Friday Funnies, Warm Bodies Trailer & Fred

Happy Friday, minions!  Aren't we all happy it's Friday?  I am.  First, let's start with our Friday Funny.  You should know by now how much I worship Joss Whedon.  I have a Buffy the Vampire hoodie to prove it.  (Geek alert.)  Anyway, I love JW's response to the question below. 

I knew there was a reason why I loved JW.  Are you a fan too?

Warm Bodies Movie Trailer & Book

Have you seen the Warm Bodies movie trailer?  Better yet, have you read the book by Isaac Marion?  Here's the book premise: 

R is a young man with an existential crisis--he is a zombie. He shuffles through an America destroyed by war, social collapse, and the mindless hunger of his undead comrades, but he craves something more than blood and brains. He can speak just a few grunted syllables, but his inner life is deep, full of wonder and longing. He has no memories, noidentity, and no pulse, but he has dreams.

After experiencing a teenage boy's memories while consuming his brain, R makes an unexpected choice that begins a tense, awkward, and stragely sweet relationship with the victim's human girlfriend. Julie is a blast of color in the otherwise dreary and gray landscape that surrounds R. His decision to protect her will transform not only R, but his fellow Dead, and perhaps their whole lifeless world.

Scary, funny, and surprisingly poignant, Warm Bodies is about being alive, being dead, and the blurry line in between.

And here's the movie trailer of Warm Bodies from Summit Entertainment.

Have you read the Warm Bodies book?  What do you think about the trailer?  Thumbs up or down?

Fridays with Fred - Busted again!

The day after thanksgiving, Fred was a bad dog.  Why?  I threw out the turkey carcass in a trash bag and left it by the garage door for my husband to take out.   Well...Fred found it, tore it open and devoured the bag of bones.  FRED...(cue in Phineas and Ferb's Candace here) YOU ARE SO BUSTED!

Fred was arrested and later released for good behavior.  His only penance was a tongue lashing, a sour stomach and then later the worst set of gas a human could endure.  Oh, Fred. :(

Never a dull moment.  Has your pooch ever done this?

Stop by and visit Schatze over at Mary’s BookHounds too.

Have a great weekend.

Mina B.

Book Review: Fireseed One by Catherine Stine

Today I'm super excited to review my latest read, Catherine Stine's Fireseed One. This book was so in-depth and fantastic, I felt the need to feature the book description. I remember reading it when I first read Catherine's blurb and recall being instantly hooked.

Book Description:
Fireseed One is a futuristic thriller that can be enjoyed by teens and adults. The year is 2089. Temperate climate has replaced Arctic ice, and much of what is now the United States is a lethal Hotzone, cut off by an insurmountable border from its northern, luckier neighbors, Ocean and Land Dominion. It is rumored that roving Hotzone nomads will kill for a water pellet or a slice of insect loaf, and that the ZWC, a dangerous Hotzone activist group, has infiltrated the border to the northern Dominions.

Up in Ocean Dominion, all eighteen year-old Varik Teitur wants is to party on Snowangel Island with his friend Audun and flirt with college girls he dreams of joining next year in his quest to become a doctor. Instead, he inherits a vast sea farm, following the death of his father, famous marine biologist Professor Teitur. Five weeks later, ZWC member Marisa Baron breaks into the farm’s secret seed vault and a fellow activist poisons the farm’s agar crops, the world’s food source. In order to save the last agar seedlings Varik is forced to journey to the Hotzone in search of Fireseed, a plant his father supposedly developed with magical hybridization properties.

Varik takes Marisa along. Aside from being a terrorist, she’s the daughter of Melvyn Baron, the biggest real estate mogul in Land Dominion, and the professor’s old rival. Oddly, she knows lots about Fireseed, and what Hotzone land Professor Teitur bought to test the crop, before becoming embittered and trashing the project. No one except Varik knows whether Fireseed once existed off the drawing board. Might the refugees in Vegas-by-the-Sea have answers, or the bizarre Fireseed cult in the Chihuahua desert? Varik, the reluctant hero, must risk burning in the Hotzone, as his mother did, to save the ailing agar, and the world.

My thoughts:

Fireseed One is a riveting futuristic fantasy tale that is classic YA with more than enough to sustain the die-hard adult sci-fi fans. I found the world Stine created reminiscent of best-selling, middle-grade Dark Life series by Kat Falls. However, in FireseedOne, Stine takes the global warming fantasy tale to a whole new level. In the beginning, we meet a reluctant hero, Varik, a young man who's forced to run his family farm after the passing of his father. Straight away, Varik is thrust into unfamiliar territory as he discovers his farm vaults were robbed. Those vaults secured most of the world's food supply in a form of seeds. Harvesting, protecting and engineering these seeds had been his dead father's life's work including his radical creation, Fireseed One.

Besides creating an amazing fantasy world, Stine did a wonderful job at creating such a likable hero who throughout the novel showed incredible depth and courage. Marisa, Varik's counterpart, was equally intriguing. I'll admit I didn't like her at first, but it just goes to show you how when great plotting happens, characters evolve, which make for enjoyable reading experience. The journey Varik and Marisa take along with Audun, Varik's childhood friend, is filled with suspense and bizarre sci-fi imagery that after awhile becomes addicting.  If you're looking for something sci-fi/dark fantasy with elements of dystopian YA genre, then Fireseed One is just the book for you.

Find out more information about Fireseed One and Catherine Stine by visiting her Idea City Blog. Like or follow her on Facebook or Twitter too!

What about you?  Have you read Fireseed One?  

Mina B.

Oh, I Miss You Blogfest!

Welcome to the Oh, I Miss You Blogfest. Before we get started, I wanted to thank Andrew, Mathew and Alex for hosting this blogfest.   I felt like I had been slacking too in the blogging department, and I know I'm not alone.

There were many that I wanted to feature today, but I had to keep my choices in check.  The bloggers I really miss and like to highlight today are ones you may or may not be familiar with.  To sum up my feelings...it just isn't fair.  Tell 'em Anne! 

Sarah Pearson / Empty White Pages, was a blogging force at the beginning of the year. Where art thou?

Ainsley Shay I enjoy her posts and love her cool blog..   

Jesse Cohen's Not Worth Mentioning - Cohen's blog is totally worth mentioning, and I miss him.  *sniffle*

C D Meetens/ One Little Spark - a Writer's World - I miss the spark. :(

Please feel free to stop by these amazing bloggers and say hi.  

Perish the thought!  The blogger buddies I'm grateful for and the ones I would die if they ever went away.  

Alex Cavanaugh

David Powers King

Elise Fallson

S.L. Hennessy's Pensuasion

Thanks to all you guys.  You enrich my blogging experience so much.

Fridays with Fred

This was the best I could do this week.  He honestly couldn't be bothered.  Oh well.

Stop by and visit Schatze over at Mary’s BookHounds too.

Have a great weekend.

Mina B.

NaNoWrMo 2012 - Progress Anyone?

I was off to an excellent start with National Novel Writing Month.  I wrote a little over 10,000 words and mostly ironed out plot issues.  This might not seem very much, but plot issues were killing my progress for my novel.  Now I can think clearer, and the words flow easier since the harmony has returned. 

That said, the progress I had was halted, and I'm not even half way through the month.  Damn!  Sometimes life overwhelms us with its untimely incidents, which is precisely what happened to me.  Both of my kids collided in a freak accident which has led to two trips to the ER, several trips to the dentist and of course, the pediatrician.  No worries, everyone is fine but this cat lost a life or two that's for sure. Between work, missed school and good lord anything else that comes with that, I'm certain of one thing only: minimal progress for NaNoWrMo.  Oh well...  

I decided to write this post to find out if others are struggling with nanowrimo progress.  I think it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't the end of the year.  For some reason, I feel a bit sullen that 2012 is almost over.  I think it's because the remainder of my year is planned out extensively, which gives me little time for editing and probably less for writing.  Oh well...

On another note, I'm curious how others are using NaNoWrMo to network and write.  Has anyone else met with their group?  Or do you have plans to attend a Write In?  Unfortunately, with work and my family, I don't have the time to attend one.  Still, the plan is to keep trying, right?

Have a fabulous week and don't forget to stop by on Friday for I Miss You Blogfest!
Mina B.

Fred Update & other Fun Stuff

Hi, minions.  Happy Friday!  Today I wanted to feature a few things.  First off...Fred!  He's back by popular demand.  I haven't done a post in a couple of months because, frankly, Fred's not as obliging as he used to be.  It seems he's a bit prickly in his senior years, but who can blame him?  That said, I'll post when I can and have placed him on the side of my blog for those die-hard fans to catch the latest glimpse.  For today's Friday, I did capture a shot of him the other day.  We had 60 degree weather, and my JRT got filthy dirty and had to have a bath.  Poor buddy.  Anyway, afterwards, he couldn't stop shaking so I swaddled him in one of his jackets.  

Damn, I'm cute!

Be sure and stop by and visit Schatze over at Mary’s BookHounds too.

Friday Funny!

And the Friday Funny below sums up how my week went.  I'm betting if more people wore hats like the bear below, we'd be know to steer clear of them, huh?

Cool Giveaway!  

Beth Revis, author of the NY Times Bestselling Across the Universe series, is hosting a wicked YA book giveaway that I just have to scream out to the world.   She's giving away to one (1) lucky winner a fifty...50 of some of the hottest YA books!  Isn't that waaay cool?  How do you enter?  Visit her blog for details at http://bethrevis.blogspot.com/.  Be sure to tell your friends!

Have a great weekend!

Mina B.

Insecure Writer’s Support Group - Adverbly!

Insecure Writers Support Group, brought to you by Alex Cavanaugh, is here today.  I've been editing some of my previous works and thought I'd get your perspective.  Are you a lover or hater of adverbs?  Have you ever watched School House Rock?  If so...Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs here!

To be honest, I'm not too insecure about this topic.  Still, we're expunging demons here with the IWSG post, right?  That said, I have  *clears throat*  misused adverbs before.  *Ducks for cover*  I know, I know.  Stop throwing sh** at me.  I'm not perfect and yes, I use "ly" adverbs.    

I know many writers aren't adverb fans, but kill me for saying this, I actually don't mind "ly" adverbs.  Dare I say, even in dialogue I don't mind them.  The best post I've read about using adverbs in dialogue was written by Nathan Bransford almost a year ago.  For me, I don't identify my mistakes until I'm in the editing phase.  And when I come across a "ly" word, I focus on whether or not I truly do need it in the sentence.  If not, then I do what Twain recommended...I kill it.  

How about you?  Do you like or hate adverbs?  Do you have a trick to keep your adverb use in check?

Mina B.