Awards Post

Hi Everyone!

I've received some beautiful awards in the last few days and weeks and I've been very lax about posting these awards. I've been sooo busy in the kids and generally not been in a blogging mood. So, I'm going to give out awards today too. It's been a wild day around here. And I'm so happy to receive Faeries Gone Wild plus I received an ARC of Vicki Pettersson's City of Souls to review. I will be hosting several contests here in the future, more information to come. (I know this is my fourth post today, but I keep coming across books and information that I want to share!) And since I haven't been blogging as much, I kind of feel guilty about not getting out here more.

Awards:

From Lea @ closetwriter, I received The Little CJ Award:




“You have to award it to two people or I will make a voodoo doll of you and stick pins in it. Was that not clear? And, if those two people do not award it to two other people, I will make voodoo dolls of them, and stick pins in them.”

I'll name the two bloggers at a later date and hope the voodoo is too bad. Yikes! I can always sick the zombies on the voodoo priestess.

Also from Lea @ closewriter, I received the Angel On My Blog Award.



Oh, mama, I'm lovin' them nekkid buns!

From Wendy @ Wendy's Minding Spot (this blog name totally rocks as does the blog, btw, and I love Eeyore!)



1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post.
2) Nominate at least 10 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude.
3) Link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

And finally The Literary Blog Award



I received this award from Anna, Wendy, and so many others...I love this award best of all, it means so much to receive this award. Thank's to all my blogger buddies.

And I have two other bloggers to Thank, Cecile and Blodeuedd.

Cecile, you are so funny and sweet, I'm so glad you've joined the blogosphere. You brighten my day. Cecile has shared her awards with her blogger buddies. Ginormous Thanks for all the sweet awards and the cookies, the flowers, and the Princesses.

Blodeuedd, I love how you always make time to stop by, sometimes I have insomnia and Blodeuedd comes and chats, of course it might be 3 AM here, but it's when she has free time in the middle of her day. I've found some really cool information about a land that is so far away. Again, Blodeuedd has shared all of her awards with her blogger buddies. Gigantic Thanks Blodeuedd!

Lea, Barbara, Blanche, VFG, and Anna - thanks so much for welcoming me into little group of bloggers. I love blogging and you guys have made it so much fun. You are all so sweet and funny, you can crack me up! Lea likes to make me work and read all kinds of romance, Barbara makes me want to read historicals, VFG - the Brotherhood, Blanche - comtemps and really hot cowboys, and Anna - just wow, have you seen how many books this girl can read? I also want to give a special thanks! to Anna. Anna, your contest rocks! Thanks Anna! I also want to thank Amy, she's reads some to the best fantasy romance that has that extra little kick and some of the best recommendations! Thanks Amy!

Wendy as I said I think your blog totally rocks (I will always have a soft spot for Eeyore)!

SciFiGuy and Darque Reviews - I loves these blogs, so much info about some really great reads. If I have an urban fantasy or paranormal question, these bloggers have the answers.

HAWK - Man, you always make me think, and sometimes the rusty wheels of my ole brain just don't want to turn. Thanks Hawk for all your beautiful words! (and thanks for the Friends Award as well!)

One last thing and then I promise to stop and be good until tomorrow. I'd like to thank DeSeRt RoSe, Alaine - Queen of Happy Endings, and Teddyree - you guys rock, always have something nice to say and you're the goddesses of awards. Thanks ladies!

And thanks to all the great authors out there, without your brilliant words, I would be lost.

I'd like to share these award with all of my friends.

I've asked Tink share a little love with all my blogger buddies for making blogging so much fun!



(this beautiful Tink is from photobucket and dawnette3)

Cover Art for LKH and Yasmine Galenorn and a New Anthology

I received this in my email this afternoon and thought I'd share from Witchy Chicks.

Yasmine Galenorn said:

I can unveil the cover for Never After-the anthology coming out on November 3, 2009. My novella-The Shadow of Mist-will be in there, and it's an OW Novella about Siobhan Morgan, the selkie. Never After is up for pre-order now!

Bright Blessings,

Yasmine

I don't know if you visit Witchy Chicks, but I love their blog. This is from the June Newsletter.

And another Laurell K. Hamilton short! You know this is on my wish list!

Guess What Was Waiting In My Mailbox This Morning? And Free E-Books!!

My eyes are popping! I'm sooo excited! After months of reading about this beautiful blue sparkly cover (it's covered with faery dust), I have my very own copy. Thanks Michele for sending me a copy! *doing the happy dance* Come on, everyone join me, there's plenty of room for dancing!! I'm pushing back the furniture!! Remember to check out Michele's contest. You can also visit her website. I know she's already given one copy away to a lucky reader who found a copy 'in the wild'. And remember to go to Harlequin to download a free copy of Kiss Me Deadly (as well as the other 15 free ebooks available now!)



It doesn't get much sweeter than Faeries Gone Wild in the morning.

Two New Releases I Can't Wait To Read!!!

Just had to give one last shout out to two great books. I love Queen Betsy and you'll know my feelings on Faeries!

Strange Angels (ARC) by Lili St. Crow

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow
Publisher: Penguin Group, Penguin Group for Young Readers, Razorbill
Pages: 304

Released Date: May 19, 2009
From the Cover: Dru Anderson has what her grandmother called "the touch." (Comes in handy when you're traveling from town to town with your dad, hunting ghosts, suckers, wulfen, and the occasional zombie.)

Then her dad turns up dead but still walking and Dru knows she's next. Even worse, she's got two guys hungry for her affections, and they're not about to let the fiercely independent Dru go it alone. Will Dru discover just how special she really is before coming face-to-fang with whatever or whoever is hunting her?

Dru Anderson isn't your normal run of the mill sixteen year old. How many sixteen year old's do you know that can dress, load, and fire an AK47? How many know about the Real World where werwulfen, suckers, and zombies exist?

Dru's life has been in turmoil since the death of her grandmother. When her grandmother was alive, she always knew where she was going to be, the little cabin where her grandmother raised her since her mother's death. Her grandmother had a little of the 'touch', but Dru has a lot. Dru could see things, knew things, things that nobody else would ever want to know. Not her grandmother and definitely not her dad. As she sat holding her grandmother's hand as she slipped from this world to the next, Dru wondered what was going to happen with her life. When her dad picked her up at the hospital, she knew things would be different.

Since Dru's mother had died, her dad was a different person, always on the run, searching for something that either he couldn't or wouldn't share with her. Now, instead of staying with her grandmother, Dru went with her father. The good part of this was that Dru saw more of her father, the bad part was that they moved from one place to the next within a few weeks to months. But her dad also taught her stuff, like how to defend herself, how to load weapons, how to use a knife, and how not to get dead. Dad had left the Marines when her mother died, and now his life was very different.

Dru always knew when something bad was going to happen, her grandmother's owl always paid a visit before the unspeakable happened. Today, as Dru drifted through sleep, she thought she saw the owl at her bedroom window, tapping and watching her. Maybe it was just a dream, sometimes the dreams seemed so real. As she made her way to the kitchen, her dad was sitting at the table, loading magazines. Was he hunting today, maybe she should go with him. But if she started again, she'd get The Talk. The talk about how she should be in school, how she couldn't go with him everywhere. She knew he could take care of himself, but maybe she should tell him about the owl she thought she'd seen.

As Dru left for school, she worried, she had an uneasy feeling, nothing she could put her finger on, but something was off, different. Maybe it was this town or the frigid arctic temperatures. She didn't know, she just didn't feel right. Now she had to deal with a new school with new kids. At least the Asian looking kid, Graves, was there to take some of the heating from the wicked Bletch, teacher unextraordinaire. And today was going to be one of those days...she couldn't stand it, she was so jumpy, she should have told Dad about the owl....She cutting and look who's following, Graves.

Graves takes her to the mall, lunch and games. But as Dru heads home, the unease feeling returns, stronger than ever. When she returns home, she decides it's time to start unpacking if only to keep her hands busy...when she hears a scratching at the door, a tap-tap-tap. Dru grabs Dad's field knife and creeps towards the back door, nobody should be there, no one knows where they are. Tap-tap-tap as Dru peeks around the corner... Ohmigod,ohmigod,ohmigod ...she knows that army surplus coat, those winter blue eyes...as the zombie leans further in...spying Dru at the same time...Something has turned Dad into a zombie....Zombie Dad bursts through the door, chasing Dru into the living room as Dru screams, kicking wildly, begging it not to be...please.. please don't be Dad, please..please..As the zombie lungs and falls on top of Dru, she does the only thing she can..as she falls, she grabs the stash pistol and shoots. She just killed the zombie that was her dad. Now, Dru is alone in the world, no one between her and what's out there in the Real World. She's all alone, no mother, father, or grandmother...What's going to happen to her now? How will she survive? And most importantly, Who killed her dad and changed him into a zombie? She knows she should call the safe numbers from her dad's address book, but who can she trust? How does she say, Hey it's Dru and my dad's a dead zombie?

As Dru begins to realize that there's more going on around her than even she was lead to believe, Christophe comes into her life to help fight off a particularly blood thirsty pack of werwulfen, controlled and dominated by Serjei. Is this Serjei the evil that she feels? Did he turn her dad into a zombie?

Strange Angels by Lili St. Crow is another new author for me, but this will not be her last book I read. This is a YA novel with a twist. Yes, it's urban fantasy, but there's a horror quality that I tried to capture that was great. It was terrifyingly real emotions that Lili St. Crow was able to capture in her written words. I could almost feel Dru try to scramble backward, not believe what her eyes were seeing. It wasn't an incredibly scary book, but the events in Dru's life were horrific. From losing her grandmother to her zombiefied father, the story rocked and rolled from one dangerous creature to the next. From the opening page, you knew this story was going to be different and to the last page when you wondered if Dru was trusting the right people. Dru is a tragic heroine in that life just isn't fair to her. She's ripped from one environment to another, chasing after her father from one end of the United States to the other. She never has a true guiding light in her life. Her one saving grace is her grandmother's owl, not an owl her grandmother possessed, but one that possesses the spirit of her grandmother. Graves is her hero, saving her time and time again from the nasties he's just learned about. He's been bitten by a werwulfen, but doesn't make the complete change because he's still a virgin. He becomes a hybrid that's almost as valuable to the creatures of the Real World as Dru is with her 'touch'. There's a secondary hero is this book, Christophe, a hybrid vampire known as a djamphir, vampire hunter. She doesn't know if she should trust him or kill him, but he's too cute to kill and he's saved her butt a couple of times. Christophe holds the secrets that may keep Dru alive, but at what cost will the secrets come. He wants her to believe that her mother was some sort of hybrid sucker, just as Dru is herself. Mom had the ability to see things in the Real World and was a hunter who got rusty with the birth of her family, and it cost Dru's mother her life. Will it cost Dru's as well? As Dru begins this new part of her life, we get to come along, just to see if she's going to make it out alive. This was a fast, fun read and I enjoyed it a great deal. I loved the story line, the way the story was told, and die hard nature of the characters. The cover art is fantastic. I was left at the end of this book hoping to find more and anticipating the release in the Betrayals of the second book in the series. From SciFiGuy's site: 'Lilith Saintcrow announced on her blog that Betrayals, the follow-up to her young adult novel Strange Angels is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It has a November release date.' My ARC shows the release to be Spring 2010, my wait won't be so long after all! For more information about Lili St. Crow's books, please visit her website. Soon, there is supposed to be a dedicated site to Strangle Angels at http://www.strangeangels.com/.

Here a peek at the wild book trailer for the story that is Strange Angels.



Lili St. Crow talks about Strange Angels.