Monday, October 31, 2016

Q&A with KS Turner, author of Time: the Immortal Divide





Now available from Ruby Blaze Publishing is the fantasy novel Time: the Immortal Divide, book three in The Chronicles of Fate and Choice Trilogy by author K.S. Turner


Paperback: 978-0-9562242-9-3

eBook: 978-0-9562242-7-9
The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her debut novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve always loved stories; from those bedtime readings as a child to weaving fantastic imaginings in the mundane every day things. But, I always thought I would be an illustrator or designer. One day, I wrote a short piece to go alongside some illustrations I’d drawn. That is when I realized that writing depicted the stories in my head better than any other art medium I’d tried. That was the point; I knew, without doubt, using the written word for my storytelling was the right path. The stories were always there – I just had to discover THE medium.

What was your first book/story published?

The first thing ever published was my first novel in the Chronicles of Fate and Choice trilogy, titled Before the Gods. It’s an epic fantasy tale about the birth of humanity, Earth magic, freewill and freedom.

What inspired you to write The Chronicles of Fate and Choice trilogy?

I wanted to embark on the biggest fantasy story that I could imagine. I decided that it had to start at the very beginning of humanity and finish on the potential end of everything. I wanted to take some of the biggest questions we have in life, such as why are we here, and how did we get here, and craft something fantastically fantasy fiction.

What character in The Chronicles of Fate and Choice is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Well, as much as I would like to say all, or none, of them, I have to admit that I am most like the character, Tachra. Tachra is the protagonist in all three novels. We share the same deeply questioning nature, honesty, strength, passion, and desire to do the best possible, while trying to overcome a multitude of personal flaws and obstacles.

Least like me, I definitely want to say is the character Shursa, as I don’t like his traits at all. Shursa is from a race of beings called the Shaa-kutu; the beautiful, highly evolved race responsible for designing humans. But, unlike his fellow Shaa-kutu, Shursa is so power-hungry and selfish that he is prepared to betray his brothers. I don’t like him at all. No, no, no. He is everything I would never want to be.

What is your favorite part in The Chronicles of Fate and Choice?

Review: Pretty Dead - 10 Horror Films

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.

Not Rated; 842 mins; $9.98; Mill Creek Ent.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Yeah, you would have to be to be living under a rock not to know that today is Halloween, especially with all the horror marathons on the cable channels. Typically, I always watch a few of these flicks ever year, but I haven't had the time this month as I've been busy watching the Pretty Dead: 10 Horror Flims, the 2-disc DVD that was recently released from Mill Creek Entertainment.

Many of you have probably have heard of Mill Creek Entertainment as the company has released similar horror DVDs in the past. The 10 films on this release were filmed on low-budgets, all of which have already been released separately to DVD or VOD over the last few years.

The films are:

The Sacred (2009, but listed as released in 2011 on the DVD) - The film involves a group of film students traveling to remote area to work on a Native American Folklore thesis. However, they aren't aware that the land is haunted.


Bunnyman - (2010; released in 2011) - Also known as the The Bunnyman Massacre, this low-budget slasher is the first in a series of films about a serial killer who dress in a bunny costume. (No, I'm not joking!)


The Lights - (2009) - A group of friends travel to the middle-of-nowhere to watch a meteor shower.


Backwater (2013) - Don't get confused with the Japanese film of the same name. This is a low-budget tale about a couple on a secluded getaway, where there just happens to be a killer nearby.

Review: Buffy: The High School Years - Glutton For Punishment

*This is a sponsored post. All opinions are 100% mine. 

Dark Horse; 80 pages; $10.99; Amazon

I thought the perfect way to end this year's Halloween event would be for me to feature something from my favorite television from the late 1990s - Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a supernatural series that I was obsessed with throughout my teenage years. By obsessed, I mean I had posters of Sarah Michelle Gellar taped to my bedroom wall; I owned every Buffy tie-in novel and read them until the pages were practically worn out; and I recorded every episode on my VHS recorder (Remember those?). So I guess you can say that I was a big Buffy fan. By the time the series ended in 2003, I was out of my Buffy phase, though I did purchase the series on DVD (as well as the spinoff series, Angel) several years later.

Arriving in bookstores tomorrow from Dark Horse Comis is the graphic novel (well, a comic book), titled Buffy: The High School Years - Glutton For Punishment. Executive produced by Joss Whedon, the novel is written by Kel McDonald and illustrated by Yishan Li.

As you can guess by the title, the graphic novel is set during Buffy's high school years or more specifically it's set during season one of the series, where Buffy has just moved to Sunnydale and has befriended fellow classmates Willow (aka the nerd) and Xander (aka the geek). 

"Glutton For Punishment" centers on Buffy and Xander taking an extra-curricular cooking class. At first it looks like a quick way to make an A, but things quickly change on the first day of class when the cooking teacher, Ms. Miller, goes missing and is replaced by the very strict Mr. Blake. All the students try to bake the perfect dessert, but Mr. Blake's taste buds seem to be from another planet as nothing will satisfy his hunger.

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Digital Review - Finding Dory (2016)


This year's hit animated film Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory will be arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15th, but it's already available to purchase on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) with over two hours of bonus features & extras.

Directed by Andrew Stanton, Finding Dory take place a year later after the events that occurred in 2003's Finding Nemo. The forgetful Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres) suddenly has a childhood flashback about her parents, leading her to make the decision to venture out into the ocean to search for them. There is only one problem - Dory keeps forgetting she has short-term memory loss!

Nemo and his father Marlin decide to join Dory in her quest to find her parents, which leads them to the Marine Life Institute. They have to find a way to get into the institute after Dory is taken there for quarantine.

While inside the institute, Dory befriends an octopus named Hank who might know the whereabouts of her parents

Special Features/Bonus Extras are:

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Review - Five Cups Coffee



Despite my love for everything caffeinated, I do occasionally drink a cup of decaffeinated coffee. The problem for me is that I'm limited to two or three  decaf brands in my area (I live in a small town with only a Walmart and a Dollar General!). When I had an opportunity to review a new decaf brand, of course I jumped at the offer.

The brand is called "Five Cups Coffee," which has dubbed itself "the world's finest decaf coffee. It's a USDA organic and direct certified trade.

Why is it called "Five Cups Coffee?"

Well, since it's decaf, you can drink five cups of coffee without having to worry about any harmful effects to your body. Plus, you won't have the unwanted "caffeine" crash!

The coffee is made with a blend of 100% arabica beans that were grown on award winning farms in Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras. The coffee beans go through the Swiss Water® decaffeination, which is a 100% chemical free process.

The coffee is roasted on demand, in small batches in the USA. Each bag of coffee beans has a ziplock, which will help keep the freshness.


Review - 2 Jennifer

*This is a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% mine.



I had received a DVD screener of the horror flick 2 Jennifer from Sector 5 Films back in the spring, but I had misplaced the screener until I stumbled upon it last month.

2 Jennifer is sequel to the 2013's To Jennifer, which I have never even seen. The sequel is written & directed by Hunter Johnson and centers on an aspiring filmmaker named Spencer (played by Hunter Johnson) who is obsessed with the film To Jennifer.

Shot on an iPhone, Spencer pitches an idea for a sequel to To Jennifer, and sets out to make the movie. Of course his only real goal is to find an actress named Jennifer to play "Jennifer" in the film. It doesn't take long for the cast & crew to realize Spencer is out of his mind.



Final Thoughts

Friday, October 28, 2016

Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition: Oct. 28th - Nov. 3rd




Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML

Welcome Ghouls and Goblins
to the
Book Blogger Hop: Halloween Edition!
  
If you want schedule next week's thrilling question, click here to find the next prompt fright-fest. 
To submit a question, fill out this form.

How to participate in this week's creepy meme:


1. Post on your blog answering this haunt:

  You've been invited to a costume party and the theme is classic literature characters. Who would you go as?

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

Billy's Answer!


I would go as the "Phantom" from the classic novel The Phantom of the Opera.



Linky List:

The Friday 56: The Mirror Sisters



Rules:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader.
Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
Post it.
 Add your (url) post below in the Linky at www.fredasvoice.com
Add the post url, not your blog url.

Q&A with Ash Krafton, author of Demimonde Series




Now available from Red Fist Fiction is the urban fantasy Demimonde Series (Bleeding Heart, Blood Rush, Wolf's Bane) from author Ash Krafton.

Amazon

Amazon

Amazon

The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her debut novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I've been making up stories since I was a kid, but I didn't think it would ever become a career. I wanted to be a pharmacist, instead. Practicing in retail pharmacy while raising my kids left little room for a third job…and, yet…

When my children were in elementary school, I started writing again. It was a way to stay sane while being bombarded by children's television and kid-friendly activities. While they played or napped, I wrote, filling notebooks with amateurish attempts at writing a novel. No one ever read those things. They were just a way to keep my brain busy.

It wasn't until I started writing BLEEDING HEARTS: Book One of the Demimonde that I thought I could be brave enough to tell someone. I didn't expect the huge amount of support that I got but it was what gave me the courage to pursue it, to finish it, and to seek publication.

What was your first book/story published?

BLEEDING HEARTS (Demimonde #1) was my first novel. It was picked up in three book deal by Pink Narcissus Press, a small press publisher of eclectic fiction.

What inspired you to write The Demimonde Series?

Q&A with Gregory L. Hall, author of At the End of Church Street





Now available from Fiery Seas Publishing is the young adult fantasy-horror At the End of Church Street by author Gregory L. Hall.



The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his debut novel.




When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve always loved telling tales, whether it was superheroes fighting Martians or a ghost that hid out by our trashcans at night. Of course, both of these were based off of fact, so my imagination didn’t have to go far. I still see the ghost out there on trash night.

What was your first book/story published?

My old high school magazine asked for tributes to Poe so I wrote a story called ‘When the Lightning Flashes’. I never retire any idea so I later did it on stage as part of a Halloween play, then as a short film, and finally got it published in a professional magazine. When I put out my short story collection, ‘Lightning’ was an obvious first choice. I still have to turn it into a musical. Possibly a sock puppet show as well.

What inspired you to write At the End of Church Street?

I had been a stand-up and improv comic for twenty-five years. I was burned out and didn’t want to be gone every weekend anymore. After sitting around the house for a couple weeks, my wife said “Oh no. You’re not going to shut down and stop being creative. Go write a novel.” I told her I was too tired to be funny and she suggested I switch to horror (because I’m such a fan). I didn’t want to write the same old monster shtick. The idea of a vampire story without an actual vampire in it challenged me. I used to know a group of Goth kids when I worked at a haunted house attraction in Orlando and thought they had such tragic personal stories. Of course they’d go to Burger King for lunch and flash fake fangs as they munched on a Whopper. Not selling the ‘I’m a real vampire’ gig very well. So I saw humor too. A story formed around them.

What character in At the End of Church Street is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

There’s an old man who takes care of the Goth kids named Renfield. He drools a lot and says things like ‘beedily bop’ as a nervous tick and keeps waiting for the Mother Ship. I think anyone who knows me can clearly see I wrote myself directly into the story.

What is your favorite part in At the End of Church Street?

Thursday, October 27, 2016

Author Guest Post: C.J. Lake




Hmm, a reading from a mysterious fortune-teller on Halloween...what can go wrong?

This is how my new book, Impulse, begins... Cady and her roommate Torie leave their Boston apartment one night to head to a fortune-teller's shop in Salem. Cady goes only as a favor to Torie, never imagining she will hear more than a few prepackaged, sunny cliches. Instead, what she hears is enough to drive her straight to the nearest bar...

Buy Link: Amazon

This is where she meets Mick Croft and their stormy, intense, and at times, comical journey to love begins. Without a doubt, I love Halloween and the days, even weeks, leading up to it represent my favorite time of the year. Not only is New England gorgeous in October, but it's enveloped in the kind of festive Halloween ambiance that I include in my story...like rustling trees and scattering leaves, wind-chimes and thunder, shadowy nightfall and fog. Halloween brings with it what I call a fun-eeriness, which I hope I convey in the setting, as Mick and Cady try to stay apart (well, are they really trying? Hmm...doubtful.)

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

31 Days of Halloween: The Dead Boyfriend: A Fear Street Novel Review



St. Martin's Press; 276 pages; $18.99; Amazon
Once upon a time, there were young adult horror novels that didn't contain glittering vampires, dystopian worlds, or supernatural romances. Yep, back in the middle 1980s throughout the 1990s, there were a slew of YA horror novels, mostly published by Point Horror. Of course one of the most popular series at the time was Fear Street by R.L. Stine (who later created the Goosebumps series). Each novel played out like an 80s' slasher flick with the main character typically being a female teenager who is either being stalked by a killer or has stumbled into a supernatural plot involving the Fear family.

In 2014, R.L. Stine brought back the Fear Street series with Party Games. Now available from St. Martin's Press is the fifth installment in the relaunch series, titled The Dead Boyfriend: A Fear Street Novel.

Set in the fictional Shadyside, Ohio, the novel centers on a teenager named Caitlin, who is thrilled to be dating the new boy in town, Blade. Despite the objections of all her friends, she quickly falls in love with him. Sadly, Blade doesn't feel the same for Caitlin. After a brief public argument, Caitlin kills Blade in self-defense. With no witness in sight, she flees the crime scene, hoping she can get away with the murder.

Unfortunately, this is a horror story, so things don't go quite as easy as Caitlin thought it would be. It seemed Blade had another admirer - Deena Fear, a descendant of Simon Fier (Fear). The girl has never been popular in school, mostly thanks to her Gothic looks and cold-hearted attitude. Her obsession with Blade goes way beyond the grave when she uses a little bit of witchcraft to bring him back from the dead.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Review - Haven of Evil


Cover Artist: Artrocity; 265 pages
He turned to walk back home. A woman in a black dress stood a few paces in front of him. The woman’s eyes were black marbles embedded in a sunken face. Her white hair hung down over her shoulders like spaghetti strings, and there were more cracks in her face than there were on a broken sidewalk. A foul stench seemed to follow her around – the scent of rotting meat. 

Kevin grimaced and held his nose. The horrid odor clung to him like stench on a decomposed corpse. “What in the –” excerpt, Haven of Evil by Melvin Rivers


Now available in paperback and on Kindle is the horror-thriller "Haven of Evil" by author Melvin Rivers. With Halloween less than one week away, this is the perfect time to read a spin-chilling story.

What is the book about?

(Blurb) - Haven of Evil, a book of supernatural terror, contains bone-chilling terror that is unleashed on an unsuspecting couple who moves into their new home after a flood had destroyed the old one.

When Kevin and Sandra Wilson’s home and personal possessions were destroyed by flood waters, the couple relocated to a town called Havenville. Things started out rough when they avoided hitting a mysterious woman on the road. Later Kevin was attacked by hawks in a cemetery where a stranger rescued him. Kevin and the stranger become fast friends, but later the stranger wasn't who he had appeared to be.

After some tragic and terrifying events Sandra goes into a murderous rage not long after Kevin finds out about an evil that dwelled inside their house--an evil that will change their lives forever. In this tale of horror, some will live and others will not. 


Where can you purchase the book?




Final Thoughts: I've been a fan of haunted house films and books ever since I saw the 1986 horror-comedy House when I was a kid. Naturally, I became interested in reading Haven of Evil. With a creepy cover art, and of course with Halloween just around the corner, I eagerly sat down and read Haven of Evil with a cup of coffee nearby.

Q&A with Neal Chase, author of Worthy of Song and Story



Being released this winter from Fiery Seas Publishing is the middle grade fantasy novel Worthy of Song and Story, book one in the Stian The Viking Adventure series by author Neal Chase.


The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his debut novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve been interested in storytelling since I was a kid. In third and fourth grade, I wrote the adventures of Joe Smoe. Since then it stuck with me. Whether storytelling was writing short stories and poetry or playing role playing games it was something I really enjoyed. Yes, I was a Dungeons and Dragons geek, but I also played Recon, Boot Hill, and other games. Not sure if that makes it any better, but at least it makes me well rounded. As I got older, my storytelling changed to making up bedtime stories for my kids. Finally, after years of thinking about it, I sat down and started writing novels.

What was your first book/story published?

Worthy of Song and and Story is my debut novel.

What inspired you to write Worthy of Song and Story?

I love mythology, especially Norse mythology. What is better than Vikings and mythology? Nothing I can think of. But I didn’t want to write a book like all the others, where Odin and Thor are the heroes. I wanted something with a twist. Stories where the hero is someone unexpected—a son of Loki that almost no one knows exists.

What character in Worthy of Song and Story is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Monday, October 24, 2016

Spook Up Your Yard on Halloween Night




Halloween Night is just over a week away, and there's no better time than the present to order your last minute decorations for your yard, class Halloween party, or for whatever you are planning for Oct. 31st.

For me, I decorate the yard each and every hear with spooky decorations, such as foam tombstones, zombie ground breakers, plastic rats, plastic spiders, hanging ghouls, and air-blown characters (2 Frankenstein's monsters and 1 witch). The only thing that could make the scene even creepier would be a little bit of fog.

With so many different fog machines on the market, I was overwhelmed with which one I should try. Eventually, I went with the 1byone Halloween Fog Machine, which retails for $39.99. There are seven different sizes and styles of fog machines on www.1byone.com, but I thought the 400Watt Fog Machine would be the perfect fit for what I need for Halloween Night.

The fog machines measures 9.84 x 7.54 x 4.49 in. It uses a power source input of AC 120V 60Hz and uses a 5A, 125V fuse. The tank holds up to 300ml (0.079 gallons). (Only use water-based fog solutions). The fog output is 2000CFM (cubic ft per minute). It comes with a 6.5ft wired one-switch remote control.

The fog machine come nicely packed in a simple black box with the lettering and illustrations in white. The actual machine is tightly stored inside the box. The only assembly required is for the metal handle, which takes less than a minute to put together.

I highly recommend reading the instructions before testing the fog machine out. Like I already mentioned, make sure to use a water-based fog solution (or otherwise known as fog juice or liquid).


To use the machine, you need to untwist the tank cap and pour in whatever desired amount of fog juice that you want to use. Replace the cap, making sure it's tightly secure. Place the machine on a flat surface. Plug the AC cord into an outlet. The machine will take several minutes to heat up, up to five minutes.

Once the machine is ready, it will spray out a blast of fog from the nozzle. The it will stop and reheat before it will release any more fog will be released.

Q&A with Joshua C. Cook, author of Bridgebreaker




Available now is the urban fantasy Bridgebreaker, book two of The Echo Worlds series by Joshua C. Cook.




The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his newest novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

Hmm... Well… I was always one of those kids with the ‘over active imagination’ growing up. As I grew up in rural Florida on a farm, I had a lot of time to myself to make up stories in my head. I usually acted them out in the quiet of my room, and tried not to let my older sister bug me about it.

As I got older, I got more involved in Drama and Theater, and went that route. The older I got the more I drifted away from creating new stories. Until later on I came back to it as an adult. I had been yearning to do something creative again (my day job isn’t super creative.) I hot upon writing as it wasn’t an expensive way to scratch that itch. (I have two kids got to watch those costs!) Haven’t looked back since.

What was your first book/story published?

The first book I published was ‘Oversee of One.’ Short, but interesting story. I had NO idea what I was doing at the time. Just wrote something that came to me.

What inspired you to write Bridgebreaker?
Bridgebreaker and its series were inspired by an idea. See when I write, I start with a ‘seed sentence’ a single idea that the book comes from. In the case of the ‘Echo Worlds’ series, the idea was that creation had echoes. That was it. Everything flowed from that single idea. I have notebook of these ‘seed sentences’ so lots of ideas to keep writing from.

What character in Bridgebreaker is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Q&A with Susannah Sandlin, author of Black Diamond




Now available from Montlake Romance is the romantic suspense novel Black Diamond, book two in the Wilds of the Bayou Series by author Susannah Sandlin.


eBook 1, Wild Man’s Curse, on Sale Through the End of October for $1.99 at Amazon


The author has taken a few minutes out of her busy schedule for a Q&A about her newest novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

Until six or seven years ago, I was a career journalist, so I have been a storyteller since I co-founded my high school literary magazine more years ago than I care to admit. I wrote my first novel in 2009 as an exercise in turning my own experiences as a New Orleanian during Hurricane Katrina into a fantasy story. I got hooked on fiction-writing as I stumbled my way through that first book, and just kept going!

What was your first book/story published?

That first novel was also my first published novel Royal Street was the first in the Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series and was published under the name Suzanne Johnson. Book five in that series comes out next month! I was incredibly blessed to have gotten a great agent and then get published my first time out.

What inspired you to write Black Diamond?

I began a new series, Wilds of the Bayou, this past spring with Wild Man’s Curse. The series is about a team of wildlife enforcement agents (i.e., highly trained game wardens) working in rural, bayou- and marsh-covered Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana. Each book features a different agent, a different case, a different romance, so they can stand alone. I knew I wanted to write about agent Jena Sinclair, a rare female game warden, and began reading about the rash of dangerous synthetic opioid drugs coming into the U.S. these days—“bath salt drugs,” they’re called. I started thinking about how someone might try moving drugs into and through this rural parish, which sits halfway between Houston and New Orleans, and then how my wildlife agents might get caught up in it. Add a mysterious, reclusive hero, and Black Diamond was born!

What character in Black Diamond is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

Q&A with Kenneth Brown, author of COOLANT





Now available from Gorillas With Scissors Press is the horror novel COOLANT by author Kenneth Brown.


The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his newest novel.



When did you become interested in storytelling?

I believe I’ve always been interested in telling stories. I remember setting up intricate (for a four to five year old anyway!) stories with my action figures as a kid. Comics also played a big role in that as well. For the longest time I wanted to be a comic book illustrator, but I never could amass the skill in the arts for it. In high school that’s when I found out about Dungeon’s and Dragons and learned I loved to truly just make up stuff.

What was your first book/story published?

That would be “Dead End Drive Thru” and “False Awakenings”. Both are short stories. These two were published stories are part of the Nightmares and Echoes 2 Charity Anthology. It’s a book series where half the proceeds went to charity, St. Jude and Camp Hope I believe.

What inspired you to write Coolant?

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Fitness & Coffee Sundays: Getting Ready for Halloween & the NaNoWriMO 2016!


It's been awhile since I posted a "Fitness & Coffee" that wasn't a review of some sorta product, so I thought I would take this time to share what I've been up as of lately. For starters, I have had a chest cold for nearly two weeks, and I now have a bit of the flu bug as well. Add on top a bit of weight gain from a lack of exercise for the past month, I guess you can say I'm not currently at my best.

This year's Halloween event hasn't been easy on me. There have been several posts I have skipped or just didn't feel like writing. None of these reviews/posts had to be published on specific dates, so I'm not too worried about it. Hopefully, I'll feel like writing one or two those posts later today.

Speaking of Halloween, Oct. 31st is one week tomorrow. Each and every year, I put together 120+ treat bags full of candy for the trick-or-treaters and I decorate the yard with creepy tombstones and other stuff. As I am writing this, I have about 60 treat bags put together. I won't put up the decorations until next weekend or on Halloween Day; all depending on how I feel. Plus, I normally carve a Jack-O-Lantern and roast the pumpkin seeds. I do have a pumpkin, but whether I actually carve it is another story.

I have several books I need to read and review, including The Dead Boyfriend (my book marker is in place) and The Mirror Sisters by V.C. Andrews. Then I need to read High Heat that I had checked out at the library.

Saturday, October 22, 2016

DVD Review - Doc McStuffins: Toy Hospital


TV-Y; 142 minutes; $19.99 ; Walmart
Arriving on DVD this Tuesday from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is Doc McStuffins: Toy Hospital, featuring the full-length adventure - Welcome to McStuffinsville, and 4 bonus episodes. As an added bonus the DVD comes with a fee Toysponder Bracelet.

Created by Chris Nee, Doc McStuffins debuted on Disney Junior in 2012 and quickly become a big hit for the cable channel. The series centers on Doctor Dottie "Doc" McStuffins, a seven-year-old who wants to be a doctor when she grows up. In the meantime, she settles for being a doctor to her toys, fixing up any injuries they receive from playing to rough. Doc even helps other toys in the neighborhood with the help of her own toys (Stuffy the Dragon , Hallie the Hippo, Lambie the Lamb, and Chilly the Snowman).

"Welcome To McStuffinsville" is the first episodes of the fourth season that aired during the summer. Doc's world is turned upside down when Grandma McStuffins reveals she has her very own magical stethoscope that can make toys come alive. Grandma gives Doc a toysponder that will transport her McStuffinsville, a big toy city where she will be working at the toy hospital.


The bonus episodes are all from the third season:

Baby McStuffins / Selfless Snowman - Doc and her little brother Donnie are excited when their parents inform them that they are going to adopt a baby. To get Doc time to practice being a big sister, her parents give her a baby doll. In the second story, Doc holds a stuffing donation drive.

Review - The Berenstain Bears: Christmas Fun Sticker and Activity Book


Zonderkidz; 32 pages; $6.99; Amazon
Yes, I'm well aware this isn't really a "Fall Reads" book, but it is autumn and technically a activity book is a book, so here I am writing this review!

What exactly am I review?

Well, I'm reviewing The Berenstain Bears: Christmas Fun Sticker and Activity Book by Jan & Mike Berenstain. Published by Zonderkidz (a trademark of Zondervan), the 32-page book has over 50 reusable stickers.

You might remember me reviewing The Berenstain Bears: Bear CountryFun Sticker & Activity Book earlier this year. This book is very similar, containing puzzles and illustrations to color.


The activities in the book includes:

A-Mazing Maze
Christmas Counting
Bear Country Christmas Crossword
Christmas Color-by-Number
Make a Match
Listen to the Angel!
A Trip Home!
Baby Jesus
A Christmas Tree To Remember
We Love Christmas Treats
Let's Visit Baby Jesus