Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Waiting on Wednesday - September 28


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.

Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday
(follow up to Deadly Cool)
Publish Date: 2012 (no firm date that I found yet)
Twittercide [twit-er-sahyd]: the killing of one human being by another while the victim is in the act of tweeting.
Call me crazy, but I figured writing for the Herbert Hoover High Homepage would be a pretty sweet gig. Pad the resume for college applications, get a first look at the gossip column, spend some time ogling the paper's brooding bad-boy editor, Chase Erikson. But on my first big story, things went...a little south. What should have been a normal interview with Sydney Sanders turned into me discovering the Homecoming Queen-hopeful dead in her pool. Electrocuted while Tweeting. Now, in addition to developing a reputation as HHH's resident body finder, I'm stuck trying to prove that Sydney's death wasn't suicide.
I'm starting to long for the days when my biggest worry was whether the cafeteria was serving pizza sticks or Tuesday Tacos...
I read Deadly Cool in August for the book tour that started this week (my review went up yesterday) and I really enjoyed it.  When putting together my post I saw Gemma already had up information for the next book so I knew exactly what my WoW would be!  I really enjoyed the spunky heroine of Hartley in Deadly Cool and I look forward to more of her in Social Suicide.

So what are you waiting on this week?





Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publish Date: October 11, 2011
Paperback, 320 pages 
Fiction, Young Adult, Mystery
 ISBN: 978-0062003317



My Review:
My thoughts:  I liked this book.  I liked the mystery.  I liked spunky heroine Hartley and I felt sorry for her as she became ostracized at times while trying to figure out the mystery of whether her boyfriend, who cheated on her, killed the girl he cheated on her with.  Sam and Hartley are funny together, and I loved the addition of the bad boy Chase.  Every good YA story with a good girl being upset by her good boy (supposedly) boyfriend needs a bad boy in it.  But somehow while cliched the book doesn't feel cliched at all.  The cliches that are there are on purpose.

The book speeds by and even I was still guessing at the end.  I liked the main characters, loved the plot.  I liked the different secondary characters Ms. Halliday employed in the book.  Some I didn't really like but I like how they were used to show the different social structures of high school and how brutal it can be.  I also like that the book never took itself too seriously, there was always plenty of sarcasm of humor to go around. Deadly Cool was a great book and I am looking forward to the second installment in this series Social Suicide coming in 2012 which will pick up where this one leaves off with Hartley.

My Rating: 4.25/5.0


About the Book:

First I find out that my boyfriend is cheating on me. Then he’s pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And now he’s depending on me to clear his name. Seriously?

As much as I wouldn’t mind watching him squirm, I know that he’s innocent. So I’m brushing off my previously untapped detective skills and getting down to business. But I keep tripping over dead bodies and I’m still no closer to figuring out who did it. And what’s worse: all signs seem to point to me as the killer’s next victim.

I really need to pick a better boyfriend next time.


About the Author (from her website): 
Gemma had a hard time figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She worked as a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic, before finally selling her first book, Spying in High Heels, in 2005 and deciding to be a writer.

Since then, Gemma has written several mystery novels and been the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Reader's Choice award and three RITA nominations.

Gemma now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area where she is hard at work on her next book.

Website

Facebook


FTC Information: I received this book through Teen Book Scene for an honest review. 




Book Review: Skulls by Armand Rosamilia + Giveaway



 
Skulls by Armand Rosamilia
Publisher: Rymfire eBooks
Publish Date: September 5, 2011
Ebook
Fiction, Horror
 ASIN: B005LEPMQC







My Review:
My thoughts:  I haven't read much true horror in awhile.  Koontz and King seem to have moved onto more suspense laced with supernatural and away from the horror and I don't really know who else is out there.  So when Armand Rosamilia contacted me to read his horror short story collection, I jumped right on board.  I am really glad I did too.  It took me back to a day in the late 1980s or early 1990s when I was a teenager and first found the horror genre and opened up Night Shift by Stephen King.  I was in awe of how he could capture horror in a short story.  I often say I don't like to compare authors, but Armand took me back to those days. 

In these 6 short stories, he captured the scariness of the human psyche, of the abnormal animal and the just plain strange.  I loved each story and longed for more stories.  I'm definitely purchasing Death Metal as well after the sneak peek at the end of skulls.  There is nothing particularly gruesome in the stories (okay, maybe in one), most is left to your imagination, but that is what is so great about the stories, so much is left to you.  Armand Rosamilia builds this little world and story in this short amount of time and leaves you with it and though it's finished it leaves you thinking about it and wondering and left me with the lights on for a few minutes as well.  I know I'm definitely not buying a house by the ocean on a cliff!

So for $1.99 this is a steal for horror fans and for those that would like to give horror a try.  It's not too spooky to scare the pants off of you and too gory to gross you completely out, but just enough for horror lovers to truly appreciate this set of stories.  They are understated and enjoyable.  I like that in my horror and I will be reading more of Mr. Rosamilia.


My Rating: 5.0/5.0


About the Book:
Six tales from author Armand Rosamilia, including "Memorial Site", "Vacation's End", "1920 Gallery Card #4", "Stairs To The Ocean", "Beastie", "Crow Mill Bridge" plus a preview of the urban horror novella "Death Metal"

About the Author:  
Armand Rosamilia is a native New Jersey boy currently living in sunny Florida, where he chases his loving children, drives his fiance' nuts with stupid trivia and stupidity, and watches the Boston Red Sox devoutly. He loves Heavy Metal in all its glory and reads way too many zombie horror stories. He is an editor for Rymfire eBooks and creator/owner of Carnifex Metal eBooks. 

Website
Twitter
Facebook


Skulls on Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Skulls-ebook/dp/B005LEPMQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560682&sr=1-1

Death Metal on Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Metal-ebook/dp/B004VMPLRU/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560719&sr=1-2


Giveway
Comment on this post or Armand's guest post earlier today and you can win a copy of State of Horror: Texas horror anthology, which Armand has a story in, more information about it is below.  Just leave a comment about the scariest animal you have seen in a book or movie and Armand will pick a winner at random, open international if you can accept the ebook and will run through 9/30.  Increase your chances by commenting on both posts, this guest post and my review.


State of Horror: Texas
Five Tales of Horror set in Texas...

The Espantosa by Mark Mellon…
Chiggerfest by Jeff Parish…
Lubbock or Leave It by Brian Johnson…
The Last Ride of the Headless Horseman by Doug Goodman…
Blind In Texas by Armand Rosamilia…
http://www.amazon.com/State-of-Horror-Texas-ebook/dp/B004WXEY9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560994&sr=1-1


FTC Information: I received this book from the author for an honest review. 



Guest Blog: Story Behind The Story: Beastie by Armand Rosamilia + Giveaway

Story Behind The Story: Beastie
Armand Rosamilia




So, I have this horror short story eBook collection out called Skulls, and I'm here to talk about it, make you love me and it, and get you to part with your hard-earned $1.99…

It features six of my short stories as well as a nice chunk of my urban horror novella Death Metal - hopefully enough to get you to part with a few more bucks on that release, right?

All kidding and shameless, shameless money-grabbing aside, I'm quite proud of the stories in this collection. When I was putting it together I took care to select some of my favorite stories that I'd written over the last twenty years or so. It's actually quite scary to think that I've been writing horror stories that long, but then I realize that I'm 41 and probably wrote the first one about thirty years ago. I'm sure it was crap and ripped off a Koontz plot, but still…

I've conversed with a few fellow authors in my time, and I find a startling fifty-fifty split on the ones who can't recall which of their short stories was the first sale way back when. I spent years 'honing my craft' (read: writing a ton of crap) before finding my initial groove when it came to how I wanted to present my writing.

The first story I ever 'sold' (sold being a discount on copies of the issue) was to a Xeroxed little zine in the early 1990's called Nocturnal Ecstasy Vampire Coven. I still have the letter that the editor (Darlene Daniels) sent to me, on fancy sky-blue paper with some cool artwork on the edges. Ironically, it was a vampire zine long before this latest garbage that passes for vampire these days. Those who know me and my work knowthat I'm a zombie fan through and through and have no use for vampires. Anyway, the
story published was "Beastie" and my mother bought five copies (at the discount price, of course) and I wish I still had one.

Without spoiling it (after all, you'll be buying a copy of Skulls ASAP and reading the story, right?) for you, the story is a simple idea: a drunken grave-robber is doing his nightly work when a bat appears.

The story had been written over the course of a few days, and at the time I thought it was brilliant. When it 'sold' I proclaimed myself an author and mapped out my career trajectory of more sales, more money, and fame and fortune. After all, I was published now!

Interesting as well was the fact that, at that point in my early twenties, I hadn't finished too many stories. Sure, I'd started and gotten halfway through a bunch of ideas, but this was one of the few that I'd actually completed. I also distinctly remember writing the story because of the listing of Nocturnal Ecstasy in a side-stapled market listing booklet I used to get each month (the name escapes me now, but it was a great place to find listings and pre-dated Ralan and Duotrope by years). I knew they wanted a vampire story but I
had an immediate idea for something a bit different: bats. Even then vampires weren't in my list of ideas.

The story is a great read (if I do say so myself) because it has so many subtle flaws that showcase where I was at the time I wrote it and how many stories and words I'd put down since then. The version included in Skulls is word-for-word what had been printed back in the day, and I still enjoyed reading it. I hope you will as well.

And if anyone knows Darlene Daniels, former editor of Nocturnal Ecstasy Vampire Coven from Illinois, let her know I said thank you…








Skulls on Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Skulls-ebook/dp/B005LEPMQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560682&sr=1-1

Death Metal on Amazon Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/Death-Metal-ebook/dp/B004VMPLRU/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560719&sr=1-2




Giveway
Comment on this post or the review of Skulls later today and you can win a copy of State of Horror: Texas horror anthology, which Armand has a story in, more information about it is below.  Just leave a comment and Armand will pick a winner at random, open international if you can accept the ebook and will run through 9/30.  Increase your chances by commenting on both posts, this guest post and my review.


State of Horror: Texas
Five Tales of Horror set in Texas...

The Espantosa by Mark Mellon…
Chiggerfest by Jeff Parish…
Lubbock or Leave It by Brian Johnson…
The Last Ride of the Headless Horseman by Doug Goodman…
Blind In Texas by Armand Rosamilia…
http://www.amazon.com/State-of-Horror-Texas-ebook/dp/B004WXEY9Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1316560994&sr=1-1

**My review of Skulls is coming later today (the hint: I could not put it down and some of the best horror I have read in quite awhile)**