BOOKS AND BLOGGING PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is defined as a theory underlying or regarding a sphere of activity or thought. Well, my theory is if I can add at least 10 new books to my Wishlist and move at least 5 older Wishlist selections to my TBR list every month, then life is a ice cream sundae. And if I can find those 10 books from at least 5 new blogs each month then that's the cherry on top.

NEW VISITORS AND OLD- WELCOME!

NEW VISITORS AND OLD- WELCOME!
Well, I've made it almost 5 years now, so for better or worse, I continue on. I tend to blog in spurts as the urge to be creative erupts. As I don't have an artistic bone in my body, you will see very few changes in the layouts. Hey, I'm a reader not an artist like so many of the awesome bloggers I follow. I know you don't always have the time but if you stopped and looked, take a half a minute and say your piece. Recommend a book that you have enjoyed or hated for that matter. Thank you to all who visit.
Oh, and I moved my Google Friend Connect info and share this buttons to the top, as without our friends, who are we?


Sunday, July 31, 2011

SUMMER GIVEAWAY BLOG HOP----Aug 1-7th

Summer Giveaway Hop 
Thanks to Inspired Kathy at http://iamareadernotawriter.blogspot.com/p/giveaway-hop_17.html
and Mary at http://www.maryinhb.blogspot.com/
for co-hosting this hop.

Winners will be chosen by Random.org.
Contest will be open internationally.  I will be giving away a $10 Amazon/Barnes and Noble
 Gift card or I'll let you chose a book from Book Depository up to $10 and as long as they ship free to you, you can enter. Just make sure they ship to you. If not sure,  check here.

I love to win Gift Cards and these are the simplest and the best as far as I'm concerned.
For every 50 brand new followers, I'll give away another $10 Gift card or book from Book Depository. Hope you'll take the time to look around, make a comment or two and offer any suggestions. 

(Going to use Rafflecopter for the first time, if you entered earlier before it was functioning correctly, I will use the comments as your entries or should it quit working I'll use the comments. Bare with me as I'm not real sure what it's going to do. )
What one thing did you NOT do this summer you wish you had taken the time to do?






I am number 42 and Logan E. Turner (Intl) is in front of me and Backseat Reader is behind me. Click here for the full list of participating bloggers on the hop. This is a great way to meet more bloggers, win books, gift cards and more!
Giveaway Details from the Grandbuns!
 --MUST ANSWER QUESTION
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON EACH COMMENT SO
I HAVE A WAY TO CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER PLUS YOUR GFC handle!

EXTRA ENTRIES
---FOLLOW ON GOGGLE FRIEND CONNECT 
---COMMENT ON UP TO 5 POSTS FOR EXTRA ENTRY
All comments left from start of hop till end will count as entry as long as you leave email and GFC handle.
--MAY ALSO TWEET OR POST TO FACEBOOK FOR EXTRA ENTRY.
Be sure and leave link in a comment.
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE 
TO COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY! 
Maximum of 6 entries! 









This contest runs till Aug 7th at 12 PM EST.
Be sure and check out my THE EYES HAVE IT contest .
You can watch for these covers and come back later to fill out the form. This one is open till Aug 10.

The Qwillery: Interview with Justin Gustainis and Giveaway - Jul...

The Qwillery: Interview with Justin Gustainis and Giveaway - Jul...: "Please welcome Justin Gustainis to The Qwillery. TQ : What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk? Justin : I have a har..."

Monday, July 25, 2011

Bitten by Books � Release Party Chat and Contest with-----

Author Jennifer Estep Release Party and $40.00 Amazon Gift Card Contest 7/26 - RSVP Here

Gwen Frost is a 17-year-old Gypsy girl with the gift of psy­chom­e­try — or the abil­ity to know an object’s his­tory just by touch­ing it. Gwen can see every­one who’s ever touched an object — and she can feel their emo­tions too, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Gwen uses her magic to track down objects that other kids have lost like cell phones, wal­lets, and purses — for a price.

After a seri­ous freak­out with her magic and her mom’s death, Gwen gets shipped off to Mythos Acad­emy, a school for the rich, priv­i­leged descen­dants of ancient war­riors like Spar­tans, Ama­zons, Valkyries, and more. Gwen doesn’t know one end of the sword from the other, and she doesn’t fit in with the other kids. But when Jas­mine Ash­ton, the most pop­u­lar girl in school is mur­dered, and Gwen her­self is attacked, Gwen decides to use her Gypsy gift to fig­ure out who killed the other girl and why — and finds her­self learn­ing some secrets that just might kill her








 Author Christine Cody Release Party and $150.00 Contest 7/26 - RSVP Here!
WooHoo! Ride Em Cowboy! Vampire Wild West!

At first they called it the New Badlands—a desolate area out West forged by the same events that altered the entire country. A place where a few scattered, frightened citizens retreated to underground dwellings that provide safety from the brutal weather…and from a society gone terribly dangerous.    It was only after the vampire arrived that they started calling it the Bloodlands.   The name didn’t change because Gabriel, a so-called monster running from his true self, came there to rediscover his humanity by hunting down the murderer of his lover.  e o rediscover his humanity by hunting down the murderer of his lover.

It didn’t change because Mariah, the woman who reluctantly took him in, would do anything—even kill—to survive the trials forced upon her and her neighbors.

No, the Badlands officially became the Bloodlands the moment a mortal gun-for-hire decided to slay Gabriel.

Now it’s up to Gabriel to stand up to the threat. But his desire to defend himself--and Mariah--without giving in to his vampire nature will prove to be futile. And when he can't beat the man sworn to kill him with human powers, he has to make a choice: be the monster he has tried so desperately to escape--or die…

BOOKS I'VE BOUGHT, SWAPPED OR WON FOR THE WEEK 7/25 # 45


If you hover your arrow at the bottom of the books, you can see where my books came from.

EVE SILVER IS GIVING AWAY 10 COPIES OF BODY OF SIN

Go here to see how to snag a copy 

Madison's Life Lessons on the Road to Hell: TREASURE QUEST: DISCOVERY LIES BETWEEN THE COVERS:...

Madison's Life Lessons on the Road to Hell: TREASURE QUEST: DISCOVERY LIES BETWEEN THE COVERS:...: "Before we get started, there are a few RULES we have to get out of the way: 1) Have fun!!! 2) Invite all of your friends and spread the..."

Sunday, July 24, 2011

E.B. Walters: TREASURE QUEST: DISCOVERY LIES BETWEEN THE COVERS:...

E.B. Walters: TREASURE QUEST: DISCOVERY LIES BETWEEN THE COVERS:...: "Hi, my name is Vince Knight. Thank you for stopping by. I'll be your host here. Treasures can be found anywhere, including this auth..."

Dystopian Desserts: 500 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!

Dystopian Desserts: 500 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY!: "Ahh, it's that point in every blogger's life when he/she realizes that 500 is halfway to a thousand (math was never my strongest subject)! I..."

Babbling Flow: EPIC Signed ARC Giveaway

Babbling Flow: EPIC Signed ARC Giveaway: "Every time I think about this giveaway, I get that Pitbull song stuck in my head. You know the one . . . I know you want me*. You know I..."

AwesomeSauce Book Club: 6 Month Blogiversary Week 4

AwesomeSauce Book Club: 6 Month Blogiversary Week 4: "


<img border='0' src='http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g5/amberic_2006/6month-1..."

A Book in the Hand: GIVEAWAY! I {heart} YA Giveaway Hop

A Book in the Hand: GIVEAWAY! I {heart} YA Giveaway Hop: "Since I love, read, and blog about YA, I joined the I <3 YA Giveaway Hop! As you may have gathered, the hop is your opportunity to enter lo..."

Reader Choice Author - Laura Wright - Author Interview and Book Giveaway! - Were Vamps Romance

Reader Choice Author - Laura Wright - Author Interview and Book Giveaway! - Were Vamps Romance

Friday, July 15, 2011

BlogFest 2011 JULY 15-17


This giveaway hop is being hosted by Cinnamon @ A Journey of Books, so be sure to check out her blog and leave her some love!
Well, here we are blog hopping again! Whew, just barely got my breath back from the FREEDOM BLOG HOP. But what else would you do on a weekend anyway?
Come on and join the fun. Find more great blogs and win some goodies. I’m going to give away books this time around. I’ll let Radom.org choose the winner, who will get their choice of two books. If I get 75 new followers than I’ll have a second winner who will get the other two books. Since this one only runs 3 days, it will only be open to US and Canada.  We’ll keep it simple and sweet.




To enter giveaway please follow this blog on Google Friend Connect, comment telling me what your favorite read has been this summer.
 Mine was “HOURGLASS” by Myra McEntire.


I am number 107 and the next five blogs behind me are
 
108 ;"http://livetoread-krystal.blogspot.com/";Live To Read ~Krystal;
109 ;"http://www.lorisreadingcorner.com/";Lori's Reading Corner;
110 ;"www.lovetoreadforfun.com";Love To Read For Fun;
111;"http://madameperryssalon.blogspot.com";Madame Perry's Salon;
112 ;="http://www.makobiscribe.com";Makobi Scribe;

The complete list can be found at http://www.ajourneyofbooks.com
 
The Demon Trapper's Daughter-BOUGHT The Demon's Lexicon-BOUGHT Falling Under-BOUGHT Ghost Town-BOUGHT
Here’s our favorite Bun with the rules.
$4th Bun
--MUST FOLLOW ON GOGGLE FRIEND CONNECT AND ANSWER QUESTION
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS ON EACH COMMENT SO
I HAVE A WAY TO CONTACT YOU IF YOU ARE A WINNER PLUS YOUR GFC handle!
EXTRA ENTRIES
---COMMENT ON ANY OTHER POST FOR EXTRA ENTRY
All comments left from start of hop till end will count as entry as long as you leave email and GFC handle.
--MAY ALSO TWEET OR POST TO FACEBOOK FOR EXTRA ENTRY.
Be sure and leave link in a comment.
I also have a contest going on for those of you who know your covers.
Check out “THE EYES” HAVE IT here.
This contest runs till Aug 8th.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Freedom Giveaway Hop Winners!

1  6743591-fireworks-cluster_thumb[5]








$4th Bun
No buns were harmed in this contest.
My son and daughter in law don’t have children yet so the grandbuns volunteered to list the rules
in exchange for displaying their pics and an extra slice of banana this weekend.(don’t tell their parents)
fireworksclipart8 WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT! fireworksclipart8
I had several people ask what I was doing for the 4th (see there I do read all the comments you leave me). Well, usually we cookout at the pool and family and friends drop by as they can. This year one son and daughter-in-law were at the beach, my daughter and her boyfriend were home from Raleigh for a concert Sunday night (so she slept till time to go back to Raleigh at lunchtime), and my oldest went to a cookout and fireworks display at their cousin’s. So we just had a quiet lazy day since we had went motorcycle riding on Sunday for 12 hours. Yeah, 12 hours! Do you know how numb your a** can get after riding for that long? We do take breaks about every two hours and get something cold to drink and walk around for awhile to shake out the kinks. But still --after 12 hours I could barely walk. And we came home on the interstate. I hate riding the interstate! Those curvy mountain roads  get my heart in my throat often enough but racing down interstate 40 at 1000 miles an hour from Ashville through Swannanoa and Black Mountain is my vision of hell. 
This ride though got me to thinking about the ride that authors take us on (you wouldn’t believe the crap that your mind comes up with to keep you awake while riding behind someone on a motorcycle for hours). I’ve built and redecorated about a dozen houses, wrote many chapters about vamps and werewolves inhabiting the small backwoods areas of NC, Tennessee, and Kentucky, (Deliverance ain’t got nothing on the terror I’ve left in those little mountain towns) and sung to the songs on the MP3 player till I was hoarse. Anyway the ride did get me to thinking about how similar riding on the back of a motorcycle is to reading a great book. I’m still working on this post  but hope to have it ready later in the week.
 
 
Now for the reason you really stopped by for!

B&N  Book Depository AmazonGiftCard
 
The main winner of my Freedom Giveaway Blog Hop giveaway is # 84---LindsayWrites whose email starts with americangirlie1…who said
spending it at a cabin in the woods with just books and my laptop 
to work on my sequel novel! (also going to have my bf there
 for some moral support lol)
CONFIRMED!
She is a 20 year old YA scifi writer repped by Louise Fury at L. Perkins Agency! Her blog is  http://lindsaycummingsblog.blogspot.com/
I had 358 individual entries/comments.
I had 71 new followers so that means one more winner! WooHoo!
The extra winner is Mona G. #178 whose email begins with
monag… who said

Thanks for the giveaway :)
I'll just be hanging out at home on the 4th -- just like any other day.

CONFIRMED!
I've emailed you ladies to verify email addresses for a $10 Gift Certificate/book. You have until midnight on July 18th EST to respond to my email 
or a different winner will be chosen.
All winners were chosen by Random.org
Thanks to all who visited  and commented.
I enjoyed hearing about your plans for the 4th if you were from the US and your plans even if you weren’t from the US. Be sure and watch for the Summer Giveaway Hops that starts Aug 1 - 7 for your next chance at a $10 Gift Certificate from Lisa’sLovesBooksOfCourse.
I also have a Cover Contest going on here for the whole month of July that could net you another Gift Certificate or a copy of the ARC Witch Song by Amber Argyle.

witch song

Monday, July 11, 2011

BOOKS I'VE BOUGHT, SWAPPED OR WON FOR THE WEEK 7/11 # 43





If you hover your arrow at the bottom of the books, you can see where my books came from.

  



If you hover your arrow at the bottom of the books, you can see where my books came from.

1200 (GFC) Followers Giveaway Contest!

http://book-faery.blogspot.com​/2011/07/1200-followers-giveaw​ay-contest.html
book-faery.blogspot.com
I am in awe, 1200 followers! Congrats, it is definitely well deserved. :)Thanks for the great giveaway.


Sunday, July 10, 2011

BIG THINGS GOING ON AT BITTEN BY BOOKS!

Author MaryJanice Davidson Guest Blog and Contest 7/11 –

Author Kendra Leigh Castle Character Interview and Contest 7/13 –

Author Jeannie Holmes Release Party and $150.00 Amazon Gift Card Contest 7/12 –

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Supernatural Underground: New Release Round-Up and Giveaway

Supernatural Underground: New Release Round-Up and Giveaway: "Summer is in full swing and it’s the perfect time to curl up in a lounge chair with a great book. So, we wanted to let you know about some ..."

Blog - Were Vamps Romance

Blog - Were Vamps Romance

Thanks to Robert! Never Lose Your Grandson!

1

This is so right on target. Little kids 
have no governor on what they say. 
When my son was about five, 
he answered the phone one night
 while I was in the shower. This 
is pretty much how the conversation went.


"Richards residence" 
Okay not bad, he had remembered what we taught him.
Pause
"She's in the shower" 
Okay too much information but ...
Pause
"He's in the shower" 
Okay way too much information
Bigger pause
"Yeah, they're in the shower together" 
OMG- who IS he talking to ?

Never found out WHO he was talking to as 
they didn't leave a name
 but for the next several months,
I constantly expected someone to comment
 on our showering routine.

Anyone out there got a story you wanta share
where your little darling spoke?

This reminds me of something the kindergarten teacher told us when they started school. 
"If you don't believe half the stories about how mean I am to your child,
 I won't believe or repeat any of the stories they tell me about you :)" 

Friday, July 8, 2011

Extra Entry for "The Eyes Have It" Contest



Since this cover and ultimately the book gave me the idea for "The Eyes Have It" contest, I decided to offer an extra entry to all who commented on my review of this awesome book. You can comment here and I will add an extra entry on your spreadsheet identifying the covers. Be sure and leave both your GFC name and email so that I can make sure the correct person gets the extra credit (jeez did that sounds like school or what?). Oh, and if you've already commented just let me know.

Guest post and giveaway with author Dani Harper





Guest post and giveaway with author Dani Harper

Dani Harper, author of Changeling Moon, writes paranormal romance, blogs about the paranormal, watches paranormal TV and movies, and reads paranormal books of almost any kind. So it's only natural that werewolves, faeries, ghosts and other supernatural creatures populate her stories. She lives on an island in Southeast Alaska with her fisherman husband. Her stories get written on land or at sea with the help of her executive secretary, Fiona the Pug..

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Favorite Tough (let's go with butt kicking) Heroine.

"Dedicate a blog post to talking about your favorite tough (let's go with butt kicking) heroine. Why do you love her? What about her makes you want to go out and do some butt kicking of your very own?"


Very easy to accomplish. JD Robb's Eve Dallas has got the butt kicking heroine award 
hands down. She and her equally awesome butt kicking sidekick, Officer Delia Peabody,
have got the figures and brains to outsmart some of the most devious murderers in 2050 
New York City. Their smarts are second only to their genuine caring for  their fellow human beings. They make sure that the bad guys are caught and stuffed in a box. To bad they could not have been around for Caylee Anthony. They would have never let the death of a child go unpunished.


To enter this awesome contest go here and check it out.



Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Gail Carriger’s hit Parasol Protectorate series for just $9.99

The Orbital Drop: eBook deals from Orbit Books

The Parasol Protectorate: 

Books 1-3 for just $9.99!

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This July, you can get the first three books in Gail Carriger’s hit Parasol Protectorate series for just $9.99. This digital edition includes SOULLESS, CHANGELESS, and BLAMELESS. That’s 3 times the tea, vampires, dirigibles, silly hats, and clockwork ladybugs.  And when you’re all caught up, you’ll want to check out HEARTLESS, book 4 in the series, in bookstores everywhere this month!
“Soulless is a character-driven romp with great world building and delicious
 rapier wit that recalls Austen and P.G. Wodehouse.”


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Room by Emma Donoghue



To five-year-old Jack, Room is the world. . . . It’s where he was born. It’s where he and Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. There are endless wonders that let loose Jack’s imagination -- the snake under Bed that he constructs out of eggshells; the imaginary world projected through the TV; the coziness of Wardrobe beneath Ma’s clothes, where she tucks him in safely at night, in case Old Nick comes.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it’s the prison where she’s been held since she was nineteen -- for seven long years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in that eleven-by-eleven foot space. But Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s own desperation, and she knows that Room cannot contain either indefinitely. . . . Told in the inventive, funny and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience -- and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.





The unforgettable story of Ma & Jack -- now available in paperback!
Do you remember reading Emma Donoghue's ROOM for the first time? We know it just came out last fall, but it's one of those books that stays with you long after you've turned the last page.
Now ROOM is available for the first time in paperback. Haven't read it yet? Today is the day. Want to share it with your friends? Here's your chance.
BONUS: Today, July 5th, Emma will answer questions about ROOM on the HarperCollins Canada Facebook pagePost your question there.
Happy Reading!