Skip a Starbucks Day for Johanna Faith

I love writing. I enjoy attending writers’ conferences and groups to study the craft of writing. And I like the free book giveaways, too. But the biggest blessing of my writing journey is the friends I’ve made. One of those friends is C.J. Redwine. Today on the blog I’m asking you to join me in helping C.J. bring her adopted daughter home from China. To read more about the Redwine’s adoption story and to help bring Johannah Faith home, please click here today through Wednesday, August 25.

Please leave a comment on this blog before clicking through to donate at C.J.’s site and one of you will win a Percy Jackson Prize Pack! This includes Percy Jackson and the Olympians 3 Volume Boxed Set (paperback edition) and Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief DVD.

Thank you for participating.

Percy & The Parthenon

I recently finished reading the last book in the Percy Jackson series. I loved this series from book one as I mentioned in an earlier blog. Nashville’s Parthenon was featured in a scene in the Percy Jackson movie, The Lightning Thief (but not in the book).

I hear that the Parthenon’s tourist traffic has increased due to this moment in the spotlight. I visited the Parthenon recently and want to share some fun facts and photos here.

The Parthenon sits in Nashville’s Centennial Park. It is a full-scale replica of the ancient temple of Athena in Athens, Greece that was destroyed in 1687. Nashville’s Parthenon was built in 1897 for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. The building housed an art exhibition that was shown four years before at the Chicago World’s Fair. The Parthenon was built of temporary materials so unfortunately the building began to deteriorate. It was rebuilt in 1920 and opened to the public in 1931.

The ancient Parthenon was converted to a Christian church in the 6^th century A.D. and many of the figures representing gods and goddesses were removed. No one knows for sure how many figures were on the original Parthenon. Figures in the Nashville Parthenon are casts made from the original sculpture fragments of the ancient Parthenon. Those sculpture fragments are located in the British museum.

The Parthenon houses a full-scale replica of Athena standing 41 feet 10 inches tall. Work began on the statue in 1982 and it was unveiled in 1990.

For more info on the Parthenon’s hours and its history, visit the site.

Photos by: John A. Parker

Books Before Movies (I heart Percy Jackson)

I want to know why no one told me about the Percy Jackson books before now. Oh wait. They did. I’m just slow on the uptake sometimes. My daughter is a big Percy Jackson fan. She has talked about the books so much at the dinner table that my son and I were both convinced we must read the books or die. Well almost. Earlier this week, I went to my local bookstore and bought a box set of the first three Percy Jackson books. It’s finally my turn to read book one, The Lightning Thief. (My son is a fast reader.) After reading chapter one of book one, one word: Wow! It was possibly the best first chapter I have ever read. Amazing. I’m a few chapters in now and I want more.

I’m glad that Percy Jackson & The Olympians is coming to a theatre near us on President’s Day. I might not have been compelled to read the book now if the movie release were not a few weeks away. As I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog post, I’m a books-before-movies reader. I also read the first Harry Potter book before seeing the first movie. I was hooked.

Are you a books-before-movies reader? Have you ever heard other people talking nonstop about a book, thought they must be exaggerating, finally gave in to read the book and got hooked yourself?