Movies That Struck Oil by Fuel Fighter

Rated G; 88 minutes; Walmart

Now available on Blu-ray combo pack from Walt Disney Home Entertainment is the Pinocchio: Walt Disney Signature Collection, featuring the original animated classic, brand-new version of Oswald short "Poor Papa," and 3 new bonus features.

Based on the children novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, Disney's Pinocchio was first released to theaters in 1940; marking the second full-length animated film to be produced by Walt Disney. Supervised by directors Ben Sharpsteen and
Hamilton Lusk, the film features the talented voice-cast of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Mel Blanc, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Evelyn Venable, and Frankie Darro.

Pinocchio tells the the story of  a woodworker named Geppetto, who had just finished creating a wooden marionette named Pinocchio. That night before falling asleep, he wishes upon a shooting star that Pinocchio would become a real boy.

During the night, a blue fairy visit's Geppetto's shop and grants the wish true by bringing Pinocchio to life; though the he would remain a puppet until he prove himself truthful and unselfish. To help guide him, the blue fairy assigns Jiminy Cricket to be his conscience.

Excited to find that his wish granted, Geppetto sends Pinocchio off to school the very next morning. However, Pinocchio never makes it to school, as he is lead astray by Honest John the Fox and his companion, Gideon the Cat.

With Jiminy Cricket by his side, Pinocchio embarks on a fantastic adventure that will test his heart and soul.

Blu-ray Bonus Extras includes:

• Walt’s Story Meetings: Pleasure Island – The Pleasure Island scene in “Pinocchio” had much more development than what is seen in the film. Join Pixar’s Pete Docter and Disney historian and author J.B. Kaufman as they explore artwork recently discovered in Disney’s animation research library revealing some of the attractions, gags and games, which Disney animators created for this iconic location of the film, that never made it on screen.

Amazon

While I love writing, my primary reason for being an author will always be to create stories and worlds that I want to read. Reading is my passion. Getting outside of reality and adventuring in a world inside a book is the purest form of escape I’ve found. I could live in books. I’ve wanted to live in books—especially when I stumble into a setting that is magical on its own.

The lodge in all three of the Servants of Fate books is like that. It’s a mountain lodge with all sorts of winter and holiday festivities. It’s cozy and yet has an energy of its own. The characters can retreat to their room for a quiet night or get involved in the events the lodge provides. There’s a restaurant onsite, but also they provide amazing room service. No way in a million years could I afford to stay in this place, but it’s not posh and fancy. It’s also not outside the realm of possibility.

In order to create everything from the menu to the events, I surfed the internet looking for similar places. Admittedly, the end result is an amalgamation of many places, but it’s not unheard of for similar locations to exist. And I want to go there. Possibly more than I’ve wanted to visit any of the places I’ve invented. It’s a blend of magic and reality, and it’s why there’s three books—I kept wanting to return.

This isn’t the first time I’ve made up places—though admittedly usually I peg down a state and often a city. My lycan/werewolf series takes place in the Glacier Peak area in Washington. The city itself is made up, but the location isn’t. (Taming the Pack series) In a recently released anthology, I have a romance horror novella that takes place in a completely made-up area—but I can’t say I’d want to visit, especially Parson Point and the spooky woods where a woman in white ghost lurks. (She Wore White, Legendary Anthology)

I read and enjoy books set in both locations I’d love to visit and locations that would be impossible to visit. I’d love to visit Hogwarts. *sighs* I’d also love to visit Regency England. *double sigh* Admittedly, on the second, I’d like to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I have a strong passionate need for modern conveniences—especially plumbing. I love plumbing. On the other hand, I snatch up books about New Orleans in my hot, greedy hands. If it takes place in New Orleans, a book gets a one star bump in rating automatically. I’m not familiar enough with the city to set a whole book there myself, but I will happily visit it again and again in other authors’ books—and in real life.

Luckily, I had the opportunity to live a lot of different places when I was younger as my family was in the military so I have a lot of experience in various cities to draw from when creating my own settings. Then, there is the blessing that is our technological ability to study the crap out of other places via Google. I’ve used Google Earth to “walk” down streets I might want to borrow many times.

Bethany House; 414 pages; $14.99; Blog Tour; Buy Link

Now available from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, is the the historical romance The Mark of the King by author Jocelyn Green.

Typically, I prefer my historical romance reads to be set during the 1800s, but ever since I watched the "White Queen" mini-series on DVD last month, I've become interested in reading novels set in other historical periods.

Set during the 18-century, The Mark of the King centers on Julianne Chevalier, a 25-year-old midwife who is imprisoned and marked for death after her client dies. She ends up trading a life sentence in exchange for being exiled from France. With no where else to go, she heads to the French colony of Louisiana to join her brother, Benjamin.

Unfortunately, getting to New Orleans isn't an easy task, so she is forced to marry a convict to get passage from France to Louisiana. New Orleans is nothing like she imagined it would be, and despite her best efforts, she cannot locate her brother. She has no other choice, but to receive help from a military officer, Mar-Paul Girard, in finding her brother.

Jimmy Patterson; 331 pages; $13.99; Amazon

Even if you're a diehard fan of the bestselling author James Patterson, keeping up with his dozens of releases every year can be a bit difficult. Besides from his famous crime thrillers and his new Bookshots novellas, Mr. Patterson also writes (or co-writes) books for middle school readers.

Now available from Jimmy Patterson Books (a division of Little, Brown and Company) is House of Robots: Robot Revolution by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, along with illustrations by Juliana Neufeld.

House of Robots centers on Sammy Hayes-Rodriguez, a young boy who lives in a house full of robots! Yep, I said robots. His mother, Dr. Elizabeth Hayes, is an engineer and she has created many robots and gadgets for their home. His father, Noah Rodriguez, creates graphic novels (comic books). Sammy has a younger sister named Maddie, who has SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency d), which makes it hard for her to be around germs, so she is mostly isolated to her bedroom.

The last member of the Rodriguez family is E, a robotic brother who goes to school with Sammy. Dr. Hayes created E for Maddie, who can attend school without ever leaving her bedroom by using E's sight, hearing, and communication skills to interact with her classmates and teacher.

The Rodriguez's household is turned upside in down in "Robot Revolution" when Dr. Hayes begins working on a top secret new project and neglects all the routine maintenance for her robots. All the robots, including the new electric SUV, start malfunctioning; causing a bit of chaos in Sammy's life.

Revell; 336 pages; $14.99; Amazon

There's nothing better to do on a boring Thursday afternoon than to read a book, along with drinking a few cups of coffee.

What title did I read today?

Well, it's the third book in "The Bishop's Family" series, titled The Devoted. It's written by the award-winning & bestselling author Suzanne Woods Fisher.

Similar to the other two books (The Imposter, and The Quieting) in the series, The Devoted once again centers on the Stoltzfus family; though this time Ruthie Stolzfus is the main character, a young woman who is considering leaving her Amish heritage for the outside world. This is a romance story, so of course there is a love interest, Patrick Kelly, for Ruthie.

I'm not going to go any further into the actual plot as I don't want to spoil it for other readers.