Holiday Flash Fiction Blog Chain

Posted by Lizzy Lessard on Dec 9, 2013 in writing | 0 comments

This is my first time participating in a story chain.  The hardest part was reducing my entry down to exactly 250 words.  With such a small cap on words, it makes me appreciate the value of each one.

250-Word Story Chain, or, The Blog-O-Phone

Sort of a mini version of the story chain we did some time ago, each blogger will add 250 words (or less) to an an ongoing holiday story. Please post a proposed story idea when you sign up!

This time your entry must be short fiction; there is a hard cap of 250 words for each entry.

Please check out the first part of the story HERE.  Links to all parts of the story chain are at the bottom of the post.

---

Part #6

The bucket, ricocheting off of a lower branch, sprayed both trespassers and snow with a barrage of liquid red bullets.  Standing at the base of the tree with two hands gripping the axe and red dye cloaking his outfit, Cal mimic the crazed Santa from the Weird Al Christmas parody of Black Gold.  He was a pleasant man to the children who came by the factory to purchase toys, but he had no tolerance for adults interfering with his favorite holiday.

“Alan might have money enough to buy your granddaddy’s farm, yet I’m the one claiming this tree, woman.  Ain’t nobody standing between me and a perfect Christmas,” Cal Ostafinski said.

“Are you going to chop it down with me in it?”  Claire asked.

“If needs be,” Cal retorted and prepped his body for another swing of the axe.

Alan held up his hands, aiming his right hand at Cal and the left one at Claire.  “No one needs to get hurt.  I’m sure we can work out a more civil solution.”

Outnumbered, Claire knew she had to either secede or bluff.  “There’s a bigger tree up the hill that would be better for you, Cal.  If you promise to leave this one alone, I’ll show it to you.”

Alan breathed a sigh of relief a moment too soon.  Beth cleared her throat loudly, reminding them that she had no intention of returning home empty-handed either.

---

Participants and posts:
orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (part #1)
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com (part #2)
ishtar’sgate - http://chickenscratchbc.blogspot.ca (part #3)
Angyl78 - http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com (part #4)
MsLaylaCakes - http://www.taraquan.com (part #5)
pyrosama - http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
BBBurke - http://www.awritersprogression.com/ (link to post)
meowzbark - http://www.lizzylessard.com/ (link to post)

Read More

What I Expected vs What I Got — Goodreads

Posted by Lizzy Lessard on Dec 8, 2013 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

As much as I love Goodreads, it falls short on what I hoped it would be when I first discovered it.

Goodreads is the world’s largest site for readers and book recommendations. Our mission is to help people find and share books they love.  (source)

From this statement, I would assume that the focus of the site would be towards the consumer.  There’s two parts to Goodreads’ mission:

a) help readers find books they love

b) help readers share books they love

And here arises the difference between…

What I Expected vs What I Got

Goodreads

1)  Book Recommendations

What I expected:  I want my friends to know the type of books that I love and find that hidden gem that I’ll fall in love with.

What I got:  Recommendations of books in genres I never read or books that are clearly in need of a red pen.  These books are either written by the “friend” who send me the recommendation or suspiciously seem to be written by a close friend of that “friend”.

2) Messages

What I expected:  When I get a message from someone on goodreads, I’d like it to be personalized.  I’d like for it to be about books or something casual that relates to books.

What I got:  It’s a tie between a random review request and contest spam.

3) Groups

What I expected:  I want to discuss books, genres, and related content with other people.

What I got:  The groups seem to be flooded with authors begging for reviews and bloggers begging for people to visit their blogs.

4) Reviews

What I expected:  Well thought-out reviews that focus on the pros and cons of the book.

What I got:  Gifs.  Lots and lots of animated gifs.

5)  Quizzes

What I expected:  Quizzes that test my literary knowledge of books I have read.

What I got:  Quizzes from books I have either never heard of or never EVER wanted to read.

Basically…

What I expected:  A site to discuss book and book related things.

What I got: A site with members focused on self-promotion.

What are your thoughts about Goodreads?

Read More

Cover Reveal: Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle

Posted by Lizzy Lessard on Dec 4, 2013 in reviews | 3 comments

For some strange reason, I giggle every time I think about “romantic horror”.  I hope the romance in this is like the romance in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

Donners of the Dead by Karina Halle

Genre: Horror, Romance

Expected Date of Publication: February 2014

 designed by Naj Qamber Designs

organized by Xpresso Book Tours

 

Jake McGraw was unlike anyone I’d ever known. He was brash, rude, unapologetic and arrogant; chauvinistic, close-minded, and terribly stubborn. He was built like a tree, tall with a hard chest and wide shoulders and hands that looked like they could wrestle a bear. He was a cigar-chomping, scruffy-faced, beast of a man. I was pretty sure I hated him. And I know he hated me. But among the flesh-eating monsters in these snow-capped mountains, he was the only thing keeping me alive

The year is 1851 and pioneers in search of California gold are still afraid to travel on the same route as the tragic Donner party did years before. When the last wagon train to go into the Sierra Nevada mountains fails to arrive at their destination, Eve Smith, an 18-year old half-native girl with immense tracking skills is brought along with the search party, headed by an enigmatic former Texas Ranger, Jake McGraw.

What they find deep in the dangerous snow-covered terrain is a terrifying consequence of cannibalism, giving new meaning to the term “monster.” While the search party is slowly picked off, one by one, Eve must learn to trust Jake, who harbors more than a few secrets of his own, in order to survive and prevent the monstrosities from reaching civilization.

 

My thoughts:

It’s not a bad cover, but it doesn’t scream “horror”.  The woman on the left side is too reminiscent of women on fantasy covers — well, the ones where they’re actually wearing more than a bikini.  If it was an animal (like a wolf) instead of a person, then I’d clearly see the genre as horror.  One plus to the woman is that it does make the historical aspect of the novel seem important.

The red sky works well in the backdrop and I do like the font choice.  Easy to read yet stylish, however I wish that the writing was crisp and not blurred with the rest of the cover, so that it would POP.  I think that aspect is exactly why this cover is okay and not awesome.  There is no focal point, due to the blur.  There should be one part that isn’t blurred to draw the eyes.  The first thing that I see when I look at the cover is the mountains and the tiny text, which I blame on the fact that it’s blurred the least.  Sadly, it’s also the least interesting part of the cover.

But…horror and romance?  Sign me up.   

The daughter of a Norwegian Viking and a Finnish Moomin, Karina Halle grew up in Vancouver, Canada with trolls and eternal darkness on the brain. This soon turned into a love of all things that go bump in the night and a rather sadistic appreciation for freaking people out. Like many of the flawed characters she writes, Karina never knew where to find herself and has dabbled in acting, make-up artistry, film production, screenwriting, photography, travel writing and music journalism. She eventually found herself in the pages of the very novels she wrote (if only she had looked there to begin with).

Karina holds a screenwriting degree from Vancouver Film School and a Bachelor of Journalism from TRU. Her travel writing, music reviews/interviews and photography have appeared in publications such as Consequence of Sound, Mxdwn and GoNomad Travel Guides. She currently lives on an island on the coast of British Columbia where she’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with her fiance and rescue pup.

Website  |  Goodreads  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Read More