Aah! There Be Monsters!

I seem to have become obsessed with mentioning the Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds PS2 game here lately. I mentioned it in my What's Your Chocolate post the other week.

And now I'm quoting it in my title. My title comes from the extra behind the scenes videos - Nicholas Brendon is recording his lines and keeps repeating that line in a pirate-like voice.

So anyway this post is not actually about Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

I have discovered another blogfest - yes another one!

This one takes place on 29th October on Timothy Brannan's blog - The Other Side. It's the Monstrous Monday Blogfest. And all you have to do is post about monsters on that day - that's it. Anything you want as long as it's about monsters.

So click the link to the blogfest and go sign up!

Teaser Tuesday

Taking part in Teaser Tuesday is very simple:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Then head over to Should Be Reading and add your link to the comments.

So here are my teasers for the week:

The House was a ghost arena, yearning to be haunted. And as the weathers circled Earth for a hundred years, the House became known, and across the world the dead who had lain down for long naps sat up in cold surprise and wished for stranger occupations than being dead, sold off their ghastly trades and prepared for flight.

Page 40, From The Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury

This book counts towards the New Authors Challenge 2012 hosted by Literary Escapism.

Yes, that's right, I've never read any of Ray Bradbury's work until now.

Random Quote #102

 In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

Douglas Adams

Book Review: Raven: Blood Eye

DISCLAIMER: I received Raven: Blood Eye byGiles Kristian free as a First Read on Goodreads.

I’d never really read any Viking based fiction before this book, so I didn’t really know what to expect… apart from blood.

I was expecting at least some gore given that I had already knew what a ‘blood eagle’ was.

The story centres on Osric, whose village is visited and then destroyed by the Norsemen (not all the Norsemen’s fault I might add). Osric is taken prisoner by the Norsemen and then becomes accepted and eventually renamed ‘Raven’ by them. As with any story some of the characters are more likeable than others.

Even though most of the story takes place on land, we learn about the Norsemen’s relationship with the sea; what life on a longboat was like. We also learn a little of the Norsemen’s religion and how they were viewed by the Christian Church, and vice versa. Although there is a fair amount of violence we learn that violence was not the be all and end all of Viking life.

Allegiances in the story change back and forth as we discover new things about the different characters. It is not just Group A versus Group B for instance. Sometimes it’s Groups A & B versus Group C. And then there are conflicts within groups; loyalties change, groups gain members and also lose them. The story twists and turns; people are used and betrayed.

There was never really a lull in the story; something always seemed to be happening or about to happen.

Overall, for my first jaunt in to this particular period in history, I enjoyed Raven: Blood Eye.

4 stars out of 5 on Goodreads

This review can also be found on Goodreads

Teaser Tuesday

There is a definite chill developing in the air. The beginning of autumn. And with autumn comes Halloween. And so I had the urge recently to read some Stephen King.

All you have to do to take part in Teaser Tuesday is:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Then head over to Should Be Reading to share your link in the comments.

So here are my teasers this week:

'You have to make up your own mind about what we did, Helen. I'm in no position to throw stones.'

Page 103, Carrie by Stephen King

This book counts towards the Horror & Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012 hosted by Book Chick City.

Genre Favourites Blogfest

Today Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting the Genre Favourites Blogfest.

And all you have to do is:

List your favourite genre of:

Movie

Music

Books

And a guilty pleasure genre from any of the three categories! 

Now I've had to think quite a bit about this. I always find it difficult to decide on favourite... whatevers. This was probably slightly easier than the more specific dreaded questions of 'What's your favourite film?' or 'Who's your favourite author?'

So in the end I started thinking of it as 'if I could only watch/listen to/read one genre of film/music/book for the rest of my life what would it be?'

And here are my choices:

Movie

This was difficult because I watch all kinds of films. I like what would be called classic films from the 30s, 40s and 50s. I like rom coms and comedies. I like some kids movies and adventure movies (speaking of which I really hope the Uncharted film gets made!).

But in the end I had to go with action movies - I like explosions. I like gun shootouts and car chases. And as you can see from this photograph I like Nicolas Cage movies.

Music

This was also difficult to narrow down as there probably aren't all that many genres of music that I don't have at least one example of on my MP3 player. This is not the point that you should start suggesting obscure types of music (although, yes, I do happen to have some neo-classical metal on there).

So I ended up choosing the sort of music you see in the photograph. Which I kind of find difficult to categorise. Because it is kind of Rockabilly - The Baseballs are Rockabilly... but Michael Buble doesn't really fit in to that genre. But he is kind of 50s/60s/Jazz/Sinatra style which sort of comes under the same kind of thing as the Dreamboats and Petticoats. But you get the gist, right?

Books

This was slightly easier to narrow down than the previous two categories. Although I read quite a few genres of books as well - chick lit, horror, classics, autobiography, history etc.

But in the end I chose crime. I chose that 'description' so that I could lump Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie in with Karin Slaughter and James Patterson.

Guilty Pleasure

It was actually very easy to choose my guilty pleasure. I was going to just say the Anita Blake books by Laurell K Hamilton (the first of which coincidentally is called Guilty Pleasures).

But then I decided to expand that slightly to paranormal urban fantasy, as I am looking forward to the fourth House of Comarre book by Kristen Painter coming out in October - Yay! (And I have got quite a lot of urban fantasy on my 'to read' list on Goodreads).

To read more entries in to the Genre Favourites blogfest click the link to Alex's blog at the top of this post. 

For those of you who have also taken part - was it as hard for you to choose your favourites as it was for me?

Random Quote #101

 The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Coco Chanel

Random Thought #43 - Once Upon A Time

Just a quick random thought...

If you haven't seen this show and are planning on watching it then this may spoil it slightly for you.

The season one finale of Once Upon A Time was a few weeks ago in the UK.

And during the entire season I noticed something that no one ever pointed out. Henry never pointed it out... August never mentioned it. Not Mr Gold... and understandably Regina never mentioned it.

Regina is Henry's adoptive mother... Emma is his birth mother.

Now if Regina is really Snow White's step-mother... and Snow White is Emma's mother...

...then that makes Regina, Henry's step great-grandmother!

Just a thought...

And remember on Monday Alex J Cavanaugh is hosting the Genre Favourites Blogfest - there's still time to sign up.

Teaser Tuesday

I'm still reading the same book that I've been reading for the last two weeks. So I thought I'd share a couple of teaser sentences from the last non-fiction book I read.

Taking part in Teaser Tuesday is simple:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Then head over to Should Be Reading and add your link to the comments.

So here are my teasers:

"Obviously what such a writer needs is to be made to realize that his case is not isolated; that we all continue to grow, and that in order to write at all we must write on the basis of our present beliefs. If you are unwilling to write from the honest, though perhaps far from final, point of view that represents your present state, you may come to your deathbed with your contribution to the world still unmade, and just as far from final conviction about the universe as you were at the age of twenty."

Page 124, Becoming A Writer by Dorothea Brande

Do you know how long it took me to type all that out, one handed, while I held the book open? My hands started to ache in the end! But I think you'll find that that is two sentences - go ahead and count them!

What's Your Chocolate Blogfest

Today is the day of the What's Your Chocolate blogfest - one of the hosts of which is Laura Eno.

For someone who has type 1 diabetes I do eat quite a bit of chocolate. To the point that I decided to cut down on the amount of chocolate I ate.

The amount of chocolate I eat would also surprise people given that I'm built like a rail!

And even though I've cut down on chocolate today I thought I'd introduce you to one of my favourite chocolate bars. OK so it's not solid chocolate - it has nougat and stuff in it too.

But it is a chocolate bar that is quite carbohydrate filled so to avoid having to take a lot of insulin to counteract it I don't have them that often. Only as a treat.

The chocolate bar in question is the...

Aah the Cadbury Double Decker - nougat, cereal and chocolate - nom, nom, nom!

I ate this in the name of research!

Did you know that Joss Whedon likes the Cadbury Double Decker? If you watched the extras for the PS2 game (remember the PS2?) Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds you'll be able to tell me what his favourite Cadbury chocolate bar is.

It might not be the only place to find that out - maybe he repeated it in another interview. I don't know, it's just something that stuck with me from the extra videos for that game.

Anyway back to chocolate - if you click the link at the top of this post you'll be able to find out who else is taking part in this blogfest today. So go and read some more about chocolate.

Random Quote #100

Revenge proves its own executioner.

John Ford

Random Thought #42 - Autumn & Mars

Well this random thought is actually two random thoughts in one... and a reminder.

So the first of these thoughts.

Although it has been quite warm over the last week I have noticed a distinct chill in the air when I've left the house in the morning.

A chill that signals the beginning of Autumn.

It is also a chill that, for some unbeknown reason, gives me the urge to read some Stephen King. I don't know why... maybe it's because Halloween is in Autumn... or something... I don't know.

So on to the second thought. Now this one may have you thinking that I'm a bit silly.

But it's not my fault really...

So you may be aware that NASA recently landed the rover Curiosity on the planet Mars.

Well up until this point I had only ever seen photographs of space... or space from the Moon.

Which usually include a lot of... blackness...

So forgive me if I was a little bit 'surprised' when I saw the first Curiosity photographs from Mars that Mars has a sky!

And now for the reminder...

On Monday Laura Eno and friends are hosting the What's Your Chocolate blogfest! You still have time to sign up - just click the link!

Teaser Tuesday

Same book, different week. However I have advanced through the book a fair bit since last week.

So all you have to do to take part in Teaser Tuesday is:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• 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!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Then head over to Should Be Reading and add your link to the comments.

So here are my teasers for the week:

"He knew he was in an almost delirious state of denial about what was really bothering him. His father out of prison."

Page 130, Criminal by Karin Slaughter

Random Quote #99

My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four. Unless there are three other people.

Orson Welles