Mardi Gras!

Last Saturday I went to a Bal Masque Mardi Gras party with some of my friends...we all clean up pretty nice!

It was the Bal Masque for the Mystic Krewe of the Druids and this was the outgoing Druid Queen. All my pictures of the Druid King turned out really fuzzy, it was so dark in the theater.

This towering bee was the headliner of one of the acts. I have video which I am currently trying to upload.

This was the first Mardi Gras party I've ever been to and I will definitely go back if I get the invite! I had a great time and it was not too far from home. I stayed at the hotel with my friends so, other than my ticket in, it was a fairly inexpensive evening. I didn't even suffer too much the next day though I was tired.

One of my favorite acts of the evening (I was too tipsy by then to think of getting video) was a tableau in which a gentleman in poncho and sombrero is sitting at the foot of a cactus, his faithful burro grazing nearby. In a nearby cafe, a beautiful senorita is fanning herself. Suddenly, the burro stands up and breaks into song to the tune of Age of Aquarius. Instead, the chorus is Age of the Hairy Ass and it had funny lyrics to go along with it. For the rest of the evening, the joke of the moment had a Hairy Ass somewhere in it, rest assured :) It was SO funny, I just WISH I could remember some of the lyrics!

Kat Von D book signing

I imagine this was more tattooed people than Barnes & Noble had ever seen congregated within their store...they had us snaking in lines throughout the store. I had an E on my armband so it took awhile, but I was patient (and I shopped)!

As you can see, she shook hands with this person and with everyone who stepped up to the table. Of course, you had to have an armband and to get an armband you had to have or buy a book :) smart marketing there... You can also see the 6 inch platform heels. My feet hurt just looking at them!

I didn't have anyone in line with me and Katie and I lost touch while I was in line so this is me taking a picture of Kat Von D signing my book. Right before she looked up to shake hands and take my book, I set my shopping basket on the floor and shoved it ahead of me. She got concerned that she'd knocked something over and I could feel my face blush when I, in my best and unavoidable Southern manner said, "No ma'am, that was my shopping basket." Those were the only words I spoke to Kat Von D other than to say thank you.

I did not see Nikki Sixx anywhere in the store :)

things I do to pass the time

1. visit the Hero Factory!

2. Make my hero.

3. Laugh.

Here's mine! (Hey T, we can stick her in the backseat with the cowboy!)

Hand of Isis by Jo Graham

Jo Graham is now on my list of favorite authors!  I found out about her first novel, Black Ships, at a luncheon for the U.S. launch of Orbit (the largest publisher of scifi/fant in the U.K.) when I was in Boston for a library conference a couple of years ago.  Black Ships is a retelling of the Aeneid.  The narrator of the story, Gull, is a young girl raised as a disciple of the Lady of the Dead.  Her gift for prophecy ensures her destiny as a counselor to kings.  I especially loved the mysticism of the story and her newest book, Hand of Isis, has that same mystical quality on set in Egypt.

In Hand of Isis, 

Graham tells the story of the great female Pharaoh Cleopatra as

seen through the eyes of her half-sister and handmaiden, Charmian.  This book is just gorgeous!  The descriptions of Alexandria and other areas of Egypt make it seem like Graham hopped in her time machine to do the research for this book.  Everything was so immediate and  of clarity I haven’t read in 

some time.  There are many characters with names unfamiliar to 

this western tongue and mind but I had only a little trouble keeping up with the cast.  There are Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Britons, and Jews among the main characters with tales of Alexander the Great, Moses, Julius Caesar, Horus, Isis, and Osiris sprinkled in for good measure.  If you’ve studied this part of history at all, you will not be surprised by the ending but by telling the story from the point of view of one her handmaidens, Graham avoids having to end the story there.  Several religions make their presences known and it was eye-opening to say the least.  I am now encouraged to further study, though I’m not quite sure where I’ll be able to fit that in J

Romance, intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, joy, and sacrifice interweave to make one hell of a story! This book will be available March 23, 2009!

High Voltage Tattoo by Kat Von D

Yay, yay, yay!  I loved High Voltage Tattoo!  I guess I am biased as I am a tattoo afficionado and love Kat Von D's show, LA Ink, but I liked this book as a reader as well.  The writing is raw, unpolished, and honest and Kat Von D has a great life story as well.  

Katherine Von Drachenberg was born March 8, 1982 in Nuevo Leon, Mexico,  and had a fairly amazing upbringing.  She and her siblings were brought up with a love of music and classically trained on a number of instruments.  Kat Von D still loves to play the piano (I believe I have talked the Book Diva into teaching me in exchange for my lasagna!). Her teenage years are where she began to really change and it was brought on, as usual, by the love of a bad boy :) I think we can all pretty much sympathize there! Her first tattoo was a momento of that relationship and she still has it and has no plans to cover it.  She left home very early, dropping out of school to do so and the tattoo shop timeline from then to now is best gotten from her book.  I would do it no justice here.  There are great quotes on art and inspiration throughout and some AbSoLuTeLy FaNtAsTiC tattooes and tattoo art as well as a fascinating look into the heavy hitters of the tattoo world.  I should only be so lucky...

I was jonesing for another tattoo anyway but now I don't know if I'll even be able to wait until the library conference in Chicago to get another (I like to get them while I attend conferences in other cities).  If I had any money right now, I'd go spend it on a tattoo.  I have a few things in my head that won't go away and I always research those for future tattooes.

Even more exciting was that she did a booksigning here in Birmingham last weekend so I got my copy autographed by the grand lady herself!  She seems nice on the show, sounded even nicer in her book, and my impression was not changed by the casual meeting.  She stood to shake hands with and greet every person who brought their book to be signed.  She made eye contact and smiled genuinely as far as I could tell.  I choose to believe that she did at any rate.  She is SO TINY in person....a little fey creature in leather and 6 inch platform heels :)

I have pictures but I'm petsitting right now so I'll get them uploaded this weekend when I go home.

Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

As I mentioned earlier, the Harper Hall trilogy of Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels is one of my absolute favorites.  Dragonsinger takes up Menolly's story after she travels to the Harper Hall to begin her training as a Harper.  She has teachers she likes and teachers she hates, much like any school girl, but she can now make use of her musical gifts unlike when she was severely punished for doing so in her Sea Hold.  

I love to struggle with her through making friends in the hall, dealing with spiteful girls who are jealous of her talent, and her travails in finding her place in a craft she had thought denied to her for so long.

Her earliest friend in the Harper Craft Hall is a young boy named Piemur, apprenticed to the voice Master of the Hall due to his unparalleled singing ability.  Her worst enemy is a young lady named Pona, one of the paying students of the hall and a spiteful child who hates Menolly not only for her talent but also for her higher rank as daughter of a Sea Holder.  As she navigates the unfamiliar social mazes of life in the Harper Hall, Menolly comes to realize her own strength and selfworth.  I could go on and on but I will leave it at that, since the end of the trilogy is coming up with Dragondrums.  I'm almost finished with it :)

I'll say again that this is a great coming-of-age story that I enjoyed as a young adult and continue to enjoy today. 

To Seduce a Texan by Georgina Gentry

First off, I have to apologize to all Ms. Gentry's fans throughout the world.

Second, I thought this was one of the worst romance novels of my reading career.  I just couldn't get the honorable Confederate soldier bit.  If you feel so bad about the orders to kill innocent black people, why are you in the Confederate army?  

Also, I came across this in a discussion forum on plus-size heroines.  To me, a plus size heroine does not spend 95% of the book telling herself how worthless and repulsive she is.

So, some "honorable Confederate soldiers" disobey direct orders to murder a military unit of black soldiers who'd surrendered.  Their commander demands $50,000 (the Confederate army is broke after all) or they'll be court marshalled.  So they've travelled out West to rob a bank to get the money.  Unfortunately, the town they've chosen recently built a Union fort nearby and the town is overrun with Union soldiers.  They decide to kidnap the banker's stepdaughter, whom the banker is not sad to see go.  The soldiers find themselves saddled with a helpless young lady who can do nothing for herself.  The banker is delighted that his stepdaughter, who was set to inherit the bank on her birthday, is out of the picture.  Love ensues.  Lies threaten.  Affection prevales.  You get the picture. 

I was not convinced.  The Waco's hokey, fake Texan dialect (yes, his nickname is Waco because that's where his ranch is), Rosemary's constant laments about how worthless and repulsive she is, and a host of other weak plot points just withered any interest I had in the book.  I skimmed to the end just to make sure there were no surprises.  All romance has a reader, else Harlequin would not still be doing business, but this title was not for me.

and my next hit isn't too far off :-)

82%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

How addicted are you?

I covet the Slanket!

...and there is a giveaway over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? if you'd like to participate too!

Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

I've read many books in McCaffrey's legendary Dragons of Pern novels, though none of the more recent that she has been writing with her son or the Acorna books I'm sad to say.  Out of all the one's I've read, the Harper Hall Trilogy is my absolute favorite.  These people are like family to me and I read and listen to the audiobook of this trilogy AT LEAST once every year...I like it that much!

Dragonsong is the first in the trilogy and introduces most of the cast of characters that you will come to love in the next two novels, Dragonsinger and Dragondrums (which of course I'm listening to now and you will get here in coming weeks!).

*Note-my spelling may be off from time to time, please forgive me*

Menolly, at 15, is the youngest daughter of the Sea Holder of Half Circle Sea Hold and the only one truly unhappy to be there.  Gifted musically, she spends her days tending to the sea hold's elderly Harper, Petterin.  I guess I should back up and say that the Harper craft is one of the most venerable on Pern.  Also, They are the teachers, singers, and keepers of history for the planet pretty much.  After Petterin passes away, Menolly has no support of her musical gifts at all and is persecuted for them in fact.  Her father believes that girls cannot be Harpers and that Menolly's music is simple tuning and twiddles.  

Another bit of background for those new to the series.  The Pernese people have bred a race of dragons to fight the menace of Thread, spor-like thingies thrown down on Pern when the Red Star passes close enough.  Thread dissolve/eat anything organic and you can imagine the havoc that causes I'm sure.

I won't describe every single thing that goes on because that would not be fair to new readers but suffice it to say that Menolly decides that death would be preferable to living without music and she decides to live Holdless.  She gets unexpected help from an indigenous species of the planet that had long passed into mythical status.  She learns to live on her own, gets to play her music, and has friends galore in her cave by the sea.  It is only when she is rescued from Threadfall and taken to the local dragon weir that her life truly begins to change for the better.

I have not done a credible job at all of conveying how lovely these books are but I hope you are intrigued nonetheless!