John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Isaiah 53:5

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.  

Image By AntanO (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

A Branch of Silver, A Branch of Gold

For six hundred years I have dwelt in this prison. Trapped. Helpless. Unliving and undying.

For six hundred years I have watched as cursebreakers come and go. Brave young women all, gifted with powers beyond mortal understanding.
I have watched them die. I have watched them wish to die.

Once again the Family of Night invades this country to claim its dues, and this generation’s
cursebreaker has her chance to break the endless chain of torment. To save me. To save her sisters.

But how can a peasant child scarcely fourteen years of age discover the three-part key and
liberate the captives? Will she too be doomed to join the Death Dance binding us all to the
Family of Night?


A Branch of Silver a Branch of Gold is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses by Anne Elisabeth Stengl. It's not part of her main series, The Tales of Goldstone Wood, however, it is set in the same world with one or two characters in common.



Anne Elisabeth has created a book with amazing characters. I couldn't help liking all the main characters, hating the despicable ones and feeling sorry for others.
The plot was intriguing and unputdownable. A bit creepy at times, but I like that.

All together, it was an excellent book and probably my favourite by the author.

The Great Game

Hi Readers!

I hope you're having a great week! Today I have a story for you that I wrote yesterday.
Be warned, it is rather peculiar.

The Great Game

By Jemma Tainsh

On a hill covered in scraggly pines, a kangaroo was having an earnest discussion with his son. The road nearby was mostly clear, the only occupant being a squashed fox. The trees glowed in the orange light of the setting sun, and there was an occasional glint of light of a battered mailbox. “Son,” announced the kangaroo, “The time has finally come for me to tell you of-“   He paused for effect, “-The Great Game!”

Awed by the capitals, his son gazed into his eye, “Wow Dad!” he exclaimed, “It must be wonderful!”

“It is, son, it is” His misty-eyed father assured him, “all Joeys learn it as soon as they have left their mothers pouch! I remember when your grandfather taught it to me!”

“How do we play it dad?” the young Joey asked enthusiastically

“Well,” replied his father, almost reluctant to hurry the conversation, “You know the great Cars of the humans? They are majestic beasts and go by many names”

“Sure I know ‘em Dad”

“What we do is, we go down to the edge of their territory, The Road, and we watch carefully for Cars; my favourite is the bold Toyota, and we dash across the Road in front of them!” The kangaroo was practically hopping from excitement, his son however, was sceptical

“Why do we do that Dad?” he inquired, “Wouldn’t we die?”

“Ah,” said his father, a crafty look in his eye, “But we don’t, we speed across, swift and hoppy, it feels amazing! Dancing with the great beast of the Car! Such prestige in the roo community! The Most Important High Roo has hundreds of Cars under his belt!

“I see…” murmured the Joey thoughtfully, “I suppose it would be fun!”

“And that’s not even the best part!” squealed the older roo in delight, “Now listen carefully son, many wallabies died to bring us this news.”

‘I’m listening Dad!”

“It’s The Country Music Festival!” His father whispered as enthusiastically as you can whisper

“What does that mean Dad?”

“Why son, have you not learned anything!?” he exclaimed, “The Country Music Festival is when Cars from all over Australia come to visit our town! That means plenty of opportunities! Holdens! Toyotas! Mazdas! It’s the most amazing time of the year!

His father’s excitement began to rub of onto his son, “Wow Dad! Can we go have a go now!?”

“We sure can!” Hollered the jumping kangaroo, “Look! There’s one now! I'll show you how it's done!”

Greg drove along the road thinking about his sandwich. Soon he’d home and able to eat in peace. Something caught his eye. One those blasted kangaroos. It even had a Joey. Funny, it almost seemed to be pointing at his car. Suddenly the older kangaroo hopped wildly across the road. “What on earth!?” yelped Greg, “stupid kangaroo” he muttered, feeling slightly guilty as he hit it. “Oh, well.” And he went back to thinking about his sandwich.

‘Dang...’ Thought the younger kangaroo, ‘oh well, it happens. He’ll be much honoured by the community.’

I am absolutely certain kangaroos actually do this. 

By for now! Thanks for reading and have a nice week!

Studies and Crochet

Hello good Readers

How goes your day? 

I have been busy. Recently I enrolled in a sample university course called The Law Student's Toolkit.
There are assignments. I did not expect them to be so hard. Last night I stayed up well past my bedtime to finish my assignment on 'Enforcing Monetary Judgments' on time.

However, I feel that I have to long left my blog be, so I bring to you pictures of some projects I've been working on.



Mr Minion, my first commission! I made him to the Librivox version of Great Expectations

I did not invent this pattern, you can find it Here


And this is Hadrian, a Loch Ness Monster I made for a friend's birthday.

His pattern can be found on Ravelry Here

Pictures soon to come include my latest instalments to my crocheted Avengers, another birthday present and a little Groot

Last month we designed 'school uniforms' with fabric markers. Here is the result

See you later Readers! Have a nice week!

2016

Hi Readers

Can you believe it, it's 2016 already! 5/1/2016. Wowzers.
I have not written a blog post since last year! (sorry, I had to say that)

2015 was a busy year, I read books. Lots of books. How exhausting.

In January I watched the Lord of the Rings for the first time (Ok, it was censored, I haven't actually watched it in full)  I loved it! Legolas, Sam...

From March to April I read Les Miserables, a truely amazing book. I even found the history of the french sewers interesting. (Perhaps not the history of french slang though).
Jean valJean was such a good character!!

In May I turned 13, my first year as a teenager! Time to start stinking and grunting.
I also got a blog! The Sherwood Storyteller, named for my obsession with Robin Hood and writing.

In June I read my first Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Needless to say, I loved it.

September was mainly full of a huge holiday in North Queensland, we went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and walking in the Daintree Rainforest. It was a pretty good holiday!

In November I came second place in a short story competition with The Woes of Sir Clankyteapot and the Dragon of Raven Mountain. (I still haven't posted it yet....)
I also watched my first Marvel movie, the Avengers, I was very excited about that.

In December I kinda paniced as I realised that 2015 was almost over, I mean, it only just started didn't it? For Christmas we went up to Queensland again where we stayed in a street with the best Christmas lights in Brisbane. One of them was probably the best in AUSTRALIA! It was that amazing! We had a few great parties and we even watched StarWars 7 in the cimema's for our Uncle's birthday. It was great.

And now it's 2016 and we're trying to get our schoolwork organised for the next term.
I'll be doing Legal studies and Australian Political History.

What are you doing this year dear readers? Did you have fun over New Year's?

Thanks for reading!

BIG BOOK SALE!

 It’s that time of year. The time for buying presents, making wish lists, and planning New Year’s Resolutions. If any of those activities involve books for you, Indie Christian Authors has a perfect event for you. From Nov 27 through Nov 30th, more than 70 independent Christian books are on sale. You can find free shipping, $0.99 ebooks, package deals, and more! And if your budget is depleted from Christmas shopping, they’ve got you covered with some freebies Think 70 books is overwhelming? Narrow it down and find the perfect books for you or someone on your Christmas list by using this quiz to generate a customized book list.

A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as “Sold Out.” This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Leah E. Good for her work organizing this sale, Gloria Repp for completing the time consuming job of uploading book info to the sale website, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills(at)omorecollege(dot)edu for more information about her design services.

(As you can probably tell, I didn't write this post)

Personaly, I'd like to read the Minstrels Song series be Jenelle Schmidt. 

Bye for now, and have fun buying books!  

The Beesheep Family

Hello Readers!

Today I have a short story to tell you. It was written as part of an English course called IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing). Mum drew three pictures which I then wrote a story from. Feel free to tell me what you like, or what you think I should change.

The pictures (Mum intended them to be the billy goats gruff):

The Beesheep Family

By Jemma Tainsh

Once upon a time in the Land of Strange And Unusual Animals there dwelt a family of Beesheep. Beesheep are delightfully queer. While Snarks have fins and fangs, and Crogs skitter along the sand croaking, Beesheep are very useful in that they make honey as well as woolly jumpers. At the time of this tale, the youngest Beesheep (whose name was Bob) had gone out to wander over the hills. Bleating and buzzing joyfully, Bob bounded around with his sister – Carmella. They bounced over hills like enthusiastic frogs. Abruptly disturbing the peace of the countryside, Bob suddenly shrieked in delight. Carmella looked up in surprise. “What is it?!” She cried in a tone of excitement. “I saw a coconut!” Exclaimed the exuberant Bob, “just over that hill over there!” He was very excited you see, because it is very rare to find a coconut in the land of strange and unusual animals.

Unfortunately, when Bob arrived at the scene of the coconuts he was greatly disappointed. “Who could have conceived it?” he cried in dismay. “These lovely coconuts are eggs in disguise! Eggs of an Ostrigoose if I’m one to judge.” he noted most dolefully. Behind him his sister was also quite sad. “Although my meals are delightfully variant, I must really say I would have enjoyed a coconut today.” Sighing most sadly, they both walked away. Terrible disappointment hung over them both.

When they arrived at their gigantic Bee Hive, the whole family became as sad as they were. “How terrible!” cried Pete.

“How miserable!” wept Jen.

“How positively tragic!” Papa sniffed.

Sobbing quite terribly, Mamma Beesheep was inconsolable. “Coconut toast would have done me just right.” She moaned very dismally as she considered their plight. Disappointed Papa stared at the ground, edging his feet round a hole that was there. Then with surprise he lept in the air! “Which of you wants to know what I found?” Around him the family stopped in surprise. Hopefully crying out all in one voice “We do Dad, we do!” “Four lovely big coconuts here in this hole!” He exclaimed with a cheer. “What a strange happening” the Beesheep family rejoiced, “that makes one for each of us!”


A bit of a silly story :) 
I might not write many blog posts this month as I am participating in NaNoWriMo. My username is JemmaToad if you want to be buddies.