Monday, May 7, 2012

Movie Review - House of Dark Shadows

     After the success of the ABC’s daytime soap Dark Shadows, the creator Dan Curtis directed a darker version from the script written by Sam Hall and Gordon Russell and produced by MGM back in 1970. The script was based on the popular Barnabas storyline and starred the original cast such as Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Kathryn Leigh Scott, David Henesy, and Roger Davis. The movie was shot in six weeks with a budget of $750,000, which is now considered a low-budget.

    The movie uses an altered version of the Barnabas plot. The recently fired handyman Willie Loomis visit’s the Collins’ family Old House in an attempt to steal rare jewels, but instead he unleashes the vampire cursed Barnabas from his 150-year confinement. Using his vampire powers, Barnabas makes Willie his slave. Barnabas wastes no time and introduces his self to the Collins family as a cousin to England.

    Barnabas meets the young governess, Maggie Evans, who looks exactly like his lost-love Josette. While during this time, Barnabas turns Carolyn, whom is later staked by Professor T. Eliot Stokes.

    The family doctor, Julia Hoffman, examines the blood of the victims and, for some unknown reason, knows that vampirism is behind the deaths. She soon realizes that Barnabas is a vampire and she offers to cure him. Barnabas accepts the offer. For a short time he is cured and begins to romance Maggie Evans.

Book Blogger Hop: May 5 – May 11

Book Blogger Hop
What are the next five books in your TBR (to-be-read) pile?

 My Answer:

The Charlatan's Boy
by Jonathan Rogers

The Midwife of Venice
by Roberta Rich

Calico Joe
by John Grisham

The Messenger
by Siri Mitchell

Skip Rock Shallows
by Jan Watson

 

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Review - Dark Lullaby by Mayra Calvari




    Gabriel Diaz, an astrophysicist, thought he was living a normal life, well as normal as it can be. He’s getting over the three-year relationship with Liz, who he is still friends with. Despite her affections for him, he only thinks of her as a friend. He’s excited that his twin sister Elena is about to deliver her first child.

    Everything changes the night he meets the exotic Kamilah and is instantly seduced by her. Before he knows it, he is traveling with Kamilah to the mountains of the Black Sea, where she has a family cottage in Rize. Strange thing begin to happen to Gabriel starting with his cell phone, his only connection to the outside world, disappearing. Weird nightmare haunts him, followed by hallucinations that make him physically and mentally ill. Gabriel learns that Kamilah isn’t the beautiful innocent woman she claimed to be, as she targeted him with a specific agenda that involves Elena.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Review - Forever Hilltop

Forever Hilltop

BY: Judy Baer

PUBLISHED BY: Guidepost

PUBLISHED IN: 2012

ISBN: 978-0-82494-529-9

PAGES: 576


    There are two books in one volume in Forever Hilltop. In the first book Unlikely Blessings, you meet Alex Armstrong, who after the age of 40 decided to follow God’s word and become a pastor. Despite being from the city, his first parish assignment is in Hilltop Township, a small community of Grassy Valley, North Dakota, city population 1,254. With the assistance of his nephew Jared, he travels to the small town, where upon arriving he learns that he is a pastor to two churches. The two churches can’t afford much; therefore Alex is pastor to both of them. He soon realizes that each church is the opposite of each other as the two sets of parishioners do not get along.

    The town isn’t exactly Mayberry, or anything Alex had imagined. The people tend to meddle in other’s affairs. And the single women like the idea that Alex is single too, bringing him plenty of food to eat. Alex doesn’t really know how to react to this as he is still getting over a failed relationship.

    In the sequel Surprising Grace, Alex Armstrong is adjusting as pastor of Hilltop Church, and adjusting to the odd ways and rituals of the town. His lost love soon returns, and Alex must choose between her and his parishioners.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Guest Post with author Jess Faraday



By way of talking about my book, I'd like to recommend someone else's. 

Setting The Affair of the Porcelain Dog on the back streets of late Victorian London involved more than putting everyone in frock coats and bonnets. Creating an accurate setting required a deep, multisensory understanding of the city and its occupants. Toward this end, Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs by John Thomson, was an invaluable resource.

Originally published in 1877 (and reprinted by Dover Publications in 1994), this is a collection of original photographs by one of the world's first documentary photographers, with accompanying explanatory text by the photographer and writer Adolphe Smith. Having access to the images of people as they actually appeared, and text written by people as they actually spoke, gave me as close to an authentic time-travel experience as I believe is possible at this point.

Perhaps because I'm part of a generation raised more on images than on text, I found the photographs to be essential for immersing myself in the time and place. Seeing the clothing, the dirt, the conveyances, I could feel them. Feeling them, I could write about them as if I had experienced them. The accompanying texts were also helpful. Not only did I learn what people of the time thought about, but how they thought about them, and how they expressed those thoughts.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Friday 56 - Dark Shadows: Angelique's Descent


Rules:
Grab a book, any book. 
Turn to page 56. 
Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grabs you. 
Post it. 
Add your (url) post below in the Linky at http://fredasvoice.blogspot.com/.

Review - Beyond Hope's Valley


Beyond Hope’s Valley
BY: Tricia Goyer
PUBLISHED BY: BH Publishing Group
PUBLISHED IN: 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4336-6870-8
Pages: 292






In the final chapter of the Big Sky series, Marianna Sommer is returning to the Amish community of Indiana with her fiancé, Aaron Zook, a marriage she has been dreaming about since she was a kid. She is returning to Indiana to attend her brother‘s, Levi, wedding. Her brother had briefly left their Amish ways for the ways of the modern world, but has come back to the Amish community to marry Naomi, who is expecting a baby boy. Shocking as this may be, it is not uncommon for an Amish couple to get married because of an upcoming birth. Naomi’s parents feel different and don’t want them to get married until after the child is born. Marianna plans to stay for the birth of the child and the upcoming marriage.

    Meanwhile, an upcoming singer, Ben, is still grieving over the brief romantic relationship he had with an Amish woman, Marianna, in Indiana. He is also still dealing with his friend’s accidental death, which almost resulted in Ben going to prison for murder. As his music career booms, another accidental situation occurs that may send him behind bars.