google-site-verification: google935433b691795853.html KRISTY BERRIDGE: 2012-10-28

Friday 2 November 2012

Awesome Author Blog Hop


Okay, so I’m a crazy person participating in yet another blog hop and on the same night that I already roll around with the Follow Friday crowd. But, I’m a big believer in trying new things and since I’ve been tagged as an awesome author, I’m not exactly going to say no, cause let’s face it, I am freaking awesome *shrieks with laughter*.
So the name of the game is to answer the five questions below and then tag another five awesome authors and hope the random spamming doesn’t encourage a slap on the forehead from my writer buddies.
Here we go:

What is the working title of your book?
I’m going to roll with my up and coming release “The Damned” for these questions.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I’d already written The Hunted, the first in the series but naturally, my wayward fingers kept on going and before I knew it, a second novel was staring at me from my laptop screen. Freaky!

What genre does your book fall under?
Young adult horror

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Okay, I’ve actually done a massive blog post on this before so I’m going to be lazy here and insert a link. There are just too many to write down!

And for the authors I have tagged:
James Garcia Jnr – author of “Dance on Fire” (Blog) @danceauthor
Madison Daniel – author of “Ember” (Blog) @MadisonDaniel13
Nicole Suzanne Brown – author of “Pride” (Blog) @Nicole_S_Brown
John Hundley – author of “The Draculata Nest” (Blog)
Alexia Purdy – author of “Ever Shade” (Blog) @AlexiaPurdy

Follow Friday #48


Happy Friday everyone!
Yes, it’s that time of week again where bloggers unite to participate in the Follow Friday venture. The idea behind #FF is to promote traffic to your own blog, make new friends with other like-minded bloggers and discuss new and interesting topics each week.
Participating is simple. First you need to follow my blog because I’m totally awesome, then you can follow me on Twitter @kristyberridge (actually you don’t have to do this, it’s wishful thinking), but do follow my blog or assassins will get you …
Then you must follow our illustrious hosts Rachel of http://www.parajunkee.com/ and Alison of http://www.alisoncanread.com/ If you want more details on how to enter your own blog in the follow and hop, all directions are on their webpages
Now, once you’ve followed, check out my answer to this week’s questions and don’t forget to leave a comment so I can do the right thing and follow you back!

This week's question: What is a deal breaker for you in a book? For example, do you abhor love triangles? Or can’t deal with bad editing?

My Answer: A shitty story line with so much irrelevant internalising or pointless plot that I want to shove a tooth pick in my eyeball. I hate that some books make me skip whole pages in favour of getting back on track, or worse still, you skip several pages and have missed absolutely nothing at all - a fair sign of a waffler!

Kristy :)

Wednesday 31 October 2012

Book Review: The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead

As you all probably know, I am a massive fan of Richelle Mead's writing. I suspect it's mostly because her style is succinct, descriptive and generally highly entertaining. Even her YA novels like this one don't need the flamboyance of violence-riddled action scenes or a series of heavy petting from the pining youths of more gritty, romance-driven novels. Clear structure and an interlaced back story are often cleverly woven within her plots, and thus I find I continue to turn the pages of her novels in desperation to discover the ending.
The Golden Lily is the second book in The Bloodlines series. Again, I was not disappointed to follow the uptight Sydney Sage as we delve back into her recent activities as the head Alchemist protecting a small group of Moroi vampires and Dhampir protectors. 
Taking cover at the Amberwood preparatory school, Sydney continues to clean up the mess of her vampire friends whether personal or professional and hide the Moroi princess known as Jill Dragomir. But a new and seemingly unexpected mission to uncover human vampire hunters as well as balance a personal life presses on the tightly constructed walls Sydney has erected to prevent osmosis of feeling and unsanctioned decisions.
Challenged by the misconceptions of the Alchemists and conflicted by her emotional pull to a certain, entertaining and endearing vampire know as Adrian Ivashkov, Sydney soon sees herself stepping outside the bubble of rigidity her upbringing demands, and branching out into new endeavours.
As always, Richelle Mead does not disappoint. The story carefully follows on from Bloodlines - the protection of Jill and the consistency of their undercover illusion is teamed with all the original characters. Consideration to continue the ongoing research explored between Moroi and Strigoi vampires in the previous novel and this one for me makes the story replete, especially with the introduction of a softer, more flexible Sydney. I will happily rate this book four out of five fangs - another great read.

Synopsis:

Sydney Sage is an Alchemist, one of a group of humans who dabble in magic and serve to bridge the worlds of humans and vampires. They protect vampire secrets—and human lives.
Sydney would love to go to college, but instead, she’s been sent into hiding at a posh boarding school in Palm Springs, California–tasked with protecting Moroi princess Jill Dragomir from assassins who want to throw the Moroi court into civil war. Formerly in disgrace, Sydney is now praised for her loyalty and obedience, and held up as the model of an exemplary Alchemist.
But the closer she grows to Jill, Eddie, and especially Adrian, the more she finds herself questioning her age–old Alchemist beliefs, her idea of family, and the sense of what it means to truly belong. Her world becomes even more complicated when magical experiments show Sydney may hold the key to prevent becoming Strigoi—the fiercest vampires, the ones who don’t die. But it’s her fear of being just that—special, magical, powerful—that scares her more than anything. Equally daunting is her new romance with Brayden, a cute, brainy guy who seems to be her match in every way. Yet, as perfect as he seems, Sydney finds herself being drawn to someone else—someone forbidden to her.
When a shocking secret threatens to tear the vampire world apart, Sydney’s loyalties are suddenly tested more than ever before. She wonders how she's supposed to strike a balance between the principles and dogmas she's been taught, and what her instincts are now telling her.
Should she trust the Alchemists—or her heart?

Sunday 28 October 2012

The Evil Within


Okay, so I want to share a small bathroom experience I had recently (not the filthy run away from my blog now kind of experience). It involves a small child, a hand dryer and a belly load of personal hysteria.
Okay, so now I'm just starting to sound creepy, which I expect is mostly the 'Evil Within' talking.
I suspect that those of you that are solid viewers of my blog have come to understand that I am a massive fan of chocolate, yo-yo dieting, renovating and going to the gym, but my pet hates? Small people. No, I'm not referring to the bearded variety from Lord of the Rings or the Austin Power's Mini-me - I'm talking about ... children.
I find them loud, somewhat annoying and a consistent irritant under your feet. Yes, I am a shit Aunt and an even crappier babysitter. If I ever had my own, I would probably leave it at the grocery store, let it take rides in the clothes dryer, or possibly brand its forehead with 'do not touch anything'.
So now that we have established I am a sub-par human being and should be exorcised immediately, we can get back to the story.
It was about a week ago, I was having a fairly ordinary day at work and the evil within was stirring particularly hard - malevolent little fingers of naughtiness twisting my insides with possibilities. It was just after three and I thought ... bathroom break. So I left my desk as one does once the urge to 'go' presses upon the bladder and motivates the legs to move forward in search of release.
And then there I was, locked in my stall, finishing my business when I hear the outer doors open. But it wasn't just the doors, it was accompanied by one of those tiny, underdeveloped voices laced with a high-pitched whine.
'Mummy, I don't want to go to this toilet,' the little girl said.
'Sweetie, I promise that the hand dryer will not attack you. It's just loud, that's all,' the mother replied with kind words of inspiration.
The stall next to me closed and locked. I was busying myself with my zipper in preparation to leave, fingers poised on the lock with the intent of washing my hands and exiting this suddenly talkative place of evacuation.
'Mummy, I'm scared.'
'Sweetie, stop being silly. It's just a hand dryer, it's not going to hurt you.'
'But it's loud!'
You're loud ... I thought quietly to myself as I found the wash basins and lathered up. This conversation continued for what I calculated as several seconds, my internal clock clearly biased in its belief that it was really several hours. And, as this mounting fear escalated, my head cocked to the side, my eyes drawn to the wall-mounted Dyson, it's shiny surface beckoning me to dry my now slightly wet hands.
I was now presented with a dilema.
One, do I wipe my almost dry hands upon my pants and save this little girl from an afternoon of tears? Or two, give in to the evil within and then run as fast as I can before they 'out' the bringer of fears?
I am a horrible person, my scruples clearly hitting rock bottom as I slid my moist hands into that dryer with ease, the almost instant scream of terror from the closed bathroom stall behind me filling my ears with dread yet maliciously riddling my face with the biggest smile I'd encountered all day.
I am ashamed to say that I scared the crap out of that kid and laughed all the way back to my desk. On the upside, a colleague entered after me and I do believe that said little girl was scoring an ice-cream out of the experience, so really, I did her a massive, double chocolate chip favour.
Okay, so feel free to judge. Who else has done something like this? Who else has tipped a cow, eaten the last piece of birthday cake or scared the crap out of their husband while peeing? I know you're out there. I can't be the only one who does these horrible things ... Can I???

Kristy :)