I love when its my turn to blog because I get to talk about books I love!
I’ve always adored Christina Dodd’s historicals. I was lucky enough to a part of the same RWA chapter when she lived in Houston. If you are a “friend” of Christina’s on Facebook or Twitter, the wonderful humor you read there is just part of what makes her such a delight.
As a lover of things paranormal, I was giddy when she branched out into paranormal a couple of years ago with her Darkness Chosen series. It was such a great concept, and the books kept me enthralled. Needless to say, when I learned she was doing a spin off series, I was beyond delighted.
The Chosen Ones is seven people, abandoned at birth and given special gifts to be used for good or evil. Every seven years, a new group are chosen to use their skills to save other children like themselves from The Others. Yet they do so much more, and the newest Chosen face dramatic challenges.
It’s another great series – one you shouldn’t miss!
The second book in the series is STORM OF SHADOWS. This books is about Aaron Eagle, a man introduced in the first book, and one I couldn’t wait to read about. He’s mysterious, handsome, and all too alluring. He’s an accomplished thief…with a very special talent.
His heroine is Rosamund Hill. Proper and predictable, she has lived her life buried in libraries. She believes the legend of the Chosen is a myth, but it doesn’t take long after she meets Aaron and he sweeps her into a world of dangerous secrets that she begins to doubt that belief. She’s unable to resist Aaron’s offers of visits to private museums or to hunt for a mysterious prophecy.
I love how with every moment they are together she begins to let loose the woman she has kept locked deep inside herself. It’s not easy for her to trust all that she sees and learns, but with Aaron, she knows she is safe from the dangers that would harm her. Aaron carries a great burden, one that he cannot let go of. It will take Rosamund’s love for him to release a past that has haunted him since he was a child. And their adventure gives them a love that will defy fate itself.
The third book, CHAINS OF ICE releases July 6th. I’ve already got my book pre-ordered, and it cannot get here fast enough! I highly recommend the Darkness Chosen and The Chosen Ones. You won’t be disappointed!
hugs,
D
Archive for June, 2010
Sorry to be late today! I scheduled this to post and it didn’t post. Operator error I am sure. I am SO not good with technology… but onward to the ‘better late than never post!’
I’m talking audio books and the person reading, or rather acting out, the book. I have a favorite reader and so does my DH. DH loves Scott Brick and he is one of many readers who pick their books based on Scott being the reader. I love Lorelei King. She reads the Patricia Briggs Mercy series which is a rocking awesome series. What is amazing to me about Lorelei is her voices. She does the characters voices so that we never have to use our imagination for a different voice and after 5 books, she ALWAYS gets those voices exactly the same. A character can be gone for an entire book and that character comes back with the voice they had two books back. LOVE it. Love her. And love Patricia Brigg’s Mercy series. Next week I’ll talk more about this series but this week, I invite you to explore the talents of two really great narrators.You can go to Audible and actually listen to clips of their reading. You can click on the sample box for each of these books to get a good feel for the reader. If you are going to invest in an audible book, these two readers will make that investment a great experience! And they will sure help you get through a boring line, a painful cardio workout! Enjoy!
My favorite:
HERE:
DH’s Favorite:
HERE:
The amazing thing about vampires is that you can look at a number of cultures and they all have some kind of legend about the blood-sucking undead! Maybe it’s the universal fear of dying, but that’s good for us vampire writers since it gives us a lot of different mythologies from which to borrow for our stories.
One of the different kinds of vampires that I’ve used in one of my paranormals is the Chinese vampire or Jiang Shi/Kiang Shi.
Unlike the European concept of vampires, Chinese vampires really don’t have much of a consciousness. They are actually more like zombies since they are walking corpses that are said to hop around, stealing the life forces of those that encounter.
Also unlike European vampires, the Jiang Shi are created when a person’s soul fails to leave the body, possibly due to some dishonor at the time of death, desecration of the corpse or suicide. Also unlike Euro-vamps, Jiang Shi are corpses and so it’s not uncommon to see pictures of them in various states of decay or with long hair/fungus (green or white) on their bodies.
You can keep the Jiang Shi out of your home by placing a small piece of wood at the bottom of your door or by dropping seeds or grains of rice in front of the Jiang Shi who will have to stop to count them (much like a Euro-vamp!).
Jiang Shi became quite popular in movies from Hong Kong in the 1980s.
If you want to read a little more about Chinese vampires, you can visit these sites:
Deliriums Realm
Chinese Vampire Movies
Monstrous
Hi, everyone! Hope you are having a great Thursday.
Whenever I am researching one of my paranormal books, I always discover tons of interesting lore and myths. Sometimes, those stories can be downright scary. Other times, the info is fun–really.
When I was researching my upcoming release, I’LL BE SLAYING YOU (woo-hoo! Releases on 6/29 from Kensington Brava), I spent some time studying the different vampire stories that are circulating. The heroine of I’LL BE SLAYING YOU is a vampire slayer, so I wanted to be sure she could handle any vamp threat that came her way (thus my research time).
Here are some of the vamp tidbits I discovered:
1. If you spread mustard seeds on the roof of your house, this will keep vamps away. Okay, so this idea was tossed around in Europe way back when. Not real sure it is effective, but what could it hurt?
2. Vampires can’t enter a house unless you invite them in. I think most of us may have heard this belief before. It’s pretty widely circulated. Be careful who you invite into your house. Once a vamp has an invitation, he can come and go as he pleases!
3. Many folks believe that the whole idea of vampirism developed because people (way, way back in the day) were…buried alive. After all, medicine wasn’t that advances hundreds of years ago, and sometimes, there were premature burials. If the coffin was later dug up and claw marks were found on the wood, it was said the person had been a vampire (instead of an unfortunate soul who’d been buried alive and then tried to claw out for freedom).
4. On a semi-vampire note…Elizabeth Bathory bathed in the blood of young girls–she thought doing so would keep her youthful and beautiful. Some scholars out there think she may have been the world’s most prolific female serial killer. The “Blood Countess” was never actually tired or convicted for her crimes.
5. Though they are wicked strong, there are still lots of ways to kill vamps. A stake through the heart, cremation, and decapitation are three old death stand-bys for vampires. After all, no one really lives forever, not even vampires.
That’s all for my research round-up this week. Have some vampire trivia you’d like to share? Please do!
Thanks!
Cynthia Eden
www.cynthiaeden.com
I’LL BE SLAYING YOU–Available 06/29/10 from Kensington Brava
DEADLY FEAR–Available 07/27/10 from Grand Central Publishing (Forever)
I have the very great pleasure of knowing Kim Lenox, and I can say with all honesty that she is one of the nicest people. Ever! On top of that, she’s an incredible writer.
I have completely fallen in love with her Shadow Guards series. I’ve devoured each and every one of the books. I just finished reading Darker than Night and I was *blown away*.
I love historical and paranormal romance and Kim blends them both seamlessly. She takes us to the majesty of Victorian England and delivers pure evil in the form of some of history’s most atrocious villains.
The Shadow Guards are a mysterious order of immortals entrusted with the destiny of the living. Selene, the heroine and daughter of Cleopatra, is a Reclaimer. She finds the souls of the most wicked and depraved of earth’s mortals and ends them.
Lord Rourke Avenage, the Ravenmaster, is head of the Ravens, warriors who are entrusted to guard England’s monarchy.
Both have been immortal for centuries, and both have hardened their hearts over time. Yet, when cut off from the ranks of the other Shadow Guards, the two have only each other to trust when an ancient enemy comes to call.
I was rivited with every page. Kim does a superb job of building the sexual tension until I was begging for Selene and Rourke to give in to each other. I found Selene quite interesting when I first met her in book one Night Falls Darkly and then again when her twin brother, Marcus’ book, So Still the Night.
I knew Selene would get her own book, and being such a powerful woman, she needed a certain type of man to stand beside her. Kim gave us that with Avenage.
Kim, I have two things to say:
1. I want my own Ravenmaster, please.
2. There had better be more Shadow Guard books or I’m going to come hunt you down. 
hugs,
D
HI all!
It’s Tuesday about 2am so no judging any typing errors! 
That’s my excuse so please let me use it…
So onward to audio book Tuesday! I have a good series to discuss today! And a lot to say about that series, I’ll tell you!
I have to tell you — I have never loved an author who made me so furious so many times like Karen Moning. I love her writing, her stories, her voice — and I love her romances and her Urban Fantasies. Two very different genres but she does them both SO well. t her Urban Fantasy FEVER series has drawn complaints –FROM ME….They are:
Here are my complaints:
–This series is too darn good to have huge gaps between stories!! GRRRRRRRR! WRITE FASTER. MORE MORE MORE. I want now! I don’t wait well. I never have.
–This series has 5 books and they all of the first 4 end with Cliffhangers. I am talking — CLIFFHANNNNNNGER. HUGE flipping cliffhangers. Like I thought my audio book cut off when one of the books finished it ended at such an incomplete unfinished spot. CLIFFHANGERS suck…they suck suck suck…. SCREAM…..but yes they leave me guessing and wanting more and yes I am getting the next book on the day it releases. So they work. But they still SUCK! Good new for those of you who have never read the series. The last book is about to come out. WAIT and start reading or listening until a couple weeks before because I PROMISE you you will listen or read non-stop and those cliffhangers will make you want the next one. You can fIow from one book to the next without the pain I have experienced.
–I want to know if Baron is the hot bad guy or the hot good guy and I want to know now. Read book 1 — you will want to know too. FOR Five books you will want to know! It’s sweet painful torture.
I read book 1 and listened to the rest on audio book. I loved the audios. Book 4 changed to one male and one female reader. I was nervous about that since I’d been with the audio reader several books. It turned out well though. However, you enjoy a book — I highly recommend this series.
I will say it took me a few chapters to get into book 1 but once I was in I was 100% in and ready and eager for the entire ride.
IF you read the series and you think you know WHAT Baron is….speak up! I love guessing!
You can find out more here….
http://www.karenmoning.com/novels/
Happy Tuesday everyone!
Lisa
Today’s Dark Side Demon Monday resides not far from where I live! The New Jersey Pine Barrens (also known as the Pinelands) is an amazing ecological area which includes 1.1 million acres in the Pinelands National Reserve.
Because of its acidic and sandy soil, the area is also home to a variety of orchids, carnivorous plants and pines that will not grow in other areas of New Jersey.
It is also home to something else. Something more dark and demony – the infamous Jersey Devil!
There are many legends about the Jersey Devil which is also known as the Leeds Devil. The most common of the stories ties the origins of the Devil to the Leeds family who resided in the Pinelands, although the tale has many variations.
According to one version, Mother Leeds was a witch and as she was giving birth to her 13th child, she invoked the name of the devil. When the baby was born, it was either born as the Jersey Devil or shortly thereafter transformed into the Jersey Devil and took off to live in the surrounding pine barrens.
Another variation is that Mother Leeds, being beset by her husband’s demands, cursed him and his baby as she gave birth to his thirteenth child. The curse caused the baby to be born deformed. Unable to care for the inhuman child, it was tossed out into the woods where it survived by killing livestock and other creatures in the Pinelands.
So what does the Jersey Devil look like? According to accounts from various sources, including Commodore Stephen Decatur and Napolean Bonaparte’s eldest brother, who supposedly saw the demon while hunting, the devil has two hoofed feet, dragon wings, horse-like head and horns. This is a sketch of the Jersey Devil from the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin in January 1909.
Various expeditions have been launched to find the Devil, but with no luck. However, the Devil lives on in assorted books, television series (The X-Files) as well as the name of the state’s NHL franchise – The New Jersey Devils.
I hope you enjoyed this Dark Side Demon Monday!
For more information on the Jersey Devil, you can visit:
New Jersey Historial Society
Atlantic County Historical Society
The Shadowlands
Weird New Jersey
Hi everyone –
I love Friday because its CHEAT day. DH and I eat healthy and workout all week with Friday in mind. No gym and we eat whatever we want. This week I thought of Friday often and it got me through the workouts. Thursday was rough though. I have a special video presentation that explains why I woke up Thursday morning looking forward to more than Friday. I was eager for Thursday night in bed.
You have no idea how accurate this video presentation is and how long this went on and on and one…..
Hope you gives you the Friday smile my Whole Foods Bakery visit is going to me today!
Video presentation of Lisa\’s torture
Have a great Day!
Hi, everyone! Hope you are having a fabulous week!
For my Thursday blog, I’m going to talk research with you. Or, rather, I’m going to share some of the weird facts that I have learned while researching my books.
Today, I’ll share facts I learned while researching DEADLY FEAR, my first romantic suspense (due out 07/27!).
So here are some um, perhaps not-so-fun facts that I discovered:
1. The FBI estimates that there are between 35 and 100 active serial killers in the U.S. at any one time.
2. The U.S. has more serial killers than any other country.
3. Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive. Anyone have this fear?
4. At the Evil Minds Research Museum, the FBI collects serial killer (and other violent offender) “artifacts” (like John Wayne Gacey’s paintings). The purpose is to better understand the psyche of the killers.
5. Angola prison (in Louisiana) is the largest maximum security prison in the U.S. (They also have a rodeo at the prison, something I found very interesting.)
Those are my 5 facts for today. Though I learned lots more. And, yes, as you can imagine, my Google searches are always fun.
Got any interesting facts to share?
Wednesday is my day here at the DWW blog. Each week I’m going to be talking books. Who doesn’t like to talk books, right?
Despite my deadlines and “mom” duties, I make time to read. It isn’t always as much as I’d like to, but I make sure its there. Of course, it makes it a little easier because hubby, my daughter (11), and son (7) all read as well. I spend a small fortune every month at Barnes and Noble when we all go to get our books.
This past week I was deliriously happy to be able to continue Alexandra Ivy’s Guardians of Eternity series with book three, DARKNESS EVERLASTING. (note, I’m behind on the series!)
I was really hoping she would write Styx’s book. I got to meet him in the second book, EMBRACE THE DARKNESS, and just knew he would make an awesome hero.
Well, I wasn’t disappointed!
I really like Alexandra’s take on vampires and their world, as well as all the other paranormal entities that inhabit it. Another neat aspect of the story was that we didn’t find out what kind of demon the heroine, Darcy, was until the last half of the book. I loved trying to figure it out myself. I was wrong every time. lol.
If you’re looking for another contemporary/paranormal series to sink your teeth into, then you will love New York Time’s Bestseller Alexandra Ivy’s Guardians of Eternity!
hugs,
D
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