Sitting on a Cornflake

It’s happened again, I’ve found another great author! Rebecca Royle contacted me, and very kindly sent me a copy of both her books.

Lucy’s Monster, her debut, is a dark tale of major celebrities, dealing with undiagnosed schizophrenia and drug abuse. It builds to an amazing crescendo half way through, then leads you to the touching ending.

As often happens with books sent to me, I wasn’t sure what I would make of this one, but Rebecca’s style just caught hold, and wouldn’t let go. If you’re looking for something different and gripping, this may be for you.

Her second book, E11even Terrible Months, is a realistic ghost story, set in Yorkshire. At times, it comes across as being a little too factual, like a report, but I think that’s where the strength of the book lies. It doesn’t go for gory frights, or horror clichés, just the chilling experiences of a normal family.

As a bonus, the books are limited editions, with E11even Terrible Months being a gorgeous hardback. You can read my reviews on the book forum.. and if you’re quick, you can enter the competition!

Publisher’s Website

I really enjoyed ‘28 Days Later’.. great opening, storyline etc. ‘28 Weeks Later’ also had great reviews, and today we finally got to watch it.

Well, I think I must be watching a different film to the reviewers. They’ve just tried to make this film as gory as they can, to the point of being ridiculous.

To everyone who celebrates this day (and what a lovely tradition it is!), may I wish you a lovely day.

Ok, so this may make me sound a little sad, but I’m loving this program, as always! I’m not sure about the ‘celebrity’ bit this year, as I hardly know any of them.. but they’re fun, just the same.

My favourite? She can be annoying, but Janice Dickinson can be so funny. She doesn’t care what she says, and boy, was she surprised by the trials!

Mind you, she says that the people who think them up are sick, and I tend to agree. It’s also good to see someone acting like most people would, and refusing to do some. I mean, come on.. it always amazes me that these people will stick their hands and heads into boxes of spiders, snakes, scorpions etc.. and as for eating live bugs, animal testicles etc… EEWWW!

Least favourite? Lynne Franks. There’s just something about her I don’t like! Mind you, as cute as he is, Marc is second at the moment.. does he really expect his girlfriend not to care that he’s cozying up to Cerys every opportunity he can?!

I’m looking forward to seeing what Christopher Biggins brings to the camp!

Did I miss the part in the Highway Code where motorbikes have completely different rules to car drivers? Last night, as I drove along at the correct speed limit, I had a motorbike drive right up my backside, then as soon as he could, her overtook me, and shot off into the distance!

It suddenly hit me that this is no new thing, and in fact happens all the time. When we’re following the speed limit, how comes bikes feel they can go well over it?!

It’s happened ~ we’ve reached that point in Amy’s life where this is her favourite word! No matter what we tell or ask her, we get the response of “Why?” And even when we tell her why, that gets followed by.. yes, yet another “Why?”.

Argh!!

A while ago, Bethany decided that she liked The Beatles, with Please Please Me being her favourite album of theirs.

Today I put on one of my Kinks’ albums.. Amy immediately started trying to sing along, and the announced she liked these songs!

What can I say.. they have their mum’s good taste! <grin>

Following on from last post, there is another author that I wish to share with you all.. Raven Hart.

My friend Cindy told me about a vampire book that a friend of hers had written, and she had loved. That isn’t Cindy’s ‘thing’, so I was interested to see what it was she liked.

She then sent me a copy of The Vampire’s Seduction, signed by Raven, so I thought I’d take a look.

I LOVED it!

It wasn’t exactly ‘horror’, but neither was it the ‘chick lit’ type vampire book that I’d been reading recently. It had strong main characters, a great story line, and some rather steamy sex, that just seemed to fit, rather than seeming out of place.

Since then, Raven has VERY kindly sent me the manuscript for book 2, and book 3. The Vampire’s Secret is my favourite book in the series, but The Vampire’s Kiss was great too, because you can sense the series developing. I sense that Raven isn’t done yet.. we have alot in store!

If you enjoy vampires (as well as shape shifters, voodoo, zombies, Goddesses and a Slayer!),and you’re looking for something new to get caught up in, you can’t go far wrong.

Raven.. please hurry up and get book 4 to me! <grin>

To find out more, visit Raven’s official site.

Since running my book forum, I have been privileged to connect with various writers and authors.. some well known, others not. What continues to amaze me is that I’ve read some pretty rubbish books in my time, and yet there are some great writers out there, who either can’t get published, or can’t get that ‘marketing push’ that gets them properly noticed.

One of these writers is Katherine Warwick. Although published, she is struggling to get the big publishing houses to notice her. As far as I’m concerned, they’re missing out!

Katherine visited the forum, and she then sent me a copy of one of her books. This was one of her ballroom dance romance books, and I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d enjoy it at all!

Thankfully, I was proved wrong. The romance element in the book was believable,  and the insight to ballroom dance was rather interesting. Katherine avoids writing about sex, and yet the book ’sizzles’.. you can sense the passion in both the dance, and the romance.

Another interesting part of the story was the experiences of the main character, caring for her young daughter with autism. I found out after that Katherine has an adorable daughter with autism herself.. and it feels as if she’s poured her own experience into the book.

Since that time, I have read the rest of her ballroom dance novels, and have enjoyed each. It’s still not my ‘thing’, but Katherine has a writing style that pulls you in to the story, and that has made each book a joy to read.

Katherine also writes YA fiction, mainly romance. Whilst reading these, I can picture each one as a film. I would imagine that most teens would enjoy reading them.

In addition, Katherine has written what she calls ‘edgy YA fiction’. An Open Vein is one of my favourite books, and has been loved by everyone who has read it on the forum.

As a bonus, Katherine is a lovely, caring person, and has become a very close friend. However, that doesn’t influence the way I feel about her books. ‘Ballroom dance’ and ‘romance’ are just not my thing, and yet I’m proud to have her books on my book shelf. I think that’s a reflection on the level of writing.

To find out more, please take a look at her official site. 

If you recall, when we moved in, my ADSL order was delayed, because there was a block on the line. That block was the previous ADSL.

When I was informed that the line was clear, I gave my provider the go ahead, and mine was set up.

It would appear that the order to remove the previous order was somehow delayed.. and on Tuesday, the people in the exchange switched off my ADSL!! The engineer called them from here, and they plugged it back in!

If my backside wasn’t so numb from sitting using dial up, it’d be funny!