100 Greatest Family Classics
Directors: Various
Starring: Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Gary Cooper, James Cagney, Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Laurel & Hardy, Cyd Charisse, The Andrews Sisters & Many More!
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
ASIN: B0088JG98M
Pub Date: July 10, 2012
Running Time: 129 Hours
Rating: Unrated

A good family-friendly movie is a rare thing now of days. Mill Creek Entertainment has complied together two of their previous releases, Timeless Family Classics and Classic Musicals, into one unique bundle titled 100 Greatest Family Classics.

I’ve only seen a few musicals, so I was a little skeptical about reviewing Classic Musicals, but the majority of the films have other things going on for them with an occasional song and dance routine thrown into the mix. The fifty movies (on twelve double-sided discs) are from the years 1920s through to 1962; some of the films have aged a lot over the years, while others still look and sound great.

How to Write and Publish a Successful Children’s Book:
Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply
By: Cynthia Resser
Publisher: Atlantic Publishing Group, Inc.
ISBN: 9781601384072
Pub Date: 2010
Pages: 288

    Have you ever wanted to write your own children’s book? Or do you already have a children’s book written, but you don’t know how to get your book published? Cynthia Reeser is the editor-in-chief and the founder of a quarterly literary journal titled Prick of the Spindle and she has written the book How to Write and Publish a Successful Children’s Book to help aspiring writers get their stories and books published. Several of my short stories have been published in various magazines and e-zines, so I was interested in reviewing this book that the Atlantic Publishing Group sent to me free of charge.

    The first few pages asks you to ask yourself, Why Write for Children?” and then takes you into a brief history of children books, in which the first children’s books were written in back in the 1400s. Before you start writing your novel, you should look into the current market place and see what the popular trend is.

Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection 
Artist: Dave Gibbons
Publisher: IDW Publishing
ISBN: 9781613773475 
Ediction: Trade Paperback
Pub Date: September 18, 2012
Pages: 372
List Price: $29.99 USD

NetGalley and IDW Publishing were nice enough to let me view the upcoming paperback release of the Doctor Who Dave Gibbons Collection.

The graphic novels in this collection are:

The Iron Legion; City of the Damned; The Star Beast; The Dogs of Doom; The Time Witch; Dragon's Claw; The Collector; Dreamers of Earth; The Life Bringer; Way of the World; Spider-God; The Deal; The Free Fall Warriors; The Neutron Knights; The Tides of Time; and Stars Fell on Stockbridge.

Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior
Written by: Beverly D. Flaxington
Publisher: ATA Press
ISBN: 9780615272290
Pub Date: Second Edition, Feb. 2010
Pages: 100

We have put men on the moon, we’ve created tiny microchips, and we’ve created the world wide net, but the one thing we can’t figure out is how to understand other people. No one human being is the same, we’re all ordinary with are own personal thoughts and desires. This can make it difficult for us to understand other people, let alone us.

Author Beth D. Flaxington is a corporate consultant, hypnotherapist, a certified behavioral analyst, a college professor and a professional coach. And now she was written Understanding Other People: The Five Secrets to Human Behavior to help us understand what people are saying when they are speaking to us. Understanding human behavior can improve your everyday life, such as getting along with a co-worker or your boss, or understanding your partner or spouse’s needs.

Lose Weight Get Healthy & Be Happy
The Rice Diet is the Right Diet, for you!
By: Douglas Jay Sprung, MD, FACG, FACP, and Denise Sprung, MSW
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578090078
Pub Date: 2011
Pages: 226

The Rice Diet is not a new trend as it was first originated in 1940 by Dr. Walter Kempner. Many people have had life changing transformation by losing weight on this diet. Douglas Jay Spring, MD, FACG, FACP and Denise Spring,, MSW have written a colorful and simply written book for you to use as a guide while you are on your journey to a better and healthier you.

The Rice Diet consists of rice being a staple in your diet, along with fruits and vegetables. When you first start out you’ll spend a short period eating rice and fruit so your body can adjust to the diet. Slowly you’ll add more food to the diet such as vegetables, fish/lean meats, pasta, breads (low-sodium), crackers, and much more.

What’s in a title?

Thinking of titles of romance novels can be so fun! The most fun? Hearing my 11 or 7 year old children ask me, “Mommy, is that Her Wicked Ways?” in reference to my first novel. I admit the first time I muttered, “Uh, yeah,” while suppressing a cringe at having my kids say that out loud. I’ve since learned to embrace them saying it. (But no, they don’t read them!)

 So if a romance title isn’t okay for a kid to say, why are they titled that way? Um, because they’re not for kids? In all seriousness, I love romance titles. I think they’re sexy and provocative, just like the novels they represent. A title with wicked, seduce, passion, or rogue is already halfway in my shopping cart. So how’d I come up with mine?

Believe it or not, Her Wicked Ways titled itself in about five seconds. As soon as I knew who the heroine was and how she was a self-indulgent Society girl banished to the country for misbehaving, Her Wicked Ways just popped straight into my head. I panicked at first because I thought for sure there had to be another romance novel with this title. Why else would it come so quickly to my brain? A quick Internet search told me the title was all mine. There were similar titles out there, but not precisely that one. Easy peasy! (I should note that titles are duplicated all the time—go search Fifty Shades of Grey/Gray and see what I mean! I try not to duplicate, however, especially if a book was released within the last three or so years.)

Then I had to title the next book, which wasn’t terribly difficult, but it didn’t stick. (At least at first. You’ll see how I came full circle.) See, Her Wicked Ways was originally the first in a three book series about siblings Miranda, Gideon, and Jasper. The books were Her Wicked Ways, Their Wicked Bargain, and His Wicked Heart. I ended up shelving Her Wicked Ways and focusing on His Wicked Heart as a stand-alone novel. Since it was no longer going to be part of a series following Her Wicked Ways (or so I thought), I retitled it The Earl’s Obsession. I didn’t love that so I went back to the drawing board. In the meantime I was plotting the book that came after Jasper and Olivia’s story and like Her Wicked Ways, the title came to me like a bolt of lightning. To Seduce a Scoundrel was perfect because the story was about a celibate scoundrel who was going to require seduction. Using that as inspiration, I eventually settled on Surrender of a Scoundrel for book two.