Filed Under (Book Giveaways) by Morbid Romantic on 30-06-2009 Post Word Count: 382 Page Views: 16 views All the ETC:
Here are the latest book giveaways I have come across in my travels through the world wide web. Whenever I see a book up for giveaway that I think sounds like a good read, I will post a link to the giveaway so that all of you, my readers, can go to the website and snag a chance to win for yourself. Below you will find cover images (clickable to their Amazon.com page), the name of the author, the name of the book, the link to the giveaway, and the date the contest ends. If you need any help or have any questions, feel free to comment.
If you are hosting a book giveaway and would like me to list it here, leave me a comment with the contest URL or send me an email at morbidromantic@gmail.com.
Win Rachel Vincent’s Prey at SciFiGuy.ca
Contest ends July 3rd
Win Carrie Ryan’s The Forest of Hands and Teeth at The Book Resort
Contest ends July 6th
Win James Scott Bell’s Try Fear at Sweeps4Bloggers
Contest ends July 7th
Win Mike Carey’s The Naming of the Beasts at Suzanne McLeod
Contest ends July 8th
Win Julia Hoben’s Willow at Sweeps4Bloggers
Contest ends July 9th
Win Rachel Vincent’s Shifters series at Fantastic Book Review
Contest ends July 17th
Win Donna Woolfolk Cross’s Pope Joan at Booking Mama
Contest ends July 17th
Win the Canada Day Giveaway at Today’s Adventure
Contest ends July 20th
Win Patrick Carman’s Atherton Trilogy at J. Kaye’s Book Blog
Contest ends July 25th
Win Nadine Dajani’s Cutting Loose at Jo-Jo loves to read
Contest ends July 25th
Win Branded by Fire by Nalini Singh, Seduce the Darkness by Gena Showalter, or At Grave’s End by Jeaniene Frost at Literary Escapism
Contest ends July 25th
Win Michelle Moran’s Cleopatra’s Daughter or Richelle Mead’s Blood Promise at Alaine- Queen of Happy Endings
Contest ends July 31st
Win Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost, or The Other Tudors by Philippa Jones at The Eclectic Reader
Contest ends July 31st
Win Blood Promise by Richelle Mead, Dreamfever by Karen Marie Moning, or The White Queen by Philippa Gregory at Royal Reviews
Contest ends July 31st
Filed Under (Contests) by Morbid Romantic on 29-06-2009 Post Word Count: 124 Page Views: 3 views All the ETC:
Okay, we have winners for the contest to win one of five copies of Made in the U.S.A. by Billie Letts…
The winning numbers are:
11, 12, 24, 74, 115
Winners:
Angela
Lee
Carla
Jennifer
Lily Kwan
I am going to email all of you now and request your addresses. Remember, no PO Boxes and no one from any country but the US and Canada. If you do not get my email and you are a winner, leave me a comment here or send me an email at morbidromantic[@]gmail.com. Please send me your address in 3 days or else I will have to choose a new winner in your place. I would like to thank the Hachette Book Group for the opportunity to give out this amazing book.
Filed Under (PPP) by Morbid Romantic on 29-06-2009 Post Word Count: 251 Page Views: 6 views All the ETC:
Summer is here and we all want to escape to some place relaxing and lovely, to get away and take a nice vacation, or use our time to visit family. I would love to hop on a plane this very second and visit my mother in Utah. Likewise, I know that my mother wants to come and visit in August, which means buying a round-trip plane ticket. Just the other day on the phone, we were talking about how much it will cost her to get a plane ticket and how prices are slowly, steadily rising. When we buy her ticket, we want to make sure that we get the very best deal. Neither of us wants her to spend any more than she has to.
There are a few ways to find good ticket deals online. Among them, airfare-now.com. I just took a look at the Airfare-Now.com blog and can best describe it as a resource of information that provides tips on getting good ticket prices, where to find good deals, and what to do to keep from paying a ton of money for a plane ticket. I have searched through their archives and have found excellent articles on saving money to go to Hawaii, the pros and cons of budget airlines, air travel codes and coupons, and internet purchasing tips. There is a lot of good information there that can help you when it comes time to plan your own vacation.
Filed Under (New Books) by Morbid Romantic on 29-06-2009 Post Word Count: 325 Page Views: 8 views All the ETC:
Everything Hurts by Bill Scheft
Letterman writer Scheft skewers physical and emotional pain with a mercilessly comic touch and a bit of poignancy. Phil Camp is an accidental guru who wrote a farcical self-help book under the name Marty Fleck as a joke—he swears—to pay off his divorce settlement. But years have passed, and people still read Fleck’s advice as if it’s the real thing. Phil, meanwhile, is limping into middle age with an excruciating, undiagnosable leg pain that his own self-help guru tells him is all in his head. Even while trying to lose the limp, woo his guru’s daughter, pour out his troubles in absurd therapy sessions and confront the antagonism he has with his right-wing radio talk-show host half-brother, Phil maintains his ability to quip and deliver one-liners. But more important, his journey to avoid bodily discomfort leads him to some less corporeal truths about his life—and a reassessment of Marty Fleck. Despite the book’s sometimes overly involved asides and flashbacks, Phil is a wonderful protagonist, and Scheft’s biting wit coexists nicely with the undercurrent of uplift.
In the Land of Cotton by Martha A. Taylor
Immerse yourself in this highly anticipated political docu-drama set in the Deep South amidst the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. Martha was a young white girl living in the Deep South, inundated with the racist sentiments of the times. But Martha’s natural curiosity and generous heart led her to question this racial divide. When she discovered a primitive Negro family living deep in the woods near her house, everyone’s life changed forever. Take the journey of a lifetime alongside Martha as she forges relationships that lead to self discovery and a clearer understanding of the world around her. In the Land of Cotton provides an outstanding snapshot of life in the South during those troubled times – a snapshot everyone should take a close look at, regardless of era or color. The year was 1956.
Welcome to Carolyn Jewel, who is here with us today at Morbid-Romantic.net while on her blog tour of My Forbidden Desire. I am fortunate enough to have her, and she even stopped in to answer a few questions! So, everyone say welcome and hello to Carolyn Jewel.
About Carolyn Jewel
When not writing, Carolyn Jewel is a Database Administrator. She lives in northern California with her son, three cats, a border collie, several chickens, and some sheep.
Alexandrine Marit is a witch in mortal danger. An evil mage craves the powerful, mysterious talisman that supplies her magic, and the only person who can keep her safe is a dark and dangerous fiend called Xia. With his fierce animosity toward witches, he’s hardly the ideal bodyguard. Yet as days turn into nights, she can’t deny the white-hot passion between them.
Xia hates witches. They enslave and mercilessly kill his kind. But he’s been ordered to protect Alexandrine, who, to his surprise, has a spirit he admires and a body he longs to possess. With the mage and his henchmen closing in, Alexandrine and her protector must trust the passion that can unite them…or risk losing everything to the enemies who can destroy them both.
Watch the trailer:
Look inside:
My Review of My Forbidden Desire
Alexandrine Marit is a witch who can barely form a spell, abandoned as a child by her powerful mage father Rasmus for having too little power. However, as a grown woman, what she does have is a talisman imbued with a power her father supposedly wants. So to protect her from her father and his league of fiends, her no longer long-lost adopted brother Harsh puts a fiend named Xia in charge of her protection. Xia is a powerful creature, the tall and dark handsome kind, but hates witches because witches enslave and kill his kind. He would like nothing more than to kill Rasmus with his bare hands, and watching over a witch who is also the daughter of Rasmus is a terrible fate for him. Neither of them trust each other, but slowly Alexandrine sees he is more than just a witch hating fiend, and Xia comes to see that she is more than just a witch. Especially when the two discover that maybe Xia needs to be protected just as much as she does. The closer they get to one another, the less they can deny the chemistry and physical attraction pulling at them.
Nothing like a good book full of magic and sexual tension to curl up with at night. I have a weakness for magic in books, though not only of the ‘witch’ kind. I think the various concepts of magehelds and blood-twins and such are very unique and give more layers to the story than your typical witch-meets-demon-and-they-do-magic-together kind of story. There is more potential for conflict and storyline when relationships are varied and complex. And though you know Alexandrine and Xia are going to end up getting hot and petty, the anticipation is tense and their mutual dislike is amusing.
Xia is the absolute bad boy type and women can’t get enough of men like him. In that way, he is charming but frustrating, but bad boys tend to be stubborn. And Alexandrine, darling, after all the things Xia did and said to you, you still thought he was going to abandon you at the end? Where is your faith, girl!? But hey, the story needed that last surge of drama, I suppose, and it was a great ending to see the two of them together but not sugary. After all, Xia is still a bad boy fiend and Alexandrine is still a ‘take no crap’ kind of girl.
Interview With Carolyn Jewel
What do you do to prepare to write? What is the process that gets you ready to sit down and lay out a story?
I sit in my chair or boot up my laptop if I’m not at home.
As for my process, I have learned that laying out a story in advance is a huge waste of time and fatal to my success in ending up with a book that anybody would care to read. That’s how it is for me. YMMMV (Your Mileage May Vary).
Not only am I a seat of the pants writer, but I am one of those character-driven authors. It does me no good to conconct elaborate plot charts or lists of goals and motivations before I start. (Believe me, I tried and failed at all of that planning stuff.)
My story develops in the course of writing about my characters. What they do on the page drives my plot. I do a lot of brainstorming in a notebook just to hash out ideas, possiblities and what-ifs so it’s not as if I start completely unprepared. And then, when I sit down to write, 98% of the time something completely different happens.
If I don’t pay attention to what’s happening in the story that’s actually developing on the pages and instead try to impose my will, I end up with dreck. So I don’t do that anymore.
How much of yourself do you put in your characters? Are they extensions of you, or are they independent creations that take on a life of their own after coming from your imagination?
To some extent my writing is an extension of myself — the thoughts and ideas, after all, come out of my head, and I have a certain set of experience, knowledge, politics etc.
If I were to write characters who were extensions of me, they would all be the same and that would be dull. I’m sorry to report that I do not live a life of thrill and excitement. My characters, however, frequently do. They constantly surprise me and I do my best to keep up.
What sort of research went into making this book?
Not a tremendous amount, since I was wise enough to set the book in places I used to live; San Fransicso and Berkeley, or places I was, for one reason or another, very familiar with.
The house in Tiburon is based on a multi-million dollar home that was once the subject of a lawsuit — at a time when I worked at a law firm. The house in Sausalito is loosely based on a house I knew of from a friend. The places where Alexander and Xia walk are all places I used to walk or run myself.
In my student days and beyond, I lived in crappy cheap apartments, so it was pretty easy to recall that experience when describing Alexandrine’s apartment. The only hard part was getting in contact with real mages and fiends to confirm my understanding of how their world works. Fortunately, I took pretty good notes.
What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you’ve picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?
The secret handshake, without a doubt. Kidding! I wish I’d known how important it is to stay in contact with other people who write, to be around people with the same obsessions.
What is one thing you’ve never done but would love to do?
I have never gone to Spain, and I would like to one day.
Finally, could you share with all of us a quote that you love?
How about one of my favorite poems instead?
Nothing is so fleeting as the cherry flower, you say.
Yet I remember well the moment when
Life’s bloom faded at a spoken word
And not a breath of wind had stirred.
- Tsuriyuki, 5th century.
Giveaway!!
closed
I have been given the amazing opportunity by Hachette Book Group to give out 5 copies of My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.
1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Add me on LibraryThing, Good Reads, or Book Blogs and leave a comment telling me where you’ve added me and (if you can), your username/name.
9.) Answer this question: What is your forbidden desire?
If you do all of the above, you will get nine entries. That’s nine chances to win.
Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on July 12th. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.
Participating Sites:
http://bridget3420.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://booksoulmates.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://ajourneyofbooks.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://debbiesworld.wordpress.com – June 28
http://yankeeromancereviewers.blogspot.com/ – June 28 giveaway
http://rannthisthat.blogspot.com – June 28
http://dreyslibrary.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review, giveaway, and Q&A
http://undercoverbooklover.blogspot.com/ – June 28 giveaway and Q&A
http://bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com – June 28
http://martasmeanderings.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://www.mgpblog.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://www.startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/ – June 28 review and giveaway
http://trinsnook.blogspot.com – June 28 review and giveaway
http://mustreadfaster.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review and giveaway
http://www.loveimpossible.com – June 29 review and Q&A
http://seductivemusings.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review and giveaway
http://reviewfromhere.com/ – June 29 review
http://booksandneedlepoint.blogspot.com/ – June 29 review; giveaway
http://mindingspot.blogspot.com/ – review, giveaway, and Q&A
http://reesspace.blogspot.com – review and giveaway
http://carolsnotebook.wordpress.com/ – June 29 review, giveaway, and possible Q&A
http://horrorandfantasybookreview.blogspot.com – June 29 review and giveaway
http://www.myspace.com/darbyscloset – review
Today I would like to welcome author, artist, and musician Jean Koning to Morbid-Romantic.net. He is here promoting his book Visions on America. It was a real pleasure for me to get to read his book since he is a pretty unique guy and I love people full of opinions. It proves the person is listening. For more information about Jean Koning, visit his personal homepage or the official !JP site.
About Visions on America
Visions’ is a collection of columns written for the e-zine The Noise. A surprisingly intimate portrait on life and every day politics, accomplished with a fierce manner of writing.
Inspired by his own research for the musical album ‘Notes from Purgatory’, Jean Koning digs deep into the well of his personal life and blends the stories he found there with his experiences and visions of the American Way of Life, to portray a whirlwind of emotion, anger and doubt.
Dipped deep in a cocktail of absurdity and melancholy, the swift stories are built upon the eagerness to achieve a deeper understanding in trends, hypes and the corrupt world of commercial art.
The stories’ subjects change as swiftly as the Dutch climate. From Amsterdam hookers to New York art openings and the ongoing war in Iraq. From the duality toward American lifestyles and Hollywood productions to Barbie and Ken in a setting of ironic perversity. From a heartfelt letter full of tips for Hillary Clinton to a remarkable talk show with Oprah Winfrey.
‘Visions’ is a humoristic approach of the life we lead today, with a huge comment made on worldwide politics. This is our planet today, with America as the prime suspect, Europe as the jury and Koning himself as the brutal judge.
Surprisingly enough, Koning doesn’t point a finger of blame at anyone without pointing that finger at himself first.
My Review of Visions
Visions: on America by Dutch artist Jean Koning is a collection of columns written for an e-zine called The Noise. Koning writes in a tone that is blunt, humorous, opinionated, and unapologetic. There is a little bit of everything discussed in the succinct little snippets of life that Koning writes: sex, drugs, commercial art, finger pointing, rap music, coffee, public transportation, war… Did I mention that there is also some Oprah, Tom Cruise, and Hillary Clinton mentioned? And, best of all, some mentions of The Smiths and Morrissey?
Though the subtitle is on America, the book is about a lot more than how non-Americans see America. The book is rather a reflection on life, the insight of one person who is without a doubt the culmination of personal experience. And it is refreshing and interesting to see the way that my culture, that of America, is seen by people in Europe. The opinions expressed are always amusing and never offensive, and maybe a bit pleasingly hedonistic, which we could all use a bit more of in today’s world where news reports of international conflict shake us to the core. It also speaks of human reservation and the limitations that we place on ourselves, sometimes for propriety, and sometimes just because we want to fit in. Koning questions what art is, what freedom is, and why we place so many restrictions on our nature for the sake of what we perceive to be the better good. Yet, ultimately, the book is just funny. If you are a patriotic American, maybe an extreme right-winger, you might want to shy away or calm down a bit before you pick this book up because it is not a kiss ass book or a series of articles about “what’s so great about America.”
I particularly loved the part about Tom Cruise’s Interview With the Vampire role being nothing more than a ploy for him to come out of the closet to Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas. If only, Koning, if only.
I hope to see you on Oprah soon.
Interview With Jean Koning
What do you do to prepare to write? What is the process that gets you ready to sit down a lay out a story?
It depends on what I’m about to write. When I try to write lyrics for my music, I usually have a theme of music that I write to. I try to make up a feeling or a story from the past that fits the music and start writing down just words and short sentences. That is such a different way to write than when I work on a novel. For a novel I think of the story. Once I think it’s a story worth writing about I make up characters. I try to develop the characters in the earliest stage. And once the characters have voices – this could take months, even years – the story tells itself. And then there are the columns. For “Visions” I wrote on the spot. Things happened in my life and I instantly wrote down a few notes. Later I developed these scribblings into the stories that are collected in “Visions”. It seemed at the time the best way to work, since I wanted to show America a little bit of instant absurdity. My life is quite absurd, you know, but usually I realize weeks after an event the amount of absurdity that tiny detail in my life allowed itself to grow into. (Do you catch my drift, here?!) For “Visions” I wanted to grab these moments and the feeling it gave me on the spot. In retrospect, perhaps the title should have been “Tales from the crazy dude on the street”, but who would buy that?!?
”Visions” is a collection of e-zine columns and I am curious to know how you see e-zines compared to other forms of media. What do e-zines have to offer that make them unique?
I think e-zines are a left-over from the underground scenes. And that’s exciting. I love the underground. I have lived there for many years. And there were these fanzines they used to put out there. I think e-zines in existence come closer to fanzines than to regular magazines. The exciting thing about that is that the e-zines are edited by those people who actually are topic-aficionados. I mean: an executive-economic-chairman with a passion for Mozart would never put out an e-zine about the necessity of punk-bands. He could do an e-zine about economics or the disastrous financial drama we woke up to. Or even Mozart. And he could attract readers who think alike. The downside of Magazines today is that they try to cover – like – the entire world. You can read about politics in “Vogue” and “NME” does fashion shoots with singers and bands. It’s all a huge melting pot of information. And e-zines seem to cover only one interest. In fact it’s a topic – on line life and e-zines and blogs and so on – I am working with right now. But that’s going to be something musical.
”Visions” is about life in America and the experiences of those in this country. If you had to sum America up in just one sentence, what would you write?
“Land of the free, home of the strange.”
How do you think people in the future will regard our present? What will they say we achieved or failed at?
This is an interesting question. I think – I hope actually – people will say we were selfish, stupid and numb. We have a close history of violence and warfare. The Second World War should be a school to our generation and the generations after us. But still there’s war everywhere, all the time. Instead of learning from our mistakes, we wasted time perfecting weapons. Instead of teaching our children that every life on this planet is valuable, we teach them to fight for their dubious governmental rights. This is also an interesting point for the internet generation. We now have the ways of mass-communication; the world we live in has never been so small. But we don’t know how to communicate. I love the saying: “You talk a lot, but you say so little!” I think that that one sentence sums up our generation. It’s all talking and little to no action. We all scream and shout that we want to end all wars, want to end all poverty, want to end all hunger, but no body actually does anything. We have achieved the communication but we failed at communicating. Do you still understand me?
I’ve looked around your website at all of your various projects and you’ve done a lot of stuff that would be considered edgy. Of course, a lot of people assume that this is for shock value only. What would you say to them? What do you try to impart on people through your art?
I would say: “I’m shocked that you think that way.” But honestly, there is not a lot I can say to them. It’s funny actually. Ever since I turned thirty, these mid-life-crisis-women – do you know them? The type of woman who turns fifty and suddenly starts to paint and visit gallery openings and Jean Koning concerts. Nodding to the tunes of the music – seem to understand me better than I understand myself. They find things I do suddenly interesting, but they voted against me ten years ago. The same women. And men, actually. I don’t think what I do is quite shocking. Sure, there is some nudity and sure I write a lot of f*ck*ng words, but it is all a form of art. It is my voice. I don’t want to shock people. I want people to understand that there are alternatives. It’s not all just Hollywood. I tried Hollywood once, but I had to bleach my teeth. That was enough for me. I smoke and I drink a lot of coffee. It is not possible to bleach my teeth. Not anymore. But European cinema is the place where there is a lot of nudity. Even in some theatre pieces I’ve done, they’ve asked me to go the full Monty. But it’s not different when I write. My words are also very naked. Hard, harsh and naked. But all of it comes from a good heart.
What is the most valuable piece of knowledge that you’ve picked up after becoming a published author that you wish you knew from the start?
“There is a thing called ‘genre’”. I wish I would have taken that one more serious. I wanted to blend and mix and cook with French recopies and Asian herbs, but no body likes that dish.
What writer or writers are your favorite(s)?
I love the Beat Generation. Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac.
What is one thing you’ve never done but would love to do?
I still would love to do a Hollywood film one day. But without the bleaching. And when Hollywood doesn’t accept that, I’d like to see how Steve Buscemi turns my latest novel (in Dutch only, but I’m hoping for a translation) into a film.
What would your ‘theme’ song be on the soundtrack of your life?
“Wild is the Wind” by David Bowie.
Finally, could you share with all of us a quote that you love?
Once upon a time I was in my favorite cinema, where I watched “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” and at some point the main character – forgot his name – played by John Cusack interviews the Lady Chablis and then she says: “My grandmother used to say: Two tears in a bucket, M*therf*ck it!” – I wish I wrote that line. That’s a lovely quote. And – this is not really a quote, but let’s be funny here – once I read someone’s T-shirt and it screamed “Do you want to have my abortion?” which I thought was fabulous.
Giveaway!!
closed
I have one copy of Visions on America by Jean Koning. There are a number of ways you can win this book, each good for one entry each. For each entry, leave me a separate comment. Also, make sure that you leave me a way to contact you if you win.
1.) Leave a comment below telling me that you’d like to win.
2.) Blog about this contest and leave a comment with the links.
3.) Add me on twitter (@morbidromantic) and Tweet this contest then comment with a link to the Tweet or your username.
4.) Stumble this giveaway or my main site and comment with your StumbleUpon username.
5.) Rate my blog at Blogged. Click here or find the graphic on the sidebar under ‘ranks.’
6.) Add my RSS reader here and leave me a comment telling me that you subscribe to my feed.
7.) Comment on any of my previous book reviews and leave me a comment telling me that you have.
8.) Answer this question: Do you love coffee?
If you do all of the above, you will get eight entries. That’s eight chances to win.
Winners will be selected on 11:59pm EST on July 3rd. I will be using Random.org to select the winner. When you win, I will send you an email asking for your physically mailing address, which you have 3 days to respond to before new winners are selected. No PO Boxes. This contest is open to the US and Canada only.
M.A. in History, B.A. in History. University history professor and certified social studies teacher. Graduated Summa Cum Laude. Greek- PKP, PTA, & GK. Not single.
I love to read and I love horror movies. The main focus of my entries will be about books, though I will write a lot about my personal life and I do review things other than books
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