February 14, 2007

Thirteen Reasons You Might Want to Win
an Advance Review Copy of
Rises the Night

1. If you like books about vampires  (there are vamps galore in the book)

2. If you don't like books about vampires (there are vamps in the book, but they're the bad guys)

3. If you like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the book's about a female vampire slayer…in 19th century London)

4. If you like novels by Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Julia Quinn, Liz Carlyle, Stephanie Laurens, Diane Gaston, Janet Mullany, Jo Beverly and any number of authors writing stories set in that time period (the book starts in 19th century London)

5. If you're tired of books set in 19th century London about the ton, and Society, and debuts… (the book starts there, but more than half of it takes place in Venice and Rome)

6. If you think a woman should have more than one guy to choose from during her life before settling down (the female protagonist doesn't make her choice yet!)

7. If you don't like scary, bloody, gory horror novels but are somewhat fascinated by the huge influx of vampire novels on shelves nowadays (this book is a vampire-lite book, without being light and fluffy, yet not scary or too dark)

8.  If you liked Sydney Bristow (the book's an action-adventure with a female protagonist, but in a historical setting)

9. If you read The Rest Falls Away and can't wait for June when Rises the Night will be on the shelves…. (here's your chance…keep reading for the rules!)

10. If you read The Rest Falls Away and are shipping for Sebastian (he's got lots of page time in this one)

11. If you read The Rest Falls Away and are shipping for Max (he does too!)

12. If you read The Rest Falls Away and want to get to know Aunt Eustacia and Kritanu better

13. If you read The Rest Falls Away and want to know more about Venators and their history

Yes indeed…the ARCs (Advance Review Copies) have arrived on my doorstep!

So to be entered to win the very first advance copy, make a comment in the comments section and be sure to tell me which reason(s) you want to win a copy!

(If you win and haven't read The Rest Falls Away, the first in the series, and you would rather have that instead, you can let me know when I draw the winner.)

I'll be away until Saturday, so I'll draw a winner late Saturday night or Sunday morning…you have until then to enter to win. 

Thanks for visiting my Thursday Thirteen!

February 8, 2007

Thirteen Places I Wanted to Visit

Thanks to Books I Read as a Child…

1. Treetops Lodge in Kenya, Africa (thanks to Nancy Drew's The Spider Sapphire Mystery)

2. Istanbul, Turkey (and based on Lila's comments about her visits, I really want to go now!) (also thanks to Nancy Drew's The Mysterious Mannequin) 

3. New Guinea (thanks to Willard Price's Gorilla Adventure) 

4. The Amazon Jungle (also thanks to Willard Price–this time for Amazon Adventure)

5.  Carlsbad Caverns (thanks to Trixie Belden and the Mystery at Bob-White Cave)

6.  The Prairie (I'm sure you can guess why!)

7. Narnia (again, I'm sure you can guess why)

8.  Nantucket Island (due to Trixie Belden and the Mystery of Corbett's Island where things got really hot with Jim Frayne! *fans self*)

9.  Salem, Massachusetts (thanks to The Witch of Blackbird Pond)

10. Hogwarts (oh, wait…I wasn't a child when I read that. Oops.)

11.  I always wanted to go…Where the Wild Things Are.

12. I wanted to go to Scotland, too, because of The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes (and I did do that, finally!)

13.  And because of the Hardy Boys, I wanted to go scuba diving…but I can't remember which book it was. Anyone?

February 1, 2007

 
Thirteen Cozy Winter Things I Love to Do

Winter has finally arrived in Michigan, and with a vengeance! My hands are so cold I can hardly type half the time, and my feet? Well, I haven't felt my toes for days. So…here are some things I like to do to try and keep the winter at bay! 

1. Curl up with a good book and a warm blanket.

2. And a cup of tea, add honey and lemon, if you please. (also great for sore throats and colds)

3. Build a roaring fire in the fireplace. (A real fire in a real fireplace, if you please. None of those fake gas things for me!) 

4. Put my cold feet between my Music Man's legs when I crawl into bed. (He even lets me without flinching!)

5. Put on warm socks just out of the dryer! Ooooohhhhhh…heaven!

6. Actually, put on any warm clothes just out of the dryer!

7. Take a hot bath. A really hot bath. It's the best way I know of to warm up.

8. Make soup, every day. Some of my recipes are so easy, I can make them in ten minutes while I'm getting kids off to school. Mushroom Barley, Black Bean & Chard….yum.

9. Curl up with one of my Munchkins with three or four blankets.

10. Drink hot spiced cider, hot chocolate, or something hot and spiked. (Besides Sting. Get it? Hot [cuz he is] and spiked–as in his hair?) (Okay, I know it's pretty bad when I have to explain my own jokes. Sorry. I had a rough night and these thirteen things aren't coming easily.)

11. Ummmm….did I mention a good book and a bunch of blankets? Near the fire? A real fire?

12. Let's see…Oh! I have some great, super-duper warm earmuffs I stole from Music Man (because the little wire thing that holds the earmuffs catches his hair. He has a very low tolerance for hair pain.) The earmuffs fit completely around the ears, and they stay really warm….now if I could just find something like that for my feet.

13. Last one. See, this list is tough because I'm always so cold in winter, and I rarely find it cozy. How about…Ah! Got it. Forgot about this one: putting my cold hands under the back of my daughter's or son's shirt.

Now, wait…before you start calling Child Protective Services, let me just say that my kids beg me to do this! They love it.  If I ask "Who's going to be my heater?" they all start to fight about whose shirt I get to put my hands under. They giggle and laugh and they love it.

So there!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. jendavid
2. SciFiChick
3. Victoria Krain
4. Miranda
5. Scooper
6. May
7. Cosmic Kid
8. Fence
9. Joely
10. Shannon
11. Annie
12. Cheryl
13. Katkat
14. Nancy
15. Jaci Burton
16. (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. 

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

January 24, 2007

Thirteen Things about Vampires in The Gardella Vampire Chronicles

Those of you who've already read The Rest Falls Away probably know a lot of this…but there might be a few tidbits you didn't learn in the first book. Those of you who haven't read it…well, what are you waiting for?

Go buy it! Read it! Tell all your friends!

(Ahem.) Anyway…things you should know about vampires in the world of the Gardella Legacy… 

1. They're afraid of silver.

2. They're really afraid of silver crosses. (It has to do with the fact that the first vampire was Judas Iscariot; thirty pieces of silver–the connection is obvious.)

3. A very powerful vampire, however, can get used to the presence of a silver cross and learn to look at it, rather like we mortals get used to a sudden bright light in the darkness. However, only the very, very powerful of vampires would be at ease around such an object.

4. Direct sunlight fries their delicate skin; makes it peel off in sheets.

5. Most vampires have red eyes when they are ready to bite their victim; their fangs protrude and their irises turn blood red.

6. However, Guardian vampires, who are the elite guard of the queen of the vampires, have ruby-pink eyes. They also have special poison that emits from their fangs at will, and they have an extra powerful ability to enthrall their victims.

7. Imperial Vampires are the strongest, most deadly of the vampire hierarchy. They fight with swords, they fly, are ultra-strong and much older than the other vampires. They can pull one's soul from one's body without even touching them. Imperial vampires can be identified by their magenta-colored irises…and the swords they aways carry.

8. Speaking of souls…they still have'em. They're just horribly mutated souls, turned evil, once they turned into a vampire.

9.  By the way, demons and vampires are different creatures. They also hate each other. Demons are Fallen Angels, and have been hanging around with Lucifer for millennia. Judas Iscariot was turned into the father of a new race: half man, half demon, by Lucifer, who considers the vampires his children. Thus, the enmity between the demons and the vampires: always jockeying for Lucifer's favor and the keys to Hell. The old guard versus the younger upstarts.

10.  Vampires procreate by turning selected victims into undead. They drink most of the blood of the victim, then offer their own mutated, vampire blood to replace it. The victim falls into a deep sleep, and awakens as an undead.

11. However, a new undead isn't damned until he or she feeds from a mortal.

12.  Yes, my vampire queen's name is Lilith. So is Nora Roberts's. It's like calling the devil Lucifer! It's a common name for a woman demon, okay? (I'm still willing to pit my Lilith against Nora's anyday.)

13.  Vampires cannot sense the presence of a Venator (what the Gardella vampire hunters call themselves). Thank goodness for Victoria!

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

1. AnneD
2. tvaddictgurl
3. Jeannine
4. Fence
5. Christine D'Abo
6. Zeus Excuse
7. Carmen
8. SciFi Chick
9. Scooper
10. Thomma Lyn
11. Jaci Burton
12. Miranda
13. Darla
14. Gypsy
15. Annie
16. Raggedy
17. JAM
18. Sparky Duck
19. Dane Bramage
20. Fond of Snape
21. Milady Insanity
22. West of Mars
23. (leave your link in comments, I'll add you here.)

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

January 18, 2007

 Thirteen Record Albums from the 1980s

That I Have Hanging on my Basement Walls

Yes, about four years ago I decided to take all of my old albums out of storage and do something with them, so I hung them all up on my basement walls (after I'd painted them white). They're quite the conversation piece, really, especially when someone from my–dare I say generation?–comes over.

So here is a selection of thirteen of them…how many did you have? Come on, 'fess up!

(By the way, I take full credit for all of them. My Music Man wouldn't touch most of them with a ten-foot pole.)

 1. Prince/Parade

2. Crowded House

3. Billy Joel/Songs in the Attic

4. J. Geils Band/Love Stinks

5. Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band/Against the Wind

6. YES/90125

7. The Clash/Combat Rock

8. Sting/Dream of the Blue Turtles

9. Cutting Crew/Broadcast

10. U2/The Unforgettable Fire

11. Talking Heads/Little Creatures

12. The Thompson Twins/Into the Gap

13. Culture Club/Kissing to be Clever 

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants