Quote of the Moment

"What's Past Is Prologue." - William Shakespeare

Monday, May 30, 2016

For The Hippocampi!

Eek! I forgot to blog last week. Sorry about that. I was taking off a week from writing due to a lot of other events going on, but I was still supposed to write up a post! Well, that post will come later this week (I must express my opinion on the series finale of Castle).

For now, I'll give you a glimpse at what distracted me last week. Yup, I was bad. A game did it.

I'm currently taking part in a breeding competition on the Magistream site. My team is in second place! Woo hoo!

We are Team Hippocampi, and we're breeding the Sun Callisto Family. It's fun and crazy times in our team forum. We're all super supportive of each other, and we know that every new egg added to the family helps (and understand if some people can't contribute as many babies as others).

Anyway, Magistream is a creature click site. So, to breed new babies, we have to grow our babies up!

Would you like to help me and my team in this crazy endeavor? If so, please click on the eggs and hatchlings below! (The Snap Links or Linkclump browser add-ons are quite awesome to be able to select more than one link at a time to open them.) The quicker these grow, the more we can breed, and maybe we'll jump into first place!

I will try to update these codes once per day at the least to weed out the adults. Please come and click at least once per day if you can! The competition ends on June 18.

Once the competition is over, I will remove the links and announce what place my team ends up in.

EDIT: We...tied! Lol. It was a crazy race between us and one of the other teams, and we kept going back and forth with who was in the lead. When the proverbial buzzer sounded and the dust settled, the points for our team and the one other team were the same! So, we won, but we just have to share the limelight. Both of our teams got the first place prizes. That was a blast!

Friday, May 20, 2016

Team Cap All the Way!

***WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the movie Captain America: Civil War. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you may want to wait to read this. I take no responsibility in spoiling the awesomeness of this movie if you ignore this warning and read on. If you're still wondering if you should go see it, I highly recommend it.***

Now, I don't promise much thoughtful analysis on Captain America: Civil War. I'm kind of in the Fan Girl Zone lately. So, I may just be listing all the fun things I like about it. We'll see how close I examine some things. I'm always happy to hear other people's opinions and viewpoints as well (even if you hated the movie, really).

Now, clearly from the title, I'm on the side of Team Cap. Like him, I trust people, not organizations. Those darn organizations, they always have an agenda!

True, the Avengers cause a hell of a lot of destruction. Hubbie and I watched Avengers: Age of Ultron again the week after, and that was really the first time he got to see most of it (due to toddler issues in the theater - he kindly let me watch while he took her out), and he was pointing out all the destruction and said he might just switch from Team Cap to Team Iron Man.

Nope, we don't have political debates in our house, we have superhero debates. Heh.

Anyway, yes so much destruction! But I honestly don't believe these big baddies wouldn't be around if the Avengers didn't exist. If the Avengers didn't exist Earth would probably be a smoldering afterthought in space. What's a little destruction when in the end you save the world? I mean, Ultron was Tony's fault, though...

Enough about whose side I'm on because no matter what side anyone chooses, this was a damned good movie! Captain America: Civil War was definitely better than Avengers: Age of Ultron. Hands down. And my favorite Captain America movie (hubbie's is Winter Soldier - how do we live with each other with all of these superhero disagreements? - lol).

They balanced all of the superheroes in this movie well, in my opinion. I know some say that Spider-Man stole the show in the airport battle, but I don't think he did. He lent to a lot of other commentary from the other characters, like when Falcon tells Winter Soldier he hates him after Spider-Man trips them up with a little web action. Awesome.

Speaking of Spider-Man, I was seriously leery about yet another reboot of that franchise, but after seeing him in Civil War, I'm excited. I need the Spidie with a sense of humor! I especially loved the bit where he referenced Star Wars and brought down Ant Man. Especially the following responses.

And that whole Black Widow as the double agent thing in the end (I mean, I know she wasn't really intending to be, but that is what happened) was fitting as well.

Oh, and Black Panther! I'm now looking forward to that movie as well. And it's kind of nice that they used Civil War as more of the origin story set up, so then the first Black Panther movie shouldn't need to be the origin story type.

The battles were some of the best too, the airport scene at the top of the list. You clearly knew they were all pulling their punches - they didn't want to kill each other - they're friends, even if they're of different minds! I thought the end of that fight was also extremely well done. War Machine was hit by friendly fire, and I think that was a good choice, as if he had been hit by the other side, there would have been a lot more animosity between both sides, even by the end of the movie.

Finally, I do want to get back to why I'm Team Cap. I guess Captain America doesn't let his emotions blind him, in my opinion, whereas Iron Man is completely consumed by his emotions when he finds out Winter Soldier killed his parents. I can't help but feel Tony is in the wrong when he goes after Bucky. Yes, Winter Soldier killed his parents, but he was under mind control, for the love of gods! Would he have reacted the same way if say, Cap had done it? Someone who he was truly friends with? Would he have hesitated or reacted the same way? Maybe the latter, since he does fight Cap at the end.

Seriously, vengeance can completely derail the best of people! And Tony "Stank" (best Stan Lee cameo ever) already has the cards stacked against him for truly being a good person at times. I guess it could be said that maybe he supports the Socovia Accords to repent for his megalomaniac actions in Age of Ultron. Maybe.

OK, I've rambled on long enough. I did enjoy the movie, and right now it's in my top four for Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Heck, it might even nudge out the first Avengers movie for me (Guardians is still my favorite, and Ant Man was awesome as well).

Though now I'm a bit scared about the let down I'm expecting from X-Men: Apocalypse. I've heard not good things, and if they end up doing one thing that I really don't want them to do, I may never watch an X-Men movie again. We'll see, and that's a blog post for another day!

Friday, May 13, 2016

Reversed Excerpt

Another release day! The Fortunes of Fate series is one of those series that's close to my heart, and with each story, I learn something new about the world of Fate and the tales unfolding between there and Earth.

So, I'm happy to announce that the third story, Reversed, is now available for purchase from Amazon! It's also on Kindle Unlimited. Remember the Tarot reader from Dreams in Shadow? Well, this story is from his point of view. Will you join him on his journey?

A small excerpt and the blurb for Reversed is below. Enjoy the sneak peek!

Also, Dreams in Shadow should be available from other retailers within the next month (it's no longer available through Kindle Unlimited, but it's still on Amazon). And don't forget Love Fades will be available for FREE from May 18th through the 22nd.

Have fun getting lost in the stories of Fate!

Darney pressed his hands to his ears. The screaming continued in his mind, though. The cards howled. And the heat from them in his pocket throbbed against his hip -- seventy-eight tiny hearts, skipping beats from their wounds.

That rotten child had done this.

Many people didn’t like what the cards told them, but the little girl had been the first to react so violently. The poor Fool card whimpered, creases refusing to even out after she crumpled it. At least half of the other cards were singed. Fire. Of all things, she had to use fire.

Delilah, his mother, had warned him, told him to protect the cards with enchantments. Such magic would have kept them safe for the most part. The fire wouldn’t have touched them. But he didn’t know how, couldn’t find the magic she claimed he had.

The magic he yearned to find.

He traveled from town to town in hopes that the next reading would be the trigger, the one that would spark the glow inside of him. And then he could truly bond with his cards -- they’d be an extension of him, not just a deck of friends he kept close.

The cards won't stop screaming.

Darney's Tarot cards were scorched by a wretched child who set fire to his card table. Their sobs and screams torment his conscience, but he can't heal them because he has no magic.

In desperation, Darney seeks the help of Jasp, a well-known, but cruel, mage. Jasp is his last hope. Or his undoing and the cards' doom.

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Fantasy Image Intermission

I need a week off from lengthy blogging, but I thought it would be nice to post something! So, I snagged a few fantasy pictures from Pixabay. These are free use, but if you search fantasy on the site, you should be able to find them in the first two or three pages.

The first one reminds me of a Fate story I started ages ago (Three of Swords - Sorrow) and really need to continue! I won't caption any of the other pictures, but maybe you can get some inspiration from the images below. Or at least they'll put a smile on your face. I love writing fantasy, and using words to tell stories is awesome, but I always appreciate how pictures can tell a story too. Enjoy!