Saturday, April 7, 2012

Up Cat and Up Dog

by: Hazel Hutchins and illustrated by Fanny

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble



Synopsis:
Up Cat
You'd be surprised at what a cat gets up to all day!

A cat can get tangled up in all kinds of fun and mischief between wake-up time and nap time. Follow along with the playful text as Cat laps up milk, messes up the house, gets up to no good, stands up to a visiting dog, and finally curls up for a nap in the sun.

The expressive, energetic illustrations against simple backgrounds mirror the spare but rhythmic text that teaches about "up" actions while leading the reader through a day in the life of a cat.

Together with Up Dog, this board book will soon be a favorite of toddlers and preschoolers who adore animals.


Up Dog
A little dog can get up to big things!

Uh-oh! Look out, house! This little dog is very busy cheerfully digging up and chewing up everything in sight. It's a sad little dog who's locked up in the pen while the house and garden are tidied up. But all is not lost, as he's cautiously welcomed back up the steps and into the house to snuggle up at the end of the day.

Readers will have fun watching the antics of this little dog, and interpreting the animated facial expressions that range from determination and dejection to joy. While readers follow the dog from bad to good in rhythmic two- or three-word panels, they'll also learn how to use "up" phrases.


I requested this from the publisher at a new website for reviewers - Net Galley...seriously great website for anyone looking to do book reviews.

So onto the books. It's a board book for toddlers, but I am reviewing an e-copy. Full disclosure, right? Well I think the artwork is adorable and the words are easy to get through. In fact, I'm going to make my 6 year old work on reading them. Lots of "UP" usage.

Toddlers will love it, and probably up to the age of 4. Ivan (age 3) sat while I read them, Christopher (age 6) leaned in to listen and look at the pictures. In fact, Ivan wants me to read them again. He keeps seeing the picture as I'm writing this, so I bid you adieu.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Guest Blog - Tydeus

Let me just start this godsforsaken post by saying I don’t write. I don’t have a creative side, and if I did, I wouldn’t take the time to foster it in the hope of being able to create some type of meaningful repartee to “wow” you with. My name is Tydeus of Calydon, and I’m a warrior, handpicked by the goddess Athena, born and bred to do battle. I hunt the dregs of the Underworld, kill escaped demons and take pleasure in it while doing so. What I don’t do is blog. Unfortunately, my creator, Lisa, enjoys tormenting me as much as Athena, and I’m being forced to take part in this so-called character blog. I have a few choice words to say about this, but I’ll spare you for now.

I was given three topics to choose from for this godsdamned post. I’ve listed them below, along with my answers. Enjoy.
  • What are your hobbies? - Killing. ‘Nuff said.
  • Why did Athena choose you to lead The Order? - Holy Hera! Is this a serious question? This shit is a waste of my godsdamned time (shakes head.) Whatever. I’m a fucking beast, a warrior, a killing machine bred to fight, to win. When I was mortal, there were none that could best me. Athena recognized my prowess on the battlefield and vowed to reward me with immortality. She followed through with her vow, but not as she’d originally planned. Temporarily maddened by my love of bloodshed, I went too far with one of my kills and angered the goddess. She kept her vow to make me immortal, but punished me as well, cursing me with an inner beast, a Nemean lion. My fur is impervious to attack, mortal weapons cannot kill me, and my teeth and claws are sharper than swords. Like I said, I’m a fucking beast. The godsdamned King Of The Jungle.
  • What do you cherish most? - There’s nothing in this realm or any other that’s more important to me than Danika. She is my light. The only pure, good thing in my existence. For reasons that will be forever unknown to me, she sees past the atrocities I’ve committed and chooses to love me anyway. I thank Zeus for her daily, and would happily give my life for hers if necessary. She is an angel, beautiful, regal, gentle and divine. She is everything, and I will kill anyone and anything that threatens her, or the love that we share.

Tydeus is a character in the new novel Cursing Athena by Lisa Sanchez. You can purchase Cursing Athena from:
Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Musings

I've received a load of tarot cards to review lately. And it's been a blast! Honestly I love them all and if people weren't allowing me to review them I'd be out of luck.

Over on Pagan Writers Community I've written a review of The Gothic Tarot...
and Madame Endora's Fortune Cards.
Ankhie at Red Wheel/Weiser draws a Thoth card daily...or almost daily. Either way I've been seeing these cards over the last year. And it's such an established deck that no one will give them out for reviews. So...when Magaly over at Pagan Culture offered up a deck of Aleister Crowley Thoth Tarot, I had to do the blog entry...to get the extra entry.

Now you lucky readers head on over and get your own entries too. I wish all of us "wicked darlings" luck.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Book Spotlight: Cursing Athena

For Danika, the only thing worse than going commando while wearing a fugly, silver bodysuit, was dealing with her deadbeat, ex-husband James. Catcalls, unwanted groping and lecherous stares weren’t really her cup of tea either, but she’d endure all of it and more if her new job serving cocktails at Masquerade meant ridding herself of his mountain of debt. It was just a job, after all, and what choice did she have with James' creditors breathing down her neck? What she didn't bargain for, however, was falling heels-over-head in lust with a two-hundred-plus pound, shape-shifting immortal from Ancient Greece.

On a mission to take down a parasitic demon, Ty doesn't have time for distraction. Not even when that distraction could prove to be his possible lifemate in the form of sweet, innocent, yet sexy-as-hell Danika. But when the leech he’s hunting goes after the cocktail waitress, all bets are off. Unable to resist her siren call any longer, Ty surrenders himself to Danika, body and soul, treating them both to a night they'll never forget.

Cursing Athena is written by Lisa Sanchez who is a California cheer mom taxiing her way through life, one car ride at a time. Along with chauffer, she sports several job titles, including, but not limited to: author, chef, seamstress, videographer, nurse, enforcer, and general slave to her three daughters.

The first two books in her Hanaford Park series (Eve Of Samhain, Pleasures Untold) are published with Omnific Publishing. The third book, Faythe Reclaimed, is currently on submission. Her erotic suspense, Obsessed was published March 29th 2011 with Loose Id.
Facebook/Twitter/Website/Goodreads


Want more? Here is an excerpt from the book:
Bloody, dismembered bodies never got easier to look at. No matter how many millennia you roamed the earth. Ty stood from the cluster of torn limbs and viscera, disgust coating his stomach. Glass, splintered wood, and torn, blood-soaked paper littered the hardwood floor, every inch of the taupe walls in the small upscale apartment spattered with gore.

“It happened maybe an hour ago. Two at most.” Athena stood from where she knelt, her long, jet-black hair cascading across her black leather jacket like a shiny curtain. “The scorch mark is still fresh.”

Ty stared at the large circular burn mark on the floor and gnashed his teeth. He’d seen enough inter-dimensional landing pads to last him a lifetime—a thousand lifetimes. It was always the same: some hopped up demon, drunk on his own power, would decide he was the exception to the rule and cross over into the mortal realm, usually through a crack between dimensions.

Ty glanced over his shoulder toward the pile of female parts littering the sofa and floor. The underworld visitor had hit pay dirt, landing in the middle of what looked like some sort of book club gathering. Red wine mixed with blood seeped into the oriental throw rug; some type of uptight, crudités appetizer peppered the carpet along with a few well-manicured fingers.

“Great Zeus above…” Ty shook his head. It had been a bloodbath. The poor women never stood a chance.

Demons weren’t permitted out of Tartarus, and for good reason. Hungry for both flesh and innocent souls, they treated the human population like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

This, of course, was where he came in. Leader of The Order of Seven, and a favorite of Athena despite his outward hatred of her, he’d been summoned to the grisly scene just moments before.

Plucked from the bowels of Hades by the goddess herself, Ty and each of his six warrior brothers had been saddled not only with the lovely gift of immortality, but with an inner beast, a fierce mythological creature that would lie dormant within until it came time to battle. Ty’s beast, a Nemean lion, was especially vicious. Three times the size of a normal lion, it sported an enormous jaw that could pulverize steel and claws that could cut through the thickest armor. Even more astonishing was its fur. A deep burnished gold, smooth and thick, it was impervious to mortal weapons, making it virtually indestructible. Unearthly handsome in his mortal form, and blessed with the strength of a thousand men, he was the perfect warrior—cunning, lethal.


You can purchase Cursing Athena at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Special thanks to SizzlingPR for all the information in this Book Spotlight.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Silenced by the Yams

by: Karen Cantwell

Available at Amazon ((It's free at Amazon right now!!!))

Synopsis:
Soccer mom, Barbara Marr attracts trouble the way the North Pole attracts short men with odd wardrobe choices. So it’s no surprise when she finds herself in deep doo-doo while attempting to prove the innocence of friend and ex-Mafia goon, Frankie Romano, after he’s arrested for the murder of a famous action movie director.

This third book in the popular Barbara Marr Murder Mystery Series brings Barb out of the suburbs and into the slimy, urban world of bright lights, nightly news, and drive-by shootings. Luckily, she never loses her sense of humor or her ability to befriend some decidedly quirky characters.


On my list of favorite authors, I would put Karen Cantwell up there just above Janet Evanovich. I am in love with Barbara Marr and all her friends. It's so good to have a heroine who is not perfect and is just trying to do what she loves, raising her girls and watching movies. She started a movie review website - which made me lover her all the more. I reviewed a few movies, but books are my passion - lol.

This is the 3rd book, but there are a few short stories out there featuring Mrs. Marr. The way bad things happen around her, has people telling her she's a bad luck magnet and distancing themselves. One of her best friends is even moving far away. I felt so bad for her in this book. And the poor thing can't even deny that she does have bad luck. On the other hand, it's funny that Karen calls attention to how ridiculous it would be in real life to keep stumbling across murder-mysteries.

But here is why you will love Barbara too, she doesn't stop. Her friend, someone she believed in was arrested. She knew he was innocent and just kept plugging on to help him, no matter what. I would like to say I would do that for a friend, but really we don't know until we are there. Most of us would trust in the justice system. Of course, having a husband in the FBI and a best friend investigator give her a different perspective.

I can't wait to see what happens next. It just keeps getting more out there, and the people around her keep losing patience. Plus I love seeing what the mystery is and how it plays out. Cantwell keeps it silly, but the mystery is strong.

If you love quirky mystery - go get a copy. It's free right now, and only $3.99 regularly.


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