In other, other news:

• It's really really ridiculously snowy. If I had a nickel for every snowflake that fell in my eyes today... wait, that would hurt... and in nickels that wouldn't actually amount to much.
  
• This week I've been having a Jim Carrey movie marathon. He's just sooooo funny.
  
• I bought the fedora de awesome that we're going to put everyone's name in when the Fiercely Fawesome First Contest ends. *cough*youshouldenterifyouhaventalready*cough*
  
• Psht. Jacob? Please. I've resold my soul to Thaniel Fox.... and Seth... and Shevraeth... and Drizzt... I should just stop here. *sobs and wishes they were real... and points out that they pwn Jacob*
• Malice comes out in 2009! *shrieks fangirlishly, realizing that she's probably the only one who cares*

Speaking of which, what books of 2009 are earning your fangirlish shrieks? Or, you know, not... if you're the type that doesn't shriek... Aella, I know you must be looking forward to Envy and Death by Denim *winkwink*.

And I know Little Brother and Hero-Type are on the top of my list, but what were your favorite novels of 2008?

~Medeia~

I wanted to paper-cut myself with it until I BLED TO DEATH

So, Aella called me up the other day.

Aella: "Medeeeeeeeeiiiiiaaaaa. We got a book in the mail today and I don't have time to read it.... soooooo...."

Me: "Sure sure, I've got this one. What book is it?"

Aella: "Uhm, it's the fifth book in that Vampire Kisses series. [note: Here is where my natural mistrust of all vampire books kicked in. And also note the fact that it is the FIFTH book]"

Me: *looooooong sigh* "Does that mean I have to read the whole series first?"

Aella: "Well you don't have to."

Me: *thinking: it'sgoingtobeawfulit'sgoingtobeawfulit'sgoingtobeawful* "Okaaaaay"

And so the next day, at the library, I checked all of the books in that series out. I got home and started reading the first, Vampire Kisses.

W O R S T E V E R

The main character's this "Gothic"chick (yes, every time an instance where the word goth could be used, "Gothic" with a capital G is used) who is an outcast and no one understaaaands her *insert whiney teen stereotype here*. And this "Gothic girl" (not even Goth Girl, so I could be reminded of the awesome book by Barry Lyga) lives in "Dullsville" with her mother and father (former hippies) and her younger brother, "Nerd Boy". And somehow, though everyone hates her, the head jock keeps wanting to drag her off for make-out sessions. Oh what is poor Raven (named after the Poe poem, of course) to do?

Meet a "sexy Gothic guy", a "knight of night", a "Gothic Dream Mate" who also happens to be a vampire, evidently. And not only am I quoting from the book word for word, but everything in quotes is used a million times (the phrase "totally out of this world!" is used twice. On the same page.) Oh the redundancy.


And the best part? It was the wrong series. *slightly crazed giggle* Hehehe, there go several hours of my life I'll never get back.


Moral of the story: If you value your sanity, don't go near Vampire Kisses with a ten-foot cattle prod. Though, it is pretty hilarious. I was laughing at the awfulness when I didn't want to beat myself over the head with it.


Pulling Crown Duel, the Haunting of Alaizabel Cray, and Wicked Lovely off her bookshelves in the hopes that they will help her rehabilitate from the mental torture she has been subjected to,

Medeia

P.S. Aella: You. Owe. Me.

P.S.S. Oh and also, we don't have the series that I was supposed to be reading. Great.

P.S.S. No, I didn't make the second half of the post in a larger font on purpose. Blogger apparently loved Vampire Kisses and wants to punish me for slamming it. Well, you know what Blogger? *mutters stream of (thankfully) unintelligible suggestions*

aaaand we're back!

So, we've been gone from the good ol' Mael for a while now, and coming back has instilled me with a sense of nostalgia, but seems to have instilled in others a sense of frustration. One question we've been asked since we came back was from Cassandra who said in comments "eek! why do you guys keep switching blogs? *grumbles to self while changing bookmarks AGAIN* actually, that's a good question. why do you change blogs? isn't one just the same as the other? except, you know, the color scheme and stuff..." and I'm not sure if we've ever actually answered that question thoroughly. I mean, we know why we switched, but you might not.

We switched from the Maelstrom to Charybdis Reviewz because 1.) there were legal issues with us having the same name as a publishing company that impeded us from some of the things we plan on doing and 2.) because blogger was frustrating. It was hard to manipulate everything that we wanted and Wordpress offers some things that Blogger doesn't, like multiple pages for one blog (instead of multiple linked blogs) and more detailed statistics about which posts are popular, incoming links, etc.

We came back because 1.) the legal issues were cleared up and 2.) we just missed the Mael too much. We did enjoy our stay in the realm of Wordpress, but unlike on blogger, you have pay to change the HTML code and make other, more advanced, changes in the layout and this was something we had not anticipated. I'm not saying that Blogger is better than Wordpress or anything, only that the format of Blogger is better suited to our tastes.

Again, we apologize for switching blogs, but we do also hope that the opportunity to win some fawesome prizes makes up for any inconvenience.

As You Can Plainly See...

I've deleted everything irrelevant. I'll continue to do Links to the Art (among other brand new exciting things) on Charybdis Reviewz.

~Medeia Senka~

Link to the Arts #2 - D. M. Cornish

Yes, it is time again to delve into that strange and wondrous realm of the arts. This time I have chosen an illustrator of varied talents, for you see, D. M. Cornish illustrates his own books. You have heard of the Monster Blood Tattoo books, haven't you? (note: if you have not, I implore you to plunder the first, Foundling, from ye olde library).

D. M. Cornish is the father of a fantastic world called the Half-Continent, which is where the various adventurings in Foundling and Lamplighter take place. It is a world filled with monstrous beasts and the monstrous individuals who hunt them. They are frequently portrayed throughout the books in a splendid style which suggests that the images have been taken from the sketchbook of an observer. The illustrations are vital to the novels because they contain so many unique creatures. Though the descriptions of said creatures are excellent and would suffice alone, the opportunity to peek at what the author imagines exactly is a rare treat which I find quite enjoyable.

An online portfolio of D.M. Cornish's can be found here: http://www.daviddraws.com/
It contains a few of the Half-Continent beings that we have read about so far in the book, as well as many whose future roles I can only guess at (the green-skinned archer intrigues me greatly).

Also, this author/illustrator is a fellow blogger *cheers and applause*. His blog can be found here : http://monsterbloodtattoo.blogspot.com/



From the Shadows,

Link to the Arts #1- Mark Tucker

As a book reviewing site, we often (sometimes fangirlishly) applaud the various fantastic authors whose books we have the privilege of reading and reviewing. However, there are others that we never really acknowledge. We only mention their work in passing, though it is often their work that distinguishes one book from another on the long shelf of teen literature at the local bookstore. I am speaking of course, of the wonderful artists that create excellent and gorgeous covers for the books we all adore. As of late, I have been pondering this and come to a decision. When I see a particularly jump-out-and-grab-your-eyes-and-don't-let-go-until-the-work-has-been-shown-proper-respect kind of cover of a book that Aella or I review, I shall quest across the vast expanse that is the Internet and hopefully bring back some background and pictures of other works that that artist has brought into existence.

So for the first artist I have chosen Mark Tucker, the photographer for the US covers of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr.

Unfortunately, I could not get hold of Mr. Tucker to answer my questions (he's probably shooting another fawesome cover or something), but here's a little background info for you (note: The Wikipedia gods have granted me this knowledge)

"Mark Tucker is a commercial photographer based in Nashville, Tennesseewhose work has been featured in Communication Arts, Print, Photo Design, Photo Insider, and PhotoMarket magazines."

*sigh* Apparently he's one of those elusive types. Oh well, I suppose to make up for the lack of information I shall have to supply you with a link to all sorts of wonderful pictures. Mr. Tucker is really very talented and his work merits a look, I assure you.

Well, this was quite enjoyable. I shall to bring you another (hopefully more extensive) post like this as soon as my captors release me *glances shiftily at unfinished art project and half-written English paper*

From the Shadows,