Monday 31 October 2011

Let's talk Anita Blake


And the web site dedicated to Laurell K Hamilton's series.

I'd love to laugh, but hey I'm looking at it all, seeing what they see, and all that—so far only Edward has got a pic of a real person I would say fits his character, but then, out of all the people in her books, he was the least described and so plainly a person that could be real (if you don't understand I get it, I'm not the easiest for that shit, but Laurell loves to describe her characters, over and over, to a point that if you have obsessively read all her books you would be able to sketch the characters yourself, and even more, everyone would most likely get the same pic, it's what she does, except with Edward, he's as mysterious in her description—which  out of them all is about as described as other authors do their main characters, but in her sense it's so little, and yet it's a pic)

Any way this web site: the tab reads; Welcome to the Anitaverse, it's actually done nicely, sorta (or maybe I have just been on a few too many sleazy web sites lately) 


So we go onto it, and there's a lot of shit about the books, about her (her being Anita) but it’s the characters that I'm interested in. [and more so the fact that I'm going to show you a few of the graphic novel pic, so that's why I wanted to plug the site a little]

book review (generation dead trilogy)

Happy Halloween everyone out there! and here’s the only things I could share
Generation Dead,
                      the Trilogy

Love knows no boundaries... even death
                    Generation Dead 
  Prod dets
trilogy, book one
Pub: 2008, by Hyperion Books for children.
Author: Daniel Waters
Cat: Multiculturalism, zombies, fiction. 
Format: paperback; 392 pp w/ 31 chapters.
Age range: Young adults
    Summary
The dead boy reached for her,  
his pale eyes glowing in the darkness.
All over the country, teenagers who die aren’t staying dead.
Against her better judgement, Phoebe finds herself drawn to Tommy Williams. He’s gorgeous, funny, on the football team. And dead.
  But not everybody is as accepting as Phoebe. There are those who would like to rid the community of this sinister phenomenon, and they’ll stop at nothing to achieve it...
A deeply compelling, sparkling original story about discrimination, prejudice, 
and the power of love

                Kiss of Life
Welcome back, Newlydeads!

Dets
trilogy, book two
Pub: 2009, by Hyperion Books for children
Cat: crime & Mystery
Format: paperback; has 410 pages with 49 chapters.

Summary
When Phoebe’s best friend Adam takes a bullet for her, it proves everyone right – Adam is in love with her. And now that he’s come back to life, Phoebe’s more important than ever. A zombie can come back from death if they’re loved – and kissed... which means
Phoebe has to say goodbye to Tommy Williams, the other zombie in her life.

  While coaxing Adam back to reality and fending off Tommy’s advances, Phoebe tries to carry on as normal. But what’s normal when teenagers are rising from the dead and scores of others want nothing more than to send them back to their graves? And does having a zombie boyfriend make Phoebe a target too?

               Passing Strange

Dets
trilogy, book three, final
Pub: 2010, by Hyperion Books for children.
Format: paperback; has 386 pages with 40 chapters

Summary
Karen DeSonne always passed as a normal teenager – and now that she’s dead, she’s still passing – this time, as alive.
But when her dead friends are accused of high profiled murder and forced into hiding, it’s up to Karen to prove their innocence. Which means doing the unthinkable and becoming the girlfriend of bionist zealot Peter Martinsburg, who she suspects of framing them. But if Peter finds out who Karen really is, the consequences for her will be worse than death...



            my thoughts (review)

Sunday 30 October 2011

book Review (where demons fear to tread)


  (read: 30/Oct/11)
        Where Demons Fear to Tread

Where angels fall from grace and demons fall in love.
                                             
   Prod dets
 Debut 
Pub: 2011, a Mira book from Harlequin

Author: Stephanie Chong
Cat: paranormal romance
Format: paperback (full-size); 330pp w/19 chapters
Whose: Serena & Julian
Age Range: Adult

                Synopsis
‘Welcome to Devil’s Paradise.’
The arch demon’s voice was low and deep.
His fingers caressed her through the fabric of her dress.
‘Your soul—or his, Serena. Choose.’

Fledgling guardian angel and yoga teacher Serena St. Clair dares to enter Devil’s Paradise nightclub on a mission—to retrieve the wayward Hollywood ‘It-Boy’ she’s assigned to protect. But Serena is ambushed by the club’s owner, arch demon Julian Asher.

The most powerful demonic entity in Los Angeles, Julian is handsome as sin, a master of temptation who loves nothing more than corrupting pleasure-seeking humans. He won’t release the lost soul Serena is supposed to guard...unless she accepts his dangerous wager.

After the disastrous way his human life ended, Julian vowed that no woman would get the better of him again. Yet this sexy angel—smelling of fresh ocean air and happiness—triggers centuries-old feelings. Now their high-stakes game of seduction, where angels fall from grace and where demons fear to tread, will lean them either to an eternity in hell...or a deliciously hot heaven.



      my Thoughts (review)

Sun & Sand

That’s what holidays are all about, and I'm just back from mine, yeah...?!!!!

Did you have fun? Yes.

no matter if you did or didn't, and the fact of everything is that you want have had a great time, you want to forget all those bad times you have, focus on only the good ones--or at least that's what I believe, because no matter what holidays aren't always that fun.

Let’s take mine for an example and really, it's the reason that I'm writing this. 

This was the first holiday that we had been one since; I think my daughter was...um...nearly one. It was around this time of year, before all the bad crap descended onto me, and when everything was great. The sun was out. The beach was warm enough and yet still held a bit of a chill, inside the holiday house smelt of spew. Yep. our last holiday had nothing but a stomach bug that got to everyone but me, which was all so much fun (if you enjoy clearing up after vomit and telling your 2yr old son that he wasn't allowed milk when that was the only thing he ever wanted to have) such fun!

[Side note, this year we watched Miranda season 1 & 2, so sorry if you get a few catch phrases from that]

So this year we were going to have fun. FULL STOP!!! and in most of the way it was, like I said if only you wanted to look at the finer times in life than we had a great time. 

And we did, seriously, great holiday, considering the last one. Still it was busy and the days when it wasn't and we had a minute to go out onto the beach it was raining. Though we did go to the beach, the lake and all that a lot, it still had the drag feel to a lot of it. 

Also I did this... (sorry bout the body shot of me.)

What I need to write: 2012-2013

Here’s the thing. It’s that time for me to sit down and take a look at all the story ideas that I have, all the books that I need to write and to put them into priority, to make me do them. and other than going to as many writing workshops as I can throughout the two year period I’m going to write, and what I feel I need is a place to look.

I also think that I need a list of books that I should write. Ones that I need to sell to the world, or maybe just a hand full of them to start off with so that when it gets time to sell my idea I’m not going to sit there with nothing over and over, saying my piece about something they don’t want or isn’t in the write area to begin with. So I want to have a pile of written work by me so that I can show it all off, so that I can get something picked up, or maybe more so that I can have something picked up rather than have nothing. For no one.

So here’s the list of books that I need to have finished and ready for sale by the end of the two years. And if there is a book already in that place, it’s mostly because, well, why start something new when I can just finish what I have already got down.
[Spliced because of length and relativity to your enjoyment]

Wednesday 26 October 2011

book review (2-1 romances novel)


 (read: 25/Oct/11)
           Let it Ride & Afterburn
    Prod dets
Uniformaly hot. 2 books in 1
Pub: 2009, Harlequin
Author: Jillian Burns & Kira Sinclair
Cat: romance
Format: Blaze trade paperback; story 1: 213 pp w/ 16 chapters, story 2: 211pp w/16 chapts
Whose: Jordan & Cole. Chase & Rina
Age Range: Adult
[Came off someone else’s shelf]

                Synopsis
Let It Ride
Working in a Vegas casino, Jordan Brenner took her bets off the sex table ages ago. Until, Major Cole Jackson sends Jordan’s thoughts and hormones into wicked places. What Jordan doesn’t know is that Cole made a deal with his buddies: get some hot-‘n’-heavy action, or pay up! But Cole doesn’t need an incentive. Every time he looks at Jordan’s lips, he’s immediately aware that something is up—and it isn’t his ante!

Afterburn
Before he shipped out, Chase and Rina enjoyed a sizzling night in Vegas, topping it off with a tacky mock wedding. Or so they thought... Because when Chase comes home, he learns that he’s very legally hitched to the feisty captain! Their mistaken marriage is strictly against Air Force rules. There’ll be hell to pay if it’s discovered. But the martial benefits are so very, very good...

      my Thoughts (review)

Monday 24 October 2011

Nearing the End


and like always it seems my ideas and what I actually end up doing are the opposite, and even though next year I know for a fact things in this matter will get better--mostly because writing books is what I want to do, and to do that I need to actually work at it. Not saying that I don't, but I'm lazy and lazy people have to push themselves to do things nonlazy people don't. 

I'm not in any way a workaholic, I never will be, even though I have a stranded in working, and I do what I must, I'm a lay back enough person that it doesn't take up everything. I'm very good at switching off.

This being said, it's why I have already failed in my goal. Or maybe more, that I gave up trying. I found out what I wanted to know. 

book review (night falls darkly)

 (read: 23/Oct/11)
      Night Falls Darkly

What mysteries of passion are hidden in the past?

    Prod dets
The Shadow Guard series, book one
Pub: 2008, (Singet Eclipse) New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Author: Kim Lenox
Cat: Paranormal romance (historical)
Format: trade paperback; 311 pp w/ 20 chapters
Whose: Elena & Archer
Age Range: Adult

                Synopsis
Ever since an accident took away her memory, Miss Elena Whitney can’t recall the secrets of her past. All she knows is that with her mysterious benefactor, Archer, Lord Black, returning to London at the behest of Queen Victoria, she should seize the chance to get some answers. But the dangerously handsome Lord Black is not exactly the man Elena imagined.

Archer, a member of the immortal Shadow Guards, has been summoned to London to eliminate an exceptionally evil threat: Jack the Ripper. With his prey brutally killing London’s East End prostitutes, Archer must stop the Ripper before the murderer’s soul slips beyond his grasp, and do so while protecting his beautiful young ward, Elena, whom he spared from death two years earlier. But with a wave of panic spreading across London, Archer fears that Elena is his weakness—a distraction he can’t afford, especially since she’s likely to become the Ripper’s next target.

      
                    Excerpt

Saturday 22 October 2011

book review (my wicked vampire)

   (read: 22/Oct/11)
             My Wicked Vampire

A castle of Dark Dreams romance


    Prod dets
Castle of Dark Dreams series, book 4
Pub: 2009, (A Leisure Book) Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Author: Nina Bangs
Cat: Paranormal Romance
Format: trade paperback; 308 pp w/ 19 chapters
Whose: Cinn & Dacian
Age Range: Adult


                Synopsis
The Castle of Dark Dreams is just part of an adult theme park, right? The most decadent attraction in a place where people go to play out their wildest erotic fantasies. Holgarth isn’t really a wacky wizard, and Sparkle Stardust doesn’t actually create cosmic chaos by hooking up completely mismatched couples. And that naked guy chained up in the dungeon? No way he’s a vampire.

 Wrong...dead wrong, as botanist Cinn Airmid is about to find out. It’s up to her to save the night feeder’s sanity, but to do that she’ll have to get close to the most dangerously sexy male she’s ever encountered. And one look in Dacian’s haunted black eyes tells her close will take on a whole new meaning with someone who’s had 600 years to practice his technique. Even a girl with a name that conjures up images of forbidden pleasure has a few tricks to learn from...

           Excerpt

book review, sorta (harry potter, b1)


 (re-read: 20/Oct/11)
      Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone

   Prod dets
Harry Potter series, book 1
Pub: Great Britain in 1997 by Bloomsbury. 
Author: J. K. Rowling
Cat: fantasy & Magical realism
Format: paperback (mid); 223 pp w/ 17 chapters
Age Range: middle grade

                Summary
Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy – until he is rescued by a beetle-eyed giant of a man, enrols at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizards, learns to play quidditch and does battle in a deadly duel. The reason HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD!


      my Thoughts (review)

Thursday 20 October 2011

book review (breath of fire)

(read: 19/Oct/11)
                 Breath of Fire

    Prod dets
Pub: 2009, (love Spell) Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc.
Author: Tammy Kane
Cat: fantasy romance
Format: trade paperback; 291 pp w/ 25 chapters
Whose: Elera & Karl
Age Range: Adult


                Synopsis
When the dragon came to claim him, Karl knew his great plan had gone horribly wrong. If he had known the creature was real, he wouldn’t have scoffed at the villagers...and he certainly wouldn’t have been so quick to let them chain him to a rock. Mattaen Initiates trained as warriors, but no man could defeat a dragon.

“My name is Elera daughter of Shane. And you, Initiate, are my virgin prize.”

She had vanquished the beast and named her price: one night with the virgin sacrifice she’d saved. He’d taken a vow of chastity, but Karl still had a man’s needs—and Elera’s sultry curves made him ache to taste his first woman. With a scorching kiss she shattered his defences...and led him into a world of deception and seduction, where he’s be forced to choose between the brotherhood that had raised him and the woman whose courage set his heart on fire.


            Excerpt

Wednesday 19 October 2011

movie review (x-men first class)

 X-Men First Class

Rated M: Action violence and infrequent coarse language

See how it all began in this thrilling first chapter of the X-MEN sage. Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr became Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were enemies, they were the closet of friends and gathered an elite team of mutants to form the X-men in an attempt to prevent WORLD WAR II!

Feature run time: 125 minutes
Twentieth Century Fox presents in association with Marvel Entertainment a Bad Hat Harry/Donners’ Company production a Matthew Vaughn film “X-Men: First Class”

                   My thoughts (review)

The new things I got

While shopping...
      So while I was out I got three more books, these are all romances, and where all $3.50 so it was alright that I got them. Even more I’m happy with myself that I didn’t get more.
  •         Night Falls Darkly by Kim Lenox. This is book 1 in the shadow Guard series (it’s historical)
  •             Breath of Fire by Tammy Kane. It’s her only, or her first in this name.
  • ·        My Wicked Vampire by Nina Bangs. This is book 4 in Castle of Dark Dreams series
I also got X-Men: First Class.

That’s it really,
Thanks for your time

Monday 17 October 2011

book review (in the arms of stone angels)


(Read: 7/June)
In the Arms of Stone Angels                           

Dets
Stand alone
Pub: March 2011, Harlequin
Author: Jordan Dane
Cat: general/ fantasy & Magical Realism
Format: paperback; has 310 pages with 20 chapters.
Age range: young adult

Synopsis
Two years ago Brenna did the unthinkable. She witnessed the aftermath of a murder and accused her only true friend – the first boy she ever loved – of being a killer.
  Now sixteen, Brenna returns to Oklahoma only to discover that Issac ‘White Bird’ Henry isn’t in juvie. The half-breed outcast is in a mental hospital, frozen in time, locked in his mind at the worst moment of his life. When Brenna touches him, she’s pulled into his hellish vision quest, seeing terrifying demons and illusions she doesn’t understand.
  Feeling isolated and alone, Brenna’s up against the whole town: targeted by bullying former classmates, a bigoted small town sheriff and a tribe who refuses to help one of their own.
  But when Brenna realises she’s as trapped by the past as White Bird is, this time she won’t turn her back on him. She’s the only one who can free them both. Even if she has to expose her secret – a ‘gift’ she’s kept hidden her whole life.


                      my Thoughts (review)

Thursday 13 October 2011

thinking on a thought


Which isn't all that new for me...

I have been reading a lot of YA bloggers, and Adult ones, but I always like the YA ones better for some reason, not idea why but I do.

anyway, I find that when I'm writing, or maybe it's because I want to get into the role of an author, and I have a few YA books that I want to get out there--maybe it's more than they are more open about what they want, maybe it's because no one listens to them that they feel the need to over share on topics that really should be shares. Maybe it's just because that's what teenagers do. 

Who really know, and like I care, I love it. I love how enthusiastic the bloggers get about subjects related around books, and since they have just been doing banned book week, it's like there has been more thing spoken about what there is already on the shelves and what they wish were there, or weren't. And this is where my problems lie. 
 [spliced it because it's super long, warning]

What I’ve learnt


About sex...

Here’s the thing, most of the time writing is so simple you can’t believe you had ever had to struggle. You have your characters; you have the setting, the things you want to happen between them. For me, the conversation comes out of nothing; I can’t think on conversations, they just have to flow. But then you get to a point, you want to put something in but, and here’s the kicker, you need it to actually make sense, or maybe it’s more that you want it to have a real life hold to it, and so then comes research.

That’s the thing that I have been up against for the last couple of months, I want to write an adults romances novel. And yeah, you think, no sweat it’s all about falling in love fast and forever, making sure there’s something in it that hits the readers hearts, and more so sex.
 [spliced this because of context]

Wednesday 12 October 2011

book review (percy jackson)

    (read: 12/Oct/11)
      Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

Half Boy. Half God. All Hero.

                                               Prod dets
                                                                       Percy Jackson and the Olympians, book one
Pub: 2005, Penguin Group
Author: Rick Riordan
Cat: fiction (Greek gods)
Format: paperback (mid); 374 pp w/ 22 chapters
Age Range: 9+ middle grade (?)

                Summary
Look, I don’t want to be a half-blood. I never asked to be the son of a Greek God.

I was just a normal kid, going to school, playing basketball, skateboarding. The usual. Until I accidentally vaporized my maths teacher. That’s when things really started going wrong. Now I spend my time fighting with swords, battling monsters with my friends and generally trying to stay alive.

This is the one where Zeus, God of the Sky, thinks I’ve stolen his lightning bolt—and making Zeus angry is a very bad idea.


      my Thoughts (review)

Tuesday 11 October 2011

the new

I got myself two new books today, while I was out and about...

first was book 2 in the Night Creatures trilogy....
        Angel Arias by Marianne de Pierres
and book one in the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
        Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

so cool, I think. anyway, that's what's new and all.
         Thanks for your time

Monday 10 October 2011

coming off my shelf

it's sad to say this, but I don't have a lot of room left on my YA book shelf... well, really both of them, but it's the YA one that really counts because it's a lounge room book shelf and being that my kids have sticky fingers (not so much anymore, but they are mine, and your kids like what's yours best) and so I have to keep my YA shelf nice and pack. 

saying this, I also don't like books to sit on my shelf and just... well, sit. I don't like to keep books that I never read and are never going to read again. Even books that I loved for so long, if I haven't read them all that much I generally what them off the shelf. I won’t the books to be read by others, you know, I'm not a waste and since I spent good money on them, they should be read.

Sunday 9 October 2011

book review (envy)

SEVEN DEADLY SINS. SEVEN SOULS TO SAVE. 
AND A MAN AND A WOMAN TREADING THE LINES OF DANGER, DESIRE AND DELIVERANCE...
(read: 9/Oct/11)
                       Envy

Prod dets
Fallen Angle series, book three
Pub: 2011, New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., New York
Author: J. R. Ward
Cat: Paranormal romance/ angels
Format: paperback (mid);454pp w/ 52 chapters
Whose: Veck & Reilly
Age range: adult 7


Synopsis
As the son of a serial killer, homicide detective Thomas ‘Veck’ DelVecchio Jr. grew up in the shadow of evil. Now, on the knife-edge between civic duty and blind retribution, he atones for the sins of his father—while fighting his inner demons.

Assigned to monitor Veck is Internal Affairs officer Sophia Reilly, whose interest in him is both professional and arousingly personal. And Veck and Sophia have another link: Jim Heron, a mysterious stranger with too many answers to questions that are deadly. When Veck and Sophia are drawn into the ultimate battle between good and evil, their fallen angel saviour is the only thing that stands between them and eternal damnation. 

                my thoughts (review)

Saturday 8 October 2011

it's a cover

I was looking threw the pile of blogs and came across two things that are ecxciting on Anna's Book Blog.



one: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore's cover
book 3 is the Seven Kingdom trilogy
due out May 1st 2012.











and number two is:  
Time Untime by Shreillyn Kenyon
book in the dark-hunter novel,
due out August 2nd


these are the only two on her list that I am looking forward too, but its not like I will be getting the second one anytime soon, since I don't want them full size and have to wait for the down grade. but it's all good, I still have two more before this one to wait for. 

but the covers are still cool, and I wanted to share with you all.
         till the next time
Thanks for your time

book review (burn bright)

  (Read: 13/May/11)
             Burn Bright                                                                

Listen well, baby bats. Burn bright, but do not stray from the paths. Remember, when you live in a place of darkness you also live with creatures of the dark.’

    Prod Dets
Night Creature series, book one
Pub: 2011, Random House, Australia
Author: Marianne de Pierres
Cat: fiction
Format: paperback; has 303 pages with 26 chapters in two parts
Age range: young adult

    Synopsis
Retra doesn’t want to go to Ixion, the island of every-night. Retra is a Seal – sealed minds. Sealed community. She doesn’t crave parties and pleasure like all the others. But her brother left for Ixion two years ago, and Reta is determined to find him.
  Braving the pain of her obedience strip to escape the only home she’s ever known, Reta finds herself drawn deeper into the intoxicating world of Ixion. Come to me, whispers a voice in her head. Who are the Ripers, the mysterious guardians of Ixion? What are the night creatures Retra can see in the shadows? And what happens to those who grow too old for Ixion?
  Retra will find that Ixion has its pleasures – but its secrets are deadly.

                     my Thoughts (review)

YeAh!

arhhhh...!!!

yeah, Angel Arias by Marianne de Pierres is coming out 3rd or Oct - or should I say, is out!!!


Retra – now called Naif – has escaped from Ixion, the island of ever-night. She doesn’t know if her friends on the island survived the battle between the Ripers and the rebels.

But she does know that she must return home, behind the sealed walls of Grave, to find out why the Ripers have been seen there talking to the councillors. What links the two worlds?

First she must convince Ruzalia to help her. The fierce pirate captain saves those who face terrible fates on Ixion, but that doesn’t guarantee their gratitude. Instead, she faces a revolt – and Naif is caught in the middle.

Naif will need all her courage to survive. For Lenoir, who wants to keep her safe, for her friends Suki and Rollo, if they live, for Markes, who has secrets of his own, and for the new friends she will make on this journey.

The fate of worlds depends on it.


this is book 2 in  the Night Creatures series (or trilogy, I'm sure now, the last still named Blaze Dark, but could change)

I can't effing wait, seriously I'm iching now to go out and buy it. 

Thanks for your time