Happy World Read Aloud Day, 2016!

It's World Read Aloud Day!

World Read Aloud Day is all about celebrating the power of words, and sharing the belief that everyone has the right to literacy. You can find out more about it, and find out how you can participate, on LitWorld's website.

Spreading literacy is really important to me (OBVIOUSLY), so I was really excited to be asked by my publisher to make this video, in which I read one of my favorite sections from my book, Bite Into Bloodsuckers.

I'm really excited to be able to share it with you, and I hope you all enjoy it. Happy World Read Aloud Day!

SHATTER ME and UNRAVEL ME by Tahereh Mafi: Review and giveaway!

My review of the excellent SHATTER ME and UNRAVEL ME by the wonderful Tahereh Mafi!




The giveaway is international, but I have to have 20 or more people enter by midnight on the night of Thursday, April 4th, 2013 or I can't run the contest. (Choosing randomly between one or two people is ridiculous.)

Leave comments here or in the comments section on YouTube to win, and make sure you spread the word!

Monday Musings: On Changing the Status Quo

This is what I've been thinking about lately:




What do YOU think?

Friday-ish Forward: You Are Stardust, by Elin Kelsey and Soyeon Kim

This book is amazing. We borrowed a copy from the library and immediately went out to buy our own copy once we had read it.

Here's my full review:




Happy reading!

Double Book Review Video! DIVERGENT and INSURGENT by Veronica Roth

What the title says. :-)


Happy Saturday!

Monday Musings: On Promises

A few weeks ago, I took The Kidlets on a bit of a treasure hunt. This is what happened:

May you spend this day, this week, this year, working to fulfill your promises.

Have an awesome Monday.

Monday Musings: On Having and Not Having

Two people I know have new books out, and their books share a common theme, so they had a joint book launch. These were my thoughts:





We have so much in the developed world - things that we take for granted every day. Like the ability to speak our minds without persecution, or the ability to go to school and learn to read. The creators of these books are trying to do good things with them. Let's help them out.

Go to this video in YouTube, and click on "Show More" in the description. Then click on the link to Another Story Bookshop's website to order these books. PEN Canada will get some money to help persecuted writers; Because I Am A Girl will get some money so that Ugandan girls can go to school; a wonderful independent bookstore will get some more business; and you'll get two fantastic books. Everybody wins!

Have an awesome Monday.

Monday Musings: On Literacy and Life

I posted this vlog on my YouTube channel "Ishta Mercurio" yesterday as part of my 52 Weeks of Vlogging project. I'll let it speak for itself. :-)

Happy Monday. Happy Reading.

Monday Musings: VOTE ALREADY

So, I spent my Friday night filming my first out-of-country voting experience:





If you follow my tweets, it's pretty obvious who I support. But this vlog isn't about getting you to swing the same way. It's about letting you know that I really believe that things like choosing the President of our country are not things that we should just leave up to everyone else. And when it comes to local issues, like whether to continue a tax levy to fund schools or choosing the next governor of your state, you need to step up, because these things affect you. If you don't care right now, then take a look at your tax bill and think about what that money gets used for. If you think it doesn't affect you, then take a look at your neighbours, because even though it may not affect you, it probably affects them. Learn about the issues. Read the newspaper. Educate yourself.

And vote.

And spread the word!

Happy Monday. :-)

Monday Musings: Heroic Princesses, Body Image, and the Size of Ariel's Butt

Happy Monday!

I've been busy over the weekend learning how to use video-editing software, which I hope will lead to much better quality YouTube videos in the not-too-distant future. But in the meantime, we'll have to settle for ideas over looks.

Which, interestingly, dovetails nicely with my latest vlog:



See you tomorrow, when I'll post my reading of The Elephant's Child in two parts, and announce the book I'll be reading in the lead-up to Halloween. I can't wait!

IshtaReads Rudyard Kipling's How The Leopard Got His Spots, and Explains the Armbands She's Wearing.

So since I wasn't able to vlog until the middle of Thursday night, I made two vlogs back to back. This one was fun - I'm getting more relaxed and having more fun as I do more of these. Hope you enjoy it! My neck is still a bit stiff, and I think it's that huge sucker of a book I've been reading from. Plus, the rest of the stories are all too long for vlog posts. So, my next vlog will be a "rant," but a fun one. I hope you'll join me for it. :-) Later, folks!

Ishta Reads Rudyard Kipling's How The Rhinoceros Got His Skin, Which is Her Favorite Just So Story EVER

I woke up with a very stiff neck on Wednesday, so I wasn't able to blog or write or vlog or do much of anything, really, except lie on my back on the floor and wish I were somewhere where there were no kids and where I had a numb spinal column. Fortunately, I was doing sort-of okay by the evening, but I was still not really in vlogging shape until late (very late) Thursday night, when I did this: I think the hidden moral of this is, "Rhinos are dumb." Because, seriously. Just take off the darn skin and shake out the crumbs already! But whatever. It's still a great story. Thank for watching!

Ishta Reads How The Camel Got His Hump, and finds a surprising geographical link to Amelia Earhart

Hi there! No time today for more than my daily Vid, so here it is: Incidentally, I think the choosing of a landing place no more than half a mile wide and a mile and a half long might not have been the best decision, but it was the biggest thing for miles, so she didn't really have many options. (I suppose the argument can be made that airport landing strips are smaller than that, which is true, but airports are surrounded by roads and fields and other reasonably good landing places in case the pilot makes a mistake, while an island is surrounded by, you know, water, which isn't a very good alternate landing place at all.) Also: you can find all my videos on my youtube channel, IshtaReads. See you there! And see you here tomorrow!

The Brave New World of Vlogging

Okay, so remember last week when I said I was going to do more reading and also some vlogging and that they would be linked?

Well, this is what I was talking about.

Me reading How the Whale Got His Throat, by Rudyard Kipling

This is going to be my new project for a while - a video a day of me reading something short-ish, starting with the Just So Stories, which I really love for their fun spirit, even if they do moralize. (They're products of their time, and they're very imaginative, so I can forgive the moralizing.) This is a new thing for me, and I'm not sure how it's going to go, and I'm not sure what I'm doing or whether I'm doing any of it right, but if you like what I did and want to see more of it, I'd be really grateful if you'd like it/link it/do whatever else you do to spread the word. That would be totally awesome and I would love you forever.

In other news, be sure to stop by Literary Rambles today, where my friend Natalie Aguirre is interviewing a very special young expert in the field of kidlit.

ALSO! There will again be changes to the blog! Daily vids will be linked here, as well as Wednesday Writing posts (which will either be craft-oriented or Query critiques) and Friday Forward posts (which will be reviews of books I've read and liked and sometimes will be giving away). This means TWO POSTS on Wednesdays and Fridays! WOOT! But less about writing in general.

I know. Changes suck. But this change will be a lot better than the last change, which consisted of me not blogging at all for the whole summer. We take what we can get, no?

Hasta Mañana!
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Summer Shenanigans

Wow. So much for "springing back into the swing of things."

So, this summer I realised a few things:

1) Blogging takes up a lot of time;

2) Reading takes up a lot of time;

3) Keeping up with my writer friends takes a lot of time, although I enjoy spending this time;

4) Writing should be taking up more time.

So here's the skinny:

1) Less blogging, more vlogging. More on that very very soon.

2) More reading* and also reviewing**, since it will help with 4 above. Check in with me on Goodreads (link in the sidebar), or here, since I will be copying and pasting reviews to both places.

3) Much more keeping up with writer friends. I can be found at TorKidLit Tweetups on the first Wednesday of every month and at Toronto CANSCAIP meetings on the second Wednesday of every month. If you write books and live in the general vicinity of Toronto, I shall see you there! I'm the tiny lady with glasses who is swamped by her hair.

4)Writing will be taking up more time. Every evening, at least one scene. It might be a half-page scene, but it will be a scene nonetheless. I'm pantsing my way through this thing and the only way to keep it moving forward is to keep moving forward with it.

In other news, Hubbles and I have family and friends in Old Blighty, so we took the kidlets to see the Olympics. YouTube clips and thoughts video (videos? I can't decide) to come soon, linked here.

Also, we're homeschooling, starting tomorrow. I live on the edge, my writerly friends. The edge of sanity.

Until next time!

*Numbers 1 and 2 will be linked in what I hope will be a pleasant and enjoyable surprise. Stay tuned.
**Please don't actually ask me to review your book - I only want to do largely positive reviews, and I only know it will be one of those after I actually read the book, so I'm just going to pick the books I review. But if I know you, and I liked your book even though you had no idea I had even read it, then you might be pleasantly surprised one day. Deal?

Useful YouTube

I'm a little addicted to YouTube. My whole family is, actually; nothing tames a restless toddler at dinnertime like videos of skateboarding bulldogs and baby orangutans waddling around in Pampers. (Think I'm joking? Try it! It works, I'm telling you.) So, I am very pleased to share with you two very useful links to two very useful YouTube videos about publishing, editing, and this whole crazy business.

There's an interesting clip from a panel discussion on researching the competition here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjL0lwmf_8I&NR=1.

And there's a short interview with Alison Janssen, editor at Bleak House Books, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wyXqwWRVmg&feature=related. Check her slush pile!

There seems to be a lot more useful info there in other videos, so stay tuned for updates as I navigate the vast (vast!) selection at one of my favorite websites.

Happy writing, and thanks for stopping by,
Ishta