Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Sep.]

Wow, it's that time again! What have I even read during September? I'll have to go and check my GoodReads list...

*runs off to check GR*

Oohhhkay, here I am, back again, and I've read (or at least finished) 3 books this month. The one I'm going to feature is Anita Shreve's Testimony.


I thought this was a really good book, but it left me feeling pretty sad.

Very near the start, we find out that because of the scandal that occurs in the book, somebody dies. So for most of the book I was trying to figure out who it was. Reading the story, there were a few characters, and 2 in particular, that I got a sick feeling about, wondering if it would be them.

I was intrigued by the fact that Shreve got away with writing in so many different POVs, even 2nd person. Obviously most of the story wasn't in 2nd person, but still, it was interesting.

Shreve is a great writer, I already knew that. But after reading this book, I immediately wanted to read some mushy love story with a happy ending, to get past this one. I'm sure you have all read a book like that - one that was very good, but that you sort of wanted to forget with some follow-up fluff. ;)

I'm not even going to go back to last month & check where I was at then. Because, for the most part, it's where I still am this month. I have actually done some minimal revision work, but you'd laugh if I told you what I actually did, as it was very small. Then again, some famous guy mentioned in Stephen King's On Writing (yes, I'm fiiiinally reading this) apparently had a "good day" if he managed to write 7 words. So I know I did better than that. ;)

But yeah ... On Writing. It's making me feel so very ashamed of how LITTLE I am doing. The good thing is that it's also making me desperately hungry to GET BACK TO IT! I really want to be working on my novels right now. But I'm not.

Here's my latest excuse.

I am currently utterly consumed (not literally! phew!) by foster cats. At one stage I actually had 7 cats in my 1-bedroom villa. Thankfully that number went down to 6 the day after it hit 7. Then I got the 6th kitty new foster care, so now I'm at 5. One of those 5 is another temp foster who hasn't yet found new care. Then I have my own 2 foster kittens, and my own 2 adult cats. And I will be temp caring for a 6th cat until early October, as her carer is going away. So yeah, my life is basically foster kitteh-dominated right now.

My current temp foster, George, or as I call
him, "Jorje" (said with Spanish accent)

Particularly because I spent much of the last 2 days helping to organise saving 10 cats from euthanasia (one of whom was pregnant, so really it was more than 10 cats!). And now I am drinking a lot of champagne.

That's all I have to say for this month. ;)

Underrated Treasures blogfest ~ LIFE

Woohoo, it's time for another Ninja Captain blogfest!! These are always pretty epic, but the ones that involve music, movies, books, etc., are definitely amongst my faves. ;)

So what's this one about?

Everyone has a favorite movie or band that no one else has ever heard about. For whatever reason, they remain undiscovered and underrated. Now is your chance to tell the world about this obscure treasure! 

On Monday, September 22, post about your favorite unknown –

MOVIE – BAND/ARTIST – TV SHOW – BOOK

Post about one or all four – dealer’s choice! - Alex J. Cavanaugh

Now that that's out of the way, here is the most underrated TV show I can think of:

• TV Show - Life with Damian Lewis & Sarah Shahi.
  
  Pretty much any time I mention this show to anyone, they're like, "Huh?" It's a police procedural type show, but that's definitely not the main focus. The main focus is Lewis's character, Charlie Crews, who at the start of the series has just been released from prison after 12 years of false imprisonment. The crime he was jailed for was the murder of a fellow cop and his family, who also happened to be his good friends.
  
  Though Charlie was innocent, everyone (including his wife and his former partner on the force) believed he was guilty. So he lost everything, and also had a very crappy time as a cop in jail. After Charlie's release, he has a new (surprisingly Zen) outlook on life. He is given a detective job, a huge payout, and a new chance at life. He buys a mansion, an orchard, and a series of very fast cars. Nothing much seems to faze him. But underneath the surface, something explosive is brewing. Because Charlie knows he was set up, and he's determined to figure out who did it, and why.
  
  Charlie's new partner on the force, Dani Reese, is a shamed detective who is in a similar boat to him, in that nobody wants to work with her either. I just love the relationship that develops between these two. It's both hilarious and sad, but they are good for each other.
  
  To summarise ... this show is just bloody good, and I highly recommend it if you like quirky dramas that are absolutely gripping as well.

30 SECONDS blog tour ~ Chrys Fey

When a woman finds herself in the middle of a war between a police force and the Mob, 30 SECONDS is a long time.

Title: 30 Seconds

Author: Chrys Fey

Genre: Romantic-Suspense

Heat Rating: Spicy (PG13)

Length: Novella (105 pages)

Format: eBook

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Published: 09/10/2014

BLURB: 

When Officer Blake Herro agreed to go undercover in the Mob, he thought he understood the risks. But he's made mistakes and now an innocent woman has become their target. He's determined to protect her at all costs.

The Mob's death threat turns Dr. Dani Hart's life upside down, but there is one danger she doesn’t anticipate. As she's dodging bullets, she's falling in love with Blake. With danger all around them, will she and Blake survive and have a happy ending, or will the Mob make good on their threat? 


EXCERPT:

       She panted with fear. What if they see the chest? What if we get caught? What if my breath stinks and I’m breathing right into Officer Hottie’s face? She shut her mouth and let oxygen flow through her nose.

Her eyesight slowly adjusted to the darkness and she could see Officer Herro’s silhouette. His head was turned and he was listening to the thuds of heavy boots getting louder; the intruders were coming their way.

Then the thunder of footsteps sounded right next to them. “There’s no one here, Red,” someone announced.

“Look for documents,” a man ordered, who Dani could only assume was Red. “I want the name of the person I’m going to kill.”

A moment later, there was a reply. “All the mail is addressed to a Dr. Hart.”

Hearing her name said aloud by one of the men who had ransacked her place made her want to gasp. Her mouth fell open and her breath was reversing into her lungs, but before she could make a sound, Officer Herro lowered his lips to hers, silencing her. Stunned, she could only lie beneath him with her eyes wide and her body tense. She couldn’t believe he was kissing her. She wanted to push him back, but knew if she did he might hit the inside of the chest, giving away their hiding place. That was when she realized he was kissing her so she wouldn’t gasp.

She let her body relax. After her initial shock faded, she was able to feel his lips. They were comforting and caused a reaction deep inside her. She couldn’t stop her lips from reacting to his. It was an innocent connection, a soft touch of lips. Until his hand slid from her shoulder to her neck and the kiss deepened into something else.

BOOK LINKS:

Amazon US / Amazon UK / The Wild Rose Press
Goodreads

Chrys Fey is a lover of rock music just like Dani Hart in 30 Seconds. Whenever she's writing at her desk, headphones are always emitting the sounds of her musical muses -especially that of her favorite band, 30 Seconds to Mars, the inspiration behind the title.

30 Seconds is her second eBook with The Wild Rose Press. Her debut, Hurricane Crimes, is also available on Amazon.

Discover her writing tips on her blog, and connect with her on Facebook. She loves to get to know her readers!

AUTHOR LINKS:

Facebook / Blog / Goodreads

QUESTION: If the Mob was after you, what would you do and where would you go to stay alive?

Movie Monday #1 - IF I STAY & PREDESTINATION

I'll probably never post another Movie Monday post, but in case I do, I thought I'd make this #1.

This weekend just gone I saw two movies. I saw the first one because it was the $10 movie of the week (usually tickets cost $18.50 or more). It was IF I STAY (which I'd been looking out for for quite a while). I haven't read the book, though it's been on my TBR for ages. But I absolutely loved the movie. It was tragic, it was romantic, and it had a bunch of people sitting around a fire playing the Pumpkins' classic "Today", complete with cello.

Colour me totally sold on buying this on DVD when it comes out.

I also saw PREDESTINATION, which I had heard about from a colleague and really didn't want to see. But another colleague had free tickets, and she is always kind enough to share her freebies with me. So I knew I had to go. Still, I was grossed out by the very premise, and the movie itself didn't fail to give me that "ick" feeling. This movie was weird, and intriguing, I suppose, but there's no way I ever want to watch it again. ;)

Conclusions?

I will buy the IF I STAY soundtrack, and I will read the book someday soon

(which I planned to do anyway).

And as for PREDESTINATION, I will always remember it as the movie that got me to exclaim, "What the fuck?!" as the credits began to roll.

Musical adventures - what will I discover next?

Every now and then, I go on a music-finding binge, just to see what happens. I've done this with YouTube mixes, and have found many bands I've wanted to hear more of. I've also done it by searching for songs featured on particular compilation series, most notably the Music from Time and Space series (which is up to volume 40-something, though I have only explored volumes 1-10, as well as a particular volume I managed to download years ago which is later in the series).

But one of my favourite sources of new music has, for years, been Last.fm. And this week I've been finally getting around to doing something I've wanted to do for ages - checking out my Last.fm friends' charts, and listening to bands on those charts that I've never heard, or heard of, before.

My Top Artists chart for the last 7 days looks very different to how it usually would, right now, featuring many artists that are new, or relatively new, to me in the last week:

1	Young Guns			16
2	Boards of Canada			12
3	Lacuna Coil			11
3	The Smashing Pumpkins			11
5	Something Corporate			7
6	Throwing Muses			6
6	Crematory			6
8	Agent Orange			5
9	Breaking Benjamin			4
9	Charon			4
9	Nothing More			4
9	Panic! at the Disco			4
13	Paint It Black			3
13	Arcade Fire			3
13	50 Foot Wave			3
13	Jack's Mannequin			3
17	Boredoms			2
17	Nirvana			2
17	Soundgarden			2
17	Hole			2

As you can tell, the artists I enjoyed most out of the new listens were Young Guns (gonna definitely buy their two albums available at my local hi-fi store ASAP) and Boards of Canada, though I definitely want to explore Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin (which have previously been recommended by a good friend of mine) as well. But there was quite a mix of sounds in this new lot of listening - doom/gothic metal, skate punk, and more generic indie/alt. rock, as well as ambient/chillout.

I've been locating all these artists on YouTube and listening from there. Listening via YouTube scrobbles to Last.fm, and if a song isn't scrobbling, I skip it and find an alternate video for the same song, or just move on to a new song.

I love finding new music, and since I have 443 friends on Last.fm and have only explored about 6 of their charts so far, I know I have a lot more awesomeness to uncover!

Sunflowers for Tina Downey

Today is the day when the blogosphere is remembering Tina Downey, who sadly passed away recently well before her time. The folks from the A to Z Challenge are putting on this special blog hop in Tina's honour.

"Tina loved her sunflowers, and we want to splash the blogging world with sunflowers that day and honor a truly amazing woman who was friend and family to so many."

I'm sad that I didn't know Tina well, though I did visit her blog, and those three words "Life Is Good" definitely stuck in my mind. From what I have heard about Tina, those words really summed up how she approached life. Even in the hardest of times, her spirit and love of life shone through ... like fierce sunbeams falling on gorgeous yellow flowers.

Unfortunately where I live, it's not common to see sunflowers growing on the side of the road, or in fields, or anywhere. I do, however, have some pictures to share, from when my mum had some beautiful big flowers in a vase...

Rest in peace, Tina.

IWSG #8 - I'm feeling pretty pumped ... for now ;)

It's the first Wednesday of September, and so it's time to post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. This awesome group was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh, but each week there are co-hosts, and this month they are:

Laura at My Baffling Brain, Mark Koopmans, Shah Wharton, and Sheena-Kay Graham

It's also the 3-year anniversary of IWSG's beginning! Now that is pretty bloody awesome!

Anyway, I am like any writer in that I have my bouts of insecurity, and I've often had that "this is crap" feeling when reading back through my own work. But lately I have to say I've been feeling quite confident. I know I can write, so all I have to do is get through the far more important editing process and I'll be ready to publish.

I think I am getting something of an editing complex, but this month, when it comes to my writing, I am feeling quite good. And I can totally imagine self-publishing something within the next year.

Let's see how long this feeling lasts, shall we? ;)