Sunday, August 19, 2012

Review - Bicoastal Babe

Bicoastal Babe
By: Cynthia Langston
Edition Pub Date: March 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615608099
Pages: 324
Buy Link: Amazon.com
Author Website: http://www.cynthialangston.net

Twenty-eight-year-old Lindsey Miller has had a streak of bad luck, from losing her job, catching the flu that later turned into pneumonia, received two bruised ribs from coughing, and she pulled a muscle in her back. She also embarrassed herself in front of her ex-boyfriend when she backed into a parked car while somewhat stalking him. She has officially hit rock bottom.

Thanks to her friend Danielle, she now has a job interview at the largest advertising company in Chicago - Gordon-Taylor. She ends up getting a job predicting trends for the company's newsletter, The Pulse, which is sent out to all their clients. There are a few catches to the job. It requires her to fly back and forth between New York and L.A. She also has to work with Jen Savage on the project. While Lindsey is in New York, Jen is in L.A. and vice versa.

Lindsey soon finds out that New York is a whole different place than Chicago. Asking random people to do a questionnaire is not as easy as it looks on television as some people are really rude. Even getting into a new shopping store is a challenge for her. Everything seems to be a complete disaster until she meets a Wall Street Broker, Victor Ragsdale.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

When Characters Collide By Gretchen Johnson

            I am a MinnTexan, a woman who spent her first twenty-three years living in Minnesota and the last nine in Texas. Being a MinnTexan means I have lived on the edges of both extremes – from snow to sweat, from liberal to conservative, from mild to spicy, from alternative rock to country western, from Pepsi to Coke, and from environmentalism to pollution. These extremes have taught me countless lessons about the complex connections (and often disconnections) between people, and it is this duality of experiencing life in two very different regions that has served as an inspiration for much of my writing.

           My book, The Joy of Deception and Other Stories, uses these extremes often. I enjoy crafting stories in which characters who are opposites come together. Some of the most authentic and interesting moments of my life have occurred when I struggled against someone who was fundamentally different from me, and some of the most challenging phases of my life happened when I was forced to decide which of my own desires to satisfy. My book’s title story deals with this kind of internal struggle. It features a young woman trying to decide if she wants to stay with a dependable but somewhat predictable fiancé or leave him for an exciting but emotionally dangerous man. Just like most of us, she struggles with her own dual desires, the desire to settle down and have security versus the desire to embrace the temporariness of life and live for the now.

DVD Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 10: The Complete Final Season!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Season 10: The Complete Final Season!
Studio: LionsGate
ASIN: B0087AOYCU
Release Date: August 14, 2012
Running Time: Approx. 176 minutes
Bonuses: Exclusive Artist Interviews, 2 Bonus Episodes: "Once Upon a Time Machine" and "Planet of the Turtleoids"

I grew up watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and the live movies. I stumbled upon Season 4 back in 2007 at a Walmart store and of course I had to buy it. I later ordered the previous seasons which were never released in sets; instead they were released in six volumes.

I patiently wait for every new season to be released. When season 5 was released back in August 2007, I, like many other fans, was disappointed that two episodes were left out of the set. I was disappointed again in the next four season releases as they didn't have the missing episodes either.

Review - G.I. Joe Vs. The Transformers

G.I. Joe Vs. The Transformers
Publisher: IDW Publishing
ISBN: 9781613773529 
Pub Date: September 11, 2012
Written by: Michael Higgins
Artist: Chris Batista, Herb Trimpe, Jesse d'Orozco, Larry Hama, Steve Lieber, William Rosado

IDW Publishing is about to release the classic issues that combined G.I. Joe and The Transformers containing nine issues. I was able to read a free review copy from NetGalley this month. As a kid, I never got into comics, but I do remember watching both cartoon series and I think I had a few of the toys too. 

The original four crossover issues were released back in 1986 when I was a five-year-old. The issues are Blood on Tracks, Power Struggle, Ashes, Ashes..., and ...All Fall Down! The plot surrounds the government launching the Power Station Alpha, which is a nuclear power plant that can shoot a beam across the entire world, and of course both Decepticons and Cobra want it. They briefly make an alliance, but then Cobra learn that the Decepticons plan on destroying the planet. Spoilers: Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Megatron are destroyed.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Guest Post with author Nickie Fleming


What inspired me to write? 

Looking back all these year (I’m 56 years young) I can easily tell you what inspired me to become an author.

I was born in the 1950’s and because my parents were both working at that time, I spent most of my time with my grandparents. Especially my granddad took care of me, because grandma had to do the cooking, cleaning, washing etc. He was a pensioner, who retired at the early age of 46 after having fought two world wars. He was well-educated and loved to read. I remember sitting on his lap while he was reading to me from Alexandre Dumas (in French, because he was raised in the French speaking part of Belgium). So not only was I drenched in literature, also in a foreign language!

Once I could walk and was some two years old, my grandmother began to take me along on her trips to the city library. It was a long way to go on short legs, but I did not complain. First of all, because I loved that stuffed old place with bookcases up to the ceiling, secondly because I was promised a big sack of Belgian frites when I went along. Oh yes, I was subject to bribes and for a bar of chocolate or some frites I’d do a lot!

On Location with the Gallagher Family By MK McClintock



In the second book of the Gallagher series, Gallagher's Hope, we’re back in Montana! Having spent many wonderful years in Montana, it seemed only natural to set my first series here. Montana is still considered by many who have never stepped foot on her soil, to be a wild land of cowboys and Indians. It is this 'ideal' that is the setting for the majority of each story.

Primarily set on the Hawk's Peak ranch, this story unfolds as the reader gets a glimpse of what I believe that area of Montana would have been like in the late 19th century. The train system had begun to make its way into Montana, though that had been Butte whereas the fictional town of Briarwood is set north of Bozeman, an area I preferred and therefore I took certain liberties in transportation, though I'm certain, or at least hopeful, readers won't object too harshly.

Montana is a land of rugged beauty and glorious landscapes. When I walk through the woods or hike up the mountains, I often imagine what life would have been like two hundred years ago (of course without the aid of sturdy hiking boots). I see those images in my mind and can easily transport my imagination back to that time. Readers will also notice an absence of native peoples in my stories. The omission was intentional as I preferred to focus solely on the family and their purposes, struggles and relationships.

DVD Review - 100 Greatest Sci-Fi Classics



100 Greatest Sci-Fi Classics
Directors: Various
Starring: Vincent Price, Jesse Ventura, Bill Paxton, James Earl Jones, Ben Kingsley, Dorothy Stratten, Mark Hamill, and Many More!
Studio: Mill Creek Entertainment
ASIN: B0088JH7C4
Release Date: July 10, 2012
Approx. Runtime 132 Hours 34 Minutes
Rating: NR, G, PG, PG-13, R

Mill Creek Entertainment has recently released the 100 Greatest Sci-Fi Classics to DVD which consists of two previously released sets, Sci-Fi Classics Anniversary Edition and Sci-Fi Invasion at the retail price of $44.98. 

Even though I grew up watching Sci-Fi movies, I have never of heard of most of the titles on either sets. 

The Movies on Sci-Fi Invasion are the following:

Disc 1 -Brain Twisters, The Head, The Day Time Ended, Eyes Beyond the Stars
Disc 2 - Hands of Steel, War of the Robots, 984: Prisoner of the Future, Top Line