Review: Wings of Arian by Devri Walls

Wings of Arian by Devri Walls

I started reading this book in part, because of my enjoyment of the last book with a lovely man’s bare back on it.  Figured, where could I go wrong?

The story could use at least one or two more rounds of edits. My main thought as I worked through it was ‘This isn’t a GOOD book, not bad… But not good.’  I don’t want you to think this book isn’t worth reading, as I finished it and sought it out to know where it was going next.

The premise is good. A world without evil that’s long fought against a darkness seeks out the two people that could change it all.

I haven’t picked up book two yet, but then I’m broke and haven’t saved up enough for it.  But, its in my folder of ‘To Be Continued’, so I’ll grab it when I can.

The story, like Tristan’s, gets 3.5 stars outta 5.

Kristy C

Free e-books!!

Stocking Your E-Reader Sale

If you check out the link above, you'll find quite a few free books [some by friends], and also .99 books.

Mine is available until tomorrow for free, then only .99!

Kristy C

Good Day?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

The best ones are those where you get to spend time with loved ones.  Sure, I got some cool things, but it was more about knowing I was loved.

Rough morning, got up late and didn't want to get going.  Then my dad and I rushed out [we both thought the movie was at 1:45, nope.. 1:15]  After that, took a short drive before heading back to town and looking for a place to grab dinner.

All I can say is, thank god Chinese places like to stay open.  Had a nice dinner, before we headed home and watched another movie.

Much crying over characters dying and rising above it all.

Now that the day is over, I hope you don't let it all fall away.  There's too much crap in the world to let what supposed to be a joyous time ruin everything else.

And above all, I want you to remember one of the best bible verses ever...

It came to pass.

Yep, that's all.  It'll pass.  Good times, bad times, painful times, hard times, sad times, quiet times... It'll pass.  So hold on, cause 2015 is a week away.

Kristy C

Happy Holidays!

To whatever you celebrate, I hope it was blessed and brought you happy times with your loved ones.

Over the last few years, most likely since my mom passed, the holiday doesn't seem as enjoyable as it used too.  As a Christian, I still see it as just a day. I honor the birth year round, so one day isn't that unique.

I gave my father his gift yesterday, and my brothers will go out this weekend. I think I receive mine today.  Beyond that, I haven't picked up much for anyone else.

On to some fun news... My book is on Sale today and Tomorrow... Since its only .99, that means its FREE!!  So, head over to Amazon and pick up The Wandering Wizard.

Don't forget to check out Far Horizons eMag, which you can download in PDF to your iPad.  And of course, Winter Wishes [which isn't free, but for which all proceeds go to charity.]

Have a wonderful day.

Kristy C

Books, books, books...

Not sure how long, but iBooks has several 'first books' for free right now.

I waded through and grabbed several.  My review from yesterday is one of those books.  Last night I took a friend to the store and read while she shopped.  The book isn't 'good', but I can't seem to put it down.

The start has a wizard advisor yelling at the king that the 'evil' has returned and they need to find someone important, that it won't be easy and could take time.  Next thing we know, we've got the person and have been training them a little over a week.  That skip bothers me a bit.  Normally, you want a story to move... But this sort of moves too fast.  Doesn't stop me from reading it however.

On to the next bit... I'm going to take part of the 2015 book challenge.  Goal is to read 50 books, each one falling into a category.  The image will be posted at the end.

A group on FB is taking part in the challenge, and we've got a spreadsheet to help us along.

This means, I'll be sharing more reviews along the way, as well as my progress.

Kristy C

Review: Agent I1: Tristan by Joni Hahn

Picked up book one in the D.I.R.E. AGENCY series by Joni Hahn a few days ago, for free, and sat down to read it last night.

First off, we have the cover [perhaps one of the main reasons I said 'ooo' to the book.]  A lovely back of a man, with a tattoo on it.  Mmm, nice.  Then there's the name Tristan. I happen to like that name.

But, what does all this equate to in a book?

The story jumps between your two main characters Tristan and Rachel's perspective, with a few leaps to others at random times.  We begin with our hero watching a woman get dressed.  Right from the start, we know there will be sex in this book.  Not a bad thing, just that it'll be there.

As it continues, we meet some pretty interesting people with some fascinating powers.  Action, adventure, sex, arguments, crying... A myriad of emotions and scenes flash over you.  It surprised me a bit that it went from 'Hi, we're meeting' to 'And, phase one is finished..' in a little over a week.  And that doesn't include the shocking '0.0' that happens several times.

There are a few moments that left me confused, as one moment a character doesn't know another, then suddenly they know some odd piece of information that they shouldn't know.  This bothered me a bit, not going to lie.

On the flip side, the technology idea was interesting.

I'll admit, this small piece might be just personal... But, I dislike the use of the world baby sometimes in stories.  I can't explain it, it just bothers me.

All in all, I think the story could go through another round or two of edits with a good beta reader and editors.  I enjoyed it, and am curious about books 2 & 3.

3.5 outta 5 stars

Kristy C

Holiday Parties

Oh, late night...

Yesterday, I had two parties to go too.  One was more holiday oriented, with adults, alcohol and chatting.  It was enjoyable, although I didn't know 90% of the people there.  Did discover a weird 'conversation' technique, that pisses me off.

It plays out like this....

Introduce yourself
Talk
Ask questions
Seem interested
Ask more questions
At a small pause, turn away and talk with someone you already know, but haven't seen in a bit

No joke, had it happen to me several times.  If you're not interested in what I'm talking about, there HAS to be a nicer way to leave a conversation than to just be rude.

Still, it was nice.  Tried some spiked eggnog, home made holiday vodka and something called Crème de Violette.  mmm, it was good.

After that, I left and headed to Barnes and Noble, because I thought the second party started at 8pm.  So, I talked with my brother and picked out a book for him.  He'll know what it is, but oh well.

While there, I spotted a book I want.

Leather bound, pocket edition of the Hobbit.  It think it sounds killer. I also saw another book that looked cool.

After that...

I found out that the part started about 5, and it was almost 6pm.. So, I headed over.

We all chatted and hung out for about another hour, before heading down stairs to play games.  This was a birthday party for the couple, but not something so focused on them that it was annoying.

First up was Sherif of Nottingham.  Got to lie and cheat in that one.  It was fun.
Second up was one I'd played before... Betrayal on Hunted Hill.  Its always a fun game, unless you're trapped in a room and can't leave.  Switching tables...
Third game was call Gloom and I freaking loooooooooved it.

After that, we watched others played Betrayal and chatted, before finally getting home.  For me, that was close to 2am... Maybe a little past.

Still, it was a blast.  ^^

Kristy C

When Weird Moods are....

There are always days when your mood is weird.

Sometimes this weird is a good thing, and sometimes its kinda crappy/bad.  Here are a few examples from my own life.

Good:  The other day I kept singing, quite randomly.  Songs were stuck in my head and there wasn't anything I could do to get them out, nor did I want them out.  We're talking 'Spring Time for Hitler and Germany' from the Producers, 'Song of Love' from Once Upon a Mattress and others like that.  No joke, I sang everything.  Just how it came out.  I was in a good mood, even if I also wasn't.  It was just weird.

But, it wasn't a bad weird.  No wanting to kill anyone, no anger at minute things.  None of that.  Just me singing like an idiot all day.

Bad: Haven't had one of these in a while, but when I do it tends toward angry/weird. How? I was watching House Hunters once and the couple walked into a wonderful kitchen. It had been freshly updated, matching appliances, lovely counters and custom cabinets. And the wife says 'I'll HAVE to rip it all out.' Why? Counters were quartz, not granite... Appliances were black, not stainless steel. Cabinets were the wrong color.  What did I do? I screamed at the TV. Yep, that's a bad weird.


For women, I think these are hormonal in nature. But it doesn't hurt to also look a little deeper when its a bad weird. Are you perhaps angry at something else? Could it be like the reasons behind drastic hair cuts, when we have changes we want to make and can't?

Even the good weird might have ulterior motives. When its a good weird, just let it happen and enjoy the strange day.  Bad weird, try not to kill anyone and stay home if possible. And, avoid things that'll make you angrier.

Kristy C

RAFFLECOPTER!!!

I'm taking part in a contest...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be chatting up my writing AND giving away a copy of my book on Sunday, over on FaceBook... 7pm cst, I'll be hanging out chatting, running a contest and sharing some pictures of my cat Trixie.

Kristy C

Old Time Detectives...

:D  My heroes!

Lately, instead of watching TV [which I'm behind on anyway], I've been listening to the Podcasts of Old Time Radio Detectives.  Why?  Because there's something about the hard boiled detectives that makes me grin.  And, I adore Mysteries.

What makes them so great?  Lets start with where it all began for me...

Nate the Great...

Nate goes around his neighborhood solving crimes with his dog Sludge, thinking over pancakes for both of them and generally instilling a love of mysteries in young kids.  With his creepy neighbor and her five black cats named Hex... Annie, who's dog Fang is as big as they are... and other that help or hinder him along the way.

That was my introduction to mysteries. A mixture of Sherlock Holmes and the vintage hard boiled detectives of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade.

From there, I picked up several other mysteries like Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and even the Rover Boys.  They led me too Agatha Christie, Mary Higgins Clark and a million other authors out there who write a million variations of mysteries.

Several years ago, my Godmother let me take home some Old Time Radio programs to try out.  Red Skeleton, Our Miss Brooks, Suspense, Philo Vance, Philip Marlowe, and a few others.  Of those, only Philo Vance left me cold.  He was too polished to be enjoyable as a detective.  Everyone liked him and he was just... :P Not fun.  On the flip side, Philip Marlowe was perfect in my eyes.  Always working for the greater good, even if it might sometimes work against the law.

As an example, a young kid is pushed into a bad situation where he kills someone.  But because of the other circumstances of it all, Marlowe felt the kid didn't deserve to end up in jail.  He lets the one who pushed it all to happen take the blame.

On the flip side, if he felt that the young kid was too far gone, he wouldn't approve of covering up the crime.

It was because of this, that I loved what he did.  Strong moral conviction was important, along with believing the police were needed when things went bad.

This is why mysteries are my favorite, more so the Hard Boiled Private Dick type stories.

Kristy C

Lack of...

Inspiration.

I've been working on editing one of my stories, but its been a hard struggle to get through.  While I enjoy the story, and I'm working on putting it together as a serial...

So far, I've been cutting tons of words left and right.  2.5 pages sliced down to just over a page.  Wordy is normal for NaNoWriMo, since your goal is to build up 50k in words in those lovely thirty days.

On the plus side, I am enjoying the stories again and I can't wait to start releasing them.  My goal is to have them out by July, or at least the first one.

Sure, I've said that before... But I'm going to keep saying it, because it keeps me remembering that goal.

Kristy C

New pretties to check out

Showing off some new jewelry pieces.

They're not up in my etsy shop yet, but they are for sale.  ^^ Feel free message me at my FB page, or email... Or even comment here if you're interested.

Sold

On Hold

Sold

^^  All the pretties.

Kristy C

Thoughts that trigger...

Books or movie quotes...

When ever I think or see someone wink, my head goes too Field of Dreams and the young kid who winks at the pitcher and gets a ball to the head.  "Why'd ya do that?' 'He... He winked at me!' 'Don't wink at him kid.'

Its just one of the weird things that goes on in my mind.

Kristy C

Taking a break

I think that's what I was doing.

After the craziness of August-November, when this month hit I needed to back off a few of my overwhelming things and breath.  But, I don't want to give up on the blog so I'm going to get back into it.

Writing/Editing's been slow going for me, just not as into it right now.  But my muse has been back in full force for the jewelry, and I've been plowing through that.

This week is another of my 'holy crap, where did this all come from?' weeks.

Shopping yesterday
Photoshoot and shopping today
Editing and Photoshoot tomorrow
Thursday, I think I get to breath
Friday is gaming, plus I may get out early and do some editing
Saturday is shopping for gifts
Sunday, breathing again I think

Weeks like this come out of no where sometimes, after a week of almost nothing going on.  I explained it a bit ago, how it feels like my life moves in waves.

For now, I hope you have a great day and I'll catch you tomorrow with something new and exciting.

Kristy C

I'm here

I swear it, I am.

I think my muse needed a break from too much writing.  Never mind that I could have just posted blogs with pictures in them.  That's what I get for kicking her.  Jerk.

Anywho, I'm working on edits and have BIG news!!!

What is this you ask?  Its an anthology, and I'm in it.  :D  Yeppers.  You can pick it up at Amazon in digital, or paperback format.  As it states, all proceeds will got to Make A Wish.

ALSO... Check out Far Horizons, which includes a short by me.  Next month will have 3 pieces written by me. :D  I'm on a roll folks!

Sho, that's me for now.  Editing, making jewelry, all that.

Kristy C