Perguntas mais frequentes: que outras criaturas pretende usar de futuro?

Esta é uma pergunta complicada de responder, uma vez que fazê-lo pode implicar vários spoilers… Regra geral, refiro apenas que existem vários géneros de fantasmas com forte potencial literário.

Ao longo da minha pesquisa, seleccionei qualquer coisa como 120 potenciais espécies de Ocultos. Serão todas elas utilizadas? Veremos.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Synopsis From Back Cover:

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus was Dr. Blue’s Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.

But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.

Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue’s widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenage boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.

His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.
 
Fantastic.  Amazing.  Brilliant.  Spectacular.  Thrilling.  I could go on and on but I think too many adjectives gets annoying after a while.  This was only my third foray into steam punk and I loved it even more than my first time.  It's rather like sex that way, it's gets better as you gain experience.
 
Boneshaker is a brilliantly told story of what happens when family secrets start to eat away to the point they have to come out.  The fact that these secrets will shake Briar and her son to the core and force them to deal with zombies, mad scientists, and air pirates while juggling the truth just made it that much better. 
 
The action is intense and once it gets started it never really slows down.  I can't recall one moment in the book that I found to be boring or dragging.  Thankfully though the action never got in the way of the storytelling.  The author did an amazing job of meshing the action with the journey itself and by the end, both Briar and her son were able to reach a point in their lives where they were able to deal with the past and make a new life for themselves in the future.
 
I'm slowly getting sucked into the steam punk world and I can't wait for the next experience.

Marsh madness

All right, folks. I am not a shorebird genius! I saw a bunch of birds at Julian Wetlands today and I need help! These are almost all the same bird, and all of them were the same size and displayed the same bobbing-head behavior:






My feeling--based on size, length of bill compared to head size, leg color, and behavior--is Lesser Yellowlegs. But I might be wrong!

So I tried to digiscope...A few field marks of note: the complete white eye ring says Solitary Sandpiper. But even here, you can tell the legs are kinda yellow; a Solitary Sandpiper's legs are olive.

It's possible that I saw both Solitary Sandpipers AND Lesser Yellowlegs. HELP!

I saw other, more easily identifiable birds too:Eastern Kingbirds everywhere.

A young Chipping Sparrow trilled away and then posed for me.

This long tall gentleman was joined by two of his friends:
The two herons sailed over my head from behind me and gracefully landed near the first heron. It was beautiful.

I was out there for a couple of hours, a reward for making two big sales today. At one point, all the little Killdeer and Solitary Yellowlegpipers started flying around crazy. Then I saw it: A NORTHERN HARRIER! He glided around, landing low in the grass, watching the pond, though I didn't see him take any prey. I saw the white rump patch, the low flight and low perching; the dark brown coloring indicated a female. I watched through my bins for a long time and didn't get a photo until she was too far away.

When I filled out my eBird list, I had to click on "Rare Species" to put a "1" in the NOHA box. According to my range maps, they're found year-round here, though. So why the special thing?

Perfect Imperfection

July has proved to be a book review month for me. Lots of poolside reading. My latest library pick is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. Fifty years of life in the newspaper business (English language edition) in Rome, proves exhilarating, desperate, outrageous, sad, and dramatic.

Each chapter is its own little vignette as we meet the obituary writer, the editor-in-chief, the financial officer, a stringer wanna-be, and more. The personal dramas are intertwined with work, bylines, and egos.

This is a fast, fun read as the world of print gives way to the Internet and uncertainty. Tom Rachman captures the writing and publishing world with a keen sense of humor.

I kept waiting for my chapter to appear.

Winner of Never Wave Goodbye by Doug Magee

It's time to annouce the winner of Never Wave Goodbye by Doug Magee.

Congrats to Beverly!

She has 48 hours to email me her address so I can forward to the publicist or a new winner will be picked.

Guest Post Over At The Christmas Spirit

Please head on over to Michelle's The Christmas Spirit to read a guest post I wrote about one of my favorite Christmas movies, "Christmas In Connecticut".

Favorite Fictional Character --- Willow Ufgood

When it comes to big heroes in small packages I will take Willow Ufgood over Frodo Baggins every time.  For those of you who don't know who he is, shame on you, but that's what this post will be all about. 

Willow a Nelwyn farmer, husband, and father who has dreams of being a great sorcerer.  The only problem for him, is that he's scared.  He's scared to fail and that fear keeps him from achieving his dreams and puts him in danger of losing his family farm.  So what is a scared Nelwyn to do when his children find a Daikini (human) baby one the the river bank?  His first reaction is to push the baby back in and let her float down the river to cause someone else problems.  However fate, and his wife, step in and changes the course of his life forever.

That little baby is actually Elora Danan, the girl of the prophecy who is destined to defeat the evil Queen Bavmorda and when Bavmorda's forces arrive in the village looking for the baby, Willow is forced to flee the village and give Elora to the first adult Daikini he sees.  Lucky for him that Daikini is Madmartigan, who agrees to take the baby in exchange for letting him out of a cage.  Not so lucky for him, two brownies steal the baby from Madmartigan which forces Willow to hunt for the baby once again. 

His journey to protect Elora Danan is one filled with wonder and new friends who help him along his way.  But more than that, his journey is one of self discovery and coming into his own.  By facing his fears head on, Willow is able to save the day, but more importantly he finds the courage to be himself and go for his dreams.  When he returns to his village, he comes as a new man.  A man who is able to hold his head up high, provide for his family, and not be scared of failure ever again.

Perguntas mais frequentes: que criaturas aparecem em Crónicas Obscuras – A vingança do lobo?

Vampiros, várias raças de lobisomens e um wendigo. Normalmente, só refiro estes porque não gosto de revelar demasiado.

Se quiserem saber mais sobre estas espécies, é só clicarem, o blog está pejado de informações sobre eles.

Mailbox Monday for 7/26/10

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

I received a hardcover of The Inheritance by Simon Tolkien but I'm not sure why.  I don't know if it was for a review, a win, or just unsolicited.  Either way I'm going to treat it as a review book.

I received a trade paperbacks of Presidential Risk by Michael Bronte and Homecoming by Jason Garrett for review from Yorkshire Publishing.

I received a trade paperback of A Demon Inside by Rick R. Reed from the author for review.

On my trip to Barnes & Noble I bought bargain hardcovers of Journey To The Center of The Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea both by Jules Verne.  They were great deals at $1.79 each though the covers I have are not the ones in the pictures.  I went in to pick up my order of two Perry Mason books.  I got The Case Of The Horrified Heirs in trade paperback and The Case Of The One-Eyed Witness in paperback, both by Erle Stanley Gardner.

Savor a Swing Through the Past

It's the Wild West in the publishing world these days with mergers between the big guys, e-publishing issues, questions on brick and mortar establishments (Barnes & Noble vs Borders wars), the power of Amazon, the power of Apple, and discussions on whether people even read anymore.

In Abilene, Texas, a small independent press, Silver Boomer Books, is slowly building a nice collection of anthologies as well as encouraging a talented stable of authors with their Laughing Cactus and Eagle Press imprints.

From the Porch Swing is the latest anthology, and this collection of poems and stories treats the reader to memories of grandparents. One hundred seven authors were chosen from a worldwide submission process (aah, the ease of the internet and email). USA, England, Hungary, South Africa - a World Cup of writers look back fondly on grandparents who shaped their lives.

I'll brag now about my four poems all based on Julia Hughes Crowther, my paternal grandmother. Rainbow (p.88) was inspired by her crocheted afghans. Bouquet (p.125) is about plucking dandelions for her. Grandmothers applaud anything. Brush Your Teeth (p 259) - fascination and fear of her dentures. And finally, Duty Bound (p.270) - the girdle.

The Wild West is slowly being tamed by words - savor the read.

12º

Literalmente uma dúzia de apresentações desde o lançamento de “Crónicas Obscuras – A vingança do lobo” e muita coisa mudou. O nervosismo inicial desapareceu, graças à prática e a consciência que sou o gajo mais habilitado para falar de Crónicas Obscuras. E não, isto não é um desafio aos futuros hardcore-Comic-Con-going-fans! Ou se calhar até é…

Não obstante, a possibilidade de chegar ao local da apresentação e ter da fazer para um espaço vazio, mantêm-se. Verdade, partilhado esse risco com vários escritores, até mesmo aqueles que há muito alcançaram notoriedade... o que, estranhamento, não me faz sentir melhor. Em todo caso, um espectador ou dez, the show must go on.

Receei que fosse acontecer precisamente uma dessas situações ontem à noite, na Feira do Livro da Figueira da Foz, quando chegou a hora da apresentação e não estava lá quase ninguém, Juro que imaginei a proverbial tumbleweed a rolar no chão do espaço, qual one horse town perante um duelo, enquanto ao fundo se ouvia um grilo solitário. Mas felizmente, após o atraso da praxe veio mais gente e a coisa compôs-se.

Mesma técnica do costume, aqueles entre vós que foram às minhas apresentações (sim, ambos) sabem como é: falo cinco minutos, dez no máximo, e depois fico-me por aí, para não maçar a plateia, passando-lhe a palavra. A porção das perguntas do público é a minha favorita e embora esta não tenha sido das mais produtivas (houve momento em que se podia ouvir um alfinete tombar – mesmo num chão alcatifado) sempre foram colocadas algumas questões originais, que publicarei na secção Perguntas mais frequentes.

Resumindo, another one bites the dust e esperemos para ver como correrão as seguintes, onde quer que elas sejam.

On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

Synopsis From Back Cover:

Shooting Death was a mistake, as Zane soon discovered.  For the man who killed the Incarnation of Death, was immediately forced to assume the vacant position!  Thereafter, he must speed over the world, riding his pale horse, and ending the lives of others.

Zane was forced to accept his unwelcome task, despite the rules that seemed woefully unfair.  But then he found himself being drawn into an evil plot of Satan.  Already the Prince of Evil was forging a trap in which Zane must act to destroy Luna, the woman he loved.

He could see only one possible way to defeat the Father of Lies.  It was unthinkable - but he had no other solution!

This is a reread for me actually, I can't even remember how many times I have read this book or the series it's a part of.  I couldn't even tell you when the first time I read it was.  What I can tell you is that this is a wonderful start to the Incarnations of Immortality series, written by the brilliant Piers Anthony.

The series takes place in a world where science and magic work side by side with each other.  You can take a trip in a state of the art flying car or on a flying carpet.  You can buy a gem to find wealth or love and you better watch out for the dragons as well.  Where this series really sets itself apart though is that basic concepts of Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Good, Evil, and Night are actually offices held by individuals until circumstances takes them out of the job.  Death, which this book explores is held by someone who has to kill the previous office holder, who then becomes Thanatos, the living embodiment of Death.

Zane is a down and out young man with no real prospects ahead of him, he is guilty of a past sin that is weakening him until he is no longer able to live with himself.  On the verge of killing himself, he sees Death walk in and instead of shooting himself, he shoots Death.  From there on out his life will never be the same again.  He has to fight Satan, who is a great salesman, for the life of the woman he loves.  The showdown forces Death to go on strike and only wits and clear thinking allows Zane to come out on top.

This is a brilliant book in an even better series and I'm looking forward to rereading the rest of the series soon.

Sunday Funnies

Work-birding!

I saw some great birds during my workday on Thursday! It may be hot and humid outside, which makes my days pretty rough, but at least I get to "work-bird" as I walk around neighborhoods set in the heavily wooded country of Central PA.

Here was the highlight:

I heard this Red-tailed Hawk crying in some pines behind the neighborhood I was walking, so I pulled over and went looking for him. Turned out, there were two -- calling to one another, and perhaps screaming at me for invading their turf. More than once, this guy looked down at me and screamed, so I took some quick picks, giggled with glee, and got out of there.

Also present were Black-capped Chickadees, Gray Catbirds, American Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows, and Tufted Titmice. It was a nice little break from work.

Notice the light reddish-brown coloring of this RTHA (I don't think my photos captured just how light this bird's coloring was). At first I wondered if it was a juvenile Northern Harrier; it was that lightly rufous-colored. However, the bird's call and markings were distinctly those of a RTHA--the belly band, the "backpack" (which I noted when the second hawk flew away), the screaming associated with Bald Eagles in movies and on TV! A juvie NOHA would've had a solid rufous breast and the white rump-patch. Still, I haven't seen a RTHA this color around here; I always see the normal dark-brown color. In my field guide, the rufous morph is more of a Western race, yet here is this guy.

Is my ID of RTHA wrong?

P.S.--I know I had some photos and a post of a normal-colored RTHA on my blog once; I just can't find them! This is the only one I found for comparison:

View From Under the Bus

Excellent discussion at Netroots Nation on reproductive justice.

Fifty More Years - A Classic Read

July is almost over and I haven't wished this timeless classic a Happy Birthday. Fifty years old this month and still a darn good read. Plus, I think it's okay to link the book to the movie version - Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch and he doesn't let us down.

I've read different columns this month (Time, WSJ, and EW) and they discuss whether To Kill a Mockingbird would have the same success today. There is debate on whether the story would be considered in the YA category (EW 7/2/10 p. 78), and consequently less likely to have been considered for a Pulitzer Prize.

In today's world, would Harper Lee have to prove she's working on another book, plus a blog, and has a "following"? It's easy to play the what if? game.

Let's just appreciate Ms.Lee's gift for words, characters (Scout, Jem, Boo, and Atticus), and her tale of a Southern town roiled by accusations. The book's quiet humor, compassion, and intensity stand the tests of time.

Happy Birthday To Kill a Mockingbird!

The votes are in

Agora que já passaram mais de sete meses desde que o primeiro post de “Eleições”, achei que estava na altura de fazer um balanço das coisas. Infelizmente, existem poucos dados para processar, pois, ao que parece, tenho seguidores muito tímidos… Mas, seja como for, aqui ficam.

Nas votações para eleger a melhor luta de A vingança do lobo, temos um empate entre a batalha na Plataforma e a que decorre no apartamento de Gabriela. Em todo o caso, parece unânime o gosto por lutas caóticas.

A seguir temos os eleitos como Miss e Mr. A vingança do lobo, títulos que por enquanto ficam ao cargo do lobisomem fenrisniano Vik Fenrissky e da vampira Eleanora “Lâmina Sangrenta” Reeve. Mas é bom que o Rei e a Rainha se acautelem, pois podem ser facilmente destronados pelo, licantropo híbrido Lance “Meia-Raça” e pela vampira Gabriela.

Quanto às personagens mais odiadas d'A vingança do lobo, ninguém se destacou, havendo um empate entre os vampiros Gabriela e Rafael, o lobisomem fenrisniano Torn Fenrissky e o Obliterador Paul Ferguson.

A mesma uniformidade aconteceu com a eleição do “menino bonito”, a personagem preferida d'A vingança do lobo, onde ninguém sobressaiu, sendo os candidatos ao título: Eleanora, Vik e Lance.

Se não concordam, cabe-vos lançarem o vosso voto e mudarem a situação. ;)

Favorite Fictional Character --- Sue Ellen Crandell

What's a 17 year old girl to do when her mother leaves the country for the Summer leaving a iron fisted babysitter in charge of her and her 3 younger siblings?  Even if she can figure that out, how is she supposed to cope when the babysitter drops dead?

Well if she is Sue Ellen Crandell, she stuffs the body in the trunk of a car and drops it off at the morgue, then she tries to have fun only to discover that being the one in charge isn't all fun and games after all.

When the food runs low and the cash disappears Sue Ellen is forced to get a job to make ends meet.  After a failed attempt at fast food, she bluffs her way into a executive assistant position with a uniform supply company.  Using her wits and a lot of luck Sue Ellen quickly becomes an asset to the company and even ends up coming up with the brilliant idea that will save the company.

During that Summer, Sue Ellen fell in love and did a lot of growing up.  She earned the respect of her boss and got the younger kids to act as a cohesive loving family.  She whipped the family into shape and discovered herself along the way.  When the Summer starts, Sue Ellen is a little selfish and overly impulsive, only thinking of what she can get out of the Summer.  By Summer's end, she is a confident, matured young woman who is starting to figure out what to do with her life after high school.  Of course it didn't hurt that she found a cute boy to share her time with.

Sue Ellen is the perfect example of the American teenager on the brink of adulthood who finds themselves having to grow up in ways they never imagined.  The fact that she does it with a style and wit of her own makes her a character to be remembered for generations to come.

Noah's Castle by John Rowe Townsend

Synopsis From Back Cover:

The coming winter was going to be a bad one - and not because of the weather.

Sixteen-year-old Barry Mortimer's life turns upside down when his father suddenly moves the family from their comfortable modern home in the city to a decaying old mansion on the outskirts of town.  Strange and mysterious events follow.

Why isn't anyone allowed to visit their new home?  What is Father doing in the basement and why is he keeping it a secret?

As rumors of skyrocketing prices and food shortages become a full-fledged economic meltdown, Barry's world begins to crumble.  Can his family hold together as a nation collapses around them?

Alright if you have any intention of reading this book, at anytime, please don't continue to read the review.  There is no way I can fully get my feelings about this book across without "spoiling" the plot line for you.  So with that being said, on with the show.

I don't know how else to put this than to say, I hate this book.  Hate it.  There is nothing, and I mean nothing about it I enjoyed.  I actually found myself getting angry while I was reading it.  I was angry at the author for writing such nonsense, angry at the characters for being so unlikeable that I hoped that they would all starve to death, and angry at myself for even agreeing to review this book.  There were a few times I actually wanted to throw the book across the room or in the garbage (which I have never wanted to do in my life) but I restrained myself and forced myself to finish reading the book.  I'm actually getting angry all over again while I'm typing up the review.

Okay, deep breath.  Now that I got that out of my system I will attempt to explain why I feel so strongly about a YA book that is only 211 pages long.  I was expecting a book about a family doing everything they could to survive during a time where food was scarce, and what food was available was rationed out in small portions or was so expensive nobody could afford it.  I was wanting a family that came together to survive the times, a family who loved and trusted each other to put the needs of the family first.  I wanted a story that as a father I could relate too.  Needless to say that's not what this book is about nor is it even close to what I got out of it. 

This book is about a domineering, sexist, jackass of a father who doesn't know how to show love to his family in anyway that most children would recognize.  He treats his wife as a upper level servant who isn't intelligent enough to be brought into his confidence.  He's not all that warm to his children and has no problem emotionally brushing them aside in order to do what he thinks is right.  So when he starts to hoard food and supplies for his family to live off of during the crisis, I agreed with him and knew he was doing the right thing for his family, but I still didn't like him.  When laws are passed by the government making it illegal to hoard food, I'm still backing his decision but part of me wanted him to get caught just to get him off the page.

No matter what I thought of the father though I wasn't prepared for how I would feel about the rest of the family.  The most likable was the wife/mother, but even there I found her to be weak and boring.  She didn't make that much of an impression on me and in the end I didn't care either way.  What really got my goat were the children.  There are 4 of them and while I didn't like any of them, I'm going to focus on Barry and the oldest sister, Nessie.  Nessie thinks everything her father is doing is wrong, she finds is abhorrent that her father thought ahead and hoarded food for his family when other people are doing without.  She would rather sparse out her families supplies to everyone else in the country instead of making sure her family was taken care of.  She even moves out of the house because she is so disgusted by her father's actions.

Barry, the star of this story, is a little more conflicted.  At first, while bothered by his father's actions, he goes along with it because while he thinks its wrong, he's not sure why though.  He just feels that his father making sure his family is taken care of when the country is going to hell is somehow wrong.  The book is his journey to the conclusion that the only way he can feel right about life is for his family to be in the same circumstances as everyone else.  The world can not be right until his family is starving the way everyone else is.  He concludes his journey of  "self growth" by turning his father in.  He tells a "charity" about the hoarded food in the basement, which by the way was the whole reason they moved into the house, and even helps the same "charity" raid and take everything they can.

By the end of the book, the father is in a fugue state feeling sorry for himself because he couldn't take care of his family.  The rest of the family are all happy and chipper because now they get to starve as well.  What a wonderful end to a ridiculous story.

My problem with this book wasn't the writing, which I found to be engaging despite the horrendous story itself.  My problem was the viewpoint of the author that a father who tries to take care of his family is somehow evil and that sacrificing yourself and your family for the greater good is somehow noble.  The noble thing to do is take care of your family first, to make sure that the children you brought into this world are provided for.  Then if you are able to, take care of your neighbors after that.  The idea that hurting yourself permanently to help others temporarily is for me, morally repugnant.  As a father the idea of letting my son go hungry for months to come in order to feed someone else for a day is stupid and not something I would ever consider.

Now I'm not sure if the fact that this book was written in 1975 has anything to do with the socioeconomic tone in this book, but I'm sure it does.  The entire time I was reading this book, I kept thinking that the entire point of it was to get the author's personal political/economic views across to the masses.  I'm not sure if that's the case but It's the way the way it came across to me.  What I do know is that I don't like this book, wish I had never read this book, and would strongly encourage everyone I know not to read this book.

This book will qualify for the Typically British Reading Challenge 2010 hosted by Carolyn of Book Chick City.

Mailbox Monday for 7/19/10

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

I won two books by Patricia C. Wrede from Cecelia of Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia.  The first one is a paperback of Dealing With Dragons, book one of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.  The second book was a trade paperback of A Matter of Magic, which is composed of Mairelon the Magician and The Magician's Ward.

The Knight Life by Keith Knight was a win from Carol of Carol's Notebook.

I bought two hardcovers from The Friends of the Library Book Store for $1 a piece.  The first one is   Bedlam's Bard by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon, which is composed of Knights of Ghosts and Shadows and Summoned to Tourney.  The second one is Bless The Child by Cathy Cash Spellman.  Neither one of these covers is the one I have.  I actually like this cover of Bedlam's Bard better, I couldn't find a picture of  the one I have anywhere.  This cover for Bless the Child is what they used after the HORRIBLE movie came out, I just couldn't find a big enough picture of the original cover.

I found a hardcover of Tigers In Red Weather by Ruth Padel for $1 at The Dollar Tree.  It's about the author's, who is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, journey to see if tigers can be saved in the wild.

I bought the DVD of Uncle Buck from Wal-Mart for $5.