Monday, December 31, 2012

Story Time


* Please add a line to the story and determine where it goes.

Rules

1.) Only write 1 to 2 sentences
2.) Keep it clean
3.) Have fun and spread the word so the story grows


Here's the story that has formed so far:

Awesome  people who have authored the story by adding lines so far:Sullivan McPig, Julie@My5monkeys, Susan Jane Bigelow, barmybex, Tiny Reverse Vampire, Man of la Book



Once upon a time in a time not that long ago there was a disturbance.


The cause of the disturbance was something that was well...truly disturbing.  In fact it was so disturbing that at first it was quite unclear what this disturbance was, because anyone who saw it was too disturbed to talk about it.


There  came a noisy unruly girl who demanded that all must obey her. She was the girl of the mayor and weird things did happen around her. Pigeons tap danced when she blinked her eyes and cockroaches would mimic her words when she spoke.  Lights would go off and babies would cry when she passed.


This  girl stood in the center of town, pigeons dancing, roaches waiting, lights flickering and babies crying all around.  She struck her umbrella on the cobblestones.  A hush fell over the town as purple sparks shot out of the tip of the umbrella and even the pigeons stopped their dancing and seemed to hold their breath.


As  the astounded masses watched a massive hole slowly appeared in the middle of the street. As the dust settled it was revealed...a giant staircase leading down to complete darkness and then a faint music started to radiate from its depths.


There was such a ruckus in the town and trying to make sure that all the citizens were fine. The music coming out of the hole had a mesmerizing sound that attracted all the citizens.  It was almost like children's music.


The girl grinned mischievously and whistled along with the music while she slowly descended down the hole.


The further down she went the louder the music echoed. A strange shift filled the air and a cold wind howled past causing her hair to flutter round her face, but it didn't distract her. As she confidently walked on some of the pigeons and cockroaches followed her, cautiously and trembling with fear and a sense of foreboding.


"Wait," a high, piping voice said, "there are dangers below!" One of the pigeons had spoken. This was not a terrific surprise to the girl, who did not pause in her descent." Stay above ground if you don't have the courage to follow me," she stated calmly." But I must go on. The faith of the town depends on this."


As  she kept traveling downward the tone of the music seemed to change and become more insistent.  Then in the distance a faint shimmering light appeared.


It glowed a dull purple at first, but then changed to a harsh, angry blue that pulsated like a frantic heartbeat that got more aggressive the closer the girl got to it.


The light was actually calling to her, and only her. She was different from everyone else in the town. It was her duty.


She  edged closer with her arm out in front of her. The blue light grew in intensity until she had to close her eyes against the glare, a warmth surrounded her arm from the light and she pulled in a satisfied breath and grinned.


As more of the light enveloped her, she felt the heat spread and her body began to hum with a sense of power.


Then in her mind she began to hear a whispering chant almost as if the power knew who she was and what she had to do.


The words and the music started to sync together and then she began to speak the chant, as she spoke the discordant words the light solidified into a wooden door which slowly began to open.


The light around the door frame was still so bright it cast shadows into the room, making it impossible to see what was in there.


She slowly peeked into the room and felt so cold that there must be something not of this world in there. She slowly found the bed and sat down on it.


Then out of nowhere a dapper looking man appeared.  He looked like a perfect gentleman, he even had a strange purple tophat on.  Though when you looked in his eyes there was no warmth to be found and his presence seemed to suck the warmth from the room.


The man seemed to be staring straight at her but there was no recognition in his eyes, just blackness. Then he opened his mouth to speak and she felt shivers shoot up and down her spine.


His voice seemed to freeze the very air and stop all sound when he said, "I know what you're here for."


Thinking this was her job and her job alone, she wondered if he was friend or foe.


She steadied herself because she knew that if she showed any fear that he might pounce and his true form would be revealed.  Her bag of tricks was pretty full though and she had the spark of an idea.


She remembered his particular fondness for word puzzles and taking a deep breath began reciting an odd sounding riddle.


In the middle of the chant he began chanting along with her, their voices rose and the atmosphere in the room grew even more tense.


The girl could have sworn she felt the very walls vibrating and the floor shaking, but she knew she couldn't stop now. If this was some sort of test she was determined to succeed.


When she finished the chant he stopped at the same time, then with a deep rumbling the floor fell away beneath them.


The pair tumbled down into the darkness, but for some reason neither one of them was scared.


They seem to fall forever, almost floating in the air. The girl held the man's hand, or was he holding hers?


The man was still chanting, while the pigeons were flying in circles around them. That is when the girl notices something that sent cold chills to her spine: the cockroaches mimicked him!


She thought everything was under control but those darn cockroaches really fouled things up.


The farther they fell the more weightless she felt and the air seemed to thicken and become colder.


The chanting continued, she glanced down and saw that they were falling quickly toward a rather large clearing that was surrounded by snow and something shadowy she couldn't quite make out.


Bracing herself for a rough landing the girl blew out a deep breath and got ready for impact. At least the snow would offer some sort of comfort, or so she thought.


The closer they got the more the view changed.  The snowflakes now seemed to be separating, darkening, and slowly but surely rising to meet them.


The girl closed her eyes in the hope she was imagining it, but when she opened them again the shadowy snow was still coming towards them and now it looked like a dark outstretched hand just waiting to snatch them both out of the air.


As the hand wrapped around them, they could feel the very breath being squeezed from their lungs. It wasn't really a hand, they had fallen into a canyon with ridges that looked like fingers. It got narrower the further down they were drawn, then they could feel something on their toes.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Top 5 Sundays - Movies You Are Dying For in 2013!

This feature was thought up by the awesome Larissa's Bookish Life
Rules:

1 - Write a post listing your TOP 5 choices within the theme I chose (or was chosen on a poll) for the week.
2 - Mention this Blog on the post and link back to it.
3 - Feel free to use the Features image
4 - After you've finished your post, add your link (of the post, not your blog's main page) to the Mr.Linky at the end of that week's post.
5 – If you don’t have a blog to post, just leave your list in the comments =)

Top 5 Sundays - Movies You Are Dying For in 2013!

A Good Day to Die Hard
Release Date: February 14, 2013

I can’t wait for this movie, I’m not even going to tell you how many times I’ve seen the first Die Hard movie.  It’s just a kind of perfect action movie where you have the whole concrete knowledge of who’s the bad guy and who’s the good guy.  It’s just a movie that you go in knowing that it’s going to be over the top.



Oz: The Great and Powerful
Release Date: March 8, 2013

I adore pretty much anything having to do with The Wizard of Oz.  I am looking forward to seeing things from the wizard’s point of view, plus just look at that poster (it looks pretty darn awesome.)



Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Release Date: August 16, 2013

I’m hesitant/excited about this movie.  The hesitation stems from the well in my opinion not so great first movie, it was just way too different then the books.  It was good on a bad movie type level but I wanted them to take it more seriously.  This one just has me crossing my fingers and hoping because it doesn’t even have to do much to be better than the first movie. :)  


The Host
Release Date: March 29, 2013

I read Twilight first but found that The Host was much more my kind of book.  The whole alien element is intriguing and the world where free humans are not normal was really a great read.  I highly recommend the book and hope that the movie is as cool as the book.


 
The World's End
Release Date: October 25, 2013  
   
Shaun of the Dead is one of my favorite movies so I’m pretty much excited for any movie that Simon Pegg is in.  It should be great to see where this movie goes with the whole end of the world scenario.      

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Weekend Read - Last Kiss Goodnight

This is a really interesting book so far.  It's told in two points of view that of Solo and Vika.  Solo seems to have quite a history but is quickly captured and now is caged as part of a kind of Otherworlders/alien sideshow/circus.  Vika, the owner's daughter has to take care of all of the captured Otherworlders.  She takes care of them because she's pretty much the only thing between them and death and she stays even though her father to put it nicely isn't the greatest guy.  I'm in the middle of the book now and can't wait to see what happens.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Oona's Top Books of 2012

Here are Oona's picks for the Top Books of 2012:

 1.  Cold Days - Jim Butcher book 13? in the Harry Dresden series.

2.  Steel's Edge - Illona Andrews - continuing The Edge series - urban/paranormal romance/fantasy

3.  Cast in Peril - Michele Sagara - The Elantra series continues.


4.  Kris Longknife; Furious -  Mike Shepard - again a series continues

5.  Fury's Kiss - Karen Chance

6. Path of the Sun: A Novel of Dhulyn and Parno - Violette Malan


7. A Tail of Two SKittys - Mercedes Lackey


8. Court Duel - Sherwood Smith


9. Banner of the Damned - Sherwood Smith


10. Echos of Betrayal:  Paladin's Legacy - Elizabeth Moon

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Oona Reviews - HERA, QUEEN OF GODS by T.D. Thomas

Hera, Queen of Gods by T.D. Thomas

3 out of 5 cute kittens

* Spoilers are highlighted like so :)

What do you do when you are Hera, Queen of the Gods, facing impossible odds?  Well, you rise to the challenge and you win at all costs, because you know, you’re Hera, Queen of the Gods.

In what may be T.D. Thomas’s first full length published work we meet Hera and a host of other Greek Gods.  The Gods are on the mortal plane attempting to locate and to free the three Fates who have been kidnapped by an unknown and nefarious enemy bent on destroying the gods and “unmaking” both the Heavens and the mortal world.

Hera, Zeus, Apollo, Athena, Artemis, Hermes and Demeter each take over a mortal teenager’s body – then set about finding the Fates.  They run into several monsters and challenges early on, and encounter an unusual and important teenager named Justin.  Justin is identified as a “Dreamer” – someone with the power to control his dreams in the reality known as “The Dreamlands”.  Because Gods don’t dream or sleep, they rarely visit the Dreamlands -- and the clues to the Fate’s disappearance leads to the Dreamlands.  

The action picks up from this point, building to the confrontation between Hera, the Gods that are left on the mortal plane, the monsters and the unnamed, unidentified nemesis.  As a side plotline Justin and Hera predictably fall in love and agonize about being in love with each other.

The start of the story is very slow and it drags a lot in some places.  Some judicious pruning of the text and action could go a long way to making this book move faster.  In some places the flow was choppy, and the pacing uneven.  Many extraneous details are provided.  On the other hand, the action scenes are very good and the prose surprisingly decent. Thankfully there is no hint of Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey level of writing here!

Although it is labeled as YA – it is not nearly as graphic or explicit and adult themed as many YA labeled books are (e.g. Twilight and the like). Some libraries might be tempted to place this in the Juvenile collection next to Rick Riordan and his Olympian series which it somewhat mimics.



An Oona Review

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A Very Merry Christmas 2012

 
Hope everybody had a happy holidays and or a great start to the week.  At the Bibliognome house we had a lot of fun today.  Had a great breakfast, opened presents, and later in the day went to see The Hobbit.


This is my favorite present from my sister.  It doesn't work or anything but still it's a 2 foot tall robot and that is freaking awesome.

This is actually a pencil made entirely out of graphite, it's supposed to last a really long time too.  This will probably be the only thing I write with when I go back to work.

This apprehensive looking gargoyle is a gift from my Grandma, the look on its face is kind of startling/mesmerizing at the same time.

I love this gnome lamp (it just looks so cool of of course I'm a big fan of both gnomes and books).  Now I just have to buy a light bulb for it. 

 Ninja Turtle Shot glasses = AWESOME

These are ruby slippers that are supposed to be part of a Dorothy Halloween costume but I liked them so much that my sister bought them for me.

Was very glad to get this from my parents because I really do have a horrible sense of direction and hopefully having this will help.  :)

Monday, December 24, 2012

Gnome Story - The Christmas Conundrum

Happy Holidays everyone.  Here's a special Christmas Gnome Story written by me and my mom:


There was a battle brewing.  The Christmas Gnomes and Santa's Elves were getting ready to have a rumble. This was happening because they could not agree on who made the best toys.  The gnomes thought they had the better toys because all their toys had pointed red hats but alas Santa's elves didn't put hats on their toys.  Santa's elves did not believe in hats, they wanted to show off their own glossy hair.  The gnomes though wanted to protect their hair.  Things weren't looking good at all until each group got mysterious invitations in the mail.

It was the yearly Christmas party for the gnomes and elves.  At the party there were party hats for everyone to wear.  It was tense at first but they worked out their differences at the end of the night when in celebration they all threw their hats into the air.  As they looked around they realized that hat or no hat they were all friends and would remain so.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

My Favorite Books of 2012

Favorite Books of 2012


I love this book.  The concept is so cool and if you are at all a fan of Star Trek then you will most likely adore it too.


This is an utterly unique book and the story goes in many unexpected directions.  It probably has the best use of multiple points of view too because every character is interesting/an integral part of the story.

So much awesomeness in this book.  The secrets revealed in this book are crazy and lead all the characters in quite interesting directions. This has a truly awesome reveal and the ending seems to be leading to an intense finale.


This book was fast paced and really entertaining.  A book set not too far in the future, a rather chaotic mix of personalities, and cataclysmic events leads to one intense situation after another. The ending is also one that makes me very eager to read the next book.

Overall I would definitely recommend this book especially if you like your vampires scary and your heroines awesome.  I know I'm definitely rabid for more. This book is full of the unexpected and is great at making vampires scary again.


I adore the characters and morbid sense of humor that this book has.  Its world and how it handles grim reapers is infinitely intriguing.  The whole view on death and the afterlife is fascinating really.

This series is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  I thought I knew what was going to happen next but then a pretty much 180 happens at the end of the book. It takes the whole magical feud story and makes you see both sides and just how complicated everything can get.

This has to be the funniest non-fiction book that I’ve ever read.  If you like Lawson’s blog/website then this book is a must buy. Just a warning: this book may just make you start laughing maniacally at inopportune times especially if you read in public. :)


This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you read it. The character of Seraphina has secret that just might save her world. This book puts a superb spin on dragons. It’s a story about fitting in that’s just told beautifully and from quite an interesting perspective.  I truly can’t wait to see what happens next in this medieval, magical, dragon filled world.

This book has an overwhelming palpable tension throughout.  The characters have always been fighters but in this book they gain more to care for and find out something extremely surprising about the Freaks.

There are as always plenty of laugh out loud scenes and some great continued character growth.  This book definitely feels like a turning point in the series.  The ending just leaves open so many options about what could happen next.


This book is dark, twisty, and just the right amount angsty.  The atmosphere and characters grab you right away and just never let go. Plus the ending, it’s one of those that kind of makes perfect sense for the book but still make you want to curse/shout at the same time.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

All I Want for Christmas - Book Edition

These are all the top 5 books that are I would love to receive for Christmas:

This is a striking new series with an awesome cast of characters and quite the interesting world.

A fantastical story that was so much fun to read, this is the kind of book that you want to reread over and over.

This is a superb book that puts an intriguing spin on dragons and this story is one that just draws you right in. 

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next to Cas and especially Anna since at the end of the first book she didn't exactly end up in a good place.

The first book in this series was really insane so I can't wait to see where this one goes.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Weekend Reads

Tiny Reverse Vampire is reading:

King of the Dead by Joseph Nassise 

Tiny Reverse Vampire is reading this book thanks to the publisher.  She really liked the first one and says this one is great so far.  


I'm reading:

The Journey Back by Priscilla Cummings

I'm reading this book thanks to the publisher.  It's kind of the second book in the series and I haven't read the first.  It stands alone really well though because you find out most of what happened in the first book Read Kayak in this one.  It's an interesting contemporary book about a kid who is really troubled (prison kind of troubled) and how he survives.