In winter and autumn when the rest of the garden dies, do your garden a favor and add an outdoor water fountain. A pot fountain, nestled in a boulder, adds structure and beauty to the outdoor area. Keep all-season charm in mind when selecting the size and placement of a water garden, chiefly if the material can endure the elements. Even if the water is tapped in the winter, the pot fountain or garden can be a lovely sculptural element.

Best For: Gardeners who prefer all-season concern for their courtyard fountains. A pot fountain or water garden with natural character acts as a focal point when greenery is less prominent and a subtle accent when the garden is in coloration.


A little stand-alone pond on a deck or patio or in a garden can be a stimulating architectural article. Plus: It can be a cheap way to begin working with water plants and possibly even a few fish.

Best For: Gardeners who want to explore into backyard fountain potentials but at a controllable level. A self-confined pond needs more upkeep but also offers more garden prospects.


As a borderline, a small water aspect is a good way to taper off and vividly end a flowerbed. For example, the large boulder assortment can signal a discontinuing point for the planted region that jewels the back patio; it also inspires visitors to admire and stop both the flowers and the stream. The sound of dwindling water adds an attractive element to the neighboring deck.

Best For: Gardeners who need the structural and sound appeal of flowing water but not essentially water plants. A small waterfall can be enclosed by plants but might need to not include water plants.


Particularly for bigger backyard fountains with realistic design, a stream can be an amazing way to encompass backyard fountains and add an extensive sense of adventure to an outdoor space. Garden fountains don't require to be excessively wide, but they can make use of both the hardscape articles such as rocks and a diversity of plants to mix it with the surrounding landscape.

Best For: Gardeners who want to emulate the desire of a woodland stream. As it gurgles and trickles along, a fountain stream can lead visitors to resting spots and secret niches.

JUMANJI: The Complete Animated Series DVD

If you celebrate Christmas, do you feel the need to stop reading anything but Christmas-themed romances as the holiday season starts?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
  

My Answer:

Not really. While I do read a few Christmas-themed books around this time of year, I also read other books.

Now available on Digital HD from HBO Home Entertainment is the 1970s drama The Deuce: The Complete First Season, featuring all 8 episodes. The series will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on February 13, 2018.

The series is set during the early 1970s in New York City's Times Square, The Deuce gives viewers an up-close look at the gritty world of sex and crime, as the porn industry begins its climb to legitimacy, cultural permanence, and billion-dollar profitability.

This eight-episode series, which has a 93% Certified Fresh rating from Rotten Tomatoes, is “Vibrant…relentlessly interesting.” (The New York Times). The DVD and Blu-RayTM include exciting bonus content including exclusive audio commentaries from the cast and crew, including James Franco (Oscar® nominee for 127 Hours), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Oscar® nominee for Crazy Heart), and David Simon (The Wire, Treme, Show Me a Hero), cast interviews on this unique period in history, and more. 

Digital Download Bonus Features Include:

• The Deuce in Focus- Delve inside The Deuce with Michelle MacLaren, James Franco and Roxann Dawson as they talk about bringing the show to life. 

• The Wild West: New York in the Early '70s- Head back in time in this featurette that focuses on the frontier of the pornography business--New York City in the early 1970s--with the cast and crew of The Deuce. Creators David Simon and George Pelecanos plus James Franco and his co-stars open up about this unique period in NYC history as porn moved from the street to the mainstream screen.

• The Deuce: The Complete First Season Digital HD
• 2 Winners
• Sponsored by HBO Home Entertainment
• Must be 18+ age to enter.
• USA Entries Only
• Note: Blogger is responsible for sending the digital code to the winners.
• Digital HD code can be redeemed at: www.hbodigitalhd.com/

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For the first time together in one volume, the complete short story collection starring Sookie Stackhouse—with a new introduction from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the series, Charlaine Harris. 

One viral photo.

Four expelled teens.

Everyone's a suspect.

Theo Foster's Twitter account used to be anonymous--until someone posted a revealing photo that got him expelled. No final grade. No future. No fair.

Theo's resigned to a life of misery working at the local mini-mart when a miracle happens: Sasha Ellis speaks to him. Sasha Ellis knows his name. She was also expelled for a crime she didn't commit, and now he has the perfect way to get her attention: find out who set them up.

To uncover the truth, Theo has to get close to the suspects: the hacker, the quarterback, the mean girl, the vice principal, and his own best friend. What secrets are they hiding? And how can Theo catch their confessions on camera?

Yes, it's difficult to keep up with each and every new title by James Patterson. I didn't hear about the young adult novel Expelled (which is co-written by Emily Raymond) until a few weeks after it was published. I took a chance and requested a review copy from the publisher and to my luck there were still copies available.

Expelled centers on Theo Foster, a teenager who is expelled from high school after a shocking photo went viral on his social media account. However, there is one catch - Theo is completely innocent. Yes, the photo was published from his Twitter account, but he didn't post it!
 
Theo isn't the only student expelled from the school. The high school quarterback, Parker, was kicked out due to the little fact that he's the student who was caught drinking in the now famous photo.  Sasha Ellis was accused of stealing; however, nobody knows she's the girl flashing her boobs in the photo. Theo's best friend, Jude, also got kicked out, but I don't remember exactly why he got expelled.

Theo gets the other kids to agree to do their own investigation on who posted the photo. With the help of another fellow student Felix, they come up with a plan to make a documentary that proves they are all innocent.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Expelled. Sure, it's not exactly perfect, but I thought the teenager characters acted like real teenagers. Unlike Jame Patterson's other books that are aimed toward kids, this one has adult language and some sexual references, so younger readers shouldn't be reading it. Though I do recommend the book for older teenagers/young adults.

Some of you can probably read the title of this post and are probably wondering, "What is an IoT?"

IoT stands for "Internet of things" and refers to the network of devices (home appliances, vehicles, etc.) that are embedded with a network connectivity which gives them the ability to connect and exchange information. "Things" can also refer to other devices, such as live streaming cameras and heart monitoring implants.  These types of devices uses ad-hoc reporting and self-reporting in their software application. Many scholars suggests 'things' as an "inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service."

How is this beneficial for you?

Well, for starters, IoT will reduce day to day to human intervention, which will save you time, energy and money.

Here are three ways IoT Can Make Your Life Easier:

Not everyone has time to drag out the vacuum cleaner and clean your floors after a long, hard day at work. This is when owing a smart robot vacuum can come in handy. A robot vacuum can be programmed to clean your floors even when you're not even at home.

How does it work?

Robot vacuums have multiple sensors which helps it scan the environment around it. The vacuum will send the environmental data to its microprocessor. You can control a smart robot vacuum through an app that can you download onto your smartphone or tablet. Additionally, you can run a diagnostics to check the status of vacuum's cleaning tools.

Gilead Publishing; 224 pages; Buy Link; Blog Tour

I'm not only read two books today, but both of the titles have are set around Christmas. I read the novella The Gift of Christmas Past by Cindy Woodsmall & Erin Woodsmall early this morning (read my review here), and the this afternoon I read Christmas at Grey Sage by Phyllis Clark Nichols.

The novel centers on a retired doctor, Silas, and his wife, Maude, who run the Grey Stage Inn, which is nestled in the snow-covered Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe. Normally, they close down the inn for two weeks around Christmastime and take a trip, but this year they agree to host a few visitors who are visiting Santa Fe for Christmas.

Out of the blue, an unexpected snowstorm hits Santa Fe, causing Silas, Maude, and all their guests to be stuck inside the inn for Christmas. As the storm gets worse, tension and fear mounts all around them.

Now available to purchase on Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes & Noble is the novel The Chaos Stories by Charles O'Keefe.



The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule to talk about his newest book.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I think it started for me when I was 13, back then I had this crazy idea that I could write the script for video games (and my friend would do the art). I think we did up at least one game, maybe two. It helped that year that I had a teacher I really liked who got the class to do some interesting writing assignments, showed me how to be a better writer and used to lend out comic books for me to read. The other big encouragement was I start playing Dungeons and Dragons then as well, which is a great way to stimulate anyone's imagination.

What was your first book/story published?

It was a long time before I got motivated enough (and organized) to do any serious writing. My first book was published in April of 2012 (I was 36). This was with Penumbra Publishing (who are sadly now gone) and I had been working on the book off and on for about 8 years. Even once it was accepted I was still waiting about 7 months for it to be published, I used my time wisely and had the rough draft of book 2 done by then.

What inspired you to write "The Chaos Stories"?

I had always loved to read short-stories and I had written a few before (I was lucky enough to even have one published at the back of a novel that Penumbra published). I had been reading a lot of short stories beforehand (along with Stephen King's book on writing) and to be honest I find I need to write, With three books published (all vampire) I was ready for a change. I know it sounds corny but my own life and my desire to write is all I need for inspiration.

What character in "The Chaos Stories" is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

That's an easy one for me. About 40% of the book is deleted scenes from my vampire books and one those characters, Joseph, is a younger version of me. That doesn't mean he's identical to me, I'm in my 40s and Joseph will be forever in his 20s physically (since he's a vampire). Joseph also makes different choices than me, never takes over the family business, never gets married, doesn't age, drinks blood and of course often has fights to the death with other vampires. Seriously though, Joseph does have most of the same ideas and principles I do, he's just a little more extreme and outspoken than me, I've mellowed out somewhat as I've gotten older. I agree with him on lots of things, we're both vegetarian, both against animal cruelty and hunting, both big geeks, we both enjoy nature, love women, always been fascinated with red heads, both love literature and both have strong family ties. Also, like Joseph, I often felt alone in my early 20s and longed for companionship, the big difference is how I met my girlfriend (now wife) and how now I enjoy time to myself more than I ever did in my 20s. He represents ultimately what my life could have been if I had made different choices and if vampires were real.

What is your favorite part in "The Chaos Stories"?

There is a moment in "Footprints Part 1" where Marlon, one of the main characters, makes two impossible shots with a rifle. He is blindfolded and still manages to hit two cans hundreds of feet away. I loved how it was something that actually could happen but is so unlikely that it means his skill is beyond human. It's a small thing in the story but it means a lot, when Marlon makes these kinds of insane shots he is indeed using a supernatural power. This supernatural power comes at a cost, when he uses it evil energy follows him and bad things can happen. It is also something that was originally not in the story and a great example of why you need to a good editor to make a story even better and more cohesive.

What was the hardest part to write?