Saturday, April 12, 2014

Hedgehog Life: April 2014


Hello, hello, all!

I hope this update finds everyone enjoying spring! Now that the weather has finally decided to more or less clear up, Hedgie and I are enjoying April very much. The winter clothes can go back in the closer and out comes the spring and summer stuff! Dresses and sandals and short sleeves - oh yes, I am very happy. Sweaters are nice and all, but I was getting tired of them.

April actually has a lot in store for me. I turn 22 this month (happy birthday, me!) and I already know what I'm getting for my birthday - all four seasons of Downton Abbey! And maybe a few other things; my mum is always very good about having extra surprises. I'm hoping that maybe one of those surprises might (?) include a video camera so I can start vlogging as well as blogging. Probably not, and if that's the case (which is very high), a video camera may just have to be a birthday present to myself.

There's also some other exciting news. A few weeks back, I featured the first book in The Kingdom of Wrenly series on one of my Waiting on Wednesday features. Out of the blue, the illustrator - Robert McPhillips - contacted me, to let me know that he was happy I was excited for the books, and so also express his love for hedgehogs and Bilbo's namesake. As a further surprise, he sent me hardcover copies of the first two books - The Lost Stone and The Scarlet Dragon!!! Not only that, but he did custom illustrations in both of them! Pictures are below.

The Lost Stone doodle. He signed it to both me and Bilbo!
Isn't that the most adorable reading hedgehog ever?!

The Scarlet Dragon doodle. Also signed to Bilbo!
Bilbo and my Library Dragon are very good friends, too. :)

Thank you, thank you so, so much, Robert, for sending those to me! They are the new prize of my collection. 

Added onto this super-exciting news, Book #4 will feature an illustration of a hedgehog hidden in one of the scenes. I have it on good authority that the hedgehog was inspired by my very own Bilbo! Hedgie is going to be in a book (more or less)!

My book-buying this month has been moderately tame (I say that now; I probably just jinxed myself). Other than one or two books, I have only bought what I planned on getting, and I have been flying through my ARCs and library books and books that I own. I defied the TBR Jar the other day, but only because I was desperate to read something new - and not do another re-read. Hopefully The Jar will forgive me. ;-)

That brings you up to speed on Hedgie's and my life! See you next month!

5 comments:

  1. OH, those are SO adorable!! I love it! I'm going to have to read these books, they look really cute for the illustrations alone :) So so exciting!

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    1. Aren't they just precious? They are adorable books; I wish I had had them as a kid.

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    2. They look just like the kind of books I would have loved too. (Who am I kidding, I still do :P)

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  2. An early happy birthday! And those are some seriously awesome book signings. Congrats to Bilbo on his literary debut!

    Video-wise, you may just want to mess around with a smartphone camera or web camera first. The phone video quality is pretty decent now, and certain video cameras have odd file formats.

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    1. Thanks! :)

      My sister's camera actually takes really decent videos, so I've been using that. My first video will be up with the guest post next Saturday! So exciting!!! :)

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