Vampires, Sluts, and I can't feel my toes

Halloween is upon us once again. I have every intention of sitting at the front door guarded the candy just to make sure there aren't any left overs, and so I can get all the good chocolate first. There are not alot of kids on this street so there should be too much trouble in general but I am waiting to see what kind of costumes make an appearance.

Thursday I went out to a bar for Halloween. It wasnt very busy so I was able to get a good look at all the costumes. I know I am not the first to say this but why must all female costumes be a slutty form of what the original was? Secondly who the devil wears that little clothing when its raining and close to forty degrees out? I mean maybe I am just not build to withstand the cold the way people from around the Cleveland area are but the second I saw the temperature I put pants on rather than the shorts that originally went with my costume.

I have memories of living in Chicago and going in early on Halloween because it was so cold, and back in the day I was wearing long underwear under my witch costume. I am just not good at this whole idea that I need to be nearly naked when its so windy outside. I will admit that last year I wore less than I should have on Halloween but I ended up stealing the coat from the guy dressed up as Brad Pitt from Inglorious Bastards, and I think I took some one else's scarf.

The real kicker this year is that no one and I mean no one is going as anything interesting. Last year I had a buddy go as American Psycho and the previously mentioned Inglorious Bastard attire. I also saw a lot of really cool ones while out at a party, but this year things are lack luster. The number of Alice in Wonderland themed costumes went up because of the Time Burton movie. If you feel like wearing a body suite you can dress up like one of Na'vi from Avatar (I saw a lady in that costume, it was not pretty. to pull it off you need to be pencil skinny she was not.) I had also been expecting to see a lot more vampires. I mean really a whole hell of vampire were supposed to be out this year. So many vampire related things happened this year and yet I only saw one Edward, to say the least I am disappointment.

The only costume that made me smile wasn't eve on a person. At Hot Topic they had a black corset with a bright green skirt and GIR head band that gave you his ears in dog from. I am still a little surprised I didn't pick that one up. I had gotten lazy and just bought the shirt from the bar in True Blood and sorta dresses like a waitress. The Gir costume would have been better but I would have basically been in underwear.

Next year I plan to have a costume figured out a month before hand and possibly make my boyfriend go along with it. I will also need to make sure we have super awesome plans because everything sorta fell through this year.

I am going to go see if I can get to candy before anyone notices.....

Quote of the day

The Letter M: What's wrong with you? All you talk about is aliens and ghosts and seeing Bigfoot in your garage!

Dib: He was using the belt sander...

 Invader Zim

Quote of the day

"Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is not the promised land, its just New Jersey."

-John Stewart, The Rally to Restore Sanity

Book Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot

So over the last couple of weeks I have been posting my book reviews on Wednesday. Mostly this has to do with my general lack of other things to do on Wednesday night. So from now on I am going to try and post a book review every Wednesday.

This week I am reviewing Insatiable by Meg Cabot. The book is Cabot's attempt at doing a "sequel" (according to her website) to Dracula. I am not really sure that is what the book ends up as. The story follows Meena Harper, a young woman who works as a dialogue writer for a popular soap opera. Meena also has the psychic ability to tell when and how people she meets are going to die and spend a good deal of time trying to warn off friends and family from possible doom.

Then there is Lucien, Dracula's son and charming vampire who is captivated by Meena and wants to run away with her. There is also Alaric Wolf who is a member of the Palatine Gaurd who is sworn to kill vampires and follows Meena to get to Lucien.

I still cant figure out if this book was sarcastic of serious. One scene she is clearly making fun of Twilight that its pretty much a case of copy right infringement. But then the first half of the book Meena spends the entire time talking about how stupid this obsession with vampires is and how stupid they are as a species. All of that I was on board for but then things switched up a bit. Suddenly I wanted to stab Meena for being exactly the kind of stupid woman she had made fun of earlier.


Spoiler Warning: If you are interested in reading this book stop now. If not this is a big part of the review.


The one thing that made the second half of the book tolerable at all is that Meena tells Lucien no. At the end of the book when he wants to sweep her away from everything she knows and loves and turn her into a vampire she says no to him and leaves. I liked that part a whole lot. As some one who has dropped everything to live with her man I can say that just dealing with that one person will make you crazy. Any real person would go nuts. So I respect Cabot for having Meena know that she needs to be a full person to be happy and that is not going to happen if she lets Lucien "take care of her." But everything before that was stupid.

Cabot is one of those writers you have to really love to enjoy this book at all. She isnt particularly original but her books are always funny. On the other hand she has two types of heroines that she writes, one is a kick ass take no shit kind of girl, and the other is wimpy and self doubting and loathing. Meena was mostly the second.

I got the book on tape and that might have been one of the big draw backs for me. I tend to skim pages about descriptions or when the female lead gets mushy (its the only way i was able to read Twilight without burning the damn thing) so the fact that i had to hear every word made me a bit crazy. I really didnt need to hear about Lucien's sad eyes as many times as I did.

Alaric Wolf was the only character I really liked because he was always who he was supposed to be. Lucien and Meena flip and flop as to who their character act but Alaric is pretty much hard headed and I love him for it.

Final rating: Don't read it, its not worth the time. Unless you are a die hard Cabot fan and want to see this for giggles. I would suggest picking up her Mediator series, its way better story telling and the characters are more believable.

Nook Color

What do you mean there is a Nook Color? AHHH!
I see what you did there Barnes and Noble you released this just before the big new software update that is going to make everything more amazing. You crafty devils.

I will have to think about how a feel about this because I am not pleased to say the least.

Thought of the day

Why does this exist? Not how I get how it would exist, but I want to know why. Who was the person that thought this needed to be created. And why is it not a picture book? That's the level of maturity of fans we are talking about. I just need to think about the fact that this is out in the world, along with Twilight books, which makes me think they just publish anything these days.

Writers Block and Halloween Blues

I am stuck once again when it comes to writing. I am sitting here at Barnes and Noble most likely annoying the cafe lady because I only bought one thing, and I can write. This is half because I am distracted with playing with my blog. But I feel bad because just days ago I wrote 5 pages in one sitting.

I am beginning to wonder if the only time I have strokes of creativity is when I am trapped in a car for 5 hours. But the major issue appears to be music. I have trouble writing if I don't have the right music for the scene, and the next couple of scenes don't really have that much of a feel to them. They are basic build up and kind of dull if I am being perfectly honest. Frankly Pandora can only do so much when it comes to assisting me in my music dilemma.

I need to get back to my outline and check that I have this right.

On a related note there is a new Gena Showalter book coming out tomorrow and I am pretty sure that the next Nanili Singh is not long off.  I am stoked about both. But just a bit more about Singh because she is giving the entire book to two wolves. And I have been waiting for this book for a while. The last two books were all Psy and humans  and frankly I didn't care as much about them. Which is good because I have just been re-reading old stuff. Also considering watching Lord of the Rings all over again. But I am not sure if i will be able to sit still.





Pandora keeps getting annoyed because I am skipping songs I don't like.

Not to mention I am having trouble figuring out what I am going to do for Halloween. Originally I was just going to purchase one of those normal slutty versions of something from the costume store. But then Chris was going to dress up as the medic from Team Fortress 2 and I was going to go as the Scout.

Medic

Then I wanted to try and get a few friends to dress up as the survivors from Left 4 Dead.

Clearly I would be the only girl.

Chris also suggested I dress up as Kerrigan from Starcraft, which would be super cool even if I did have to dye my hair red.

But as of right now, only a few days off, we have nothing planned. Which is really starting to worry me.

Thought of the day

How many times have you read or heard the word werewolf? Not werewolves, just werewolf. Think about that and try and come up with a number.

I figure something around 9,578 times. this is a purely made up number but its got to be alot because of how much I love paranormal books.

The Nook, and why its awesome.

So right now everyone that is a really big reader is having the same discussion. Should I switch to digital books? My grandmother and I have been hashing this one out for months now and she seems to be coming over to my side of things slowly.

If this blog is any proof I love books. During my recent move i had to spend three weeks editing my book collection slowly and taking the unwanted ones to half price books. That's because i have no restraint when it comes to book stores. I have to go into on if i see it, and it doesn't matter if there is nothing out that i want to buy.

There are definite benefits to the digital book that need to be seen. Firstly the cost is greatly cut. With paper removed from the equation there are trees being saved as well as printing costs cut out. Not to mention the older books, like anything by Shakespeare and Jane Austin are free because they have long since passed copy right times. Digital books allow for an adjustment of font size at any time so people like my grandma doesn't have to wait for the larger font version to be released.

The major draw is the sheer storage. Any one that really loves to read will tell you that bringing six books on vacation can get heavy. But most of the digital readers can house over a thousand books in their little micro chips which cuts down on should pain for all of us.

But why is the Nook better than Kindle or Sony reader? There are a few key points. The Nook rather than having the very tiny key board at the bottom like its competitors has a touch screen. This screen allows for the reader to stay on the book page while searching and gives the e-reader a few features its competitors can support. This includes a beta version of web browser and a games feature.

The Nook is also specifically connected to Barnes and Noble, and they want you do have the experience. Take your Nook into Barnes and Noble once a week and get exclusive author interviews and free book downloads. There are also weekly coupons offered for coffee, snacks, discounts, and magazines. Kindle and Sony don't offer anything like this. Last time I went in I got a free box of chocolates, and the time before a small coffee drink. The free books are often from good authors and help get readers interested in books that a reader might not normally pick up.

The crowning jewel in the Nook's features is the Lend Me feature. The people at Barnes and Noble how we read. When you read a book you love you don't keep it to yourself, you lend it to a friend. But up until now buying the digital version meant that you were incapable of lending your books to your friends. Nook fixed that by offering Lend Me feature, which allows the original purchaser of the digital book to "lend" it to a friend for 14 days. They can download the Barnes and Noble application on multiple devices, and read the book you have lent.

The versatility of the Barnes and Noble reader is another important point. Any book purchased can be read on a Computer, Ipad, Blackberry, Iphone, Droid, or any cell phone that supports applications. The competitors simply don't offer the range of features that the Nook does.

Final thoughts: It doesn't really matter where you read, just that you do read. The Nook works best for me but others might prefer to stick with their paperbacks. But when ever considering buying a digital reader device be sure to do extensive research before hand to make sure you are getting the right one for you.

Anime Discussion, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

So I was busy reading information for my new job and didnt get around to picking a book to review. So rather than try today i thought i might go in a slightly different direction and go at anime.

For those not aware Anime is a form of cartoons that comes from Japan, there is a marginal group from Korea but that's not today's point of discussion. Anime has a variety of looks but it has a noticeably different look than cartoon produced in America.

While most people might not find the style to be entertaining nearly everyone in my generation watched Dragon Ball Z at some point or another. So here I am going to suggest a few other stories that really need to be seen.

Full Metal Alchemist. See this show. No really if you dont like cartoons you still need to see this show. But be warned there are two versions of this show. The one to see is the one called Brotherhood. The original is rather strange and not decent.

The show follows two brothers who are practicing alchemist. Ed the older of the two is missing an arm and a leg, and Al the younger has his soul displaced in a suit of armor. This occurred when they tried to bring their mother back to life by using alchemy. As the story progresses they are searching for the fabled Philosopher's stone that can grant immortality and help them get their old bodies back. But they soon find that perhaps the philosopher's is not what they had hoped for. If you want to find out more you really need to watch the show.

The entire show is on Hulu so there is no excuse not to see it. I mean it, watch it or i will find you.

Quote of the day

"Why is there bacon in the soap?!?" -Zim

"I MADE IT MYSELF!" -Gir


Invader Zim

Quote of the day

"Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?"

"Over 9,000!"

-Dragon Ball Z

Quote of the day

"Forget vampires, I want to be killed by Frankenstein. I like them big and stupid."

-Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Moon Called by Patrica Briggs

I was really bad again. I did no reading what so ever. I did make it to the library here in Chesterland and let me say that it is pitiful and my soul is sad. Also I am being pressured to keep writing my original work right now by friends so that is slowing me down, and i got a job....so.

Fun Fact: I am a bit anal retentive about the condition of my books. I will put a book back on the shelf and get a different one or go to another store if there is cover damage. ( i am talking about like a single crease.) It is rare for me to let a book get in bad condition for any reason.

My copy of Moon Called is beat up beyond anything i would normally tolerate, because i love this book and this series the world over.

Moon Called takes place in a world similar to ours, with a few differences. In the world all the fairies and evil goblins from old stories are real and out in the open. They live in reservations and currently the country is dealing with the political and legal issue of learning that creatures most humans believed to be imaginary are real and are school teachers (well a few are.) But things don't stop there, in fact all of the creatures from the night are real but only a few are out in the open.

Mercy Thompson, the main character, is a Walker. Which is a native american shape shifter that can change into a coyote, speak to ghost and is resistant to most kinds of magic. Mercy owns a mechanic shop that works most on old german cars, the shop used to be owned by a Fae (as they preferred to be called) and his son. Mercy's next door neighbor his the alpha of the local wolf pack. Mercy was raised by the head of the werewolves in america. The local vampires use Mercy as their mechanic. And that is just the basic set up stuff this has very little to do with the main plot.

The important and fun facts are that werewolves function like real wolf packs. They have a hierarchy and rules and the alpha dictates alot about their lives. There is a magic involved but there are power struggles and frankly the act like wolves when it comes to dominance and respect. The vampires cant go in the sun, as it should be, because they will burn. They drink blood and keep humans as food, even the nice vampire that you want to like has a house full of humans he noms on from time to time.

Moon Called focuses the most on the werewolves. A young werewolf is taken in by Mercy and then murdered the next day. The alpha Adam is attacked and his daughter kidnapped. Mercy is left in a position where the werewolves in the area are depending on her help. I am not going to say any more because this is a book worth reading.

The books following keep with the theme of focusing on one type of creature at a time. Blood Bound the second book is all about the vampires and their power struggles and lack of concern for humans. The third book Iron Kissed deals with Fae and the hate crimes the face as well as the fact that they still are the creatures that go bump in the night. Bone Crossed goes back to the vamps and the newest installment Silver Borne has Fae in front again. Silver Borne and Bone Crossed made it to the best sellers list.

Mercy is a fun character. She is independent and aware of the fact that she is a small fish running with the big dogs (what happened with that metaphor?) She trains weekly to be a good fighter and still goes to work to pay the bills. Having grown up being surrounded by werewolves she is not one to let others push her around, which is why she puts up such a fuss when Adam shows an interest.

The werewolves are all really great and they each have separate personalities that make the pack work. Did i mention that there is a vampire that drives a van painted like the mystery machine from Scooby-Doo? And that he has the stuffed animal ridding shot gun with him. That alone should sell you one the book.

Buy this book. Its not fantasy heavy and is a great read. If you don't want to buy it i will mail you my copy. People need to read this.

Quote of the day

"If try when they escape. Two things that can never be contained? Velociraptors and Zombies."

Demon From The Dark by Kresley Cole

He wants to hug you!

Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh

I was busy this week catching up on some work and rewatching some old favorite tv show. So rather than do nothing I am going to talk about one of the books I read awhile back and really loved.

Nalini Singh is perhaps one of my favorite paranormal romance writers to date. Her stories are not simply two people jumping each other and then near the end something happens to make them have to fight to be together. Instead she created a vast alternate world where there are three races: humans, changelings, and psy. Humans are the same but the other two are changes that make the world a different place to live. The changelings are closer to what an animal with human mind capabilities would be, they can change shape but they tend to live in packs or flocks like the animal counterparts, they are also huge advocates of the environment. Then there are the Psy who have mental capabilities that allow them do simple things like x-ray with out a machine all the way to see the future.

In the world about 70 years ago the Psy started a program where all Psy are programed through a training regiment starting at birth to have no emotions. The central plot that carries through the series is the fact that this lack of emotion has created a huge backlash in ways that no one could have forseen. There is a constant threat of war and the Changelings and Psy are locked in a battle dance with Humans struggling to stay in the mix.

Branded by Fire centers around Mercy a leopard changeling and Riley a wolf changeling. Both are the second in command of their respective packs, that have recently formed an alliance. The book opens with the two having back scratching hair pulling good sex in the woods, which is a nice way to start off the book. Then some of the political espionage starts to take place and that is the focus with spurts of Mercy and Riley trying to deal with each other and the issues.

I am all about this book for a few key reasons. Mercy is an in charge kind of woman and she is in a large position of power and she makes it very clear to Riley that if he wants to be with her he is going to have to deal with her power and her family. At no time does she simply whimper and give up everything when Riley says so, she is going to make the rules and he better keep up.

Secondly there isnt this "hold off on the sex until the last possible minute kind of mentality" in the book. No body picks up a romance novel because they hate sex, they pick up romance novels because they want romance and then some hard core grinding, not necessarily in that order. But several authors I like are making me work for it these days and I am not cool with that. This isn't catholic school I want my characters to get down, and oh boy do they.

Third is the epic plots. To really enjoy Branded by Fire one should read the previous books because the political balance and continued struggles. If you haven't just keep reading and try to piece things together.

This book is on my must own list.

There is a good chance I am going to be going over and older book again next week seeing as I am on a bit of a tv kick, or should I say netflix kick. Seriously so much to watch!