Review: Six Moon Summer

I received a copy of Six Moon Summer by SM Reine when I won a Twitter contest (I correctly guessed Sara's new hair color. We need more contests like that). It took me awhile to get around to reading it, and in a way, I'm glad. I'll explain why later.

Brief Summary: Rylie is a teenager, her parents are getting a divorce, and she's been shipped off to camp hours away from home. Needless to say, her summer did not start well. When she flees camp trying to avoid some nasty girls, she runs afoul of something much worse--a werewolf. She's bitten and now her future is uncertain. Every new and full moon, her transformation increases, until on the sixth moon, she becomes a full werewolf. Rylie is desperate to find a cure before it is too late and enlists the help of a very cute boy named Seth, who holds a secret of his own.

Why You Should Read It: Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. It flowed really well, the characters were engaging and easy to relate to, and, let's be honest, who doesn't love werewolves mixed with some teenage angst? Reine does an excellent job bringing the story to life and giving the characters depth. Rylie's struggles with her wolfish nature parallel the struggles many teens (and adults) go through trying to find their place in the world. So why am I glad I didn't read this book before now when I loved it so much? The second book, All Hallows' Moon, is coming out on September 9th. You can bet your booty I'll be getting it the moment I'm near a computer or Kindle. You still have a few days to grab Six Moon Summer before the release! I promise you won't regret it.

Rating: ☻☻☻☻☻

Have you read Six Moon Summer? Share your experience below!

Laser Guns are for Losers

Yeah, you heard me. Whatcha gonna do about it, huh? Just kidding. Please don't hurt me.

But seriously... I want to qualify a few things first. My only real knowledge about laser guns comes from movies and books. I adore the Star Wars universe and own all the movies, most of the books, and several of the video games. I thoroughly enjoy logging onto KotOR (1 or 2) and kicking some butt, and I've had my eye on SW:TOR, though I really do not need another game to sink my time and money into in lieu of everything else.

There is something exciting about sci-fi worlds that draw you in and make you want more. I mean, Han Solo with a laser gun? Yum! But when you start to think about it, does it really work? Pew, pew! Stormtroopers are flying everywhere with smoking holes in their chests! It looks cool, for sure, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Lasers are hot. They cauterize immediately. So why would humans (beings who seem to really like violence) advance their technology in a way that would cause less damage and death?

I think what will really happen is bullets and guns as they are today will continue to evolve. Bullets do a lot of damage if used right. They rip through organs and bounce around and stuff. That extra movement, movement you don't get from a laser gun, is what really causes the most chaos. Bullets have already advanced quite a bit. There are incendiary rounds, armor-piercing bullets, and all sorts of other cool things. I can easily see bullets that contain blades that snap out once they've entered a target, or self-propelled tracker bullets.

So, what do you think? Does the history of violence lay in laser guns? Or do you have another idea?

Why I'm Boycotting GRRM

I was first introduced to fantasy author George R. R. Martin in 2004 (well, his books, not him personally).  I read the first three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series and waited quite impatiently for the release of Feast for Crows. I was not disappointed and blew through the behemoth in two days. I knew I had another wait on my hands, at least a year, so I bided my time reading other books, completing schoolwork, etc.

In 2007, after two years of waiting, I was still optimistic that I wouldn't have to wait much longer, so I signed up for an independent study class with my favorite professor focusing on GRRM himself. I read Windhaven, a project he completed with Lisa Tuttle, and my paper was about the process of co-writing and how it affects a book (I got an A, not to brag or anything).

2008 rolled around... then 2009... I believe it was in 2008 that Amazon first had Dance with Dragons up for pre-order, and of course, I signed up. I faithfully visited GRRM's website for updates (which were few and far between), and bemoaned the horrible wait with other fans. All the while, I kept seeing blog posts about this Con and that Con and the various travels he'd been on and so forth. Gritting my teeth, I re-read Game of Thrones in anticipation, trying to rekindle the fire of excitement that had slowly been dying.

When the "expected release date" came and went in 2010, I'd had enough. I cancelled my pre-order and stopped waiting. I realize George is a busy man. That is clearly evident from his blog, and he's pretty popular, so his fans want to see him. But his fans are only his fans because they love his work, which he seemed to put on the back burner in favor of other things.

As a reader, I can say I was irate at best.  As a writer, I'm baffled. Six years is entirely too long between books in a series, even if they are massive creations. I completely understand someone taking six, ten, even twelve years to write a novel if they have a full-time job and family in addition.

But Martin gets paid to write. That is his job. He gets advances in expectation that he is going to turn out more work in a timely manner. Six years isn't timely. At least, not in my opinion. I can understand a year. That makes sense, especially with all that goes into a traditionally published book. Two years, I can forgive. Three is pushing it. Six is unacceptable.

It's a strange coincidence (or maybe not) that HBO's Game of Thrones miniseries came out in time to boost the excitement of the Song of Ice and Fire series, thus increasing his Dance with Dragons sales. I watched the first episode, and it does an excellent job of matching up with the book. But I'm trying very hard to not be pessimistic and think he pushed off the release of Dance with Dragons for so long to fall with the release of the miniseries. They've both been in the works for a very long time...

Anyhoo, conspiracy theories aside, Martin has abused his long-time fans. There are many who have been following this series from the beginning, and they suffered while waiting for Feast for Crows. I was lucky enough to miss that wait, but then he goes and does it again, adding an extra year onto it. I will not be waiting for his next book. In fact, I don't think I'll even be reading this book. I know I'd enjoy it if I did. And deep down, I really want to. But it makes me a bit ill thinking of giving him my money. I don't see the love for his fans that I'd expect from someone like him. Or maybe he has a great love for his fans and prefers to spend more time with them than writing the books they crave. Who knows. But either way, it doesn't sit right with me, so I will not be supporting him any longer. His fans deserve better.

10 Random Facts

There is a fun little game of tag going around the blogging community right now, and I've been poked by the lovely Laurel Mayer (@Laurel_Mayer). To play, you simply need to be poked by someone. Then you list 10 random facts about yourself and tag four more people. Here are my random facts. Hope you enjoy!

1. Gregory Grene, lead singer of The Prodigals, made googly eyes at me during a concert in a pub once. He's an attractive man, but that was just plain creepy.

2. I stopped eating red meat from the age of 12, when I unknowingly ate my favorite bull for lunch, until about the age of 25, when I tried steak for the first time and lost the battle. I now try to distance myself from cows I know are slated for the butcher, but I find myself failing miserably. They're all just so darn cute, but they also taste delicious. Conundrum!

3. I'm allergic to corn pollen, which I found out last year when I started picking sweet corn for my stepdad. It means I end up itchy and covered in a rash a couple days a week, but it's hard to pass up that extra cash (who doesn't love a wad of one-dollar bills in their pocket?).

Sisterly Love (Josie's on the right)

4. I have two cats, Josephine and Penelope. Josie is my shy girl. She hid in the furnace for three days when I brought her home (no idea how she got in there. Thank God it was summer).

5. If I could meet any fictional character, it would be Boba Fett. He is the most epic badass to ever exist. And there's something mega-sexy about a man in armor.

6. I had a calf named Baby Buttons when I was growing up. Her mother was extremely sick for months before she was born, so she was only about 30 pounds when she popped out. She was adorable.

7. City of Villains is my favoritest video game ever. I'll sign up and play for a month or two every year or so. Can't help myself.

8. I have a jagged scar under my nose from where my mom stabbed me in the face with a pointed shovel. No one call CPS, please. I was three and it was wintertime. We were digging snow tunnels (funny, I don't see those much anymore). One side was finished and I guess my cousins were supposed to be watching me or something. Mom was digging out the other side and she says I went in head first like a woodchuck. Needless to say, we didn't use that tunnel again. All I remember from that night is sitting on the table in the ER and the butterfly stitches the doctor gave me.

9. I have an orange iron, an orange coffee pot, an orange toaster, an orange purse, orange bedsheets, and about six things of orange nail polish. I like orange.

10. I have a lockbox sitting on my shelf, but I can't find the key. It's somewhere in a box, but it's so small, I'd have to empty all the boxes out to locate it. What's in the box is a mystery to me. Maybe someday I'll open it and finds wads of money (a girl can dream, right?).

Alrighty! Now for the fun part! I'm going to tag...

Carissa Elg
Merry Farmer
Rebecca Knight
Shéa MacLeod

Review: The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood is the first book in the Half-Orcs series by David Dalglish. I was initially going to purchase the Half-Orcs omnibus, but Weight of Blood went free on Kindle, so I decided to snatch it up. I'm a bit glad I didn't spend the money.

Brief Summary: Weight of Blood follows brothers Harruq and Qurrah. Their mother was an orc and their father was an elf, making them a strange mix in a world where orcs are despised. It is all they can do to survive in the harsh world of humans. That is, until a lovely elf and a strange man in a black cloak arrive and test their loyalty to one another.

My Thoughts: I did not enjoy this book, plain and simple. From the get-go, I had trouble getting over the similarity to the brothers in the Dragonlance series. Harruq is the strong but dumb one who sacrifices everything for his brother, the physically weaker mage with aspirations of power. I don't know if Dalglish read the Dragonlance series before writing this, but it's impossible to read one without thinking of the other. On top of that, the characters had very few redeeming characteristics. They slaughter children without a thought, take out an entire village without even asking for a reason, and blindly follow a man who is clearly the most evil person they have ever met. There is the occasional glimmer of hope throughout the book that they will change, but when they do, it is almost too sudden and kind of weak, really. Then there is the love story that does not get fleshed out and seems like something thrown in just to have it in there. I've heard great things about Dalglish and I think I'll try something else in his repertoire in the future, but this piece definitely fell flat for me.

Rating: ☻☻☻

The Power of Passive Promotion

I talk about passive promotion a lot. I've even guest-blogged about it on another blog before. I was reading Kristen Lamb's We Are Not Alone last night and she strongly encourages it. Some of you are probably thinking, "That's great. But what is passive promotion?"

By my definition, passive promotion is the act of promoting your books through relationships and interactions, not in-your-face promotion. It's having conversations on Twitter instead of just posting links to your books. It's responding to forum posts that don't necessarily relate to writing. It's getting involved in groups on Facebook and showing that you care about readers as people, not dollar signs (or euros, or goats, or whatever your payment of choice is). I know as a writer I have made sales because of it. And as a reader, I have purchased quite a few books I normally wouldn't have due to the relationships I've built.

So my question goes out to readers and writers alike. Readers, have you bought a book that you probably wouldn't have thought twice about due to the relationship you built with a writer? And if you did and liked it, share it with us! And writers, how have your relationships in social media affected your sales?

New Discovery: RAK (Random Acts of Kindness)

So, I was looking at another blog and noticed this strange little button on her page. I couldn't help but click it, and I'm really glad I did. Book Soulmates (a different blog I'd never heard of) hosts a monthly event called Random Acts of Kindness. Basically, you set up a wish list somewhere (Amazon, Goodreads, your blog, whatever) with a bunch of books you want but may not be able to afford right away. Then you head over to their sign-up page and put in your information for the month. You have to sign up each month. If you're lucky, some wonderful stranger will send you something off your wish list, a true Random Act of Kindness.

This month is extra special. Because they've been active for six months now, they're giving away a $20 gift card to Amazon! So head on over, get signed up, and show your RAKs!

Review: Pale Queen's Courtyard

Pale Queen's Courtyard is Marcin Wrona's take on mythology. According to the wonderful note at the end of the book, he used several sources, many of which I recognized once he had pointed them out (I never did very good in mythology in school). This is the first of many expected books in a series based around Ekka, the main land involved.

Brief Summary: Pale Queen's Courtyard follows two main characters. The first is Leonine, a musician and thief who also happens to be a sorcerer in a land where sorcery will earn you a painfully hot death. Kamvar is a soldier who has dedicated himself to the faith and bringing those sorcerers to their end. When a high priest's young daughter is revealed to be a sorceress, both men will be taken on journeys they did not expect and have their beliefs tested before the end.

Why You Should Read This: This book took me a long time to read, but that was no fault of the story. Wrona has a talent for bringing unknown lands to life and if I'd had the time to be hooked, I would have been. Leonine is the perfect antihero--unwilling, unwanted, but needed despite his best efforts to avoid the responsibilities foisted upon him. Kamvar is easy to relate to in his love for family and faith. Ilasin, the young girl in question, is just as enjoyable and her relationship with the thief is inspiring. My only regret about reading this book is I wish I would have read it a few months from now when I have more time. I will likely go back and re-read it so I can get the full effect.

Rating: ☻☻☻☻☻

Sample Sunday: Vengeance (Blood of the Dragon #2)

Here is a small excerpt from the upcoming sequel to Blood of the Dragon. Vengeance will be available by Christmas. Get your hands on Blood of the Dragon by September and save 20%!

The woman's cackle echoed throughout the cavern she called home. Smoke from a fire burning in the middle of the enclosure wafted leisurely upward through a small hole in the ceiling. The dim glow illuminated a bier on the far side of the fire. Upon the stone lay a young man in his late teens. His brown locks, though never long, had rotted away in patches. Those that remained were matted with dirt and old blood. His midsection was covered by a single long strip of cloth, his upper and lower body bare. In the middle of his chest gaped a hole about two inches wide.

"Mistress, what if he--"

"Hush, girl. I've had enough of your doubts. I've been waiting for this day for too long. You will not spoil this for me."

The ring of flesh on flesh vibrated around the stone room, followed quickly by the girl's cry. She lay on the floor where she had fallen, hand cupping her wounded cheek as she watched the older woman bustle about the bier.

Alone as a child, starving and sick, she was on the verge of death when the woman found her. She owed the lady her life and gave her loyalty freely, but the lack of respect she received smoldered deep in her soul, waiting for the right moment to make her true feelings known. She stared at the mud-caked skirts that floated around her master's legs and thought of all the beatings and other punishments she had endured through life. Was it worth it? Sometimes she wished she had died there on the icy road, safe from harm forever.

Instead, she had ended up in the clutches of Rivanna, a Gypsy woman cast out from her own society, labeled a witch and shunned for all eternity. The wagon had seemed like a saving grace at the time. A decade later, the girl knew better.

"Veni, you lazy wretch! Quit moping about and bring me the Night's Breath!"

Veni jumped at the raspy, demanding voice and staggered to her feet. She half-ran to the shelf along one wall and scanned its contents. Finding a purple clay jar with a matching lid, she grabbed it, holding it securely in both hands, and took it to the woman. Rivanna grinned and Veni's lips curled involuntarily at the sight. She had seen those rotted teeth and black gums more times than she cared to remember. Rivanna was at least partially insane and tended to grin and cackle whenever she thought of, attempted, failed, or succeeded in an evil plan.

As the older lady poured the Night's Breath into the bubbling pot next to the bier, Veni surveyed the man laying on the stone. She had been with Rivanna at Rona six months before, watching the battle of the skies play out. They stayed in the woods, waiting. Rivanna had a plan, but it had not been shared with Veni. The girl had cowered behind a tree, terrified as fire, acid, and blood rained from the air. When the attack was over and the bodies buried or burned, the pair ventured from their hideout to seek out the graves.

Veni's stomach balked at her actions as she helped Rivanna unearth the fresh corpses. When the first one surfaced, the girl lost the battle with her insides and her small meal found its way to the ground before her. Hours later, she was starving, tired, and dirty, and they had six bodies--two women and four men. They loaded them onto the wagon for the trek back to the cave where Rivanna did all her more violent magic.

Over the course of the last six months, they had destroyed all but one of the corpses. The young man now lay before her, his handsome features rotting away despite Rivanna's attempts to keep him in stasis. Veni stared at him, wondering what he was like when he was alive and if he had a lover or wife. Maybe he had children, even, and his death brought horrible sadness to all those who lost him.

"Here."

The girl took the glass vial that the old woman shoved into her hands. It was filled with a putrid black liquid that was still hot. Veni's hand burned and threatened to release the glass, but she had long ago learned the penalty for such an accident. She gripped the vial tightly and gritted her teeth before pouring the concoction into the man's mouth. Stepping back, she stood behind Rivanna, wishing desperately to be out of reach when the inevitable failure became clear.

Minutes passed in silent waiting. Rivanna stared expectantly at the body on the table, fidgeting with her stained skirts. A growl rose slowly in the woman's throat as time dragged on with no signs of life. She stepped up to the corpse and poked at the chest hard.

"Mmmphff."

Rivanna jumped back, her black eyes growing wide in her wrinkled face. Veni watched from the side as a vile grin began to grow across the spotted lips. Rivanna stepped forward, peering at the man, and poked him again.

This time the moan was louder and his fingers twitched. His eyes shot open, darting wildly around the room, not focusing on anything in particular. The woman's grin threatened to split her face.

"Hello, my love." She perched on the edge of the bier next to the young man and stroked his face. "Welcome back."

His wide eyes settled on her, terror showing in them. His lips moved, but nothing came out. Veni watched him attempt to lift an arm, but it was tied down and he moved it only a fraction.

"What's your name, darling?" Rivanna was still stroking the partially rotted face, cooing as if to a lover. It made Veni sick to watch.

The man mumbled something incoherent and Rivanna frowned. "Well, close enough. I'll call you Rul."

As the witch began untying his bonds, Veni shrank into the darkest corner she could find.

Review: Vampire Relationship Guide (Part 1)

I met Evelyn LaFont through Twitter (her handle is @keyboardhussy. You totally should follow her. She's awesome). When we first started chatting, I had no idea that she was writing a book, so when it came out, I was thrilled. The Vampire Relationship Guide (Part 1)is her debut novel.

Brief Summary: Josie is a 30-something woman who works in a bridal boutique. She spends her days and nights helping brides to be obsessed with tulle and lace. When her vampire mailman offers her an unexpected birthday present, Josie is thrown into a love triangle she never imagined. Caught between the dashing Gregory and the slightly off-kilter Walker, Josie must decide which vampire she wants to be with.

Why You Should Read It: LaFont writes a very entertaining, quick book. Gregory is the sexy vampire you expect in a novel such as this, but Walker offers his own endearing (though slightly quirky) qualities to the mix. Josie isn't your average vampire-chasing bimbo and she gives both men a run for their money. A light, entertaining read and I definitely look forward to the second installment in this series.

Rating: ☻☻☻☻

Indie Book of the Month - Pale Queen's Courtyard

Pale Queen's Courtyard is the debut novel of Marcin Wrona.

In a land where magical abilities will earn you a trip to the desert at high noon, destinies collide in this fantasy tale that draws on myth and legend.

Leonine is a thief and murderer, but more importantly, he is a sorcerer. His past is dark and violent, his future uncertain. Kamvar is a follower of Ahamash, the approved god of his world. He has devoted his life to the faith and works diligently to bring sorcerers to their rightful end.

Before the end, both Leonine and Kamvar will have their wills, their faiths, and their loyalties tested. Will they stay true to themselves? Or will they collapse beneath the pressures that are thrust upon them?

I just finished this book and really loved it. A review will be posted soon.