L.M. Preston's Blog, page 50
May 24, 2011
My BEA Booty! Yep, my book treasures
Here are some of the great books I got at BEA (only a few of them in one of my bags, I haven't even opened the other three.)
I have a signing at BEA on Wed at 2pm and I hope you can make it. If not don't forget to pick up your free copy of Bandits in ebook.
YAY! Here's a sample of the books and links I got signed today.
I love you more, by Kim Thompson and Bailey Thompson
http://www.twinsisters.com/onlinecata...
Sophie, by Katherine Gibson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpADU6...
The Megasaurus Peter Weck (Author), Len DiSalvo (Illustrator)
http://www.amazon.com/Megasaurus-Lima...
Black out, by John Rocco
http://www.amazon.com/Blackout-John-R...
Sara Emma Edmonds Was a Great Pretender, by Carrie Jones
http://www.carriejonesbooks.com/my-bo...
The Lords by Little Ones, Allia Zobel Nolen
http://www.christianbook.com/the-lord...
Dude, Fun with Dude and Ben by Lisa Pliscou
http://www.amazon.com/Dude-Fun-Betty-...
Tugg and Teeny by Patrick Lewis
http://www.amazon.com/Tugg-Teeny-Book...
Zapato Power by Jacqueline Jules
http://www.amazon.com/Zapato-Power-Fr...
Wire To Wire by Scott Sparling
http://www.amazon.com/Wire-Tin-House-...
Original Sin by Lisa Desrochers
http://www.amazon.com/Original-Sin-Pe...
The Eleventh plague by Jeff Hirsh
http://www.amazon.com/Eleventh-Plague...
The Faerie Ring, by Kiki Hamilton
http://kikihamilton.blogspot.com/p/fa...
The Scorpion's Sting by J.D. Masterson
http://www.jdmasterson.com/
Dry Ice by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson
http://www.amazon.com/Dry-Ice-ebook/d...
Trial by Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Fire-Rais...
The Sword of Darrow by Alex and Hall Machow
http://www.amazon.com/Sword-Darrow-Ha... Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 23, 2011
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Movie Review
FANDANGO BLURB:
Johnny Depp returns to his iconic role of Captain Jack Sparrow in an action-packed adventure. Crossing paths with the enigmatic Angelica (Penélope Cruz), he's not sure if it's love—or if she's a ruthless con artist who's using him to find the fabled Fountain of Youth. When she forces him aboard the "Queen Anne's Revenge," the ship of the legendary pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Jack finds himself on an unexpected adventure in which he doesn't know whom to fear more: Blackbeard or Angelica, with whom he shares a mysterious past. The international cast includes franchise vets Geoffrey Rush as the vengeful Captain Hector Barbossa and Kevin R. McNally as Captain Jack's longtime comrade Joshamee Gibbs, plus Sam Claflin as a stalwart missionary and Astrid Bergès-Frisbey as a mysterious mermaid.
MY REVIEW:
I love the Pirate's of the Caribbean movies. This time I had another great ride. But something big was missing – and I wanted it. The chemistry between Johnny Depp, Captain Barbossa, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. Because they weren't in this movie – I felt a little cheated. Now the new adventure was a fun one – to find the Fountain of Youth. A long lost love for Captain Jack and his awkward and endearing way of getting out of the worst messes with just a bit of offhanded arrogance was wonderful. The exchange with Penelope Cruz was light, and I wanted more of a heated seduction to go on –but hey I'm greedy. I give it a 3.5 black pearls since the missing characters I've wanted to re-acquaint with were no where to be found.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 20, 2011
PRIEST Movie Review
FANDANGO:
A warrior priest (Paul Bettany) disobeys Church law by teaming with a young sheriff (Cam Gigandet) and a beautiful priestess (Maggie Q). The three band together to track down a band of renegade vampires who have kidnapped the priest's niece before they turn her into one of them.
MY REVIEW:
I will forewarn you, I love Vamps, any kind of Vamp, but especially the guelly kind that are ugly, animalistic and .... hungry. Priest delivered a scifi, twisted, off ball tale of a future where Vamps tried to eat the world. The war's in the past, the Priest have retired, but then there's a twist. A former Priest was turned and the Vamps are back. He leads the animalistic Vamp, kidnaps a former Priest's daughter and Paul - the warrior Priest goes against the 'church (a twisted view of the catholic church) to save her. Overall this was an okay film, it had much more potential but it was entertaining and suspenseful. It kept me watching. I give it 3 out of 5 fangs.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 18, 2011
FREE! Ebook BANDITS in Honor of BEA Give Away!
FREE! Ebook BANDITS in Honor of BEA Give Away! http://bit.ly/iNSY8V coupon:LV67U good til May 31st!
Pre-release Promo for BANDITS (Teen Pirates-Treasure-Love-Death) FREE ebook BANDITS http://bit.ly/iNSY8V coupon:LV67U good til May 31st! Check out the great reviews on my website www.lmpreston.com BANDITS has been getting 4 and 5 stars! Please enjoy and post a review on AMAZONLM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 17, 2011
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
NYIA teen book reviewer is in the house!!!! Give her a warm welcome!
Book Blurb Booklist:
Ruby hasn't had much success with family. Her father left; her protective older sister, Cora, left; and her boozing mother finally leaves, too. Ruby is alone until Cora learns of her situation and swoops in. Suddenly, Ruby finds herself living with Cora and her wealthy brother-in-law, attending private school, and wondering just where she fits in. As in previous books, Dessen takes on a central theme—here the meaning of family—and spins many plots and subplots around it. Most prominent yet least successful is the thread about Cora's relationship with boy-next-door Nate, who rescues her when she needs it, but has difficulty accepting Ruby's help, tentative at first, when she discovers he's being physically abused. Nate seems too good to be true (as does Cora's husband), while his father is a caricature. And one of the most important elements, the issue of the girls' mother lying to them, gets lost. Despite the uneven narrative, Dessen's writing can be beautiful, and her story is involving.
NYIA's REVIEW:
I give this book a 4 out of 5 hearts, mostly because the story was very interesting and had major drama, but it had too much back story so I snatched away a heart. The main character,Ruby, was very likable and grew throughout the story. The side love story was so touching and showed true dedication. I liked that the love story grew throughout the book and was well developed. Like I said before, the back-stories were overkill at times. They answered a lot of questions formed in the book, but there was so much back-story that I wished she made the beginning of the book sooner. The book overall was a great read and the ending was sweet and sad at the same time. I can honestly say that I had no unanswered questions at the end of this book, except the usual one left with the whole love interest thing.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
Book Blurb Booklist:
Ruby hasn't had much success with family. Her father left; her protective older sister, Cora, left; and her boozing mother finally leaves, too. Ruby is alone until Cora learns of her situation and swoops in. Suddenly, Ruby finds herself living with Cora and her wealthy brother-in-law, attending private school, and wondering just where she fits in. As in previous books, Dessen takes on a central theme—here the meaning of family—and spins many plots and subplots around it. Most prominent yet least successful is the thread about Cora's relationship with boy-next-door Nate, who rescues her when she needs it, but has difficulty accepting Ruby's help, tentative at first, when she discovers he's being physically abused. Nate seems too good to be true (as does Cora's husband), while his father is a caricature. And one of the most important elements, the issue of the girls' mother lying to them, gets lost. Despite the uneven narrative, Dessen's writing can be beautiful, and her story is involving.
NYIA's REVIEW:
I give this book a 4 out of 5 hearts, mostly because the story was very interesting and had major drama, but it had too much back story so I snatched away a heart. The main character,Ruby, was very likable and grew throughout the story. The side love story was so touching and showed true dedication. I liked that the love story grew throughout the book and was well developed. Like I said before, the back-stories were overkill at times. They answered a lot of questions formed in the book, but there was so much back-story that I wished she made the beginning of the book sooner. The book overall was a great read and the ending was sweet and sad at the same time. I can honestly say that I had no unanswered questions at the end of this book, except the usual one left with the whole love interest thing.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 15, 2011
Yippee! I got the Stylish Blogger Award!
I'm uber excited today. I just found out via twitter :-D that I am nominated for the Awesome Stylish Blogger Award!
Thanks soooo much, Yelena Casale! Here's a link to her blog: CLICK HERE
And now, THE RULES :-D
1. Thank and link to the person(s) who nominated you;
2. Share seven random facts about yourself;
3. Pass the award along to five blogging buddies;
4. Contact those buddies to congratulate them.
Here's my Seven Facts
I'm an Engineer and I design and build really cool systems!
I'm a mom of Four kids all of which have a part in my writing experience.
I'm a karate flick nut and go to the flea market to buy them all of the time.
I took karate when I was a kid, but only got to the blue belt when I discovered boys.
I used to do people's english papers in college, write their resumes, and tutor in order to make extra cash.
I'm a product of teen parents and I survived :-D
I met my husband on a blind date when I was 15yrs old and married him after dating just a few months when in my 20's.
Here's the lucky Bloggers who have stylish blogs.
Bookalicious: http://bookalicio.us
Dawn Brazil's http://dawnbrazil.blogspot.com/
Once Upon A Legacy said: www.onceuponatimelegacydevine.com
Writer's Musings: http://tabwriter.blogspot.com/
Write Game: http://writegame.blogspot.com/LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 11, 2011
Romance in YA
Yeah, love is in the air. I've always loved romantic stories. I think it all started with those darn Disney Princess stories but it grew. As a teen I always loved to read about love – even when I read other books.
YA and ROMANCE
To be honest I believe a lot of YA books fall short on 'romance' but is heavy on heated love, sex scenes that are just blah or unnecessary and love triangles that are – lets face it, just plain unbelievable. I mean c'mon if there were two hot guys like Edward and Jacob at school – they would be chasing any girl that threw themselves at them and certainly wouldn't be waiting around for a plain girl named Bella :-D
But we love those stories because – well, we wish that could happen.
I'd like to read a YA novel that actually had a scene filled with true romance (personally without the sex unless it is important to the character) and if they are going to put the sex scene in there, I wish they would be tasteful. But hey, that's just me. I did however ask my daughter and she mentioned she thought they were just plain sleazy and didn't add anything to the story for her so she would skip those parts.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT SEX SCENES in YA ROMANCE?
I asked my daughter to take a poll of her friends (14-15yr old girls) and her response was that 8 of the 10 girls said they thought they were icky, and spoiled some scenes for them. The other 2 girls said they liked reading them. All girls agreed that it made sex less curious for them and didn't paint the picture that it was something fun to do. Hmmmmm.
TONIGHT on YAlitchat (check it out on twitter at 9pm on Wed) we'll be chatting about Romance, so drop in.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 9, 2011
BANDITS was released early in EBOOK
Yippee! I have a lot to be happy about. We just released Bandits in ebook format. This was the first time we did it ourselves – hands on when my publisher hobnobbed with some other small presses and they told him it was best to upload the books ourselves rather than have our servicer do it. Oh, they said it would be easy. Well, ebook to Kindle was definitely easy. Ebook to Smashwords took five attempts before it was formatted correctly for the Premium Catalogue which gets your ebook formatted to Barnes.
$2.99 is the intro price for Bandits in Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/LM.-Preston/e/B...) and Smashwords.
$0.99 The Pack in Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/LM.-Preston/e/B...) and B&N (May-June) (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-...)
$0.99 Explorer X-Alpha in Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/LM.-Preston/e/B...) and B&N (May-June) (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Expl...)
The big Paperback Release day is June 1st! So get yours at pre-order price now.
TOUR Plans for MAY
*Tip* on the right of my blog there are links and In Person tour dates. (http://lmpreston.blogspot.com)
Gaithersburg Book Festival on May 21st
Book Expo America!!
I'll be giving away FREE BOOKS and signing on May 25th (look me up LM Preston).LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 6, 2011
THOR Movie Review
IMDb BLURB:
The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.
MY REVIEW:
I'm a sucker for a Greek hero based on Greek Mythology. This movie is a retelling of such. It also (as my husband the comic book geek pointed out) is rather different from the comic depiction of Thor. The comic book depiction of Thor was a feeble man who had a cane and when he tapped the cane it turned into his hammer. Well as the movie goes I have to say I fell more in love with the villain Loki than I did with Thor. Mainly it was because they didn't really spend much time developing Thor's character or his journey as a pompous hot head to a true hero. Not to mention his brief romance left no spark. With all of that said, I still enjoyed the movie. It had great special effects. Let's face it the guy that played Thor was gorgeous, and the fight scenes were interesting. But to me, Loki's character stole the show. I give this 3 out of 5 thunderbolts.
MOVIE TIP: If you go – stay til after the trailer for a teaser for the Avengers movie.LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
May 4, 2011
CAREERS is STAY-AT-HOME MOM ONE ANYMORE?
I've been doing a lot of Career Day sessions at Middle Schools and High Schools lately, and have noticed a change from when I was a kid. No one professes that when they grow up, they want to get married and be a mom. I mean when I went to school, half of the girls there would proclaim that when they grew up they wanted to get married, have kids and be an at-home wife.
Is that a dying career goal for our girls? Is it no longer considered a future prospect or acceptable prospect for a teen girl to depend on her husband to manage the house.
HOW HAVE TEEN GIRLS VIEWS OF FAMILY HAVE CHANGED
With so many divorces, mixed families, or single parent household, many girls don't believe that they can totally trust that a man or another person will be that devoted to take care of them and the kids financially for their entire lives. They are willing to talk about staying home with their kids – but with the thought to be prepared just in case things don't work out. Wow!
I can honestly say I get that. My mom didn't marry my father, and when she did get married the guy was abusive. Also, for as long as I can remember the women in my family weren't home makers. They worked and coordinated childcare between each other. But secretly, I wanted a 'normal' family with mom at home like I'd seen on TV and dad a perfect support and provider (I grew up watching Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch, etc)
HOW HAVE TEEN BOYS VIEWS OF FAMILY CHANGED
I also believe our teen boys are more flexible than in the past. The thought of men staying home as the care-giving parent isn't such a far-fetched idea anymore. Also, as for my son, he wants his wife to work also. Which shocked me, and I asked him why. He stated well you're a great mom and you work to, why can't you babysit my kids and my wife and I work. Huh?! Well that's not such a crazy idea considering that's what my mom has done for me. She stayed home with my kids, cooked and cleaned while my husband and I worked. She did it only for a few years, but it helped a lot. Also, with the death of a family friend, who's wife had been home raising their kids – my son witnessed the financial devastation of the family since the mother had no job skills. As well as my husband stayed home with my younger two kids for 5 years while owning a Real Estate business to supplement lost income. So my son experienced all types of family support structures for the kids.
HOW DOES YA BOOKS PORTRAY THIS
I believe the future is boundless. The make up of family will continue to change with husband and wives freely being able to switch roles as needed. It's starting to happen in some YA books. More YA lit is showing alternate family structures. Usually though most have a mom and dad – but let's face it, they've probably been killed off. Some I wonder may even have alternative households with single mom, blended families or even a mom or dad that have various sexual orientations. Who knows? So watch out for the shifts.
DO YOU KNOW OF ANY YA with an ALTERNATIVE or DIFFERENT FAMILY STRUCTURE?LM Preston (www.lmpreston.com) , author of THE PACK, EXPLORER X-Alpha and BANDITS
