Kreativ Blogger Award

A big thank you to Terra57 at Yankee Romance Reviewers for nominating me for this award, the Kreativ Blogger award. My second award ever!

The rules are:
Mention the blog that gave it to you.
Comment on her blog to let her know you have posted the award.
Share 6 values that are important to you.
Share 6 things you do not support.
Share the love with six other wonderful blogging friends.

6 values that are important to me:
Fairness
Independence
Individuality
Responsibility
Creativity
Generosity


6 things that I do not support:
Irresponsibility
Opportunism
Injustice
Violence
Disrespect
Selfishness


Now for my 6 friends to share this with (I know this one has been going around for awhile, so I may be renominating some folks):

1. West of Mars - the Meet and Greet

2. Walking on Sunshine

3. Amberkatze's Book Blog

4. The Movieholic and Bibliophile's Blog

5. Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog

6. Breeni Books

Happy Holidays Everyone!

In my last contest I asked people to tell me what their favorite Christmas movies were if they had one, so I'll share a couple clips from mine...

The White Christmas Finale:



And Sisters because it's the funniest one in the whole show to me. Be sure to watch both clips:





Happy Holidays everyone! Stay Warm, Stay Safe, and I wish a Peaceful and Blessed New Year to you!

And the Winner of Holidays are Hell is....

Ruth Schaller

Congratulations Ruth! If you send me your snail mail to shaunesay@gmail.com I will get it sent out to you!

Ruth also has her own blog where she reviews books and gives fun quotes. I'm rocking to the Rob Zombie song on her site right now! Check it out, It's called Books, Books and more Books!

I don't think anyone who entered mentioned my favorite Christmas movie, White Christmas with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. I'm going to post a few clips from it later on to share. :)

Book Giveaway: Holidays are Hell by Harrison, Sands, Liu and Pettersson

FINALLY! I've managed to finish this one so I can run my giveaway! Trust me, it was not due to lack of interest in the book, just lack of time, I've been working so much! Don't they know I have important blogging to do?!

Holidays are Hell is an anthology of four currently popular paranormal genre writers, Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu and Vicki Pettersson. While I have a number books in mount TBR by all of these authors, this was the first time I have sampled any of them, and I enjoyed these stories quite a bit.

In Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel by Kim Harrison, Rachel's brother challenges her to do a high level spell in order to get his approval for her application to join the IS (a paranormal police type force). The spell succeeds, but not quite with the results she was after, but she ends up proving to all of them, including herself that she's got what it takes!

Run, Run Rudolph by Lynsay Sands is a fun holiday shapechanger story, full of action, romance and humor. Jill is zapped by a molecular destabilizer ray that gives her the ability to change into whatever she can picture. But will her new romantic interest be able to handle the new Jill, or will their relationship be over before it ever even gets off the ground?

Six by Marjorie M. Liu takes place during Chinese New Year, and the vampires are not our friends this time! Six herself is a specially trained agent working on a sting when Joseph steps in and throws a wrench in things. She begins to see that there is more to life than the job, but can she and Joseph make it out of this one alive to find out what a life together would be like?

Zoe Archer has given up her powers on the Light side of the Zodiac to protect her family in Vicki Pettersson's The Harvest. Stripped of her supernatural abilities, Zoe must infiltrate the home of the leader of the Shadows to save not only her own granddaughter, but much more as well.

I think my favorite one of this set of stories was Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel, but I enjoyed getting a glimpse into the writing style of all of these talented ladies, and will definitely be reading more from them in the future.

For more information on these authors, check out their websites:
Kim Harrison
Lynsay Sands
Marjorie M. Liu
Vicki Pettersson

Now for the giveaway! As always, this copy will be a used, and Bookcrossing labeled copy. If you win, the book is yours to do with as you please, I would love a journal entry from you, and you can do it anonymously if you decide Bookcrossing is not for you, but you certainly do not have to. All you have to do to enter is comment on this post and tell me what your favorite Holiday movie is, or if you don't have one, something else about the Holidays you enjoy (any Holiday, doesn't have to be one in the Winter). I will randomly choose a winner on Dec. 24th. Good Luck!

My favorite Holiday movie is White Christmas, though there are a lot of fun ones out there now!

Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I finally finished it! Am I the last person to have not read this yet? Maybe. Okay, the last one of my immediate friends who are actually interested in it, but probably not the last one. I'm not going to say much spoilerish on it, just in case, because there are a lot of happenings in this one that are just one shock after another it seems. Lots of action, much different to me than the other 6 books because they aren't going to school like normal. Many revelations, that while answered a lot of questions, at the same time made me want to go back and read the others to find some clues I had missed.

I'm sorry that it's done, but I really feel like every book in the series was excellent, and there aren't many series, even by my other favorite authors that I can say that about.

I haven't decided how interested I am in Beedle the Bard yet. I just don't know that it could live up to the level of excitement that I want now after this last book. I'm sure I'll pick it up eventually though, as a good supplement to the series.

Visit J. K. Rowling's Official Website for more information

Winner: Puritan Bride by Anne O'Brien

And the winner is....


Carolsnotebook!


Please e-mail me at shaunesay at gmail dot com with your snail mail and I will get this one sent out to you!

Stay tuned, I'll post the contest for Holidays are Hell as soon as I can finish reading it! Work has definitely slowed me down lately! :P

Concert : TSO - Trans-Siberian Orchestra

If you don't already know who the Trans-Siberian Orchestra is you are definitely missing out! You may have actually heard them and just not known who they were. There are countless Christmas lighting displays that are timed to their music, one of the most popular being Wizards in Winter. Here's a good sample of what I'm talking about.



My husband and I try to go to their show every year, we've only missed a couple, and ever year they just get bigger and more spectacular! It's so funny to see these guys who are long haired rockers, some of them well known in the metal genre, wearing tuxedos and rocking out to electrified traditional Christmas songs, as well as their own original songs within a very touching storyline. But it's so much more than that. It's beautiful and inspiring and just embodies the wonder of Christmas that I think most of us lose as we grow older.



If you can't make it to one of their shows, I HIGHLY recommend you get one of their CD's, they have 3 Christmas ones and 1 non-Christmas one now. We're all eagerly awaiting the release of their second non-Christmas album, and have been for... well... a few years now... but we know it's going to happen, any time now, right? RIGHT?! (Please Mr. O'Neill, we're ready now!)

If you're interested (and you should be, because they're just amazing!) check out their official website for more info on the albums and the video: Trans-Siberian Orchestra

The show is just spectacular and I guarantee you'll never listen to Christmas music quite the same way again. I wonder what Rudolph would sound like TSO-ified... ;)