Review: Tempest Rising by Nicole Peeler

 

Tempest Rising  
(Jane True Series, 1)

Author: Nicole Peeler

Publisher: Orbit, 2009

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Goodreads

Living in small town Rockabill, Maine, Jane True always knew she didn’t quite fit in with so-called normal society.

During her nightly, clandestine swim in the freezing winter ocean, a grisly find leads Jane to startling revelations about her heritage: she is only half-human.

Now Jane must enter a world filled with supernatural creatures that are terrifying, beautiful, and deadly – all of which perfectly describe her new “friend,” Ryu, a gorgeous and powerful vampire.

It is a world where nothing can be taken for granted: a dog can heal with a lick; spirits bag your groceries; and whatever you do, never – ever – rub the genie’s lamp.

Dreamscape

After having a very confusing dream yesterday morning involving some characters from a book I was reading a while back, a bowl of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and unshaved legs, it occurred to me that a good topic to post on my ‘personal posts’ would be my dreams. They're bizarre enough to be interesting and by writing them in story-like mode I'll be putting in more practice writing time  :)

If you ask around you’ll see that people generally don’t remember their dreams, and the dreams they do remember are often because they left a big impression, like nightmares. Weirdly enough I’m one of the few odd people that do remember most of their dreams in detail.
How do I do it? ... Well I don’t know!

But here is what I do in the mornings when I do remember.

DeviantART © ~Anyarr

First, I have a notebook and pen on my night table. I’ve read of people who use recorders but for me that wouldn’t work. Talking means thinking and thinking means forgetting the dream.

Second, and this is my weird trick, when I wake up I DON’T put my feet on the floor! Seriously, if I do I snap back to reality, my brain starts thinking and I forget the details of the dream. I usually just sit on the edge of the bed, feet dangling not touching the ground with my eyes closed and go over the dream once.

Lastly, after making sure I remember and the dream will not escape me (!)... I write. I just grab that pen and write whatever comes out. I don’t even try to write it all neat and in order, which makes it hell to later decipher what I’ve written. But I get the general picture of the dream, so it’s all good.

I’ve written down some pretty weird stuff on my dream diary. Everything from fantasy (a flight in carriage pulled by demon-winged black horses), to horror (trying to stay alive during a volcano explosion while people turned to zombies), to plainly absurd (killed someone at my wedding to stain the dress red because I wanted a red dress), and it all makes great material for short stories.

Review: Heartless by Gail Carriger

Heartless  
(The Parasol Protectorate, Book 4)

Author: Gail Carriger

Publisher: Orbit, 2011

Genre: Historical Fantasy/ Steampunk
Buy: Amazon ♥ B&N ♥ TBD

Goodreads

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband’s past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux’s latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia has barely time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.

Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf’s clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldama’s second best closet?