Mailbox Monday

Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia from The Printed Page.

These are what I received in my mailbox last week:

1) Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates (I have to get this after reading Trish's review!)

2) Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie (I simply love the cover. Plus, the blurb sounds good to me.)

3) The Moment Between by Nicole Baart (After reading Dar's review, there is no way I will want to ignore this book!)

So what books came into your house last week?

Musing Mondays - Reading Time

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about reading time…

Do you have a set reading time (before bed, perhaps)? Do you read more at night or during the day? Is there a day of the week, perhaps, that you set aside to catch up on reading?

I don't have any specific rules when it comes to reading. I read whenever I have the time. I tend to read more during the day (I think I spend most of my reading time during the commute). A friend ever asked me why don't I make use of that time to close my eyes and rest my mind (as I notice most of the commuters do anyway), but I told her that it is my best time to catch up on my reading. Why is that so? Besides making full use of my time, another thing is that no one will interrupt my reading. However, that does not mean I don't enjoy reading at home, I do. I have two young children at home so reading with them around can be a little challenging to me, but then I would rather devote my attention to them unless I have some time to myself (i.e. when they are taking a nap or when my husband helps to look after them etc).

Sometimes, I will also read during lunch hours when I don't have any lunch appointments with my co-workers. This is another great moment to catch up on my reading, but the time passes too quickly.

What about you? Do you read more during the day or at night? Do you have any specific reading time?

Booking Through Thursday: Sticky

I saw this over at Shelley’s, and thought it sounded like a great question for all of you:

“This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

Isn't this week's question fun? So here we go, fifteen books that will always stick with me (and doing no more than 15 minutes):

• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• Tokyo (aka The Devil of Nanking) by Mo Hayder
• In the Woods by Tana French
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• Out by Natsuo Kirino
• Atonement by Ian McEwan
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
• Black Ice by Anne Stuart
• The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
• The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

So which fifteen books that will always stick with you? Don't forget, you have only 15 minutes to do so.

Wordless Wednesday

Hamburg, Germany

Cover Attraction - June 3

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

I love beautiful, and interesting, cover art so every Wednesday I post my 'Cover Attraction' for the week along with a synopsis of the book. Everyone is welcome to stop by and, if they'd like, post a link to their favorite weekly book cover.

* * * * *

My find this week is a YA novel, Sisters in Sanity by Gayle Forman. What does that say about me? I love flowers! Another thing is, I love YA novels!

ISBN-13: 9780060887490
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: April 2009

Synopsis:

"Where are they taking me?"

"It's for your own good, Brit," Dad said.

I was shoved into a small, stuffy room, and the door was locked behind me.

I waited for my dad to realize he'd made a terrible mistake and come get me.

But he didn't.

For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, it's hard to know who she can trust. Convinced she's out of control, her father has sentenced her to Red Rock: a center for supposedly rebellious teens, where the therapy consists of name-calling and the girls who get privileges are the ones who rat out their peers.

But then Brit meets V, Bebe, Martha, and Cassie—four girls who keep her from going over the edge. Together, they'll hold on to their sanity and their sisterhood despite the bleak Red Rock reality.

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To find out more or participate, go to The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Author Interview: Norm Applegate, Author of Blood Bar

Today, I have the pleasure of featuring Norm Applegate and his new book, Blood Bar (a vampire tale) as part of the Pump Up Your Book Promotion Book Tour. Many thanks to Tracee for giving me the opportunity to be part of the book tour!

Below is a short interview with Norm Applegate:


1. Where are you from and how did you get into writing?
Lately not sure, and yet I can definitely say born in Glasgow Scotland, raised in Toronto, and have been living in Florida for the last twenty-eight years. I have traveled steadily for awhile, 2 million miles on Delta, with visits to Australia, New Zealand, London, Paris (My favorite) and this year Rome, oh yeah, Alaska, Hawaii and just about every city in Canada and the USA. I was a hypnotist and did the traveling listen to my voice mesmerizing road show through most of these countries.

2. When and why did you begin writing?
Always wanted to write a book, didn’t know how, thought it was beyond my capabilities, but while traveling through New Zealand it started. The hypnosis career changed my life, and realizing nothing is impossible, began writing short notes, tales, and just life experiences to my wife back in the States.

3. When did you first consider yourself a writer?
That moment was when a few readers, strangers actually, people I had never met, sent me emails, or talked to me about something I wrote. The book was Into the Basement, abduction, torture, murder, the usual romantic stuff that makes you squeeze your thighs tight, warms your face, and blush sinfully. It surprised me, thrilled me to know people liked what I liked...I wasn’t alone from that point forward, my dark side had an outlet, freedom.

4. What you think about the trend of vampire books comparing the past to today? (By Melody)
It’s what is popular that’s changed, I mean if you go back to the Anne Rice novels, Interview with a Vampire, it’s a serious, adult suspense thriller. Other books from that time A Delicate Discipline, were about the horror, and the cold dark sinister evil, but we found them captivating.

Today with True Blood on TV, Twilight, and the Sookie Stackhouse series, it’s a young adult audience looking for romance, and they have found it in vampires. Twilight, I’ve read, the writing is excellent, Stephenie Meyer has a style that pulls you in. But I found myself waiting for the essence of the vampire, you know the one that we grew up with. I’m afraid we have made this horror genre boring, in fact it’s not even horror any more it’s YA romance.

My novel, Blood Bar, A Vampire Tale, is erotic, violent and an adventure story.

Let me share the synopsis for Blood Bar:

Vampires don’t exist...yet, on the brownstone back alley side streets of New York, a vampire dies. Desperate, his lover turns to Kim Bennett, author Norm Applegate’s quintessential heroine whose passion for S&M led to celebrity status as a hell-and-back murder mystery sleuth who’s been there, done that, and then some. This time, Kim finds herself caught between a secret vampire society’s attempts to locate The Black Testament (a sacred document written by Jack the Ripper), the modern-day vampire hunters bent on their destruction, and a white knuckled journey of self-discovery that catapults her into the bowels of hell and the arms of the ultimate vampire.......courtesy of The Haven, New York’s ultimate Blood Bar.

5. What are your current projects?
Just finished re-editing Into the Basement, was never happy with what my previous publisher did to it. Next is the screenplay to Basement, written by Nicholas Grabowsky and myself, we have a producer/distributer interested, and the movie is cast with Courtney Gains, then my next novel in the Kim Bennett series that I’m tentatively calling Black Sun Rising, is another vampire tale. You can go to http://www.intothebasementthemovie.com/ to read more about the cast, director J.L. Botelho, and see his trailer for Into the Basement...it’s wicked, prepare yourself, you don’t want little kids watching this, seriously don’t let your kids see this.

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I want to thank Norm Applegate for taking the time in answering the questions.

Please click here (or the image below) to read an excerpt of Blood Bar and to follow the rest of the book tour in June.

Teaser Tuesdays (and Awards)

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

Here's my teaser for today:

Gerhardt Eiche, Wilhelm Bloch, and Hans Weiss landed safely and each headed for their appointed rendezvous. Paul Schmidt was less fortunate - by mischance, unexpected wind, or inaccurate coordinates, he missed the clear acreage around a dairy farm, with the potential for restorative warm blood of both humans and animals, and crashed into the ancient cluster of oaks on Fletcher's Hill, impaling himself on the uppermost branches of a tree, hitting his head on the trunk of another, and mercifully cutting off sense and pain before crashing to Earth.

(Pg 3, Bloody Good by Georgia Evans)

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Desert Rose has awarded me a "One Lovely Blog Award". This award is given to new blogs and blogging friends discovered.

Next, Jeane from Dog Ear Diary gave me the Heartfelt Award which goes to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside.

Thank you, Desert Rose and Jeane, for passing on the awards to me! I want to share these awards to all my readers because you guys are the best!