Category Archives: Projects

Marked – P. C. and Kristin Cast

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Right time for another vampire book review. I actually finished this one very soon after my last review but didn’t want to post too soon as I don’t want to bombard you with these things. :p

Right, so Marked by P. C. and Kristin Cast, a mother and daughter team. I had already read Divine by Mistake by P. C. Cast which I enjoyed emensly so I was looking forward to reading this one. The story follows the life of Zoey, a 16 year old American girl who discovers she is turning into a vampire, in this world a vampire is something you become, something you were born with a genetic disposition for, not something you are made. She is then sent to the House of Night, vampire school.

It did seem to me that this was a standard American high School drama but with added blood and magic. In her old school Zoey is one of the popular kids, dating a guy on the football team, has lots of friends, looks down on those kids who are different, well to a certain extent anyway. In the new school it’s all pretty much the same, makes a load of friends, gets hit on by the hottest guy in school and makes an enemy of the girl who is head of the school soriety.

Now I mentioned magic, the vampires worship the goddess Nix, who they believe gave them their powers, and she will bless certain higher level vamps with special abilities, for example Zoey’s mentor has the ability to communicate with cats. They also all partake in school wide rituals to honour Nix, which as far as I can tell are fairly accurate representations of pagan worship. Though this is one nigglely thing I don’t like about this book, if being a vampire is a pre-disposed genetic condition that could affect anyone why do they instantly have to convert to paganism. Sorry just doesn’t make sense to me.

Other than that I thought it was great, a new twist on the vampire idea, though maybe jumping on the Twilight bandwagon a bit. Hey vampires are really popular right now lets right a book about them! I do want to read the next book in the series, Betrayed, but may have to get through some of the other books on my mammoth to-read list first.

Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett

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Right the first of my vampire book reviews. I know Terry Pratchett isn’t the first author most people think of when you say vampire novel but this is one of my favourite books.

I first read Carpe Jugulum (Carpe Diem means ‘Seize the day’ this of course being ‘Go for the throat’) a few years back when Manda lent it to me and I enjoyed it immensely. Though I will admit when I picked up a copy a week or so ago there was very little I actually remembered about it.

The story follows a family of vampires (mum, dad, two point four children) who after being invited to a neighbouring kingdom for the blessing of the kings daughter attempt to gain control and essentially turn the local villagers into something resembling cattle. That is a large animal to be milked regularly for resources, in this case blood. The only one who doesn’t immediately fall under their spell is Agnes, a young witch with two personalities. It is down to her and her small coven of witches to save the day.

The thing I love most about this book is the way Pratchett plays with the usual clichés in vampire stories. Yes these vampires are hurt by sunlight and garlic and religious icons, but their father has slowly been building up their exposure to them so the effect is lessoned. Then of course there is the young vampire girl, Lacrimosa, a character who I absolutely love. Not only does she have a delightfully twisted personality, but Pratchett has taken every goth/vamp stereotype going and reversed them. She wants to wear bright colours and stay out ’til noon. Some of her friends have even taken on new names, such as Gertrude and sit around pretending to drink wine, when in reality it’s only blood in a glass. This on it’s own would make it one of my favourite books.

As to what happens to the vampires in the end, well you’ll just have to read the book.

Moving

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So for those of you I haven’t told or for whatever reason don’t know I have now officially moved to the other end of Leytonstone.

I’m sharing a flat with two guys. Very exciting. Though still wondering if I will have space for all my books. I have three full size bookcases and they are nearly already full, though in my defense at least one and a half shelves currently have DVD’s on and that is including Skippy’s books and the one’s that Emily, the previous tenant, was getting rid of and gave me first dibs on.

Though I think that gives me a good excuse to have another crack at the hundred+ book challenge, read 100+ books in a year, and maybe even some other book related blog posts.

ANyway, still need to finish unpacking. Expect normal posting to resume soon.

Day Zero Project Update

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As I have completed a few things on my list I thought I would update you all. The following are complete;

  • Tag all my photos in iPhoto
  • Learn to ride a bike (I can now get on and go in a straightish line without falling off, I can also sort of do corners
  • Wear a dress on a regular, non special occaison day – Completed 14th April 2009
  • Set aside a day to make my iTunes perfect (artist/album/artwork)
  • Cook a meal for family (I cooked Quorn korma, it was yummy)
  • See a West End show (Saw the 39 steps)
  • Learn how to make my own arrows (Have made 6 all by myself, well with a little help)

Library Books

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As some of you will have noticed numbers 58 and 61 are the same on my 101 list. As such I have decided to make a slight ammendment

Number 58 will become; take a new book out of the library each month and return it on time. Sounds simple enough but I am notoriously bad for returning library books on time. Got my first one out yesterday so lets see how long I can keep this up for.

100+ Reading Challenge

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Skippy Has convinced me to do project 52 (Write one article a week for your website for a year). So here is my first post of the year;

100+ Reading Challenge

Heard about this from Glowstars, who did it last year, but this sounds like just my sort of challenge.

  1. The goal is to read 100 or more books. Anyone can join.
  2. Audio, Re-reads, eBooks, YA, Manga, Graphic Novels, Library books, Novellas, Young Reader, Non-fiction; as long as the book has an ISBN or equivalent or can be purchased as such, the book counts.
  3. What doesn’t count: Individual short stories or individual books in the Bible.
  4. No need to list your books in advance. You may select books as you go. Even if you list them now, you can change the list if needed.
  5. Crossovers from other reading challenges count.
  6. Challenge begins January 1st thru December, 2010. Books started before the 1st do not count.

My list:

  1. 1001 ridiculus ways to die
  2. New Moan – Stephordy Mayo
  3. The Accidental Vampire – Lyndsy Sands
  4. Miscreation – Stefan Jakubowski

I won NaNoWriMo!

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It is now official. I have won NaNoWriMo 2009 with Ride with the Herd, a fantasy novel. Currently standing at 50,310 words (or 50,305 according to NaNoWriMo word validator). I still have a little bit more to write to complete the story but I may finish that off tomorrow.

For those who are wondering my 50,00-th word is; rules (or to if you take nano’s counting)

I won :D