Christine Rains's Blog, page 107

Montrous Monday Blogfest

This frightening and fun blogfest is hosted by Timothy Brannan. The rules are simple. Post a monster. It can be any monster. One from your current WIP or from your favorite movie. Tell us why you love/hate/worship it. Then visit the other participants and check out their monsters.

There's so many good monsters out there. Oh, the fun ones I could tell you about from Syfy Channel! I want to introduce you to an ancient creature, though. One that has stuck in my head since recently reading the new YA series by Caitlin Kittredge called the Iron Codex. Loved the books. So very Lovecraftian. At one point, the heroes come across an oozing nightmare. A thing called a shoggoth.

A shoggoth is a monster created by H.P. Lovecraft. It's part of the Cthulhu Mythos. I didn't include a picture here not because I was fearful of an artist getting upset about me using his work, but because I couldn't find an image that fit exactly what I imagined a shoggoth to look like.

Here's what Lovecraft says in At The Mountains of Madness: "It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter."

I imagine it as a gigantic tar-like blob with several bulbous eyes and mouths with sharp teeth. It has no body shape and seemingly no heart or brain. Yet some might have a keen intellect. It moves faster than you expect for something of its size. It engulfs its victims and slowly digests them.

They say true fear cannot be given a shape. That's because it's a shoggoth.

Sunday high

Carve the pumpkin. Check.Make cupcakes. Check.Find a costume from stuff made at home for party. Check.Finish first draft of WIP before NaNoWriMo. Check.
YES!
I just finished sending out my first draft of my latest WIP to my CPs. You know that high of finishing a story. I'm giddy, nervous, hyper, and hungry. Really hungry.
We had fun at a friends' Halloween party yesterday. I found a bag of old costume pieces in the attic. I could've gone as a lazy pirate. Costume parts from when my husband was a Pastafarian one year. (100 geek points if you know what that is!) I instead took parts from a barbarian costume and went as an urban barbarian. Meaning I wore my normal clothes with skins over it.
My son has another Halloween party at preschool this Tuesday, and then there's trick-or-treating on Wednesday. A busy start to the week and then I'm diving right into NaNoWriMo. And no, I haven't done any more planning for it. Maybe I'll get a chance to do so one evening before Thursday.
My cupcakes didn't turn out too badly. It's harder to sculpt fondant than I thought. It was a good lesson learned. For fancy cupcakes, buy them from the store!

Final Day of the Fearless Blog Tour

My last stop is at a gorgeous blog belonging to theReader Girls!
Thank you so much to all the hosts of this tourand to Shades of Rose Marketing.Thanks again to Aubrie for giving me thisawesome gift, and to you,my readers.

The Fearless Blog Tour Continues

Come by to see another great excerpt atReading, Writing, and Roses.It's a great blog with fantasticwriting tips.

October Fearless Tour

There's two stops on the blog tour today.Stop by New Age MamaandIntriguing Readsfor more FEARLESS teasers!

Wicked Wednesday - prepare yourself for November

October is nearly over. I can't believe how this month has flown by. One week until Halloween. My favorite holiday of the year. A night where the supernaturals don't have to hide, but we wear costumes.

First off, I'm in the middle of my new FEARLESS blog tour. Pop on over to Musings of Ellafor a tantalizing excerpt!
November is near, and I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo again. I was going to stick with my current project, but a new idea pushed itself to the front of the queue. A superhero story. Good guys with big flaws and bad guys with even bigger egos. It's going to be so much fun. Superhero romances - which this one will be - fall in the paranormal romance category. It seems weird to me that they do, but they're more than normal human beings.
I won't forget my current project while I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I hope to finish revising the first novella in the series and have it ready to be out at the end of November. Knock on wood. At the latest, it will be out before Christmas.
For my Wicked Wednesday posts in November, I'll be giving you a peek at each novella in my 13th Floor series. Next week on Halloween, I'll officially let you know what my series is about. (Though I know some of you have a clue!)
Good luck to everyone participating in NaNoWriMo! Add me as a buddy. I'm Kalligenia.

Teaser Tuesday with The Immortal Rules

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
Grab your current read Open to a random page Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that pageBE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!This is the newest book from Julie Kagawa. If you liked her Iron Fey series, you'll like The Immortal Rules. A YA dystopian with vampires ruling the world.
Here's your teaser:
He groaned and swayed as he staggered to his feet, gasping with pain, and though my Hunger was sated, something inside me reacted to the sight of a wounded, helpless creature. I half turned with a growl, fangs lengthening, before Kanin grabbed my arm and dragged me away into the darkness. (page 110)

Today is the second stop on my new FEARLESS blog tour. Come visit me at Tara Len Walker's blogtoday!

If I Let You Go "Letting Go" Bloghop

Today Kyra Lennon's newest contemporary romance novella, If I Let You Go is now available! Woo-hoo! Congratulations, Kyra! I've already had a chance to read it and it's fantastic. You can read my review here.
In celebration of her release, Kyra is hosting a "Letting Go" bloghop. Everyone must share a story about a time they had to let go of someone or something. It can be something that you experienced, or if you don't wish to share something so personal, you can write a piece of flash fiction with "letting go" as the theme. Please no more than 500 words. Kyra and an independent judge - her mum! - will read all the entries. The winner will get a $10 Amazon gift card.
I've had to let go a lot in my life. I've lost my father and Granddad. I've had two broken engagements. But I'm going to write about something different.
Never in my life did I expect to fall in love with an American. I was born and raised in Canada, and I love my country. I wanted to travel the world, but I always thought I'd live my life in Canada. I've been lucky enough to travel coast to coast and see almost all the provinces. Beautiful.When my husband and I decided the best course of action (due to several factors) was for me to move down to Indiana, I was excited to start a new life with my man and see new places. Yet the moment we crossed over the border with my meager belongings, it hit. And hard.
I was leaving Canada. I was going to have to give up my citizenship. The country I was in love with would be mine no longer. I was use to being away from family and friends, but not my country. I thought it such a silly thing to get upset about, but it ripped out my heart. I didn't want to let go.
The ache diminished over the years, because I'm the happiest I've ever been living with my husband. We bought a cozy little house and had a gorgeous child. It doesn't matter where we live as long as we're together. I still miss Canada. We don't get enough chances to visit as often as I'd like. I don't think I'll ever let go completely. I still harbor the dream that one day, my husband and I will retire to Canada.
One wonderful thing that helped me was a new law was passed about citizenship. I no longer how to give up my Canadian citizenship to become an American. You can bet I'm tickled pink about this! My son is already a dual citizen. I made sure to do it when he was born. So much easier that way. Now I can be one too.

In FEARLESS news, today is the first day of my new blog tour. Please click on over to The Ebook Reviewersand say hi!

Liebster Blog Award

A big thank you to the wonderful Yolanda Renee for passing on this award to me.
Rules:1) Answer the presenter's 11 questions.2) Choose 11 lucky recipients.3) Create 11 questions for them to answer.4) Plaster the award on your blog.
Yolanda's questions:1. What monster would you choose for a Halloween costume? Bigfoot. A costume that's warm and funny!
2. What superhero would you choose to be? Rogue. And then I wouldn't push away Gambit!
3. What is your favorite genre, reading, and or writing? Paranormal romance.
4. What character is most like you in any of your favorite books, read or reading or writing? Harry Potter is my favorite series. Though I'd like to say I'm like Hermione, I was never quite that out-spoken. I'm not that young, either! I'm much more like Minerva McGonagall with a dash of Luna Lovegood.
5. What is your most memorable Halloween memory? My son's first Halloween where we dressed him as a devil.
6. What is your most memorable high school memory? I hated high school. My memories of it are not good. I guess the best would be sitting in the library reading. I did that a lot!
7. What is your favorite holiday and why? Writing. Need I tell you why? Heh.
8. What is your most personal current wish (one that you can share)? Financial security. There would be far less worries in my life if we had that.
9. If you could choose any man or woman, dead or alive, who would you choose to get our country back on track and why? Honestly, I can't think of any one person who could do it. The system will always work against them. To change things, the system must be changed.
10. What do you enjoy or hate about blogging, explain, maybe give a point or two for the rest of us bloggers. I love the blogging community. Everyone is incredibly supportive. Get to know folks. Visit blogs and build relationships. It's worth it.
11. What is your favorite day of the week and why? Saturday. Sleep in. No work. Family time together.

My questions:
1. What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?
2. If you could cast a spell on someone, who would it be and what would the spell be?
3. What's the best costume you've ever worn?
4. What's the worst costume you've ever worn?
5. Whose ghost would you like to be haunted by?
6. What's your favorite Halloween candy?
7. Would you spend the night in a haunted house?
8. What would your stereotyped role be in a horror film?
9. Have you ever tricked someone on Halloween?
10.What's your favorite horror movie?
11. What would your tip be for surviving the zombie apocalypse?

I tag the first 11 people who comment on this post.

The Next Big Thing

I was tagged by Summer Ross inthe Next Big Thing!Thank you so much, Summer.
1) What is the working title of your book? 1301.
2) Where did the idea come from? This idea came from thinking what life would be like for a supernatural being that had retired from being supernatural. He still has a bit of magic, but he's not like he use to be and glad for it.
3) What genre does it fall under? Paranormal romance.
4) What actors would you cast for your characters if your book was turned into a movie? Hmm, tough one. The protagonist is a large older man and looks good in a beard. A bit like Sean Connery when he was 30 years younger. The protagonist's love interest would be played by Robin Wright. And the villain, maybe Jude Law.
5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book? A retired demon acquires a price on his head and must either fight or surrender, but one way he loses the woman he loves and the other he loses himself.
6) Will your book be published or represented by an agency? No. I'll be self-publishing it.
7) How long did it take to write the first draft? It took three months. Slow for me because I just didn't have the time to write over the summer.
8) In genre, what books can you compare yours to? 1301 has a definite noir feeling. Similar to Jim Butcher's Dresden Files.
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book? The idea of a retired demon came to me itself. He made himself known.
10) What else about the book might pique readers' interests? 1301 is the first novella in a series about six supernatural tenants living on a mysterious 13th Floor. All of the stories loosely connect.
Since this meme has been going around a lot, I pass it on to anyone that wishes to promote their WIP.