Tag: Supernatural

My Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, Nook, Paranormal, ReadingLeave a comment

I haven’t been reading books at all lately. Last year I don’t even think I picked up one book at all. I am always getting emails from Goodreads with updates from other people, and I usually delete them because I’m typically just not in the mood to read, but I got to thinking, I really should. I’ve spent way too much time watching YouTube and not doing anything. I need to start reading again.

The first book that I thought to read was actually a book I had bought and added to my Goodreads account on September 3rd, 2012 called “If It’s a Choice, My Zygote Chose Balls” by Jeremy Hooper. I had also bought the audio version because they offered it at a really good price and I couldn’t pass it up. But I don’t know why it took me this long to read it. I read it in 2 days with the help of the audio book of course. I finished reading it on August 27th, according to my Goodreads account.

My next 3 books were from the same author named Daniel Sugar and they were about a witch in the Salem trial days. “Salem Burning”, “The Witch and the Guillotine” and “The Witch and the Revolution”. I read those really fast because they were all so easy to read. I pretty much read them each in a day. I love stories about witches and the supernatural.

Before I finished the Daniel Sugar books, I saw an ad on Facebook for another series by an author named Ward Parker and the series is the “Freaky Florida” series that consisted of 4 books. “Snowbirds of Prey”, “Invasive Species”, “Fate is a Witch” and “Gnome Coming”. I bought all 4 books without even thinking maybe I might just want to stick to the first book and see how that goes. I don’t know, I just had a feeling I would read and like them. Then before I even started reading the first one I saw there was a fifth book coming soon called “Going Batty”, so I bought that and he has a sixth book coming out early in 2021 called “Dirty Old Manatee”. It already sounds hilarious.

The Freaky Florida series follows a home health nurse named Missy who happens to be a witch and her patients are Werewolves and Vampires and really any other supernatural beings that need her medical skills. She also has a friend named Matt who is a reporter and they go on many adventures together in the series. They are kind of cute in my mind. I don’t know why, but my brain has assigned them the voices of Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Darrin Stephens (Dick York). I can even see their facial expressions and hear the expressions in their voices during certain scenes.

So I read the first one, loved it, second one, loved it, third one, guess how I felt about that one? I loved it. I’m reading the fourth one called Gnome Coming and I’m also loving it. Going Batty is my next one.

All of these are on the Kindle because for some reason there are some authors who only publish to Kindle. I normally buy Nook books, but I don’t know, I just thought I would give my Kindle account some attention this year, and not a moment too soon because the Nook hasn’t been operational since Sunday, and it’s still not working. I don’t know for sure what happened, but you can’t buy any books and if you had any books that weren’t installed that were in the cloud, you pretty much can kiss them goodbye until they fix the problem. If you were fortunate to save your books to SD card then you still have them. I wasn’t fortunate to have them all downloaded to the SD card. And it really sucks because I already bought the first book for my next series from an author named Michael Buckley called the Sister’s Grimm on the Nook and I won’t get the ebook until they fix the problem. So I’m pretty bummed out.

But I do have other books I have bought years ago that I want to read. For example I still have a ton of Xanth novels to read and the rest of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I have plenty of reading to do, and I’m so glad I started reading again. My goal is set to 10, but when I get to 10 I will change it to 12 and just keep going until the end of the year. I am curious to find out how many more books I can read this year.

Fringe on Science Channel

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Fringe-season-1

I have to admit something, I’ve never seen Fringe.  Yeah I know, some nerd I am.  Well, apparently I didn’t get the memo when this show began that it was science fiction and/or supernatural in nature.  I think if I knew, I would’ve been a regular viewer.  I think the fact that it was on Fox had something to do with why I didn’t watch it, because I have always connected Fox with Fox News so therefore I refused to watch it.  I got over that and ended up watching other shows, but I still didn’t know Fringe was SciFi/Supernatural.

I did add it to my Netflix queue, but I don’t have Netflix anymore because I never found time to watch anything, so I canceled because I was paying for nothing.  Science channel has decided to air Fringe every Tuesday, which gives me a second chance to watch it from the beginning.

November 20th, 2012, Science channel is breathing new life into this show and I will be able to watch it since it comes on at 5pm here.  That works perfectly for me because I normally watch Attack of the Show on G4 at 4pm and this ends at 8pm right when my regular shows begin.  It couldn’t have worked out any better.

http://static.discoverymedia.com/videos/components/sci/d08a1df1a72d7af1238cc7cc16c45dfb836ed93e/snag-it-player.html?auto=no

I don’t know anything about Fringe, so I am going in blind just like everyone else did before the show began.  I don’t want to know anything about it because I don’t like spoilers.  It’s like when you start reading a book or are in the middle and someone says oh hey, the twin did it.  ARGH!  I don’t want to know!  I have heard how gruesome it is though, so that I am prepared for since I see gruesome stuff on my other supernatural shows.  I guess I have this “I’ve seen it all so nothing shocks me” attitude going in.

I look forward to being dazzled by Joshua Jackson, or as I like to call him, Pacey.

I Won’t Miss My Shows!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, TVLeave a comment

Since we’re getting our Roku box tomorrow and we’re canceling our $110 a month cable on Thursday, I’ve been kind of worried because not all of my shows are on Hulu and Netflix.

True Blood is one major reason why we have HBO. If I cancel our cable and I lose HBO then what am I going to do? I’m going to miss True Blood when it comes on. I really am not too keen on downloading it with P2P but what else could I do? Well, I just found out that Amazon Video On Demand will have it for only $2.09 an episode. WHEW! What a weight.

That’s not all though because even though Hulu has a BBC America page, they don’t have my BBC America shows on there like Doctor Who and Primeval. Last night was the season premiere of Primeval and this morning BBC America tweeted that the episode is available on iTunes and Amazon Video On Demand. Ok so I’m gonna have to pay $1.99 to buy (not rent) the episodes, fine, I don’t care as long as I get to see them. When Doctor Who comes back I will be way more than happy to buy each episode for $2.

There are certain shows that I will be missing that I have mentioned like Smallville, Supernatural and Vampire Diaries because CBS (who owns CW) refuses to get on the Hulu bandwagon. Well, luckily they have those shows on the CW website so I’m good there. They also have them for sale on iTunes and Amazon VOD but I refuse to pay for something that I can see for free on the CW website. If it’s a network show then why should I have to pay to watch it? If it’s a premium channel like HBO then I certainly don’t mind paying for it. Even BBC America, I’m good paying for it.

So now that I have this knowledge that I won’t miss them I am very pleased with our decision to cancel our cable.

Our Sacred Balance (eBook)

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Gay, Kindle, NookLeave a comment

I am sad to say that I finished reading Our Sacred Balance. I’m sad because it is the final book in the Triquetra Trilogy. I guess all good things have to come to an end, this being my first gay e-book series I was hoping it would last longer. It did take me 3 months to read since I read 1 book each month so that’s something I suppose.

I wouldn’t want to give anything away but here is the synopsis according to the Rainbow eBooks website:

“Lovers Kristair and Jacob believe they’re done with the supernatural and on the road to a new life. But the supernatural isn’t done with them. A stalker is targeting vampires, tearing them from their sanctuaries and leaving them to burn in the sun, and when the vampires of Pittsburgh call upon the ancient Kristair, he cannot refuse them aid despite Jacob’s objections.

While their quest becomes more dangerous, tempers flare when Jacob tries to make Kristair understand the limitations of being human again. As they struggle to reach a balance between them, the other vampires become restless, eager to find the person responsible for the deaths of their own so they can vent their rage.

But the enemy is closer than they ever imagined and carries a personal grudge against them. Their mental link gone and spiritual strength halved, Jacob and Kristair must conquer Kristair’s newfound helplessness and learn to communicate with each other before their enemy destroys everything they’ve fought so hard to win.”

There is so much more to the story that I don’t want to give away but let me just say that it is very dramatic and interesting. That’s what I love about books, they have so many twists and turns and you never know what’s going to happen next. And this one had some twists that you will not expect.

Marguerite Labbe is my favorite author of gay ebooks forever. Not just because her books were the first gay books that I read but also because she really knows how to excite a person with her writing and I’m not just talking about the drama in the book.

If you like gay vampire novels then this trilogy is for you. Start with My Heart is Within You over at the Rainbow eBooks website. I looked and it’s not available in the Nook store. If you have a Kindle you can get it in Kindle format from the Kindle store. Amazon also has it in paperback format so if you don’t have an e-book reader then you can still buy it.

The Colorado Kid

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Nook, TVLeave a comment

I started watching the show Haven on Syfy when it began at the beginning of Summer mainly because according to the commercials it had some supernatural stuff happening. Anything supernatural is right up my alley.

The show is based on the Stephen King novel “The Colorado Kid” which made it even more exciting because anything that Stephen King writes is a success right?

I should have read the novel before the show came on the air just to get a feeling for what I can expect in the show but it never really occurred to me to do that. I finally did buy it this weekend and just finished reading it and I am even more confused about everything than I was before I read it.

In the book, Vince and Dave, who are the 2 brothers who work at the newspaper, are telling the story of the Colorado Kid to Stephanie, a 20-year-old intern, how he was found, how they found out who he was and everything else about his death from 1980.

According to the book, these “old” men are well into their 90′s and this was in 2005. Well, in Haven they are much younger, at least in their 70′s right? And the story of the Colorado Kid happened 25 years ago which would be 1985 not 1980.

I know the show Haven is only based on a book and that it’s “only a story” but when you are interested in a story, you have to know what’s going on to understand it. Even if it’s all make believe.

I was hoping this book would help me to understand Haven but it ended up confusing me more than I already was. I thought that the book was going to have all these strange occurrences that the show has but instead it’s just 2 men telling a story to a woman.

In Haven, there is a newspaper clipping of Lucy who is Audrey Parkers mother*. I don’t understand what that clipping has to do with the Colorado Kid considering they are looking up in the sky and the Colorado Kid was found dead by a trashcan. I tried looking for the newspaper clipping on the Haven page of the SyFy website but it’s not there. I tried doing a Google search but found nothing. I was hoping that I could get a closer look at the clipping to see what I needed to see to get the story but there’s nothing.

Apparently I was wrong about them looking up at the sky. They were indeed looking at “the Colorado Kid” but he’s not by a trash can in the picture in this article. In the book the 2 people who found him, the now Mayor of the town and his wife when they were teenagers, were not photographed looking at him. In the tv show Haven, it’s a woman and a little boy looking at him. Here is that clipping:

Image courtesy of Alastor from YouSayToo

I start to think of the Colorado kids wife and child but the wife was contacted a year after his death and flew to Maine from Colorado. The child however would have only been 2 years old considering he was 6 months old when his father went missing. This child is a bit older than 2 but the wife’s name wasn’t Lucy anyway (in the book).

I did a search in the book and it couldn’t find the word “Lucy” anywhere. I also did a search for the word “Haven” which came up with 3 but it was followed with a “‘t” which spells “haven’t.”

Oh, and what also confused me is that I thought this book was written in the 70′s or 80′s because the picture on the front cover of the book looks like an old picture. It’s supposed to be Stephanie, the 20-year-old intern right? Well, again, it looks like an older picture. Look at her hair and dress. Not something you’d expect to see an intern reporter to wear to work.

At any rate, I found the book to give me no answers but I still enjoyed reading it. I think that if a person wants to know more about Haven they are not going to find any answers in this book. The show is just an extension to the book, the book isn’t going to answer the questions about what’s going on in Haven.

* Update 2011-10-01: When I wrote this in 2010 I thought Lucy was Audrey Parkers mother but at the end of the 2nd season we all find out that Lucy and Audrey Parker are the same person.  Mind blowing.

Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings

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At Christmas time in 2005 I was visiting my Aunt Louise in Texas and I had brought a Buffy the Vampire Slayer novel with me to read. I didn’t think I would need to bring any more than the one book because I was visiting family but I brought it so that at night when they had all gone to bed I would have something to read before I went to bed and I made it a point to try to read at least 1 or 2 chapters before going to bed.

Unfortunately people don’t get why I would want to read a Buffy novel. I’m a huge fan of the show and even though the show is gone forever from our tv’s, the books add more episodes that the show didn’t think to write so it’s like I’m getting more of the show by reading the books.

First I have to tell you that they have a HUGE book collection. They have what appears to be a library in their house. Half of the room that I slept in was bookshelves that made that half of the room look a library. There were bookshelves facing each other with books on either side of them just like a library. Although you couldn’t see over the books but rather the bookshelves were back to back then bookshelves along the walls.

Ok so he suggested to me that if I liked the vampire and supernatural (in general) type of books then I would love these David Eddings books. He pulls one out on a smaller shelf by the door which is Pawn of Prophecy and hands it to me. Then he pulls out another and another and yet another. He’s stacking them in my arms and I’m just overwhelmed at that point.

I’m like whoa doggy, I can’t read all these books lol. Let me look at the first one tonight before I go to bed and I’ll make a decision tomorrow lol.

That night I read the prologue which was so difficult to understand. I keep telling people that I have things going against me so I try to stick with easy books like BUFFY! but they just don’t believe me.

My Aunt asked me in the morning what I thought (as if I had read the entire book the night before) and I said well I read the prologue and it was a bit confusing and difficult to read. She asked if I remember what I read and I said yes sort of and she asked me to tell her what I learned lol. Uh hello… learning disability here lol. But I did retain SOME of the prologue to give her an answer which I don’t quite know how I did. I don’t even remember what I said but she believed that I did indeed read the prologue.

I told them that I don’t want to borrow all whatever amount of books there are because number 1 it’s too much to stuff into my suitcase and number 2 I doubt that I’m going to read them all right away and I can’t promise I will even try. I wrote the titles down though so that when I came home I could buy some.

That January 2006 when I got my monthly check I did buy volume 1 and 2 of the Belgariad with the first 3 books in the first volume and the last 2 in the 2nd volume. I tried reading the prologue again and I did read the first chapter but it was so damn difficult for me to read. Also the books were so heavy that I just couldn’t do it.

4 1/2 years later and I’m giving it another go. Today I read the prologue for the third time and I gotta tell ya, it’s the same confusion every time. I read the first 2 chapters and then had to quit to give my brain a rest. I did have to look up a few words in the dictionary but I can deal with that.

I am going to try to keep with it as much as I possibly can because these are books that I am interested in. I’m not reading them because I’m being forced into it but rather because they are my type of books. They kind of remind me of the lord of the rings in a way but their own story. Which by the way THE hardest books ever are the lord of the friggin rings. Oh man those books… so hard.

I have dyslexia, learning disability, ADD and not to mention the fact that I didn’t go to college and didn’t really start reading books until 2005 so give me a break with these big words ok? LOL

Well, I am 2 chapters in (3 with prologue) and I am looking forward to reading more in the morning.

True Blood on Twitter

On By Michel McDonaldIn Books, eBook, Kindle, TV, TwitterLeave a comment

You know, I’ve been a fan of Vampires my entire life, anything supernatural actually. I make it a point to watch any movie or tv show that has vampires, witches, werewolves and anything else that is supernatural.

When True Blood came on HBO I was psyched that I had HBO to watch it on lol. But mainly I was just psyched because it was a new vampire show.

I’ve only recently discovered the awesomeness of even though I’ve been on Twitter for a couple of years now. Since I started following Sam Merlotte on Twitter I noticed that he was role-playing. I started following another True Blood character that he mentioned and notice that person was role-playing too.

Thanks to Sookie Stackhouse, I discovered there is a website with all the True Blood character twitter names. “You can find all of us here: http://tweepml.org/?t=460087 #TrueBlood”. Go there and follow them all.

I also created and then some. If you check out that list you can see that the characters are actually tweeting each other. It’s like watching the show but all text, no visual. It’s sort of like reading a book.

I love the role-playing, it’s the best way to get my True Blood fix during the week. Since there are only 3 more episodes it will be interesting to see if they continue to role-play after the season is over until the next season.

I have not started reading the Sookie Stackhouse books yet but I will be buying the 8 book boxed set soon. I was hoping that it would be the first book(s) I bought on a Kindle that I plan to buy in the next month or 2 but considering the Kindle version is $55 and the actual paper book version is $35, I might just buy the paper book version instead.

Well, back to the drama on Twitter.

I Can Do 2 Shows…

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I was worried when we got Digital cable that because we had to have a cable box that I would have trouble when I have 2 shows on at the same time.  Without a cable box I can record 1 show on my dvd recorder and watch another show on another channel by hitting the tv/vcr button.  But with a cable box, the dvd recorder only records what is currently on the cable box channel since the tv is always on channel 3.  There is no getting around that.  Forget being able to record ever again.

But, thank goodness for the internet because if I have a show on ABC and NBC at the same time I can just go to that networks website and watch the show on my computer.  Last night I had 2 shows, both on at 8pm.  Pushing Daisies on ABC and Knight Rider on NBC so I watched Pushing Daisies last  night then this morning I watched Knight Rider at the NBC website.

Unfortunately, not all networks do that.  Well, mostly they do but like the CW channel, last year I missed a couple of episodes of Smallville and Supernatural and they had all their other shows on their website but those 2 they didn’t for some reason.  I ended up having to download them via emule.

The networks that do have their shows on their website “on demand” they keep the current season on there from episode 1.  Heroes for example, when season 2 began they removed all of season 1.  Since season 3 has already begun they have totally removed season 2 except for the last episode of that season.  I don’t know why keep the last episode, maybe so people can catch up first.

The point of this blog was to establish the fact that I’m happy I can watch my shows if I miss them hehe.

Smallville and Supernatural…

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Smallville came on and I was shocked to see that Clark had lost his powers but near the end of the episode he finally got them back but the “martian” lost his by helping Clark get them back.  He works at The Daily Planet now and there was talk of a costume so hopefully he will get his costume soon.

Supernatural began and they showed Dean in hell then next thing he’s in a coffin and digging his way out like a vampire would.  I was way off in my last blog about Sam casting a spell or whatever.  I thought maybe he had made a deal similar to the deal Dean made to get Sam back but he didn’t.  It looks like he has friends in high places lol.  Really high.  Like heaven, that high.  God commanded an angel to pull him out of hell because Sam and Dean are needed to be alive.  So, why didn’t dad get a reprieve?  We will see next week as per the advertisement about how people are coming back.

Smallville and Supernatural

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YAY the summer is finally over and now it’s time for all my shows to start coming back.  Tonight is Smallville and Supernatural.  I think this will be Smallville’s last season.  Clark Kent is getting a bit too old now to not become Superman yet.  I’m sure at the very end of this season he will wear the superman tights and cape and that will be the very end of Smallville.  It would be cool if they had a Superman spin-off so they don’t have to end the show, they can have another 8 years lol.  I doubt they would though.  I’m sure Tom Welling doesn’t want to be type cast for the rest of his life.

Supernatural should be good considering when last we saw him, Dean was in hell being stretched like Kenny McCormick was in South Park.  I don’t know if he was being stretched but he was just hanging around in hell lol.  Sam has to get him out but how?  I figure he either has to cast a spell to summon Dean so that he can just keep dean out of hell as much as he can then when he disappears he has to summon him again.  I don’t know.  Maybe he will have to kill that little girl and then dean comes back to earth.  I really don’t know how it works.  Oh wait when Daddy was taken to hell when Dean was in a coma, he was taken by that one demon but eventually Dean or Sam killed him with that gun that kills demons and dad wasn’t set free.

I guess I will just have to wait and see.  They will probably keep him in hell for a few episodes or maybe even half the season or who knows maybe the entire season until the season finale or something.  I love speculating what might happen hehe.