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Booktoberfest: Roald Dahl

26/10/2019

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Roald Dahl was an incredible Author and an inspiration to so many other authors too!

His book Matilda was the first chapter book I ever read. I was 4 years old when I read it and it took me 3 days to read because I just could not put it down!  Whilst reading it I always wanted to be like Matilda and I loved it so much because I could let my imagination run wild.
 
I have read nearly all of his kids books over and over again and they never get boring! Ever! I love his books because of how their vivid descriptions, friendly tone and quirky humour are never boring and never fail to amuse the reader and make them fall in love with the characters within the first few pages of the book.
 
Roald Dahl is also inspirational because of how he went out and met his fans which is amazing. Roald Dahl also served as a spy, an ace fighter pilot and a medical inventor in WW2! His writing career started in 1961 with James and the giant peach and he has written at least 34 books…can he be more awesome!!
 
And if you ever get a chance to chat to Norman Jorgensen ask him about the time he met Roald Dahl!! You won't be disappointed.
 
If you ever have a chance to check out his website or read his books take it you will not regret it his books are amazing!! Go read them!
https://www.roalddahl.com/home/
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Booktoberfest: Bryce Courtenay

21/10/2019

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Bryce Courtenay is a truly inspirational author; he is the author of HEAPS of moving and powerful books, such as The Power of One, Tandia, The Silver Moon and much more!
 
His book The Power of One is my absolute favorite of his, without giving away too many spoilers; A young boy called Peekay goes to a boarding school and faces a serious of harassment but I love it because it shows how he gets stronger and learns to box and is well on his way to overcoming the trauma he faced and becoming the welterweight champion of the world. Throughout the entire book he faces challenge after challenge with courage and determination and you just want him to succeed.
 
I love how although The Power of One has a bunch of struggles, traumas and death in it, it still leaves on an uplifting note making the reader feel empowered by the end.
 
Bryce has won the British Book Award in 1990 for the novel, 'The Power of One', he is the recipient of three APA Who Weekly Reader's Choice Awards as well as many more. Bryce also stated that he had been bullied as a kid and so he took to writing to try to keep away from the bullies he also learnt to box as a means of self defense.
 
Bryce Courtenay has written many incredible books and quotes two of my favorite quotes of his are;
“First with the head, then with the heart.”
“Pride is holding your head up when everyone around you has theirs bowed. Courage is what makes you do it.”
 
Bryce Courtenay’s writing career started at 1989 with his ground breaking The Power of One soon followed by many equally amazing books. Read his books and I’m sure you will agree that he is a truly incredible author.
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Booktoberfest: Jackie French!

19/10/2019

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Jackie French is a truly inspirational author! Jackie is the author of the Fair Dinkum Histories series, Hitler’s Daughter, Pirate Boy from Sydney Town, The Matilda Saga and much, much, much more.
 
I have always Adored Jackie French’s quirky writing style since I was a little kid and I still do to this very day. All of her books which I have read are very enjoyable and each have been written in various styles, some are fun and quirky whilst others are serious, heartwarming and moving.
 
I believe that Jackie is an inspirational author because of how she tells history in a fun and enjoyable way for kids in the Fair Dinkum Histories series and how she shows the truth behind our Australian history without white washing it as much as most books do but she tells it in a a fun way to help us learn, not just handing us the facts in a boring bland historical book.
 
I have always enjoyed the Fair Dinkum Histories series because of it’s a amazing comics jokes and because of how it tells the history of Australia from a new perspective and it displays it honestly, it also makes learning about our history fun.
 
Here are some of my face Jackie French quotes: “Books aren't like broccoli. You don't have to eat it because it's good for you. "Books drag you in because they are fascinating.”
“If you want intelligent children, give them a book. If you want more intelligent children give them more books.”

Her books have also won these awards: 'Let the Land Speak 2014 NIB Award', 'Christmas Wombat (with Bruce Whatley) 2012 Shortlisted in the Australian Book Industry Awards.' & 'Nanberry: Black Brother White 2012 Shortlisted Children’s Book Council of Australia &2012 Honour Book, Children’s Book Council of Australia' as well as many more! Thats a HUGE amount of awards!

Jackie's writing career spans 25 years,  over 140 books, several manuscripts which have been eaten by the wombats ;), 36 languages,  and over 60 awards in Australia and overseas and she is still writing more books! Jackie is a truly incredible and inspiring author and I definitely recommend checking out Jackie French's website, following her on social media and buying and reading some of her books they are INCREDIBLE!!! You will not regret it!!


For the rest of October, check out my Facebook page and Instagram for your chance to win some very cool Jackie French books!!
http://www.jackiefrench.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jackie_french_/
https://www.facebook.com/authorjackiefrench/
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Booktoberfest: AJ Betts!

16/10/2019

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AJ Betts is an Incredible author!! She is the author of Hive, Rogue, Zac and Mia, Shutterspeed and Wavelength.  I did contact AJ and ask her if she would like to do an interview for our Booktoberfest and she was very kind to get back to me but as she's been touring the country with her new book Rogue, she was unable to squeeze in another interview and wasn't even in WA for most of the month which I totally understand! So I decided to do this little blog post so she can still be a part of my Booktoberfest list of inspirational authors and you guys can see how amazing her work is.
 
AJ is an extremely inspirational author to me because of her strong female & male leads who face diabolical challenges and overcome relatable issues as well as some crazy stuff that we all hope we'll never have to face. I love how it's impossible to not like her main characters in her books as you feel like you're on their journeys with them and just want them to be okay. 

She inspires and empowers the next generation of young writers because she runs workshops and hosts talks and she also talks to her fans when we go up to see her. I have been lucky enough to attend one of her workshops at a local library and it was incredible! I definitely got a lot of information and inspiration out of going and made some new writer friends,  had a great time and left feeling pumped up about my next book!  If you get a chance to go to one of her workshops, take it! You'd be crazy to not go!
 
Hive and Rogue are my two fave A.J. Betts books, they are a duology and now that Rogue is out, make sure you buy them together so you don't get left waiting to read what happens as you finish Hive! Hive is about a girl living in what she thinks is the whole world and when she sees a drip her whole life is turned upside down as she soon discovers that everything in her life was a lie. My absolute favorite quote from Hive would have to be: “Within me, the truth unfurled, opening as a flower. I breathed as if for the first time.”

The way A.J betts manages to capture every moment in her unique writing style and the way she makes me feel like I am there with the characters makes her even more of an inspiration to me. You can clearly picture Hayley walking through her 'world' and clearly imagine the plants, the bees and the grow lights to name just a few.
 
Please make sure to check out her website and buy her books, they are incredible and if you get an opportunity to attend her workshops take it you will not regret it!!

Here's a link to her website:
http://www.ajbetts.com/

Here are the links to my book reviews of Hive & Rogue
Hive
Rogue


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Booktoberfest: Neal Shusterman

10/10/2019

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Neal Shusterman is a truly  inspirational author to me. He writes Dystopian Sci-fi and Cli-fi (climate fiction) and he incorporates such dark theories and concepts into his books such as the earth running out of water or what really happens to us when we die, but he does it in such in a fun and humorous way so you would expect them to be dark and scary but they are not. He also has strong female and male leads which is important!
 
I have met Neal Shusterman before and he was incredible! Before hearing him talk and reading his books I had personally never thought about writing a dystopian book but he personally inspired me to start working on a dystopian book which I hope to finish the first draft of this year.
 
Neal Shusterman is an award-winning author based in America. He has won the 2016 Golden Kite Award for Fiction, the 2015 National Award for Young Peoples Literature and the prestigious 2015 Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Honor award.
 
He is incredible and so are his stories, the way they are written with compelling descriptions and action really make the reader feel like they are right there is the stories alongside the main characters. And when you listen to him talk about his work you can almost feel the passion emanating from his body! He has written the; Unwind Dystology, Arc of a Scythe Trilogy, The Accelerati Trilogy (with Eric Elfman), The Anstey Bonano books, Shadow Club series, Darkfusion trilogy, The Skinjacker trilogy, The Star Shard chronicles, Challenger Deep, Dry and many, many more! Woah!
 
I cannot wait for The Toll to finally be released this year! It is going to be awesome! It is the show stopping finale of the Arc of a Scythe trilogy and I cannot wait!
 
I definitely don’t recommend his books for little kids or the faint hearted, they do tackle some really heavy issues but if you love cli-fi, sci-fi, action, adventure and stories that make you think about deeper issues; make sure to read Neal Shusterman’s books! They are awesome, you will not regret it! And a word of advice; if you get one book in a series, make sure you also get the next before you start reading it as Neal has a habit of leaving us on the most annoying cliff-hangers possible in his books!
 
 

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Booktoberfest: Lynette Noni.

6/10/2019

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Lynette Noni is a very inspirational author, she writes amazing mystery/fantasy/dystopian scifi books and they feature strong female & male leads which is great, as equality is very important and girls want to read about heroes who they can relate just as much as boys do! She also inspires the next generation of young writers through her workshops and meeting her fans at various events, I was lucky enough to meet her at an event after watching her talk about her writing and she was just so lovely and inspirational.
 
She has personally inspired me to incorporate more intense magical themes into my writing and be a bit more adventurous, rather than holding back because of how well she incorporated magic into her Medoran Chronicles.
 
I actually wrote Mysteries of Maybelle before I read The Medoran Chronicles and I discovered they also had shadow wolves in them! That was super exciting to me to see that we had similar ideas! But her shadow wolves are quite different from mine, which was really awesome; because I loved to see the different types of shadow wolves and that we had similar ideas but wrote them very differently.
 
She is also a really fast writer. It takes her on average 6 weeks to write a book! Wow! That is incredibly impressive! I wish I could write a book that fast! It takes me longer than that to write a chapter! But she has inspired me to try to speed up my writing a little.
 
Lynette is an Aussie award winning author. Her book Whisper won the 2019 Gold Inky Awards which is Australia’s only teen choice award, this one is voted for by teens, so that’s very impressive! She also won the 2019 ABIA Award for Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year.
 
Lynette is always working on new books, she has written The Medoran Chronicles, Whisper Duology she is also currently working on a collaboration with award winning author Sarah J Maas!
 
I cannot wait for Weapon (the sequel to Whisper!!) to be released! Lynette has a habit of leaving her books on a cliff-hanger, I figured that out pretty early, so when I was reading the Medoran chronicles I always made sure I had the next book in the series ready to read before finishing! I recommend that you do the same or you’ll get frustrated and impatient because you WILL NEED ANSWERS!
 
I feel like I’ve been waiting for the release of Weapon forever, I seriously need to know what happens next in this intense duology. Without giving away too much, Whisper is about a girl in a secret government facility who hasn’t spoken a single word in years, it is gripping, compelling mysterious and just when you fall in love with a charter and think you are getting to know them, there are twists and turns that leave you wanting to hate them.
 
If you love Dystopian sci-fi/fantasy/adventure and haven’t read Lynette’s books yet, get onto it, you will love all of her work!
 
 
 
 
 
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Booktoberfest Inspirational author                Jeremy Lachlan

4/10/2019

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 I believe Jeremy Lachlan is a truly inspirational author and someone who all bookworms and lovers of adventure and fantasy should check out because of his Book Jane Doe and the Cradle of All worlds and the protagonist Jane who is very relatable to young girls and a great role model, as she is strong, determined, persistent and will do anything to save her friends & family as well as all the worlds and I LOVE to see books with more strong female leads so young girls have characters they can look up to.

I have met Jeremy before and it was incredible, although I’m not going to lie, I had a huge, ridiculous fan girl moment and I was speechless for a very long time before finally being able to mumble out a few sentences which made me look less than intelligent... It was super embarrassing! He was so kind and kept talking to me even though I  could barely make any noises. All my friends who know me well will know how rare it is for me to be silent.

Jeremy Lachlan is an Aussie, award winning author, Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds has won the 2019 ABIA award. He also attends and runs writing workshops and talks to inspire other young writers & readers which is incredibly inspirational!

I love Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds and highly recommend reading it for kids and adults aged about 8+, there are no sex or drug references, there is a little bit of violence but nothing too gory. It has very strong themes of magic, adventure, overcoming evil and one’s personal issues. It took me 3 days to read this book and I got into trouble for reading it all night instead of sleeping but it was totally worth it! I absolutely couldn’t put it down; it was gripping, thrilling and so action-packed! Jeremy’s use of vivid descriptions and his talent for creating emotional scenes made me feel like I was there, alongside Jane as she ventured through the manor on a quest to rescue her father which then leads to a much bigger and more urgent quest. I fell in love with the main character from the first few paragraphs. I could totally relate to her, as she is the misfit of her town and often had moments where she felt that she didn’t belong and she also had to overcome bullying, feeling excluded and her own insecurities and feelings of unworthiness while also battling the evil villain!
 
I was extremely upset when Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds ended because I knew I had to wait a whole YEAR before the sequel would come out, then when I met Jeremy and pestered him to see when it would be available he let me know that the release has been delayed but it’s all good, I totally forgive him (JK) because we are so close to the release of Jane Doe and the key of all Souls!! I CAN’T WAIT!! As Jane will venture further into the elusive manor while all the souls of the world hang in the balance and if she fails this quest all the worlds will fall.
 
For all fans of fantasy, mystery and action packed adventures with a side of magic and overcoming evil… If you haven’t done it yet, read Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds, then get ready for the release of Jane Doe and the key of all Souls in January 2020!
 
 
 
 
 

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  • Home
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    • Mysteries of Maybelle >
      • About My Mentors
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    • In the Media
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