• 934 and counting …

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    One thing I have to catch up on is all the books that I’ve read while the blog has been on forced hiatus. So forgive me if the reviews are a little shorter than usual for a while.

    Finished Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. This is the first book in her hugely popular Vampire Academy young adult series.

    The book focuses on Rose, a half-human/half-vampire who’s training to become the guardian/protector of her best friend Lissa, a mortal vampire princess. The book follows Rose as she and Lissa deal with all sorts of things — cute boys, mean girls, and someone who seems to have it in for Lissa.

    I really, really enjoyed this book. Mead packs so much in here — everything from friendship to depression to survivor’s guilt — and she does it really, really well. It’s a lot deeper than some of the YA that I’ve read, but it’s also fun too — which is a hard balance to achieve. There’s also a twisty mystery about who the bad guy is and romance for both Rose and Lissa.

    This is definitely one of the best YA books that I’ve read in a while, and I’ll be reading the next one in this series — just as soon as I whittle down the TBR pile a bit. 😎 

    Big thumbs up.

    Up next: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

    Books in my TBR pile: About 25.

    What about you guys? What have you been reading this summer? Share in the comments.

  • Titles, titles everywhere …

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    So, while the site has been down, some more stuff has happened with the Elemental Assassin series.

    I have titles now! Huzzah!

    If you guys remember, the first book is going to be called Spider’s Bite. Book 2 is going to be called Web of Lies, and Book 3 will be titled Venom.

    Pretty cool, huh?

    Hopefully, I’ll get the okay to share the awesome cover art from Spider’s Bite soon … 😉

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    Nicholas Sparks …

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    So I did something kind of cool Saturday — I got to hear Nicholas Sparks speak. Sparks is the mega-popular author of books like The Notebook and Message in a Bottle (both of which have been made into movies).

    One of my local libraries has an endowment to bring authors/speakers to the area, and he was their big draw this year. An interesting note: the library paid him $25,000 to come in, go to a luncheon, and do a talk at one of the local arts venues — all of which added up to about 4 or 5 hours’ worth of his time. Nice work if you can get it. 😎

    Sparks was very personable and told a lot of funny stories about his kids and his dog. He also gave some insight as to how he came up with the idea for The Notebook and his other books. Many were family stories or tragedies.

    For example, his wife’s grandparents and their love story was the inspiration for The Notebook. His dad finally learning to love again after his mom’s death and his dad then dying in a car accident was the inspiration for Message in a Bottle.

    Overall, Sparks was a good speaker with a lot of interesting antecedotes. Next year, I hope the library brings in someone just as well-known and entertaining. I’d love to hear John Grisham speak or Lisa Kleypas or a dozen other authors …

  • Quick hits at the movies …

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    So Wheezley and I have actually been to the movies a couple of times already this summer. Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

    X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Just average. The story was okay, but I don’t know, it just didn’t have the spark that some of the other X-Men movies have had. That being said, there was a lot of man candy to look at (I had no idea Ryan Reynolds was so buff!), and I did like the fight scene with Wolverine and Gambit (Taylor Kitsch from Friday Night Lights).

    But I didn’t really care about the love interest or the whole Sabretooth-brother plot. And, as Wheezley pointed out, there were a few too many scenes of Hugh Jackman screaming at the heavens. And the CGI at the end wasn’t that great. (Was that really Patrick Stewart?) Overall, just meh.

    Star Trek: It totally rocked. I’ve never seen a single episode of the TV series or any of the movies, so I’m not really a Trekkie at all. But I thought the movie was excellent. It was a really well-done origin story that had a lot of things in there for the fans and non-fans alike (I loved Bones chasing Kirk around the ship and giving him shot after shot).

    The time-travel storyline made my head hurt a little, but then again, it always does. It was nice seeing Zachary Quinto in a non-Sylar role, and Chris Pine did an excellent job as Kirk. Overall, it was everything a summer movie should be — smart and fun with some cool effects.

    Terminator Salvation: It sucked. I didn’t have high hopes for it, but it was just not good. I think one of the main problems was just the lack of any kind of humor or lightness whatsoever. That’s what made T2 and T3 so entertaining. Yeah, the world was ending, but Arnold still had some funny lines along the way. T4 was just … depressing. And again, the time travel stuff made my head hurt.

    And how many people have to die before folks realize that maybe getting into a car/plane/helicopter/whatever with Christian Bale will lead to their untimely demise? Just a thought. Everybody who got in any kind of moving vehicle with him ended up getting shot down or eaten by killer water robots.

    So there you have it. My take of the summer movies so far. What about you guys? What movies have you enjoyed this summer? Share in the comments.

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    Elemental Assassin updates …

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    Well, the good news about the blog being down so long is that quite a bit of stuff has been happening with the Elemental Assassin series, which means I have some news to share.

    The biggest is this — the books are now going to be published in mass market format. Huzzah! 😎

    I cannot tell you how excited I am about this move to mass market. Given the craptastic economy, the cheaper format will mean that the books are much more affordable for folks — $6.99 or $7.99 versus $14 or $15 for a trade paperback.

    The release schedule is still the same — Assassin 1 in February, Assassin 2 in June, and Assassin 3 in October. Since the books are going to be released in the mass market format, they will actually hit shelves a week early, which means that Spider’s Bite, the first book in the Elemental Assassin series, will now be out on Jan. 26, 2010. Not that I’m counting down the days or anything … 😉

    Also, in the last month, I’ve done copy edits for Spider’s Bite, revisions on Assassin 2 (title still to be determined), and I’m getting revisions on Assassin 3 from my editor this week. So stuff is finally starting to happen on the production end of things.

    Oh yeah, and I’ve started writing Assassin 4 too, just in case my publisher wants more books in the series (which I hope they do).

    Anyway, that’s what’s been going on with me and my books. What have you guys been up to while we’ve been on forced hiatus? Share in the comments.