Blog challenge to read books by female authors to celebrate National Women's History Month

Jaz on flygirld blog writes about how a number of blogs are challenging their readers to read three books by female authors this month in honor of National Women's History Month. http://www.nwhp.org/

What 3 books by female authors would you recommend ?

she also says..... Regardless, Charlaine Harris is a really interesting writer. I’m not sure I can exactly describe her style, but it lends itself more towards the “less is more” approach. She describes things in few words, and her characters are really growing on me. I was up till 5am this morning reading the third in the series, which so far is my favorite I think, and I really wanted to finish it but I have this thing about refusing to go to bed after dawn, so I had to call it a night before the sun peeped through my window. The problem now though is that I can’t find the fourth book ANYWHERE. Every bookstore in town is out of it and I really want to read it. I could buy it online but it would take some time to ship and the library has like 4 people waiting on it and I’m way too impatient to wait with them. So… I’m not sure. I need to call Target and ask them and then I’m out of ideas until the used bookstore opens again tomorrow (they’re closed on Mondays- don’t ask) and I can search in there. *SIGH*

In any case, as soon as I decide on a first book for the challenge I will let everybody know and you all can be regaled by my attempt to write commentary on it. Check out the site and join the challenge, everybody should read a little more.

http://flygirld.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/womens-history-month-challenge/

Alexander Skarsgard as Thor ?

First of all, the following story is speculative and circumstantial at best, and as such, should not be considered more than a rumor at this point… but we’ll bite. LatinoReview had discounted a rumor previously floating around that actor Alexander Skarsgard was in line for the role of Marvel’s Thor, but today they received a tip that Thor directorr Kenneth Branagh was spotted having lunch with Skarsgård and a couple unrecognizable gentleman. Could this confirm that the True Blood star is in line for the role?

Stellan Skarsgård’s son sure fits the previously released casting description, and definitely looks the part:

Male MUST BE MID-LATE 20′S and SIX FEET OR TALLER. LEAD. Physically powerful, very handsome, occasionally egotistical, petulant, and wild. A natural warrior with a quick charming wit who must be genuinely and severely humbled before becoming the compassionate, mature hero of our film. (via: Corona)

Also, Skarsgård and Branagh have the same agency representation (Endeavor Agency). But bottom line is, it could just be one big coinicidence. But lets pretend for a second that Skarsgård is in line for the role, do you think he would make a good Thor? ......

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/03/09/could-alexander-skarsgard-be-marvels-thor/

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Brighter than sunshine by Aqualung

Brighter than sunshine by Aqualung LYRICS
Thanks so very much Lou...by Thellou

Charlaine leaks Season Two True Blood Premier date , is writing Sookie # 10 and talks Red Beans and Rice, Blogging and more

Charlaine posted on her blog this week and on her chat board some interesting tidbits. She is the first to leak the Season 2 premier date for True Blood ..so drum roll its..June 14th !

Straight from Duckpond herself:

The date for Season Two is definitely June 14th. I have that from Alan's assistant

Charlaine HarrisI don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but I also blog for my newsletter group, Femmes Fatales. (http://www.femmesfatalesauthors.com) I just posted a blog on that website, and I’m going to refer you to that blog.

Really, I haven’t done anything much this week. I’m working on Sookie 10, which so far remains unnamed. I’m editing stories as they come in for the next anthology Toni and I are putting together. I’m working every Wednesday in Lent at a soup luncheon, and I had to make six gallons of red beans & rice. It took hours. And hours. My sacrifice for Lent is working with other people, since it’s definitely an effort for me, even when I love the people. There’s a reason writers work by themselves.

You can read it all here :

http://www.charlaineharris.com/bb/bb_current.html

Books by Charlaine Harris - A Great Read Time and Time Again

This is true, but I find it puzzling that the two articles would both appear today

Books by Charlaine Harris - A Great Read Time and Time Again

There are not many books that I would read again (and again) because once you read it once you really are fulfilled by that so its time to move on, don't you agree?

My library is packed full of books that I've purchased over the years, the vast majority of which are read one time and then shelved to collect dust.

However when it comes to books by charlaine harris, well, that's a different story entirely. All of this novelists books on my shelves had not had time to collect dust as I can't help picking them up every few months for another read!
http://www.barnumproductions.com/

I'm Happy to Read Books by Charlaine Harris Over and Over

Its got to be said, I am not a fan of re-reading an already-read novel! Its a bit like watching a movie, you see it once then that one time is enough, really. Why labour it on for longer when the first view is enough

Well when it comes to books by charlaine harris this is very much the opposite! I'm happy to pick up the same book by this novelist time and time again until the cover and the pages are well and truly thumbed and rough at the edges!

If you have not picked up a book by this novelist then perhaps now is a good time to begin!

http://www.trepnetwork.com/arts/im-happy-to-read-books-by-charlaine-harris-o
ver-and-over

The Twitter craze and our exclusive interview with @SookieBonTemps: Tonight Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio

The Twitter craze and our exclusive interview with @SookieBonTemps: Loving True Blood in Dallas Blogtalk Radio show

TONIGHT : March 9, 2009 Monday 9pm central

You won't want to miss this interview with @SookieBonTemps who will be "lettin' down the ponytail" and talking about what it's really like to be a twitter star!

We will be broadcasting live from Sookie Stackhouse's kitchen table in Bon Temps Louisiana. "Dallas" from the blog Loving True Blood in Dallas talks to @SookieBonTemps both in and out of character!

We want your questions! You can call in (646) 929-0825 or you can post you questions here in the comment section. Please leave your wiki or other online name when you post your question because we are going to have a drawing for prizes.

To the grand prize winner, we will be giving away a Scrabble game! You folks that follow the True Blood twitters know all about that..*wink, wink* and a fantastic sheriff''s pin that we brought back from Louisiana!

We will also have some special guest's call- in, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc and Object Desire from the HBO True Blood FanWiki. Aria and NC just got back home after spending the weekend in Dallas and Louisiana and we'll talk to them about their impression, of spending Saturday in an around Bon Temps, in the not so fictional area of Northwestern Louisiana.

Chat room will open at 8:45 pm please come, chat and call- in with your questions and comments.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/True-Blood-in-Dallas

call in (646) 929-0825

In the Blood: Why do vampires still thrill?

Fascinating article on Vampires in literature in the New Yorker by Joan Acocella

“Unclean, unclean!” Mina Harker screams, gathering her bloodied nightgown around her. In Chapter 21 of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” Mina’s friend John Seward, a psychiatrist in Purfleet, near London, tells how he and a colleague, warned that Mina might be in danger, broke into her bedroom one night and found her kneeling on the edge of her bed. Bending over her was a tall figure, dressed in black. “His right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink.” Mina’s husband, Jonathan, hypnotized by the intruder, lay on the bed, unconscious, a few inches from the scene of his wife’s violation...
In the summer of 1816, Lord Byron, fleeing marital difficulties, was holed up in a villa on Lake Geneva. With him was his personal physician, John Polidori, and nearby, in another house, his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley; Shelley’s mistress, Mary Godwin; and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairmont, who was angling for Byron’s attention (with reason: she was pregnant by him). The weather that summer was cold and rainy. The friends spent hours in Byron’s drawing room, talking. One night, they read one another ghost stories, which were very popular at the time, and Byron suggested that they all write ghost stories of their own. Shelley and Clairmont produced nothing. Byron began a story and then laid it aside. But the remaining members of the summer party went to their desks and created the two most enduring figures of the modern horror genre. Mary Godwin, eighteen years old, began her novel “Frankenstein” (1818), and John Polidori, apparently following a sketch that Byron had written for his abandoned story, wrote “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819). In Polidori’s narrative, the undead villain is a proud, handsome aristocrat, fatal to women. (Some say that Polidori based the character on Byron.) He’s interested only in virgins; he sucks their necks; they die; he lives. The modern vampire was born.

Read on here

Maybe we like Chick Lit that ‘Sucks’

This blog really caught my eye because I spent part of the weekend driving around Northeastern Texas and Northwestern Louisiana with a bunch of Sookie fans and this exact comment about escapism, the bad economy, rough electoral season and real life mainstream pressure was sited as a reason to love Sookie books. I sure think Boston Belle is expressing what others think here ...

Chick Lit that ‘Sucks’…in the literal sense (warning: title does not imply what you are thinking, read on…) by Boston Belle

I’m 26 years old. I was once a member of a book club. And though I enjoyed the chit chat and monthly gatherings, I found myself unsatisfied by the selections that were continuously voted in month after month. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate good literature and should state for the record that if you haven’t read the ‘classics’ you should, but (big fat BUT) I successfully survived high school and college English courses, so I feel like I’ve earned the right to unapologetically read my self-proclaimed ‘chick lit’ with no shame or duress. And with that, I introduce you to my latest batch of excitement: Sookie Stackhouse series ‘Dead and Gone.”

I understand and acknowledge that some people find my choice in literature to be a bit weak. There are not heartfelt stories (okay the occasional heartstrings here and there), or life-changing memoirs. You get what you pay for, and I for one find my $7.99 paperback novel to be WELL worth it’s price tag. :) I live in reality. Every single day. I’m dealing with this shitty economy, a stressful job load, and other every day horrors you read in the daily newspaper. So why the hell would I want to curl up with a book that doesn’t in any way displace me from reality? Yes, I find it silly to indulge in a world where vampires and werewolves not only exist, but are battling a never-ending war to save (or in some cases, destroy) the world. But it’s fun! It’s lighthearted and I know that no way in hell will it ever in a million years happen in reality. And I take comfort in that. Because no matter how badly my day sucks, I’d imagine it doesn’t compare to being sucked dry by a hungry vampire. Needless to say, I am beyond excited about the announcement of the release of the 9th Sookie in May 2009. Bring on the steamy love scenes with hot 1,000 year old Viking Eric. :) (and for those of you who are fans of HBO’s Trueblood—I’d like to state for the record that I was on this boat long before it became a Sunday night favorite.

Read more by Belle and the other Southern Fried bloggers here :
http://southernfriedblog.wordpress.com/

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Sex on Fire by King of Leon

Sex on Fire by King of Leon LYRICS
thanks gollonge

Anna Paquin named as one of the Hottest On-Screen Comic Book Character from CBS sports ?

Following the success of Spider-Man in 2002, it was pretty obvious that fans of comic books were more than ready for their childhood heroes to appear on the silver screen.

Movies like X-Men, Iron Man and the newly released Watchmen, have millions of fan boys lining up for tickets and flooding internet message boards with "inside info" about the film.

At SPiN, we feel it's important to address the popularity of any such medium -- especially one with so many beautiful women.

Also being SPiN, it's important to address this month's biggest event. At CBSSports.com, home of March Madness, a bracket battle seems like a perfect match.

Therefore, we introduce Urbs' March Madness Bracket: Comic Book Hottie Edition.

In order to keep things from getting out of hand, we'll limit the field to eight.

Read on

http://www.cbssports.com/spin/story/11474692

Louisiana and our visit to Bon Temps was just wonderful !!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our day trip to North Western Louisiana. We visited many of the True Blood filming locations, some we had visited before and 3 new ones!

We went to the actual geographic location of Charlaine Harris's Bon Temps as well as the Alan Ball'S True Blood location...

If you follow me on Twitter, I am actually still there ( as "Dallas" role playing with the True Blood twitter gang) and staying at Sookie's house. When we got there late last night, we seemed to have disturbed Eric and Sookie's game of Scrabble. If you follow them on Twitter you know exactly what Scrabble is an euphemism for. :) When we felt like we were possibly disturbing them , we left and went to theBon Temp Sonic for milkshakes.

When we came back later, we were greeted by both Sookie and Eric. Eric was very gracious and even kissed us all on the cheek when we arrived. The ladies who accompanied me on the trip all swooned and vowed they would not wash that side of their faces in the morning.

We all spent the night @ SookieBonTemps house and the other girls headed back to Dallas this morning, I am staying to do some more interviews for the blog. We have more twitter goodies brewing, so stayed tuned to @trueblooddallas and @SookieBonTemps for more excitement.

Thanks (as always) to the wonderful ObjectDesire and our out-of-town guests this weekend
(who flew all the way in specially from North Carolina and Ohio) our friends from the HBO True Blood Fan Wiki, Arianwyn and Nocturnalnnc.

The weather was gorgeous, the company was so much fun and a great time was had by all...

More photos coming, as well as another one of Object Desire's hilarious road trip travelogues ...

If you don't twitter you need to ...I tweeted all along yesterday. You can set up a free twitter account here : http://twitter.com/

and find me here: http://twitter.com/trueblooddallas

(*note Sookie's house as it appears in True Blood is in California not in Bon Temps, LA but you can pretend ;D)

Louisiana Book News: Stackhouse releases paperback

Good new for Sookie Stackhouse lovers. The paperback version of From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris, the No. 8 book in the Southern Vampire Series and the literary origins of the HBO series True Blood, will be released in paperback at the end of March.
Advertisement

Hot on its tail will be the hardback release of Dead and Gone, the ninth book of the series.

From Dead to Worse finds Sookie back in Bon Temps, Louisiana, after the terrorized attack on a vampire convention. The small town has its own problems, however, with a political split in the werewolf pack of Shreveport, the Louisiana vampires regrouping after Hurricane Katrina devastated the queen's home in New Orleans and an old and beautiful fairy with streaks of the frightening visiting Sookie. Jason, Sookie's brother, is up to his usual irresponsible antics, Sookie's boss Sam shifts into something besides a dog this time and another witch joins Sookie's roommate to add to the mix.

If this all sounds convoluted, you haven't read a Sookie Stackhouse book. Harris throws at this poor telepathic girl every paranormal being in mythology and fiction, placing us in her shoes and being equally astonished at what she sees, yet provides us with good laughs and endless entertaining suspense.

http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20090308/LIFESTYLE/903080325

HBO releases wonderful True Blood set photos!

We need to look carefully into some of these...
I can also tell you I was at Bill's house( the real one) yesterday...

Sheriff Bud Dearborn William Sanderson, The Actor, The Legend

** note and the second season begins airing in June!!

Catching up with an old friend is a popular thing to do. Recently, I caught up with actor William Sanderson, whom I am not only friends with, but a huge fan of his great career. Sanderson is unlike most stars in Hollywood. He’s a well-read, highly educated man who chose a career in acting after filling his life and mind with education and many amazing life experiences. That’s what makes him one of the best actors of all time. He’s filled with rich life experiences which he’s able to convey in his many varied roles over a long and distinguished career. One that, after decades, shows no signs of slowing down at all

His wife Sharon seems to be a grounding force in his life, which is probably why Bill is able to go from one incredible run on a series, like he did recently on “Deadwood,” to an amazing turn of a totally different type of show and character, which he now plays on HBO’s “True Blood.” That’s right, the man now is part of a vampire television series and he’s winning over critics and fans all over again. He seems incapable of getting anything in his career wrong. The prolific actor is the most versatile actor today.It requires a performer of tremendous ability to make an indelible impression in a supporting role, but actor William Sanderson has made a career out of creating characters who are seared in memory. From hit sitcoms to the hottest dramas on HBO, his work spans a wide variety of genres and styles in which he renders his often simple-minded, small-town characters with precision.

Currently Sanderson can be seen as Sheriff Bud Dearborne on the award-winning HBO series “True Blood,” created by Alan Ball, a part which critics say he performs as a “master of understated comic delivery.” The show’s award-winning first season will be released on DVD in May, and the second season begins airing in June. The role follows his three seasons as the skittery hotel proprietor E.B. Farnum on HBO’s epic “Deadwood,” which saw him starring opposite Ian McShane. Later this spring, Sanderson will also guest star in the blockbuster series “Lost,” playing a Hunter S. Thompson-type character. He can also be seen in the recently released DVD of the Emmy-Award winning 1997 miniseries “George Wallace,” sharing the screen with no less than Gary Sinise and Angelina Jolie.

Read on Canyon News

The 2009 Vampire Film Series & Festival returns home. New Orleans - Autumn 2009

Home is Where the HEART Is... The 2009 Vampire Film Series & Festival

Welcome to the official site of Vampire Film Series & Festival, an international film festival dedicated to advancing the vampire film genre and vampire culture.

Vampire movies have been part of the movie going experience since the era of Nickelodeons and the earliest days of silent films. From Nosferatu to the current Twilight series, vampire movies have an enduring place in popular culture that is as timeless as the vampire itself.

Whether the allure for generations of movie goers with the vampire is based on the universal fear of death or a sexual fascination with these suave creatures of the night, the vampire continues to be a dominant character on both the small and large screen. Great vampire films are immortal and like the vampire itself, will never die.

Our first two festivals were in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, but now Vampire Film Festival returns home to New Orleans and takes place this autumn in the city most attached to the American vampire myth, New Orleans, Louisiana.

New Orleans and all those those who love this magnificent city have suffered greatly. The producers of Vampire Film Festival have made it our mission to help rebuild this magical city, educate the world about vampire culture and present a movie experience with a real bite.

http://www.vampirefilmfestival.com/Home.html

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Behind Blue Eyes by The Who

Behind blue eyes ( originally ) by The Who LYRICS

OK --correction: Oh goodness, you guys really keep me honest. Thanks Lou

OK, it's "Behind Blue Eyes" written by Pete Townshend of The Who for his Lifehouse project. It first appeared on The Who's 1971 Who's Next album.

This version is by the band Limp Bizkit."Behind Blue Eyes" is covered by Limp Bizkit on their album Results May Vary, released in 2003. The song was released for the film Gothika starring Halle Berry.

OK, here is live The Who in 1979- you tell me which is the best version!

You know you've watched too much True Blood when...

You start calling all your friends "hooker!" and go about wondering if so and so has a demon...

You sign up and post on a message board for the first time in your life just so you can communicate with other people who are as obsessed as you are. ( dedicated today to new friends)

...someone at work points out that you dropped some of your lunch on your sweater, you immediately breathe a sigh of relief that it's veggie soup and not vampire in your cleavage.

...you consider getting a Wii just to see if you can beat Bill's score.

Please post yours....