Musical Interlude: Three Days Grace

This week's Musical Interlude is from Three Days Grace. In honor of our shape shifting friends in so many of our favorite books I give you Animal I Have Become.



~Moonsanity

Series Review: Night Huntress Novels

Night Huntress Series
Author: Jeaniene Frost

Halfway to the Grave (Book 1)
One Foot in the Grave (Book 2)
At Grave's End (Book 3)
Destined for an Early Grave (Book 4)

Publisher: Avon
Available from Amazon

Summary: Half-vampire Catherine Crawfield is going after the undead with a vengeance, hoping that one of these deadbeats is her father—the one responsible for ruining her mother's life. Then she's captured by Bones, a vampire bounty hunter, and is forced into an unholy partnership.

Notes: The series should be read in order to really appreciate the plots in each book. I bought the books from Amazon and read them in order, including the shorts. I also recently won a signed copy of the first book from Jeaniene Frost's blog.

The Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost is the first series I read after discovering and reading the Twilight books last fall. Though I had been a huge fan of vampire and paranormal movies and television for a long time, I had never ventured into urban fantasy books. The horror, science fiction and fantasy genre are all favorites of mine, but somehow I had skipped over paranormal romance and urban fantasy. It was an entire new world for me. Where to begin? I remember seeing a quote that said the Night Huntress novels were like an R rated Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The idea of books with Joss Whedon humor, and maybe even vamps as sexy as Spike and Angel was too much to resist. I was not disappointed.

Jeaniene Frost has a wicked sarcastic sense of humor. Where she comes up with the scenes in her books is beyond me. She mixes action that keeps you on the edge of your seat, with romance that makes you grab the arm of your chair and hang on until you can stop holding your breath. I kid you not. When, and I so hope you do, read her books you will understand when I say that Chapter 32 of One Foot in the Grave is the stuff legends are made of.

I do want to caution certain readers about a few things. Jeaniene Frost pulls no punches on the violent world of vamps and ghouls. Also, there are erotic scenes in her books, but for me, they are part of Cat's life, her world. To NOT have scenes about her introduction to love and sex would mean we really wouldn't understand who she is. They aren't the focus of the stories however, but they are a part of them. I don't want to give any details, or spoilers. Part of the joy in reading the Night Huntress books is in the surprises, because there are many and they are HUGE.

Jeaninene Frost is not writing a series for young adults, I wouldn't recommend these to any one not of college age. To really get a feel for the series, read the first chapter of Halfway to the Grave here: http://www.jeanienefrost.com/halfway-to-the-grave.html .

~Moonsanity

A Teen's Tale #1: The Boy Who Forgot

Mike ran out the door after his brother Chuck on a dark, cold morning. They had almost missed the bus again, so they were running down the driveway before the driver slammed the door and drove off without them. Mike thought "Man, it is fricking dark out here. I can't see crap.". He tripped a couple more times, and finally sat down in his seat. As he sat there he realized it was quiet. It's NEVER quiet on the bus. What the hell was going on? He had his eyes closed because he was so tired. Finally he hears:

"Mike?" spoken softly by his brother Chuck.

"Yeah, what Chuck? I'm trying to nod off here, you know.", spit out Mike.

"Okay, but I have to ask you something. Where is your head?" he whispered.

"My head? What the hell are you talking about?" Mike yelled.

"You have no head. It's like it fell off your neck or something. Man, this is REALLY freaky." said Chuck.

Mike tried to open his eyes, and nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing. He slowly reached his hands up to where his head was suppose to be. Wait a fricking minute, he thought, "I was talking to Chuck wasn't I?"

"Chuck?" he whispered.

"Yeah, Mike, what?" he replied softly.

"You can hear me, so how I can be without a head?"

"Well, it's kind of weird, but I'm hearing you in my head."

"Oh."

He realized then that all he could hear was Chuck's "voice", but nothing else. No head. No Ears. No Head. No mouth. Damn, his mom was SO going to kill him.

"Mike, mom just called me and said I had to tell you something." whispered Chuck.

"Great. Was she mad?" questioned Mike.

"Well, she was actually giggling. But you know mom, she's always had a warped sense of humor.", Chuck answered.

Chuck snickered, but it had an edge of hysteria in it, as he told Mike:

"She wanted me to tell you, word for word that "I KNEW one day you would leave your head at home. Didn't I always tell you that you would forget your head if it wasn't attached? Now get your butt back home and let me attach your head to your body. Geesh, Michael, what am I going to do with you?"

Mike thought to himself, "Moms. Why do they always have to know everything? It really sucks."
Written by B. Hyde, inspired by her 15 year old.

Review: Some Girls Bite

Some Girls Bite: A Chicagoland Vampires Novel
Author: Chloe Neill
Trade Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade

Summary: Sure, the life of a graduate student wasn’t exactly glamorous, but it was Merit’s. She was doing fine until a rogue vampire attacked her. But he only got a sip before he was scared away by another bloodsucker—and this one decided the best way to save her life was to make her the walking undead.

I've been following Chloe Neill's blog for a little while now, but I hadn't been able to pick up her first book until last week. I knew it would be witty and entertaining, but I didn't expect it to be thought provoking. I'm not sure if the cover mislead me, or if it was something I may have read about the book along the way. Some Girls Bite IS witty, but it also has elements involving friendship, loyalty, family, love and desire. We meet the characters, make a few guesses and then find out we are SO wrong. I laughed a lot, but my heart also broke for Merit, and I was on the edge of my seat as her decisions were made. The author made her characters come alive for me.

Merit is her own person because she's had to fight against family expectations her entire life. Her grandfather, a retired cop, and her roommate are really her only emotional support. Her life is turned upside down, and shaken up like a chocolate malt, but without the malted goodness. Suddenly she's got vamps who want her body, her loyalty and her frig is stocked with bags of blood. She's not having a good time, and the surprises just keep coming.

I highly recommend Some Girls Bite for fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance. I can't wait to read the second book Friday Night Bites and see what happens to Merit and her friends next.

You can read the first chapter and a deleted scene here: http://chloeneill.com/sgb.htm

Chloe Neill's blog is a great read too. It's here: http://chloeneill.blogspot.com/

~Moonsanity

Our First Short Story

After writing non-fiction for over 20 years I wrote my first short story with the help of my partner in crime parenting and writing, my husband Chuck. We wrote it for the Zombie Romance Challenge from M. Jones, editor of The Random Eye. You can read An Affair to Dismember here.

This is the first time we've worked together and I was pleasantly surprised. We each contributed different things to the story, and liked what the other corrected and wrote. No whining, pouting or anger was involved in the finished product.

I hope you enjoy it, and if you have anything you think would have worked better in the story please let me know. It's a learning process for both of us.

Oh, here is a picture of Arch Rock, which is in our story:)


~Moonsanity

In My Mailbox: November 15, 2009

It was a party in my mailbox this week.

I won first place in the The Completely Out-of-Control, Over-the-Top Book Giveaway put on by Chris from http://www.stumblingoverchaos.com/! I was the first to be able to choose five books from her list and they came this week!

Bitten (Women of the Otherworld)
Minion (Vampire Huntress Legend, Book 1) by L.A. Banks
Through a Crimson Veil (Crimson City) by Patti O'Shea
The Iron Hunt (Hunter Kiss, Book 1) by Marjorie M. Liu
Rogue (Werecats, Book 2) by Rachel Vincent

I also received my copy of Cheating, Death by Teel McClanahan that I won as a First Reader on Goodreads. Here is a bit about the book:

When the walking dead fill the streets, who can cheat death? Who can survive? Featuring a zombie outbreak that devastates Denver, an indecisive adulterer, and a series of violent, disturbing, and perhaps even heart-rending events of the sort you'd expect when the dead rise up to eat the living, Cheating, Death is a roller-coaster ride through a horror show both of death and of the heart.

I also won a copy of the ebook The Dancing Dead by Grace Mahoney from Nicole Hadaway's FreE-Book Friday on her blog at http://nicole-hadaway.blogspot.com/. She does this every week so be sure to stop by.

I received a cool book from Paperback Swap. It's a trade paperback of:

Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta

Finally, I won the anthology Fantasy with stories from Christine Feehan, Sabrina Jefferies, Emma Holly and Elda Minger and it arrived this week. I participated in VampChix Halloween Vamp Bash in October, which as a blast!

I have my reading cut out for me this week, plus I finished a couple great books that I need to review this week.

For more more In My Mailbox fun drop by The Story Siren!

~Moonsanity

Musical Interlude: Coheed and Cambria

Coheed and Cambria is one of my favorite bands because of their sound, but also their originality. Their CD's are considered concept albums. The lead singer, Claudio Sanchez, has created a science fiction storyline which he's called The Amory Wars. It's partially published in a series of comics written by Sanchez and illustrated by a couple of different illustrators. This video is from the 2003 CD. I love the vampire theme!

Blood Red Summer from In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3:



~Moonsanity