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 |  Life, Adventure, Family, Writing what else is there? Random thoughts. |
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WELCOME TO: GEMINI RISING   UPDATED INTRO 28 MAY 2024: Just a little about me. I've been married for 32 years this past NOV and currently live in Southern California, but I grew up in New Hampshire. I've got 2 boys who are young adults. I work as a 911 dispatcher for LAPD. I enjoy my job a lot. Still. If you can believe that. I love to write. Thankfully both of my boys achieved Eagle Scout. My Scouting days are over and I'm back to focusing on my writing. I like to get out in nature, drink coffee and watch football. Here's a little bio about my zodiac. GEMINI: Gemini, the sign of the Twins, is dual-natured, elusive, complex and contradictory. On the one hand it produces the virtue of versatility, and on the other the vices of two-facedness and flightiness. The sign is linked with Mercury, the planet of childhood and youth, and its subjects tend to have the graces and faults of the young. When they are good, they are very attractive; when they are bad they are more the worse for being the charmers they are. Like children they are lively, and happy, if circumstances are right for them, or egocentric, imaginative and restless. Their good qualities are attractive and come easily to them. They are affectionate, courteous, kind, generous, and thoughtful towards the poor and suffering - provided none of the activities resulting from expressing these traits interferes too greatly with their own lives and comforts. Geminians can be successful in many walks of life though their general characteristics tend to make them unreliable. They are often skilled manipulators of language, in speech and writing, and may be: debaters, diplomats (though in politics they are more interested in theory than practice), orators, preachers (brilliant rather than profound), teachers, authors, poets, journalists, or lawyers. This is me. I am a Gemini. Pure, Raw, passionate. The NEW focus of this blog is to share my adventures, travels, random thoughts, book reviews, thoughts, opinions, and writing adventures from actual writing, writing/editing tips, marketing, research. I'll get there. BLOG ACCOMPLISHMENTS: SEPTEMBER 2024: I participated in the
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Congrats on your Honorable Mention in Blog Week Birthday Bastion 2024](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Nonfiction.gif) Big thanks to WakeUpAndLive~doingNaNo'24   for hosting the contest! OCTOBER 2024: I participated in the
![Merit Badge in Halloween
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Congratulations on completing the 13 Poetic Days of Halloween.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Halloween-2026567.gif) Big Thanks to Lyn's a Witchy Woman  for hosting the contest!Find me at: WEBSITE: http://www.stephanieburkhart.com FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/StephanieBurkhartAuthor GOOD READS: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4031660.Stephanie_Burkhart YOU TUBE CHANNEL: http://www.youtube.com/user/botrina?feature=mhee Previous GRATITIOUS Warning, that I decided to keep in case I post about something that might offend.  WARNING I intend to be open, honest, and forthright. No topic is off limits from religion to you name it, I'm going there. If you think you might be offended...back up now - this blog isn't for you. For those who "dare"  check out the "Gemini Rising..." 
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| Book Review for: The Woman Beyond the Attic, The VC Andrews Story B0984242H9 Author: Andrew Neiderman Published by: Gallery Books Overall rating: 3.5 Stars PLOT: (3.5 Stars) This is a biography of VC Andrews, a popular author in the 1980’s. After finding success in her 50’s-60’s, it was short lived as she passed away from cancer in 1986. She was born in 1923 to a middle-class family and lived a normal life until she had an accident in her teenage years on a staircase that would eventually making walking difficult. She was considered disabled, she used a wheelchair, and was dependent on family. The book talks about her early years, her influences, her struggles, and her desires to be a painter and an author. The author takes you through her life, to her success with Flowers in the Attic, and how she responded to that success. The end has a rough draft of a story she was working on when she died which is a real treat. CATAYLIST: (5 Stars) Growing up in the 1980’s, I was big fan of VC Andrews and her books. I loved Flowers in the Attic. Why? Because it dealt with topics that people just didn’t talk about. Her books were suspenseful, psychological, gothic, and blended all those elements equally. I heard she had died in the 1980’s and her stories were being ghost written, but didn’t know much else. When I heard this book was coming out, I wanted to read it to discover more about one of my favorite authors. THOUGHTS: (3.5 Stars) I loved learning about her background, what her influences were and about the accident that crippled her. There was a lot of referenced material which was shared, but the writing comes off a bit stilted, and not conversational. The writing style, while understandable, is lacking that familiar intimacy which Andrews’ books all shared. Yes, I learned about her life, but it felt mechanical. I did enjoy the rough draft that was shared after the biographical story. It was reflective of all her work, how she could draw you into that novel’s world, ease you into her rooting for the main character, and unfold a story that is suspenseful and unnerving at the same time. WHAT WORKS: (4 Stars) I learned information about Andrews that I didn’t know before, and for me, that was a treat. WHAT DIDN’T WORK FOR ME (WHAT WAS ‘OFF’): (2 Stars) What was off for me was the writing style of the material. The biographical story lacked a certain intimacy that her books had. WHY 3.5 STARS: The book is put together and presented well. Just because the biographical chapters are dry, they do reveal a lot about VC Andrews. There are pictures which are shared, and I liked learning that Virginia did get a chance to enjoy her fame, even if it was for a little bit. She was determined to accomplish certain things, paint and write, and be successful, and that was certainly inspirational, especially knowing her limitations. EXTRA: COVER SIDE NOTE: The cover is VC Andrews in a pose with a cover that is reflective of her Dollanganger series. It’s the perfect cover for this style of biography. |
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