Disney; TV-Y; 96 minutes; Amazon

Now available on DVD from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is Minnie: Helping Hearts, featuring 8 Happy Helpers episodes. There are no special features or extras on the single disc.

The 11-minute Happy Helpers episodes air as the second half the Mickey and the Roadster Racers, a computer-animated children series that airs on Disney Junior. The Roadster Racers segments involves Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Minnie racing around their town Hot Dog Hills and the world. The Happy Helpers segments centers on Minnie, Daisy, and Cuckoo-Loc helping the citizens of Hot Dog Hills with odd jobs.

Since Valentine's Day is next week, the Minnie: Helping Hearts DVD does contains one Valentine's Day episode called "The Happiest Helpers Cruise!," which centers on the Minnie and Daisy taking a job as cruise directors on the Hot Dogs Hills Harbor Cruise.

The other seven episodes are:

The Big Broadcast - Minnie and Daisy cover for Billy Beagle as race announcers, as he races against the Roadster Racers.

Adventures In Buddysitting! - After the Hot Dog Hills Play Center closes for a day, the Happy Helpers babysits several kids, including a shy goat named Buddy McBilly.

Lights! Camera! Help! - The Happy Helpers are hired to be assistants to a movie star named Portia DeHoun.

Grandpa Beagle's Day Out - Billy Beagle hires the Happy Helpers to babysit his grandfather, Grandpa Beagle.

Artful Helpers - The Happy Helpers fill in as the security staff for the Fancy Art Museum. Their main job is to guard the Mona Goof painting.

Cuckoo LA-LA - Cuckoo-Loc's cousin, Cuckoo La-La, asks the Happy Helpers to assist her in the upcoming fashion show.

Figaro's New Friend - The Happy Helpers are more than glad to babysit Pluto for an entire day, but Minnie's cat Figaro isn't too happy about Pluto's visit.

Getting a good night's sleep is not always an easy thing to do, as many of us have many things on our minds. Stress is the #1 factor in why I have so many restless nights.

Recently, I was sent a bottle of Dream Elements Calming Pillow Spray to test out and review. It's basically an aromatherapy spritz that you spray on your pillow prior to going to sleep.

It contains several different essential oils that is supposed to help give you a relaxing sleep environment, which will make you sleep better.

Ingredients include: Aqua (Deionized Water), Polysorbate-20, Citrus Aurantium Dulcis (Orange) Oil, Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil, Canange Odorata (Ylang Ylang) Flower Oil, Vetivera Zizanoides (Vetiver) Oil, Chamomilla Recutita (Chamomile) Oil), Sodium Benzoate, and Potassium Sorbate.

Universal Pictures; PG; 94 minutes

Yep! There's a Woody Woodpecker movie! Don't worry if you have never heard of it before, because most of us haven't. The live-action/3D animated film was released to theaters in Brazil last fall. It skipped the theaters in the United States and instead it's being released on DVD, Digital, and On Demand today from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment on February 6th.

Directed by Alex Zamm, the film stars Timothy Omundson, Jakob Davies, Thaila Ayala, Graham Verchere, Jordana Largy, Emily Holmes, and Eric Bauza voices Woody Woodpecker.

Created by Walter Lantz and Ben Hardaway, Woody Woodpecker first appearance was in the 1940 animated short Knock Knock. The character's last appearance was in the short-lived animated series The New Woody Woodpecker Show (1999-2002).

The new Woody Woodpecker movie centers on Lance Walters (played by Tim Omundson), a lawyer who was recently fired from his job. To make some quick cash, he decides to travel to the Pine Grove forest in Pennsylvania, where he had inherited some land from his late grandfather. He plans on building and flipping a modern designed mansion. He travels to Pine Grove with his much younger girlfriend Vanessa (played by Thaila Ayala) and his son Tommy (played by Graham Verchere), who he got stuck with at the last minute after his ex-wife convinces him to spend more time with their son.

Let's just say the locals and the park ranger, Samantha Bartlett (played by Jordana Largy) don't care for the construction zone in their forest. And one the forest's inhabitants, Woody Woodpecker, doesn't care for the fact that the construction zone is near his home, and he will do everything it takes to protect it.

Special Features include:

• Guess Who? The Evolution of Woody - Woody Woodpecker is one of the world’s most iconic animated characters. In this featurette, we explore how Woody’s look and personality have changed since his introduction in 1940.
• The Making of Woody Woodpecker - Filmmakers and cast discuss why this version of the Woody character is so appealing and how his brand of physical humor translates across audiences.
• Working with Woody - Filmmakers, cast and crew reveal the specific challenges of filming a movie whose main character is CGI.

Do you prefer to blog about (a) specific book genre(s), or do you have an eclectic blog?

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:

I like a wide range of book genres, from crime mysteries to Amish romances. I guess you could say my blog is eclectic.

Bethany House; 464 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Since I'm up late at night drinking a cup of coffee, I decided to write my review for The Legacy by Michael Phillips, which is the third novel in the Secrets of the Shetlands series.  I had read this last year, but never got around to writing the review for it; so here I am finally writing my thoughts about it.

The Legacy continues the story of Loni Ford, a woman from Washington, D.C., who believes she has inherited some property from a long-distant relative in the Shetland Islands. However, upon arriving she learns she's inherited the entire island of Whales Reef!

Let's just say that the locals don't care much for her, as they would have preferred the island to be left in the hands of David Tulloch. To make a long story short, David and Loni fell in love towards the end of the second book, The Cottage. While the characters are front and center in The Legacy, there's another love story here; one that involves Lori's great-grandparents, Brogan Tulloch and Emily Hanson.

PG; 29 hours 25 minutes; $14.98

I think I need to have my head examined, as I could of sworn that I had already written a review for Sheena: Queen of the Jungle Collection DVD set, but to my own dismay, I was completely wrong.

Anyway, the Sheena: Queen of the Jungle Collection DVD set was released to DVD last fall by Mill Creek Entertainment. The six disc set features the 1984 feature film Sheena and all 35 episodes from the 2000-2002 series. As added bonus, there are five episodes from the 1955-1956 series Sheena: Queen of the Jungle.

Created by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, Sheena first debuted as a comic book character in by Fiction House during the late 1930s. The character was basically the female version of Tarzan. Sheena was forced to grow up in the African jungle after her parents were killed. she has the ability to communicate with animals, and spends most her time saving the jungle from bad guys.

Sheena was turned into a short-lived television series starring model Irish McCalla, which wasn't well received by critics or viewers. Sheena wouldn't get a feature film movie until 1984's Sheena, which was directed by John Guillermin and starred Tanya Roberts as the queen of the jungle. Despite a decent budget, the film was held down by a campy, uneven script. Upon it's release, it became a critical and box-office flop. It was even nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards! However, like most films from the 1980s, Sheena has found a cult following over the years.

Sheena was revived as a television series in 2000 starring Gena Lee Nolin, but thanks to cheap special effects, bad scripts, and wooden acting, the series only lasted two seasons.

Now available to purchase on Amazon from Montlake Romance is Storm Crossed, book 4 in the Grimm Series, by Dani Harper.



What's your writing routine? Do you write in the mornings, nights, daily, or when the mood strikes you?

Mornings are often the best, right around 5:30 or 6. I can write for a long stretch then. I think it’s because my brain is awake (yes, I’m one of those annoying “morning people” – providing there’s COFFEE!). The rest of the day, writing has to compete with daily life. Lately, my brain has been getting a “second wind” for a writing stretch at around 8:00 at night, and my hubs kindly puts on earphones to listen to the TV so I can have some quiet time.

When I’m not writing, however, I’m always, always, ALWAYS thinking about the story.

What’s the most difficult thing about writing for you?

Physically, it’s making sure that I get up from the laptop regularly and move around! Luckily I have a flock of chickens that get me outdoors a few times a day. I also spend time daily on my exercise bike – I look forward to it because I allow myself to read my favorite novels there! Needless to say, I often end up biking much longer than planned…

As far as the actual writing goes, the trouble starts when the characters abandon the storyline I’d so carefully planned, and head off in another direction. I often feel like I’m running after them, yelling “Wait, I thought we were going to do (fill in the blank)” or “Hey, you can’t do that!” Sometimes I end up written into a corner for a while… It all works out in the end, thank goodness, as soon as I stop struggling and really listen to my characters. They often take the story to places I hadn’t even imagined. They surprise me, and the story is better for it.

What’s your favorite non-essential item on your desk?

I’ve always loved things that make me smile – stuffed chickens, ceramic gnomes, space aliens, rubber brains, etc. But ever since I started the Grim series, I’ve noticed more metaphysical and fantasy items have made a home for themselves on my desk: crystals and rocks, decks of tarot cards, a tiny statue of a mechanical dragon. My absolute FAVORITE is a small figurine of a winged black horse (see the photo!). My sister found it when we were shopping together, and it reminded me SO much of something that one of my characters would ride in the Wild Hunt. My imagination starts revving every time I see it!

Which one character out of all your books was your favorite to write about?