What Are You Reading Now?

[oliviasbooks]

That's the cover photo from . I don't think that's a wise move.

[oliviasbooks]

But I downloaded it.

[Kara]

That's the downfall of purchasing publically available images vs. having custom photography. The original photo file and the reproduction rights were purchased from Corbis. Anyone can purchase this photo and use it provided they pay for the rights. In the cover of Restricted Waters, the photo was actually modified in the jacket design--again, all rights and permissions purchased.

Thanks for downloading it. I hope you enjoy it! :)

[oliviasbooks]

I know about stock photograpy. But since both books are mermaid-themed the covers will cause irritation. In the worst case: "I have read that" instead of "Oh, that looks new and interesting".

[Kara]

Thanks for pointing it out. I hadn't known about the other book when my cover art came through. Definitely something I need to consider.

[Howard]

Emm Cole, the author of Merminia, was gracious enough to submit to a 20 Questions Interview on my blog, The Parsons' Rant. If you're interested, here's the shortlink to that interview:
http://wp.me/p2mqnJ-1mb

[Paige]

Emm wrote: "Howard, I just read your review. It left me in tears. Wow. Thank you."

Congrats Emm!!!!!!!! Reading Now ;)

[Randi]

I just finished Ready Player One and it blew my nerdy mind. So good. Everyone should read this book, even if you don't like video games. Oh my gosh. It was amazing.

[Heather]

I heard of a new book coming out in August of 2013 called Mythos. I saw the trailer on youtube, and it looked pretty cool. Its under Mythos official book trailer. I can't wait til it comes out!

[Randi]

Megan wrote: "I heard of a new book coming out in August of 2013 called Mythos. I saw the trailer on youtube, and it looked pretty cool. Its under Mythos official book trailer. I can't wait til it comes out!"

Megan, I'm really sorry, but this is the fourth time you've posted this comment, so we consider it spam now. I'm going to go delete the others you've made. If you do it again, I'm going to have to delete you from the group.

[Heather]

I'm sorry. I was just excited to start a conversation. It won't happen again. I'm new at this blogging thing.

[Garrett]

I got the first Game of Thrones book today, and I'm so excited to start it! It's next on my TBR pile, after I read .

[Randi]

Garrett wrote: "I got the first Game of Thrones book today, and I'm so excited to start it! It's next on my TBR pile, after I read ."

Tell me how Ripple is. It's in paperback now so I might give it a shot.

[Garrett]

Eh...it was okay. If you're looking for a magical mermaid world, you won't find in this book. it's not...bad, per se, but it didn't really have a wow factor to it. It was average. I think it's one of those books that you either like it or you don't. If Fathomless made you mad because the mermaids didn't have tails, you'll probably feel the same way about Ripple. I will say it got pretty emotional sometimes, that was 1 of the stronger points of the book.

[Randi]

Ah, okay. I actually really enjoyed Fathomless once I got past the fact that they weren't really mermaids, but yeah, that is kind of disappointing.

[Randi]

Emm wrote: "I finished and .

I am really interested to see where the mythology goes in Paige's next book. (I loved that it was from ..."

If you haven't read Lost Voices, do that. Very dark, but very beautiful. Also, definitely try The Vicious Deep or Lies Beneath.

[Paige]

Emm wrote: "I finished and .

I am really interested to see where the mythology goes in Paige's next book. (I loved that it was from ..."
Awwww Thanks Emm ;) I'm looking forward to your next one as well!!

[M.]

Hi Everyone! I am really excited, I am going on a trip and just downloaded and also Dive. I haven't had a lot of time to read, so I can't wait.

[Howard]

At the moment, I'm 60% (+/-) done with . I'm taking a break from it because if I don't, I'll have a review to do in addition to ones for , and (The Ocean's Call)to write.

[Garrett]

I haven't heard of Sirena's Children. It sounds really good. I can't wait to read your review on that one, Howard.

[Randi]

Yeah, I'll need a full report on all of those. I have a lot of catching up to do as far as what's out right now and what not.

[Howard]

Guitar Chick wrote: "Yeah, I'll need a full report on all of those. I have a lot of catching up to do as far as what's out right now and what not."

GC & G,
I hope to have that review published by the Sunday evening. Meanwhile, I have to figure out how I'm going to run two book give-aways next month.

[Garrett]

Howard,
If you want, you could run one of the two giveaways on the MerBlog. It's been a while since we've had one.

[Randi]

Yeah, I don't think we've done a giveaway in a looooong time. I wouldn't mind at all if our blog hosted it.

[Howard]

GC & G,
I had been thinking of exactly that. I'm going to have a total of 24 books:
12 of Robert Cabell's "All the Mermaids in the Sea"

12 of his newly released book - "A Mermaid Christmas - The Magical Adventures of Princess
Miranda, Volume One"

Unless you two think otherwise, I'm going to do the other give-away here on Goodreads. The giveaways will begin on Dec 1st and the general theme will be the 12 Mer-days of Christmas.

Is there anyone on the Merblog who is a bit of an artist? I'd like to use a drawing of a Mermaid in a Santa cap.

And finally, Emm Cole has graciously offered a signed copy of Merminia or the e-book. I'll probably run that one off of my own site.

Howard

[Garrett]

Howard wrote: "GC & G,
I had been thinking of exactly that. I'm going to have a total of 24 books:
12 of Robert Cabell's "All the Mermaids in the Sea"

12 of his newly released book - "A Mermaid Christmas - T..."

Howard, I thought about having a giveaway here on the Goodreads site as well. Emm is going to have a Merblog giveaway too, so we're gonna be giving away lots of books in the coming days!

[Howard]

Garrett wrote: "Howard wrote: "GC & G,
I had been thinking of exactly that. I'm going to have a total of 24 books:
12 of Robert Cabell's "All the Mermaids in the Sea"

12 of his newly released book - "A Mermai..."

Ho! Ho! Ho!

[Garrett]

Howard wrote: "Garrett wrote: "Howard wrote: "GC & G,
I had been thinking of exactly that. I'm going to have a total of 24 books:
12 of Robert Cabell's "All the Mermaids in the Sea"

12 of his newly released ..."
Lol, it's gonna be one merry mermaid Christmas!

[Howard]

All the more reason to have a sketch of a mermaid in a Santa cap.

[Garrett]

I'm not much of an artist, but hopefully someone on
here is? They're might be a public domain picture that meets your needs. It would look really cute! :-)

[Randi]

This is where Tumblr comes in handy. I'll comission an artist ASAP :)

[Heather]

I can do a sketch of a mermaid in a santa hat...no problem. I was thinking of doing one for my etsy shop anyway.

Who do I send it to? Color or B/W?

BTW-Howard, thank you, again, for your kind review. It gave me a lovely glow last night. I walked around as if on a cloud with a big, stupid smile on my face.
Thanks...

[Howard]

Heather wrote: "I can do a sketch of a mermaid in a santa hat...no problem. I was thinking of doing one for my etsy shop anyway.

Who do I send it to? Color or B/W?

BTW-Howard, thank you, again, for your kind rev..."

Heather,
Send it to me - htp at parsonage dot net. Colour would probably be best unless it's too much trouble. If GC has something in the works on Tumblr so much the better. We'll have more than one post about this on The Merblog, etc. so having a couple of illustrations to rotate will be a help.

And finally, you deserved every word of that review!

Howard

[Howard]

GC & G,
What's the best way to run the give-away? I've seen them going on from time to time but have never participated & therefore, not paid much attention.

HP

[Garrett]

I usually give a brief information on the book, how long the giveaway runs for, and usually I instruct anyone who wishes to enter the giveaway to leave a comment on that blog post with their email address. If you have exactly 24 books, we could combine that with Emm's giveaway and make it the 25 Days of Mermaid Christmas, with a new giveaway each day. :)

[Randi]

YES! I have not done any thing on the mermaid-in-a-santa-hat variety on the Tumblrs yet, but hey,if anything comes to fruition, the more the merrier.

25 Days of Christmas sounds good, although perhaps we should ask a cool question and whomever has the best or funniest or something answer would win the book? Nobody who had won before could win again, so we could keep it fair.

Also, are the books we're giving away part of a set age group/have any explicit content, because I have a few friends who's parents keep a pretty tight leash on what she reads. Perhaps we should mention anything "naughty" if there is anything. I honestly have never heard of the novels we're giving away (except Mermminia of course).

[Howard]

GC & G,
1st, about the books. All The Mermaids in the Sea is suitable for A's, YA's & 'Tweens. A Mermaid Christmas is targeted at 9 to 15 year-olds. I have not yet rec'd an ARC so I can't speak specifically about the book but having read Mr. Cabell's 1st book, I am pretty certain that it's going to be kosher. Robert Cabell is actually launching 3 series: 1 aimed at early school age, One at 9 - 15's & one for YA's & up.

In addition to his books, Brenda Pandos is contributing a set of her own series. (She's scheduled for an interview in January.) I may see if Paige Bleu is interested.

As for the give-away, are we going to do half on the Merblog & half on GoodReads or just everything on the Merblog. (Doesn't matter to me. You two are the experts. :-)

Please let me know what you think that we ought to do as I want to make the "grand announcement" - at least on The Rant - right after Thanxgiving.

HP

[Randi]

Um, I say we should do it all on the blog. Goodreads is a good format for giveaways, but we have a wider readership on the blog. That's my argument at least.

[Howard]

Guitar Chick wrote: "Um, I say we should do it all on the blog. Goodreads is a good format for giveaways, but we have a wider readership on the blog. That's my argument at least."

OK. Let's hear from Garrett & then act accordingly.

[Heather]

Just a quick FYI- The drawing is almost complete...just adding color now. Didn't want you to think I wasn't working on it. With the holiday this week and wrangling my four-year-old, I've been sneaking it in where I can.

Happy Turkey Day to you all!
-Heather

[Howard]

Guitar Chick wrote: "Um, I say we should do it all on the blog. Goodreads is a good format for giveaways, but we have a wider readership on the blog. That's my argument at least."

Just an update, we now have at least one book for every day of December. Maybe more. I might have to run part of the give-away on my site just so we're not giving away books until Old Christmas!

Thoughts?

HP

[Joseph]

I've recently finished 3 mermaid books. One is Wake by Amanda Hocking. She writes very well. This is book 1 of the Watersong Series. Book 2 is out this week. Can't wait. The second is Mermaid by Carolyn Turgeon. She retells the classic Little Mermaid story. This is definitely not a kids' book, and is definitely not Disney's version. I won't give any more details than that, to avoid spoilers. The third was The Accidental Mermaid by Robert Thornberry. This is about a woman who is transformed into a mermaid. It gets a bit busy, with trying to follow too many characters. It was nice otherwise, though.

[Howard]

Just a reminder for one and all:
The Merry Mermaid Christmas book give-away is in progress on The Merblog. We've got over thirty books to give away so don't wait!

[Joseph]

Just finished Forgotten Lyrics by Amanda Hocking. This is a short story I read on Nook. It details the accident 5 years before the start of Wake. It also details what the 3 sirens were doing right before the beginning of Wake. Great story. My copy of Lullaby is on its way. Can't wait.

[Howard]

The Merry Mermaid Christmas Give-away is still going on over at The Merblog but it all ends on Dec. 24th. The authors and publishers were quite generous and we have more books than we can give-away in the space of our 24 day marathon. Therefore, we have opened up the Merry Mermaid Christmas Clearance Centre on The Parsons' Rant. The books will be given away on a first-come/first-served basis. This is your chance to pick up a little something for yourself or a gift for someone you know.

[Emily, Merfreak & Tribute]

Reading the latest Emily Windsnap book now. Didn't like the fourth really at all, but I feel sort of obligated when it comes to this series...and it's sort of a guilty pleasure :)

[Randi]

Emily wrote: "Reading the latest Emily Windsnap book now. Didn't like the fourth really at all, but I feel sort of obligated when it comes to this series...and it's sort of a guilty pleasure :)"

Yeah, those were pretty cute. I didn't get to the third one. Maybe I'll give it a shot.

[Heather]

I'm reading Merminia by Emm Cole! The mythological backstory in it is wonderful!

I read the first Emily Windsnap and thought it was adorable. I can't wait until my daughter is just a little older (than 4) so I can read it to her.

[[deleted user]]

Jennifer Silverwood

Anyone tried her book yet?

[Joseph]

Finished all 4 volumes of the Watersong series by Amanda Hocking. Wake, Lullaby, Tidal, and Elegy.