"Tempted" from House of Night Series **SPOILERS**

I was so excited to get to the bookstore to buy the next book in the House of Night series, written by P.C. Cast & her daughter Kristen Cast. Let me just start by saying these two women are a great writing team overall. I have enjoyed the whole series... the ups, the downs, even the teenage angst...which is saying a lot.

As I was saying, I couldn't wait to get my teeth into this book! As a kind of recap, Zoey Redbird is the main character, the heroine in this series. She has come from normal run-of-the-mill teen high school human to now, fledgling vampyre priestess. She was chosen by the goddess Nyx to be a vessel for her to get rid of evil and bring back her children to her. Each time something big occurs and Zoey saves her friends, or for that matter, the world, she gains these beautiful tattoos all over her body. The goddess Nyx gives these tattoos to identify her touch or her choosing of a fledgling. The more markings a fledgling receives, the closer they are to becoming a vampyre or priest/priestess.

The series left us with Zoey Redbird and her circle of friends, chasing off the immortal Kalona and the evil priestess Nefret. The last battle she faced almost killed her grandmother and her boy friend of interest, Stark.

In "Tempted”, we get to see more of Stevie Rae, now a red vampyre, and her red fledglings. We see a lot of Zoey POV and Stevie Rae POV. In this book, it is Stevie Rae's turn to keep secrets from Zoey.

Stevie Rae, having a new take on life, finds a Raven Mocker and realizes that he is part human. Therefore, she attempts to save his life and keep him from all her friends.

While all recover from the battle with Kalona, Zoey learns more of the location of Kalona and Neferet. Her pursuit takes her and her circle to Italy where Zoey must appear before the Vampyre council. While there, something happens to Zoey that was very disconcerting to me. Major cliffhanger!! I need the next book now because I am worried about Zoey & Stevie Rae!

Overall, I the book read quickly. Too quickly. I felt like this was a Part 1 to a multi-part book. I hate to have things left hanging.

...I'm watching for the next book!

Seeing Twilight Saga New Moon **SPOILER ALERT**

Most who follow me on Twitter, or even here on my blog, know that I flew up to Idaho to visit my bff @Needsntrvention. We took the weekend to see New Moon.

I believe it was either Tuesday or Wednesday of last week that I was told my by @Needsntrvention that she was able to get tickets to see the first movie, "Twilight" just before the midnight show of New Moon! I was excited on more than one level. First, that meant we wouldn't have to stand out in the cold waiting to see New Moon and second, there'd be a little bit of a reminder to what was sure to come in New Moon... Not that Twilight was that good of a movie...but my imagination understood where it was going.

I flew in on Thursday and anxiously awaited the shows. We went to the liquor store to buy booze for AFTER the movies cuz I really didn't want to be blerry eyed for NM... HOWEVER, I did buy one small bottle of Stoli just for my soda in the theater. I should have had two... Who knew.

My bff & I shared my soda w Stoli during Twilight... It was good but not enough... Hence I remembered I didn't want to be drunk...

We were surprised to see that there were not as many teens in the theater but a lot of 20 + adults. Amazingly too, there were a lot of men in there... I suppose they were trying to earn their "Chick Flick" points! Haha!

When scenes of naked flesh shown brightly on the screen you could hear the screaming... I think I flushed when jailbait removed his shirt to wipe the blood from Bella's head. Holy cow that took my breath away!

Ok, here are SOME of my thoughts on the movie. There is no particular order of fascination... yet!

1. First and foremost this was the best fucking movie! I loved just about everything about it! I felt it followed the book very well and I also think that director Chris Weitz captured the feeling of the characters that was written in the book. Thank you Chris Weitz. *in case you Google yourself* (I do... why shouldn't you! JS)
2. I loved the SFX with the vampires. They moved much more cleanly and it looked more realistic for vampire speed. I really loved the blur effect during the fight scenes!
3. I really loved the transformation of the wolves! SFX there were phenomenal! I have to say that I've seen enough werewolf slow mo transformations to last a lifetime, so to just see the wolves POOF become wolves was excellent! Watching their clothes just shred... can I say... I wouldn't mind seeing more of that! GAH!
4. I felt that Kristen Stewart *in case you Google yourself too* did an exceptional job as well. In the first movie I felt she stuttered way too much and was limited in her emotional acting, but in this one she seemed more real to me and not brain damaged. I loved the way she looked overall. That's probably how I would dress given that I am more tomboy than lady... LOL JS
5. I really truly loved the seeing the nomad vampire Victoria (played by Rachelle LeFevre). She was sexier than ever... her hair was more red than I've ever seen it... It portrayed the Victoria I envisioned from the books much better. Seeing her running from wolves and leaping into the ocean made my breath hitch... I am really glad they put the scene of Victoria swimming toward Bella too.
6. Bella's cliff jump was very well mastered. Seeing her there with Edward along side was an Awww moment. I really felt for Bella as she took off her jacket and bracelets to jump in when she began talking to Edward who wasn't really there.
7. I felt so sorry for Jacob. Every fucking time he tried to kiss Bella he got cock blocked! Never got a kiss in once! Poor puppy.
8. The notorious kissing scene next to the truck did NOTHING for me! I was so disappointed. There was NO TONGUE! Like @Needsntrvention said, you can only watch then roll their lips together so much ... there was just nothing but lip rolling and moans... albeit the moans were nice... they just made me wanting so much more! YES, I know the rating was PG-13...
9. Of course there is the scene of the race to Volturi ... I would have loved to have seen more to that part of the movie... In the book, Alice had a few visions that lead her to the outcome. It also gave Alice and Bella more time to get to know each other. I would have preferred to see Alice choosing her car to steal too.. That was a minor point, but I think it would have added to some of the angst to getting there.
10. Seeing Bella race to the Clock tower and finally pushing Edward out of the sunlight was the most spectacular I think. The kiss in that scene was the most touching and promising! I saw some tongue in that scene. Of course, not enough...but it was a good scene. It got me all tingly... js!
11. The last scene...I'm not EVEN saying it... but I melted in my seat and have already made plans for June 30th 2010!

On Saturday, we went a second time! This time we went to the "Digital" viewing of the show and we took teenagers with us. The teens really did an excellent job of containing themselves. They did MUCH better than I did! I was probably not the best example. However, when Jacob took his shirt off, I peeked at the teens.. Yep they melted and swooned and gasped and bounced in their chairs... LMAO!

I am going again with MY teenager boys this week and hubs prolly next week... Very excited for that! However, I hope to be careful not to embarrass myself in front of them all.

Just Hours Away...

I'm just hours away from flying to Idaho for a visit to @Needsntrvention for the New Moon opening night. I know I am really excited to go, just hope she's as excited to have me visit. In real life she's the busiest damned woman I have ever known... That's saying a lot cuz I know quite a few who do football, baseball, Scouts, etc..but they pale next to her.

Today, she surprised the hell out of me and told me that the theater there is also playing "Twilight" before New Moon & would I be interested? HELL TO THE YEAH I told her! She told me that she got the tickets & we were going!!! I am really excited about that because that means we won't have to wait in the fuckin' cold to get in... HOWEVER, she's got mom duties before Twilight so we MIGHT be late... I don't really care about that... I'm cool. I'm like a lost puppy with her... hang out, do whatever while she gets shit done. Sometimes I think its helpful cuz I try to buffer the kids a bit. But I am sure that most of the time, I'm a lump in the proverbial road to accomplishing stuff. *grin*

My flight leaves at 9:10 am from Tucson, takes 1 hr 5 mins to get to Phoenix (takes 1 hr 30 mins by car). There is like a 45 min layover in Phoenix & then off to Idaho!

Cheers all! Enjoy your Edward, Jacob, Bella face time, in theaters beginning Friday, November 20th at midnight. To me, that's tomorrow night *Thursday's night*!!!

One Week To Go Until New Moon Opening Night

The anticipation of making me wait to see New Moon is so very frustrating! Twitterdom is a flurry with people feeling the same as me. All the publicity of Rob Pattinson,  Kristen Stewart, and Taylor Lautner... (Why do I struggle to remember their names... I just want to call them Edward, Bella & Jacob.) Pictures are floating everywhere... videos go up... blogs are a flurry as well.

I am so inundated with stuff to do... my head is spinning. (Yes, I looked for an animated pic of Linda Blair with her head spinning... Yuck!) It's now Sunday & I fly out on Thursday to be with my best friend for opening night up in Idaho. I am so excited to go. However, there is a TON of shit that needs to happen before I go.

Since I home school the chillin's, I have to make sure they have work to do... Hubs is taking days off so that's good.. then I have to make sure everyone's got clean clothes cuz we know men just don't understand washing machines. Well, let's just say they don't know to put reds with darks and white underwear with whites. *grin* At least my boys know how to do their only clothes...

Then I have to make sure there is food for the beasts .... don't want them eating chips, popcorn, and ice cream the whole time. Or eating pizza and fast food every meal...YUCK!

I finally bought my luggage... I had luggage, but it's falling apart & also doesn't have wheels. It's a bitch hauling my ass across the terminals with a suitcase, backpack, and laptop... NO WHEELS... I told my hubs that I needed new luggage. So I just got a 5-pc set WITH wheels.

So, now I get to go fishing in my clothes basket for stuff to take... Yes, I said fish... I hardly EVER put clean clothes away. It's actually pretty funny when I do decide to put things away, hubs gets so lost. "Where's my clothes!" he'll holler at 6 in the morning while I'm trying to get my beauty rest.  "Did you try the closet." I respond... *thinking now shut the fuck up*

Ahh... I need music...

Obviously... I'm so distracted... I can't finish this post. I've sat here for hours Tweeting (yes, I'm addicted. Aren't you?), playing music, and trying to remember what the hell I thought was so damned important to put in my blog... *midas shrug*

I've never seen my twitter stream so busy as it was tonight. But I'm better now... Whew!

My best friend has arranged for us to see the 12:02am show on Nov 20th.. (apparently the 12:00am show was sold out). I am very excited not only to see the movie, but also to see my bff. It's been about a 1 1/2 years since the last time...and even though I speak to her everyday, I still miss her.

After that, we're hoping to have a nice visit with some wine drinking, tweeting, an pure randomness. We'll see. She's got a house full so we'll just have to play by ear. Maybe I'll get drunk & she'll be the responsible one... I hope not. No fun drinking alone.

I come back home on Sunday, hopefully not too hungover... I face the "music" with my boys after that... one of them is mad that he can't come to see the movie with me. So I'll probably take them the following week.

Well, I am signing off this thing for the night... need to get back to my shit load of stuff to do.

First Experiences

Over the past couple months I have stepped into a lot of first experiences. Over the past couple of weeks I've wanted to put together a fan made video of Eric Northman from True Blood. I love the Sookie Stackhouse series as well as the HBO True Blood series. I had several people encourage me to give it a try, @truebldtwilight being the biggest...er... instigator... and @80slovertiff not far behind... There are others too.. you know who you are!

Anyway, using every excuse I could think of, I dragged my feet until finally I took a deep breath and decided to make this video for myself. I hate not finishing something... Also, I am trying to encourage another to write fanfiction *wink* and had to prove my own advice.

So without further ado, here it is... Please comment.

Are You Addicted to Twitter?

This evening, I was flipping through Google looking for various things, you know, the usual stuff... pictures of Rob Pattinson, or Alex Skarsgard (both my very favorite vampires). Of course, at this point in time there are NO NEW pics. So, I cruise over to YouTube to find something smutty or endearing...anything. Each time I find something I send a little tweet... You KNOW what that is, otherwise you wouldn't be here. You send a micro blog (140 characters) of whatever piece of information that you feel is important. Of course, you're like most of us, we just KNOW there are people out there who really want to see this stuff...yeah, right.

OK, so I began to wonder, do I have a Twitter addiction? So I started searching the Internet to find out if I have an addiction to Twitter... I know I have many obsessions... but is Twitter one? Well, here are some things I found. These are in no particular order. And yes, I'm addicted to Twitter. I will tweet that this blog post is up.

1. You're obsessed with how many followers you have or don't have and possess a master plan for getting your numbers up.

2. You've got regular Twitter, Tweet Deck, and Twitter Mobile for complete uninterrupted professional tweeting.

3. You’ve learned how to ration out your rate limit.

   You have 10-calls left to the API & it doesn't reset for another 45 minutes...yeah. You know what you have to do here but you’re jumpy. Edgy. You need to know what people are tweeting. You hate feeling left out. Boom. You blow your twitter load. See you in 45 minutes, Dumbass.

4. You’ve used the phrase "I Should Tweet That."

   In real life, you’ve told someone or made a mental note to yourself that you should tweet about something. Worse, you’ve pulled out your phone and tweeted it while talking to someone.

5. You Judge People On Their Following/Follower Count.

   [Some Wannabe] follows you.
   You don’t know anything about [Some Wannabe].
   You take a look at their image.
   They look nice enough.
   You take a look at their bio.
   Look! [Some Wannabe] likes "Vampire" books. Very Cool!
   Then you look at [Some Wannabe’s] following/follower count.
   1,237 following, 15 followers.
   Fuck [Some Wannabe], geez.
   Meanwhile, [Some Wannabe's] a nice person who just doesn’t know Twitter convention. Yet hundreds of people have told him to f-off in their minds.
   Am I right?
   That’s why [Some Wannabe's] reading books or some other shit and crying all over themselves right now.

6. When Twitter Goes Down You Spiral Emotionally.

   The strongest sign of Twitter addiction is when it’s taken away from you. Like, first thing in the morning, every weekday, you log on and nothing happens. And when you see the Fail Whale, what do you do? You start thinking of what you’re going to tweet.
   
   OMG people! #twitterfail! fail fail.
   
   ~ OR ~
   
   Twitter's being a whore #twitterfail #fail
   
   Yeah.
   
   For sure, Twitter fixed itself, adjusting to the dynamically growing, near impossible need for bandwidth just so you can drop that tweet. Yeah, your special.
   
   That nectar of intellect.
   
   Because that’s what we needed.

7. You wake at 3am & wonder which of your "friends" (*whispers* friends you've never really met) is on Twitter.

8. You find yourself thinking in 140 characters or less, even at dinner when you’re listening how to shorten down someones sentences that may be funny to others.

9. You are a walking thesaurus of Twitter acronyms - HT’s, RT’s, WTF’,s FTW!

10. Refer to people in public as "@their_name" regularly and don't correct it.

11. You find yourself pitching Twitter any chance you get, to friends, family …anyone that will listen.

12. You get all excited that someone added you to #FollowFriday or #FF.

13. You #FollowFriday or #FF everyone you follow even if it takes all Friday to do it because you want those you follow to know you love them.

14. You retweet constantly. In fact, you'll probably retweet this post.

I found these Twitter videos for fun...

Drop me a comment of other ways you can tell your addicted to Twitter... Better yet, tweet me!

Special Service Announcement #beatcancer

We all know that cancer is a very deadly disease... and sorrowfully, it's taken loved ones from our lives. I have lost a grandfather to cancer and I have an aunt and cousin who have had to deal with breast cancer. There are others in my family that have battled it as well.

It is important that we take this seriously!

#BeatCancer has taken on a huge effort/experiment with the Social Media and Everywhere, a social media communications and content company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their idea was to take a 24-hr period of time, starting Friday, October 16th at 9 am (PDT) and lasting until Saturday, October 17th at 9am (PDT) people all over the internet stratosphere will be asked to send tweets and Facebook status updates and to blog using #BeatCancer in their posts. Ebay/Paypal and MillerCoors Brewing Company would donate a penny ($0.01)* for every Twitter message, Facebook update or blog post that includes the phrase #BeatCancer.

Now, I've heard that Ebay/Paypal and MillerCoors Brewing Company are attempt a Guinness Book of World records...Well, I hope they make it... and I hope they end up donating a lot toward the cause... It's important for all of us!

I'm helping to raise funds to
#beatcancer, by blogging, tweeting
and posting Facebook status
updates.

Click here to join me!

Vampire Academy Series by Richelle Mead

I finished book #4, "Blood Promise," in the Richelle Mead, Vampire Academy series. Yay!

I started this series only a few months ago after reading through other Vampire series books. It was difficult at first to delve into this series only because it is a Young Adult series. If you read anything on this blog, you will know that I don't really get into the teen angst crap. However, this had it's place.

In this series, the world as we know it has Moroi Vampires (living vampires who wield powers from air, earth, water, fire, and spirit, who still require blood in their diets, and for the most part are peaceful), Dhampirs (offspring of one Vampire and one human or Dhampir parent), and Strigoi (dead Vampires, created by either a Moroi who killed or by another Strigoi and can no longer wield their earthly powers). Of course there are humans that have no clue of any of these others.

The Moroi and Dhampirs are sent to academies for they school lives. The Moroi are trained in their earthly power whereas the Dhampirs are trained to protect and defend the Moroi. They are so strong that they are trained to be bodyguards to the Moroi, against the Strigoi. They are both trained in the same academies together. But they are trained on two different tracks.

This whole series centers around Rose Hathaway, a Dhampir, and her very close friend Moroi Princess Vasilisa (Lissa) Dragomir, the last of her line of royalty. Rose is this feisty, teenager who always gets into trouble and tends to draw Lissa into that trouble. Actually, trouble follows her everywhere.

We find out that Lissa's has a special gift or power. It is not the same as other Moroi. In fact, there are very few Moroi that have this gift of Spirit. With this gift, Lissa was able to bring Rose back from death in a very tragic traffic accident. However, if this has it's interesting effects between them. Now, Rose and Lissa are bonded together and Rose can feel all of Lissa's emotions and can slip into her thoughts without wanting to. This can be a problem when Lissa falls in love a with fellow student and royal, Christian.

During the first 3 books, Rose becomes entangled in a forbidden romance with her instructor & fellow bodyguard, Dimitri. Of course, she doesn't want to tell her best friend of this romance because she fears it will cause Lissa problems. So, she keeps it all a secret until one day, St Vladamir Academy is attacked by Strigoi where Rose is the first to sense the attack. She informs Dimitri, this godlike bodyguard, of the attack. During this battle, Dimitri is captured by Strigoi and then turned. Rose hopes that Lissa can save him, but Lissa refuses for several reasons... 1. He's now Strigoi, and 2. Rose never confided in her about her romance. Her feelings were hurt (teenage angst)... So now there's a riff between the two girls and now Rose must abandon her best friend, Lissa – the one she has sworn to protect no matter what – and keep the promise Dimitri begged her to make.

In "Blood Promise," Rose sets out to find Dimitri and kill him... again.

You have to understand that for Rose to take on this feat, she must not only find, but kill Dimitri. Dimitri has always been stronger than her and now he's Strigoi, which means, now he's even stronger. Rose is so friggin in love with Dimitri that she is uncertain of herself.

The setting of "Blood Promise" is in Dimitri's home country, Siberia. Rose goes to his home town, meets his family and inadvertently ends up telling his family that he was overtaken by Strigoi. Rose is accepted by his family as family, but Rose realizes this is not the place for her. She recaptures her goal to find Dimitri and put him at peace. In her journey she does find other Strigoi, which she quickly kills... she also finds other Dhampirs like herself who are not blood promised and whose goal is only to kill Strigoi... Finally she finds Dimitri....

Now, I have a tendency to prattle on and on about books I read...thus giving away too much. I am not going to do that here. You'll have to read this series yourself.

I will say this...I found these books exciting to read and got myself hooked enough to want to keep going. However, if I were to rate this series against all the others I've read, I would rate this 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Some fun we missed in True Blood

This weekend I spent some time looking for little tidbits to add to my blog. Most of these little bits were found all over the internet so I didn't want to bore you with more of the same.

However, in going of this last season of the HBO series True Blood, I realized they missed and changed a lot of stuff from the book. Oh well, that's Hollywood right?

There is one particular scene that I wish they would have added... if only for the eye candy. It is the part in "Living Dead in Dallas," chapter 10 where Sookie has asked Eric to help her out with the whole sex party. Sookie has an idea to check it out for Lafayette's killer... But she needs someone to protector her so she asks Eric Northman.

Eric meets with Sookie, they talk and he then dramatically throws off his long trench coat to don his pink tank top and Lycra leggings. Of course, Sookie just can't take her eyes off of Eric at this point.

"Wow," I said, since it was all I could think of to say. "Wow. That's some outfit." When you've got a big guy wearing Lycra it doesn't leave a whole lot to the imagination. I resisted the temptation to ask Eric to turn around. -- Living Dead in Dallas, pg 247

 

*You still looking?*

Now don't you wish that would have been in the show? Enjoy! Post me some luv too!

A Touch of Dead (Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories) Just released!

I was reading another blog today, True Blood Twilight and realized I missed some very big news!

Charlaine Harris' next book, "A Touch of Dead" just came out on October 6th. It is a compilation of previously published Sookie Stackhouse stories. I can't believe I missed this one. Damn!

Ms. Harris' next original Sookie Stackhouse novel will be on sale in May 2010.