Molly Ringle's Blog, page 21

Zatara, Kataang?

Almost done with season 1 of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and though I don't know any spoilers from future seasons (LET'S KEEP IT THAT WAY), I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that there are a lot of hardcore Zuko/Katara shippers out there. The enemy coupling isn't my usual style, but I see the attraction in this case, partly because Zuko is actually complex and might have an interesting arc by the end (hope so), and partly because Aang is *twelve*. And all these people are cartoons. So...

Free: one big box of assorted stars from Goodreads

For the record, I'm now in the midst of stripping the star ratings off the books I've reviewed on Goodreads. I'm going to try out a review-only, no-star-level method. I feel too much importance is placed on the number of stars rather than the words. If someone writes a respectful review saying, "I liked A, B, and C and thought the flaws were X, Y, and Z," and posts that review under a two-star rating, the author will likely be hurt or angry. But the *exact same review* under a four-star ratin...

Les Misérables, movie musical, book lover's thoughts

FINALLY, I saw Les Misérables, the latest film installment. It only took this long because I have kids, and arranging the sitter and coaxing my husband to use our precious date night for this, well, these things take time. (Thank you for being coaxed, dear husband.)

Thoughts in random order!

Evidently, when someone says, "Who goes there?", you should not answer, "French revolution." Doesn't go over well.

Extreme close-ups during singing: a few too many of them. It was like Sinead O'Connor's "Not...

Sirius, comets, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Edgar Allan Poe. All in one post.

I'm not a good astronomer, only able to pick out a few constellations or individual stars. But Sirius is probably the one star I'd know just by looking at it even without Orion nearby to point the way. All stars twinkle, but Sirius glitters and flashes--red! blue! yellow! white! full spectrum! I stared at it a while last night, and when I pointed it out to my husband and said it could easily be mistaken for a plane due to its brightness and flashiness, he peered at it and said, "No, that *has...

Mmm. Recipes.

Thanks for putting up with my random posts all year, folks. If it's any recompense, please treat yourself to this little book of the 12 best recipes our household has discovered lately. Download here:

http://www.mollyringle.com/Recipes2012.docx

Hope you find something you like. And I wish you all a pleasant and relaxing holiday season, regardless of what you eat.

Cheers!

Two more posts in which to win ebooks...

Are you stocking up someone else's e-reader as a gift? Or stocking up your own so you can hole up and read over the holidays instead of mingling with your visiting Great-Aunt Agatha* and her entourage? Then here are the newest places you can win my ebooks just by commenting. This blog tour is nearly wrapped up, and who knows when I'll be crazy enough to do another one (when I'm done with the next book, hopefully), so act now:

On creepy haunted Edinburgh and how I used it in a story

On how love...

It's December, so win an ebook!

My erratic blog hop (or blog tour, if you prefer) is still underway. So please DO go leave comments at these latest two posts, which puts you into the running for a free ebook! (Either Relatively Honest or What Scotland Taught Me--winner's choice.) Feel free to enter with intent to give the ebook to a friend instead--it's a fun and easy gift. Holidays are a-coming.

Ending in a few days: giveaway, with my post on small presses.

Just up today, with giveaway lasting for the next week: some though...

Misconceptions about how much perfume I wear

Just to clear the air, so to speak (ha, ha, ha)...

I think there's a misconception out there that we perfume geeks are the kind of people who spritz ourselves with loud fragrance head to toe, knocking passersby unconscious with our high levels of scent. Those people do exist, but we are not *those* people. We usually wear subtle amounts, which you have to be hugging us, or at least leaning over our shoulder at the desk, to notice. And more to the point, we wear it because *we* love the scents-...

Links! So many links!

As the latest stop on my blog tour, here's another giveaway you can enter--this time for either What Scotland Taught Me or Relatively Honest (winner's choice). Even if you have those ebooks already, you can always enter to win a copy for a friend. Because you're nice that way.

Also this past week on the blog hop, I visited Dean Mayes' blog to talk about settings I've used in writing. Dean's new novel is out now, and you can enter to win a copy of that too! I highly recommend doing so. By the w...

Gifts of the Peramangk - go ahead, add it to your "to read" shelf now

Earlier this year, author Dean Mayes emailed me to ask if I'd be willing to read the unfinished rough draft of his latest novel and give him my honest feedback. I said I'd love to, of course. Dean and I share a publisher (Central Avenue Publishing), and have enjoyed each other's work so far. He said lovely things about my What Scotland Taught Me, and his first book, The Hambledown Dream , impressed me a great deal--it's like a deeper, grittier, more paranormal, and much more moving Sleepless i...