Thursday 30 October 2014

Book Review: Collected Stories by Tennessee Williams

Title: Collected Stories
Author: Tennessee Williams
Publisher: Vintage

Publication Date: 1996 (1985)
Pages: 672
Format: Paperback
Genre: Fiction - Short Stories
Source: Bought Copy


Wednesday 29 October 2014

Sketching: Tom Hiddleston

I can't stop drawing Tom Hiddleston lately... it's like a compulsion. Here's one of him just as himself for a change, based on a photo I saw online and fell in love with!



Drawn over approx. 7 hours using pencils 2B and 7H
My scanner always makes my sketches look faint and odd, so I did just tweak the tone in Photoshop so it could be seen more clearly.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Tuesday Top Ten: Modern Plays

So, it's Tuesday once again and time for another top ten. This time, I'm sharing my favourite modern plays. Just to be clear, in my mind a modern play is anything newer than Shakespeare (!) so the list includes Victorian-era pieces as well as 20th century ones.

1)   Baby Doll - Williams
2)   The Importance of Being Earnest - Wilde
3)   Miss Julie - Strindberg
4)   Art - Reza
5)   A Doll's House - Ibsen
6)   Spring Awakening - Wedekind
7)   The Cherry Orchard - Chekov
8)   Amadeus - Schaffer
9)   Speed-the-Plow - Mamet
10) Boeing-Boeing - Camoletti

Sunday 26 October 2014

Wayward Ink Publishing Halloween Sale

http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com

Wayward Ink Publishing is celebrating Halloween with a book sale and they’ve got nothing but treats for you! Everything on the WIP website is 30% off for eight days. This sale applies to both published titles and those in the Coming Soon section of the website, so make sure to check them all and buy your favorites!

You can take advantage of this Halloween sale from Sunday October 26th to Sunday November 2nd.


If you'd like to use this discount to check out some of my writing, you can find my short story 'The Raider' (writing as Asta Idonea) in the Stranded anthology.

WIP buy pages to check

WIP releases: http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/shop/
WIP coming soon list: http://www.waywardinkpublishing.com/product-category/coming-soon/

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Tuesday Top Ten: Classical Composers

So, today's top ten are my favourite classical composers. After musical theatre and opera, classical music is my next favourite style. You'll notice there are a few opera composers in my top ten.... :)

1)   Mozart
2)   Wagner
3)   Debussy
4)   Bach
5)   Schumann
6)   Schubert
7)   Dowland
8)   Verdi
9)   Grainger
10) Rachmaninov

Friday 17 October 2014

Follow Friday # 70

http://www.alisoncanread.com/2014/10/feature-and-follow-friday-223.html
Share the song you can't stop listening to

Well, music is hugely important to me. I love to play instruments and sing and always have a song in my head. Which song changes according to my mood and which tracks have caught my fancy at any particular time. I will sing something to death for weeks before moving on to something new.

Read on for my current music obsessions....

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Book Review: Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin # 2) by Robin Lafevers

Title: Dark Triumph (His Fair Assassin # 2)
Author: Robin LaFevers
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Publication Date: April 2013
Pages: 405
Format:  E-Book - EPUB
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Tuesday 14 October 2014

Tuesday Top Ten: Television Series

Sorry I'm a little later this week. Got so involved with my writing this afternoon that I nearly forgot to put this up!

Anyhow, this week my ten favourite television programmes. Again, tough, as I could pick more than ten. Plus, these are the top ten, but the order is flexible as I like many equally! :)

1)   Hannibal
2)   Supernatural
3)   Sherlock
4)   Red Dwarf (UK)
5)   Originals
6)   Being Human (UK)
7)   Alias
8)   Buffy the Vampire Slayer
9)   Blacklist
10) Game of Thrones

Friday 10 October 2014

Release Day: Stranded Anthology (featuring my story 'The Raider') (M/M 18+yrs)

Today is release day for the M/M anthology Stranded which features my first published M/M story 'The Raider', written under my alternate pen name, Asta Idonea. Graphic M/M sex means this is an 18+ years read, but if it's your sort of thing, I hope you'll check it out. Read on for more info!

STRANDED-cover preview sizeDefinition – Stranded
adjective
  • (of a boat, sailor, or sea creature) left aground on a shore.
“a stranded whale”
  • left without the means to move from somewhere.
“he offers a lift to a stranded commuter”

The boys in this collection of short stories have most definitely been left STRANDED!
They’ve been shipwrecked and abandoned.
Marooned and cast away.
And left helpless and high and dry.
But you should never underestimate the tenacity of the human heart…

Thursday 9 October 2014

Book Review: High-Rise by J. G. Ballard

Title: High-Rise
Author: J. G. Ballard
Publisher:
Liveright
Publication Date: 2012 (1975)
Pages: 208
Format:  Paperback
Genre: Fiction
Source: Bought Copy


Wednesday 8 October 2014

Book Promo: A Closed Door by Andrew Q. Gordon (M/M 18+yrs)

 Today I welcome Andrew Q. Gordon to the blog to tell us a little about his new M/M release A Closed Door....

Book Blurb

Outted at thirteen, Orin Merritt left home after high school hoping to escape the hell his life had become. Ten years later when a tornado destroys his childhood home and kills his parents, Orin finds himself in an entirely new nightmare. One he can't run away from.
Blaming himself for failing the two people who always loved and supported him, he returns home and confronts his past in the person of his one-time best friend, Thomas Kennett.  Thomas not only rejected him when Orin came out, he led the group that tormented Orin into leaving.  
As he struggles to deal with his grief, Orin also labors to fulfill the pledge he made to his parents before their death.  In the process, Orin learns that sometimes when you go away to find yourself, you leave the answers you're looking for behind.

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Tuesday Top Ten: Artists

Welcome back to my Tuesday Top Ten series. Today.... artists.

1) J W Waterhouse
2) Dante Gabriel Rosetti
3) John Everett Millais
4) Leonardo Da Vinci
5) Botticelli
6) J M W Turner
7) Claude Monet
8) Francis Bernard Dicksee
9) Jacques Louis David
10) Edgar Degas


Book Review: Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets

Title: Two Hundred and Twenty-One Baker Streets
Author: Various
Publisher:
Abaddon
Publication Date: 7 October 2014
Pages: 384
Format: E-Book - PDF
Genre: Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley


Monday 6 October 2014

Book Review: The Penguin Book of Norse Myths

Title: The Penguin Book of Norse Myths
Author: Kevin Crossley-Holland
Publisher:
Penguin
Publication Date: 2011 (1980)
Pages: 320
Format:  Paperback
Genre: Folklore/Mythology
Source: Bought Copy

Saturday 4 October 2014

Book Review: The Fine Print of Self-Publishing by Mark Levine

Title: The Fine Print of Self-Publishing
Author: Mark Levine
Publisher:
Bascom Hill Publishing Group
Publication Date: January 2014
Pages: 272
Format:  E-Book - EPUB
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley

Thursday 2 October 2014

Book Review: Complete Screenwriting Course (Teach Yourself Series)

Title: Complete Screenwriting Course
Author: Charles Harris
Publisher:
Teach Yourself - John Murray Press
Publication Date: 17 October 2014
Pages: 288
Format:  E-Book - PDF
Genre: Non-Fiction
Source: ARC via NetGalley