Vampire Humor

Many people know I have an affection for vampire romance, so when I saw this posted on JR Ward's message board, I had to put it here, too. I thought it was hilarious, but that's just me.

I won an ARC!

An ARC is an advanced reader copy, a copy of a book that is given out before it is officially released for public consumption. Late last week I got an email from a friend saying that an author I like, Nalini Singh, was holding a contest on her blog where she would give away 5 ARCs of Caressed by Ice, the third book in a paranormal romance series that is due out in early September. I adored the first two books, so I entered the contest without hope or expectation. I never win anything...

...until the next day!

I got an email from the author that was simply a reply to my entry email, so I thought it was just a confirmation that I was in the running. But the first words I saw were "Congratulations! You won..." Then I got a little lightheaded and giddy. Got the giggles. Bounced up and down in my chair. Fired back an email to Nalini thanking her profusely. One of the things she asked all her winners is to read the book and review it in a blog, at MySpace, on Amazon, etc, a couple weeks before it's release. I'll be reviewing it in a number of places in late August.

This is a great series. There are no vampires, no faeries, no hinky magic. There are three races: humans, the Psy, and the changelings. The Psy are conditioned from birth to push back and eliminate all emotion as part of the Silence Protocol. Long story behind that. The changelings are those who can, of course, change forms. There are wolves, leopards, wildcats, and others. They spend most of their time in human form, though.

The first book, Slave to Sensation, was about a Psy female, one who already feels because Silence didn't work on her, who fell in love with the alpha of the local leopard pack, the yummy Lucas. The second book, Visions of Heat, was also about a Psy female and leopard male, but this Psy, Faith, did have her emotions dampened by the conditioning and Vaughn, one of Lucas's elite bodyguards, had to work to draw out her emotions. The third book, Caressed by Ice, is about Judd, a Psy male, and Brenna, a changeling (wolf) female who was abducted, tortured, and rescued in the first book and is dealing with some unexpected effects of her kidnapper's cruelty.

There is a larger story arc beyond the individual romances that is starting to take form and promises to get really interesting very soon. I will talk more about it after I receive and read the ARC of Caressed by Ice. I'm so excited for this I'm bouncing in my chair again!

If you are not already a fan of Nalini or paranormal romance and/or roll your eyes whenever I go on about the hot vampires I'm smitten with, this is a good series to read if you're getting curious. The premise is very original, which is hard to come by in paranormal books, and Nalini accomplishes her worldbuilding with concision when she needs it and flourishing descriptives when they are called for. She is a rising star in romance and many of us fans have high hopes that this Psy-Changeling series will put her on the map.

My New Knitting Project

I recently finished the purple sweater I knit for Peanut. It's too big, which is absolutely perfect. But when I finished it, I realized that I needed a new project. Sure, I had the babymaking mojo log cabin blanket going for my sister, but I didn't want to really pick that up again until she was actually pregnant. If she doens't have good fertility vibes now from all the work I've done on it so far, I can do no more. So I had to figure out a new knitting project.

I found it while I was watching Knitty Gritty on the DIY network. They had an episode entitled Teen Scene with a couple projects designed by teenagers. One in particular, the slippers with crochet trim, looked to be fast, easy, and inexpensive. I suck at embedded links, so here it is: http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/na_knitting/article/0,2025,DIY_14141_5466264,00.html

It looks so fast and easy, as a matter of fact, that I want to make several pairs as gifts to a few authors I'll be meeting when I go to a private event in September. I'll be meeting several of my favorite paranormal romance authors, women who have made significant contributions to my bookcases and therefore my life. There are three in particular who are all New York Times bestselling authors whose work accounts for about one third of the books in my collection.

Several people may think it strange that I want to do something as personal and intimate as a knitted gift for women I hardly know who have already profited by my purchases of their books. But reading is as essential to me as breathing; not a day goes by that I don't read and it has been that way ever since I was in elementary school. I am not truly happy unless I have recently spent time with my nose in a book. These authors have all made an impact on me and my life and I would love to dedicate the time and effort that knitting requires as a thank-you to them.

I know I won't be the only one there who will be bringing gifts for the authors. The organizers of the event set up a Yahoo group for all attending and we've been chatting for months. So far I'm the only one knitting something, but I know several are bringing gift bags of chocolate and/or other treats. Maybe if they like my gifts enough, I'll really stand out and when it comes time for them to give out ARCs, they will remember me! ARC stand for Advance Release Copy, copies of books that authors and publishers give to reviewers, friends, and family weeks and sometimes months before the general release date. For someone as impatient as me, getting an ARC of the new book in any series that I read would be fantastic!

Cross your fingers for me!

Online Friendship

Through the JR Ward message board, I have developed a few friendships that are just as rewarding as friendships I maintain in real life (RL). We communicate mainly through instant messaging and phone calls. I have found people with similar lifestyles and similar interests, so the conversation flows naturally.

My biggest interest is reading paranormal romance and while this particular subgenre of romance is growing exponentially, I can't seem to find people in RL that share both this interest and others. Many people I converse with don't read paranormals or, worse, have a disparaging view of romance novels in general. Of the people I've met in RL who do read paranormals, we don't have anything else in common. Granted I can talk about books for hours on end, but variety is a good thing.

Another problem is inclusion in the "mommy club." I swear, once you have a baby and have those demands, maintaining a friendship with a childless friend is distressing in my experience. I've been able to find people with kids of similar ages to mine who understand me on a level that others can't. If I'm frustrated because Peanut woke early from a nap or is sick or is being a general pain in the keister, venting to someone who either is going through the same thing or who went through it not so long ago helps me. Peanut is a relatively easy baby, but she definitely has her moments.

The largest problem, though, is the unreliability of my shut-up filter. That's the filter between my braiin and my mouth that keeps stupid, offensive, and otherwise inadvisable words and phrases from being spoken. I call this unreliability my "foot-in-mouth facilitator." When I have gone too long between saying something I shouldn't, my brain circumvents the shut-up filter and I say something that offends, alienates, or hurts someone I care about. Worse, I can't seem to stuff my face with food and drink enough to keep myself from talking. This problem really asserts itself at my knitting group, where I knit with wonderful people. I said something a few weeks ago that had a really bad effect and I'm still suffering for it.

Online friendships are mostly spared the worst of the foot-in-mouth facilitator because I can read over my words before I hit send. I have a chance to consciously activate the shut-up filter before crap spews out of my mouth. It's been a lifesaver. I don't really have anyone I do stuff with in person. Those people who are similar to me as far as the kids thing goes live too far away for casual drop-ins and hang-outs. The friend who is close enough for that isn't speaking to me thanks to the foot-in-mouth thing.

My online friends are my best friends. I adore those I knit with, but I've never done stuff with them that wasn't knitting-related. When I'm online chatting with "aprilla", she can crack me up and comiserate about the antics of babies and toddlers. I can talk with "kraus" and see what the stay-at-home-mom gig will be like in a few years. Listening to "jade" go on about stuff lightens my mood on even the worst of days. I even get to chat with my brother who lives in Maryland on occaision.

I love the internet. :)

Lover Revealed...continued

Okay, so, Butch and Vishous and their unique relationship. I hate it when people try to label them because labels involve generalities. What is going on between Butch and V is very specific to these two personalities.

Again, I warn you, I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. I'm about to reveal the coolest part of the book, so if you haven't read it, stop reading this and go read Lover Revealed. It's a better read, anyway.

At the end of LR, Butch is inducted into the Brotherhood. Here's how the ceremony works: each of the Brothers bleeds into a cup, then bites the new Brother and takes a sip of him. When they are finished biting the new guy, he drinks the blood in the cup. This is how they become brothers--flesh of each other's flesh. When V bites Butch, it turns into a very erotically charged moment and they get pretty close. Oddly enough, I didn't see it as a sexual moment when I first read it. It is actually the very definition of sexual: they get physically close in a very sensual moment brought on by emotional intimacy. This scene is yet another example of how gifted a writer JR Ward is. Her descriptors, her phrasing, and her bravery in even writing this scene are amazing.

So V and Butch get up close and personal and it's pretty damned sexy. I still don't think they were ever sexually attracted to each other/desired each other that way. But they got physical in that moment because it progressed from their emotional intimacy. It was a one-time-thing, of course, because they are best friends, not lovers, and Butch is mated to Marissa. But I think it was a good thing that they had that moment, especially for Vishous. His sex life is really hardcore and he distances himself from the females he's with; he deserved a moment of embracing and being embraced by someone who loved him unconditionally.

This, of course, means that I am going ABSOLUTELY INSANE waiting for Vishous's book, Lover Unbound. It CANNOT come fast enough for my taste. His female is a human trauma surgeon and we're speculating on her like crazy on the boards. I really think that we'll finally meet Lassiter, too, because every time he's been on the boards, it's been to clash with V and they obviously have a history. And I think that John Matthew will transition in LU because it was remarked that he's getting close in LR.

I really could go on and on about this book and this series, but I'll spare you. :)

Lover Revealed

So on February 27th, I read Lover Revealed by JR Ward. It's official release date was March 6th, but Wal-Mart has a habit of putting books out early. Not my Wal-Mart, though. Nor the other four Wal-Marts at the top of the list that walmart.com gave me when I put in my zip code. But the fifth one, a thirty minute drive out, had it out. Since it was my birthday, I decided to be a bad cellie and buy early. I have been itching for this book since the beginning of September and I just couldn't let my birthday pass without reading it.

For all of you who have not yet read this book, stop reading this blog. I am NOT a spoiler-free zone. The book has been out for over a month. Read the damn thing already. Also, unless you have read the whole series and frequent the author's message board, I might lose you. I am a rabid fangirl and I will let it show. (So hi to all the cellies)

Anyway, I started it at about 7 pm, after putting my daughter to bed. She woke a few times because she was getting her first tooth, so I will forever connect my first child'd first tooth to LR. But after we finally got her down for good, I read nonstop and finished it at 3:30 am. WOW. Just WOW. I love this book. I love everything about it. EVERYTHING. Lover Revealed is Butch's story. I've always loved Butch, ever since Dark Lover. He fits in with the Black Dagger Brotherhood naturally, as a dear friend to them. Butch doesn't see it that way, though; he sees himself as being on the fringes, not in the thick of things. He has a warrior spirit trapped in a human body, and later on we find out why. Butch is the product of an affair with someone who had vampire DNA. Amazingly, he is related to Wrath, which I thought was GREAT. And Wrath seemed very happy and proud that Butch was of his blood. Wrath even took off his sunglasses for Butch when they found out. I got way sappy. So what they are able to do is force a transition. This means that--YES!--Butch ends up a vampire. This may seem a convenient solution to a lot of problems with Butch and Marissa's relationship, but it was actually hinted at throughout the three preceding books.

Marissa is a gorgeous fragile slip of a female vampire--or so she thinks. She ends up flexing that newly-discovered backbone on a number of occaisions. In the beginning she's a little exasperating to someone who hasn't read the whole series because they didn't see how she was when she was still tied to Wrath: he never loved her, so she thought she was unlovable. He never desired her so she thought she was undesirable, that there must be something wrong with her. These feelings of inadequacy were exacerbated by how she was treated by the glymera, the vampire aristocracy. They're total assholes, but that was the society she grew up in. Poor thing. Anyway, she has some serious self-esteem issues for a while. But she eventually develops her "rule number one": no one defines her but her, no one makes choices for her but her. This is a very good thing. It results in her burning her entire haute-couture wardrobe, among other things.

So Butch and Marissa are dayum hot together between the sheets. H-O-T-T, hot! What I love about their lovescenes is that Butch is always so careful not to push her, to not make her uncomfortable. He is one of the most considerate lovers I have ever seen in a romance novel and it's perfect for Marissa. There does come a time, though, where she finds her sexual confidence and matches him.

We see a lot of Rehvenge, that ultra-hot, bad-boy, half-symphath, drug-dealing, club-owning pimp who is also Bella's brother. I LOVE this male. He has a serious thing for Marissa and he treats her so well. He gets his clock cleaned by Butch at one point because Rehv fed Marissa, but that was great because Rehv had always been mystified why Marissa loved a male who wouldn't feed her and when he finds out that it was Butch, whom Rehv likes and respects, Rehv lets the punch slide. And, well, Butch was dead drunk at the time. Rehv has one of my favorite lines: very near the end, when Marissa basically sticks it to the glymera mucky-mucks and takes rightful control of her family's vote on the Princeps Council, Rehv says, "Hot damn, girl. You are so the shit." I can't wait for more of Rehvenge. YUM.

We get a great scene between Zsadist and Bella where he's chasing her around the mansion. I think I reread that scene three or four times before I finally moved on. It was so sexy and sweet at the same time. To see Z go from that angry mysogynistic victim of horrible sexual abuse to a sexually confident male who can also instruct trainees on the finer points of explosives was really remarkable. I fell in love with Z even more in this book. Lover Awakened will always be my favorite because it was just so damned good, a lovestory I will never see equalled. But LR still rocked.

But the most compelling aspect to this book was not Butch and Marissa's relationship. It wasn't that Butch became a vampire. It wasn't the glimpses we got into this amazing world that JR Ward has created. It was the relationship between Butch and Vishous.

I put my take on their relationship on the boards, so I won't repeat too much here. But getting to the bottom line of it, Butch is the first person for whom Vishous has felt anything and this new emotional attatchment confuses the heck out of him. One thing I hate is that when many people talk about V's feelings for Butch, especially when they talk about when V bites Butch as part of the Butch's induction into the Brotherhood, is when people use words like "homoerotic" and "bisexual." Why do I hate that? This blog entry is already too long, so I'll pull a WARDen and say...

KEEP READING!!!

Coming Soon

I know I'm terrible about keping this thing current, but I promise to do an entry on all the cool books I've been reading. Lover Revealed was INCREDIBLE, of course, but that's no surprise. I'm also reading a few series that I'll talk about too. SO for all you people who actually read this, I'll post a bigger, better entry soon!