Tag Archives: Belated Birthday Stuff

Winners and June in Review

Hi friends! A day late but no dollars short because giveaway winners are being announced!!!

Also, if you’re a stranger to ALBTALBS, personally, I’ve had a lot going on and am currently in PT and I might not always be 100% timely. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

For the author post giveaways … I’m going to defer to them to pick winners unless/until I hear otherwise … so yes I’ll be reaching out to them and maybe you’ll want to check this space [this specific post] for any changes.

So you know, these are all the birthday posts, and if authors haven’t posted winners yet maybe you can still comment and win. 😉 Continue reading

Guest Author & A Giveaway: Vivian Arend

It’s March. It’s March and I just can’t handle this! I need a pause button, wherein I can make everyone else pause and I try to catch up. Like … reverse Sleeping Beauty. 😛 (I’m probably messing that up, aren’t I?) Anyway, it was Vivian Arend‘s birthday yesterday! And she’s our “special guest” of the month! Whee! (Also exciting, she’s one of the few who didn’t opt for the “interview.” Smart. 😉 Viv took the time out of her special day to send us this post, so I hope you chime in – and wish her a happy belated! <3

High SeductionBack in senior high, one of the requirements for my Grade Twelve English was to complete a ‘major study project’. With limited interest in doing standard research, but a strong creative streak, I came up with what I thought was a fabulous solution. I proposed re-writing part of Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene into modern English.

It was a far more ambitious task than I’d anticipated, but something happened while I puzzled out the ancient syntax into modern terms. I fell in love with storytelling.

The words were interesting, but the pictures those words painted were more important. Shifting Spenser’s phrases into current day lingo allowed my friends to experience the wonder of the story.

Words can be beautiful. Author voices can make me smile and wish I had their skill with words, but in the end, the prettiest phrases become meaningless if they don’t tell the story.

And now, in a lighter twist, I find myself once again forced to interpret confusing words. Not olde English, but my own. See, I picked up a dictation program to help take the load off my wrists. The program works wonderfully, except when it doesn’t.

If I’m paying attention, I stop as I work and fix mistakes. Only when I’m really rolling, I don’t want to interrupt the flow, and then I end up going back over scenes a couple days later. And that’s when I have to figure out what the heck I was talking about.

Black GoldJust like with Spenser, scene context can help. Thats how I knew “Beowulf and the bear” was supposed to be “a wolf and a bear”. And– “Long strands of spun gold, fresh from Russell stills skins wheel…” is also easy to parse.

But what about “Disparities in mind at all claim little height go seek”?

?????

Seriously? I had to have been following the authors’ creed of “Write Drunk…” to come up with that one. Only now as I hit the “…edit sober” section of the command, nothing made sense.

I eventually figured it out, but it was an exciting task.

So…what do you think it means? That mysterious phrase of mine? I’ll give you the following hints: this is found in a paranormal story. The hero is a grizzly bear shifter. The heroine, a shy back bear shifter.

I have a print copy of Black Gold (book 1 Takhini Wolves) for the person who gets the closest, or makes me laugh the hardest with their guess.

Have fun!

Psyche! I’m Not Done!

What am I not done with? Giveaways. Of course. I um, dropped the ball on a giveaway – so obviously I need to remedy it. Also I didn’t think any of you would be complaining. 😉

… I’m right, right?

It’s probably for the best though right? Because if I’d remembered everything then we’d be at 44 for the Birthday Bash giveaway, and then I’d be all OCPD and not able to stand it and have to hunt down another author/giveaway… So really, this was planned! >.> Ok, so I can’t stretch it that far, but you get my point. It all works out nicely.

What’s this elusive book I’m talking about? Laurie London’s upcoming release!

Deep within the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the battle for supremacy rages on between two vampire coalitions:

Guardian enforcers sworn to protect humanity, and Darkbloods, rogues who kill like their ancient ancestors… 

Hot-blooded and hard-edged, Tristan Santiago has an uncanny ability to see beneath the surface-a skill that serves him well as the Guardians’ region commander. But when a deadly plot against his fellow vampires is uncovered, he must turn to the one woman he can’t read: the beautiful yet mysterious Roxanne Reynolds, whose sensual presence soothes his tormented memories.

Roxy had put love before duty once before, with devastating results. But to root out a dangerous traitor in their midst, she must put her faith in Santiago, the one man skilled enough to break through her defenses. Posing as lovers, Santiago and Roxy work side by side-and discover a powerful craving that threatens to consume them both….

Do you read paranormal romances? Ever read any of Laurie’s Sweetblood books before? What’s even more exciting? This book releases on July 24th! That’s next week! Whee!

If your answer was “no” to either of the previous questions – what upcoming books are you looking forward to? C’mon – you guys have to offer me some benefit, right? 😉 What should I be looking for? Someone who comments is winning a copy of Seduced by Blood!

Whee!

(Or you know you could say nice things about me. Flattery gets you everywhere!

Yes I’m joking.)