30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-Two

Day Twenty-Two: Your favourite series

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead.

Vampire Academy is a good example on how to write engaging YA for a not so YA audience.

Let’s have a quick run down: Rose, our main character, is a dhampir, a half vampire, half human, trained to protect Moroi, the gentle, passive, elemental-weilding living vampires of the world. Her best friend Lissa (that’s why I picked it up, because we share the same name) is a Moroi princess, the last Dragomir, and a spirit user. She needs to be protected from the Strigoi, the evil immortal vampires of the world who prefer to drink Moroi blood. Dimitri is Rose’s older mentor and love interest (he’s only 24, he’s not like OLD old but he’s too old for 17 year old Rose). He’s a dhampir, and he forces Rose to question her duty or follow her heart.

A Strigoi can be made two ways: they can be forced in the traditional ‘I’ll drink your blood you drink my blood BAM you’re Strigoi’ way – that’s for Moroi, dhampirs, and humans – or a Moroi can turn Strigoi if they kill while feeding.

Rose and Lissa share a psychic bond because Lissa – who uses ‘spirit’ as her element – brought Rose back from death in a ‘shadow-kiss’. Rose can feel Lissa’s emotions and sort of transport herself into Lissa’s mind to see and feel things through her mind.

Like I said yesterday, I’m not into vampire fiction. I’m really, really not. But that just goes to show how good this series is, if it can engage a non-vamp fanatic into a major fan.
I chose to represent Vampire Academy as my favourite series over Animorphs, because although Animorphs is being re-released this year, it’s written for kids of the 90s, while Vampire Academy is more contemporary. I own every book in both series, and Animorphs shaped my childhood; but Vampire Academy has influenced me as a writer and I aspire to be as good as this.

Sure, sometimes the editing doesn’t catch everything (I found four typos in my US version of Vampire Academy) and sometimes I feel Mead cheats (the use of flashback is actually pretty awesome, but it’s frustrating when the flashbacks happen in a episode we’ve already read about and had no idea said flashback was happening. I prefer the flashbacks from before the series started). I love the idea of main character Rose being able to leap into best friend Lissa’s mind so that we can see a different part of the story from her point of view. I think that’s quite original and interesting.

*no longer available* FREE short story download: “Don’t Even Peep”

To celebrate this blog achieving 1000 views, I am offering a free short story download. This download is a pdf file and will be available for a limited time only. I hold the rights to this story and reserve the right to modify both the download content and this web page without notice.

Image © Starla Fortunato

“Don’t Even Peep” is a late 19th century paranormal short story. It is copyrighted and offered for consumption under good faith.

I wrote it in 2007. The idea simply popped into my head one night.

It will be published alongside five Tina Storm: Demon Hunter urban fantasy short stories, and three other paranormal short stories later this year.

The download can be found here:

Download no longer available. 

This is your chance to check out some of my writing before it is available for commercial consumption.

I’d love to hear any comments you have.

Please, find it in the goodness of your heart to retweet.

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty-One

Day Twenty-One: A guilty pleasure book

The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost

Why this book is a guilty pleasure:

  • I’m not into vampire fiction. Really, I’m not. They’ve been overdone. But I like this series.
  • The heroine, Cat, is half-vampire, not your run of the mill helpless human victim.
  • Cat kicks total ass.
  • The love interest, Bones, is blatantly modelled on my favourite version of Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer – the Spike from season 6 and 7, the one who loves Buffy, has mad sex with her and then goes off and gets his own soul. Bones is a full-blood vampire, a Master vamp, a bounty hunter, and a total badass.
  • And he’s totally protective and territorial of Cat.
  • And his nickname for her is ‘Kitten’. I love that. It’s the same nickname one of my love interests calls my heroine because she’s soft and cuddly with claws. LOL.

  • The sex in this series is insane. Each time (and there is multiple times per book) it’s more intense than the last. I don’t know how Frost keeps coming up with stuff.
  • The two main characters have a legitimate relationship with completely normal problems such as communication issues and jealousy – none of this Bella/Edward, Nora/Patch, Luce/Daniel crap.
  • Normally I feel really detached from the love interests in paranormal and urban fantasy. I don’t see how the heroines can love their mates. Their mates tend to be controlling assholes. But in this series, I understand Cat and Bones’ relationship, and I enjoy reading about it. Cat and Bones have very real, very adult problems in their relationship, and they overcome these problems in very real, very adult ways. There’s no “OMG he’s so hot I can’t think straight, but I hate him!” “I’m going to kiss you forcefully now!” “Yes, I’m all yours once more!” kind of crap you find in YA fiction. It’s a legitimate relationship, not this whole ‘destiny’ and ‘young love, I’m 17 and I know what true love is!’ bollocks.
  • There is actually a plot to each of the books, but I’ll be damned if I can remember them. All I really care about is the relationship. That’s the best part.
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The First Milestone!

The blog has reached 1000 views! *runs in tiny circles*
As celebration, tomorrow I will offer a FREE download for a limited time only: a late 19th century paranormal short story called “Don’t Even Peep”.
It will be published alongside the Tina Storm: Demon Hunter short stories later this year.
This is your chance to check out some of my writing before it’s even published.
Check out the story available soon, and let me know what you think!

30 Day Book Challenge: Day Twenty

Day Twenty: A book you would recommend to an ignorant/racist/closed minded person

Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Apart from the fact that I don’t believe ignorant people read, I would recommend Animal Farm because it is a great study into the power struggles and metaphorical history of Europe. I’m not sure this book would do any good to educate said ignorant/racist/close minded people: honestly, I don’t know any people like that. I make it my business not to associate with them.

I’d recommend this book because it shows just exactly how ignorance and greed, indifference and short-term goals can really break any idea of an utopia. It would certainly reinforce their belief in corrupt governments, but hopefully it would educate on the idea of revolution.

Hopefully this book would teach others to question authority: not simply hate on everyone in a position of power when things don’t go their way (as is the case in Australia when people complain about the government – they don’t know how good they’ve got it and voting is compulsory) but in other countries that have recently tried to change themselves such as Libya and Tunisia.

It is the idea of people easily believing propaganda that I hope this book will be able to educate and show a different side. Ignorant people are no better than poor Boxer, or the sheep in this book. Racist people are no better than the pigs. Close-minded people are no better than Benjamin the donkey who, although he recognised the signs of corruption, did nothing about it.

Of course, this is hoping that such racist, ignorant, and close-minded people can actually find the parallels between Stalin Russia and the plot of this book. They’d need a reading companion with them to explain it all. I think I’m giving them too much credit.