Whovember: A Companion's Guide to Doctor Who Intro and Call for Help!

Welcome Whovians!

Step right up and explore the world behind the blue door. November is always sort of a sad month for me because we just had the awesomeness of October and now we're anticipating the epicness of Christmas but we've got this whole month of nothing in between. So why not make it just as magical as the one before it?

I've decided to do an entire month of Doctor Who themed posts, giveaways and mini challenges. Every day will be a different post highlighting something Doctor Who.

Here's a TENNANTive schedule of the posts you can expect for the month (a full schedule to come):

• Sundays- Dress Like...: These posts are going to look into the world of fashion in Doctor Who and tell you how you can get the look of a certain character.
• Mondays- A Whovian Tale in Photos: My feature A Fairy Tale in Photos is moving to Mondays for November and is going to feature pictures of different Whovian cosplayers!
• Tuesdays- Top 5 Favorites: I'm listing my top 5 favorite on different topics. Hopefully you'll join in!
• Wednesdays- Freebie Topics: Wednesdays are a free topic day. You might see a post of Who merchandise or some other element from Doctor Who
• Thursdays- Men of Doctor Who: Every Thursday I'm going to be highlighting one of the men in Doctor Who. We'll be talking history and my impressions on the characters
• Fridays- Woman of Doctor Who: Fridays turn Femme when we look at the women companions!
• Saturdays- Discussion Topics: I'll be posting a discussion topic and asking you all to chime in.

I'm still working on details and posts and a button and getting this event together but I want to know if you'd be interested in participating. Every Who post I've done has gotten a lot of attention so I know there are a ton of fans out there.

Would you be interested in writing a guest post, hosting a giveaway or mini-challenge or taking the full plunge and co-hosting with me? Pleasefill out the form or let me know in the comments below or by email (amberinblunderland@yahoo.com).

Comic Review: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: V4

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: V4: Time of Your Life by Joss Whedon

Paperback: 136 pages
Publisher: Dark Horse (May 19, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1595823107
ISBN-13: 978-1595823106

Series: Season 8: Volume 4

Stories: Time of Your Life: Part 1, Time of Your Life: Part 2, Time of Your Life: Part 3, Time of Your Life: Part 4, After These Messages... ...We'll Be Right Back!

Sourced: Purchased from Books-A-Million

First Line: Bad day. Start out bad, stayed that way.

Mini-Review: A fun additon to Season 8 but lacking the emotional impact of the previous volumes.

Summary:

Willow and Buffy head to New York City to unlock the secrets of Buffy's mysterious scythe, when something goes terribly awry. Buffy is propelled into a dystopian future where there's only one Slayer -- Fray, the title character of Joss Whedon's 2001 series, the first comic he ever wrote. Their uneasy alliance falls apart, leading to the death of a major character from the TV series, while back in the twenty-first century, the Scotland base falls prey to a mystical bomb courtesy of the Biggest Bad-Twilight. 

* The first two volumes of Buffy Season Eight have combined to sell over 160,000 copies! 

* Includes the highly anticipated Buffy/Fray crossover, "Time of Your Life," and "After These Messages . . . We'll Be Right Back," written by Jeph Loeb (Batman: The Long Halloween)!

Review:

I think that because the last volume focused so much on character growth and had a very epic battle, the next volume in the series gave me high expectations and really enything wasn't going to be as good. That isn't to say that Volume 4 isn't fun and loaded with good time because it is, it's just lacking that amazing character building that the last one had.

I had no idea about Fray and I wish I did before I started reading this. Fray is what would happen in the future if Buffy hadn't given all potential slayers their powers. And I know that this whole time Buffy's been surrounded by butt-kicking chicks but I couldn't help but think that FINALLY Buffy is working with a professional. For me, meeting Fray was like meeting Faith for the first time. Fray can take care of herself and takes her Slayer duties very seriously. I loved traveling to Fray's world and particularly enjoyed how the writer's messed with the idea that if Buffy's world was the real one then Fray's world couldn't exist. I thought it did nicely to provide friction between the two slayers and nothing is better than some good old fashion rivalry.

I wasn't exactly sure what the whole villain was up to. I won't go into too much detail as I don't want to give anything away but I found myself very confused as the the motivations and I'm hoping it'll be explained further down the line. Seeds were definitely planted for something like this to happen in the earlier volumes but so far I haven't see anything to push them so far over the edge. I also want to mention that I've been enjoying all this Xander/Dawn time. Every since Xander's speech to Dawn in the show, I've always liked seeing them spend time together and I love that their relationship seems to be blooming.

While this volume was definitely playful, it just lacked the overall emotion to give it a lot of impact. I'll be happy when the main plot gets back on track. I want to know who Twilight is and what they are up to. I'm hoping that these detours are leading to something bigger and will connect to the overall plot.

Rating:

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Characters I'd Name My Cat After

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, they post a subject and the goal is to answer the question with your top ten picks. Once you've done it, link back to The Broke and the Bookish and check out what other bloggers have to say!

Top Ten Characters I'd Name My Cat After

I'm sure there are characters I name my kids after too but I think naming cats is a little easier and you get to go funkier with the names. So here is my list of characters with great names and awesome personalities!

1) Katniss from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- I put this as number 1 because I already have a cat named after this character. I love it because this little kitty was burned by acid as a baby and still came back to be an amazing cat today. She's a survivor just like Katniss so the name is perfect!

2) Mara from The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin- I'm not normally into naming cats regular people names but I think the name Mara for a ball of fluff would be really cool.

3) Calla from Nightshade by Andrea Cremer- I think this would be another really cute name for a spunky little kitty.

4) Cullen from Twilight by Stephenie Meyers- I've always thought that last name was a cute one for a boy kitten. I like cat names that sound nerdy of very official.

5) Theseus Cassio (Cas) from Anna Dressed In Blood by Kendare Blake- Again, this is a long rather silly name that makes the cat sound very important. I love it!

6) Rue from The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins- I add this one to the list because we almost called another cat we have by this name. She's a shy long furred black cat who is teeny tiny and not growing any more. It's a great name for her, it just lost out to Isadore (from the Incubus song).

7) Perry or Aria from Under the Never Sky by Veronica Rossi- Loved this novel and I think these names are different enough to not sound like human names.

8) Tris or Tobias from Divergent by Veronica Roth-Again, these are not every day human names and they remind me of awesome characters I love!

Other names:

1) Spike, Willow or Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer- All these are characters I love and feel like good cat names.

2) Gallifrey or Idris from Doctor Who- Gallifrey is where the Doctor is from and would be a really cute cat name. Idris was the Tardis in human form.

3) River- Then I get to think of River Song from Doctor Who and River Tam from Firefly.

4) Tybalt- There's Shakespeare's Tybalt, king of cats, who I've always loved and an awesome Guild Wars 2 character by the same name.

Those are the names that made my top ten. What did you write about today?

Character Interview & Giveaway Info with Quinlan Lacey of Drain You by M Beth Bloom

Today, I've got the main character Quinlan Lacey on the blog from M Beth Bloom's Drain You to answer some this or that questions. Make sure to check them out and hang around for some info on the book and how you can get yours hands on a copy of it!
1) Vanilla, chocolate or strawberry?
Chocolate is the best ever.

2) Cat or dog?
Dog, obvie.

3) Recorded or live?
Recorded. Don’t make me go to the show.

4) Black, white or grey?
Black – for jeans, eye liner, Metallica records, sexy Lakers power forwards, and Tenacious D frontmen.

5) Pen or pencil?
Pen. Unless it’s mechanical, those are sick.

6) Being stuck with someone you hate or being alone?
Someone I hate. Then I can at least silently judge. Alone stinks.

7) Now or then?
Now. If now’s 1994.

8) All or nothing?
All. Give it to me.

9) Love, money or fame?
Love. I’m a sucker.

10) Noise or silence?
One after the other.

11) Fantasy or reality?
Reality. It gets weird.

12) Rain or sunshine?
Sunshine, all year long.

13) What is one secret you know about the other person that they don't think you know?
I don’t know anyone’s secrets. No one trusts me.

14) What do you think the other’s biggest fear is and how would you tell them to overcome it?
I assume everyone’s just afraid of not being liked. That’s easy to overcome – stop caring! Be awesome and smart and badass and proud, and if someone doesn’t like you then tuff stuff, their loss!

Check out the book that Quinlan comes from and see if Drain You be M Beth Bloom sounds like something you might like:

Summer. The 90s. The rich, sun-bleached neighborhoods of the Los Angeles canyons. Enter Quinlan Lacey, a cool, bored, sarcastic, sexy 17-year old with a dull part-time video store job and a mild case of teen ennui. That is, until she meets the alluring, River Phoenix-esque James, and realizes the hills are alive with the undead. Inspired more by the early, dry L.A. short stories of Bret Easton Ellis than the current crop of serialized vampire fiction, the supernatural grunge romance, Drain You, narrates the headaches and heartbreaks Quinn undergoes in her quest to stay sane and cool and in love and alive.

Sounds pretty dang awesome right? And this isn't your typical vampire book. Don't believe me?

Check out Publisher Weekly's review which says "Bloom debuts with a languid, stylish novel that reads like a love letter to cult vampire flicks like The Lost Boys, the work of Francesca Lia Block, and Southern California in the 1990s."

You can get yourself a copy of Drain You from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

But if you want to try your lucky and possibly win one first,  let's talk about how you can get your hands on a free copy of Drain You. Here are links to the giveaway launch at two blogs I often haunt Mundie Moms and Hobbitsies.

The Prizes:
-5 Copies of 'Drain You' signed by the Author -$50 Credit at Wasteland (Quinn's favorite store)
-Pages from Quinn's Notebook (pics attached)
-10 'Drain You' Bookmarks handmade by Quinn
-10 90's mixtapes curated and created by Quinn

The Rules (you gotta have them but they are simple!):
-Tweet the giveaway
-Like 'Drain You' on Facebook
-Like 'M. Beth Bloom' on Facebook or Follow @QuinlanLacey

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And before you click off, you really should read Ms. Bloom's bio. She's a pretty fascinating lady!

"Bloom's first short story “Love And Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape” was featured in Story Quarterly and selected by Dave Eggers for inclusion in The Best American Nonrequired Reading: 2003 (Houghton-Mifflin), which he curates annually. Bloom is the founder of underground dance label 100% Silk (profiled here in LA Weekly) AND the producer/lead singer of the band LA Vampires (written up in The Guardian as well as Pitchfork and Fader). Her next book will be published through HarperTeen.

M. Beth lives on the east side of L.A. where she indulges in raw fooding, magazine subscribing, thrift shopping, Sunday matinee'ing, and ladies book clubbing."

In My Mailbox 96

In my mailbox is a weekly meme created by The Story Siren that encourages other book bloggers to share what they bought, won, begged for or borrowed. It is usually held on Sundays!

From Vero Beach Book Center:

• Kissing Shakespeare by Pamela Mingle
• Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst

That's it for me this week though I will tell you that I was lucky enough to snag the only signed copy of Vessel there! What did you get this week?

A Fairy Tale In Photos- Anastasia

Every Friday, I tell you a fairy tale exclusively through photos! Each week is a different theme and I search through Deviantart to find you the best of the best--whether they be pretty or spooky. All are welcome here! None of these photos are mine and you can always find a link to the proper owners underneath the photo in the caption area!

This week we've got everyone's favorite lost princess on a journey to the past! Check out Anastasia!

1)

EnvytheOne

2)

The-Toy-Chest

3)

Tsukikko-chan

4)

cypherx

5)

xenite1

6)

Sasouri

7)

NorthernLightsPro

8)

iNeedChemicalX

9)

Tsukikko-chan

10)

Hart-Worx

11)

NazXean

12)

avivi

I love the raw emotion in the model's face in photo 3. She looks so breakable and sad. I think the most interesting one to look at though is probably #7.

Which are your favorites?

Cover Alerts

There have been several awesome covers to appear around the web that you need to know about. Check out some debuts and some re-releases!

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer

Stephen has been invisible for practically his whole life — because of a curse his grandfather, a powerful cursecaster, bestowed on Stephen’s mother before Stephen was born. So when Elizabeth moves to Stephen’s NYC apartment building from Minnesota, no one is more surprised than he is that she can see him. A budding romance ensues, and when Stephen confides in Elizabeth about his predicament, the two of them decide to dive headfirst into the secret world of cursecasters and spellseekers to figure out a way to break the curse. But things don’t go as planned, especially when Stephen’s grandfather arrives in town, taking his anger out on everyone he sees. In the end, Elizabeth and Stephen must decide how big of a sacrifice they’re willing to make for Stephen to become visible — because the answer could mean the difference between life and death. At least for Elizabeth.

Invisibility is out May 2013 by Philomel/Penguin.

Yup, I'm super in love with this one. I think it's the teal colors of the lettering coupled with the awesome yellow background. Something about it looks fresh and hip though Christina over at A Reader of Fictions did point out that the girl's outfit is pretty awful.

Ink by Amanda Sun

I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look. 

Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of girl lying on a bench. 

A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness. 

And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine. 

On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building. 

Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets. 

Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.

Ink is out June 25th 2013 by Harlequin Teen.

This cover is gorgeous. I love that they made the background look like rice paper and painted the girl's face, flowers and title to look like traditional Japanese art but also a bit like graffiti. I'm in love with one all over!

Just One Day by Gayle Forman

A breathtaking journey toward self-discovery and true love, from the author of If I Stay 

When sheltered American good girl Allyson "LuLu" Healey first meets laid-back Dutch actor Willem De Ruiter at an underground performance of Twelfth Night in England, there’s an undeniable spark. After just one day together, that spark bursts into a flame, or so it seems to Allyson, until the following morning, when she wakes up after a whirlwind day in Paris to discover that Willem has left. Over the next year, Allyson embarks on a journey to come to terms with the narrow confines of her life, and through Shakespeare, travel, and a quest for her almost-true-love, to break free of those confines. 

Just One Day is the first in a sweepingly romantic duet of novels. Willem’s story—Just One Year—is coming soon!

Just One Day is out January 8th 2013 by Dutton Juvenile.

At first I wasn't actually a fan of this cover. It felt too busy for me. There was no where for my eye to go but the more I look at it, the more I like it. I like that it looks like she's in a foreign place and she's slowed down for a drink and to enjoy the view. And since this a book so centered around time, I also really like that her watch is a focal point. I do wish the title was as big as the author's name. Or maybe that the title and author's name were switched.

Pantomime by Laura Lam

R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide. 

Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star. 

But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.

Pantomime is out February 5th 2013 by Strange Chemistry.

I saw the first version of this because Strange Chem put it out and I wasn't that impressed. However, I love the tweaks they've made and I think that circus tent background is absolutely stunning. I also really like the model's focus stare. Some model's just look out of it but this one looks alert and focused which makes her eyes stand out. I do wish that the colors weren't so faded though. It'd make this cover a slam dunk for me.

Uses For Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, brining home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know. 

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys is a story of breaking down and growing up.

Uses For Boys is out  January 15th 2013 by St Martin’s Press.

I know kissing covers make some people uncomfortable but I'm not one of them. I don't think this kiss looks passionate but I do think it looks sweet and tender. Maybe it's the Christmas lights strung around them or that they body language isn't all coiled up but this just seems sweet to me. Even the matching outfits works. I love it!

Cover Change: The Dead and Buried by Kim Harrington

A haunted house, a buried mystery, and a very angry ghost make this one unforgettable thriller. 

Jade loves the house she's just moved into with her family. She doesn't even mind being the new girl at the high school: It's a fresh start, and there's that one guy with the dreamy blue eyes. . . . But then things begin happening. Strange, otherworldly things. Jade's little brother claims to see a glimmering girl in his room. Jade's jewelry gets moved around, as if by an invisible hand. Kids at school whisper behind her back like they know something she doesn't. 

Soon, Jade must face an impossible fact: that her perfect house is haunted. Haunted by a ghost who's seeking not just vengeance, but the truth. The ghost of a girl who ruled Jade's school — until her untimely death last year. It's up to Jade to put the pieces together before her own life is at stake. As Jade investigates the mystery, she discovers that her new friends in town have more than a few deep, dark secrets. But is one of them a murderer?

The Dead and Buried is out January 1st 2013 by Scholastic Point.

So don't get me wrong, I think this cover is awesome. It's interesting to look at and I love the somber grey background. The problem is I was really digging the old cover. It had an Anna Dressed In Blood sort of animated feel with the girl standing at the top of the stairs. I thought it was creepy in the best of ways. I wish they hadn't changed it but since they did at least it's a pretty good change. A little less interesting but not bad.

What do you guys think of all the recently released covers?