Interview with Kelley Armstrong over at AmberKatz

AmberKatz has a very cool interview with Kelley Armstrong, author of the Women of the Otherworld, on her site. There's a chance to win a Kelley Armstrong book, too.

First Snow of the Season....Part 2

DH getting conned to help Lady K make a snow princess....And the finished snow princess....

First Snow of the Season

Lady K, being the blizzard baby she is, couldn't wait to get out in the snow. She was in her jammies and snowboots making snowangels in the back garden before the sun came up this morning....or at least its attempt to come out...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Cutting Hair the Lady K Way.....

Lady K is practicing to be a hairstylist...thankfully it's on her Barbies, not herself

These two girls used to have a lot of hair....
And now they don't......

Lady K and I at the Movies....Madagascar 2...You Do Gotta Move It, Move It!

Lady K and I went to see this today. O..M..G! Mindless, excellent FUN! Love the penguins, absolutely adore King Julien, as portrayed again by Sacha Baron Cohen. There is a funny luh-huv scene between Gloria, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Moto Moto (so sweet you gotta say it twice), as played quite huskily by will.i.am.
Don't get too wrapped up in a story, there is one, but it's practically superfluous to the characters. We will definitely be getting this on DVD and would probably go see it again at the show.

MOM MEETS HER MAKER - James Yaffe

Not a great cozy mystery, but a decently fun one. I liked the premise that the main character, David, is an investigator for the public defender in Mesa Grande, Colorado, but it's his mother who does quite a bit of the thinking about the cases he is involved in. David is smart, but his mom has more living under her belt, so has more street-Mom smarts.

The current case involves the son of a couple, the Meyers, who live in a house down the street of one Reverend Charles "Call Me Chuck" Candy. Reverend Candy has begun a campaign of Christmas with lights, loud holiday music to go with the decorations he has put up. To go with this, the crowds have begun driving by, honking, idling, leaving their trash in the yard of the Meyers. They have asked that the sound be turned off early enough for some kind of sleep, but Rev Chuck keeps it up until 1AM on the dot every night. The Meyers' son, Roger, is now accused of attacking the good Rev Chuck when he went to his house to plead his parents' case.

Then the Reverend Candy ends up dead on his living room floor and once again Roger is accused.

David goes to his mother's house pretty much every day for dinner and fills her in on each day's discoveries. She mulls over the information along with her other observations from various sources and helps David along with his investigation. David is doing the legwork and getting hit on the head from time to time and his mother helps along from her armchair. Very neat premise.
Crime is solved, the good guy goes free, the bad guy is caught. Not sure I will read more of this series, hard to find anyway. It was good for the A-Z Challenge.

Three twisty holiday beans....

Chance to Read a Good Interview With Carrie Vaughn and Win A Book

Amberkatz has a great interview with author of the Kitty...series, Carrie Vaughn. Get thee over there and tell them Vickie (IYamVixen) sent you.....it's a chance to win a book, signed copy of KITTY AND THE MIDNIGHT HOUR by Carrie if you haven't read the fab Kitty series or winning the pre-ordered copy of her latest.
Okay, off you go!

J A Konrath's Top Ten Reasons Why Books Are Better Than Sex

This is outstanding!! J A Konrath has his list up....so to speak....you have to see this!! Thank you, sir!

UP JUMPS THE DEVIL - Margaret Maron

This is one of my favorite series. An especially strong female lead character, Judge Deborah (don't call me Deb) Knott. She is the daughter of a former moonshiner, sister to 11 brothers and a local judge who finds herself in the thick of investigations, usually of the murderin' kind.

This one has Deborah's past coming up to bite her in the butt and she's none too happy about it. She is also none too pleased that developers continue to buy up the area for a variety of housing neighborhoods, slowly encroaching on her once peaceful life.

Murder comes along pretty quickly in the book, within the first 20 pages and the story moves fast.

Four southern beans....

BIG CITY BAD BLOOD - Sean Chercover

I had my own voice-over in my cranium while I read this one. It really has the feel of a hardboiled crime novel and it needed a voice-over telling me the gritty story. I had gravelly-voiced (in the yummiest way) Sam Elliott doing mine....get your own....

Ray Dudgeon was a newspaper guy who became disillusioned after having an expose of his turned down by the powers that be. He turned in his keyboard and notepad and took up his overcoat and gun and became a private investigator. He is hired by a movie company to protect their locations guy who got himself on the wrong side of the Mob, or the Outfit as it is known in Chicago. Ray discovers more than he ever wanted to know about all sides of the Outfit, Hollywood, people in the course of the job.

Superbly gritty read.

Four noir beans....

TWO PLAYS FOR VOICES - Neil Gaiman

TWO PLAYS FOR VOICES confirms my belief that Neil Gaiman is one of the best authors ever. I don't care what he takes on, he freakily shines.

Neil wrote this for SciFi Channel and Seeing Ear Theatre. The two stories are also in SMOKE AND MIRRORS (which I am on my way to add to Mt Git'r'Read).

SNOW GLASS APPLES, primarily narrated by Bebe Neuwirth, is the first story and is a fascinating telling of the fairy tale Snow White. There is the Queen, Snow White, some dwarves in the woods...except the Queen is misunderstood and nice and Snow White has an unnatural taste for blood.

MURDER MYSTERY, primarily narrated by Brian Dennehy, is set in heaven before anything we know has been created. In fact, angels are working on creating everything. The Angel of Vengeance, Raguel, has the prime mandate to find the first murderer.

Four noir beans....

BLACK WIDOW - Randy Wayne White

This was my second audiobook in this series by Randy Wayne White and it was just as good as the first I listened to also the first in the series. BLACK WIDOW is #15 in the Doc Ford series. This is usually when a series author would rest on his or her laurels, but Mr White ab-so-tively did not do any resting here.

Doc Ford is tasked to find the blackmailers who are after his niece, Shay. Someone filmed his niece and her girlfriends on the Caribbean island they were visiting for her bachelorette party that went a little wild. The blackmailers now want big money or they will tell all and it won't be pretty. Shay is set to marry big money and this definitely won't go over well.

Doc Ford goes to the island and finds the blackmailers and more.

A definite good listen or read.

Four voodoo beans....

Read Your Own Books 2009 Challenge

Completely do-able challenge for me in 2009, even though I swore I was going to limit my challenges in the coming year. Head on over MzB Challenges You to get in on the action.

Happy Birthday to Me!

My Birthday cake

My age......

THE WITCH IS DEAD: An Ophelia and Abby Mystery - Shirley Damsgaard

This is another series I keep meaning to get to, then forget to look for. I have no idea why, especially when I read one of them. I meant to read them in order, but I don't think I missed anything by reading this one before #2, #3 and #4. It did whet my appetite to go book shopping in the near future....

Ophelia is the town librarian and is better coming to terms with her powers as a witch. She is also excited about her soon to be status as a mother to Titania, or Tink, a teen she met in a past book. She is guiding Tink in her growing powers as a medium.

There is body snatching, people who are not as they appear, and a nutty aunt who is in town for a visit and wants an adventure. All as a good cozy mystery with a paranormal lean should be.

Four paranormally cozy beans....

DECEPTION PASS: A Thomas Black Mystery - Earl Emerson

This one is a little rough around the edges, but I like the main characters, Thomas Black and his wife Kathy. I will look for more of the series, especially the first one just because of these two. I especially loved the interplay of their relationship.

Thomas Black, PI, is hired to look into whoever is blackmailing uber-rich Lainie Smith. This would all be in a day's work for Black, but Lainie wants him to find out who is blackmailing her, but not enlighten him over what the blackmail is about.

There was another thing I liked, there wasn't much black and white. There were shades of grey all over the book. Everyone was shades of grey-ish good and bad.

Three rough around the edges beans....

THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE: COMPLETE PROTECTION ROM TH LIVING DEAD - Max Brooks

THE ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GUIDE reads exactly like a how-to guide in the event of a zombie infestation. Should a George Romero movie ever come true, this is the guidebook to have at your side. It will be dog-earred, creased, smudged, and well used.

What I learned:
~Best place to hole up: Military bases and oil derricks at sea
~Best way to kill the undead: take off the heads
~Best way to evade: stay quiet and keep moving and stay alert and um...stay away from the teeth....
~Best grooming habits for you: tight clothes and short hair keeps them from getting a handful and jerking you close for bad chompin'

Very much looking forward to reading the next one on my Max Brooks lineup, WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR.

Four skanky (in a good way) undead beans...

FEAST OF FOOLS: Book 4 MORGANVILLE VAMPIRES - Rachel Caine

HOT DAY-UM! I swear, this series just gets more amazing with each volume.

There's a new vampire in town and he's an even bigger evil badass than all the others combined. Mr. Bishop's also the father of Amelia, the Founder of Morganville, so you know he's honkin' ancient and powerful.

All in town are to swear fealty to the sinister old guy in town and there's still the cure for the taint that is causing the old vampires to go mad after so many years. It's caused Amelia to put a stop to making new vampires until the cure is found. It's what's helped keep the balance (as much balance as can be in the town of Morganville), so what is going to happen to the status quo if the cure is found.

Then there's the relationships of the four in the Glass house. Claire and Shane are still in teen love. Shane being a gentleman, and Claire being 16, has put a halt to anything further than some heavy smooching. Claire is really wishing Shane wasn't so much the gentleman....but respects him for the person he is....just wishing 17th birthday would hurry up and get here.

Eve and Michael are massively enamoured and are old enough to act on it. Shane is coming to grips with Michael being a vampire now instead of the ghost of the house.

OH, and there's the arrival of another set of parents....Claire's mom and dad move to town!

Claire is hard pressed to decide which of all of the above is the most mind-numbingly stressful.

I will read anything Rachel Caine writes! She left me hangin' at the end of FEAST OF FOOLS and I didn't even get mad. I just want her to write faster!!!

Five smokin' hot beans!!

Lady K-ism of the Day

"You know what? Daddy would be happy if I'm a bad girl cuz Santa brings me coal instead of presents for Christmas. Daddy could start the fireplace with the coal. That makes him happy, right?"

MURDER AMONG NEIGHBORS: 1st KATE AUSTEN MYSTERY - Jonnie Jacobs

This is one of the most refreshing cozy mysteries I have read in a very long time! I almost didn't read it as I have been meandering away from cozies lately. October can do that when I start reading pretty much only paranormal.

Then there was the sudden realization that I was falling behind on Joy's A-Z Challenge and I scurried to Mt Git'r'Read to see what was on my shelf to fulfill some of the authors and titles I was missing....and there was Jonnie Jacobs (J author) MURDER AMONG NEIGHBORS. Whew! And I quickly read it.

Kate Austen is a wife of a man who is off 'finding himself' in Europe and mother of a five year old. They live in an affluent San Francisco 'burb of Walnut Hills. She isn't among the affluent, they just got a good deal on the house. She isn't part of the set who live in the neighborhood, but she knows the moms of the toddlers who go to her daughter's pre-school. She is friends of sorts with one or two of the women. One of whom, Pepper, is found dead in her bedroom. The mystery begins.

Kate meets a dreamy detective Michael Stone in the course of the investigation. Kate finds herself helping even Detective Stone isn't overly thrilled to have her assistance.

They do find themselves drawn to each other, one unwillingly and one full steam ahead.

This does all work as a good book. I was pleasantly surprised. Most times, cozies can seem forced, but this one moved along quite naturally...

Four cozy beans...

X-RATED BLOODSUCKERS - Mario Acevedo

Hot DAMN! I would love to meet Felix Gomez, vampire private eye supreme, if only for a wee nuzzle....yum....

Felix is hired by a porn star to look for the killer of a dead other porn star. He meanders out to LA to not so much meet and greet, more so to search and destroy.

He does meet some interesting creatures, human and inhuman alike on his search for the killer. There are vampires who are following the rules and those in power who are breaking them.

My favorite character, besides Felix, is Coyote. He has been around the block a time or a few hundred and is a delight in all his ickiness. He is a character and helps Felix when he needs it.

I still have to get myself over the parts of the meals they ingest. Not so much the blood sucking, that's par for vampire course. Nope, the menus that give me the *shudder* factor are burritos with red sauce..the red being blood, the coffee mixed with blood, SCONES dipped in blood....GACK!

The rest of the story, dialogue, characters are all fab!

Four blood sucking beans....

Lady K-ism of the Day

"You know what I am thankful for? I've been thinking about it before Thanksgiving. Is it okay to be thankful before Thanksgiving? I am thankful for the food we have to share, that I have a nice Mommie and Daddy, a nice warm home. Now pass it one, please. Okay?"

BONES IS BACK!!!

YaY!! .....be quiet, Mommie's watching Bones....

BLUEGATE FIELDS - Anne Perry, BOT, narr Davina Porter

I like Anne Perry at times, enough to listen to or read from time to time. Not in a hurry to listen or read another in the near future. I put this one on my wishlist because one of my favorite narrators, Davina Porter, was the voice for the characters. I adore her work and I like Anne Perry, so I gave it a try.

Anne Perry does great work portraying the ways and means of Victorian times. Or at least as I would imagine they would be. Stuffy on the outside and teeming with intrigue on the inside.

Inspector Thomas Pitt is given the case of finding the killer of a young man found naked and dead in the sewers of Bluegate Fields. What was the body of a young man of what looked like good means doing in a place of such squalor and poverty?

Pitt's investigation is hampered by both his superiors and the closed mouth, protective attitude of the upper class families he questions. His wife, Charlotte, takes up the banner and makes her way into society with her well married sister to ask questions of her own.

I think it will be a littel while again before listening or reading Anne Perry again. I will do so, it just takes a while before I can make myself read and/or listen to the tales of that time. It is aggravating, irritating, frustrating for me as I hear how things are handled or mishandled, withheld or grudgingly let go all because of the society of the time.
Three frustrating beans....

OCTOBER READS

BONES TO ASHES - Kathy Reichs, BOCD, decently full of co-ink-i-dinks

HOMINIDS - Robert J Sawyer, MPB, wonderfully fresh, looking forward to the rest of the trilogy

THE GLASS HARMONICA - Louise Marley, MPB, superb!

ANGEL AT TROUBLESOME CREEK - Mignon F Ballard, MPB, cute cozy

BLOOD DRIVE - Jeanne C Stein, MPB, SUPERB!

THE MEDIATOR: SHADOWLAND - Meg Cabot, MPB, Excellent

DRAGON'S KEEP - Janet Lee Carey, BOT, very very good

EVEN VAMPIRES GET THE BLUES - Katie MacAlister, MPB, funky good

LIGHT MY FIRE: AISLING GREY Novel - Katie MacAlister, MPB, FAB!

WIDDERSHINS - Charles De Lint, TPB, Amazing!

BECAUSE YOUR VAMPIRE SAID SO - Michele Bardsley, MPB, cute hot sex vamp book

WHERE MEMORIES LIE - Deborah Crombie, BOCD, very very good

DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY - Terri Garey, MPB, super good and definitely look for more

DEMONS ARE A GHOUL'S BEST FRIEND - Victoria Laurie, MPB, scary good

CORALINE - Neil Gaiman, HB, amazing as only Gaiman can write 'em!

12 books
3 audiobooks
117 for the year

What's In a Name Challenge 2

Hey, I found my first challenge for 2009. It was way fun this year and I look forward to it in the new year....here's my link on my challenge blog. I'm still working on my titles...just heard about the challenge redux today....

R.I.P III Challenge Complete!

THE GLASS HARMONICA - Louise Farley (Oct)
ANY GIVEN DOOMSDAY - Lori Handeland (Sept)
SEVEN SPIDERS SPINNING - Gregory Maguire (Sept)
FOOL MOON - Jim Butcher (Sept)
BECAUSE YOUR VAMPIRE SAID SO - Michele Bardsley (Oct)
WIDDERSHINS - Charles De Lint (Oct)
LIGHT MY FIRE - Katie MacAlister (Oct)
EVEN VAMPIRES GETT THE BLUES - Katie MacAlister (Oct)
SHADOWLAND: THE MEDIATOR - Meg Cabot (Oct)
BLOOD DRIVE - Jeanne C. Stein (Oct)
CORALINE - Neil Gaiman (Oct)
DEMONS ARE A GHOUL'S BEST FRIEND - Victoria Laurie (Oct)
DEAD GIRLS ARE EASY - Terri Garey (Oct)

HALFWAY TO THE GRAVE - Jeaniene Frost

Can I get a YOWZAH??!! Holy Schmokes this was a good 'un! I so cannot wait for the next in the series. Seriously tough action, excellently hot characters...and the sex scenes...whooftah!

Catherine 'Cat' Crawfield is a half breed, half human, half vampire. Her mother was raped and bitten by a vampire and Cat is the result of that union. Her mother hates all vampires and Cat has been on a mission to kill all vampires....until she meets Bones. He is about to become dust, but strikes a bargain and becomes her trainer and partner in the killing of bad killer vampires, in exchange for helping Cat find the man who is her father so she can kill him for her mother.
And did I mention the sex??!! Hot-cha-cha!!!
Bones and Cat...what a match!


Four holey schmokes beans....