tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61452541440990834412024-03-17T20:00:11.961-07:00All We Have Is Stories*Book Blog*Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-7950553897245305092014-08-16T19:52:00.001-07:002014-08-17T05:53:04.314-07:00Review: Looking for Alaska by John Green<b>Looking for Alaska by John Green 4/5</b><div><br></div><div>After reading <i>The Fault in Our Stars </i>and falling in love with it, I had to read more of John Greens work and bought <i>Looking for Alaska. </i>I find this book a little tricky to review because although I enjoyed it and found it very thought provoking some of it was kind of awkward to read and in my opinion the second half fell a little flat. I did however love the first half and also the last chapter. I have to admit that I was very busy while reading the second half and could only read in small bits on occasion so it could just be me. Despite the fact the last half didn't capture me like the beginning it is a very good book. As always John Greens writing and characters are on point, he had me laughing and crying yet again. A profound book about life and death, full of deep and insightful words. Although it's classed as a young adult novel it's definitely not just for teenagers. Not quite as good as TFIOS but I would recommend giving it a read. </div><div><br></div><div><img src="webkit-fake-url://523D08AE-5052-497C-85D9-BBA448026B5B/imagejpeg"></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-45315589896998364932014-04-08T18:43:00.001-07:002014-04-09T10:48:15.890-07:00Review: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">It only took me a couple of days to read this book, I'm absolutely besotted with it. I'm sure that in my life time I will reread it many times like Hazel with <i>An Imperial Affliction, </i>this book means more to me than I can explain. When I started reading I knew that it would contain the loss of peoples lives, limbs and even dignity, after all it's a book about cancer not miracles. Without any of these things I probably would of called it unrealistic or a cop-out, but I was satisfied with the realism. John Greens writing was wonderful, Its hard to imagine that I laughed out loud at a book about a girl with cancer but the author did a great job of balancing the parts that made me cry my eyes out with humour, altogether a very well told story. Even though I've never met any teenagers who talk like Hazel and Augustus I love them whole heartedly. The are unique, brilliant well formed characters that it is impossible not to feel affection for. The Fault in Our Stars is a poignant, witty and honest book about love, life and death. It's one of my favourite books and it will stay with me forever. One of those reads that hurts you deeply but in the best way possible. After you finish the last page you just sit there for a minute contemplating not just what you have read but life and the world in general. An enlighting and inspiring read that I recommend to EVERYONE. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCrUmS4CEtcGdCngQl24Yj_vB8-kI2_GY8K7eNJaKrzJ-FWR4hZGw-n62ruRbTzG2o5S19kCsg1sMpGmuMFcuImRiNhfgg6_rhefUjYM-j9WG2myVhcjwbLdKAwiTB1NmZattaQiCOoHJU/s640/blogger-image-98491673.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCrUmS4CEtcGdCngQl24Yj_vB8-kI2_GY8K7eNJaKrzJ-FWR4hZGw-n62ruRbTzG2o5S19kCsg1sMpGmuMFcuImRiNhfgg6_rhefUjYM-j9WG2myVhcjwbLdKAwiTB1NmZattaQiCOoHJU/s640/blogger-image-98491673.jpg"></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-44631521035731923522014-04-05T05:32:00.001-07:002014-04-05T05:32:29.431-07:00Review: Carrie by Stephen KingCarrie by Stephen King 4/5<div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I've never seen the film of Carrie so when I decided to read it all my expectations were based on the blurb and my previous experience of Stephen King novels. I was anticipating a scarefest full of horrory delight but actually I found Carrie really sad, don't get me wrong I enjoyed it but it's just not what I was expecting. The writing of course was good and the plot was excellent, overall a great read. I would recommend it to fans of horror, sci fi or generally depressing stories.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-1169895076447120362014-04-04T15:32:00.001-07:002014-04-04T15:32:34.870-07:00Update <3I haven't reviewed any books for a while, my blog was hijacked and was redirecting to a spam website and after I eventually sorted that out I realised that I had lost the desire to write reviews for the books I was reading. Some friends and authors I have reviewed for encouraged me too continue but the passion I had for reviewing was gone however my passion for books isn't. Whilst putting a small review on goodreads I saw some negative (almost hateful) reviews for Gone Girl a book I really enjoyed, and potential readers had commented about how they were discouraged from reading it based on the few negative reviews. I felt that having read an authors work and being entertained I owed them at least 5 minutes to write a short review so that potential readers might be encouraged to try it. So I'm going to try and post at least a few sentences about the books I read from now on. I promise. <3 Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-90720733370723716092014-02-16T10:00:00.003-08:002014-02-16T10:00:59.202-08:00FYI - Free Ebook! Eden at the Edge of Midnight<br />
Just to let you all know that one of my favorite books Eden at the Edge of Midnight is free for download right now at screwpulp.com. Get it<b> <a href="http://www.screwpulp.com/?browse&*=info&id=73#sthash.kdxylyYU.dpbs">here!</a></b><br />
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<u><b>About the Book!</b></u><br /><br />
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<a href="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1352133626l/16130925.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img alt="Eden at the Edge of Midnight" border="0" height="200" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1352133626l/16130925.jpg" width="129" /></a>The Vara of Yima, the original Garden of Eden, sealed from the rest of the world and populated with the fittest of men and women. A secret paradise that 150 years ago became ravaged by smog that choked out the skies.</div>
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Now the Vara exists in a permanent state of darkness and its people need a champion, a chosen one to save them from the smog that threatens to fill the realm and poison its inhabitants.</div>
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That’s what they needed. They got Sammy Ellis instead. She isn’t important enough for her dad to stick around for, never mind saving a realm or junk like that. Her only responsibility was to help the chosen one open the gateway into the Vara, but not only has she entered the realm in their place, she’s also locked them out in the process.</div>
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Stuck in a twilight land of giant mushrooms, pursued by dark forces and still in her pajamas, being unimportant back in the real world is starting to seem way more attractive.</div>
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<i>I gave it 4 stars, check out my <a href="http://allwehaveisstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/review-eden-at-edge-of-midnight-by-john.html"><b>review</b></a> and my <a href="http://allwehaveisstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/interview-john-kerry-author-of-eden-at.html"><b>interview</b></a> with the author.</i></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-11599479668728431452013-10-07T07:11:00.000-07:002013-10-07T07:11:11.515-07:00Interview ~ Laekan Zea Kemp author of Breathing Ghosts<br />
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<u><b>About Laekan</b></u></div>
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<a href="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1352768931p5/6577467.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Laekan Zea Kemp" border="0" height="138" src="https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1352768931p5/6577467.jpg" width="200" /></a>Laekan is a writer and explorer extraordinaire who grew up in the flatlands of West Texas. She graduated from Texas Tech with a BA in Creative Writing and is the author of the multicultural New Adult novels The Things They Didn't Bury, Orphans of Paradise, and the upcoming Breathing Ghosts. </div>
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Stalk Laekan on:</div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/LaekanZeaKemp/">Twitter</a></div>
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<a href="http://laekanzeakemp.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6577467.Laekan_Zea_Kemp/">Goodreads</a></div>
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<b><u>Interview</u></b></div>
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<b>When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?</b><br />
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I remember writing my first book when I was in 8th grade but, for me, I don't think it was ever a conscious decision. I'd always had an active imagination and liked to spin ordinary things into really crazy stories--which at my age now would be considered lying haha. And that tendency really progressed into storytelling when my best friend got a video camera one year for her birthday and we started making these really bizarre movies about the mob and witches and drug addiction. Yeah, we were probably twelve. It didn't become a conscious choice until my first year of college when I had to choose a degree plan. I went back and forth between Creative Writing and Social Work but ultimately decided to go with writing because I'd never taken a creative writing course in my life and I really wanted to spend some time honing my craft.<br />
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<b>Who are your influences?</b><br />
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Artistically I find inspiration all over the place and am influenced by everything I read. Growing up I was really drawn to character driven stories and looked up to authors like Wally Lamb, Khaled Hosseini, and Melina Marchetta. But I also really love stories that feel contemporary but also have a sense of magical realism like Maggie Stiefvater's books. Her prose is just so lyrical and that's definitely something I strive for whenever I write.<br />
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<b>Who is your favorite author? what is your favorite book?</b><br />
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Pretty much the same authors as listed above: Melina Marchetta, Maggie Steifvater, John Green, Wally Lamb, and Khaled Hosseini. My current favorite reads are On The Jellicoe Road and I Know This Much Is True.<br />
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<b>What do you like to do when your not writing?</b><br />
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This might seem obvious but when I'm not writing I love to read! I'm also a total TV addict and love binge watching shows on Netflix. My favorites right now are Scandal and Dexter (except for those last few scenes of the series finale--What was up with that?) Next up I'll probably start Breaking Bad (I know, I know. I'm so behind) and American Horror Story.<br />
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<b>Where do you like to write?</b><br />
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Ideally, I would love to write in a big beautiful office next to a window overlooking a snow capped mountain range. But for now I just write at a small black desk in a corner of my apartment while my dog sits in my lap and tries to lick my face off.<br />
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<b>What is you favorite genre?</b><br />
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Hmm...I'm pretty open but I'm a die hard contemporary fan. I also love Latin Historical fiction and Paranormal Romance.<br />
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<b>What inspired you to write Breathing Ghosts?</b><br />
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This will probably sound strange but I honestly can't even remember anymore. The story actually started out as a screenplay and my goal was to create something that would be really interesting visually. I think the road trip aspect of the novel just developed as I was trying to pick a setting--there were too many interesting places to just choose one. River was also the first fully developed piece of the puzzle and since he was so closed off emotionally I knew sending him on a road trip would be the perfect way to get him out of his comfort zone.<br />
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<b>How would you describe Breathing Ghosts to someone you had just met?</b><br />
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It's a coming of age story about a young man who goes on an epic journey after the death of his girlfriend armed with his memories and her unfulfilled dreams and learns that in life there are no accidents, only miracles.<br />
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<b>Do you believe in ghosts?</b><br />
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Breathing Ghosts isn't your traditional ghost story and Nia's continued presence after her death is more of a result of River's grief than anything supernatural. But as for whether ghosts really exist or not, I'm pretty open minded and would never rule anything out.<br />
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<b>Do any of the characters in the novel remind you if yourself?</b><br />
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There are bits and pieces of myself in every character I write and sometimes that's intentional and sometimes it's totally by accident. The hardest thing is re-reading something I've written and seeing my flaws in a particular character. Being faced with your own imperfections can be a little jarring but watching that character come to terms with who they are and ultimately come to accept herself can also be really therapeutic.<br />
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<b>What is your favorite thing about writing?</b><br />
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My favorite thing about writing is the freedom. I can go anywhere I want, be anything I want, say anything I want, and feel anything I want and that's incredibly liberating.<br />
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<b>Are you going to stay in the same genre for future projects?</b><br />
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I know a lot of people think sticking to one genre is the ticket to success but I just can't work that way. Every book I've ever written has been so different and the project I'm working on now is just as unique. But for me, that's the key to avoiding burn out. I love exploring new territory and I can see myself writing in many different genres in the future.<br />
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<b>Are you working on anything right now?</b><br />
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Call it the curse of writer’s brain but I've always got something in the works! Right now I’m working on a YA contemporary trilogy (with a side of sci-fi/magical realism) and am half way through the first draft of book 2. Without giving too much away, it centers around a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from Klein Levin syndrome, better known as Sleeping Beauty syndrome, and it’s probably the most romance heavy of all of my projects.<br />
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<b>When was Breathing Ghosts released?</b><br />
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Breathing Ghosts was officially released on September 30th!<br />
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<b>Is there anything else you would like to say to readers?</b><br />
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I'd just like to say thank you. Truly. It means so much when a reader takes a chance on your book and it means even more when you're an indie author. So I'd like to thank not just every reader who's picked up a copy of my book but every reader who supports indie authors and who so selflessly and enthusiastically champions books that might otherwise stay invisible.<br />
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<b><u>About the book.</u></b><br />
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=fe967d444c&view=att&th=14171b6cb2b0b72c&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_1415d0dea1e4ce38&zw&atsh=1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Inline image 1" border="0" height="400" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=fe967d444c&view=att&th=14171b6cb2b0b72c&attid=0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_1415d0dea1e4ce38&zw&atsh=1" width="250" /></a>She is a winding cosmos, bleeding and bursting into night. She is a dream. She is dead.<br />
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River has just lost the one thing that matters most to him—Nia—and all she's left behind is a pile of scribbled love notes detailing their past and a pin-holed map planning out their future. Hopes and dreams confined to one dimension now that she's gone and River’s too afraid to leave his hometown, crippled by the same anxiety that’s plagued his mother for as long as he can remember.<br />
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But after a strange encounter with the only girl he ever loved a week after laying her to rest, River, armed with nothing but her map and his memories, decides to finally leave and never look back. And with the help of a pair of eccentrically named siblings as well as a mutt with three legs, he sets out to do the very thing Nia always knew how to do better than he ever could—live.<br />
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From the moonlit beaches off of Florida's east coast, to the forests of Mississippi, to Bourbon Street, Cadillac Ranch, and the Arizona desert, River is faced with not only Nia's ghost but his own and he learns that in life there are no accidents, only miracles.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6577467.Laekan_Zea_Kemp/">Goodreads</a> ~ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Breathing-Ghosts-ebook/dp/B00FJ87WZ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1380923044&sr=8-2&keywords=Breathing+Ghosts">Amazon</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-66984882646710797912013-10-04T12:57:00.002-07:002013-10-04T12:57:26.959-07:00Review ~ Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl<br />
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Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 5/5<br />
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I'm aware this book has gotten a lot of bad reviews and I was told it was "Boring" and "Slow" after I had bought it, but I was undeterred. I know the types of books I like and this one matched up, young adult, fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, magic & witches all words that hugely pique my interest. Also I had also of course seen trailers for the movie - despite my best efforts to avoid them- before I started reading, and the movie looks awesome. So all things considered, after a stint on the bookcase, I delved in.<br />
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Beautiful Creatures hypnotized me, the plot was interesting, the characters were multidimensional and the writing was beautiful. But 563 pages and I'm not sure a whole lot happened, I literally think I was hypnotized. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, the pages flew by, and I don't have much criticism. But seriously, HOW WAS THAT 563 PAGES!?! I think there may be some caster magic involved here.<br />
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As for my criticism there really isn't much to say, I do hope that there isn't a cop-out song at the end of the next book, a poem of excuses for every year would be rather annoying. And well this doesn't really count as a criticism I just had to say it, in the book Lena says that mortals choose whether to be good or bad, and that line stuck with me. People don't decide, I think its part nature and part nurture but you don't wake up and say that for the rest of your life you'll be good or bad, its a matter of circumstance in my opinion.<br />
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It really is a great book, I couldn't put it down and the characters were really intriguing, realistic and lovable. If you like young adult and fantasy then pick up a copy. I can't wait to watch the film or read the next book.<br />
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6304335-beautiful-creatures?from_search=true">Goodreads</a> ~ <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0141346140/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0141346140&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0141346140" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-51044002020259645772013-09-04T17:09:00.000-07:002013-09-04T17:09:02.596-07:00Review ~ Drowning Instinst by Ilsa J. Bick<br />
Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick 5/5<br />
<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1331339352l/12083233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Drowning Instinct" border="0" height="320" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1331339352l/12083233.jpg" width="226" /></a><br />
I bought this book because I loved <i>Ashes</i>, so when I heard Ilsa had another young adult novel out I looked it up and it sounded great. I absolutely adore this book, I devoured it three days, I couldn't put it down. I was reading until dawn last night because I kept telling myself just a little bit more before I go to sleep, eventually I had to force myself to put it down. So what can I say about the book without giving anything away. Of course the writing was great - that I had expected - the story was way more captivating than I'd anticipated, a total work of art (okay I'm fan girling a little, but who can blame me). This book bought a whole new light to the taboo subject of a student teacher affair, it was written in a way that was totally new to me with no clear lines between monsters and victims. I was totally mesmerized by the damaged and broken characters they were so layered and well developed - Jenna is a great protagonist, I cried a few times reading her story and it pained my heart a little but in the good way, the way that tells you your never going to forget this book or these characters.<br />
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Such a great book, an epic as far as i'm concerned, as soon as I had finished I wanted to read it all over again. It only took me three days to read but will stay with me forever, a complex novel about a girl with emotional and physical scars who falls for a guy who shouldn't fall for her, but their both broken and maybe their forbidden love can save them, or not since Jenna's story is told into a police recorder. After all "this is a fairy tale with teeth and claws" The book was so powerful I think it may have permanently scorched a mark on my soul, there are so many poignant quotes in this book, but you can read it for yourself for them, however I think the book is best summed up in this quote from the acknowledgements "People drown, quietly, before our eyes all the time" ~ Ilsa J. Bick. Seriously I highly recommend this book. it left me breathless, and I was still crying a little even as I closed the cover and slid it back on the shelf.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12083233-drowning-instinct?ac=1">Goodreads</a> ~ <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1780870434/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1780870434&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=1780870434" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-8181290995991899192013-09-03T16:45:00.000-07:002013-09-03T16:45:05.108-07:00Review ~ Godhead by Ken Mooney <br />
Godhead by Ken Mooney 2.5/5<br />
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<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371466074l/17915229.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Godhead (The Last Olympiad, #1)" border="0" height="400" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371466074l/17915229.jpg" width="265" /></a>The author sent me an e-copy in return for an honest review. Okay, let me start by saying that fantasy and horror are among my favorite genres so I really wanted to like this book. But something was missing, a certain spark that makes you want to read into the small hours. This book took me over a month to finish which is totally unlike me, and its not because I didn't like the book. The premises was great, the writing was good but there was something missing. I felt no attachment to the characters, they weren't very layered and even though I wanted to know what happened to them I wasn't very invested in them. I couldn't laugh or cry with them, I couldn't become totally involved in their world I felt like a bystander watching their trials and tribulations with cold indifference.<br />
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This book started well I enjoyed the beginning, the battle of the gods and demons was so promising I really liked Aphrodite and Hera's rivalry, but then it flicked to the present day and things started to slow. The book dragged for awhile and the flitting randomly into different characters pasts got kind of tiresome. It started getting good toward the end of the book and then suddenly finished leaving me a little deflated. Obviously the book had good points otherwise I would of given up, the battles were good, very in depth and I love the idea of demigods just discovering their powers. The writing was good, I mean the author clearly likes an ellipses but if you wade through those there's a good author who got a little side tracked with juggling characters and pasts. Although I would like to find out what happens I'm not sure if I can read a whole other novel like this one to find out, it was just so slow and empty. If you like horror and fantasy definitely give it a try, just because its not my cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't yours.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17915229-godhead?from_search=true">Goodreads</a> ~ <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BW25DWU/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00BW25DWU&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=B00BW25DWU" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-13414989164236338102013-08-14T06:24:00.004-07:002013-08-14T06:24:52.032-07:00Interview & excerpt ~ Tim Stutler author of Hillari's Head.<br />
<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;"><b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;"><br /></span></u></b></span></u></b>
<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">About Tim.</span></u></b><br />
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<a href="http://timstutler.com/uploads/3/0/2/1/3021907/4057769.jpg?225" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://timstutler.com/uploads/3/0/2/1/3021907/4057769.jpg?225" width="173" /></a>Tim Stutler was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. Immediately after high school he enlisted in the United States Navy for five years, sailing the Pacific on a destroyer. Following his honorable discharge, Mr. Stutler earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Fullerton, graduating in three years and first in his class with Highest Honors. He then attended UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, earning a Juris Doctorate degree there after completing his 3L year at Harvard Law School. Mr. Stutler served as a member of the California Law Review and an editor of the Harvard Environmental Law Review.</div>
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He is presently an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of California. He has held a number of other positions over his career, including dishwasher, burger flipper, taxi driver, office clerk, law firm partner, Judge Advocate in the United States Army Reserve, California Administrative Law Judge, and Municipal Court Judge pro tempore.</div>
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Mr. Stutler's new novel, Hillari's Head, will be released August 1, 2013. His first novel, Dead Hand Control, was released in paperback and dust jacket in 2003 and as an e-book in 2011. Mr. Stutler has also edited or contributed to several professional and scholarly publications. He and his wife, Marilyn, now live in San Diego. They have an adult son. In addition to writing, Mr. Stutler is a distance bicyclist and amateur cook.</div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">Interview</span></u></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?</span></b><br />
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I was a ravenous reader growing up and loved submerging myself in the worlds my favorite authors created. And I've always enjoyed writing short pieces to entertain my friends. But until I took a creative writing course in college, I'd never put together a complete story. Entering new and infinitely malleable worlds of my own creation was like discovering a legal, non-toxic amphetamine. But college papers don't feed the hounds, and I was too risk-averse to pursue writing full time. So I studied law, joined the bar, and became a lawyer. Only after I was established in my profession did I indulge my desire to write fiction.<br />
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I became a competent writer only after I started practicing law. I know lawyers who complain that the law sucks the imagination out of them, but I don't agree with them. Litigation is all about creativity. A skilled litigator must take a bunch of facts, which can be quite complex; figure out which ones help his case, which hurt him, which are useful as background, and which are irrelevant; and create the strongest story he can tell for his client. It has to be compelling, and it has to ring true; a lawyer cannot make things up. The art is in deciding which facts to focus on, figuring out how to interpret them, constructing an explanation for negative facts that minimizes their impact, and assembling it all together into an understandable, persuasive tale. And then the lawyer has to apply the law to those facts. It's a highly creative process.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">Who are your influences?</span></b><br />
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I am a huge fan of Mark Twain. I can't think of another writer as insightful, concise and downright funny. As for books that have influenced my writing other than Twain's, I'd include: Two Years Before The Mast (Richard Henry Dana, Jr.), To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee), Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes), and The World According To Garp (John Irving). I'm also a sucker for great speakers who can move their audience, such as Lincoln and Churchill.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite book?</span></b><br />
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I mentioned Mark Twain, who is my all-time favorite. Among living writers, John Irving tops my list. This sounds like hyperbole, but I think his A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of the most amazing novels I've read. As for best endings to a novel, Anne Tyler's Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant gets my vote.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">What do you like to do when you're not writing?</span></b><br />
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What I like to do is different from what I usually end up doing! I'm a distance cyclist and enjoy a hard 12 to 16-hour ride. I also like cooking and entertaining (and eating), reading, blogging (something new for me), and traveling with my wife of nearly 30 years, Marilyn. In a perfect world, I'd find a nice balance between all those activities. Lately though, my day job dominates my days, evenings and weekends. But my work brings its own rewards, not to mention a steady paycheck.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">What inspired you to write Hillari's Head?</span></b><br />
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I’m inspired by individuals who overcome physical or emotional challenges that would cripple others. And I’m fascinated by how one's face influences every aspect of her life, including self-esteem, mood, family relationships, friendships, romance, and even career success. I first learned of Hillari's condition, which is called oligodontia (the most severe form of hypodontia), through pieces in the local newspaper. The pictures mesmerized me. Before researching oligodontia, I had never considered how a toothless visage would affect one's core self-identity. And I was surprised by the number of people I know who suffer from hypodontia, or know someone else who does. After learning more about the condition and its effect on those afflicted and their families, I knew I had to write about it.<br />
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Some studies show that “beautiful” people earn more and are even considered more trustworthy than ordinary-looking folks. I know how a man’s looks affect him. But personal appearance seems a much bigger issue for women. The market confirms that. Just look at any women’s magazine at the grocery checkout. Who’s on the cover? How are they dressed? What are the topics in this month’s issue? Now compare that to the covers of men’s magazines. Very few discuss how a man can improve his looks – his fitness maybe, or his car’s appearance, but not his hair or his face and certainly not his butt. And judging by how much my female friends and my wife (whose spending is comparatively modest) spend on cosmetics, clothing and haircuts, there’s no comparison.<br />
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Hillari's Head addresses these subjects. Kristina the protagonist, has self-image issues. But they pale compared to Hillari’s. Hillari had a big head, but nobody ever noticed that, because she was also practically toothless. If you’ve ever looked in the mirror after losing or just chipping a front tooth, you have some idea of how being toothless would shape the entire universe of a girl moving from childhood to womanhood. Hillari’s plight was painful. And Kristina had her own problems as a child; she was isolated from the rest of the world and had an embarrassing speech impediment. The book explores how these characters deal (or dealt) with such issues.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">Which of the characters you've created in Hillari's Head is your favorite?</span></b><br />
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The two main characters, Gideon Ducker and Kristina Orris, but for different reasons. Gideon is the kind of person you love to have around, with his quick wit, intelligence, strong character and self-deprecating personality. But Kristina is someone I think more people can identify with and admire. She's an every-woman who has conquered numerous obstacles in her life, and must surmount more in order to succeed. I feel a paternalistic bond with her character.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">You mentioned in the afterword that you have an over sized head and a love of recumbent bikes. Are there any other aspects of you in the book?</span></b><br />
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I'd say there's a little of the author in every character -- even the antagonists. But you'd also see friends, family members and even acquaintances in the characters. I share some of Duck's personality traits, but he's a much better trial attorney. And although I've never been tested as Duck ultimately is, I suspect he's more courageous. It might come as a shock that Kristina and I share many traits too. In your review, Scout, you registered some surprise that a male author could create "such a realistic female character," and figured that I must have researched female protagonists. You were right! (Thank you for that generous compliment, by the way.)<br />
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I did have a tough time getting inside Kristina's head. I decided early on that trying to write from a woman's perspective would prove a doomed adventure, so I wrote about a woman -- one specific, unique and somewhat odd woman. And you correctly guessed that I did my research, devouring everything from Little Women to self-improvement titles like If I'm So Wonderful, Why Am I Still Single?: Ten Strategies That Will Change Your Love Life Forever (an excellent book by Susan Page). But books can only teach so much. I think that writers, the good ones, are students of human behavior: listening, studying, and analyzing. As a lawyer, I can be irritatingly persistent and inquisitive. I believe my female friends started avoiding my notepad and me after I'd been working on Hillari's Head a few months. And I know my poor wife now prefers a semi-oblivious husband to one who constantly wants to know what she's thinking, how she's feeling and why she does things the way she does.<br />
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Even after extensive research, personal observation and analysis, I think it's fair to say that I can never fully appreciate what it's like to be a woman. But I can also never fully appreciate what it's like to be another man. Most people have trouble understanding even themselves much of the time! A writer can only observe others and create unique personalities using the filter of his own life experiences. For me, that effort is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing: creating a world and populating it with characters of the writer's own invention.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">What is your favorite thing about writing?</span></b><br />
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I love the creative process of constructing entire worlds, but my favorite thing is connecting with the reader. I mentioned above that as a younger person I enjoyed entertaining others with my writing. That's still true. While crafting a story, I like bouncing ideas off my friends and family and getting their feedback on different passages. But I'm thrilled to connect with a reader I don't know. In your review, you say, "I actually think I'm going to read this book again in a couple of years; it was really touching and will stay with me for a while." That's what keeps me writing.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">What don't you like about writing?</span></b><br />
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Starting a chapter, section or paragraph when the ideas just aren't flowing. But when the blockage washes away, the resulting rush can be one of the most rewarding aspects of the writing process.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">Does it annoy you when people assume Hillari's Head is like Law and Order (like I did)?</span></b><br />
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This question made me chuckle. You're referring to the humorous (I hope) blog I wrote about book reviews, which mentioned that some reviewers enjoyed Hillari's Head because it is similar to Law and Order, while others -- like you -- enjoyed it because it is nothing like that series. I am not at all annoyed by the comparison. Comparing Hillari's Head to a series or show or another book would trouble me only if it discouraged a reader from looking inside.<br />
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I'm learning that different readers do not always interpret a book as the writer intended. But I'm also coming to see that this is not particularly important to me; I want them to make the story theirs, drawing their own conclusions based on their own life experiences. What matters most to me is whether the readers enjoy the read, and perhaps take away something of value.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130;">Have you got another project in the works?</span></b><br />
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My previous two novels were mainstream fiction. The next, titled Saga, is historical fiction. The story begins in present-day California, where Katie Matsunaga-Bishop, a thirty-something writer, is experiencing an existential crisis. She has taken sanctuary in the home of her aging grandfather, Hank. In his effort to help his despondent granddaughter make sense of her recent tragedies, Hank shares details of his own past that he’s never before disclosed. Katie’s grandfather was part of a storied Japanese-American U.S. Army unit in World War II, the 442d Regimental Combat Team. He relates an intriguing tale of his bond with two other Nisei soldiers, an irrepressible young Hawaiian and a more enigmatic soldier named Herman Saga. Saga saved his friends' lives in the mountains around Bruyeres, France in 1944. But his own fate is a mystery. Katie journeys to France, hoping to answer seventy-year-old questions still haunting her grandfather. What the grieving woman doesn't realize is that the answers she seeks may do more than bring Hank peace; they may save a life – Katie’s.<br />
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<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">About the book! </span></u></b><br />
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Hillari’s Head is a character-driven novel about Kristina Orris, a 26-year-old paralegal who has moved to San Diego seeking a new life—a normal life. She is burdened by the memory of Hillari, a sister with an oversized head and disfigured face. Home-schooled by a protective single father, Kristina herself had a vexing speech impediment and rarely left the house while growing up. But after her dad died, she knew she couldn’t stay. Kristina dreamed of being a lawyer. Pursuing such a goal might prove painful for any cloistered, mumbling orphan; but it would be impossible yoked to Hillari. At 18, Kristina abandoned her home, her past – and Hillari.</div>
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Now, eight years later, Kristina meets attorney Gideon “Duck” Ducker, “the single homeliest man she had ever laid eyes on.” But she instantly bonds with the warm, self-effacing lawyer. Kristina takes a paralegal job at Duck’s law firm, where the two are thrown into the most tumultuous and intriguing case of their lives. Kristina thrives. Only one thing prevents her from becoming the confident, fulfilled woman she longs to be: the swelling burden of guilt and shame over her past. But is it too late to redeem herself?</div>
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Alternately touching, humorous and heart wrenching, Hillari’s Head is about family, intimacy, resilience and, ultimately, acceptance. With its intriguing characters and elements of comedy and tragedy, Hillari’s Head will appeal to fans of Nora Ephron (Heartburn) and John Irving (A Prayer For Owen Meany).</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&index=aps&keywords=hillari%27s%20head&linkCode=ur2&tag=alwehaisst-21" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=ur2&o=2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /> ~ <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17841547-hillari-s-head">Goodreads</a></div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">Excerpt!</span></u></b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hillari’s head was huge. I’m not talking </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Elephant-Man huge or anything </span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">like that. But it was unnaturally </span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">large—bigger than any other girl’s head I've </span></div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
ever seen. Bigger than most guys’, too. And it </div>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
caused her lots of problems. She had to wear </div>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
pullover blouses with big neck holes or shirts </div>
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that buttoned, because her head stretched out </div>
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everything else. And she always said those </div>
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“one size fits all” hats were a cruel hoax. Hill </div>
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did not like hats.</div>
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Kristina Orris cradled her chin in her hand and read what </div>
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she had typed. She had never blogged before, and wanted </div>
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to avoid the subjects that girls her age usually wrote about: </div>
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careers, personal growth, fashion, and men. Kristina didn't </div>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
feel she knew enough about those topics to say anything </div>
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insightful or even particularly interesting. But she knew </div>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
Hillari, and wanted to get her story right.</div>
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She began tapping on the keyboard again. The strokes </div>
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
were slow, deliberate, as she sounded out each word.</div>
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Thank you Tim for the awesome interview, great thoughtful answers!<br />
What did you think? I love the sound of his next project as well, I'm definitely intrigued!<br />
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Don't forget to check out my review of Hillari's Head <a href="http://allwehaveisstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/review-hillaris-head-by-tim-stutler.html">HERE</a>!<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-43814435617991802552013-07-30T06:24:00.000-07:002013-07-30T06:27:32.809-07:00Interview and Excerpt ~ Horse Country by Christine Meunier<br />
<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1371979904p5/4738165.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1371979904p5/4738165.jpg" /></a><b><u>About Christine</u></b><br />
Christine considers herself introduced to the wonderful world of horses at the late age of 13 when her parents agreed to lease a horse for her. She started experiencing horses via books from a young age and continues to d<span style="font-family: inherit;">o so, b</span>ut recognizes that horses cannot be learnt solely from books. She has been studying horses from age 16, starting with the Certificate II in Horse Studies and is currently undertaking her Bachelor of Equine Science via distance education.<br />
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Christine has worked at numerous thoroughbred studs in Australia as well as overseas in Ireland for a breeding season. She then gained experience in a couple of Melbourne based horse riding schools, instructing at a basic level before heading off overseas again, this time to South Africa to spend hours in the saddle of endurance and trail horses on the Wild Coast.<br />
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Particularly passionate about the world of breeding horses, she teaches equine studies focused on breeding, at a TAFE, Victoria, Australia.She also writes a blog about equine education which you can view at <a href="http://equus-blog.com/">http://equus-blog.com/</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.horsecountrybook.com/">http://www.horsecountrybook.com/</a> - Horse Country available for sale in ebook and hard copy formats!<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/HorseCountryBook">http://www.facebook.com/HorseCountryBook</a> - like Horse Country - A World of Horses on facebook!<br />
<a href="http://equus-blog.com/">http://equus-blog.com/</a> - EQUUS - Equine Related Education, Vocations and Travel<br />
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/EquusEducation">http://www.facebook.com/EquusEducation</a><br />
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<u><b>Book info</b></u><br />
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Follow Lise and Wes as they work their way around North East Victoria, Australia in the seasonal world of breeding thoroughbreds. Horse Country follows the seasons of the thoroughbred industry and what the day to day of working on a stud could look like.<br />
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A few hours away, Maddie and Melanie are working hard in their parent’s metropolitan riding school, teaching others about horse riding and care of the horse. From the nervous first time rider, to the child who wants to run fast and jump high, the young women shape lessons to suit the individual.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18102932-horse-country---a-world-of-horses"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L_6fg-3j8KM/UaGOwbgPSqI/AAAAAAAAAuc/4Zz5ES8kxuA/s1600/addtogoodreads.png" /></a><br />
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<b><u>Interview</u></b><br />
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<b>When did you realise you wanted to write a book?</b><br />
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I’ve always loved writing in school and afterward and Horse Country actually started to develop back when I was 16 years of age and in high school! It’s only in the past four years that the idea of developing it into a publishable novel has surfaced and then been put into action.<br />
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<b>Who are your influences?</b><br />
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I love words in general; books that I read, wanting to tell a story for other people.<br />
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<b>Who is your favourite author?</b><br />
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Elyne Mitchell.<br />
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<b>What is your favourite book?</b><br />
Silver Brumby as per the above author.<br />
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<b>What do you like to do when you’re not writing?</b><br />
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Reading! Playing guitar and singing, daydreaming, gardening.<br />
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<b>What inspired you to write Horse Country?</b><br />
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Actual experiences in the horse industry and a desire to let people know how much fun and how rewarding it can be to work with horses.<br />
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<b>What is your favourite thing about horses?</b><br />
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They’re honest.<br />
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<b>Are you going to write any more books? Are they going to be about horses?</b><br />
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Absolutely! I’m currently working on a pre-teen horse series with a Christian theme and a standalone novel like Horse Country that’ll be about importing horses to a tropical island and generating a horse business.<br />
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<b>Is there anything else you want to say?</b><br />
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Thanks so much for your time and for allowing me to share about my novel! For those who are considering writing their first book, dream big and do it!<br />
<b><u>Excerpt</u></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trevor stepped into the office in the yearling barn, needing to make a quick call now that he’d agreed to fill in for Kaye and do her foal watch shift for the following evening. He sat down at the desk as he dialed the familiar number, waiting for someone to pick up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“MacKenzie speaking.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Doc, it’s Trevor.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Oh! Trevor. Have I got you at a good time? You’re not about to skip the country, are you?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I rang you…” Trevor stated in confusion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Oh, yes… yes you did.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“But no, I’m not about to skip the country. I hate flying.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You could take a boat.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I get seasick.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Oh… a shame. How about a train?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I don’t need to go anywhere,” Trevor stated with a frown. “I was ringing to say that I can’t make our appointment on Thursday evening. I’m filling in for one of the other workers, so I’ve got to be on foal watch.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Foal watch? Tell me, what are you watching the foal for?” Mackenzie Taylor queried in surprise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Umm… it’s not exactly watching foals. Should be called mare watch, I guess. We’ve got a lot of heavily pregnant mares left to give birth and each evening someone has to keep an eye on them before the night attendant arrives.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“And what do you do if they start giving birth?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Generally leave them to it. We only have to step in if there’s a problem.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Well isn’t that a different kettle of fish! Assisting a mare give birth! Well no bother about your appointment. We’ll just reschedule for next week unless you call in and state you need to talk earlier. How does that sound?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“That sounds great. Well, I’d better get back to work, we’ve got a barn full of yearlings.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Yearlings?” Mackenzie questioned, causing Trevor to roll his eyes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’ll tell you all about them in our next session.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Indeed. Have a lovely afternoon Trevor.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I’ll try.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trevor sat quietly at the desk, realising there was a voice in the barn he didn’t recognise. It dawned on him that the new TAFE student must have arrived and not wanting to have to deal with introductions at that point in time he stayed where he was, certain all would move on shortly to show the student around the property.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before the breeding season even ends we have a barn full of yearlings to prepare and sell. When does it stop?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The book can be purchased via <a href="http://www.horsecountrybook.com/">http://www.horsecountrybook.com/</a> and those interested can keep updated on reviews, author interviews and excerpts at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/HorseCountryBook">http://www.facebook.com/HorseCountryBook</a>.</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-71761977475434047322013-07-24T07:44:00.000-07:002013-07-24T08:35:53.999-07:00Blog2Buzz Buzzin' Author #3 ~ James Garcia Jr<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zEQDnD-nXgs/UdC_yxaxaGI/AAAAAAAACjc/zBSfbY2BpL4/s1600/blog2buzzauthorsbuzzin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zEQDnD-nXgs/UdC_yxaxaGI/AAAAAAAACjc/zBSfbY2BpL4/s640/blog2buzzauthorsbuzzin.jpg" /></a><br />
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Welcome to the Blog2Buzz's Buzzin' Authors weekly meme created by All We Have is Stories and Book2Buzz! This meme is to showcase, highlight and BUZZ about the authors that are really making an impression on us! Blog2Buzz is a group on Goodreads welcome to all bloggers and authors wanting to connect with other bloggers and authors! Our goal is to create a helpful, informative and fun community for all in it! We also hope to help generate traffic to everyone's sites and help get their names our there! We encourage everyone in the group to share this meme!</div>
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Would you like to be involved as well? It's as easy as a click of the mouse! Just click our logo below to join us!</div>
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This weeks Buzzin' Author is James Garcia Jr.</div>
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James is new to the Blog2Buzz group and I hadn't heard about his books until he joined. They all sound great but today i'm just going to tell you about one, I have't read it, yet, but it sounds great.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ToJBIUFbjjg/Ud4aV8G3_HI/AAAAAAAACxk/Brl0JjJqVx4/s1600/3483458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="undefined" border="0" height="131" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ToJBIUFbjjg/Ud4aV8G3_HI/AAAAAAAACxk/Brl0JjJqVx4/s200/3483458.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="color: #4c1130;"><b><u>About James</u></b></span></div>
James Garcia Jr. was born in the Central California town of Hanford. He moved up the road to Kingsburg with his family as a child. After graduating KHS, he attended Reedley College where he met his wife. They, along with their teenage sons, still make their home in Kingsburg which is also the setting of James’ vampire series.Dance on Fire was published in 2010 and its sequel Flash Point was published Halloween 2012. His third book entitled,Seeing Ghosts, a stand-alone paranormal romance is set for a June 2013 release.<br />
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James is an Administrative Supervisor for Sun-Maid Growers of California.<br />
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Stalk James on:</div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/JamesGarciaJrFanPage">FACEBOOK</a><br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/danceauthor">TWITTER</a><br />
<a href="http://jamesgarciajr.blogspot.com/">BLOG</a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3483458.James_Garcia_Jr_">GOODREADS</a><br />
<a href="https://plus.google.com/114561342640039937217/posts?partnerid=gplp0">GOOGLE+</a><br />
<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?report%2Esuccess=88GfZh25oYpGMv_ncXhqwkk2axsD1cOiNrQErX7HNxy7raoMejQEhfBsYJTYoZpJLJh9oM">LINKED IN</a></div>
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<u><span style="color: #4c1130;"><b>The Book!</b></span></u></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N-dah7-woYM/Ud4AdyBDWfI/AAAAAAAACxY/tO14OUtgxZE/s1600/17933159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="undefined" border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N-dah7-woYM/Ud4AdyBDWfI/AAAAAAAACxY/tO14OUtgxZE/s320/17933159.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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<u><b>Seeing Ghosts</b></u> </div>
Paul Herrera finds himself bequeathed a mysterious old house near the California central coast by a deceased aunt he never knew. The woman who shows it to him is the spitting image of his wife, taken from him three years before in a senseless car accident which also took his unborn son.<br />
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While he deals with the ghosts of a past he cannot let go, there are new ghosts Paul must deal with - alone for the week in the expansive two-story house that he will soon discover holds many secrets.<br />
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Eventually, he will see that he is surrounded by ghosts as he struggles to hold onto the only thing that he has left in this world - his sanity. <br />
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Cover art done by Maria Zannini<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17933159-seeing-ghosts?ac=1"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L_6fg-3j8KM/UaGOwbgPSqI/AAAAAAAAAuc/4Zz5ES8kxuA/s1600/addtogoodreads.png" /></a> </div>
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<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">Excerpt!</span></u></b><br />
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I suppose you can say this whole thing began and ended with ghosts. Not all my life, of course, but only all that ever really mattered. <br />
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Everything before meeting Angie happened simply to get me prepared for our life together. No real living had occurred until that moment. After Angie died, I was left only with ghosts. Now tonight I lie beside another woman who is not my wife, and who I have yet to touch. I marvel at her even, peaceful breathing as I stare at the awful ghost that sits calmly, but menacingly, near the foot of the bed.<br />
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Aunt Flora is dead and has been for several months. There’s really no reason on God’s green earth why she should be here, in my home, a place she’d never visited in life, but here she sits just the same, and I’m sure I know why. Perhaps it has everything to do with her not having a home of her own any longer, or because she’s lost her husband once again. She seems to grin at me as if she can read my thoughts.<br />
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Now she nods dramatically to say that she can, indeed.<br />
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“What do you want, Flora?” I finally ask, whispering. I try to be as quiet as possible. It seems like a useless proposition. Peace is an illusion to me at this point; like something so far out of my grasp as to be laughable.<br />
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“You know what I want, Paul.” Her voice is low and calm, but seems to reverberate against the walls. “You know very well what I want,” she says as the all-too-familiar lightning flashes outside probe into the bedroom and illuminate her. A gust of wind rattles the window briefly. It must’ve been the reason I awoke in the first place. I’m pretty sure it was just wind, but who could know at this point? In any event, there’d be no more sleeping.<br />
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I see Flora’s terrible features—that aged and deep-wrinkled skin pulled over high cheekbones; and that profound smile that brings no pleasure, but only sets me on edge. Thunder roars in the distance as if on queue. I am intimately familiar with this particular storm. Both it and Flora seem to have followed me.<br />
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“I can’t help you with that, Flora,” I say.<br />
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“Yes, I know. All you can do is bring everything to ruin.”<br />
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I stare at the ghost and say nothing further, taking in the sight of her with her long-sleeved white blouse, dark slacks and black shoes. It’s incredible to me that I’m having another conversation with my aunt. It’s clear she holds me to blame for what’s happened. If I wasn’t afraid before, there’s no denying it now.<br />
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Flora reclines against the winged-back chair that was Angie’s favorite and smiles. Her arms remain atop the arm rests, the perfect picture of quiet. Another bolt lights up the sky and my eyes immediately find her claw-like fingers as they seem to be digging into the upholstery. Now I know better and I shiver at this apparently perfect culmination of events.<br />
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“It’s not over, Paul,” Flora says. Her tone is firm and reminds me of a wild animal’s growl. “You know damn well what I want! It is all that I have ever wanted. But you have taken that from me. You have taken far too much. Now I shall do the taking. Do you hear me, Paul? Do you understand what I am telling you?”<br />
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Now I’m the one who leans back. I sit up first, positioning myself against the tall headboard. Here is a trend I can’t shake free of—me being awake as the night wanes. Another burst of lightning flashes across the Central California sky and then disappears, casting the room back into shadow. Thunder sounds. The storm is fast approaching. I say nothing more as I recline and simply stare at my dead aunt who sits and stares back, composed for the moment. It would seem I’ve become quite comfortable with ghosts, doesn’t it?</div>
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I think Seeing Ghosts sounds awesome and the cover is beautiful, what do you think? You can buy it on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CQGAXPS/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00CQGAXPS&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a> now!</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-7562449134422501502013-07-23T07:11:00.000-07:002013-07-23T07:11:10.420-07:00Teaser Tuesday #9<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of <a href="http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/">Should Be Reading</a>. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:<br /><br />Grab your current read.<br />Open to a random page.<br />Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page.<br />BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)<br />Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!<br />
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<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371466074l/17915229.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1371466074l/17915229.jpg" width="212" /></a>"Hera's eyes were cold as she returned Aphrodite's look; she stood close to her, close enough that could have attacked her with the spear, but she held her anger in check."<br />
"Man was not meant to wield this power, Hera."<br />
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P.g 18 (epub) <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17915229-godhead">Godhead</a> by Ken Mooney<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-36274804543675984252013-07-20T12:26:00.000-07:002013-07-20T12:26:00.393-07:00Review ~ The Annihilation of Foreverland by Tony Bertauski<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13368166-the-annihilation-of-foreverland">The Annihilation of Foreverland by Tony Bertauski</a> 5/5<br />
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<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1339717282l/13368166.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Annihilation of Foreverland" border="0" height="320" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1339717282l/13368166.jpg" width="213" /></a>The author sent me an e-copy in return for an honest review. I had high expectations for The Annihilation of Foreverland, I've heard a lot about it and its been on my to-read list for awhile, I wasn't disappointed. This book is like Unwind and The Maze Runner had a baby, which was great because both of those books are favorites of mine, and now so is this. The Annihilation of Foreverland is about a group of teenage boys who wake up on an island camp with no memories of who they are or how they got there. The adults on the island tell them they're here to improve themselves and must visit foreverland - a computer assisted alternate reality - in order to<br />
get better so they can graduate. But a red headed girl comes to reed in his dreams and tells him to resist, and he does despite the suffering which is inflicted on him. Then Danny arrives on the island, on his first trip to foreverland he see's her too and together they uncover the sinister secret behind foreverland. Will they escape the island with their minds intact?<br />
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I love the story line its very original and I was addicted to reading it, I didn't want to put it down. The book was well paced and flowed well, the writing style was great and made for easy reading. The cover alone had me intrigued and when I started reading so did the story. I pretty much worked out what the islands purpose was halfway through the book, watching the events unfold was still really enjoyable. I loved the characters particularly Zin - even though he was a secondary character - I thought he was a great addition to the story. Danny and Reed were very complex characters, they questioned what they were being told and I liked Danny's trouble making it gave his character another layer and made him a much more interesting character. I liked watching Reed and Danny piece together their pasts while figuring out what was happening to them in the present. I think writing about characters who don't know who they are or where they're from is quite some feat and Tony Bertauski did it seamlessly.<br />
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As much as I loved this book I found the techy part a little boring, I know its an essential part of the book but the scenes where Danny is on the computer totally lost me. But that's probably because i'm not a very tech savvy person and this didn't effect my overall opinion of the book which is that is a really entertaining, addictive and intriguing read, I'm looking forward to reading more from Tony. I recommend this book to fans of YA and science fiction.<br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13368166-the-annihilation-of-foreverland">Goodreads </a> ~ <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0982845286/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0982845286&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0982845286" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stacking The Shelves is a weekly meme hosted by <a href="http://www.tyngasreviews.com/">Tynga's Reviews</a> to showcase the books we got this week. They can be physical or virtual copies and it doesn't matter if they're won, bought, borrowed or received for review.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week I got some great books!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went to a car boot sale yesterday, I only spent £5.50 and I got all these great books:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13345.Sabriel"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sabriel by Garth Nix</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6514178-the-knife-of-never-letting-go"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7877206-full-dark-no-stars"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10614.Misery?ac=1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Misery by Stephen King</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7455508-blood-harvest?ac=1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blood Harvest by S.J Bolton</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10275932-the-betrayal-of-trust?ac=1"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Betrayal of Trust by Susan Hill</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1176257.362_Belisle_St"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">362 Belisle St. by Susie Moloney</span></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3664294-twice-burned"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twice Burned by Kit Craig</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For review I got an e-copy of:</span><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18134967-necessary-sacrifices"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Necessary Sacrifices by Zoe Cannon</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What books did you get this week? <3</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-17997642711919157992013-07-17T05:22:00.001-07:002013-07-17T05:24:52.242-07:00Interview and Playlist: Koethi Zan author of The Never List.<br />
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362421643p5/6583160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362421643p5/6583160.jpg" width="133" /></a><b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">About Koethi</span></u></b></blockquote>
When Koethi Zan was born in the sleepy farming town of Opp, Alabama, the “City of Opportunity,” her mother was Valedictorian of the local public high school and her father the star of its football team. Her parents named her after the homecoming queen of Lurleen B. Wallace Junior College, perhaps hopeful that some of that glory would rub off on her. But Koethi would never be a homecoming queen. In fact, she spent most of her youth in her room, reading, listening to Morrissey, and avoiding everything connected to high school football—not an easy task in those parts.After graduation, Koethi put herself through Birmingham-Southern College with scholarships and a small “cow fund” courtesy of Molly, the Charolais heifer she’d received as her third birthday present. She used the money wisely, travelling to New Orleans on the weekends to hit the club scene, almost always in silver-sequined costume, surrounded by transvestites, Goth kids and her gay male entourage. Perhaps, in some roundabout way, she had fulfilled her homecoming queen destiny after all.Then, in what may have been a misguided fit of pique, Koethi threw away her all-black daywear and her thrift-store evening gowns, and went to Yale Law School, with some vague idea of becoming a film producer. Afterwards, however, she unexpectedly found herself twenty-eight stories up in the Manhattan offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell, a prestigious white shoe law firm that represented mostly investment banks. She regularly pulled all-nighters working on secured financings and revolving credit facilities. She tended to wear demure black pantsuits, with her hair up. It didn’t take her long to realize corporate life wasn’t for her, and Koethi spent the next fifteen years practicing entertainment law both in private practice (at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison and, later, Schreck Rose & Dapello) and in-house business and legal affairs positions (for the film producer, Ed Pressman, and, most recently, at MTV), with a slight detour along the way to study cinema at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. As an entertainment lawyer, Koethi attended glamorous premieres and openings, international film festivals and celebrity-filled parties. She dealt with gritty production issues as varied as suicide threats, drug overdoses and sex-tape allegations. She warred with Hollywood agents and befriended reality stars. Then, while Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at MTV, she decided to fulfill a lifelong dream on the side, and in the early mornings she wrote a crime novel, The Never List. Now, coming full circle in a way, Koethi, her husband, Stephen Metcalf, and their two daughters, live in an old farmhouse in a rural community in upstate New York. Her husband occasionally watches a football game on television. But her daughters have never even heard of homecoming queens.<br />
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<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130;">Interview</span></u></b><br />
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1. Where did the inspiration for THE NEVER LIST come from?<br />
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THE NEVER LIST was inspired in part by the amazing stories of captivity survivors: Elizabeth Fritzl, Natascha Kampusch, Sabine Dardenne, Jaycee Lee Dugard. These women have suffered through the absolute worst thing I can imagine and every one of them has demonstrated incredible strength in the wake of such trauma. My own difficult life struggles paled in comparison. I was—and am—in awe of them. I wanted to create a character like that: a woman who was strong in the face of unfathomable horror, but who needed to confront her past to figure that out.<br />
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2. THE NEVER LIST echoes recent events in the news even though you wrote it long before those events came to light in May 2013. How did you feel when you heard about the women in Cleveland and have you heard any early feedback about the eerie similarities between life and art here? If the news about Cleveland had broken while you were writing your novel, would those events have changed the storyline in any way?<br />
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I was stunned when the news broke about the Cleveland kidnappings, and it only became more surreal as the story unfolded. I’d written a book based on my worst nightmare, and there it was on the screen—real. And even worse than the story I’d invented.<br />
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Dozens of friends contacted me in those first few days, recognizing the obvious similarities and thinking I would have some special insight into the situation. But I didn’t have any answers for them. I don’t know how or why these terrible things happen. Writing my book was just my way of trying to understand the hardships and strength of the women whose stories inspired me. All I know is that I am so happy that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight are finally free, and I hope they are able to recover from such an unfathomable tragedy. <br />
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It’s hard to say what I would have done had the story come to light while I was writing the book. However, even if I had changed some of the plot details, the essential narrative would still have been the one I felt driven to tell: the story of a woman who survived an awful, traumatic experience and her struggle to recover by facing her past. My book was written from the heart, with great empathy and respect for abduction survivors. The timing of this revelation doesn’t change that; it only makes my feelings for all these amazing women that much stronger.<br />
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3. What made you want to be a writer? Did you always want to be a writer when you were growing up?<br />
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I was raised in a family of scientists in a house that had only one small bookcase. And unfortunately that bookcase was filled with chemistry and engineering textbooks. When I was nine, however, I found at the bottom of a drawer my mother’s Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volumes I and II, from her one required freshman English class. After that I pretty much survived childhood by reading.<br />
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If you’d asked me at twelve, I would have said all I ever wanted to be was a writer, but I lost my nerve somewhere along the way and opted for a steadier career path. I was estranged from my parents after high school and ran out of money fast, so it seemed important at the time to find a secure way to support myself. So I ended up at Yale Law School, which was a pretty great safety net.<br />
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I was drawn to the world of writers, though, so perhaps it was inevitable. I married a writer and as a lawyer I represented writers. My favorite New Yorker cartoon sums it up: a little boy in a cowboy costume says to his father, “Well, if I can’t be a cowboy, I’ll be a lawyer for cowboys.” So now I’m finally a cowboy.<br />
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4. How would you describe your book to someone you’d just met?<br />
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I like to say it’s a psychological thriller about girls held captive in a basement crossed with a trauma recovery memoir—sort of as if the girl in that basement from Silence of the Lambs ended up hunting down Hannibal Lecter.<br />
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5. Do you have a “Never List” of your own?<br />
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I don’t have an actual written list, but I do have a jumble of informal rules that my best friend and I developed in high school. We didn't need to write anything down because we lived by them everyday as we navigated our way through our odd adventures: staying out all night, going to unsavory clubs, hanging out with strange characters. I have written Sarah and Jennifer’s Never List, however, and expect to add to it, perhaps even with suggestions from readers.<br />
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6. The relationships between the female characters are crucial to The Never List—who are your favorite female characters in fiction?<br />
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As I thought about this question, it struck me that the first names to come to mind were all young girls: Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, Matilda, Pippi Longstocking, Jo from Little Women, Cassandra from I Capture the Castle, Catherine of the early chapters of Wuthering Heights. These characters are all smart, tough and insightful individuals who follow their own way.<br />
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It’s telling that so many of the strongest, surest female characters haven’t yet reached maturity, while some of the adult characters I love are ruined or deeply flawed: Anna Karenina, Isabel Archer, Lily Bart. Yes, they are more complex and challenging, but in a way, my true heroes are the girls who haven’t been taught to doubt their strength yet. My life goal is to get back to that place, and to keep my daughters there.<br />
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7. Did you do any research before you began writing your book?<br />
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I spent the past ten or so years researching it indirectly. My unofficial hobby—one I would never put on my resume—was obsessively studying psychopaths, captives, and the criminal mind. Also, I took a brief detour from law in the early 2000s to go to graduate school in Cinema Studies. There I studied Surrealism with the incredible Annette Michelson, who, let’s just say, has a penchant for the dark side. So in many ways it was as if I was preparing for the book for years without knowing it.<br />
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While writing the book, I did formal research into BDSM, abnormal psychology, victimological studies, statistical analysis, you know – the usual. My computer got a lot of viruses, and I saw a lot of disturbing text and images that are etched in my brain forever.<br />
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8. Do you feel your own life experience has contributed to the book in any specific ways?<br />
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Definitely. Although I have thankfully never experienced what my characters went through, the broadest themes were drawn from my own emotional life. Sarah, Tracy, Christine and Adele each have a different response to the traumatic events of their collective past, and I’ve experienced them all for better or worse: anxiety, anger, repression, ambition. I’ve worked with a wonderful therapist on and off for a decade—our relationship is definitely not the model for Sarah and Dr. Simmons—but my own process helped me understand what it’s like to go back and face a dark past.<br />
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Specifics from my own life influenced many of the details of the book as well. My relationship with my best friend was the model for the friendship between Sarah and Jennifer. While the story is obviously fiction, the powerful, intense nature of their friendship is rooted in ours, and their paranoia and obsession with precautions are magnified versions of our own.<br />
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Also, I went to college in Birmingham, Alabama, and my friends and I spent many weekends in New Orleans, wreaking all manner of havoc. We lived a pretty wild life—hitting the club scene, dressing up in costume, crashing with strangers. We woke up one morning to find we were staying with a guy who honestly believed he was a vampire. That was a bit of a wakeup call.<br />
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While I was in college, I also had a brush with a spiritual cult. My roommate and I went to regular meetings for a couple of months, where we were instructed in a bizarre cosmology and taught to be “present to the moment.” It was an interesting life experience that we didn’t take very seriously. Then we reached the level where we were invited to attend a weekend retreat in honor of a visiting guru from New York City. We had to scrape the floors of a house we were renovating for the group, do special “sacred” movements to music, and were expected to meditate for hours. I’m not ashamed to say I feigned illness, got out of there fast, and never went back.<br />
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9. Which writers do you enjoy reading?<br />
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Mostly I read at either one of two extremes: nineteenth century/early twentieth century marriage plot novels and dark psychological crime. My favorites aren’t especially original: Tolstoy, Dickens, Austen, Wharton, Zola, Eliot, and Nabokov. And I always recommend a couple of books I think are under-appreciated: Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh and Lermontov’s A Hero of Our Time. Some of my favorite crime writers (construed broadly) are Patricia Highsmith, Graham Greene, Shirley Jackson, Henning Mankell, Ruth Rendell and Dorothy L. Hughes. I can’t understand why everyone in the world hasn’t read We Have Always Lived in the Castle because it is a perfect, perfect book.<br />
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10. Where do you like to write—and how?<br />
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I wrote THE NEVER LIST down in a stonewalled basement, which was fitting. I got up at five a.m. five days a week and wrote for exactly one hour before my kids got up. I gave myself a minimum of five hundred words to do in that hour (which I later increased to six hundred), so there was no time for writer’s block or self-doubt. I only knew the broad strokes of the story, so each day was a new revelation, as I would find out what was going to happen as I went.<br />
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Now I’ve moved to another house, so I don’t have that wonderful basement anymore. In fact, I have a large, bright sunny office with a beautiful view of the Berkshires, where I absolutely never, ever work. I end up at the banquette in my kitchen, mostly so I can sit cross-legged. <br />
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I’m writing two books now, and I do a thousand words on each a day. On the first draft, I focus on getting the story down, knowing I will re-write each line a thousand times. For one of these books I have a relatively detailed outline that I more or less stick to, but for the other I’m letting it unfold as I go. I like to get my word count done first thing in the morning; otherwise it hangs over my head. After every five hundred words, I get a ten-minute internet break, then—provided I’m not traumatized by what I’ve found there—it’s back to work.<br />
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Here is Koethi's playlist for The Never List:<br />
<a href="http://open.spotify.com/user/vikingbooks/playlist/0AHmBWVucZEbnQ5uX53dft">http://open.spotify.com/user/vikingbooks/playlist/0AHmBWVucZEbnQ5uX53dft</a><br />
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And don't forget to enter for a chance to win a copy of The Never List <3<br />
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<a class="rafl" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/224cd61/" id="rc-224cd61" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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The Never List is available now! Don't forget to buy your copy.<br />
Pamela Dorman Books/Viking; on-sale July 16, 2013; 9780670026517; $27.95<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1846556554/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1846556554&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><br />
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362647228l/17307097.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Never List" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362647228l/17307097.jpg" width="208" /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16158525-the-never-list">The Never List by Koethi Zan</a> 5/5<br />
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I received an e-copy of the never list through netgalley for an honest review. Wow this book was great, it's definitely a new favorite of mine I'm going to read it again one day. I really enjoyed reading it, I was totally transfixed I didn't want to put it down. The Never List is about Sarah, a women who escaped the from the cellar of an evil man ten years ago following 3 years of his torture because her and her best friend went against their rules, they got in the car. Now Sarah lives in New York still trying to recover when the agent who worked the case tells her the man who abducted and tortured her and two other girls along with murdering her best friend Jennifer might be paroled after the a "religious conversion" Sarah summons all of her courage and sets out to find Jennifer body so that she can be at peace and maybe keep the monster locked up. But what she finds on her search might just undo all those years of therapy and make her finally face the past.<br />
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Such a great story line, it kept me guessing all the way to the end - which I never saw coming, it gave me goose bumps. The Never List was so realistic and utterly believable it's frightening, it shows that no matter what precautions you take sometimes bad thing still happen. I loved the way the book flitted between the past and present slowly revealing things, and just when you think you have the full story of what happened ten years ago, Koethi reveals something unexpected. I really liked the main character, Sarah's development throughout the book as she faces her past and the way she takes control of the group. I like the secondary character Tracy as well, she appears to be the strong one but we realize that she isn't fully recovered from her time in the cellar. Also Christine trying to hide her emotional scars was very interesting, the way she reverted back to the way she was in the cellar under extreme circumstances even after ten years off pretending to be fine. The Never List had so many twists and turns I didn't see coming even though I consider myself to be quiet the girl detective, maybe not as good as Sarah but still, I was shocked at so many points in this book I had to stop myself from gaping at my e-reader. The ending was great, I really wanted to read more about Sarah and the things she uncovered and to see where her story went from there. I didn't want the book to end I look forward to reading more of Koethi's work in the future she's a great writer, she had me totally captivated. She created a very well developed, heart wrenchingly realistic physiological thriller. I recommend this book to anyone who likes thrillers, realistic fiction and just all round awesome books.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CBVSVGG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B00CBVSVGG&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=B00CBVSVGG" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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To celebrate the books release today the lovely people at Viking are going to giveaway a copy of The Never List!! This giveaway is open to the US only and no PO boxes. Good Luck.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Corr Syl The Warrior by Garry Rogers </span></h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvT7Y-xj9QmktW05VT_CLTyTKdyZ-xkYNLOCYa979b95cKsWH69veaIpg2jjgwIY30n9TVZc73nHULrapB_dr1aKCYCBJlcxCAm0poCFSZUugL0aWT5tjaghyphenhyphen-_zxpNnM-xyCqPahGWLzy/s1600/bookcor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvT7Y-xj9QmktW05VT_CLTyTKdyZ-xkYNLOCYa979b95cKsWH69veaIpg2jjgwIY30n9TVZc73nHULrapB_dr1aKCYCBJlcxCAm0poCFSZUugL0aWT5tjaghyphenhyphen-_zxpNnM-xyCqPahGWLzy/s320/bookcor.jpg" width="199" /></a>When an armed patrol crosses the border into Wycliff District, the Wycliff Council sends Corr Syl to investigate and recommend a response. Corr soon learns that spies have infiltrated his district, and already many lives are at risk. He catches a glimpse of something truly evil, and with no time to spare, must choose between a safe response that might fail, and a sure response that might start a global war.<br />
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Science fiction from an environmental scientist. The story follows a young warrior who is descended from rabbits as he investigates unusual threats to his community coming from a neighboring Danog community.</div>
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<b>Wycliff Map</b></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;"><a href="https://www.createspace.com/4286501">Createspace</a></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>About the Author </b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f_uy6usLv5z7rsH0olzxMXqtmSXzz_vpZEJfcRGtvBPkK-GpNU5tq-LG7zGv2LlNTK4mePiRageJTUQnbOFLGWBSi_Gd8eWX-eqL5YlH5zn8PpNvCb3MPrm8ksFNYEp1oSTtJCElGnP-/s1600/author.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8f_uy6usLv5z7rsH0olzxMXqtmSXzz_vpZEJfcRGtvBPkK-GpNU5tq-LG7zGv2LlNTK4mePiRageJTUQnbOFLGWBSi_Gd8eWX-eqL5YlH5zn8PpNvCb3MPrm8ksFNYEp1oSTtJCElGnP-/s1600/author.jpg" /></a><br />
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Garry Rogers has a PhD in Physical Geography. He taught at Columbia University and UCLA, and currently serves as President of the Agua Fria Open Space Alliance, Inc. He has published three nonfiction books, and hundreds articles in peer-reviewed science journals and conference proceedings. He is currently working on a sequel to his debut novel Corr Syl the Warrior, and a second volume on Arizona wildlife.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-52890156194807757632013-07-09T17:15:00.002-07:002013-07-09T17:18:55.872-07:00Blog2Buzz Buzzin' author of the week #2 ~ Zoe Cannon<br />
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Welcome to the Blog2Buzz's Buzzin' Authors weekly meme created by All We Have is Stories and Book2Buzz! This meme is to showcase, highlight and BUZZ about the authors that are really making an impression on us! Blog2Buzz is a group on Goodreads welcome to all bloggers and authors wanting to connect with other bloggers and authors! Our goal is to create a helpful, informative and fun community for all in it! We also hope to help generate traffic to everyone's sites and help get their names our there! We encourage everyone in the group to share this meme!</div>
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Would you like to be involved as well? It's as easy as a click of the mouse! Just click our logo below to join us!</div>
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This weeks Buzzin' Author is Zoe Cannon.</div>
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I reviewed Zoe's first book The Torturer's Daughter recently and I absolutely loved it. The sequel Necessary Sacrifices is out on the 15th! </div>
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<b><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>About Zoe</u></span></b></div>
Zoe Cannon writes about the things that fascinate her: outsiders, societies no sane person would want to live in, questions with no easy answers, and the inner workings of the mind. If she couldn't be a writer, she would probably be a psychologist, a penniless philosopher, or a hermit in a cave somewhere. While she'll read anything that isn't nailed down, she considers herself a YA reader and writer at heart. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and a giant teddy bear of a dog, and spends entirely too much time on the internet.<br />
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Stalk Zoe on:<br />
<a href="https://twitter.com/cannonzoe">Twitter</a><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ZoeCannonAuthor">Facebook</a><br />
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6563059.Zoe_Cannon">Goodreads</a><br />
<a href="http://www.zoecannon.com/">Her Website.</a><br />
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<u><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Interview!</b></span></u><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">When did you realize you wanted to be a writer?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Honestly, I can’t think of a time when I didn't want to be a writer. I've been writing for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up I spent most of my time with my nose in a book, and writing my own books seemed like a natural extension of that.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Who are your influences?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Madeleine L’Engle has been a huge influence for me. She’s proof that just because a book is written for a young audience doesn't mean it should be simplistic. Her books have always felt magical to me, full of ideas and wonder and a sense of what matters in the world. I think that’s because of two things: the depth and complexity of her stories, and how (I suspect) she wrote a lot of herself into her books – what drove her, what mattered to her, how she saw the world. I try to include both those elements in my own writing. Orson Scott Card is another influence of mine – I read a lot of his books when I was younger, and I think it’s where I got my love for stories that are full of philosophy and moral dilemmas.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Who is your favorite author? what is your favorite book?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">It’s hard to name my favorite author – there are so many to pick from! But if I had to choose just one, I think it would be Lois McMaster Bujold. Her science fiction is good on so many levels – her stories are smart and well-thought-out and just plain fun. As for books, I have three tied for my favorite right now. There’s Benighted by Kit Whitfield, a complex and thoughtful urban fantasy set in a world where almost everyone is born as a werewolf. There’s Warchild by Karin Lowachee, a sci-fi novel with amazing characterization, going deep into the main character’s head as he tries to find a place between his native human race and the aliens who raised him. And there’s Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, a story of friendship in World War II that will not only make you cry but has one of the most interesting character voices I've ever seen.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">What do you like to do when your not writing?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">I spend a lot of my non-writing time reading. I love books – if I didn't, it wouldn't make much sense for me to write them! Other than that, I like to play computer games, poke around on the internet, and hang out with my husband and dog. My life is pretty boring, really. :) But my books have more than enough excitement for me.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><b>What inspired you to write The torturer's daughter?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">I love dystopian fiction – that’s the main reason I write it. But beyond that, I wrote this book because I wanted to see what dystopian oppression would look like in a place that wasn't an exotic future, but was instead someplace just like our own world. I wanted to see what it would be like if one of the villains of the dystopian world, a woman who tortures and executes anyone who questions the regime, happened to be an ordinary person with a life and a family… and what would happen when her daughter was forced to confront the things that her mother had done.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><b>Which of the characters you've created is your favorite?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">That’s a tough decision – but I think I’d have to say Becca. Especially now that I've written the sequel to The Torturer’s Daughter. When I sat down to write the sequel, I had some idea of how she had evolved between one book and the next, but I didn't fully appreciate the person she had become until I actually started writing. Even though I know she’s entirely a creation of my own imagination, there were times in the sequel when I just wanted to hug her and tell her how proud I was of her.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Do any of your characters remind you of yourself?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">I don’t think I've ever written a character who was based on me, or who reminded me of myself more than not. But I put bits of myself in most of the people I write about, often without realizing it until after the fact. I can see myself in Becca’s contemplativeness, in Micah’s idealism (you’ll meet him soon!), and even in Raleigh Dalcourt’s sense of conviction.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">How many books are there going to be in the Internal Defense series?</span></b><span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Right now I have five novels planned, as well as two novellas, although that’s not a hard-and-fast number – a story might not work out the way I planned, or another addition to the series might show up demanding to be written. Not all the books will be about Becca and the other characters from The Torturer’s Daughter, either; although the next book, Necessary Sacrifices, will be a direct sequel to The Torturer’s Daughter, I also have plans for stand-alone novels within the series that will explore different characters and different aspects of the world.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">What is your favorite thing about writing?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">The best thing about writing, in my opinion, is that it lets me take the stories in my head and share them with other people. There’s something magical about that process – how you can start with something that doesn't exist anywhere except your own mind, and turn it into something that complete strangers can experience.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">Are you going to stay in the dystopia genre for future projects?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">I have ideas for several more dystopian novels, both in the Internal Defense series and in different but equally dark worlds. I've always loved dystopian books, so it makes sense that so many of my ideas fall into that genre. But I also have some non-dystopian stories planned – although everything I write tends to contain darker elements, no matter the genre.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="color: #741b47;">When is the sequel Necessary Sacrifices out?</span></b><br />
<span style="color: #e06666; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Necessary Sacrifices will be coming out on July 15th!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>The Books!</u></b></span><br />
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<a href="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355721630l/17078025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Torturer's Daughter" border="0" height="320" src="http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1355721630l/17078025.jpg" width="212" /></a><u><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_607851511"></span>The Torturer's Daughter<span id="goog_607851512"></span></a> (<a href="http://allwehaveisstories.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/review-tourturers-daughter-by-zoe-cannon.html">Review</a>)</u><br />
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When her best friend Heather calls in the middle of the night, Becca assumes it's the usual drama. Wrong. Heather's parents have been arrested as dissidents - and Becca's mother, the dystopian regime's most infamous torturer, has already executed them for their crimes against the state.<br />
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To stop Heather from getting herself killed trying to prove her parents' innocence, Becca hunts for proof of their guilt. She doesn't expect to find evidence that leaves her questioning everything she thought she knew about the dissidents... and about her mother.<br />
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When she risks her life to save a dissident, she learns her mother isn't the only one with secrets - and the plot she uncovers will threaten the lives of the people she loves most. For Becca, it's no longer just a choice between risking execution and ignoring the regime's crimes; she has to decide whose life to save and whose to sacrifice.<br />
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It's easy to be a hero when you can save the world, but what about when all you can do is choose how you live in it? THE TORTURER'S DAUGHTER is a story about ordinary teenage life amidst the realities of living under an oppressive regime... and the extraordinary courage it takes to do what's right in a world gone wrong.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009UEVWCW/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B009UEVWCW&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=B009UEVWCW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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<u><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18134967-necessary-sacrifices">Necessary Sacrifices</a> (Out July 15th)</u></div>
A year and a half ago, Becca Dalcourt joined the resistance. Three months ago, she started working undercover inside Internal Defense. A year from now, she’ll probably be dead. She knows the odds. She’s seen how the life of a double agent ends.</div>
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All she wants is a chance to do something with what little time she has left. Something big. Something meaningful. But the resistance doesn't trust her, and her job transcribing torture sessions hasn't given her anything but the names of dissidents whose lives, according to her resistance contact, aren't worth saving.</div>
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So when she discovers a secret government program designed to brainwash dissidents into loyal citizens, she resolves to shut it down, no matter the cost. Even if her plan puts everyone she loves in danger. Even if the most experienced resistance fighters say it can’t be done. Even if it means betraying the only person who sees past the mask she wears every day.</div>
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Even if she has to do it alone.</div>
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The sequel to The Torturer’s Daughter, which has been praised for its dark realism, Necessary Sacrifices asks how you fight an enemy that can't be defeated... and what sacrifices are worth making along the way.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-17664243000578089502013-07-07T14:59:00.000-07:002013-07-07T14:59:01.961-07:00Interview & Excerpt ~ Duncan M. Hamilton author of The Tattered Banner<br />
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<img alt="Duncan M. Hamilton" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362522554p5/6979427.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>About Duncan</u></b></span><br />
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Duncan is a writer of fantasy fiction novels and short stories that are set in a world influenced by Renaissance Europe. He has a Masters Degree in History, and is particularly interested in the medieval and renaissance periods. He doesn't live anywhere particularly exotic and when not writing he enjoys cycling, skiing and windsurfing. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"> </span><br />
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Email: <a href="mailto:dmhamiltonauthor@gmail.com">dmhamiltonauthor@gmail.com</a><br />Website: <a href="http://www.duncanmhamilton.com/">http://www.duncanmhamilton.com</a><br />Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DuncanMHamilton">twitter.com/DuncanMHamilton</a><br />Goodreads: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/duncanmhamilton">http://www.goodreads.com/duncanmhamilton</a><br /><br /></div>
<b><u><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Book Info</span></u></b><br />
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Unique talent always attracts attention…<br />
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362480716l/17557803.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="The Tattered Banner (Society of the Sword, #1)" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1362480716l/17557803.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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In a world where magic is outlawed, ability with a sword is prized above all else. For Soren this means the chance to live out his dreams.<br />
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Plucked from a life of privation, he is given a coveted place at Ostenheim’s Academy of Swordsmanship, an opportunity beyond belief.<br />
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Opportunity is not always what it seems however, and gifts rarely come without conditions. Soren becomes an unwitting pawn in a game of intrigue and treachery that could cost him not just his dreams, but also his life.<br />
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Genre: Fantasy<br />Self Published<br />Word Count: 124,000<br />ISBN: (paperback) 978-1481013222<br /> (Kindle) 978-1-62347-203-0<br />Release Date: March 2013<br />Format: Paperback and e-book<br />Available from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/148101322X">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/148101322X">Amazon UK</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-tattered-banner-duncan-m-hamilton/1115862007?ean=2940016482163&isbn=2940016482163">Barnes & Noble</a>, <a href="http://uk.nook.com/ebooks/the-tattered-banner-society-of-the-sword-1-by-duncan-m-hamilton/2940016482163">Nook UK</a>, <a href="http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Tattered-Banner/book--aae-QVOQkSvjQDZJ7m-fg/page1.html?s=yKIND_aMTE68GRNHeL8EaQ&r=1">Kobo</a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-tattered-banner/id667299404?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4">iBookstore</a>, <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/330409">Smashwords</a>.<br /><br /><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Interview</u></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When did you realize you wanted to be a writer? </span><br />
I don't think I ever had a moment like that; it's just something I've done for as long as I can remember!<br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who are your influences? </span><br />
I tend to read history for the most part, so that heavily influences what I write. I don't think I could pick out any individuals though! <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite book? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably Raphael Sabatini. I love his classic swashbuckling adventures; Scaramouche, Captain Blood, and The Sea Hawk being among my favourites. I also really like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Montecristo.<br /><br />In terms of more modern stuff, I'm also a big fan of a Spanish writer called Arturo Pérez-Reverte. I don't speak a word of Spanish though, so happily all of his books are in English translation! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do you like to do when you're not writing? </span><br />
Cycling, windsurfing and skiing when the weather is right. With all the sword fighting I write about, I thought some first hand experience might help, so I recently took up fencing. It's really good fun. I read a lot too, history for the most part, medieval and renaissance periods being my main interest. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What inspired you to write The Tattered Banner?</span><br />
I wanted to write a story based in a renaissance style city-state, filled with opportunity, intrigue and danger. The story grew out of playing around with that concept. It started out as historical fiction, but the freedom that writing in a fantasy setting allows was too attractive to pass up, so I made the sideways move and haven't looked back since. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How many books are there going to be in the Society of The Sword series?</span><br />
It's a trilogy, with the next book coming out (hopefully) in the early autumn and the final part a few months after that. I've written a couple of other books set in the same world, which explore characters who make a brief appearance in the Society of the Sword trilogy. They will be stand-alone novels though, hopefully to be released over the course of next year. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What's your favorite thing about the medieval period?</span><br />
You know, I really can't say! History generally has fascinated me ever since I was a kid, and I've no idea why! <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47;">What is your favorite thing about writing?</span></span><br />
I can give you a more definite answer on this one! Sitting down at my desk in the morning with nothing more than an idea, and getting up from it in the evening with new people, places and events taking shape in front of me. Creating all these things out of nothing just keeps me coming back to my keyboard with a smile on my face every time. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you going to stay in the fantasy genre in the future?</span><br />
I've certainly got a lot more stories I want to tell and ideas I want to explore, specifically in the Middle Sea world that The Tattered Banner is set in. I don't think I'll ever completely depart from fantasy, as I enjoy the creative freedom it offers too much, but I think it would be a shame not to explore some of the other genres out there too. Action/Adventure and Sci-Fi have always appealed to me too, and I've written stuff in both in the past.<br />
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In terms of keeping your writing fresh, I think it's a useful exercise to vary things a little from time to time. <br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Do you have any projects in the works?</span><br />
Lots! The follow up to The Tattered Banner is away being edited at the moment. I finished the first draft of the final part of that trilogy not so long ago, and I'm about half way through writing my next longer piece, which will probably end up being a trilogy also, the first part of which I hope to have ready to publish late next year.<br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u><b>Excerpt</b></u></span><br />
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The customer was well dressed, not as well dressed as a noble or a wealthier merchant, but neat, clean and tidy. A servant perhaps. Shrewd though, he was haggling hard and this was creating Soren’s chance. The haggling was intense and the opportunity was growing greater by the moment. With as much nonchalance as he could muster with the smell of the different foods all around nearly driving him to madness, he walked quickly, but not too quickly, past the customer and into arm’s reach of a beautifully shaped, golden loaf of bread. A series of inviting diagonal grooves were cut across its back, betraying its crusty shell and no doubt hiding delicious fluffy bread underneath.<br />
<br />His hand was shaking; the thought of the bread set his mouth awash and his heart was racing. The bread was firm to the touch, but yielded to the slight pressure of his hand. Then he had it, clutched to his chest. Keep walking, he thought, slow and steady, it is as easy as anything. The weight of anticipation was beginning to lift from his shoulders when disaster struck.<br /><br />‘Stop there! Thief!’<br /><br />For a moment Soren hoped that the shout had been directed at someone else, but a glance over his shoulder proved that it had not. The merchant had pulled a long thin club from underneath his counter and was striding purposefully toward him. One of the smaller side alleys that ran off the square was his best chance; they led to the warren of tight twisting alleys that riddled the city like veins, a web that anyone who had grown up on the streets was intimately familiar with.<br /><br />With eighteen years under his belt, Soren had found over the last couple of years that his body had become inconveniently large. The small spaces between adults at leg level that had once provided free passage when he was younger were now closed to him. Instead he had to use his size to try to bash people out of his way to clear a path ahead. It was not the most economical of escapes, knocking from person to person.<br /><br />With each bump and curse, the merchant got a little closer. Just as one of the laneways came into sight and with only a few heads bobbing between him and it, he felt a firm hand grab a handful of his shirt between his shoulder blades. He spun around, and the first swing of the merchant’s club cracked him on the back of the hand and knocked the precious loaf of bread from his grasp. He watched with agonising hunger as the loaf hit the smoothly cobbled ground and was quickly trampled into oblivion.<br /><br />Recovering quickly from this setback, Soren pushed backward as hard as he could, driving with his legs and forcing his way past the last few people and into the free space at the entrance to the alley. Unfortunately the merchant had followed swiftly through the void he had left in his wake. Throwing himself backward to avoid the swing of the merchant’s club, he fell into a pile of rubbish; various junk heaped there by the nearby traders. Luck smiled upon him as his hand came upon a piece of wooden doweling rod, which he quickly raised to parry off the next blow.<br /><br />‘You’ll pay for that loaf, you little shit!’<br /><br />‘Fuck off, you fat pig!’ said Soren. The merchant could easily afford to lose a loaf of bread. Its value to Soren was ten times what it was to him.<br /><br />The merchant didn’t reply. Soren’s backchat just infuriated him. He bellowed in rage and kept furiously hitting down at Soren with his club. Soren scrambled to his feet, fending off each attack with his rough wooden rod. He consciously mirrored the stance of the swordsmen in the arena, his feet planted wide apart and his knees slightly bent. The contact of the two pieces of wood made a satisfying ‘thwock’ and Soren found that he was almost enjoying himself, or would have been if it were not for the painful hollowness in his belly and the disappointment at having lost the loaf of bread, which he was still feeling keenly. The merchant swung at him from left and right, the club swishing through the air. Some strikes Soren ducked, others he sidestepped, but the most pleasurable were those where wood struck wood, and Soren effortlessly deflected the club up, down, left or right; to any direction of his choosing. The merchant’s attacks seemed to come at him at a snail’s pace and Soren felt as though he could do as he liked.<br /><br />The merchant, on the other hand, was not enjoying himself. Each spoiled attack was enraging him further. Instead of the satisfaction of beating the daylights out of a street urchin who had just robbed him, he was presented with the smiling face of a filthy gutter rat who he could not seem to lay a single blow upon. Furthermore, a chase that he had expected to take but a moment, was requiring considerably more time, and his stall was unattended and inviting further theft. Finally reason overcame rage, and he paused, his face red as he gasped for breath. Soren remained in a crouch, gently swaying his weight from foot to foot, his piece of wood held out in front of him, the tip deadly still. With a curse at both Soren and the conspicuously absent City Watch, he flung his club at Soren, which Soren easily dodged, turned and walked back toward his stall. Soren put one hand on his hip and with the other raised his club high, in the salute that Amero had always made after easily defeating an opponent.<br /><br />As he stood and straightened himself, the bitter disappointment at having lost the loaf struck him and his empty belly with renewed force, but he was quickly distracted by a slow clapping sound. It was not the sharp sound of bare skin against skin, but that of soft, thick leather on leather drumming out behind him.<div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com251tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-57047285270882416772013-07-05T03:56:00.002-07:002013-07-05T04:07:00.497-07:00Blog2Buzz Blog of the Month Winner July!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Welcome to <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/105571-blog2buzz">Blog2Buzz's</a> new feature Blog of the month! We already have a winner this month but be sure to enter to be next months blog of the month on the thread entries for August blog of the month which will go up on <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/105571-blog2buzz">Blog2Buzz</a> on the 14th of this month. Now back to this months winner.</div>
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<span style="color: #073763; font-size: x-large;"><b>The winner is <a href="http://readingintwilight.blogspot.co.uk/">Reading in Twilight.</a></b></span></div>
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Congratulations to the blogs owner Juliana. Be sure to follow this amazing blog voted Blog of the Month July by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/105571-blog2buzz">Blog2Buzz</a> members!<br />
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<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-29621457456837394992013-07-03T07:15:00.003-07:002013-07-03T07:15:47.522-07:00Wishlist Wednesday #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wishlist Wednesday is a book blog hop where we will post about one book per week thats on our wishlist, that we can't wait to get off the wishlist and onto our wonderful shelves.</div>
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I know wishlist Wednesday is about one book on your wishlist your excited about but I'm going to be ordering a couple of books later that have been on my wishlist for awhile and I wanted to tell you guys about them!!</div>
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<u><b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425802-pods">PODs by Michelle Pickett</a></b></u></div>
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327645122l/13425802.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="PODs" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327645122l/13425802.jpg" width="214" /></a>Seventeen-year-old Eva is a chosen one. Chosen to live, while others meet a swift and painful death from an incurable virus so lethal, a person is dead within days of symptoms emerging. In the POD system, a series of underground habitats built by the government, she waits with the other chosen for the deadly virus to claim those above. Separated from family and friends, it's in the PODs she meets David. And while true love might not conquer all, it's a balm for the broken soul. </div>
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After a year, scientists believe the population has died, and without living hosts, so has the virus. That's the theory, anyway. But when the PODs are opened, survivors find the surface holds a vicious secret. The virus mutated, infecting those left top-side and creating... monsters. </div>
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Eva and David hide from the infected in the abandoned PODs. Together they try to build a life--a new beginning. But the infected follow and are relentless in their attacks. Leaving Eva and David to fight for survival, and pray for a cure.</div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1937053288/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1937053288&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=1937053288" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10429045-shatter-me?ac=1"><b>Shatter me by Tahereh Mafi </b></a><br />
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310649047l/10429045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1)" border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310649047l/10429045.jpg" width="211" /></a>Juliette hasn't touched anyone in exactly 264 days.</div>
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The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn't hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.</div>
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The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.</div>
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Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0062085506/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0062085506&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0062085506" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11044367-taken?ac=1">Taken by Erin Bowman</a></div>
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There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.<br />
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They call it the Heist.<br />
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Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.<br />
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Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0062117262/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0062117262&linkCode=as2&tag=alwehaisst-21">Amazon</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://ir-uk.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=alwehaisst-21&l=as2&o=2&a=0062117262" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-61747268603296436042013-07-02T08:11:00.000-07:002013-07-07T06:50:45.455-07:00Booklovin' hop ~ Review & Giveaway: Belle Noir by Ava Zavora<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: #741b47;">As most of you know, Google Reader is ending soon and GFC will most likely be going as well so Bloglovin' is going to be the best place to follow and read all of your favorite blogs! In celebration of this, Book2Buzz is hosting a month long blog hop called the Booklovin' Blog Hop! Within this hop there are going to be book reviews, spotlights, interviews and plenty of chances to win books from the following genres: Dystopian, fantasy, and YA!</span></b></div>
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So here's my review of Belle Noir a collection of short fantasy stories. And you can enter for a chance to win an epub copy!<br />
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Belle Noir: Tales of love and magic by Ava Zavora 4/5<br />
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An e-copy of Belle was sent to me by the author in return for an honest review, And I was a bit nervous because its the first anthology I've read. Belle Noir is a collection of short stories for adults and most of the stories are about heartbreak, pain and magic. This book was so original, I didn't want to put it down. Don't let the name and cover fool you, Belle Noir is dark and heart wrenching, All of the characters in the first four stories faced great pain - at the hands of men - and reading about them felt like witnessing some thing private that was shared by accident, but I couldn't look away, it was too intriguing.<br />
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As this is my first review of a collection of stories I'm going to give a little review of all of them separately.<br />
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Firstly Transfigured a retelling of beauty and the beast, I was completely transfixed within a few pages of this story. It was like the story behind the classic fairy tale, It was beautiful and tragic and I wished it was longer I liked the idea of what happened to the characters after the curse was broken. The style this story was written in was so different from the rest that it almost felt like a different author, which just shows how diverse Ava Zavora is and I look forward to reading more of her books.<br />
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I hadn't actually heard of The Lady of Shallot by Tennyson but I feel like the modern retelling No Loyal Knight and True was a great introduction to it, I love how strong the main female character was and the way the story flitted between the past and present to unravel what had happened to her. I loved the ending as well It was very well developed and I like the fact Ava added The Lady of Shallot at the end of the book so I could see the roots of the story.<br />
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Which brings me to Belle Noir it was beautiful and captivating. Another retelling of Beauty and the beast in a way, this story doesn't contain any magic and is set in our world because as Ava says in the afterword "There are beasts in real life and unfortunately, often-times, we recognize too late their true natures" Jane story was heart wrenching she escapes a monster just to fall foul of another much worse one, disguised as the happiness she so desperately wanted. I thought the analogy drawn between the rose bush and Jane's daughter was great it really tied the story together.<br />
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Grotesque was the story I like the least, I thought the end half was brilliant but the beginning just seemed a little empty. I like the way the main female character was strong but eventually broke down and everything was revealed. I don't want to give anything away but I thought the symbolic ending made the story.<br />
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Mirabilis is a novella of another beauty and the beast retelling, and was my favorite story. I actually wish Ava had made a entire book of this story I loved it. I would of liked it to have more of a definitive ending but I guess what happened next was left the imagination. I really liked Rosaria's character, how strong and independent she was while still needing her father. I liked the use of the rose and the fact lord Devlin hires Rosaria to help break his curse and she wasn't given to him like a possession to buy her fathers freedom.<br />
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In conclusion Ava is a very diverse writer, Belle Noir is a beautiful collection of retellings for adults and I really enjoyed them. I'm not usually a romance reader, and i'm never won over by a happy ending but this book is the exception to the rule, I was really rooting for the strong women in the book to get their happy ever after. If you enjoy the fantasy or romance genre, you'll love this book.<br />
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For a chance to win an epub copy of Belle Noir enter bellow. Good luck :)<br />
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<b><u><span style="color: #351c75;">Keep Hopping!!</span></u></b><br />
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<a href="http://www.book2buzz.blogspot.com/">Book2Buzz - July 1st</a><br />
<a href="http://allwehaveisstories.blogspot.com/">All We Have is Stories - July 2nd</a><br />
<a href="http://homeofabooklover.blogspot.com/">Home of a Book Lover - July 3rd</a><br />
<a href="http://etherealistic-reader.blogspot.com/">Into the Land of Books - July 4th</a><br />
<a href="http://batcrazimom.blogspot.com/">Bat Crazi Mom - July 7th</a><br />
<a href="http://readingintwilight.blogspot.com/">Reading in Twilight - July 8th</a><br />
<a href="http://booknerdparadise.blogspot.com/">Book Nerd Paradise - July 9th</a><br />
<a href="http://wiccawitch4.blogspot.ca/">Wicca Witch 4 Book Blog - July 11th</a><br />
<a href="http://rainydayreadingreviews.blogspot.com/">Rainy Day Reading Reviews - July 14th</a><br />
<a href="http://booknerdparadise.blogspot.com/">Book Nerd Paradise - July 16th</a><br />
<a href="http://afterdarkrendezvous.wordpress.com/">After Dark Rendezvous - July 17th</a><br />
<a href="http://bookcoverjustice.blogspot.com/">Book Cover Justice - July 20th</a><br />
<a href="http://theunofficialaddictionbookfanclub.blogspot.com/">The Unofficial Addiction Book Fan Club - July 23rd</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6145254144099083441" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-40157166168241837402013-07-01T06:34:00.000-07:002013-07-01T06:37:31.500-07:00Blog2Buzz Buzzin' author of the week #1 ~ Duncan Whitehead<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome to the Blog2Buzz's Buzzin' Authors weekly meme created by All We Have is Stories and Book2Buzz! This meme is to showcase, highlight and BUZZ about the authors that are really making an impression on us! Blog2Buzz is a group on Goodreads welcome to all bloggers and authors wanting to connect with other bloggers and authors! Our goal is to create a helpful, informative and fun community for all in it! We also hope to help generate traffic to everyone's sites and help get their names our there! We encourage everyone in the group to share this meme!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would you like to be involved as well? It's as easy as a click of the mouse! Just click our logo below to join us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first author to BUZZ about is Duncan Whitehead! I was lucky enough to work with Duncan recently and enjoyed every minute of it! He's uber funny and his book The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club was beyond amazing!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the interview Book2Buzz had with Duncan and some really cool extras!</span></div>
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<u><b>About Duncan!</b></u></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Gg_BE_WSTk/UaIZYAqIRkI/AAAAAAAAAu0/wf92Rt8SC84/s720/duncanwhitehead.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5Gg_BE_WSTk/UaIZYAqIRkI/AAAAAAAAAu0/wf92Rt8SC84/s320/duncanwhitehead.jpg" width="297" /></a>Duncan was born in England in 1967.<br />
After a successful career in the military where he served in British Embassies throughout South America and saw service in the Gulf War he joined the world of super yachts as a Purser aboard some of the world’s largest private vessels, working for many high profile individuals, being fortunate enough to visit some of the world’s most luxurious and exotic places.<br />
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Eventually retiring to Savannah, Georgia, he began to partake of his greatest passion, writing. Initially writing short stories he finally put pen to paper and wrote The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, inspired by the quirky characters and eeriness of his new environment, the book, a thriller, which boasts an assortment of characters and plot twists, set in the leafy neighborhood where he lived.<br />
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His passion for comedy saw submissions to The Onion and a stint performing as a stand-up comedian.<br />
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He is a former boxer, representing the Royal Navy and an English under 19 team as an amateur and is a qualified teacher of English as a foreign language as well as a former accomplished children’s soccer coach.<br />
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In 2011 Duncan returned to South America, spending six months in Brazil and a few months in Paraguay before travelling to the Middle-East and Europe before returning to the United States.<br />
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He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, gets by with Russian and Arabic and lists his hobbies and passions as cooking, the Israeli self defense art of Krav Maga, Esgrima Criolla (The South American Art of knife Fighting)and the deadly pressure point martial art Dim-Mak.<br />
Duncan has written over 2,000 spoof and comedy news articles, under various aliases, for an assortment of web sites both in the US and UK.<br />
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As well as his other activities he performs volunteer work, as a hospice visitor.<br />
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He has penned a further novel; a comedy set in Manhattan, The Reluctant Jesus, as well as drafting the sequel and second book in The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club trilogy.<br />
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Connect with Duncan Whitehead via the following ways:</div>
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<a href="http://www.thegordonstonladiesdogwalkingclub.com/">WEBSITE</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thegordonstonladiesdogwalkingclub.com/">GOODREADS</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thegordonstonladiesdogwalkingclub.com/"></a><a href="http://www.thegordonstonladiesdogwalkingclub.com/">AMAZON AUTHOR</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><u><b>Duncan's interview with book2buzz!</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><strong><em>The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club</em> takes place in the same neighborhood you lived in while you were in Savannah Georgia, is the park the ladies walk their dogs in really there?</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">Gordonston is a real neighborhood and the park is how I describe it in the book and it does indeed exist, however the Ladies Dog Walking Club were fictitious so you won't see a group of women, drinking cocktails from plastic cups sit around plotting!</span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #4c1130;"><strong>When you got the idea and started writing <em>The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Cub</em>, did you know how it was going to end?</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">I did. I knew that the end would have to be a big twist, as there are twists all the way through the book. So I knew how it would end, who would die and why and of course the final twist, the sucker punch, I planned that from the beginning.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>Have you used any of your life experiences as inspiration for TGLDWC? How so?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Yes, I spent a lot of time in Argentina, where some of the book is set, so I was able to draw on that experience to describe locations and characters I encountered. Also, I was myself a stay at home dad for a while so I was able to draw on those experiences to develop the character of Doug.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-99YhptTDiEg/UaIWhc_7aLI/AAAAAAAAAuo/AYPHeSufOPM/s1600/gldwcbyduncanwhitehead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; color: #741b47; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-99YhptTDiEg/UaIWhc_7aLI/AAAAAAAAAuo/AYPHeSufOPM/s320/gldwcbyduncanwhitehead.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="206" /></a><strong>What made you choose the photo you did for the cover? Were their any other ideas for the cover?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">I thought the Lady on the cover kind of looked like she was plotting something and of course she fitted Carla (to some degree) and her dog. Some people have likened the cover to Mob Wives With Dogs! I did consider using a photograph of the actual gates to the park as the cover but when I saw the photo of "Carla", I decided it was perfect!</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>Do you have any writing rituals you partake in? Prayer, total isolation, 300 jumping jacks? Anything?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I like to set my stopwatch and alarm for two hours. I will not do anything but write until that alarm goes off. Then I will relax and go back and tidy up what I have written. I let the plot develop in that initial time and get my ideas on paper, but limit myself so I don't go to far. Another ritual is that I write while completely naked. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>What are you reading right now?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">Right now I am reading Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens for the TENTH time!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>What would you say is the hardest part of being an author and the best part about being an author and having someone read your work?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">The two hardest things are firstly marketing and secondly dealing with negative reviews where the person just did not "get" the story. Marketing is tough, as there are so many books out there and the reader has such a great choice. As a first time author I am still trying to find that "spark' which help promote the book. Negative reviews are fine and I believe we all have different tastes, but it is sometimes difficult not to respond to a reviewer who simply misread the book and did not see the clues or understand that the book while a mystery, is tongue in cheek and satirical bordering on dark comedy. The best part is when someone enjoys the book and gives feedback. I get a great sense of pleasure that I was able to provide enjoyment to a reader who found the book entertaining. Which was my aim.</span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>Duncan, you have traveled quite a lot, Where did you enjoy the most? Where would you still like to visit that you haven't been able to yet?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">I love living in the USA. The USA is my favorite place in world, no doubt about that. I am proud to live here and I believe it is the greatest country on the planet. I did enjoy South America, Argentina and Brazil and of course London is a great city and I lived there for many years. But for me, I enjoy the US best, and I am English!</span> </span></span></div>
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<strong style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Are there any charities or organizations you would like to give a shout out to or anything else you would like to share with the readers?</strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Yes, I support the Hospice of Broward County, last year I volunteered there and visited patients in their homes. It is non -profit and is a great cause. I hope to volunteer again there this summer.</span><span style="color: #ac193d; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><strong>What can we expect from the second book in THE GORDONSTON LADIES DOG WALKING CLUB trilogy?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="color: #ac193d;"><span style="color: black;">Well, obviously there are a lot of lose ends to tie up so we can expect maybe one or two people to maybe "disappear'. You can also expect Ignatius's back story.......and a twist on how he developed into...well, I can't give too much away!</span> </span></span></div>
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<u><u><b>Duncan also got back to me and had a little tid-bit for The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club!</b></u></u></div>
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The first draft sequel to The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking has now been written and as in the first book there will be forays to South America, this time Brazil, and to Europe. We will learn more about the "Director" and of course, in the sleepy middle class Savannah neighborhood of Gordonston there is unfinished business and even more secrets and lies yet to be discovered. Past, present, future....everyone is connected and though we may think the past is over...the past has other ideas..... <br />
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Duncan also let us know he has a FREE (for right now!) short story on Kindle!</div>
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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17876895-an-actor-s-life---a-short-story"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L_6fg-3j8KM/UaGOwbgPSqI/AAAAAAAAAuc/4Zz5ES8kxuA/s130/addtogoodreads.png" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/An-Actors-Life-Short-ebook/dp/B00CLH1PHM"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mCvO5AhzfYg/UaFlSVWrekI/AAAAAAAAAto/u7wZooeaoYk/s140/amazonlogo.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Extra!</u></b></div>
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<b><u><br /></u></b>For this weeks Book2Buzz's Buzzin' Author, Duncan Whitehead has also provided us with ANOTHER comedic spoof:<br />
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<span style="color: red; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Taylor Swift Breaks Up With Her Mailman, Guys Who Mow Her Lawn, Kid Who Bags Her Groceries And Passing Cyclist All In One Day!</span></div>
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Taylor Swift has announced that she has broken up with her 54 year old mailman - Eric, the spotty teenager who bags her groceries at her local supermarket, Jose AND Manuel, who provide lawn care for her palatial home and an unknown cyclist who happened to pass by her a week ago last Thursday.<br />
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"We are never ever getting back together" said the 23 year old singer, referring to the men "I am done, it is over, I never want to see them again...ever...never, ever, never, we are never getting back to together, they can go their way, I'll go mine, I am moving on!"<br />
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Swift's outburst though has confused the men in question, as none of them believes they were even dating the fickle singer.<br />
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Eric, the mailman, said "I am old enough to be her dad, I have been happily married to Barbara for 22 years, all I do is deliver her mail!"<br />
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Equally confused were both Jose and Manuel, who though neither spoke English, scratched their heads and shrugged their shoulders "Que pasa?" they said, before returning to work.<br />
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17 year old virgin Scotty "Acne" Wilkes says he has only ever spoken to Swift twice, and that was when he asked her if he needed to double bag her ice-cream.<br />
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"Weird" said the spotty faced teen.<br />
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Most confused was passing cyclist Dave Montanna, who regularly rides his bike passed Taylor's home.<br />
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"I have no idea who she is" muttered the 33 year old homosexual, engaged to his boyfriend, Tatty Mullett, for the past 6 months "Is she mad?"<br />
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Thanks for that Duncan!<br />
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Do you guys have any questions for Duncan Whitehead? Maybe some words of praise or any questions? Why not leave your thoughts below!</div>
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<br />
<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54491/193/8C43DB19236F4E9F6F76014871F75731.png" style="background: transparent; border: 0 !important;" /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10001424218280133716noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6145254144099083441.post-707004826349893222013-06-30T07:18:00.000-07:002013-06-30T07:18:31.771-07:00[Tour stop] Interview with Nikki Broadwell (author of the Wolfmoon trilogy)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSHpcg2QFVgeF8otMDIH-mHfZqDyUR9lren0-J1ax1Y4am1715NJFJta05v77FiG1seI5f6iVZCQHnd2l3Wi6vi_qc1vAtSUG-LuUQyyIvNb7wLaPjBy8I2PInboFEJMwBC0tbL3XvK-d/s1600/tour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlSHpcg2QFVgeF8otMDIH-mHfZqDyUR9lren0-J1ax1Y4am1715NJFJta05v77FiG1seI5f6iVZCQHnd2l3Wi6vi_qc1vAtSUG-LuUQyyIvNb7wLaPjBy8I2PInboFEJMwBC0tbL3XvK-d/s320/tour.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Wolf Moon (Wolfmoon Trilogy Book 3) By Nikki Broadwell</h3>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eggh2RuO66jf_SCZFwmfFVytkRO2pneDRKCAu9maizTNkWI5ONo_q4Ve6sia_ZS42hFk_HEAfzt6rBXxrxNeaGwkbUAGmUTLDMKBocYG8b4vsSiotPdcsT2j7lTUshCPJTXQUp3OpCZ8/s1600/tour2.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eggh2RuO66jf_SCZFwmfFVytkRO2pneDRKCAu9maizTNkWI5ONo_q4Ve6sia_ZS42hFk_HEAfzt6rBXxrxNeaGwkbUAGmUTLDMKBocYG8b4vsSiotPdcsT2j7lTUshCPJTXQUp3OpCZ8/s320/tour2.jpg" width="247" /></a>It is close to the winter solstice when Maeve Lewin’s simple trip to Scotland to re-unite with her mother throws her headlong into a dangerous world.</div>
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A prophecy written centuries before seems to describe her as ‘the one’, and despite Maeve’s insistence that this couldn’t possibly be true, her mother and grandmother both agree.</div>
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What Maeve doesn’t know is that her boyfriend is part of her destiny, mentioned in the ancient text as ‘the one of noble birth who will stand by her side’. But Harold’s only plan is to join Maeve Scotland for the New Year before the two of them fly home to the States.</div>
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The night of the winter solstice brings Maeve face to face with a terrifying reality, but it's Harold’s arrival that forces her to come to terms with the truth. He seems to have lived in this parallel world before and his part in future events has been sealed as surely as hers.</div>
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With dark forces hunting her relentlessly and confronted with a fate she didn’t choose, Maeve must come to terms with her future and somehow find the strength to fulfill the perilous task set before her.</div>
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Where you can purchase this book?<br />
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<span lang="EN-IE"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Moon-Book-Wolfmoon-Trilogy/dp/0615765009/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1370341611&sr=1-3&keywords=nikki+broadwell"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Amazon</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><u><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Other
Books by Nikki Broadwell<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-f4yioDiFdiVEMdwAKIsm42jm2LNvkVow_5SddXvjSk88xeRgx2Jt9ziDArjwWnPJ_YCRf89fimiZ1O0prEjU8PaPAhpSfoNKiVtLlrsA1Xp12bfXb1OeeJIOgSWIX3ZMe0zIUiFNl2L/s1600/book1..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2-f4yioDiFdiVEMdwAKIsm42jm2LNvkVow_5SddXvjSk88xeRgx2Jt9ziDArjwWnPJ_YCRf89fimiZ1O0prEjU8PaPAhpSfoNKiVtLlrsA1Xp12bfXb1OeeJIOgSWIX3ZMe0zIUiFNl2L/s200/book1..jpg" width="140" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircheakUTnjR0N362VGsvrOtf59DlhnBjQyNtLqQXsSLk1mffnwjEquATJy3PIBDcQKp9cDISw9oc3lVCgKd5IeVthzqLyHL9NoKqmta4k4sULqqSRbDbEd4ZxfsyBWKPxWEESFwExH9vu/s1600/book2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEircheakUTnjR0N362VGsvrOtf59DlhnBjQyNtLqQXsSLk1mffnwjEquATJy3PIBDcQKp9cDISw9oc3lVCgKd5IeVthzqLyHL9NoKqmta4k4sULqqSRbDbEd4ZxfsyBWKPxWEESFwExH9vu/s200/book2.jpg" width="132" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> <b><span lang="EN-IE">Book One </span></b></span><b><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Book Two</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Where
can I purchase these books?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=nikki+broadwell"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Amazon</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nikkibroadwell">Smashwords</a></span></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">About the Author</span></b><span lang="EN-IE"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBgZFcDgzFfUB4rm6iEYruAqsxrKvtVrD8bJB1ih-ah3aK-iHSdWBGfDS5oxgWeWRvD0OLKntHYgRo8WaO3vccRYJd65bJlR3SDx0fmXcnJwJ10RDwS-pmCLqTxKJM7ahxsSTi4GzP-ef/s1600/author.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVBgZFcDgzFfUB4rm6iEYruAqsxrKvtVrD8bJB1ih-ah3aK-iHSdWBGfDS5oxgWeWRvD0OLKntHYgRo8WaO3vccRYJd65bJlR3SDx0fmXcnJwJ10RDwS-pmCLqTxKJM7ahxsSTi4GzP-ef/s1600/author.jpg" /></a></div>
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<em><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Nikki’s college
education centered on English and Art and she graduated with a B.A. in both.
While her children were in middle school she began a greeting card business and
then later, when they were out of the house, she began painting on silk,
selling her scarves and wall hangings to high-end galleries in California and
Oregon .Now she writes full time, working on a sequel to Wolfmoon as well as a
fictionalized version of her parent’s life based on journals her father kept
during his time as a POW duringWW2.</span></em><span lang="EN-IE"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<em><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Having
recently located from Portland Oregon, Nikki has become a resident of Tucson,
Arizona where she lives on a hill at the base of the Catalina Mountains with
her husband, and standard poodle, Buddha and Eesa, the cat.</span></em><span lang="EN-IE"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.wolfmoontrilogy.com/">Website</a></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5321050.Nikki_Broadwell"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-language: EN-US;">Goodreads</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><a href="http://niksblog-authorinprogress.blogspot.com/"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Blog</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-IE"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiBJJfdzHVg"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Book
Trailer</span></b></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<u>Interview</u></h3>
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What have you published recently?</span></b><br />
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Over the past year and a half I've published three books of a Celtic fantasy trilogy—“The Moonstone”, “Saille, the Willow”, and just this month, “The Wolf Moon”.<br />
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<span style="color: #e06666;"><b>How, and when, did you decide to become a writer?</b> </span></div>
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I've always loved writing from the time I was in grade school. In college I majored in English and Art, going back and forth until I had enough units for a degree in both! However, I didn't do any serious writing until about seven years ago when I took a writing workshop. The moonstone, first book of the trilogy, was begun from a writing prompt in that class—from then on I've been hooked!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">Where can we find your published writing?</span></b></div>
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I have several short stories up on my Goodreads site and my books can be found on Smashwords, Amazon, as kindle or paper, and can be ordered from any bookstore.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What is a typical day like for you as a writer?</span></b> </div>
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I don’t keep any particular schedule but usually I’m at my desk by eight or nine a.m. If I’m working on a project it’s hard to pry me away from my computer—I’m one of those who types rather than writing longhand. I leave my desk to eat and sometimes to take a walk or a yoga class but I can easily write for six hours in a day. What I have to watch out for is not writing into the evening—if I do I’m often plagued with insomnia as the characters parade through my mind willing me back to my desk.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What are your favorite characters that you have created?</span></b> <b><span style="color: #e06666;">Tell us about them</span></b>. </div>
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The first one that comes to mind is the antagonist who has a part in all three books. He’s a priest gone bad, a complex character with a history of abuse and a twin sister who is a seer. He and his twin were once so close that they could communicate telepathically, but now Brandubh is taking his orders from their sorceress mother, a woman who feeds off others to retain her youth. MacCuill, a druid is another of my favorites—he’s a wise sort of Gandalf-like character who literally has magic at this fingertips! I also made up a race of people called the Crion who are the ‘keepers of the wisdom’ in the Otherworld. And of course I’m very fond of the main character, Maeve, a young woman faced with a destiny she didn't bargain for. She needs to find inner strength in terrifying circumstances. </div>
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">Do you find you “mentally edit” other writers’ works as you read them? Does doing this help you or bother you?</span></b> </div>
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OMG. YES! I am always doing this even when reading authors who are on the best-seller list! I worked really hard to edit mine and it irks me to find typos and mistakes. Of course there are always a few that slip by, but it’s obvious when an author hasn't hired a proofreader. And dealing with the publishing companies such as Createspace or Lightning Source can be maddening when the formatting adds even more mistakes!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What music do you listen to, while writing?</span></b> </div>
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It is too distracting for me to listen to music while I write—especially songs with lyrics! If I listened to any it would be new agey with a drumbeat or rhythm—something to get my second chakra going…(creativity)<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What do you eat while writing?</span></b></div>
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I bring in breakfast and lunch sometimes, spilling crumbs into my keyboard and making it filthy and greasy. I also drink espresso and if I’m not following my ‘no writing after five’ rule I bring in wine.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">Five for Fun:</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What is your favourite non-alcoholic drink?</span></b> </div>
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Caffe latte<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What is your favourite cartoon character?</span></b></div>
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Hmm..I’m sure this will date me, but I would have to say the roadrunner. I don’t watch cartoons now so can’t even think of a more current figure unless it was a character from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese anime`—if you haven’t seen them, they’re remarkable!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What is your favourite movie of all time? </span></b></div>
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Would have to say ‘”The King of Hearts”. I also loved the first three “Star Wars”, “Matrix” and “The Lord of the Rings” and many many more.<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">What do you like to do for fun or just to relax?</span></b> </div>
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I love watching series and movies and I love reading. I also love to hike in wild places with my dog. Yoga and meditation are a big part of my life as is going out for lunch and having a glass of crisp chilled wine!<br />
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<b><span style="color: #e06666;">Where can we find you on the web?</span></b><br />
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My Website: <a href="http://www.wolfmoontrilogy.com/">www.wolfmoontrilogy.com</a><br />
My blog: <a href="http://niksblog-authorinprogress.blogspot.com/">http://niksblog-authorinprogress.blogspot.com</a><br />
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/nikkibroadwell">https://twitter.com/nikkibroadwell</a><br />
Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nikki.broadwell">https://www.facebook.com/nikki.broadwell</a><br />
Goodreads: <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5321050.Nikki_Broadwell">http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5321050.Nikki_Broadwell</a><br />
Smashwords: <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nikkibroadwell">http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/nikkibroadwell</a><br />
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