Have a Happy and Safe Halloween

I hope that whether you are hanging out with the kids or having grownup fun tonight, I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween.

Prom Night

I had never seen this movie before so when I saw it a store for $5 I snatched it up and figured even if I only watched it once it was still cheaper then going to a movie. So I brought it home and let it sit around for a few days and almost forgot I bought it.

Well the other night I was cleaning up a bit and found the DVD amongst a few books so I figured why not watch it. I didn't get around to it until I was ready for bed so I put it in my portable DVD player, put the earphones in, and enjoyed a wonderful 80s movie.

The opening scene has the creepiest game of hide and go seek that I have ever seen. These kids are playing in a abandoned building and the seeker yells out "The killers are coming, The killers are coming". It's shot wonderfully and has the perfect sense of menace to it. Well needless to say one kid meets the end of her life and the others swear themselves to secrecy.

Skip ahead 6 years later and the older sister (Jamie Lee Curtis) of the dead girl is dating one of the kids who caused her death and they are getting ready for the Senior Prom. One by one they are getting rewarded for their past behavior.

I figured out who the killer was pretty early in the movie despite a red herring that is fed to us on a silver platter. Half way through the movie I began to doubt myself and shift the blame to someone else but that quickly went out of my head and I became convinced I was right the first time.

If you like cheesy 80s slasher/horror movies (the way I do) then this is a must see. Try to get to it before Halloween if possible, that way your brain is already wanting to be scared.

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Four Hamilton High School seniors have been hiding the truth of what happened to ten-year-old Robin Hammond for six long years. But someone saw what they did ans i preparing for revenge--a prom night killing spree. Hooded, masked, and wilding an axe, he'll stalk his prey in the dark, empty halls, striking when his victims are alone. And just as the spotlight falls upon the newly crowned king and queen, the killer will show everyone what his favorite game to play is...

Baltimore Woman First 'U.N. Citizen Ambassador' from U.S.

The Baltimore Sun reports:

The United States' first and only United Nations Citizen Ambassador lives in an apartment above her father's garage in Catonsville with a couple of Persian cats, a few sticks of furniture, cameras and several computers. She doesn't have a car, so there's no way to know if the customary diplomatic parking privileges will apply, nor do lavish cocktail parties appear to be in the offing.

Still, Emily Troutman cannot help seeing her new status as an opportunity to take her international pursuits to another level, and that is apparently reward enough.

"I have the ear of the U.N.," said Troutman, one of five winners of the first and just-completed Citizen Ambassador video competition, and the only one in the United States.

For a few years now, Troutman - a graduate of Catonsville High School with a master's degree in public policy from the University of Minnesota - has been traveling, taking pictures and blogging about her experiences. She drew on that experience to create a three-minute video in response to a U.N. call for submissions last month that took the form of a question: If you could speak to world leaders, what would you say?

U.N. public information officer Einat Temkin said the contest builds on the partnership the organization established with YouTube a year ago in an effort to "engage young people with the work of the U.N." [...]

At 30, Troutman is the oldest of the five winners, who also include two men and two women from Canada, Mexico and Brazil. The five - whose videos were selected by a panel of six U.N. judges from 477 initial submissions - gathered at U.N. headquarters in New York last week to briefly meet Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and to attend the annual U.N. Day concert dedicated this year to the organization's 115,000 peacekeepers.

As the Citizen Ambassador is a new creation, Troutman said the role is still being figured out.

"They're hoping that we're going to be able to spread the message" of global citizenship through online media, she said, adding that she hopes her success in this contest will expand her opportunities to travel. In the meantime, she plans to head back to the Congo in December, dismissing concerns about safety.

"It's hard to go anywhere if you're afraid," she said.

Congratulations to Emily Troutman.

Foundation by Mercedes Lackey

This book came out a while ago and I always meant to pick it up every time I went to the bookstore. Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors and her Valdemar books are amongst my favorite books of all time. So when this book came out I was so excited that I started bouncing in my chair as I was reading about it. Then life set in and I didn't pick up until recently.

This is the first book of a series that takes place between the Last Herald Mage trilogy (my favorite) and the stand alone book, Burning Brightly. Now for those of you who aren't familiar with the Valdemar books that probably won't make much sense to you. Just know that it takes place before most of her other Valdemar books.

The book takes place while the new Heralds Collegium is being built along with a new Bardic and Healer Collegiums. The main protagonist is a typical example of what can be found throughout the Valdemar books. Mags is a young man who has been living, working as a virtual slave in gem mines. The description of his daily life is monstrous and this causes you to take an instant liking to him. Well that and the fact that he is generous and kind without thinking about it. That he in very small ways tries to look out for the younger children and thinks about others more than most kids in his situation would.

The rest of the story is typical (by which I mean wonderful) of these books. Young man is Chosen by one of the wondrous Companions to become a Herald in the service of Valdemar (the kingdom they live in). The young Herald Trainee goes to Haven (capital city) to start training and is caught up in a situation that tests their skill and courage. I say typical because this is the way a lot of the books start. There is a reason for it though, it works for the type of characters that Heralds are. Heralds have to be tough, resilient, and kind. Now not all the Heralds come from a miserable background but would that make a good story?

I'm looking forward to the next book in the series as I always love to read the history of a Kingdom I want to live in, about the Heralds I want to be like, and about right trumping wrong.

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Mags had slaved at the gem mines for as long as he could remember, completely unaware of how unusual his paltry existence was--until some strangers on huge white horses forced their way past the mine owners and carried him away to Haven to become a herald Trainee.

Suddenly the whole world opened up for him. He was warm and well fed for the first time in his life, and he had Dallen, his Companion, who seemed more miraculous than an angel. There was political upheaval in Valdemar's capital, for the ancient was of training heralds--the system of one-on-one mentoring that had been successful for centuries--was failing. Many veteran Heralds had died in the wars, and there were too many Trainees to go around. A Herald's Collegium was being built, and many thought it was wrong to train Heralds in classrooms the same way the Bardic and Healer Trainees were schooled. But dissent among the Heralds was not the only discord in Haven, for the court had been infiltrated by foreign "diplomats," who seemed to be more interested in seeding discontent than in actual diplomacy...and Mags seemed to be the only one who'd noticed...

Word Verification Balderdash

Word Verification Balderdash is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey Through a World of Books.

Here is what you do. You write down all the word verifications you come across as you are posting comments on other people's blogs. You then play Balderdash with them. Now for those of you who don't know how to play, you take up a made up word and come up with an authentic sounding definition for it. Do this for a week and then post your bests ones on Thursday.

Here are mine for this week:

Veeder: Wild vines that grow throughout the woodlands of South Carolina and Virginia. They can be identified by their brown stems with heart shaped green leafs that are speckled with purple spots. The only other way to identify them is when you accidentally walk through a rather large patch of them and find yourself trapped amongst their stems. Of course that won't do you much good because once you are trapped you can never get out and you will find yourself being slowly consumed to feed the carnivorous vine.

CawCaw: Small, annoying black birds that never seem to shut up. Their cawing can get so loud at times that small babies and the elderly will find blood oozing out of their ears and will experience horrible headaches that last for days.

Pligger: Genetic crossbreeds that were created by overly full of themselves scientists in a secret lab that should be bombed out of existence. They are a horrible cross between pig, lion and tiger. They have the snout and forelegs of a pig, the mane and body of a lion, and stripes and back legs of a tiger. They were made to be front line soldiers in the upcoming Cross dimensional Wars. They were found to be uncontrollable and all know specimens have been destroyed. Of course there is always the chance they weren't all found.

Blockmon: Ancient Aztec guardians that were used to secure temples and royal palaces. They were composed of large blocks of stone stacked on top of each other. They bore the crude outline of a human but were 15 times the size of an average adult male. They were normally armed with large stone spears but they were not necessary as they were more than capable of simply stomping on any trespasser.

Downder: Specialized term for thunder that is produced while a storm is winding down. It tends to be less severe and is no longer capable of scaring small children and dogs.

Magia: uma arte secreta

Embora no mundo de Crónicas Obscuras existam criaturas e humanos com a capacidade de executarem actos que desafiam a lógica científica, nem todas essas habilidades são consideradas magia.Telepatia, telecinesia e outros poderes inerentes a humanos ou espécies Ocultas são classificadas como capacidades psíquicas.

No universo de Crónicas Obscuras, para ser magia a sua prática deve envolver um determinado ritual utilizando: palavras (para a invocação do poder), gestos (para impor direcção ou limite) e o gasto de energia, podendo também ser necessário recorrer a objectos (mágicos ou comuns) ou localizações, quer espaciais, quer temporais.

Quanto mais complexo for o feitiço maior será o número de pormenores necessários ao seu funcionamento e o dispêndio de energia.

Na maioria dos casos os fazedores de magia tendem a ser humanos, não obstante, existem algumas espécies de Ocultos que se dedicam à perigosa e complexa arte dos sortilégios.

Classificação dos fazedores de magia nas suas respectivas hierarquias e especializações serão alvo de posts futuros.

Favorite Fictional Characters --- Michael Meyers

I will pass on Jason and Freddy. Laugh at Chucky and Pinhead. Oh, but Michael Meyers is another story. Now I know this isn't the best picture of my silent, slasher hero but it will have to do for this post.

Of all the great unstoppable killers in the history of cinema there is no other that even holds a candle to him. The star of 9 films (2 of them really bad Rob Zombie movies) and a body count any psychopath can be proud of he is a star of the silver screen.

The first time I saw the original Halloween movie it scared the crap out of me. I was 13 years old and really didn't want to watch it at the time. Not because I would be scared, quite the opposite actually. I didn't think it would scare me at all. I remembered watching the first Friday the 13th movie and the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie and neither one scared me one bit. To me it was a human killing other humans, nothing all that scary. My mom made me watch it though and it terrified the hell out of me. There was something so creepy about Michael.

Jason Voorhees was just as silent as Michael but he wasn't as scary. Michael has a presence about him that is amazing. Whether it's the way he cocks his head or the way he walks he is a killing machine that oozes terror. Now that last thing I have to say is that by typing this I've talked myself into watching the first two movies tonight after I put my son to bed.

Fear, Frights, and Terror (and candy)

Fear - it's the creepy crawlies, the willies, things that go bump in the night. Read Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, or Jeffrey Deaver's works and I dare you to turn off the light.

Vampires, zombies, ghosts, and ghouls. A haunting - perhaps The Turn of the Screw

Halloween is a bit of a silly season, yet the bright orange pumpkins and scary masks are harmless fun. When else do you take candy from strangers? Play ghostly organ music, conjure up a phantom, or watch old Vincent Price or Bela Lugosi movies. I can remember, as a kid, tromping about our neighborhood in PA on a Halloween night with my costume on and a winter coat (due to snow flurries). That diminishes the oomph of the presentation.

I vant to suck your blood - say it with your best Transylvanian accent. Or dance the Time Warp again a la Rocky Horror

Eat gobs of candy corn. Just don't step on the scale. EEEEEEK!!!

Happy Halloween

Taken by Norah McClintock

Two girls have recently disappeared near the town where Stephanie lives, and there is talk of a serial killer. She is concerned but is sure that it could never happen to her.

But then it does. Tied up and alone, she manages to escape her captor and run for her life. Bus she is in the middle of nowhere, with no food, no shelter and no way home.

I have never been a big fan of YA fiction but lately I've been exposed to some really good examples lately. This book was one of them and I'm so happy I read it.

Stephanie is an engaging character who finds herself in a hopeless situation and has the strength and courage to meet it head on and get herself to safety and her family. Unfortunately all is not what it appears to be once she is home and only by staying strong is she able to discover the truth of what happened to her.

Thank you for being a friend ...

From The Advocate:

The estate of late actress Bea Arthur gave a top homeless youth service organization $300,000 for its operations.

Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center in New York City, said his organization was "overwhelmed with gratitude that Bea saw that LGBT youth deserve as much love and support as any other young person and that she placed so much value in the work we do to protect them and to help them rebuild lives."

The announcement comes after the center released details on a plan to establish a house to accommodate 12 homeless youths and name the building in Arthur's honor.

The Ali Forney Center offers food, emergency housing, medical treatment, HIV testing, and educational training for as many as 1,000 young people annually.

Just one more reason why I continue to love Bea Arthur.

My Hornsby Bend list

I realized I didn't tell you the whole list of birds we saw at Hornsby, only the few lifers of which I got photos. Leaving it at that would be selling the place short; they had birds all over the place! Who knew that birds would like waste drain ponds and "solid waste" (ahem) drying areas? Here's the complete list of what we saw:

Red Phalarope--despite being listed as "very rare" for October, this guy posed for every birder there. Very cool.
American Avocet--LOVE.THEM.
Least Sandpiper--these are supposed to be abundant during October at HBBR; true to advertising, two flocks of 50 or more were in the drying areas, along with other sandpipers mixed in--but IDing the others was way too tough for me. Someone else ID'd these guys for me first.)
American White Pelican--two of them were lounging on the water like swans! They were beautiful.
Crested Caracara--these birds are AWESOME, a much anticipated lifer--they look like the kind of scary bird that would eat your eyes out in a horror movie.
White-faced Ibis--these were supposed to be plentiful as well, but I only saw one--he looked almost like a Glossy Ibis, but they're supposed to be rare here right now, so I felt confident calling this one a White-faced in winter plumage. I thought I'd gotten a photo, but I think Mary's the one who got it.
Least Grebe--I didn't see any Eared Grebes although the web site site they'd be common; I did, however, see this tiny little grebe, along with some other birds listed as "uncommon" during Octobers past, like the White Pelicans and the Crested Caracaras.
Loggerhead Shrike--wish this one had been closer; I was glad I at least had the scope to watch him for a bit in the distance; a birding guide who was leading a trip pointed him out to us.
Ruddy Duck--they're working hard to become my favorite duck because of their sassiness, but being in winter plumage didn't help them knock Wood Duck out of the top spot.
Killdeer--it was like being back in PA, listening to these guys calling constantly.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Turkey Vulture
Eastern Phoebe
Belted Kingfisher
Blue Jay
American Crow
Cattle Egret
Carolina Wren
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
American Coot
Red-winged Blackbird
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
European Starling
Common Grackle

I saw a few unidentifiable birds too: some generic sandpiper/peeps that were mixed in with the tiny Least Sandpipers; a flycatcher of some sort (not vocalizing, so no chance of an ID from me); a warbler that might have been a Nashville, but I just didn't get a good enough look to make sure (people were saying there was one around); and one bird that looked like a small wren but had a crazy call that was unlike any wren I know of -- I haven't been able to ID him at all, but I do have a short video of his call so I'm still working on it.

HBBR is quite a place, with three huge ponds full of ducks and other birds, a wooded trail that has several cuts to the Colorado River and some good viewing outlooks, and a marshy area in one of the big ponds. There are also a lot of open fields around the facility where we saw the caracaras and the shrike. Mary and some other birders saw a coyote but I didn't.

It was pretty wild to see that Red Phalarope, and I'm so glad I got such a long look at him.

There were many birds I didn't see that were supposed to be abundant or common during October. I didn't see any Eared Grebes, Swainson's Hawks, Wilson's Snipes, American Pipits, Lincoln's Sparrows, Western Meadowlarks, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, or Lesser Scaups. I was bummed that I didn't see the whistling duck; those guys are supposed to be all over central and southern Texas.

Listed as fairly common among the sandpipers were Baird's and Stilt Sandpipers--I just couldn't summon the patience or the closer view to ID the bigger pipers wandering among the little Least Sandpipers though. I thought I saw a Long-billed Dowitcher but he vanished during my flipping through the guide to make sure. Wilson's Phalarope was also supposed to be there but wasn't; same for the Vesper Sparrow, Dickcissel, and Nashville Warbler (assuming I didn't see him that one time I mentioned above).

All in all, though, it was quite a day at the Reserve. My old friend Kris and I went back on Sunday but didn't stay long--we saw the avocets and some more caracaras, then we went for breakfast! Mary and I had spent all morning and all afternoon (with a short lunch break) there on Saturday, and I was just too tired to stay much longer than a couple of hours on Sunday. But we had a nice time; I hadn't seen Kris in years, and our friendship dates back to the early 1980s!

So my lifelist stands at 233, and I'm really looking forward to a quick weekend trip south. I really want to see some Green Jays and all the other RGV specialties. I might have to wait until spring, but even then it'll be a great trip. I might even get to see my old college town of Kingsville, my old hometown of Harlingen, and my birthplace of McAllen. It's funny; it feels like I've been away from Texas forever, even though it's only been seven years. But the old memories are still there, and my heart still swells with Texas pride when I think of bluebonnets, longhorn cattle, and huge open expanses of this state.

Mailbox Monday for 10/26/2009

Mailbox Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.

Last week was a slower week for me as far as new acquisitions go. I didn't get any review or contest books is but as usual I did end up buying a few.

I finally got around to buying Foundation by Mercedes Lackey in paperback. I picked it up from Barnes & Noble in paperback when I stopped in there to get a cup of African Autumn tea.

I stopped into a small independent bookstore called Watermark Books on the spur of the moment while I was driving by. I went in to ask if they had a certain book and the sales associate was so good she had me buying a completely different book. I picked up The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. Which seems to be the first book in a series meant for middle schoolers but is 485 pages long.

I picked up the hardback of The Art Thief by Noah Charney at the Friends of the Library Bookstore for $1.50.

I don't go into Best Buy that often anymore but on another whim I decided to go and picked up the DVD set of Ghostbusters 1 & 2 for $6.99 and the new CD by Michael Buble Crazy Love.

White Noise

  A vampira Eleanora Reeve controla várias discotecas, como parte do seu património financeiro, porém, nenhuma lhe é mais querida que a White Noise. Nas outras ela está mais que disposta a seguir as modas e fornecer o que o público deseja, mas na “sua menina”, não faz quaisquer concessões.

Nela mantêm uma filosofia simples: música da pesada e bebidas baratas. Nada de melodiazinhas de adolescentes anorécticas sobre os namoradinhos ou narrativas das matanças de um rapper, em White Noise ouve-se punk, metal e rock à moda antiga, independentemente da época que tenha sido feito feito. Whisky, vodka, rum e montes de cerveja, em vez de bebidas com nomes de revistas ou cocktails com sombrinhas.

  Não passa uma Sexta-feira em que Eleanora não esteja lá, no sua sala VIP, cercada dos Arcanjos, a observar a pista de dança abaixo, através do Pulsar, sentindo a vida e emoções das dezenas de humanos ao som da música.

Stinky birding, great birding

I went to Austin last weekend to visit my sister and her new husband, and on Saturday Mary and I went to the Hornsby Bend Bird Observatory. It was, in a word, aromatic, seeing as how the site is also a solid waste sewage treatment plant... but I saw some amazing birds!

Here's Mary, stylin' with my little scope:

Here are some of the birds we saw, starting off with the weird buggy eyes on this MODO:
I swore at first that it couldn't be a Mourning Dove--I mean, MODO eyes aren't that big and buggy and the eye ring is much smaller and more subdued! But I can't find any other dove it might be, based on all the other field markings. Is it possible that this dove has that House Finch eye disease? Look at how shaggy his head is. Poor little guy.

This poor American Kestrel was having a bad feather day:I don't think this pic captured it, but he looked like he was having a rough molt.

The butterfly migration is still in high gear, and I caught this beauty:
I love those silver spots on the wing undersides. I remember seeing lots of these when I was a kid in the Rio Grande Valley: Gulf Fritillary!

At one point, there was a huge dither among the many birders who were on the trails; someone had spotted a Red Phalarope in one of the big ponds, and the bird was posing for photos! Check out this rare lifer:






There was a guy there who went to every little crowd of birders gathered along the shore of the pond and said that this was "the bird of the year!" I don't know about that, but this bird is certainly a long way from his Arctic home and from his "southern oceans" wintering area. I would give anything to see one of these in breeding plumage. Apparently, the female phalaropes are the ones who do the searching for the mates, and they leave the males behind to take care of the nest--a matriarchy!

Later, I saw these Crested Caracaras, another lifer!



I have been able to really look at a lot of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers lately; they're everywhere down here:

Check out those salmony pink undercoverts. Even the tail feathers are that color, with black at the ends.

The butterflies were a constant presence:I kept seeing their movements and thinking, "BIRD!" and then it was just another butterfly. Monarchs, all kinds of Emperors (this one a Hackberry Emperor), and those American Snouts from my last post.

This swallowtail--Zebra Swallowtail?--put on quite a flying show:After watching him for a long time, I realized that his upper wing segments moved all the time, while the lower segments were more like rudders.

Look at this big fatty of a turtle; is it a Snapping Turtle?The ones in PA looked different.

Here's another lifer, an American Avocet:There were four of these guys, enjoying a marshy area at the head of one of the big ponds on the facility. It was a real thrill to see one of these, finally. I love that upturned bill.

Finally, there's this sparrow:I thought it was a Song Sparrow, but then I thought it wasn't because the center "hat-pin" spot isn't there, then I thought it couldn't be anything else -- finally, I realized I was probably over-thinking the whole thing. Is it a Song Sparrow or what?

Now that I'm working 8-5 during the week, it's harder to get birding trips in. I also don't really know if there are any birds around right now. I know the Gulf Coast is hopping, but I don't think I'm gonna get down there anytime soon. Still--I'd like to hit the Rockport/Aransas Wildlife Refuge area some weekend to see the wintering species. Of course, my shorebird ID skills are so lame that I don't know how much good it would do! I'd also love to head all the way down to Harlingen and look for those specialties that can only be found in the tip of the state. But there again, money and time and a problem. Maybe once I get regular paychecks, I'll be able to set aside a few bucks a week until I have enough for a winter trip.

Sunday Funnies

NaNoWriMo Prep - Voyeurism

What better way to prepare for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) which begins November 1st, than to walk through other people's backyard gardens?

This is legitimate voyeurism. Pay admission (Garden Conservatory's Open Days Garden Tour) and enjoy other people's hard work, vision, and nature. (and obviously an affinity for Skyy Vodka's blue bottles)

Highland Park, Dallas; Lakewood area, North Dallas - we followed maps and checked off the list. I really liked this sculpture, but couldn't fit it into my purse. This was research. Possible settings, potential characters - who lives in these homes? Are they happy? (My guess is yes - they are coping quite well) And if I write a murder mystery, where would I tuck the body?

Perhaps this gated door holds a clue...

This sculpture sums it up - curiousity. This quote sums up the 50,000 word task ahead:

I love being a writer. What I can't stand is the paperwork. Peter De Vries, 1957

Interview and Giveaway with Dakota Banks, author of Dark Times

I am so excited to present to you the wonderful Dakota Banks who was kind enough to answer a few questions and give two lucky winners the chance to win a signed copy of Dark Times, the first book in her Mortal Path series. I had the privilege of reviewing the book back in September. You can find my review here. Needless to say I love it.

She is a brilliant author with an interesting background and childhood. Which included growing up in a converted funeral home. With her passion for archaeology and the paranormal she is able to blend them together to create a wonderfully fleshed out world.

So with no further ado I present to you Dakota Banks in her own words along with an excerpt from the next book in the series, Sacrifice. Giveaway details will be at the end.

First of all I just want to thank you for you time and the opportunity to speak with you. I would like to start off with a basic question. When and how did you decide that you wanted to write a book?

I've known I wanted to be a writer since I was in elementary school. I wrote science fiction short stories in high school and got hand-written rejection letters, the key word here being rejection. Then the haze of life drifted in, or maybe the Mists of Avalon, and when I awoke again to the idea of writing, I had gotten to the point where my husband had stopped using individual candles on my birthday cake and instead bought those big, dramatic candles shaped like numbers. If I was going to be a writer, I'd have to stop using the excuse that I didn't have time to write. So one day I typed "Chapter One," and kept on going. I'd like to say that I started writing just then for the joy of it, but what actually motivated me to start at that particular time was a contest deadline and prize money. I love writing and can't imagine doing anything else, but it took a deadline and dollars to get me to start my first book. Oh, the shame of it. Plus I didn't win.

That first book, a futuristic thriller, was good enough to get me an agent. Although publishers liked the writing, they weren't too taken with the main character, since there wasn't a clear main character. After numerous rejections, I finally got the hint. I needed to write something that I loved and that was salable too. I developed a series based on virtual reality recreations of homicides. Full immersion VR, where you step into the life-sized scene. There are five of those books published under a different name. I eventually went back and rewrote my first book, using what I'd learned over the years, and it's published now too. So I can legitimately say I published the first book I ever wrote.

After six books I wanted to try something different, a series that would allow me to switch to paranormal. Dark Time is the first book in the urban fantasy/paranormal thriller genre for me. It is so exciting to be writing in this area, but scary because it is almost like starting all over. Okay, it is like starting all over. There's not a great deal of cross-over from techno-thriller readers to paranormal. But I strongly feel that if a writer isn't doing something she loves, it's apparent to the readers. So even in the bottom-line-oriented publishing world, a writer has to follow her heart, and that could mean writing in different genres at different times in a writing career.

Where did the idea for Dark Time come from?

Dark Time was a long time in the making, since the idea was born during the early days of the Iraq war, when the Iraq National Museum was looted in 2003. Iraq includes the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and has treasures from ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, among them Sumeria. The theft and senseless destruction of so many artifacts in the museum hit me hard, as it did many others around the world who have been working to restore the museum's collection.

I've been an amateur archaeologist for years, with a particular interest in the Sumerian civilization. Some of those artifacts have been around 3,000-5,000 years. That got me thinking first about what if there were ancient artifacts that were much more resilient and couldn't be destroyed by mere humans? And if there were artifacts, why not stretch it more and have ancient gods still here? Why not a human or two from that time period, although they wouldn't be fully human anymore? As a writer, these ideas excited me because there was a lot of wiggle room in them--paranormal elements with ancient legends coming to life in the present, a quest for artifacts, personal stories that could play out on both a very big stage and a small one, drama, romance, action. The ideas were so big and powerful that it took a long time to create characters and a story structure from them.

Why Sumerian/Babylonian mythology as an inspiration as opposed to Native American, Celtic or some other myth system?

I'd have to blame the Epic of Gilgamesh I read years ago for that. Many who read one of its various translations--the original is written in cuneiform on twelve tablets--are briefly caught up in the imaginative story of the legendary god-king and the Sumerian gods who are sprinkled in it, then slip back to other things they can relate to more easily. In my case, I got stuck in it, like an insect in amber, and it generated an interest in civilizations in the Mesopotamian region. Gilgamesh is an epic poem from roughly 4,200 years ago that tells the story of the Sumerian King Gilgamesh, who may or may not have been a real-life character from about 4,700 years ago. Recent discoveries support the existence of Gilgamesh, which makes me wonder what he did as a real man that inspired such legends. Of all the tales told about him, the most human to believe is that he started his kingship with the unsavory habit of deflowering virgin brides on their wedding days, leaving the grooms to twiddle their, er, thumbs and causing plenty of marriages to start with humiliation and anger. A perfect setup for a murder mystery, and exactly the type of behavior Maliha Crayne (Dark Time's protagonist) would bring to a halt.

There's another reason I couldn't resist using Sumerian myths. The Sumerians believed that their gods didn't originate on Earth. According to their myths, the gods (or Annukai) came from another planet, Niburu, supposedly a part of our solar system but with a wildly eccentric orbit. Niburu approaches Earth every 3,600 years. All of this is speculation and myth; not proven fact. About 450,000 years ago, the Annukai transferred from Niburu to Earth to search for gold. The Sumerian creation myth revolves around these aliens and their actions here. To get in on the 2012 frenzy already beginning to build, the story is that Niburu will return to Earth's vicinity in 2012 and one of two things will happen. It will collide with Earth, or the Annukai will come back to Earth and be pleased--or not--with the humans they created and refined long ago. I don't believe all this, but I do eat it up, and it's definitely timely!

I've always wanted to ask an author why the abundance of protagonists in the genre are women. Is it that most authors in the genre are women? Are most of the readers women? Or is it another reason I've never even thought of?

The contemporary urban fantasy genre is currently heavily shaded toward vampire, werewolf, faerie, and shape shifter stories. I'm going to stick my neck out (hah!) and probably get blasted, but I think there is a strong undercurrent of sexuality running through these stories that are fantasies women have about exotic, powerful creatures. Women readers relate better to women protagonists when it comes to sex or emotional issues, and there are a lot of women authors writing material that caters to these fantasies. A woman reader loses herself in the female protagonist's world and has two dark, dangerous vampires fighting to possess her, or two alpha werewolves, while discovering that only she can stop the war that will throw the world into chaos for centuries. Beats doing the laundry any day--I can vouch for that! The best of these books also contain deep character development, especially on an emotional basis, that creates a bond to the character and helps the woman reader put herself into the scene.

I think this is the "mainstream" of urban fantasy right now, but there is also traditional urban fantasy that predated the sexy vampire craze and continues alongside it, and a lot of that is written by male authors. A good example is one of my favorite authors, Charles de Lint, and his series of books set in the imaginary city of Newford. Also consider these vampire stories: They Thirst by Robert R. McCammon; I Am Legend by Richard Matheson; and Salem's Lot by Stephen King. (My thanks to the Goodreads October Newsletter for refreshing my mind about these three.) Not much in the way of pervasive sex there.

I think there's room within urban fantasy for stories that have strong female protagonists who create an emotional bond, but are coupled with a lot of action: a thriller-fantasy. I had a great time researching and writing Dark Time and book two, Sacrifice, due out in August 2010. They're the type of books I love to read because I can get the fantasy (paranormal) punch while exploring some new territory as a reader.

As I said in my review I loved the cliffhanger ending. Can you give us a hint at what is in store for the next book?

The title, Sacrifice, is meaningful and refers to events that made me cry when I wrote them. I can also offer a short excerpt from Sacrifice below. It's not the beginning of the book, and it's still unedited, so it may change in minor ways. This is the setup to an action scene as Maliha visits the lab of her friends, scientists Ty and Claire Rainier, who are analyzing a specimen from Africa that she sent to them.

Sacrifice Excerpt

At various times in the past, Maliha's fighting outfit had been made of loose cotton, silk, or leather, but it had always been black.

Wear black to hide the blood, Master Liu said.

Tonight she slipped on the black cotton trousers of the ninja and tied strings around her calves, nipping in the wide material. The top wrapped around her and secured with ties, and she filled the hidden pockets with throwing stars. Tabi socks and boots, with their traditional split toes for better gripping, followed. The bottom of her trousers tucked nearly inside her boots, and at the top of each boot she fastened a sheath with a short knife for close-up fighting. Maliha braided her black hair into one heavy braid down her back, and then tucked it inside the back of her top. She wasn't ready to use the mask and hood, so she put them up her sleeves, where they were held in place by forearm ties.

With her throwing knives strapped to her thighs, she moved through the lobby of the building and tossed a wink at the wide-eyed door attendant.

"Late Halloween party," she said.

"Uh …" he said, and she was out the door into a November night with a sliver of moon in the sky. It was exhilarating to be out on the streets, dressed to kill.

Even now I understand the temptation to be Ageless. The power, fearlessness, answering to no one but the demon, the decadence …

She shook herself out of the memory before those thoughts could take hold.

Moving rapidly, her cold breath trailing behind her, she headed south to the University of Chicago. Flitting through the parks that lined the lake shore, she came to Jackson Park in the Hyde Park neighborhood. From there it was a straight shot west along the Midway, a large grassy area that was the site of the 1893 World's Colombian Exhibition, an event Maliha remembered well. She'd ridden the first Ferris wheel there and ridden the same one again at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

The route from the lake shore to the Midway wasn't the most direct way to go, but she felt like running and she liked to stay to the green areas whenever she could. When she passed the crenellated towers of Harper Library, she left the Midway. It was only one long block past the hospital to get to the buildings of the Pritzker School of Medicine.

The Rainiers' lab was located in an older stone building with Gothic arches. Maliha knew of a window with a broken lock above a side doorway that projected out from the building like a Lego block stuck onto its side. The window had been that way since Maliha moved to Chicago, although it had been fixed twice in the interim—and Maliha promptly broke it again to preserve her access. Because of the Rainiers, the building was a useful place to her, and it was, after all, in her backyard.

She climbed the outside of the building, using the ridges and curves of the Gothic features as handholds. She didn't have far to go, about ten feet to a flat section of stone roof atop the projecting doorway. The window was topped by arched glass, but she was interested in the bottom panes. She lay down on the stone roof and placed her rubber-soled boots on the glass. Pushing up with her legs, she expected the heavy window to rise enough for her to slip underneath it, but it didn't move.

The window's lock had been fixed again.

Impatient to get inside, Maliha didn't want to try anything else, like

breaking in through the building's door. There was an electronic lock on the door, and it wouldn't yield without time and tools. Glass, though, yielded to many things, among them a swift kick from one of her boots. She swept the broken glass out of the way as best she could, put on her mask and hood, and dropped ten feet to the floor inside the building, landing with the relaxed knees of a trained parachute trooper.

Maliha made her way carefully through the halls, dimmed except for security lights every twenty feet or so. Professors Ty and Claire Rainier didn't rate prime facilities, which for Maliha's purpose was fine. Larger, better-equipped labs were crowded with grad students who worked all hours of the night. Most of the time, the Rainiers worked alone.

As she approached the door, she heard noises coming from the lab. The sound of glass breaking was followed by a muffled scream. She ran the last thirty feet and did a handspring that brought her feet-first toward the door. The door sprang open, torn off its hinges. She landed with a roll, ending up behind a solid lab bench. Taking a quick look, she was horrified at the scene.

Bright lights flooded the lab. She blinked and tried to adjust her eyes rapidly. There were two men dressed in black, but they were blocky and moved with no grace. They were not trained martial artists. She dismissed them, but not the guns they held. Even the hired muscle could get lucky.

Claire was tied in a chair in the center of the lab, her head slumped forward so that her chin rested on her chest. Ty was on the ground, clutching his belly and groaning. There was broken equipment all around. A tall, thin man stood next to Claire. His hair hung in greasy lanks and he wore a long, heavy robe. There was a bulge in his coat pocket that was probably the canteen containing the specimen. He turned his face toward Maliha and for the briefest moment their eyes met. His were black, flat, and emotionless, a snake's eyes fixed on its prey. Just as she ducked back into the shelter of the lab bench, she saw him pick up a piece of broken glass from the floor.

Maliha knew his intent as though their minds were one.

She rolled out from behind the bench and planted a throwing star in the wrist of the nearest gunman. He screamed and dropped the gun. As she passed by him, she finished him with a blow to the throat, then turned her attention back to the real danger in the room.

Dakota, I want to thank you once again for the time you spent in answering the questions so thoroughly. After reading that excerpt, I can't wait to get my hands on Sacrifice.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

All right boys and girls just for reading this far in I'm going to give you the details of the Giveaway now. Two lucky winners will each receive a signed copy of Dark Times. Dakota has graciously offered to ship them anywhere in the world so this contest is open to everyone.

To enter the giveaway please leave a comment stating your favorite mythological character. It could be a god, goddess, hero, or creature. Please include your email address with your comments. No email, no entry. The giveaway will be open until 11:59 PM CST on Friday Nov. 6th.

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