Feature and Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What is a book you didn’t like that all your friends raved about or what book did you love that wasn’t popular?

Shadow Ops: Control Point by Myke Cole was one title that got a lot of good press, and which friends and bloggers were raving about, but I gave up halfway through - I didn't like the hero, the story, or the writing. On the other hand, The Breeders by Matthew J. Beier is a book I haven't seen a lot of press about, and which nobody I know has read, but which I felt was quite clever and well-developed.

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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Feature and Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: Happy Mardi Gras! If they were throwing the HOTTEST books off of a Mardi Gras float -- what would you do to have them throw to you…?

The book I'd most like to see come flying off that float is Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars . . . and, if I was really lucky, a few copies of Stephen King's Doctor Sleep might come winging their way alongside it. Of course, since they're both likely to be thick, heavy hardcovers, I'd probably make a complete fool of myself and then hide behind the drunks who are already numb to the pain, and unlikely to have the coordination to make a catch!

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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Feature and Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: If you could choose one supernatural being/creature to really exist, what would it be, and why?

That's a tough one. Old-school vampires are cool, but I'm no hunter, so I don't like my odds for survival. Faeries could be interesting, but I suspect having them around would be too much like playing the lottery - it would always be somebody else benefiting from their magic. Call me crazy, but since the odds of survival are likely to be slim with most supernatural beings anyway, I'm going to go all out and choose dragons. Yeah, they're likely to burn down your house, eat your pets, and either crush you or reduce you to ashes . . . but what a final vision to take to your grave!

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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Feature and Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What is the last book that made you cry? Tell us about the scene...



I'd have to go with Terry Goodkind's The Omen Machine - I cried when I realized I actually spent good money on something so bad . . . especially when I knew better than to get my hopes up. LOL

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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18 & Over Book Blogger Follow

18 and Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines. This one is aimed primarily at bloggers and books for the 18 and over crowd.




Question of the Week: What are the Top 5 Books that you are looking forward to in 2013?







Only 5? Wow, tough job condensing a wishlist down to just 5, but here goes:

1. A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson


2. River of Stars by Guy Gavriel Kay 


3. The Marching Dead by Lee Battersby


4. Magician's End by Raymond E. Feist


5. The Scarlet Gospels by Clive Barker

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Feature and Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What blog are you thankful for?



I've gotta go with a pair of blogs that are definitely outside the mainstream, covering nostalgic times and nostalgic reads: Glorious Trash & The PorPor Books Blog.

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

Don't forget to check out this week's guest post with Shane K.P. O'Neill & giveaway of Bound by Blood (signed by the author).

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Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: Books are turned into movies all the time! Turn it around. What movie would make a great book?



Well, with a 16-month old in the house it's been a while since I've been to the movies, so I'm going to take some liberties with the question and go with TV shows. I'd love to see somebody write new 'episodes' of Terra Nova, Nowhere Man, Brisco County, Twin Peaks, or MacGyver in novel format.

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

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Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: Do you mind books with similar ideas to other books? Similar concepts, backgrounds, retellings or pulled-to-publish fanfic?



Let's be honest - is there really an original idea left in the literary world? There's a finite toolbox of ideas, themes, tropes, and cliches upon which every author draws. What sets writers apart from one another is how well they wield those tools. Some may settle for building the literary equivalent of a shack, while others may aspire to creating a mansion, but settle for a nice cottage. There are a rare few, however, who can aim for a sprawling castle or cavernous cathedral - and pull it off. 



Retellings are a perfect example. When done with skill, they can be pieces of literary wonder, just as good as (and sometimes better than) the original. Without that skill, however, they come across as the clumsy, cheap, awkward rip-offs that they really are. Even fan fiction, when done with skill, can be successful. Take, for example, series like Star Wars, Star Trek, Quantum Leap, and Stargate - the novels being professionally published are really just authorized fan fiction. Of course, I can probably think of a hundred or so others that are nothing more than an opportunity to share some really inappropriate sexual fantasies. :)



Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

While you're here, please pop over to the Seventh Star Press Blog today and check out this week's Blogger Spotlight . . . me!

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Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What is a deal breaker for you in a book? For example, do you abhor love triangles? Or can't deal with bad editing?



For me, any time an author uses fiction as a social/political/religious platform, choosing to preach rather than entertain, that's a definite deal-breaker. I don't mind underlying themes or even an agenda that slants the writing, but don't have your characters (or worse, your narrator) get up on a soapbox and preach at me. There's no quicker way to get yourself relegated to my DNF pile than by being heavy-handed and confrontational, even if I might otherwise agree with you. 



Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

Read More

Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What writing device or trick most irritates you when reading a book? For example, if an author employs an omnipotent narrator that is sometimes considered bad form.



The narrative trick that bothers me most is when authors use multiple first-person narrators within the same chapter or scene. It's a lazy, awkward means of story telling, putting the reader inside every head, and sharing every thought. There's no mystery to the story, and no art to the telling of it. Not to mention, it can get really confusing, really fast, especially when the POV shifts back and forth between the characters.



Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

Read More

Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: When you step out of your usual genre what do you read? Best books in that genre?



I generally stick with fantasy or horror, so when I step outside my usual genres, it's generally to read a thriller - anything by Preston & Child, Clive Cussler, or Vince Flynn.

     

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

18 and Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines. This one is aimed primarily at bloggers and books for the 18 and over crowd.


Question of the Week: When you think of fur-friendly authors, which author do you think of first?



That's a tough one, since I've always been more of a wings-and-fangs type of reader, as opposed to a fur-and-fangs. Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and Whitley Streiber's Wolfen are the first to come to mind as favourites, but Jeff Burke's Cripple Wolf is at the top of my werewolf to-read pile, along with Ray Garton and W.D. Gagliani.

     

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Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What book do you think would make a great Halloween movie? Please explain in graphic detail of goriness…



Without a doubt, Brian Lumley's first Necroscope novel. I mean, you've got a hero who can not only speak to the dead, but call them from their cold, dusty graves for revenge; a Soviet spy who is able to divine the secrets of the dead by violating their corpses - an act from which he derives far too much sadistic pleasure; and a race of  truly monstrous vampires so utterly horrific that you will never again be able to see a vampire in a romantic light.

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

Read More

Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What is the BIGGEST word you've seen used in a book lately - that made you stop and look it up? Might as well leave the definition & book too.



To be honest, I can't remember the last time I had to reach for a dictionary. I think, after all these years, I've come across just about every word or term I'm likely to encounter in a book. Neal Stephenson's Anathem, however, was a difficult book, with its made-up mish-mash of scientific, religious, and Latin terms. It didn't leave me reaching for a dictionary, but definitely kept me flipping back to the glossary for words like:

amanuensis (\uh-man-yoo-EN-sis\), plural amanuenses, is a person employed to write or type what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another, and also refers to a person who signs a document on behalf of another under their authority. The term derives from a Latin expression made up of a suffix, -ensis, "belonging to", and prefix, manu-, "hand".

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

18 and Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines. This one is aimed primarily at bloggers and books for the 18 and over crowd.


Question of the Week: Pick up your current book, turn to a random page, and jot down the first few sentences that pop out at you. Make sure to share the author & title of the book with everyone!



This comes from Bone Wires by Michael Shean:





He wondered if she’d been forced to do it that way and got used to it or if she’d been one of those hypersexualized girls who grew up early and decided to wield themselves like weapons at the public. Maybe it was survival, maybe it was mental illness, who the f*ck knew. He wasn’t Vice and he wasn’t a saint, so it’s not like he could help her. He stared at the park from across the street once more; she had vanished as quickly as she had appeared, like some kind of bizarre nymph that might have sprung from one of the dying trees.

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Feature & Follow Friday

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What hyped up book do you think was not worth all the talk?



A Feast for Crows was a huge disappointment, so much so that I abandoned it after 3 attempts. The only way I'm moving on with the series is if I skip that entry. The Long Earth was another one I was looking forward to - I mean, Pratchett AND Baxter? Oh, yeah! - but it was weak, lazy, and altogether not worth the hype.



Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

18 and Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines and Kelly at Secrets of a Book Lover. This one is aimed primarily at bloggers and books for the 18 and over crowd.


Question of the Week: Do you listen to music while writing reviews or do you need quiet? 



If I'm at the computer, then the odds are pretty good I've got music playing. My playlist over the last few days has been very Canadian, with the new Platinum Blonde album, the last Honeymoon Suite album, the re-releases of Gowan's 2 biggest albums (Strange Animal and Great Dirty World), and the latest from Fraze Gang (who were once known as Brighton Rock).

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TGIF - Feature & Follow Friday

Don't forget to check out my interviews with Lee Battersby and Adam Christopher for a chance to win paperback ARC copies of The Corpse Rat King and Seven Wonders.

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Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: What is the best cover of a book that you've read and loved?



Last week I picked Clive Barker's US editions of the Books of Blood as some of the worst covers, so it's time to give some love to the UK covers that first made me a fan. Just to balance things out, I'll include the simple beauty of his original Imajica cover as well (although the re-release cover isn't bad).

      

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

TGIF is another blog hop designed to provide much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by GReads, it's an interesting way to recap the week, pose a question, and find some exposure with a different audience.


Question of the Week: How do you go about choosing what you read next? Do you have a schedule you follow, or do you read whatever makes you happy at the moment?



I am absolutely a mood reader, picking up whatever happens to appeal to my whims of the moment. I will schedule reads where I have a hard deadline (i.e. a book tour), but otherwise I go with whatever interests me.

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Feature & Follow Friday

Be sure to join me next week for an Angry Robot celebration. Lee Battersby and Adam Christopher will be stopping by for interviews, with paperback ARC giveaways of The Corpse-Rat King and Seven Wonders.

Feature & Follow Friday is a blog hop that is designed to provide some much-appreciated exposure to the bloggers participating, and to expand their following. Hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read, each of whom feature a chosen blog for the week, it's an interesting way to get to know one another.

Question of the Week: Worst cover? What is the worst cover of a book that you've read and loved?



Stephen R. Donaldson's re-released books in the original Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever have some pretty boring, uninspired covers (despite the relevance of the ring); I really didn't care for Stephen King's hardcover illustration for Full Dark, No Stars (although the paperback was a drastic improvement); and the USA covers for Clive Barker's Books of Blood are awful (especially compared to the grotesque beauty of his self-illustrated UK covers).

Parajunkee also hosts a Social Hop for Facebook and Twitter, which I regularly take part in. So, if you're one of those people who aren't on Blogger, or who just don't like Google Friend Connect, it's a great way to keep in touch and follow one another.

αωαωαωαωαωαωαω

18 and Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that begins on Fridays and runs through the weekend hosted by Crystal from Reading Between the Wines and Kelly at Secrets of a Book Lover. This one is aimed primarily at bloggers and books for the 18 and over crowd.


Question of the Week: Please share with us five fun facts about yourself. :) 



1. I hate elevators. Loathe them, actually. With a passion.

2. I have bookshelves in 3 different rooms of the house. Well, 4 if you count the stack that keeps growing on the stairs. 

3. I live for wings. Preferably hot buffalo, although the salt n' vinegar ones at Buffalo Wild Wings are pretty damned good.

4. I once broke my arm in 2 places (and dislocated my wrist) but had to wait 3 days to get it set and put into a cast because, according to the doctor on-call, it wasn't an emergency since the bone wasn't sticking out.

5. My desk at the office is decorated with an Indiana Jones, 2 gargoyles, a plush zombie, a unicorn, a Halloween rat, and a Toronto Blue Jay bobble-head. Darth Vader is currently AWOL.

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