e-ARC giveaway on the Coffin Hop today!

Hey guys! If you're not following the Coffin Hop going on, you should be! There are awesome prizes on all the participating blogs!
As for me, I will be giving away an e-Arc of The Vigilantes, sequel to my first novel, The Superiors.

See the earlier post from Monday on how to win!!! Thanks and have fun Coffin Hopping!

Hallo-week Book Reviews! Salem's Lot, by Stephen King

Salem's Lot by Stephen King

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I picked up this book off my sister's floor after seeing it lying around for a couple weeks. I had stopped reading Stephen King after Cell, which I read after a long break from Mr. King. When I read Cell, I thought I'd finally outgrown my love of King-style horror, so it had been several years since I'd read anything 'scary.' But I had a free copy of Salem's Lot, one of King's classics that I'd never read. Plus, I'd just finished writing my own vampire series, so I thought I'd try reading a vamp classic.



Well. Turns out I am not too old for Stephen King. This book is the first, last, and only book I can ever remember giving me shivers. The kind where I have to then go check the doors and windows before I go to sleep. I've read tons of King's books, and maybe some scared me, but I don't remember any of them creeping me out this much. This book is just plain creepy.



Parts of it were a little dull and unneccessary, like when I had to read little sections about all the townsfolk who were only in a scene or two. A couple of these little scenes were a little creepy--the guy at the dump who shoots the rats, the woman who avenges her rapist husband--but mostly, I didn't care much about those. I guess some were added to up the creepy factor, like the rats. I know SK has a thing about rats--they are in so many of his books! Mostly, though, I just wanted to get on with the story of the few survivors banding together slowly to take care of the vamps as they took care of the town of Jerusalem's Lot.



The main characters were easy to relate to, especially the kid (isn't there always the kid hero in King's books--a great way to draw sympathy and give plausibility to the monsters) and I loved the old teacher Mr. Burke, and the doctor, and even Father Callahan, although he disappeared a little too quick. Guess I'll have to find him in The Dark Tower books.



I also liked how not everyone survived, and I liked how it followed Dracula pretty closely. It could have done without a few of the character sketches, I thought, but otherwise, a fantastically creepy book!



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Hallo-week Book Reviews: Carrie by Stephen King

Carrie by Stephen King

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I'm not sure why I haven't read this book before now. In high school I read tons of Stephen King, but for some reason I skipped over this one. Maybe because it was thin and I liked the big thousand-plus page books he wrote. I was finally inspired to read this book because I saw the movie, liked it, and wanted to see if the book was better.



For me, it was a good read. Some of the parts got a little tedius, but overall, it was a good book. A little immature in the King realm, but that's to be expected from his first book. Some of the characters could have been better developed, IMO, and some of the exciting parts were too slow. They would have been better if the action had been speeded up some. Such as the part about Carrie after the prom, which went on and on, and I really lost interest and drifted off to sleep a few times during those parts. I did like how the book showed how alienating it can be to be an outcast, and how that made Carrie at sort of hateful person on the inside despite her religious upbringing and her usual character for most of the book. But when she had the power to get back at everyone, all the years of being picked on boiled to the surface. I thought the book did a good job of showing how brutal girls can be, even more so than boys.



This book was pretty good, but far from my favorite King book. Recommended for King fans, since this is a classic and his first book--you sort of have to read it.



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Coffin Hop!

Hey guys! As some of you know, I've been invited to participate in the Halloween Coffin Hop for horror authors. If you'd like to check it out, you can win tons of free stuff, play games, find new authors, etc. Click on the coffin hop badge to the right to go to the Coffin Hop site.

Also, I am doing a giveaway as my part. I'm giving away an e-ARC of my upcoming book, The Vigilantes (sequel to The Superiors). If you want to win a copy, here's how.

Follow my blog (+1 entry)
Follow my Twitter @lenahillbrand (+1)
Like my FB page http://www.facebook.com/LenaHillbrand (+1)
Post on FB about this giveaway (+2)
Post a blog about this giveaway/the Coffin Hop (+2)

Just leave a comment here letting me know what you've done, with links to your FB or blog post.

Thanks and have fun coffin hopping!

Guest Author: Nancy Straight

Guest Post from Nancy Straight: Support Independent Authors

I’ve been an independent author for nearly 90 days now and have met some of the most amazing people of my life. Independent Authors are a breed all their own. I’ve worked in many industries, and rarely have I been humbled by my peers. As an independent author, I write for a selfish reason - because I love it. I didn’t know that there were thousands of people out there just like me! Each one of them more willing than the last to: offer advice, recommend other authors’ works, and engage with their fans.
These are the people that tell stories that make you laugh out loud, hours after your husband has fallen asleep. Stories that allow you to escape into worlds full of Vampires, Shape-shifters, Angels and creatures no one has even heard of. The same stories are able to drive us to the brink of hysterics when the heroine doesn’t fall for the right guy.
Traditional authors are great, publishing houses are necessary institutions, but over the years I’ve found fewer and fewer traditional authors whose work I felt passionate about reading. Independent authors’ work is different; it feels different to read. The amazing part is, every independent author is anxiously waiting to hear from you on Facebook, their blog, their website or in your reviews.
When you buy books from Independent Authors, and their work moves you – you can tell them. They want to hear from you. The stories I am able to read now, from other independent authors, have made me love reading again. So when you have a choice between that $17 book from a publishing house or a .99 cent story from an Indie – take a chance, I bet you’ll be surprised.
Links to my books
http://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Destiny-Series-ebook/dp/B003U2RUP8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319075880&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Destinys-Revenge-Destiny-Series-ebook/dp/B005FO28PG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319075880&sr=8-2
Facebook Author Page
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nancy-Straight/243616005687882?sk=wall
Good Reads Blog
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4114202.Nancy_Straight/blog
Twitter
@nancystraight

Review Wednesday: Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I read this book in honor of Halloween month...er, October, I guess it's called. I was hoping for a non-Stephen King horror book that might scare me. Unfortunately, this one did not.

I listened to this on audio, sometimes late at night when everyone had gone to bed. I even shut off the light and listened to it while I went to sleep a couple times. I really, really wanted to be scared. But I wasn't.

First off, the audio narrator supposedly won some awards, but I did not care for his reading style at all. It sounded like a robot was reading, which I got used to except for during the dialogue, where there was not a single voice inflection. It was so bad I started laughing when the people were supposed to be terrified. Maybe reading it, I would have been more scared, but I don't think I'll bother finding out.

Reading other reviews, I've seen a lot of people saying this book is bogus and all fake. It was in the non-fiction section of my library, and it does say several times that all the events were true. Maybe if I believed in that sort of thing, hauntings and paranormal activity, it might have frightened me. But I'm too pragmatic to take a book at its word, even if the author says its true. Which, to be fair, I do believe that he wrote down the stories that he heard. I'm not even saying the people who went through the experience made it all up. What I'm saying is, although it might have scared the crap out of the Lutz's, it did not scare me. Whether or not it is true or accurate, I don't really care. I wasn't doing research. I just wanted a book to give me the shivers. If you're looking for that kind of book, I suggest looking elsewhere, unless you are a big believer in ghosts and evil entities coming through the walls. Then this book might scare you.



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Movie Review: 127 Hours

I don't usually review movies (because I don't watch movies anymore) but I actually watched a movie last night and I swore I'd post more in October, so here goes. My very first movie review.

3.5/5 stars

It always amazes me when I hear about true-story survival movies like this. Not because of the story line—a guy gets trapped by a boulder for five days and chops off his arm to get out—but because they can make a two hour movie about a guy stuck under a boulder interesting enough to watch. I mean, I’m sure it’s one of the most horrible experiences a person can live through. But the very fact that it’s one guy stuck in one spot for the entire movie makes me wonder just what exactly they can do to keep me interested.

This movie was actually pretty interesting. They do give you about half an hour (my times are just estimates, I didn’t check the timer on my DVD player every time something happened—sorry, I’m not that big a movie critic) when he’s wandering around Canyonlands, meeting girls, biking, etc. Then he falls in the crevice and gets stuck.

And somehow, all that beginning stuff, which is probably supposed to keep the movie interesting, actually bored me a little. I kept thinking, when are we going to get to the good part where he’s stuck and has to survive?

It seemed a little unbelievable how calm the guy stayed once he got stuck. He’s basically like, oh crap. My arm is crushed under a giant boulder. Hm, what should I do? He never panics, or even seems to feel pain. I liked all his little video-diary entries, especially when he starts to get a little batty and interviews himself. Not the kind of movie you usually find yourself laughing at, this one actually had some funny moments.

I didn’t care for all the flashbacks—they seemed a little cheesy and some of them were confusing. Such as, I had no idea the little boy sitting there watching him chop off his arm was supposed to be a premonition. I thought it was him as a kid. So I’m glad the ending cleared that up. Overall, this was a pretty engaging movie with great scenery in parts that reminded me of my own trip to that area of Utah. So I did enjoy it.

And it didn’t hurt that I got to look at James Franco for 2 hours.