1.)https://rachelmeetschina.com/
I love that expat, Rachel, has a post about the top places to go to in China. The first place I think of is the Great Wall. I know someone in the US who buys fireworks and puts them on display in the US. Rachel talks about how bigger cities may make it easier to haggle for prices because they have more English speakers. Great point!
Beijing: The Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven
Xi’an: The Terracotta Warriors and the Muslim Quarter (the best food!)
Shanghai: The Bund and Nanjing Shopping Road
Guilin and Yangshuo: Rafting and hiking in stunning mountains
Hangzhou and Suzhou: The West Lake and “Venice” of the East
A video Welcome to Kindergarten | September 2017 | RachelMeetsChina
I love that that this blogger gets real honest and talks about spitting and hocking in China. link I never knew this was common, but they do say it's happens less in a city like Shenzhen (where the blogger lived) and more in other cities.
This Expat blogger admits that it gets cold in China. After hanging her husband's socks to dry, they apparently froze. link Now it may NOT get as cold as Minnesota, but I like knowing that people on the other side of the world can empathize with the extreme cold.
Now this Expat blog comes from a retiree who talks about all things china and doesn't seem afraid to talk about taboo matters. I didn't want to go into depth but if those types of things fascinate you, than you may be interested in looking at this site. I did find it fascinating to learn that there are 80 +cultural groups in China.
5)teacherstatus14.blogspot.com
Carmelo Bono
This expat talks about how fast paced life in China is and how everything seems to be about work, work work. He's learned hobbies like playing ice hockey and brewing beer in his garage link . He talks about teaching online and gives some great resources.
A travellersyarn video on YouTube
Now this blog has nothing to do with China but I thought it worth mentioning because it received a blogger of the Month award.
This blogger talks about how she moved with her husband to London in 2018 and how it's always been a lifelong dream of hers. The photography in Chelsea's blog is extraordinary. I've been to UK myself and I don't think I've seen it in the light she's given it like today. She has a post about the Blenheim Palace . This is the first I've heard of it. Apparently its one of England’s greatest country houses and was built in the early 1700s, and was the birthplace of Winston Churchill.
I came across this book tag from Marta over at The Book Mermaid . I'm sorry to admit I don't know where it originated from but if you do please let me know.
So let's get started...
WHO WAS YOUR VERY FIRST FOLLOWER?
I'm not sure if I can figure out who my first follower was it was such a long time ago but the first person to make a comment this year was from Tam May. 😀 You see... I send out my words into the world hoping they might help someone (usually that someone is me) but when someone actually listens, I'm delighted and lately I've extended my branches and have started receiving more listeners. 😎 I started doing Author interviews and blog tours which I'm still doing. (Check out my interviews the last Friday of every month).
Then I was introduced to #TheAtoZchallenge which helped me find a lot of bloggers and then I started doing random blog hops which is a way cool way to motivate me to read lots of blogs.
WHAT WAS THE LAST MILESTONE YOU REACHED?
The latest milestone I reached was 816 followers. 😀Wow awesome!!!!! Lots of my followers are from twitter as well so check me out sometime @trincarl
WHAT WAS THE VERY FIRST POST YOU POSTED ON YOUR BLOG? SHARE IT WITH US, IF YOU CAN FIND OUT!
I knew when I first started posting my blog I wanted it to include some of my creative writing. So my first post was a piece called Derrick. It's about a Dancer who is a bit of a drinker and is pursuing his life's dream of creating a successful dance team.
WHO WAS YOUR MOST RECENT FOLLOWER? TAG THEM AND GIVE THEM A SHOUT!
Crystal @ Crystal-Collier 💐 . Crystal is in The Insecure Writer's Support Group which is a group that's helped me out a lot this year.
WHAT WAS THE LAST POST YOU POSTED AND WHO WAS THE FIRST PERSON WHO TOOK THEIR TIME TO CLICK THE LIKE BUTTON? GIVE THEM A SHOUT OUT!)
My most recent post was a Would You Rather Book Tag, created by RayKayBooks and thank you so much Deb @Pen in Her Handfor being the first person to respond to the book tag and post it on her blog.
HOW MANY MONTHS HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING FOR?
I started blogging in December of 2010 Wow! I've been blogging for nine years!! 🙂😀😃💐🌼 I can't believe it!!!!!!!!
DO YOU HAVE ANY BLOGGERS YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH? GIVE THEM A SHOUT OUT!
Thankfully, I’ve made a lot of friends since I started blogging. I don't even know how I would begin giving SHOUT OUTs to all of them. But just know that I'm thankful your out there.
WHO ORIGINALLY CREATED THE LAST MEME OR TAG YOU PARTICIPATED IN? GIVE THEM A SHOUT OUT!
My last tag was Read This?Watch This book tag-I loved digging up my favorite shows and matching them to book.
HAVE YOU ANY SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED TO YOUR BLOG?
I do. I'm active on Goodreads and also have a Twitter and Facebook account. Check out my contact page to learn more.
LAST BUT NOW LEAST… JUST GIVE THANKS TO ALL YOUR FOLLOWERS!
Thank you so much. Having readers actually read my stuff is way cool. I feel like I'm making an impact on the writing community and bloggers as a whole. I can't thank you enough for your friendship and support.
This post has really helped me think about my blog as whole and spread a lot of love. I'm tagging Tam May at tammayauthor.com and Lexa Cain .
Readers, feel free to answer these questions in the comments below or volunteer yourself to do this book tag. It's a lot of fun.
Actress Joy Dolo joins us today for an interview. Joy was born in Liberia and currently lives and works in the Twin Cities. She has a B.A. in Theater Arts and has worked with a variety of Theater Companies. She can be contacted on twitter or facebook.
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead. See rules here: Sunday Post Meme
So this week I went to Hudson, Wisconsin. We decided to sit near the lake and there were parts that were flooded over, near a playground and it was kind of neat. I took tons of pictures
and it was really pretty.
I also went Kayaking on Come lake, and went to Como zoo. I saw a lot of my friends there(The monkeys, lol)
I saw an interpretive dance at Cowles theater- put on by Red Eye Theater. In the backdrop, a prerecorded film of the dancers played and performers played the sitar and musical saw and violin. Cowles Theater has the capacity to do a lot with special effects and light and there was just so much to take in. I closed my eyes for a bit and meditated. Later I congratulated a few of the dancers on their performance. I like it when the audience and the performers seem to know and you begin to notice how connected they are. I wrote these two little snippets for my writers group the other day, it's based on a true story and we had two minute writing prompts... I hope you enjoy.
I’ve made a few mistakes in my writing life. Writing mistakes that have to do with essays in high school, mistakes on writing tests.
But I remember this mistake vividly. I sat down for the 10th grade state standard test. For some reason they spread us all throughout the school. Maybe to eliminate the likelihood of cheaters, and I was in the library with five other individuals. I was just sitting there-my charming ole’ self -and who sat next to me-no other than ‘Gerry Mettis'. Everyone who was anyone knew who he was, and everyone who was no one, knew who Gerry was. He was point guard for the Patriot’s basketball team.
He told us all what he was going to write about: “If I could be anyone in the world he said, “I’d be a pimp.” A roar in the library came thereafter, and of course I asked. “Why Gerry, why would you want to be a pimp?”
Story 2**
When a little kid named Steve started chasing me around overnight camp with some prickly pine needles, I don’t remember thinking at that time, that Steve had a crush on me.
I remember thinking:This damn kid better leave me the f#@! alone before I go and tell my brothers.
My brothers went to camp with me and when they found out that a round, pudgy kid named Steve was chasing me around with pine needles, they did what all brothers do best: they told him where he could fine more of the fine, prickly varieties.
Readers, I hope you have a good week and please comment below.
ON THE BLOG
Reading:Free to Focus by Michael Hyatt,The Lady from the Black Lagoon by Mallory O'Meara, The Life of An Unknown Man by Andrei Makine
With us today is Ahlem Bahroun, a Tunisian book lover who shouts her love for books on Youtube in France. Her thought provoking words can be found on twitter,goodreads or facebook.
This week I've been looking for a new job with some success. I think I just need something new, you know what I mean? But job searching can be scary when you've been in the same line of work for so long. I've been looking on Indeed.com, but if you know of any other places let me know in the comments below. My brother was supposed to come to visit from Wahpeton, and hang out but he couldn't come so I'm sort of bummed out about that. We're really close since I spent a lot of time taking care of him as a kid.
Either way, I also went kayaking on Bde Maka Ska, and I didn't sink the kayak so that's pretty good. The lake's pavilion was recently damaged in a fire which was pretty sad to see.
While kayaking, I saw some pretty cool canoes and kayaks. One canoe I saw was made of plastic, which probably means it's a lot lighter in weight. Another one I saw was foldable.
CURRENTLY
Reading: The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger,
Beautiful Boss by Christina Lauren, Fake Like me by Barbara Bourland, I'll Eat When I'm Dead by Barbara Bourland,The Night Moves by Jessica Hopper
Welcome to another Weekend Writing Warriors post This is a weekly challenge blog hop found at: www.wewriwa.com
An excerpt from My Novel: Oh Brother
Beware of ghosts, they said. Seeing he had no choice, if he wanted to save the woman, he strayed off the path and entered the woods. After a while, he realized he was lost. He could no longer hear the woman’s voice. Shadow beasts were said to have found him and ravished his body. Insects sucked his blood only for them to later evolve and turn into the blood sucking mosquitos that we have today. Many other campers throughout the years strayed off the path in their curiosity, despite this boy’s perilous fate. But they, too disappeared. Swarms of mosquitos are here to remind campers to never stray from any path again.
Weekend Writing Warriors is a Sunday short-snippet blog hop in which authors share short excerpts from their books (published or unpublished). There’s a variety of genres–something for everyone! To visit the participating authors, click on the sitewww.wewriwa.com
Happy Tuesday. I'm joining Creative Tuesday blog hop. I thought I would share with you some fun cars and creative cars and funny transit advertisements.
Theglobaldig is committed to digging up and finding great writers globally. Today I'm interviewing author Jack Thanatos whose many thought provoking insights can be found onTwitter,Facebook,Goodreads . Jack is the writer of the Djinn Trial fantasy series. He's a visionary of fictional existence a specter of reality.
So Jack, what have you written?
I have 5 novels out at the moment.
Three belong to The Gods of Chaos urban fantasy series: Dreaming, Netherworld, and Purgatory. This story follows the main protagonists, Jack and Deny, into the world of the Djinn.
Dreaming is the introduction, and mixes in Jack’s small city life infused with Deny’s gang influences with the metaphysical world that the Djinn are about to bring him up to speed in. The Djinn love to use the Dreaming as their vehicle to interact with those who haven’t been inducted into their ranks, so Jack and Deny get a crash course through this less-than-tangible realm.
Netherworld is the second entry, and brings Jack and his best friend Deny into the transitional realm between Reality and the places only the dead should go. This nightmarish realm makes Jack and Deny question what they really got themselves into when agreeing to join the Djinn.
Purgatory is the third entry. Jack and Deny feel that the rough ride through Netherworld was harsh, but what has yet to come will test their limits. Purgatory is the Djinn equivalent of the spirit realm, which overlaps Reality. Jack and Deny gain the ability to see just how many souls inhabit this realm and begin to understand why they had been tapped. Their world will never be the same.
I have two novels in The Djinn Trials series: Azazel & Belialand Poacher Hunters. This collection inhabits the same Djinn Universe as The Gods of Chaos, but focuses on different characters and genres. In addition to two novels, I have a series of short stories in The Djinn Trials anthology, some of which can be found here: https://www.thedjinntrials.com/djinn-trials-shorts
Azazel & Belial is a combination of two stories and both are high adrenaline violent thrillers. Mephistopheles has introduced the alcoholic, Tommy, in Azazel, forcing him to confront all the sins of his past. And in Belial, Mephistopheles grants the gangbanger, Johnny, the gift that is a curse, the ability to smell guilt coming from others.
I had a chance to read your novel Azazel & Belial and I pulled out some great lines:
"His (Thomas') primary calories were consumed from the gut punishing disgustingly cheap Dimitri Gin."
and
"Sinai City, located just a few blocks away from Azazel's financial institution where he built a modest rainy day fun. One day it disappeared from the computers but the manager couldn't provide any information about who performed the withdrawal." ***The Sinai City Bank case reminds me of the Salami Embezzlement Technique. It's a new bank robbing trend where bank employees embezzle sums by stealing tiny amounts of money from many accounts. Sometimes this can be stealing one penny from a person's account everyday. Read More
I just thought I'd throw that out there. Continue. What else have you written?
My action adventure, Poacher Hunters, follows both stories of Azazel and Belial, bringing together characters from both stories. As the title suggests, Belial and Eris (from Azazel) are sent on their first mission together to combat a ring of human traffickers and poachers. This wild ride runs through three continents with Belial and Eris discovering the problem is far greater than they could have ever imagined.
What is your favourite motivational phrase.
It’s simple. Don’t be a douche bag.
What is your favourite quote?
“Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.”
Edward Blake, Watchmen
What is your favourite movie and why?
I have many, but if I had to choose one, it would probably be Fight Club. I loved how the first time I watched it, I had one perspective of the story. After seeing what was really going on, the second viewing was completely different and the reactions to the supporting cast all made complete sense.
I always wanted to create a story that had that sort of impact.
What advice would you give to your younger self?
Stop listening to loud music, you asshole. Your ears will thank you in 20 years. Oh, and don’t let your sister move in with you back in California. She won’t learn her lesson.
Oh lordy, let me guess... you got siblings who like to take advantage of you too?! Gotta love em’, but do we really got to still live with them too?! Is all I’ve got to say about that.
Which famous person, living or dead would you like to meet and why?
Morgan Freeman. I just want to thank him for being a good God.
Lol, you must be referring to the movies, Bruce Almighty and Evan Almighty.
Last question, I promise. What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Write for yourself and write about what you like. Write something that’s actually worth reading. And if you actually wish to proceed with the author route, be prepared for a rough ride.
I’m going on four years into this game and have yet to figure out the rules of the game. If this doesn’t scare you off, then just make sure what you write is something there is an audience for. Publishing is the easy part. Finding your audience takes a lot of hard work and extensive marketing with minimal pay, that is unless you win the literary lotto. So, just make sure what you put out there is something you want others to read, and not just something you’re trying to make money from.
That's all the time we have today folks. Readers if you have any questions for Jack let him know in the comments below.
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