Sage Nestler's Blog, page 34
July 19, 2017
Writing Discussion: The Difference Between the Horror and Thriller Genres
I have been wanting to write this post for some time, and now I finally have time to write it! Yay!
The Horror and Thriller genres are two that commonly get mixed up in the reading and film worlds; therefore, I wanted to take some time to write my take on how the two genres differ. As an avid reader and watcher of both genres, I have come to realize that every writer, reader, filmmaker and audience member has a different perception of what goes into a Horror film/book or a Thriller film/book. But based on my own writing, reading and watching experience, I have come to the following conclusion:
Horror is about Fear
Thriller is about Suspense
Even though fear can be present in Thrillers and suspense can be present in Horror, these are very different goals for each genre. Horror is centered on making the audience feel dread, while Thrillers are focused on the plot and creating an atmosphere of suspense. Horror tends to be personal for each audience member because the writing or filmmaking is geared to single each audience member out and play to their individual fears.
But with Thrillers, audience members tend to root for the protagonists and separate themselves from the characters, while with Horror the goal is to put the audience in the characters’ roles and situations. This allows the audience to feel isolated and dreadful, whereas Thrillers are meant to create suspense and action. In Thrillers, dread and fear is not the goal of the writers or filmmakers, while they are the goals of Horror writers and filmmakers.
Even though Horror can be defined differently by audience members and filmmakers/writers, it all comes down to what scares the audience. Some people may be scared by a Thriller that involves a child being kidnapped and held for ransom, while others might be scared more by a cannibal hunting down his next meal. The difference is, however, that Horror doesn’t have to be as realistic as Thrillers do. Horror can bend reality to make the storyline scarier and more gruesome, while Thrillers stick to more distinct reality lines.
When it comes down to it, it really depends on what the filmmaker/author is trying to portray, and how the audience receives the story.
Much love,
Ashley
Beware of Nerd Block
It saddens me to have to write this post, but as someone who has promoted and advocated for Nerd Block for about a year now, I feel that I must.
I have been with Nerd Block for almost a year as I have been subscribed to their Horror Block (which I used to love); but lately, they have really been going under. I have yet to receive my May Horror Block, and Nerd Block has stopped answering emails or requests for refunds. There is also some stipulation going around that Nerd Block is dealing with a law suit due to payments that they have not been making to their vendors. Those who have received their recent blocks also said that they are sending out duplicate items from previous boxes since they haven’t purchased new items.
As a subscription box owner myself, I am sickened by this customer service. But as a consumer, I am very disappointed. Nerd Block is still taking subscription box orders, and this feels like stealing.
If you are interested in trying Nerd Block out, please do wait until they work through these kinks, or just try Loot Crate or My Geek Box. These are companies that I have never had issues with, and who I support 100%. Even though I have loved Nerd Block, I won’t be giving them any more of my business.
Much love,
Ashley
July 18, 2017
Coming Soon: Death Knows My Name by Kellie Wallace
There is a new book coming soon from Kellie Wallace called Death Knows My Name, and I think you are going to love it! Death Knows My Name is a great suspense novel that will have you on the edge of your seat. Check out more information on the book below!
Much love,
Ashley
*•.¸(`*•.¸(`*•.¸★¸.•*´)¸.•*´)¸.•*´
*DEATH KNOWS MY NAME*
******COMING SOON******
¸.•*´(¸.•*´(¸.•*´★`*•.¸)`*•.¸)`*•.¸
#DeathKnowsMyName #KellieWallace
#Comingsoon #Goodreads
#TBR #Amazon
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After the tragic drowning of her brother eighteen years ago, Aleida Fuller has lived her life communicating with the supernatural. She can see and speak to the dead, as if they were still walking the earth. Despite being welcomed in the spirit world, Aleida lives a closeted existence. Her reclusive mother refuses to accept her abilities and the local townsfolk think she’s a fraud.
When mysterious traveler Rafe Jenner arrives in town, Aleida’s dull life is irrevocably changed. He’s handsome, strange, and oddly alluring, with piercing eyes that turn red in the dark…
As Aleida and Rafe are teamed up to solve a crime for the Sheriff’s Office, a great evil lurks in the shadows. Bloodthirsty for Aleida’s soul, Hell-bound demon Albinus roams the earth, shedding blood and taking lives in search of her. He will stop at nothing until he gets what he wants. Aleida must draw on her physic abilities and her newfound alliance with Rafe to battle Hell’s agents before her soul is lost forever.
Author Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelliewallacebooks/
Goodreads: 
Literary Vacation Club: Winter is Coming…
I am pumped to release our August theme at Literary Vacation Club: Destination – Westeros! ❤
In honor of the 7th season of Game of Thrones, we are taking you on a multi-sensory reading vacation to Westeros. Each item in this box will be exclusive, and we can’t wait to show you what we have come up with!
This box is for the Game of Thrones fan who has everything so you won’t want to miss out! We have limited boxes available, and they are already going fast.
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Use Code “GOT10” to receive 10% off of your first box!
(Valid on subscription only)
Or, order as a one time box
July 15, 2017
Box Review: Crunchy Kid Box – July 2017
Hello, Everyone!
I have another fun box to show you today that has a cute bookish twist to it. This box is called Crunchy Kid Box, and it is a vegan snack box for children! However, the box also comes with a bonus gift, and July’s box came with a children’s book that is signed by the author. The story focuses on the vegan lifestyle and aims to excite children about what they eat! My family aims to be vegan and gluten free, so I was very excited to see this box. I hope that you will love it as much as I do!
Much love,
Ashley
We take the guessing out of snacking™
The first vegan subscription snack box curated just for kids.
Plans:
$39.99/month + shipping*
Includes:6 to 7 carefully curated snacks, from brands you trust. All vegan, gluten-free, organic, non-GMO and absolutely delicious.PLUS a FREE gift each month.
*SHIPPING PRICES: $5 in the US (excluding Hawaii and Alaska), $7 to Canada, $25 Worldwide
I received the July Crunchy Kid box to review, and I couldn’t wait to try it! My family is vegan and gluten free, so I was happy to see a box that is made specifically for kids to celebrate this lifestyle. Even though this box is focused mostly on the vegan lifestyle, I was happy to see how many gluten free items were included.
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The box itself comes in an adorable, heavy duty box with Crunchy Kid’s logo on the front as well as the characters that Crunchy Kid owns! I love how kid friendly the design is.
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The free gift included this month is an exclusive children’s book featuring the Crunchy Kid Club! I love how this box has its own cast of characters to teach children about the vegan lifestyle. This is a great way to get kids excited about what they eat!
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The book is also signed by the author and comes with a special note! This is a really sweet touch.
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Upon opening the box, you are greeted with a note welcoming you to the Crunchykid family! Since this was my first box, I was happy to see a welcome note included. I love it when boxes personalize the experience!
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The first snack item included is a pack of Crispy Seaweed Strips from Seasnax! These snacks are extremely healthy and addictive. The best part about them is that they are kid friendly and kids love them! I was happy to see this healthy snack included.
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The next items are Organic Emoji-Shaped Cookies in chocolate and vanilla from Tasty Brand! These cookies are vegan but they aren’t gluten free, so, unfortunately, my family wasn’t able to enjoy them. However, we gave them to a friend and he loved them!
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The next item is a pack of Organic Original Chewy Banana Bites from Barnana! These are really neat because they are just bananas that have been aged so that they are chewy. The bananas are from bananas that weren’t perfect enough for grocery stores, so they are eco-friendly as well! This is a great way to get kids to eat fruit because they are such a fun snack.
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The next item is actually one of my family’s favorite food items! This is a PB&J Bar from Betty Lou’s, and it is vegan, gluten free, and non-GMO. The bar tastes exactly like a PB&J and it has enough calories to be considered a small meal. I highly recommend them! Another bar from Betty Lou’s was also included, and it is called a Just Great Stuff Antioxidant Bar. This bar comes with 9 1/2 servings of fruits and vegetables, but it tastes like chocolate.
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The next item is a pack of YumEarth Strawberry Licorice! I love this brand because they provide healthy alternatives to different sweet treats. These strawberry licorice pieces are delicious, and my family loves them!
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The next items are from Wai Lana, and they are a Fruit & Nut Bar as well as Cassava Pops! These both are from a Hawaiian brand, and they are both healthy and delicious. My family particularly loved the Cassava Pops because they taste like potato chips but they are healthier and less greasy!
The last item is an all natural Coconut, Mango, Pineapple & Chia Seed bar from Alpsnack! This bar is raw and natural, and my family loved the taste of it. We loved the fact that it is gluten free and vegan as well!
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Final Thought: Crunchy Kid box is an excellent box to get your kids excited about eating healthy, while also trying out snacks to see what your kids like! I loved the mix of items included in the box because it allowed my family to try each different brand and determine what we would like to buy more of. We also liked that almost every item was non-GMO, vegan and gluten free. This box is perfect for our lifestyle, and we can’t praise this box enough!
Literary Vacation Club and Mental Health
Hello, Everyone!
I am very excited to announce that my book subscription, Literary Vacation Club, was featured on a mental wellness blog! I originally created Literary Vacation Club because I suffer from panic disorder and depression and I found that reading was the only thing that would calm me down in my darkest times. That is why I created Literary Vacation Club, to bring this reading experience to those who also struggle with mental health disorders or just stress in general. I was sought out by Boxed Up, a blog that focuses on mental health focused businesses, and I couldn’t be happier. I hope that you enjoy my interview and review with Boxed Up! Read on to learn more about my mission with Literary Vacation Club.
Much love,
Ashley
July 14, 2017
Book Review: Chemistry by Weike Wang
Title: Chemistry
Author: Weike Wang
Rating: 4/5
Synopsis:
A luminous coming-of-age novel about a young female scientist who must recalibrate her life when her academic career goes off track; perfect for readers of Lab Girl and Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You.
Three years into her graduate studies at a demanding Boston university, the unnamed narrator of this nimbly wry, concise debut finds her one-time love for chemistry is more hypothesis than reality. She’s tormented by her failed research–and reminded of her delays by her peers, her advisor, and most of all by her Chinese parents, who have always expected nothing short of excellence from her throughout her life. But there’s another, nonscientific question looming: the marriage proposal from her devoted boyfriend, a fellow scientist, whose path through academia has been relatively free of obstacles, and with whom she can’t make a life before finding success on her own. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. And for the first time, she’s confronted with a question she won’t find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want? Over the next two years, this winningly flawed, disarmingly insightful heroine learns the formulas and equations for a different kind of chemistry–one in which the reactions can’t be quantified, measured, and analyzed; one that can be studied only in the mysterious language of the heart. Taking us deep inside her scattered, searching mind, here is a brilliant new literary voice that astutely juxtaposes the elegance of science, the anxieties of finding a place in the world, and the sacrifices made for love and family.
Review:
Chemistry is a beautiful debut novel by author Weike Wang. The story follows a young Chinese American woman who has always seemed to have her life planned out before her; however, her life becomes unraveled when she quits her PhD program and her life begins to spin out of control. I found Wang’s writing to be personal, as though she were writing a memoir, and I enjoyed her description of the conflicts her narrator had with her parents. It was clear that the narrator loved her parents, despite how strict they were with her, and Wang’s writing opened up a discussion on what it means to love your parents unconditionally.
Chemistry reads like a disjointed train of thoughts. There are no chapters in the book, only different parts, and the parts are divided up into snippets. Wang seemed to write the novel cold, as though she wrote down ideas as she went, and I liked the spontaneity of her work. However, I did not connect well with the narrator, and I found it hard to care about her thoughts and experiences. The narrator’s thoughts were conflicting and problematic, but they did bring the reader insight on the experience of Chinese American women. Chemistry reminded me of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan in terms of the conflicting relationship that the narrator had with her mother, and I enjoyed reading about that experience. Since the narrator was first generation American, it seemed that she was torn between her Chinese heritage and her responsibilities as an American woman. Once the narrator brought light to the background of the experiences of her parents, their actions were justified. The immigrant experience was well received by me as the reader, and I enjoyed being opened up to this original perspective.
Chemistry is an inventive new novel that focuses on the pressure that young people face today from their parents and society. Wang brought a unique perspective by portraying the Chinese American experience, and her writing educates as well as entertains the reader. Besides the abrupt ending, I found Chemistry to be an easy vacation read (as I read it in two days on my own vacation) and it made me reflect on my own life. If you like novels that read like memoirs with a hint of comedy, then Chemistry is perfect for you!
July 9, 2017
Ashley Nestler on Renee Scattergood’s Blog
I am excited to announce that I was the featured author this past Friday on author Renee Scattergood’s blog! She posted an interview with me, as well as a focus on my first novel Beautiful Nightmare. Beautiful Nightmare was published when I was 18 years old, and it has such a special spot in my heart. Through my interview with Renee, I was able to go in depth about Beautiful Nightmare, and why I write. I hope you enjoy!
I am also posting a link to Renne’s work so that you can further view her own novels!
Much love,
Ashley
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What if your true love was only present in your dreams?
In the dystopian town of Lunamoon, everything is structured. Humans are created by science and everyone is programmed to follow certain regulations; but one girl, Shawneleigh, never lived up to the Council’s regulations. Shawneleigh has the disorder of narcolepsy, a disorder that causes her to fall asleep at random times without warning. Because of her illness, the Council banned her to life in a hospital since she cannot be counted on fulfill other duties. Lunamoonians all receive prophecies for their lives through dreams that the Dream Maker sends to them, but Shawneleigh hadn’t received a dream in years until she found herself falling into a dream during her sleeping spells. It is during these spells that she meets a man named August who claims to be the Dream Maker himself. He also lives in solitude outside of Lunamoon, and they begin to form a bond; however, Shawneleigh cannot control when she falls asleep, and soon August finds a way to manipulate her illness. The only problem is that when he manipulates her sleeping disorder, she continues to grow sicker. But no matter how hard they try, they can’t stay away from one another.
“Beautiful Nightmare: Some Dreams Become Your Reality” is novel about love, life, and the importance of those who care about you.
Love, above all else, is the best thing that we have to give.
Support Renee Scattergood
Get the #DarkFantasy #Serial Shadow Stalker Part 1 (Episodes 1 – 6) free http://reneescattergood.com/books/shadow-stalker-part-1-episodes-1-6/ via @ReneeScatts #MustRead #BookGiveaway #GoodRead #Fantasy #YA #FreeBook #FreeDownload #Kindle
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links. Peachy Keen Reviews uses affiliate links to monetize their website and keep it running.
Cover Reveal: Fractured Promises by Aleisha Maree
Today I am happy to share with you a cover reveal for Fractured Promises by Aleisha Maree! I hope that you enjoy. Aleisha Maree is a fantastic romance author, and I hope that you enjoy her work!
Much love,
Ashley
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Fractured Promises
I am Knox The Assassin Ambrose. I loved an angel, yet couldn’t keep her. These hands of mine, they make people bleed. They rain down pain upon sweet pain. Break a man’s bones with just one swift southpaw to the jaw. I’m an Assassin of men’s’ bodies and women’s hearts. I don’t do nice. I’m Raw, Rough and Unwavering in my quest to be the best.
I feed on my enemy’s hate, turning it into power and strength. I know how to fight with my fists but I also know how to destroy you without a single touch. I fucking clawed my way to the top and that is where I’ll stay.
No need to seek the warmth of a woman’s arms as I had them all falling at my feet, then like a south paw to the jaw she was there. Stuck in my minds eyes, haunting my dreams and etching in under my skin. The more this new beauty holds my attention, the more I lose of my angel, the one who first saved me. To top it off, she has her eyes, so every time I look at her, I’m reminded of what I’ve lost. She’s taking over my senses and turning my brutal world upside down.
Gone is the Knox my angel loved, instead I’m fighting harder than ever before.
Maybe just maybe I can find that love my soul craves. Miss Blue-James; can she accept the monster I’ve become? She has her own deep, dark secrets and evil is chasing her tail, seeking to bring her down.
But the evil hell bent on destroying her, hasn’t met me yet. I won’t fail her the way I failed my angel. Tick Tock goes the clock.
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July 8, 2017
Box Review: Pretti Parcels – The Petite Parcel – June 2017
Today I am sharing with you a book subscription that is perfect for those who love Victorian classics. This subscription brings you exclusive tea and 19th-century classics! The subscription is called Pretti Parcels, and I am reviewing their “Petite Parcel” which is smaller than their main box. I hope you enjoy!
Much love,
Ashley
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The Victorian Book and Tea Club
Comes with a book, specialty tea, an online book club and more!
Plan:
$15.99/month + shipping*
Includes tea and a new copy of a novel from the 19th century.
*SHIPS TO THE US ONLY – $4.99/month
I received the June “Petite Parcel” to review, and I couldn’t wait to try it out! I love Victorian literature, so this box is perfect for me.
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The Petite Parcel comes in a cute pink bubble mailer! I like how sweet it looks.
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The box came with a letter from Pretti Parcels! I like how the letter looks Victorian. It was nice to receive a welcome letter to the box as well. The letter made me feel as though I was invited into an exclusive club!
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The box also came with this package of black tea with raspberry notes! I am a huge tea drinker, so I was excited to receive this unique tea. The tea is exclusive for this box, and it smells delicious!
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The book this month is wrapped in paper with twine! The paper has the Pretti Parcels logo on it, and I like that small touch. The care that went into packaging the book is admirable.
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This month’s book is The Awakening by Kate Chopin! I have never read this story before, so I am excited to dive into it. This book also includes various other short stories and a special introduction! I love classics that include these bonuses.
Synopsis:
The Awakening shocked turn-of-the-century readers with its forthright treatment of sex and suicide. Departing from literary convention, Kate Chopin failed to condemn her heroine’s desire for an affair with the son of a Louisiana resort owner, whom she meets on vacation. The power of sensuality, the delusion of ecstatic love, and the solitude that accompanies the trappings of middle- and upper-class life are the themes of this now-classic novel. As Kaye Gibbons points out in her Introduction, Chopin “was writing American realism before most Americans could bear to hear that they were living it.”
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Final Thought: The Petite Parcel is the perfect, compact book subscription! This subscription brings excellent classic picks that may not be as known as other classics, and I enjoy how the tea included is exclusive. If you love tea and classics, then this is the perfect book subscription for you! However, I think that the price is a bit high for what the box includes.
