Posts Tagged ‘competition’
Backs are important
Backs are sort of important, they’re the cornerstone of your whole body and when things go wrong with them then you’re in trouble. I have an uncomfortable relationship with my back and see the physio regularly for a tune up.
Just wondering
The last six months or so I’ve been wondering how much longer I’d be able to continue with the books and I’ve tried to minimize the number of books I buy and maximize the number I sell in an effort to reduce my stock and this has worked to a small extent but I still have a lot of books and at the rate I’m selling I have enough stock for at least 20 years without actually buying any more. The problem is my back and with the amount of trouble I’ve had in the past few weeks I’m thinking I really need to stop trying to earn money by selling something heavy which aggravates the whole back thing.
I have been anticipating this as while I only admit to being 18 I do realise I’m not and am feeling the effects of age, I started the process of repositioning my blog to try and make money with other means, you will have noticed the recent competition. I’m also attempting to sell my proofreading and writing skills, hopefully a part time job will be on the horizon as well as other income streams. I’m hoping something will work.
I was very careful, took all my pain meds and did so little around the house and I was given clearance to do the market only two days prior on the understanding other people help me with the boxes. I was worried my physio might tell me I have to stop lifting boxes of books completely. I thought I might be forced to get rid of them all very quickly, thank goodness everything I didn’t do paid dividends and I am back to my normal aches and pains.
How do I feel about this?
Mostly relieved, I am getting very sick of having books all around, there are so many boxes and I’d really like to tidy up and move on. There is a little regret as some of my books are worth quite a bit and I’d hate to give them away but if I keep any part of the selling I will slip back into having lots of books so I’m developing a clear plan to get rid of all of the books I have to sell and only keeping the ones I want to keep or read. That will still be far too many and will add a couple of boxes to my already groaning shelves but I will be getting rid of books as I read them and will be focussed on not keeping them unless they’re ones I want to read again. Having said that I am finding it problematic to find a buyer for the part-work magazines and as I don’t want to just give them away to an op shop who might not see the value in them and send them for pulping I have decided to keep them going for the time being. I guarantee it will be interesting continuing to look for part-work magazines and the few books I want to flesh out my collections while not buying other books to sell.
How can you help?
Go through the stock listed on the website, buy what you want and then email me your list of wanted books as I have at least a thousand books still uncatalogued, I will give you a good price and reduce postage if I can. By this time next year I anticipate being totally clear of books to sell.
What am I resigning from?
Just selling books. I still plan on writing the blog, Mondayitis will continue and Squid Ink will continue for as long as he is capable. I will be continuing to bug people on Twitter but I’m not certain about the Facebook page, it does have a cool name, I Like Books is awesome but people don’t really seem to be as interested in it and while I’ll be diverging a little most of my focus will remain on books.
Freedom
This will give me the freedom to speak on a wider range of topics so you will read more about current affairs and my thoughts on them. Until now I’ve felt I really had to focus mainly on books and bookish related topics.
Geleez Competition – Write a story
I mentioned a while ago I would be starting to do reviews of toys for the kidlets, this is my first attempt and it includes a competition. Wherever possible I will include some element of education in my competitions and will endeavour to make it about reading or writing.
Geleez are aimed at primary school children, they are DIY stickers and come complete with the reusable stickers and some gel ‘pens’. My kidlets are adult so I had to steal someone else’s for the exercise. I popped a sheet of paper in a laminating pouch with one for each child, they brought their creativity and away we went.
Three children aged between five and seven sat down at a table and opened the packs. That was a bit of a struggle, scissors and parents came in handy, don’t expect to use the cardboard afterwards for something else. The packs are complete with reusable stickers, ‘pens’ and some other bits and pieces to help make things beautiful. Here’s a picture of the ‘pens’.
You can see one sticker being restuck in the following photo, it was stuck down several times before she was happy with placement with no lack of stickability.
All three kids had a ball and created very different scenes. Now to the competition. The prize is two Geleez packs comprising the Geleez Designer Studio at about $30 (includes a work station to help keep things neat and tidy) and Butterfly World at about $20, with 3D butterflies to colour in -lots of fun. If your child doesn’t win the competition then they’d still make great presents, they kept these children relatively quiet and happy for about an hour and they’ll get more fun out of them the next day after the gel has dried as they can then put the stickers elsewhere, again, and again etc.
Show the scenes shown below to your child and ask them to write a story in words, they can choose either one scene or write a story about all three. Type this story into the comments section below along with their age, there are two sets to be won and I will choose one from upper primary and one from lower primary. Competition open to primary school aged Australian residents only. Closing date is the 24th July 2012. I will be choosing the winners based on creativity but not based on grammar or correct spelling. The winner will be announced on the 26th July 2012.
Scene 1
Scene 2
Scene 3
Maybe your child will be a published author one day with this as their first story. Who can read the future, all I ask is that you let their creativity run wild.
Thank you to Moose Enterprise for allowing me to use someone else’s kids and have fun.
Geleez Competition – Write a story!
I mentioned a while ago I would be starting to do reviews of toys for the kidlets, this is my first attempt and it includes a competition. Wherever possible I will include some element of education in my competitions and will endeavour to make it about reading or writing.
Geleez are aimed at primary school children, they are DIY stickers and come complete with the reusable stickers and some gel ‘pens’. My kidlets are adult so I had to steal someone else’s for the exercise. I popped a sheet of paper in a laminating pouch with one for each child, they brought their creativity and away we went.
Three children aged between five and seven sat down at a table and opened the packs. That was a bit of a struggle, scissors and parents came in handy, don’t expect to use the cardboard afterwards for something else. The packs are complete with reusable stickers, ‘pens’ and some other bits and pieces to help make things beautiful. Here’s a picture of the ‘pens’.
Geleez Pens in Hand
You can see one sticker being restuck in the following photo, it was stuck down several times before she was happy with placement with no lack of stickability.
Reusable stickers
All three kids had a ball and created very different scenes. Now to the competition. The prize is two Geleez packs comprising the Geleez Designer Studio at about $30 (includes a work station to help keep things neat and tidy) and Butterfly World at about $20, with 3D butterflies to colour in -lots of fun. If your child doesn’t win the competition then they’d still make great presents, they kept these children relatively quiet and happy for about an hour and they’ll get more fun out of them the next day after the gel has dried as they can then put the stickers elsewhere, again, and again etc.
These are for the kids
Show these scenes to your child and ask them to write a story in words. Type this story into the comments section below along with their age. Competition open to primary school aged Australian residents only. Closing date is the 4th July 2012.
Maybe your child will be a published author one day with this as their first story. Who can read the future, all I ask is that you let their creativity run wild.
Thank you to Moose Enterprise for allowing me to use someone else’s kids and have fun.
TruckDogs – Graeme Base
Introducing Sparky - a cross between a Jack Russell and a Ute
Graeme Base is best known for his books that transcend the generations, they are very artistically and beautifully drawn masterpieces with just enough words for reading. He was born in England and moved here when he was eight, I think we’ll keep him. I picked up TruckDogs as I was curious about his writing, there isn’t a lot of text in his most famous books, Animalia and The Eleventh Hour.
I loved this book. It’s a great little story with a moral to it. The description goes like this:
In a far-off desert world remarkably similar to outback Australia, evolution has taken an unexpected turn. The dominant life form is a creature covered in fur but with living steel panels beneath. It gnaws on bones and sniffs lampposts but fills up on oil, brake fluid and petrol. And it’s wonerfully clever with its wheels and wing mirrors – able to do just about anything, in fact – which is lucky since it hasn’t got any arms or legs.
It’s an animal with an engine. Or is it a car with floppy ears and a wet nose?
This is the world of TruckDogs.
To me this book felt like the first of many. It has wonderful characters, a lovely little town and TruckDogs moving between this town and other far-flung places. It’s just the book to spark the imagination of a young person of whatever age. Base has matched the story with some lovely drawings and specifications of the TruckDogs so you get a really good idea of what they look like and how they’re likely to act.
You could be the proud owner of this book. Make a comment on this review anytime between now when I go to bed on Saturday 31st March. Your comment could be words or it could be a drawing delegated to your young person. If it’s a drawing I suggest you host it on Photobucket or similar and just give me the url. I will put all entries into the back of a truck, if I can find one, or failing that I’ll use a hat and get someone to pull one out at random. This competition is restricted to Australian residents only.
Just so you know, this book is pre-loved, the book itself has almost no wear but the dustjacket shows some crumpling.
Maybe I could get my Mum’s cat to choose the winner, he is very clever.
Competition Winner!
I neglected to mention you needed to post a comment on this blog in order to be entered into the competition so I’ve had to be rather liberal about where the entries were posted. All the entries were fabulous and it took some time to pick one. MinzBeads has managed to sneak in more than one and picked them from several different age groups so the prize is yours. All I need is a mailing address. Congratulations!
The Peace Garden – Lucy Sussex
Just for a bit of a change of pace I thought I’d review a book I picked up this afternoon. It’s a children’s book so didn’t take too long to read. It was Lucy Sussex’s first fiction novel.
I first heard of Sussex last year when I attended AussieCon 4, fourth World Science Fiction convention to be held in Australia, in 2010. I attended a panel and I forget the correct title but I think it was about Australian female horror writers, Sussex was on the panel. When I saw the book I knew I had to read it and see what made her so good.
The Peace Garden is a fairly ordinary patch of land in a fairly ordinary town in Australia surrounded by ‘interesting’ people. Holly is shuffled between her separated parents, it’s currently the holidays and she’s with her mother and step-father. Despite being only 11 she’s left on her own a lot of the time and finds her way to The Peace Garden. It doesn’t remain peaceful for long as two people decide they want to lease it for their own purposes. Holly finds herself in the middle of all this, bringing together the misfit children in the town and helping find a resolution that suits almost everyone.
I like the writing, I found it very easy to read. Some of the misfit children seem to be misfits more because of their parents rather than due to their own behaviour and Holly seems to bring out the best in them. The language is uncomplicated and the concepts are easily understood by someone with a reading age of about 11, but if they’re reading above their age I’d still recommend it.
There are lessons in this book. Never judge a book by it’s cover being the biggest. One of the children, Gawaine (he prefers Gary) has a mohawk and ‘intriguing’ clothes but he turns out to be the nicest person, Bridie is in a wheelchair and can’t speak but when Holly starts talking to her we find she is lovely, bright and quite capable. Another lesson is that there’s always a better idea, one that can include many more people.
One thing I found quite interesting, I waited the whole book to see if it would be followed up, were a couple of possible horror motifs. They weren’t followed up. Sussex had the choice to make it into a horror story but chose, instead, to make it into a lovely story about children helping the whole town to win in the nicest possible way.
Because I loved this book so much I’m going to give it away. I reread that sentence and it doesn’t really make sense but that’s tough. It’s too young for my kids so I want someone else to have it for theirs. Tell me your favourite childhood book and why you liked it so much. You have until 5pm Tuesday 21st January. Your time starts…now!
Lots of Woot!!!!
Yes, I did need that many exclamation marks, seriously. Last Thursday night during #spbkchat, the Twitter chat for all things bookish based in the South Pacific region, I received a phone call that made me very excited, so excited I couldn’t concentrate on anything she was saying as I was just trying to get my head around the content. It was just lots of Woot!!!! I’ll take you back in time a bit and try to do things in a some sort of logical order.
The end of last month I wrote about my dilemma with ereaders, tablets or neither and I’ve just realised how appropriate that date was. I was trying to make a decision on how I was going to take reading matter to NZ for a three week trip. Liss of Frills in the Hills rang me and made the decision very simple. She told me I’d won an iPad2. It took ages for her to convince me I’d won and looking at the machine I still don’t quite believe it. I even had to ask her the name of her blog as I was so dazed I missed it when she introduced herself, not to mention the fact that I’d entered and promptly forgotten about it. I knew I’d never win so didn’t bother to remember when, where or how I’d entered. Liss was very patient with me while my head span and I freaked out.
The competition was sponsored by Rocketman Media and their new product RocketFuel and I’m entirely grateful to Jessie from Rocketman Media for dealing with me so gently while I freaked out when it didn’t arrive on the day she said. Looking back at both websites I did actually remember entering the competition and then following through to have a look at the RocketFuel website, I’ll be going back for another look when time permits and possibly even to sign up.
The family have been terribly excited and my youngest ended up taking delivery as I wasn’t here when it arrived. I knew she was excited as she sent me a text, rang me, sent me an email, wrapped the box in ribbon and left me a note. Here’s the picture to prove it.
She's not excited, I'm sure.
I’m planning on installing lots of book apps and putting in as many books as I can. I used it for the #spbkchat Twitter chat last night just because I could. I can’t thank both Frills in the Hills and Rocketman enough for fuelling my addiction to Twitter and making my decision totally irrelevant!
The reason the date I blogged was so appropriate? It’s the date the competition closed. I do wonder if I’ve entered any other iPad competitions and forgotten about them.
Books with possible problems
I know this is old news as Skip McGrath blogged about it in May, but you should know by now that I don’t always give you this information at the time of publishing. You can look at his blog for further details, but basically he’s blogged about a guy in America who forged signatures of popular authors and then sold them for inflated prices on eBay.
I do want to reassure my readers I do not condone the practice of forging signatures or misrepresenting books in any way. If a book has a signature and I can’t verify it I will mention that in the listing and price it accordingly so you know what you’re getting. If a book is not a collectable title and is in really terrible condition I will commit the cardinal sin of throwing it in the recycling. Yes, sometimes I do get books in such condition but only when I buy in bulk and can’t vet all of those books before taking them home so sometimes I will bring home a book in dreadful condition. There is the odd exception for very collectable books and Beebo is one such exception. They are very collectable and there are very few of this title listed on the internet. It’s in such poor condition that I’ve priced it very low.
I was very lucky one day with a book I listed on spec on eBay. When I picked it up to list it the cover fell off and I debated throwing it out, but the book was in a collectable series and so I listed it for 99c thinking if it didn’t sell I would only have lost 30c. The book had multiple bids and ended up selling for a very nice price so I upgraded to registered post at my expense.
Anyway, I feel a ramble coming on so I’ll stop here and leave you with a final reminder for the current competition.
Don’t forget, today is the last day to make your comment and enter the competition. I’ll be announcing the winner in the newsletter tomorrow.