Tuesday Teaser

I'm not sure why, but this LOL Cat pic reminds me of this crazy craving I've had for Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls - I've been thinking about them for months...MONTHS. My oldest son brought a six of them to the house today. Thank God!I treated myself to a half of a roll, and now that my crazed craving is partially satisfied, temporarily abated, I can concentrate on Teaser Tuesday.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. Time to tease with snippets of our current reads. No spoilers should be used.


My first is from the third of Kelly Meding's Dreg City series. I just finished #2 and have started #3.
Another Kind of Dead
Kelly Meding
from page 1
'I wanted the comforting commiseration of rain as I followed Leo through the cemetery, but rain would have revealed me to the prying eyes of people who still thought me dead. We were all safer for the deception, Wyatt had insisted, and I agreed.'
Now, I enjoy this series, and Kelly Meding's writing in general. But right here, I have to say that these two sentences do not make a lot of sense to me, and it's not explained, at least not as far as I've read, WHY would rain reveal her to prying eyes? Why would prying eyes notice her in the rain more readily than the bright sun? I kind of want to write to Meding as ask her, but then I don't want to be one of those readers who bug writers about what they've read. Not a writer I don't know anyway. Keep in mind, though that I've just started the book, haven't gone past page one yet...maybe it'll be revealed to me later.

I was going to post a teaser from The Mortal Bone, but I can't find it. This frequently happens to me and is 60% of the reason why I sometimes don't finish a book for months on end. I just lose track of it. :)
So another time for The Mortal Bone (I KNOW I saw it around here recently....)

It's Monday! Happy B-day Abe!

disclaimer - none of the LOL cats pictured here were captioned by me; last week I posted pics that I captioned, but I caption very few. However, I love to share the funny pics that I find. I also like to find them on other blogs. (hint)

Here we are at another Monday. Yesterday I spent the afternoon at my granddaughter's fifth birthday. I remember clear as day, the night she was born. We might have broken hospital records on the amount of people in the room - no one wanted to leave and once things got busy, my daughter ended up wanting us all in there. Mom, Dad, husband, two of her brothers, sister-in-law, my sister, other sister in law, mother in law, and I think a couple of others...(hmph - guess it's not quite clear as day!) anyway - it was quite a day, quite an experience. I know that my grandbaby seemed the most comfortable when the people who attended her birth were around her while she was a baby.

Well, on to bookish memes

It's Monday, What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. I'm not going to get very fancy here, I feel a headache coming on and I need to go lay down with a book (haha-really)

I have just finished reading As Lie The Dead by Kelly Meding.
As Lie The Dead is a good sequel to her first novel in the Dreg City series. review coming up (Just remembered the three other reviews I haven't yet written)

I think I'm going to read Marjorie M. Liu next - The Mortal Bone. This is from the Hunter Kiss series, which I love

That's it for now, unless I suddenly decide to go back to one of the other books that I've put aside; or maybe go to a non-urban fantasy novel. There is this book called Sharp Shooter that I made the effort to order from overseas a long time ago....then of course, I put it on a shelf and leave it there forever. Typical.

Leaving you with a pole dancing cat

Didn't post any links, other than to Book Journey and LOL Catz. I'll try to fix later. Time for bed.....

Waiting on Wednesday, Shakira and a possible book challenge

After a two years in a row of utter fail in reading challenges, I decided - in fact, PROMISED - not to join any more book reading challenges. But since then I came across this

and decided just one easygoing challenge wouldn't hurt. After all, it's low key; it's to encourage reading of books that have been on my TBR shelf/pile/mound/hill/MOUNTAIN; It's only one book a month - I can surely read one book a month, right?
{hosted by Dollycas via Goodreads}
sigh...Then I come across Beth's blog and find
THIS!

Yes. This person is hosting a Terry Pratchett related reading challenge...

Now, I'm not committing myself to it yet {oh hell, you know I'm going to end up at least trying this!}, but if you're a Discworld fan, then you know how tempting this is. Very. I love reading this guy, and he comes through with a book every year - usually around October.
If you're interested in this challenge, go over to OnceUponATime, {click on Terry Pratchett's pic above for the challenge link}
Most likely, I'll be joining - I love reading Terry Pratchett's work and it'll be nice to have an excuse to go back and re-read his work. I'm mostly up to date with his releases, so most of my challenge reads would have to be re-reads. The only thing I haven't read by him is Unseen Academicals in his discworld series. there's an unrelated to Discworld series novel coming out next called The Long Earth which sounds very intriguing - different from his normal work. But then Pratchett does write other things besides the Discworld - not as much, but some others. :) I'm willing to give the other work a try.




Which brings me to Waiting On Wednesday {frequently known as WOW}; I haven't posted one of these for a while {sometimes it's hard to keep up, folks...especially when I'm trying to expand my city in Cityville, find hidden pics in Hidden Chronicles and killing Zombies in Zombie Lane! That's a lot of hard work, very consuming *g* DAMN you FaceBook!}. Today, I feel the need to post an WOW.
Hosted by Jill of Breaking the Spine, W0W is a great place to post books we're waiting to read, waiting even to see published.

Suzanne McLeod will have her fourth Spellcrackers.com novel out, which I'm looking forward to very much.

The Shifting Price of Prey is slated to be released in the UK June of 2012. If I have to order from The Book Depository, that's what I'm doing {I HATE waiting for the U.S. release, *g*} The continuing adventures of Genny and co. With McLeod's writing, narration, characters, and dialogue I know I'm going to enjoy The Shifting Price of Prey. Want to see some cool covers? click here for the German version of the Spellcrackers.com novels - love the covers.

As I mentioned earlier {or, higher up in this post} I'm looking forward to reading Terry Pratchett's upcoming The Long Earth. Started way back in the 1980's, apparently this manuscript was put aside when the Discworld books were demanding Pratchett's attention. Lately, Stephen Baxter has teamed up with Pratchett to finish up this novel; it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. Pratchett once before teamed up with another writer {Neil Gaiman on Good Omens} and that turned out pretty good. Sorry - can't find an excerpt of this yet.

Now what should we end with?

another LOLcat? or a music video?

Shakira - an appearance via David Letterman

Shakira takes Salsa dance to a whole 'nother level. Good way to stay in shape, yeah?

music - different styles

from an article about Die Antwoord, (Times Live) about their upcoming appearance on David Letterman's show.

One Twitter user called Werner said: "Goodness knows what international people must think of South Africans when they see this act."

Don't worry, Werner we know this must be a rare act.

"Another called Dagggers tweeted: "AgNOOOOOOman. Die Antwoord is going on the David Letterman show!!!! Hey Yanks, I'm so very sorry."<>

Yeah, thanks Dagggers, I see what you mean- I watched it Monday night and I see what they mean. But thanks for thinking of us.

If it weren't for the obvious special effects, and the baby minnie mouse voice of the lead singer - there really wasn't much to enjoy. The music was ...well, rave like music which of course, is fun to dance to. But my overall impressions was ....they're trying to hard to shock people. Not sure if I liked it or not. but no matter what I thought about it, someone was impressed enough to book them on Letterman. Usually I find I'm enjoying some kickass rock or blues on his show.
But then there's this from the article.

The provocative nature of Die Antwoord's videos and songs seem to have resonated more with US music fans than locally.

silly american youth - although I like to think it's more along the lines of a fad - a weird thing that some of the young ones like in a totally "check out this weird shit" way. Well, we've got our quirky youths also.

Well, you decide, though I might have enjoyed it more if I listened with my eyes closed. LOL

now take a look at this following video - Sallie Ford and the Sound - both are different, new, and a bit edgy - yet one is more fun to watch and listen to. Well - for me, anyway. But then that's life, and that's different tastes for you



finally - here is Wilken. My baby son is on drums. (shameless mama plug)

Tuesday! means Teaser Tuesday

Before you do anything else, if you haven't yet come across this, click here and read a great little spoof of Prince Charming

Today's lol cat pics have been captioned by me, though it's a dream of mine to come up with anything as funny as many I've seen

I love Tuesdays for the simple fact that Tuesday has brought me one day away from Monday and just a few more days til the weekend. ;) And this weekend my very first grandchild (I have a whopping two grandchildren) will turn FIVE years old. Time flies. sigh.

So! Back to the book stuff. Teaser Tuesday - we read, we tease, you want. full guidelines are at MizB's site Should Be Reading.

Remember, I try, whenever at all possible, to provide links to excerpts under the book covers. Just for you. I always appreciate links to excerpts, so I try to make sure I put links up (when I'm not being lazy)
I've been reading a slew of books - but I feel like posting teasers from a couple of my fav writers

The Bitter Seed of Magic by Suzanne McLeod has recently had its US release, having been out in the UK since Februrary of 2011 - I also have a page here with a longer teaser that Ms McLeod provided.
from page 175;

"Moving almost too fast for me to see, she was standing in front of me, the sharp end of a bronze knife hovering steadily under my chin. I held my ground, ignoring my hitching pulse, and flicked a finger against the blade. 'Nice toy,' I said."
See? good writing, fun dialogue, kick ass women...oh yeah!
from another one of my fav writers - up and coming writer who is continuously working on one writing project or another - seriously, this girl has lots of great stories in her head - is Doc, Vampire-Hunting Dog

J.A. Campbell

from page 24;

'I growled. He met my angry gaze with his own and growled back. I didn't care if he was a wolf shaped like a human. I wasn't going to let him hurt Kevin.'

Love it - the whole wolf shaped like a human. Doc also refers to vampires as dead-things. For her readers, Ms Campbell has written a new short Doc story,(Doc's Dream Girl) available at My Random Muse,

One of my current reads is Kelly Meding's second novel, As Lie The Dead. I'm enjoying this one so much, I almost forgot to get ready for work this afternoon. Made the mistake of starting to read it while I was waiting for the pain meds to work...next thing I knew it was almost time to go. It's that engrossing.

from page 72;

'A shadow flickered in the corner of my vision. My stomach clenched, senses on immediate alert.'

creepy! **
That's it for now - and below is the other captioned-by-me LOL cat. If you've never heard of these before, there's this website. You can join, and there are many many pics with funny and/or sarcastic captions. All the pics are available to be re-captioned by anyone. There are also pics that have no captions, just waiting for one; it's also possible to upload your own cute or funny cat pic for others to caption. So far, I've been inspired four times - made five captions. It's not easy (for me) to come up with them, but it's fun and I'm happy I came up with the few I did. :)

**speaking of creepy....have you ever been laying in bed (no not that kind of creepy) trying to sleep when you feel the mattress suddenly dip down. You know the dip down, like when a cat jumps up on the bed right next you, or the dog jumps up or when someone sits down on the mattress? It's a dip on a certain spot, a small dip. Well, this has happened to me a few times lately - everyone is asleep - I'm usually the last person up - and the dogs are all snoring and sleeping at the feet of our bed (under the covers, of course), when I've felt a definite dip movement on the bed, behind me right about shoulder level. Each time it felt like our cat (who is pretty hefty) jumped up. I would turn to pet him and NOTHING IS THERE. seriously. No cat, the dogs are still asleep and no one is about. Now I've heard sounds that make me think there are ghosts, and I've had people in our previous houses say they've seen people that don't exist in our house at night. We've all seen the a flash of our dead cat's ghost. But it's all been non physical things. Until we lived in this house. There was that time long ago when I couldn't move and a light was shining in the window, and I heard loud footsteps. Then there was another time when me and the two grandchildren were sleeping in the other room and suddenly the whole room became extremely dark, couldn't see anything - and I could swear it felt like something was in the room. It lasted for only a short while and suddenly the room was light enough to see as much as you can normally see on a night with no lights on - the moonlight shining in, etc. But I've never before felt the bed moving when NO ONE was around, and the cat was nowhere to be seen. Now that's creepy. LOL - just needed to get that off my chest.

Monday - It's Monday!

I totally should have looked for a superbowl or football related lol cat, but after a long day, I just wasn't into browsing for pics. So we have misunderstood black kitty instead.

Like most Sundays, all but my middle son had left the house for a day of football with "the guys". My middle son usually spends the day in and out of his room and on and off the computer, watching parts of the game while I relax on my bed with a book or my laptap. This is how most of our Sundays go, except that I usually also have my granddaughter with me. Only the last two weekends I've been granddaughter-free, which isn't as fun as it sounds. Today, I had plans to have a pajama day by myself in my room with the books...

then I heard my oldest son and his girlfriend. Turns out they had come to spend the day with me and middle son. Oldest son loves football, but he would rather watch the superbowl with a teeny group than go to a huge superbowl party. Which was fine with me, especially since they brought snacks, pepsi, cookies and premarinated tri-tip with them. Marinated overnight for a very tasty tender beef. They did all the cooking and preparing. They brought the girlfriends new little puppy - a very small long-haired chihuahua named Maleficent (yes, after the Disney villianess). So this very tiny, laziest puppy ever spent most of the day on a shoulder, or a lap or a cushion on the couch while my dog, Skippy suddenly decided he needed to mark different areas in the house! Then he spent the rest of the day alternating between sulks and trying to get to know Male. She wasn't impressed - at all.

all in all, it was a nice low key day. Good food, I ended up watching the game, rooting for the Giants and had fun listening to the boys rib each other.

Here we are again, at another Monday. We've survived Superbowl Weekend, the past work week, and now we're starting on another week. Hurray for living, hurray for reading and yeehaw for football! And now on to the book week in review. It's Monday, What Are You Reading is hosted by Sheila of Book Journey. This is the weekly meme where we discuss books we've read, what we're reading now, etc.

This week, I'm just putting pics up and info regarding the books as the pics come up - meaning I'm not organizing them by read, currently reading, etc. So here goes:

I started out the week reading Trance, by Kelly Meding. I bought Trance because I enjoyed Meding's first novel so much. The only thing is, is that this novel - while having an interesting plot and a great beginning started to lose my interest in the third or fourth chapter. After trying to read it a little longer, I ended up putting it aside. It's superhero supervillian type of characters and while I enjoy that once in a while, sometimes this type of story bores me. I think I'm just not in the right mood for it now, so I plan to try it again a little later. Meding remains a good writer, but this one just isn't for me at this time.

On the other hand, I also have the second two Meding books in the Dreg City series. I enjoyed very much Three Days to Dead. I started reading a few days ago As Lie The Dead, and so far, it's just as interesting as the first book in the series. So this is one of my current reads, one that I plan to continue reading - even if it share currently reading status with a couple of other books.

I was happy to see The Mortal Bone by Marjorie M. Liu in the bookstore the other day. I went back (couldn't get it at the time) and bought it - and I am saving it for next weekend or possibly the weekend after. That's if I can stick with reading the other few current reads without adding this one to them. Any of the Hunter Kiss novels deserve to be the only novel being read at any current time. They're always a good read. Apparently The Mortal Bone has been out since December 27, 2011. Funny that I couldn't see it in Barnes & Nobles until February, 2012! I wonder what's up with these bookstores, lately. The last five or so books that I've tried to get on the release day from Barnes & Nobel, I've had to wait for two weeks at least, and in this case it's been over a month since the release date. I know I didn't see it until last week, and I've been cruising the shelves at least five times since December.

I've never ever read anything by Cherie Priest other than excerpts and raving reviews about her books. Based on the excerpts of some of her work and the reviews by readers who really seem to enjoy her fiction, I bought Bloodshot. I just started reading it last week. I don't know if it's because of my recent Saintcrow reading marathon or something else, but it's not keeping me interested either. Right at the moment it feels like one of those books I could read, and then forget about right away. Kind of "Ehhhhhhh". I want to be wowed when I'm reading a book. So I also put this one aside for now. Maybe I'll be more interested later. It's been known to happen.
One of my other current reads is a book by E.S. Moore. To Walk the Night just came out recently. Happily, you can read an excerpt on Amazon.com. Starts out strong with a ending of a fight, or slaughter rather. I'm about two chapters in and so far the only thing that's bothering me is the internal angst about the main character being a monster, though she's apparently one monster who is cleansing the streets of her own kind. But then I'm always a bit annoyed with inner angst and when a character hates a part of themselves - I just lose patience with it. doesn't mean the writing is bad, I just don't have a lot of patience - especially during certain times of the month (which, by the way I should be through with, C-'MON already, I'm not planning on birthin' any more babies, can I just be done with the ovulation part?) So, I'm still enjoying To Walk the Night, and it's currently one of my current reads. LOL

The only book that I finished reading last week was a book leftover from my 2011 reading list. In fact, it's a book that I've had for over three years, I started it last year and misplaced it, then went on to other books. For the Just For Fun reading group (on Goodreads) I read this for my February book. Just for Fun is a group where we read one book a month from our shelves just for fun. You have to pick from your own TBR bookshelf - a book that's been sitting around waiting for you to notice it again after putting it there....... I don't know why I took so long to read this one. Man, there's funny dialogue and situations along with danger and a whole different take on Goblins. This is not your average goblin character... So since I've enjoyed Magic Lost Trouble Found I also decided to start the second one of the series by Lisa Shearin that I just happen to have on my TBR shelf. Armed and Magical is another of my currently reading novels (this makes three so far, that I'm currently reading). I like the character in this novel, as well has her cousin - dark, dangerous and happily amoral - Phelan is a fun character to read. The main character - Raine is a strong elf, female and not a helpless being- nope, her cousins and relatives have made sure she knows how to fight. Good series, with great dialogue and interesting plots. Call me shallow (only as far as book covers go, though) but I definitely like the later book covers way better than the earlier books. The face and the way her head is being held just looks weird. See? That's definitely a shallow statement. But I'm being honest, the later covers look a lot better.
This brings me to the end of my Monday reading list - I've given up reading a few, and I'm currently reading at least three books - three interesting novels.

I leave you now with this last LOL Cat pic - one that all single women who are obsessed with cats should take a warning from.

It's Monday

I'm feeling a little blah, today, so only one LOL Catz. Not sure what's wrong, just feeling like....just blah. I probably just need some sleep - more than four hours at a time, and less pain would be good. But that's always just a given. I haven't been able to sleep more than four or five hours at a time for a while. Maybe tomorrow - maybe not!

This is going to be short and sweet- finally sleepy!

Hosted by Shelia of Book Journey, It's Monday is a place to get together by visiting each other's blogs and see what w'all reading

I was excited about buying a couple of new books, and then when I started to read them I became listless about them. Just that general feeling of not quite boredome, but....almost. Happens to me sometimes after I read a few books in a row - those books that are enjoyed so very much, but after reading them nothing quite measures up.

sigh...

huge, dramatic sigh.....

Maybe next week will be better - Hopefully because I did re-discover the book by Lisa Shearin that I started to read the other day...or rathe rthe other MONTH. lol

Magic Lost, Trouble Found

I was about three quarters full when I misplaced it or laid it down and forgot about it, or whatever I did.

I'm leaning toward finishing it this week.

I also reviewed Doc, Vampire Hunting Dog by J.A. Campbell.

Actually had the review flagged and hidden because it was deemed inappropriate - on two sites, Amazon US and Barnes & Noble. All I see is that I used Shit hits the fan (which I've done before) and Hell, and Damn. It's possible that this was flagged because it's a YA novel but still, I feel kind of censored. It's okay, I changed it on the Amazon site, but I couldn't get into my review for the B&N site, so I'm waiting for a respons from them.

Never thought I would have one of my reviews taken down for being inappropriate - and I've seen lots of strongly worded reviews by others. Not sure how I feel about it yet though. Whatever - I'll fix it - although, free speech and all. :)

Okay - time for bed, everybody!

Night

Doc, Vampire-Hunting Dog

DOC, Vampire-Hunting Dog
Inkwolf Press
J.A. Campbell
*****
cover-I love this pic of the border collie, and that border collie stare. Check out the stake in his mouth though - wow. I love the cover.
There are lots of books written about vampires, humans, dogs and vampire hunters. There are many books written about dogs. There are so many books written from a vampire's point of view, and many written from a vampire hunter's point of view. But as far as I know, there is only one book written from the point of a view of a vampire hunter dog. Yep! that's right. Doc is a border collie who has a special skill - to hunt vampires...
When I say written from the dog's pov - it's really from the dog's pov - first person narrative. Campbell did a great job making the dog sound like a dog. Doc spoke in terms of dogs. Smells, his human, the obsessions that dogs can have - in Doc's example, that would be sheepherding. His human is so cool about it that he puts on the t.v. so Doc can watch sheepherding games. Have you ever come across your dog or cat seemingly transfixed on a t.v. show? I have. There are times when I wonder what the dog or cat (of the moment) is thinking when they are staring intently at the t.v.
Doc is a novella - and stems from an online storyline that J.A. Campbell gifted her early fans with. After a while, she took some of the stories down and reworked them into this version. There are still a few shorts available online for free reads.
Doc has a human that has been a bit sad lately. Their lives have recently changed. Doc's human has been going out at night and coming home tired. Almost by accident, Doc gets involved in his human's night-time activties. This is when they find out that Doc has this special talent with vampires. Things are going along, when as things do, The Shit Hits the Fan.
If you enjoy vampires and vampire hunters, and dogs - Hell, if you enjoy mix of all three then you're going to like this story. I enjoyed it a lot. As with all of her work, Campbell is able to instill a touch of horror, mystery and a bit of snark for a great mix. Her humor isn't overdone, either. You know how sometimes the snark seems to be trying a little too hard? you won't find that here. What you will find is a damn good story about dog who loves his human, and a human who loves his dog. The narrative is great - once you start reading it, you just want to go on reading. The dialog (which can be my pet peeve on any given book) is believable and fits the character. This means a lot to me - seriously a lot. There's some great action scenes - one part when I - and I'm a jaded 50-ish woman now, felt like tearing up for the DOG! I don't do that. Ever! well, hardly ever. :)

There's a satisfying end, and yet you know that it's really just the beginning....

Available from not only Amazon, but THE BOOK DEPOSITORY also! You can purchase this as an e-book or a print! Which is exciting for me, because I've been following Mz Campbell's work for a little while now, and have been able to watch her get published in the e-book world and now I can hold a print copy of her book IN MY HAND, with her name on the cover and all that jazz! I believe that I have just officially entered the geekdom of the book world, LOL
Other works by J.A. Campbell include
Into the West series (shorts for teens) a story told in six installments. I've read all six, and they're all very interesting, combined they make a hell of a story about a teen who experiences a bit of paranormal via time travel and meets her perfect man from the past...there's way more to it thatn that, outlaws, desert dangers, medicine man lore, first love, and horses. Everything you need to keep a young girl interested.

Senior Year Bites - urban fantasy YA novel
Arabian Dreams (not yet published, but soon - keep your eyes open), fantasy novel

Summer Break Blues - which is being submitted - sequel to Senior Year Bites.

There will be more to come in the future from this very talented writer

I don't normally post commercials on my blog (on purpose that is) but this one is a good one

A bit late, Teaser Tuesday

It's one of my boys' birthday (on Wednesday), but since he has to work that night, we celebrated his b-day on Tuesday....which meant the sis, the mom and dad (that would be me and the hubby) and two of the girlfriends and niece had dinner together while b-day boy and big brother were out getting a tattoo that was supposed to take just a couple hours; yet it ended up taking four hours long. Whatever - my granddaughter and I didn't wait to get into the cake...It was red velvet cake and it was getting later and later. So we ate some! :) B-day-Boy should have been here. LOL - they finally got here, ate their dinner and we served up the remaining cake. heehee I have to admit, I'm a little jealous about the tattoo though...

Now the night is over, everyone is out partying except the elders (us again) and the grandchild who ended up spending the night with us. This is nice because I didn't get her this weekend and I missed her. Although one of the side effects of not having her over the weekend, was that I had a lot more attention from my grandson. Usually they play together, and he doesn't want much to do with me, because I'm always making him blow his nose, wash his mouth and face, put his socks on, etc...but this last weekend I got so many spontaneous hugs from him that I was wondering if it was a doppelganger. :)

It is now time for my late Teaser Tuesday. I almost wasn't going to do it, but then ....well - here we are! Teaser Tuesday is hosted by MizB of ShouldBeReading and full guidelines are at her site.

This week, I'm posting two teasers

I'm reading three books - haven't yet focused on one of them yet - it's a side effect from my reading marathon of last week - I was so very focused on the last four Jill Kismet books that it's kind of hard to focus on anything else right now.

Trance by Kelly Meding (1st in new series)

page 15:

'Having superpowers rudely restored after a fifteen year disruption is a lot like childbirth; painful, beautiful, messy, and with lots of screaming. Unlike childbirth, superpower restoration was an event I just didn't see coming. I thought it was heartburn.'

Deadworld by J.N. Duncan

page 36:

'Jackie stared at the picture. It was the spitting image of Nick Anderson. "Wait a sec, that can't be right. That the same guy?" '

That's all I have tonight.....more later (more of what, I'm not sure, but more of something!)

I leave you with.....VAMPIRE CAT!