srmcevoy

04 May 2010 @ 02:01 pm

Update - Top 10 Fiction Books of the 1st Quarter 2010

Have not posted here in a while.

Top 10 fiction books of the first quarter of 2010 are:

1. Geektastic - Holly Black & Cecil Castellucci
2. Thirteen Days to Midnight - Patrick Carman
3. Rose Sees Red - Cecil Castellucci
4. The Poison Eaters - Holly Black
5. White Cat - The Curse Workers Book 1 - Holly Black
6. Lockdown - Escape from Furnace Book 1 - Alexander Gordon Smith
7. The Hunchback Assignments - Arthur Slade
8. The Clone Codes - The McKissacks
9. The Haunting of Derek Stone Books 1-4 - Tony Abbott
10. Iorich - Steven Brust

Looking forward to some of the new stuff coming out over the summer, and don't forget to check out the Scholastic summer reading challange.

Peace and Strength!
Yours, learning to be
Steven R. McEvoy

http://mcevoysmusings.ca My Homepage
http://bookreviewsandmore.ca My Blog
http://www.linkedin.com/in/srmcevoy LinkedIN
http://twitter.com/SRMcEvoy Twitter

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"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it."
- Leo Rosten

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25 October 2008 @ 12:59 pm

Asking for Help

Asking for help.

I have always had a hard time asking for and accepting help. I know it is a personal character defect and have been working on it. I once had a friend accuse me of robbing others of the blessing of giving, because I would not ask for help to go on a retreat even though over the few years prior to that I had sponsored others going.

Well It is time to ask for help again. As some of you know I was off work for 30 months with an injury, that took place at work. I am thankful that I have retrained and am now employed fulltime. You can read my three part series called From Injury Back to Work Again. However we are still feeling the financial stress that time off work caused, and the emotional stress the financial causes.

The time off work was both a blessing and a trial. It was hard because of the stresses of the injury and dealing with the pain. It was a blessing because I was able to attend mass almost every day, I was able to pray the whole rosary each day. But as the time went from months to years spiritually it became very tiring. Spiritually and emotionally it became a desert. We also had our first two children during my tire off work, which added both blessings and greater financial stress.

We have 2 children 2 and under and my wife is now back to work evenings and weekends. But it will take a while for us to fully recover from my time off work. So if you can see your way to help support this blog adventure Book Reviews and More we would greatly appreciate it. So thank you in advance for both your prayers and any financial aid is much treasured.

If your willing and able to help it would be appreciated. There is a paypal donate button on my sidebar, and on my original version of this post.

Current Location: Den

Current Music: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

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08 September 2007 @ 11:45 pm

2nd Anniversary of my first blog.

I have written a post about the 2nd Anniversary of my primary blog. stop by and check out my rambling attempt to explain the past two years of my life.

Current Mood:

frustrated

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10 August 2007 @ 11:56 pm

2 Months

It's been 2 months since I posted here. I have posted on my blog and published about 12 articles in that time ... but still I dont see to keep much or a journal either here or online anymore.

Much the pity. I have 33e volume's of hard bound journals since the august of 94' But not really much lately in either format. Sorry!

Steven

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12 June 2007 @ 04:58 pm

?

It seems like I don't actually post here much. Between writing for Imprint and my blogs, I don't seem to keep a personal journal. Yet I like having the account to post on other people's accounts. So I need to keep it alive.

Steven

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03 February 2007 @ 09:41 pm

Overwhelmed by Kindness.

I have been overwhelmed by an author's kindness. last year when i reviewed one of her books and wrote an Author profile of her we started emailing. She knows I have been off work for 18 months with a torn rotator cuff, and had surgery last October. That time off has given me so much extra time for reading and writing. She recently asked how things were progressing. The surgeon last week gave me 4 more months off work, but that is at drastically reduced our income. I shared this with her and this is what she posted on her blog http://shaidle.blogmatrix.com/:entry:shaidle-2007-02-04-0000/ I am sitting here in awe and overwhelmed.

Peace and Strength!
Yours, learning to be
Steven R. McEvoy

http://mcevoysmusings.ca My Homepage
http://bookreviewsandmore.ca My Complete Blog
http://mcevoysmusingsblog.ca The Catholic and Christian Reviews

Current Location: The Den

Current Mood: shocked

shocked

Current Music: George Thorogood - Get a Haircut and a Real Job.

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27 December 2006 @ 04:42 pm

(no subject)

New Year's Resolutions:

I tend not to be the kind of person to make New Year's resolutions. In part, it is because I live on school time. With three terms a year, I tend to review my goals at the end of a term and set new ones at that time. I also do a monthly personal accountability and set mini goals each month, based upon my success in the last month in each of the areas of body, mind and spirit. (See Accountability Chart)

This year, however, is different. I usually read for 2 hours a day. Now, in the last month alone, there were 3 days where I did not get any reading time in. With the accountability sheet I have developed, I make major changes each year - drop items that are no longer needed and become habits, or add items that are new priorities for me.

The other thing I do is journal - usually at the beginning of each term - so about 3 times a year. I journal based on questions from a Science Fiction show called Crusade which was a spin off of Babylon 5. Each episode of Crusade began with a series of questions being asked by the narrator to the Captain. They were:

Why are you?
What do you want?
Who do you trust?
Who do you serve?
Where are you going?

I find by taking a page in my journal and spreading these 5 down the margin and then answering them a few times a year, I can usually keep my focus and goals in sight.

I find that as I get older, I really like lists. I have quite a few of them that I use in various forms and means. The daily goals I have been using as guidelines for living are:
1. To get enough sleep.
2. To eat right & exercise daily.
3. To refuse to be a perfectionist.
4. To carefully control finances.
5. To ask for help when needed.
6. To pray and read the Bible daily.
7. To not pressure self into planning
entire life today.
And then there are principles to live by, which I got from a book by Dr. James Macdonald, which are as follows:

Eight Principles to Live Your Life by:

1. I will do all things as unto the lord.
2. I will live in the light of the judgment seat of Christ.
3. I will consider my weaker brother in all I do.
4. I will do nothing unless I'm sure that it's right to do.
5. I will do all things to the glory of my God.
6. I will avoid what may appear wrong even if I know it's not.
7. I will abstain from things that could enslave me.
8. I will seek always to do what I believe Jesus would do.
With these three sets of guiding questions or goals, I have been fairly happy with my progress so far.

However a lot of that changed this year. This is the first time I have been off work for more than a year since I was 13. I have worked fulltime since I was 16 and this is such a change for me. I have tried to use my time well; I have tried to volunteer more, spending more time on Campus, writing for Imprint and doing other stuff on campus. This year I have read 200 books, which is the most since back in high school. I tend to average about 125 a year. But my life is changing. I am heading into my 4th year of married life, and we have a 15-week old baby now. Life really changes with children.

I used to think I knew about love, being married and having many great friends. Yet when I hold Abby and look into her small face and see her looking up at me, I feel love and responsibility in a whole new way and level.

So what does all of this have to do with New Year's resolutions? Well this year I am making some. Since I have been off work 16 months with an injury, and just had surgery 10 weeks ago, I have gained over a 1/4 of my pre-injury body weight. I have set the goal of losing 50 lbs by the end of June to get back to where I was before the injury. I can now use the treadmill again for exercise, and though there is still often pain, it is not as bad as before the surgery. I am also setting the goal of reading to Abby every day. I would also like to try to write an article for at least every other issue of Imprint and make at least every other production night.

I have just sold my first article to a US newspaper and would really like to work on the craft of writing this term. In the last year and a half, I have published over 50 book reviews and articles in 5 different publications. This year I want to try to publish in a few more publications but care less about the volume.

My goals are to be a good man, a good husband and a good father. I think the activities listed above - the journaling, staying healthy in body, mind and spirit - will help those goals. I want to be a better friend to the people in my life. I want to give back for all the blessings that have been poured out upon me. So yes, this year I will be setting some New Year's resolutions. I will let you know how it goes.

Tags: accountability, goals, imprint, new year's resolutions, publishing, writing

Current Location: The Den

Current Mood: chipper

chipper

Current Music: R.L. Burnside - Burnside on Burnside

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20 December 2006 @ 02:50 am

The Den

These are pictures of my den from about a year ago. This is where I spend most of my time, reading, writing, working out ....

Tags: books, den, nalgene, rosary, weights

Current Location: The Den

Current Mood: excited

excited

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20 December 2006 @ 02:33 am

LJ Blogger and FTP Blogger

I was asked why I dont post on LJ, and to be honest I am not sure, I am debating with myself beginning to and using it as a personal blog. I have 2 blogs and about a dozen websites I currently maintain for myself and for others, the complete list can be seen at http://mcevoysmusings.netfirms.com but I have 2 book blogs, one is all my reviews and literary ramblings and such with cover art and one is text only and only the Christian reviews. The can be seen respectively at http://bookreviewsandmore.ca and http://mcevoysmusings.blogspot.com I created an LJ account so that I could comment on friends blogs here at LJ. So who knows maybe you will see more from me here in the future.

Tags: blogger, ftp blog, livejournal, websites

Current Location: The Den

Current Mood: tired

tired

Current Music: Bif Naked

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