Coming soon

Coming Soon:

Guest post from Alrene Russo, author of The Real Twilight and founder of Bite Me magazine.

Book reviews

and probably some funny mockery about a certain "vampire" trend...

True Blood Season 2: Delayed but Here

Yes I am a slacker – but I don’t have HBO (let alone cable) so I have to mooch off the few (2 people) that I know have HBO… which isn’t easy. So this weekend I vegged out at my dad’s house and caught up, watching episodes 7-12.

So here’s what happened (and what didn’t happen in the book) – spoilers.

Fellowship of the Sun try to kill Sookie and Eric… and Godric and Bill, and then Jason (partially book plot oriented – Sookie escapes with the help of a were who has infiltrated the system, causing more drama. PS. Godric is not a hero in the book, he is an ancient child molestor or something)

Texas vampires come to kick-ass – Godric stops anything from happening and everyone goes home… Texas vampires have a party (never happened in the book)

Jason’s FoS rival acts as a suicide bomber and stops the vamp party (partially book oriented – was a fire fight, not a bomb)

Eric tricks Sookie to sucking silver out of him (in the book it was a bullet)

Mary Ann gets people into more trouble (Mary Ann character is nothing like the book)

Sam gets framed for murder (not in the book, nor is the following)

Mary Ann possessed the whole town

Hoyt and new vampire girl get into a fight (this plot isn’t in the book at all either)

Sookie gets captured

We meet Sophie-Ann – Queen of Louisiana, apparently an avid Yahtzee fan.

Bill and Sam find a way to kill Sophie Ann

Poor Sam

Miss new vampire is getting herself into trouble

Bill and Sookie go on a date

Bill proposes

Bill gets kidnapped.


Being an big Charlain Harris/Sookie Book fan I was PISSED about the ending – thought is was absolutely stupid. Bill should not be proposing… they break up in the book! Book 3 in the series does have Bill being kidnapped though. It should be interesting how season 3 goes!

I Can't Be A Productive Reader

And by that I mean that I can't read books and be productive! My productive streak of house cleaning, jewelry making, and organizing lasted 2.5 days... and then it stopped when I picked up a book that held my attention. And say goodbye to doing anything else; just me and my book now.

Since The Husband is back in full swing of things I think I just may make a comeback. Who needs a clean house when you have books that need to be read? Exactly! All in moderation I suppose...

True Blood - Season 2 Episode 1 - No Longer Following the Sookie Books

OK, so after watching the second season premier of True Blood, it might be much easier to list the things that were similar in book 2 that appeared in the TV show versus what WASN’T the same. Pretty much everything in the episode had nothing to do with book two; which was extremely disappointing – especially the whole Lafayette debacle. How the heck are they going to work that one out?

I am becoming more and more disappointed in the show. I really need to work on separating in my mind the book and the TV show because they are so different, especially leading into season 2.

Beware of spoilers if you haven’t read Living Dead in Dallas but here are some differences between book and show:

· Lafayette is dead in Andy’s car – not the phony exorcist that never even existed to begin with.
· Mary Ann does not exist in the capacity she does on the show – she makes a couple brief appearances but not in the form of “Mary Ann” and she certainly does not have some rich demented half-way house – nor does Tara even meet her – except at the end LDID.
· Because Bill never killed Long Shadow to begin with (ERIC DID), he certainly did not have to make a young and annoying vampire – who also doesn’t exist… at all.
· Sookie’s uncle died “falling down the stairs” I’m pretty sure she found out about this in book one though, and both her and her brother received and inheritance.
· Jason never comes close to joining Fellowship of the sun.
· Sam had a happy childhood and was never abandoned or resorted to stealing and "Mary Ann" certainly didn’t take his virginity.
· Because Lafayette dies in the beginning on book 2 he is never tortured by Eric
· Eric does not need to highlight his hair

I will be very upset if Eric doesn’t attend an orgy with Sookie and if he doesn’t take care of her when she gets hurt in Texas. At least episode was more entertaining than last season.

Any one else have any thoughts/complaints?

And don' forget to enter to win Tanya Huff's Blood Ties!

Breaking Up with a Book Series

Smart Bitches Trashy Books wrote a great post that has some great comments about when/why you break up with a series, or why you don't.

Whose series were most noted?
J.R. Ward
Sherrilyn Kenyon
Laurell K Hamilton
Christine Feehan
Charlaine Harris
Janet Evanovich
Mary Janice Davis

Obviously it's no suprise that a ton of people have broke up with Anita Blake... which got me thinking... I don't think I ever really break up with these series, I am just not as urgent to read them. I know the Blake books have become trash, yet I can't help to read them. I think I am actually kind of looking forward to the next book coming out even though I feel bad for wanting to read it. I still have hopes it might get better. I won't buy it the day it comes out - I may just wait until my library gets it.

I won't name the unlisted series, but when my favorite character got killed off, I am having a hard time wanting to read the new books. I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to buy it, even though it had been out since February and decided not to when I found out I would have to pay over 27 dollars for it - it just wasn't worth it.

Some people are getting to the point of wanting to quit Sookie, but I have found that I still very much enjoy them (and Eric of course) so next may I will be in line the day it comes out at the time the store opens. Now if they killed of Eric, I probably wouldn't be that interested in reading about Sookie, and I would be quite angry. I would probably eventually buy the book afterwards (if ever that did occur which I pray it won't).

I also found that the Tanya Huff series ended a book later than it should have. SPOILER ALERT - it just wasn't worth reading after she was turned. Sometimes books are hard to continue reading when you read 5 that focus around a chase and book 6 the get what they were looking for - well book 7 gets a bit boring.

What makes you break up with a book or lose interest?

Don't You Hate It When Life Gets in the Way?

I hang my head in shame thinking of how much I have abandoned this blog as of late.
I also have to wait until Friday or Saturday to Dead and Gone .... which I am quite sad about.
I didn't think being married would take up so much of my time; foolish I know.

I do have some treats coming up though!
Stay tuned for a chance to win some True Blood jewelry that I am in the process of finishing.
Are you team Bill or Eric?

And.... to leave you with something that disturbed and confused me (from Flickr Lurkr)

View the whole photo stream here.

Is True Blood Going in the Right Direction?

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Don't forget to send me your vampy pictures! Between wedding stuff, my car breaking down, my phone breaking, and all the other joys of life, I haven't taken the time to voice my opinions on the True Blood series (or much of anything for that matter).

Last night was a bit of a disapointment for me. I understand that the series needs side stories; the show would probably be a bit boring if it was just 100% Sookie and her thoughts, but when is it too much?

In the books Tara was never psychotic, Sam didn't seem so annoying, and Jason didn't seem like such an ass. Character personalities aside, certain events have raised my eyebrows a few times: Tara's mom being alive, Tara and her mom being possessed, Jason's new hippy girlfriend, and Jason and said girl friend kidnapping the vampire. Um... okay. It may be annoying, but I could live with some artisitic interpretation (I guess if I have to). This last episode seriously pissed me off though. Do you know what that was? Any guesses?

Bill had to stake Long Shadow!

It says a lot when Eric stakes Long Shadow, and it says a lot that Bill had to go New Orleans to become higher up in the vampire community so that Eric wouldn't take Sookie. Now Bill is gone because he has to go on trial? Please. I would have preferred it the way it was suppose to be. It seems that all but the first maybe, 3 episodes have wandered quite a bit from the books. I guess the basic plot, in it's most simple nature is still there, but there are important things that are being changed or left out.

I will still watch the show every weekend, but it is starting to be quite disapointing that it is becoming so different from the books.

It Bothers Me Just a Little

Work has been really boring lately. Actually work has been really slow so I in turn I am really bored. I hope it picks up soon because I am tired of dealing with data and statistics.

My mom is reading Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Series. I thought I would take this time and talk a bit about these books. I really enjoyed these books, to an extent. The books held my attention, but I was in a state of aggravation through half of it though. The main character – Bella is cute and clumsy until she falls head over heels with the other lead – vampire Edward. After which, she is crazy, obsessed, co-dependent, and only wants Edward. She can’t live without him, she can’t sleep without him, she doesn’t want to do anything or go anywhere without him. If Edward told her to kill herself she would. It is one thing to portray the characters “in love” but Bella’s reaction to Edward is way beyond that.

Being books meant for the young adult audience I think that it is great that Stephanie Meyer cut out the graphic sex scenes that are so prevalent in vampire fiction, but she is still sending a strong message to young girls about relationships. Edward and Bella’s relationship is UNHEALTHY. I hope young girls don’t read these books and think they need to “love” in a similar fashion or try and find a relationship in which they are utterly infatuated and co-dependent upon someone else.

Although these books are aimed at the more high school aged crowd, they were the most dramatic and emotional books I have read yet. But then again, the teen crowd is known to be dramatic and emotional so maybe it fit. I seriously had to scan through the books as fast as I could because I was wondering what in the world was going to happen and I didn’t want to read page after page of things I wasn’t interested in. I actually wished it was a little bit lighter on the “emotional” aspect of the books. I had to read them as fast as possible because I was aggravated with what was going on and wanted to know how it turns out.

The last thing that bothers me is the high school setting. So you are a vampire, clearly older than most people, yet you want to go to high school? Sure you might want to blend in, but why high school? After the second time around you probably wouldn’t learn anything new. Why not just go to college? Who would want to go to high school after years of maturing? They may still look like high schoolers… but maturity, education, and experience-wise they are long past that stage in life.

I look forward to the fourth book when it comes out in August, but I know that it won't turn out the way you want it to... of course, no suprise there. Maybe I will just ask someone else how it ends.

While I am ranting on the various things that bug me about the books I have been reading, I have a few things to say about Octavia Butler’s Fledgling. Sure the book touches on issues of race and prejudice, but there is something a little disturbing about the 10 year old look alike. So the protagonist is a vampire… a “child” in the vampire community, but really about 50 or so human years old. She looks like a 10 year though. Even so, people have no problem having sex with her.

I would think there would be some serious psychological issues in being physically intimate with someone who looks 10 years old. Not just someone who is as short as, but literally, a 10 year child’s body. That just bothered me.