Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Top 5 Ways You Know You're an Action Movie Villain + Blog Tour Stops

Happy Wednesday, Everyone!

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How's was your Tuesday? 1) Uneventful 2) Eventful but in a good way 3) Stressful 4) Civilization as we know it imploded and the zombie apocalypse has started.

Nobody had better say #4! The zombie apocalypse is not allowed to start until after I see Star Trek: Into Darkness.

Today's Blog Tour Posts Include
1) Review and Guest Post on Creating Dystopic Worlds at Wonderland's Reader and
2) Review and Interview at My Book Musings

Anyway, my post today is a re-post. I wrote it for a blog tour stop very recently when I guest posted on Alex Cavanaugh's website. I have to give Alex some of the credit for it. Yes, I wrote it, but he has very specific guidelines for guest posting on his blog, including the minor detail that "Snark is a must." If it hadn't been for that, I never would have come up with this post. (Incidentally, I didn't stay within his 300-word limit parameter, but at least I was snarky, right Alex?)

Anyway, I got a great response for this post, so I thought I'd share it with my own audience. I know lots of you are following the blog tour, but I don't delude myself that you click super-fast over to each and every tour stop while wiping the drool away. So, if you missed it, here's my post.


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            A few months ago I saw the amazing film Skyfall. May be the best Bond film I’ve ever seen (not that I’ve seen a lot of the older films). There’s a scene in the film where Bond chases Silva (Javier Bardem’s excellent villain), leaping over heavy machinery, sprinting across rooftops and lots of other Bond-y stuff. Eventually they run through the subway. At that point, Bond loses sight Silva. Until he glances to his left. Silva has left a door open, though which Bond follows. It made me smile. I mean, a guy as smart and determined as Silva just happens to leave a door open behind him? Maybe it’s just the innate idiocy of villains, but it got me thinking about attributes of action movie villains. They actually aren't that hard to pick out of a crowd.
Top 5 Ways You Know You’re an Action Movie Villain 
 1.      You think everything is funny! “I’m winning.” Huh-huh-huh. “People are dying.” Huh-huh-huh. “My arm hurts.” Huh-huh-huh.   
2.      Just when it looks like you might win, you do something hair-brained like forgetting to shut the door behind you or not figuring out who the true owner of the Elder wand is. I mean, if you’re going to be villainous, shouldn't you at least try to pull Cs in problem-solving class?

 3.      You believe things that have happened to you in the past are awesome excuses for murder, rape, plunder, and all-around world domination. Let’s face it: everyone’s got a sob story, but most people don’t become douche bags. You, on the other hand… 
 4.      You’re creepy. No really! Stop for a minute to evaluate your own creep factor. Do you, for example, breathe really loudly (hol-puh, hol-puh), sport a detachable jaw (like Silva), practice a smile that’s insincere and just a bit too wide, or have a habit of licking your fingers and smoothing down your eyebrow hairs? If you are guilty of these or any similar quirks, I hate to break it to you my friend but YOU…are creepy. 
 5.      You have an overwhelming and inexplicable drive to pit yourself against awesome, heroic guys (or gals). I mean seriously! Anyone who honestly believes they can take on the likes of James Bond and win must have repeated third grade at least twice. Tell me I’m wrong! 
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 So, if you encapsulate one or all of the above traits, you may be ideally suited to the (short and bitter) life of an action movie villain. Support groups held every other Thursday at the WTF Rec Center in New York. For more info, call 1-800-2BIFF-IT.
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday--Favorite Romances + Tour Stops and RMQ

Today's blog tour stops include guest posts at both Racing to Read and Lost in Fictional Worlds. Hop on over and check them out! :D
Top Ten Tuesday
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because they are particularly fond of lists at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week they will post a new Top Ten list  that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

Top Ten Favorite Romances

I don't know if this was supposed to be favorite romance novels or just favorite romances within a novel, but I went with the latter because I don't read genre romance. :D Below are my sci-fi/fantasy picks. For my non-scifi/fantasy picks, visit my other blog, LKHill.

Disclaimer: Many of these are from books that are part of a series. There will be mild spoilers in this list as to who is going to get together in the series for Divergent, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, A Song of Fire and Ice, Hunger Games, and Lord of the Rings. You've been warned!!!

P.S. I'm kind of a sucker or unconventional romance! :D


10. Tris and Four of Divergent--I recently read Divergent and very much enjoyed the romance in it!
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9. Remus Lupin and Tonks of Harry Potter--One of the saddest and sweetest love stories I've come across in recent years.
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8. Ron and Hermione of Harry Potter--Who doesn't love this one?
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7. Gimli and Galadriel of The Lord of the Rings--Okay, not a get-married-and-have-kids sort of romance, but much sweeter and more tangible than just about anything other relationship in the book.
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6. Eowyn and Faramir of The Lord of the Rings--I loved the way this one was done. It could possibly have felt like settling for sloppy seconds, but Tolkien handled it so delicately that it came off as heart-melting.
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5. Egwene and Gawyn of Wheel of Time--I was ticked off at first that Egwene didn't end up with...uh...someone else, but when this romance struck up, I was on board very quickly. So maybe Egwene and the other guy weren't so meant to be after all. :D
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4. Arya and Gendry of A Song of Fire and Ice--This one hasn't really happened yet. The fans are totally shipping for Ghendrya, though, and if Martin can move the story along in the 6th book, well, a make-out scene would be okay with me!
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3. Katniss and Peeta of Hunger Games--I know it was a triangle and that plenty of people were shipping for her and Gayle, but I just thought the bread-in-the-rain story beat all! How could you not love him for that!
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2. Richard and Kahlan of Sword of Truth--Totally die-hard, old-fashioned, awesome values romance! Couldn't get enough of this one while reading this series!
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1. Nynaeve and Lan of Wheel of Time--My all-time favorite forbidden-to-be-together romance ever! Totally in love with Lan and, Nynaeve's like my favorite female character ever so, yeah, was always totally delighted to read about these two. Unfortunately it was always a less-is-more thing with them, but that's exactly what made it so compelling! :D
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What are your favorite romances?

Random Movie Quote (RMQ)


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Last week's RMQ was: "Loosen your corset and have a drink." This was said by Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) in The Hunger Games.


This week's RMQ:


"It's a rare and beautiful things when enemies share an enemy."

Hint: This is a from a TV show that aired just this past week! One point for actor, one for character, one for show. Good luck! :D

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Book Trailer, Blog Tour Stops, & Announcements

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Happy Monday, Everyone! Just a few quick words and some links here!






If you haven't seen it yet, here's the link to my book trailer for Persistence of Vision. It's short, sweet, and to the point. (Any comments on the narration? Just wondering. :D)

Book Trailer Links:    High Res     Low Res     YouTube

Today's Blog Tour Stops include:

1) Guest Post at Doodle's Book Blog on Why NA over other Genres and      
2) Guest Post at Y.A. Storyteller on How it All Began: My Persistence of Vision

Hop on over and see what you think!

Announcements:

1. I will be doing a signing on February 22 in Ogden, Utah at the Hastings store. If you're local, come see me! I'd love to meet you, even if you don't make a purchase!
2. I have several more coming up in March, but I'll put more on those as they get closer.
3. Upcoming Writer's Conferences: LDStorymakers and Indie Recon. Click on links for info. Should both be great so I encourage you to check them out! :D
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Sunday, February 10, 2013

Eye of the World Read-Along: Final Week + Blog Tour Stops

Today's Blog Tour Stop is a Review at Young Adult SciFi and Fantasy Blog. Hop over and say hi!
Eye of the World Read-Along: Final Week!

Hosted by Anya of On Starships and Dragonwings
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1. Oo la la, Nynaeve and Lan are finally confirming there is something going on between them, and of course Rand has to creepily eavesdrop.... What do you think of this brewing star-crossed love?

Totally love it! This was one of things that I loved about this series from the very beginning. I totally love this relationship and how it's handled! I think the creepy eavesdrop is kind of funny. As I writer, I can see that it was a matter of Robert Jordan trying to keep the POV changes down in the first novel. It was all Rand until they split into groups after Shadar Logoth. Once they're all together again, we're back to only Rand's consciousness. So, he had to eavesdrop in order for us to know. ;D

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2. Wow, the Blight is a scary place, but what did you think was the creepiest critter/thing that the team encountered or fortunately didn't encounter?

I'm a member of the what-you-don't-see-is-scarier-than-what-you-do school, so I'll have to go with the Worms. We didn't really see them, but they were felling trees in the distance like the Smoke Monster on the Lost island. Even Lan was afraid of them. And what scares Lan, scares me. Just sayin'.

3. We got to meet the Green Man! We discussed last week what everyone thought he would look like, how did he measure up to your expectations? What did you think of his head scar?

Yeah I love the Green Man! I love that he's peace-loving but he still attacked the evil Forsaken! I love that he died fighting them, and that his final minutes protecting the Eye led to what happened at the end of this book. It's so epic!

4. The epic battle ended up being mostly in the dream realm apparently, what did you think of Rand's various battles?

I thought they were pretty cool. I loved that he could see the cords and thought to sever them. I really liked when he appeared on the battle field and burnt all the shadowspawn to a crisp. I remember being a bit confused the first time I read it, not sure where he was supposed to be. I wish he would have locked eyes with Agelmar on that battlefield, just so it was more obvious, but overall I loved all of it.

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5. Congratulations everyone, we finished! What did you think overall? If this was a re-read for you, how was the second time around? Are you planning to read book two (with or without us, no pressure, hehe)?

Loved it! Thought it ended perfectly with Rand's being conflicted and hugging Egwene. This is a second read through for me (maybe third. I can't remember for sure but I may have read the first two or three books more than once) and it was great the second time through. I recently read the final book in the series so it was fun to re-read the ground work that was laid in book 1. It gave me a greater appreciation for the awesomeness that was Robert Jordan. He could definitely tell an amazing story and created an astounding world! I'm totally reading Book 2 with ya! :D The Great Hunt! Can't wait!
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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Vendor Fair Saturday + Blog Tour Stops

Today's Blog Tour Stops include:
1) Review at Realms of an Open Mind and
2) Review and Interview at Kate's Book Life

Hop on over and check out these great bloggers' work! :D

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Announcements:


Today I'll be selling/signing books at the A Passionate Affair Valentine Gift Show. It runs from 12-5 today in Kearns, Utah. Click on the link for details. I'll also have gourmet Peanut Butter Fudge to sell. There will be deals if you buy both. Just sayin'. :D

It'll be a great event so come shop for a gift for your special someone! Don't wait until the last moment and get yourself in hot water! :D

Everyone have a great weekend!
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Thursday, February 7, 2013

Follow Friday--Mardi Gras + Blog Tour Stops

Today's Blog Tour Stop is a Guest Post at Young Adult SciFi and Fantasy Blog. Will you all do me a favor and hop over and support Aurora for me? She's an awesome blogger! :D

Follow Friday

Increase Blog Followers, gain Book Blog Followers and make new friends with the Book Blogger Feature & Follow! If this is your first time here, welcome! You are about to make some new friends and gain new followers — but you have to know — the point of this hop is to follow other bloggers also. I follow you, you follow me.
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The Feature & Follow is hosted by TWO hosts, Parajunkee of Parajunkee’s View and Alison of Alison Can Read. Each host will have their own Feature Blog and this way it’ll allow us to show off more new blogs!
How does this work? First you leave your name here on this post, (using the linky tools — keep scrolling!) then you create a post on your own blog that links back to this post (easiest way is to just grab the code under the #FF picture and put it in your post) and then you visit as many blogs as you can and tell them “hi” in their comments (on the post that has the #FF image). You follow them, they follow you. Win. Win. Just make sure to follow back if someone follows you!

Q: 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…?

Me and my awesome "little" brother, Abe!
Hmm. Great question! Not easy to answer, though. I think I would dress up/act like the characters in the book and yell, "Please! My life's story! It's not finished yet! I need it back! Please!" 

If that didn't work, I'd call in favors from my (much larger than me) younger brothers to muscle through and get me some! :D



How about you? What would you do to get great books?

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Thoughts for Thursday--Office Humor + Blog Tour Stops

The Persistence of Vision Blog Tour stops today include:

1) A Character Interview with Maggie at Love, Literature, Art and Reason,
2) A Review at Ladybug Storytime and
3) A Review at Book.Mark.Bellees
Thoughts for Thursday

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Thoughts for Thursday is a new meme hosted by Musings on Fantasia and LKHill.  In this meme, we share thoughts or quotes that we know or have recently come across. Each week there is a specific subject or theme. These can be quotes from books, quotes by famous people, (quotes by YOU, perhaps ;D). Anything from anywhere is game, though we do ask that you keep your quote to a few sentences at most. Don't quote, for example, entire passages of a book or essay. These can be funny quips, cool sayings, hair-raising antidotes, movie lines, any kind of quote you can think of!

Readers may respond by either commenting on the quotes I put forward or contributing a quote of their own. Leave it in the comments or a link to your quote in the linky. Whoever comes up with the best one will get some swag and be entered to win a bigger prize later on!

Just have fun, collect awesome sayings by awesome people, and try to be inspired!

This week's theme is Office Humor!
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People who enjoy meetings should not be in charge of anything.--Thomas Sowell

Teamwork: a lot of people doing things my way.

Those who think it's impossible shouldn't interrupt those who are doing it.
Top Ten Reasons it Sucks to Work in a Cubicle:
10. Being told to ‘Think outside the Box’ when you’re in a box all day long.
9. Not being able to check e-mail attachments without turning around to see who’s behind you.
8. Fabric cubicle walls do not offer much protection from any kind of gunfire.
7. Always having that nagging feeling that if you press the right button, you’ll get a piece of cheese!
6. Lack of roof rafters for the noose.
5. The walls are too close together for the hammock to work right.
4. There are 23 power cords but only ONE outlet.
3. Prison cells are not only bigger… they also have beds.
2. When tours come through, you get lots of peanuts thrown at you.
and the Number One Drawback to Working in a Cubicle… . .
1. You can’t slam the door when you quit and walk out. (I have a piece of cardboard with a knob drawn on it. I slam that quite often. Not the same effect as wood, though.) --Source

What do you think? What's your favorite quote about working in an office?
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