the same 'blood vessels' or we could get married," as she inspects the faint blue lines on her arms... I have not decided what to make of that one yet.

On our vacation my husband and I decided that we had to see where the Suwanee river meets the Gulf of Mexico. I felt like a child because I was so eager to see what it looked like when the two forces collided. I expected a great rush as the current of the river met the waves of the sea. In my mind I saw great water funnels as the two waters crashed together, surely there would be a natural show of water works similar to a great volcanic eruption! What I found upon arriving at the tributary was not an awesome show of two great forces colliding, yet it was aw- inspiring just the same. I discovered a magical place where pine tree meets the swaying palm, and fiddler crab meets crayfish and fields of natural salt marshes with fresh water creeks feeding them. I discovered a unique location in my own back yard. I thought that I knew the ocean, having lived in Florida all my life and camped too many nights to count with the sound of the waves sending me to dreamland. But this place was uniqu...

This is the cover we decided NOT to go with for Silent Sentinel. I do like the one that will be used a little better but it seemed a waste not to share this one. Photograph by the very talented Jason Harris. :)

Trent stayed away. He kept his distance even though it hurt. After all the years it still hurt not to touch her. But he learned his lesson the last time he was with her. He sat in his tree; a large brown spider crawled up his leg and down his back. Trent paid the spider no mind, he stayed silent, a patient sentinel. Every now and then Amy sensed him. When she did life was once again golden for just a moment. How he yearned to go to her and to show himself, but he had more control now. He would not make that mistake again. Trent kept his distance from his son and Amy after he died. After all, how could he explain to them why he had to stay away so long? How could he expect them to love a monster? He stands guard over the ones he loves unable to show his face yet unable to move on without them.

Silent Sentinel's Ebook release is pending. YAY ! More on the exact date and Silent Sentinel soon!!!

So Yesterday : Date A Girl Who Reads by Rosemarie Urquico littlemissdorkette.tumblr.com Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve. Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow. She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. Sh...

I just finished "Switched" by Amanda Hocking. As soon as I can I will be reading the next book in the trilogy. Maybe even tonight if I get my own writing, schoolwork, and housework done. The premise hooked me, it was well written, and the end left me hanging which I love as long as there is a part two to fall into. If your a fan of Young Adult Fantasy or if you want to try it out for the first time Amanda Hocking's work is not a bad place to start. (Link to her Amazon page will be attached at end of post.) Also about reading on my computer, once I was into the story it would have made no difference where it was written. I had to trouble reading a novel on the computer. If you don't have a Kindle, Amazon provided a free easy to download Kindle app. I plan on getting a Kindle soon because although I did not have trouble with the actual reading of the story on the computer, I would have liked to sit more comfortably than my office chair allows, and I also would like to b...

Today I bought my first ebook. I have read over and over that the percentages of online book sales are growing daily. Being addicted to reading I figured i should at least try it out. I started with Amanda Hocking's Switched and after reading the first page I think that I will find reading a novel online to be as rewarding as a book in hand. Review on the book and the whole reading online experience soon to come.

Trees  I THINK that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. BY JOYCE KILMER

Spring has sprung! Dare I belive it? Spring seems to have arrived, and I am falling in love. The grass turned green over night. There are little buds on everything and baby lizards have hatched. I am spending more and more time outside just marveling in it each day, but is it real? I am checking the weather daily, worried over the baby reptiles and little buds. Is one more frost going to set in before it is over. I don't even know why I worry about it I should just enjoy the warm days, but I can't help but to feel like it is all to good to be true.

Documentary Dish

I was able to be with a friend while she opened the proof of her new novel on Friday. I read the manuscript before hand so I knew it was great writing, but to see her work actually in novel form was so exciting, and the cover was beautiful. I can’t wait to check it out at local books stores and see it at the library. Any one who has been pushing their manuscript over and over again - don’t give up because that moment is worth the blood, sweat, and tears you put into your book.

I have been in a writing slump for about a month now. Ever since I got that summer cold, my characters have not wanted to come out and play, and since none of them are germaphobes I don't really get why they have been avoiding me for so long... Well tonight they came back. At midnight. When I am all alone, and the house is very quiet, and it is very dark outside, and stormy... did I mention the storm? And that it's dark out side, very dark, and quite, too quiet, and stormy. Who should show up but Nick, now I love Nick. He is one of my favorite guys, he would be the tormented bad boy type that the girls can't help fall in love with-If he only could remember what it is that is tormenting him. Unfortunately for Nick he can't remember anything. He memory has been wiped clean, as it is every single year, and all he knows is when he follows his gut instinct he saves a lot of lives. Yep Nick is just the guy you want coming to your rescue even if he wont remember you for long. ...

There is a Zombie Brain on my ceiling. When I see it, I get the broom and sweep it down. But it always reappears. Sometimes it shows up in the kitchen, often I will notice it in the living room, and once in the bathroom, inexplicably above the toilet. The zombie brain used to disturb me, I mean it is an unsightly remnant of a gruesome battle for life and death, won. However as time goes by I am becoming used to the zombie brain on my ceiling. It is just another part of having two sons, something any mother worth her salt will grin and bear. The wet toilet seats, and daily cheerios stuck to the breakfast table… now that is an entirely different story. I mean I have to draw a line somewhere.