Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cats. Show all posts

Friday, August 3, 2012

Friday Favorites, Fantasy Art & A Funny...

It is Friday again! Woot!

And!

It is August! Can you believe it? Wow. Summer is moving right along and so shall I!

Favorite Books/Authors:


When I was a kid, I read the entire series of 'Little House on the Prairie' books by Laura Ingalls Wilder over and over and over. I loved those books. I learned a lot. I think I posted here recently something about these books. Probably that they were the only books I read a million times. Okay, maybe a hundred. But no less than that, I'm sure! I think these books are the ones that got me so hooked on history. Even if you couldn't tell by my high school grades. Heh.





Favorite Movies:

Just Go With It has become a favorite of mine. I love Adam Sandler and I found Jennifer Aniston to be quite funny. I used to love watching Friends. I have all the DVDs from all seasons except one. I loved her in 'Horrible Bosses', she was bad ass, lol! But this movie was very cute. And now I own it as well.

Favorite Music:


Well, today I will go with Weezer. I love this group. I haven't put a lot of their stuff on my iPod, but I certainly intend to get more. Just something about 'em. They have a good  beat and I can dance to it...








Fantasy Art:
Link to this page .

What with all the copyright infringement stuff going on, I have to be careful what I add here. So on the off chance I don't hear back from the artist by the time this post is up, there will be no artwork until I get permission.

Aaaand the funny!

Have a great weekend! What are your plans?

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Guest Post: Dawn Binkley, Hellfire Publishing...

Thank you so much Mel for letting me have the day on your blog to talk to other writers and
reader’s.

A quick little bio about me :)

Executive Editor, Dawn Binkley

Dawn Binkley, a writer since her late teens is driven by the written word. She believes, without
writers, the world as we know it would cease to exist. Books, scripts, advertisements, history, the
daily news reports, none of it would be possible without smart, articulate people to write it.

Mrs. Binkley is also a writer and is better known under her pen name Keira Kroft.

Dawn, co-owner of Hellfire Publishing and Hellfire Comics, also carries a vet assistance degree.
Her love for animals is as great as her love of people. She gives a percentage of her personal
book sale profits to the animal welfare league.

She was born and raised in Chicago and now resides in a quiet suburbs in the outskirts of the
city with her husband and her daughter. Dawn spends her spare time working with her cats
Scamper and Sawyer, to achieve total world domination, one shared Twinkie at a time. Her
passions include reading, writing, football and shopping.

Dawn will read anything you put in front of her. Whether she will like it, is another story. Her
preferences are vampires. If an author were to submit something with what she calls “real”
vampires, she will rip the hair out the head of any one that will try to take it from her. Also
amongst her preferences are ghost stories, werewolves and other paranormal beings. She looks
for creativity and wild imagination.

Direct quote from Dawn “Without great imagination, writing would simply be nothing more than
meaningless paper.”

She strives to bring the best fiction possible to the plate and has carefully staffed HP with like-
minded, smart, driven people in the editor positions. The entire foundation of Hellfire Publishing
is built upon community, love and trust.

I would like to talk about the fact that writing is not a one person career.

Who do you have to thank? As a writer, now that your or when your career takes off, who do
you have to thank? I mean sincerely, not just people you promised, whose egos you would puff
up by placing their name and kind words inside your novel. I mean the real people that actually
sacrifice themselves for your career.

My husband is number one. He always supports me and lets me take the time I need to write. He
is also not afraid to tell me if I come up with an idea, that he deems, stoopid? LOL He also gives

me the freedom to take his advice or not and most of the time he is right. But, don’t tell him that,
shhhhh.

My daughter. Yes our kids sacrifice themselves in their own way as well. In my daughters case
it’s giving up time IM’ing her boyfriend and believe me that’s a sacrifice for her!

My proofreader Jeanette, She had to read the first piece of crap I had ever written, God love her.
She was wonderful, very objective and not afraid to tell me like it was.

Books and internet, made it easy for me to look up info and get answers.

Decadent publishing, for taking a chance on a newbie. Because everybody has to start
somewhere, and without people that are willing to do that, we don’t stand a chance. They have
been so wonderful to me, I don’t consider them a starting point, I consider them a home where I
would love to reside as long as they will keep me.

Last, but not least my friends that simply just believed I could do it! Their trust and faith in me,
made a believer out of my toughest critic— myself.

Both of my businesses are both supportive environments to my writing career. Especially the
writers at Hellfire Publishing, they understand that on top of everything I do, that I have a career
as well and they make allowance for that. I am truly blessed.

So tell me, who do you have to thank, really?

Most of all I would like thank the reader’s. Out of the millions of books available nowadays you
chose mine, and that means everything to me. Thank you.

Writing is a career choice and a very tough business. Don’t be afraid to accept help. Writing is
hard work, however it’s the friendliest business :-D

So enjoy!

I would like to offer a free ecopy of Glow in the Dark to anyone who comments.

Dawn Binkley
Executive Editor
Hellfire Publishing
www.hellfirepublishing.com

Also known as:
Keira Kroft
www.keirakroft.blogspot.com

Friday, July 27, 2012

Friday Favorites, Fantasy Art & A Funny...

Well. Your views have spoken! I seriously didn't realize until I took some advice from Jamie over at Mithril Wisdom about your old blog posts, just how many people like my Friday Favorites posts. I mean, 4 out of 5 of the most popular posts were linked to these when I added that little popularity gadget to my blog. Who woulda thought?

So with that in mind, I'm going to give my best effort to maintain these posts.

Favorite Books/Authors:

I have to say, I love the Harry Potter books. I love the series as a whole, but loved The Deathly Hollows more. Not just because it was the last! But because of the answers it gave to all of those questions I gathered from reading all the previous books. J. K. Rowling hit the ball out of the park with these books. As in any series, though, there has to be at least one I didn't like and for me that was The Order of the Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good book, but really kinda slow.



Favorite Movies:

On the subject of Harry Potter, my favorite movie of the series was The Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm a huge Gary Oldman fan. Although, I swoon over Alan Rickman more. I don't know exactly why I liked this movie so much. Maybe because Harry finally had 'family'?

Favorite Music:

The Rumjacks! No, this is not a drinking game. It is a band. My son introduced me to them recently. He loves this style of music and loved when I introduced him to the likes of Flogging Molly and the Pogues.

Fantasy Art:



Aaaand the Funny...


Hehe! Have a great weekend everyone and don't get too bored!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Speaking With My Muse, Part Two...


You all have to admit, your Muse finds the damndest times to start inspiring you and the same can be said of your characters when they start to speak to you...

When you're trying to fall asleep.

When you're nowhere near your computer and have no notebook and/or pen or even a recorder.

When you're driving!

When you're at work, in the middle of a meeting.

When you're in the shower and just got all soapy.

Seriously, what do you do!?

I was in the middle of my paper route this morning and suddenly started a dialogue between my character that I've been trying to figure out since last night. Nothing meshed, nothing worked. Then I started talking to myself in the car.

It's like I was speaking in tongues... If any other driver had seen me, they would probably assume I was on a cell phone ear bud thingy.

Or not.

So what do you do in a situation like any of the above? Me, I admonished my characters like they were kids acting up in the back seat. Then everything got quiet. I felt bad.

They'll be fine.

I apologized with a chocolate eclair.

What do you do when the Muse strikes you in the oddest of times and places?

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday Favorites, Fantasy Art & A Funny...


It is once again Friday, which means the following Monday, not only will I be 4 weeks post-op, but I will have my review of Elf Killers up along with my Giveaway of the book!

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment. Multiple comments will not mean multiple entries. Sorry.

At any rate, on to what this post is really for!

Favorite authors/books:
When I was younger, Stephen King was my absolute favorite author because he could scare the crap out of me. Today, his books are okay, but the ones that were out back when I was a teenager like Christine, It, Pet Semetary... those were the bomb diggity. Pet Semetary scared me to pieces. I have issues with death (my own) and I'm not really a big zombie fan, but man.... this book kept me awake at night. My all time favorite though, was the book(s) he wrote with Peter Straub (another one I adored!). Talisman and later, Black House. Well written creep shows! I love me a good scare.
On that note, though, what I don't love to see in horror is an over abundance of unnecessary foul language just thrown in for filler. Yeah, you're scared out of your mind and you might curse, but not every other word needs to be Feck. You get the idea. Or even sex. Where does sex come into play in a horror? Well, I'm going to be the next to die, let's screw like bunnies! ... Not.
Okay, I'm done with that rant.

Favorite movies:
By far, today, it has to be How To Train Your Dragon. I loved that movie. Had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Gerard Butler was the voice of Hiccup's dad. *Coughs* Not a thing!
I loved the dragon! I'm a sucker for Elves and Dragons, people. Let's get this out in the open right now. If I could be an Elf, I would be. If I could own a Dragon... damn skippin' I would! But the dragon reminded me so much of our cat Oona, it cracked me up. Oona certainly is not the smartest cat in the litter, but she's very entertaining.

Favorite music:
Hoobastank! No, that isn't a bad word for those of you who have never heard of them. The Reason is one of my absolute favorite songs in the world. See, I don't just have a list of the top ten songs I love. I have a top 100.
I also have to add to this today and include Warrant as a tribute to the death of lead front man, Jani Lane. Sad. Very sad. He was only 7 years older than me. But I had the opportunity to see Warrant in concert with Poison. Good combination. Good concert. RIP, Jani.

Fantasy art:



And the funny:

Hehe! Okay everyone. Have a great weekend and don't forget! Look for my review of Elf Killers and the Giveaway on Monday.

Monday, August 15, 2011

It's Monday...

And officially I am three weeks post-op.

I was feeling great last week and even attempted to sleep on the couch. I was so comfortable that I was out like a light. Two hours later, I woke up to my two youngest cats, Gir and Oona, chasing each other around the house.

Gir used me as her springboard. Right off my incision.

So I spent the better part of the day in pain, back to taking pain pills. I hate pain meds. They absolutely suck. But I did get some good sleep and am feeling better again.

Still isn't a whole lot I can do at the computer, even if it is a laptop. I still feel out of sorts and am adjusting, but I have been revising, I've been reading all your blogs, even if I don't always leave a comment.

I'm staying in the loop!

My goals this week are to get back to reading/reviewing. I have two books I am going to work through and post one review here and the other is for "My Chaotic Ramblings". (Which moved right before I had surgery, so I will link when I get the review up.)

Last week, I had a dilemma. I have a working title for my book, but because it is so long I am busting it up into a trilogy. While the title I had worked for the one, for the moment, it certainly did not work for all three. Each one will probably be at least 70,000 words. We'll see.

However, let me just state right here... I love my husband and my sister-in-law. They're great sounding boards. I spent the better part of a day wracking my brain trying to come up with new titles and within a half hour, the two of them helped me reach my goal.

Should have started with them to begin with.

I have Googled the titles and such and have not found anything like what I have come up with.

The trilogy title I've decided upon is "Shadow of the Rose Book One, Two and Three". (Of course) And then each book will be titled: "Adversarius", "Bellum" and "Veritas".

I'm a Latin freak. I want to learn the language. I chose those titles simply because they're the one word definition of what is happening in the books. Adversary ~ This is the beginning of it all. The discovery of who will be fighting. Bellum means War and that will be book two. Finally, Veritas (Truth) is the last, because some truths will be brought to light and all that fun stuff.

Am I happy with the title? Absolutely. Will they most likely get changed by whoever chooses to publish me? Probably, but I won't fight it. I will try to convince them to keep the titles, though. We'll see!

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week as well!

Friday, July 22, 2011

Friday Favorites, Fantasy Art & A Funny...

That title means only one thing:

IT'S FRIDAY!

So let's check out some more of my favorites before moving on to the artwork and the funny.

Favorite Authors/Books:

Melanie Rawn. I absolutely love her Dragon Prince series. OMGah! Seriously, I can read them over and over again which is saying a lot for me because I usually do NOT read books more than once. I read hers, Eddings and Rowling's books.
However, I have to say I am super disappointed in the fact that her Exiles series has come to a dead stop. The first two books in the series came out in 1995 and 1998. The third book, The Captal's Tower is still listed as 'forthcoming' yet she has other books out.

Now mind you, I understand how difficult it is to maintain a fantasy world of your own making and to keep on the writing track of that world. But does she really expect her fans to wait 13 + years for the next book? Why even begin a series if you are not going to finish it? Yes, life hits you with hardships, illness... I understand these all to well, also. This is just my gripe.

Favorite movies:

Let's see... one of my all time favorite movies has to be Boondock Saints. I love that movie!! Every so often I might list a chick-flick here, but more often than not it will be an action/thriller movie. I can watch Boondock Saints over and over and still be highly amused by the cat scene. If you don't know what I am talking about... I won't describe it... sorry!

Favorite music:

Another one of my favorite bands is INXS. I have loved that band for a very long time. I can list dozens of other groups, but this is what my Fridays are for, right? Suicide Blonde, Devil Inside... trying to remember as many of the songs as I can but my brain doesn't want to cooperate.

On to the Fantasy Art!:

This week ~ Inga Nielsen

Ha! Funnily enough, last week's artwork (the one I couldn't remember where I got it) was also Inga Neilsen's!

Now for the Funny:


Have a super weekend!