Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read • Open to a random page • Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page • Be careful not to include spoilers (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) • Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
The Calling
by Kelley Armstrong #2 in the Darkness Rising series.
My Teaser:
"I lunged for thje dog's collar and, just then, I heard a gasp. Everyone was yelling and wind rushed through the half-open door and I shouldn't have heard anything. But I heard that gasp." (4%)
I hope this has teased you enough to go out and take a look at this great YA fantasy series!
I have also decided to film my Teaser Tuesday this week, let me know what you think!
Let me know in the comments below your Teaser Tuesday or a link to your post :)
On Wednesday I went to see Underworld: Awakening with my boyfriend at the cinema, and really enjoyed it so wanted to let you guys know why.
Summary courtesty of IMDB: "When human forces discover the existence of the Vampire and Lycan clans, a war to eradicate both species commences. The vampire warrioress Selene leads the battle against humankind."
I first learnt about and watched the Underworld films, which there are now four, through my friend Sam after I purchased them for him as a gift. I loved the different interpretation of vampirism and werewolf / lycans that these films portray. They are dark, and also quite sexy.
I was lucky enough to go see this at the Odeon cinema in Southampton that offered the IMAX 3D experience, which I thought was really good. The boyfriend feels that the 3D is a little unnecessary, yet I revelled in the audio that moves you in your seat, and the images that literally at times glitter. It really did add to the cinema experience, which I didn't really understand the hype about before. I would never enjoy that as much on y TV at home.
This is an action movie, it is violent, it is dark.I don't normally like this in a movie (Saw is my worst nightmare!) but I really liked it in this movie, as it works. It has a narrative, it is predictable in parts and surprises you in others which is a mix that I think is hard to achieve. It has been left wide open for another movie with a some big unanswered questions.
I talk more about the movie in this really short vlog:
After filming this video I did a quick search on other reviews. I mentioned in my last video how much I have spoilers and found some classic cases of careless reviewing. I found this one review that comes with a serious spoiler warning from me. But I wanted to include it as I thought the points it made were valid, and quite funny.
I give this movie 4/5 (it loses a mark for at times being quite scary!!)
I have been thinking about venturing into the world of vlogging for a while now. I use YouTube like TV whilst I am at university and have become particularly fond of some of my favourite beauty gurus vlogs of late.
I just didn't really know how this would tie into my love of reading, and this blog until I came across a vlog posted on Girl Who Reads. She was just talking about what she had been doing recently and what books she had been reading, and suddenly it clicked.
So I charged up my camera, and after just a few takes and some editing I had created my first book review vlog. I still have a long way to go in the quality of the filming, sound and content department, but I really hope I can use this as another tool to share my love of authors, books and reading.
Summary courtesy of Goodreads.com: Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father's record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.
My friend Laura raves about Murakami, her favourite author, and recommended that I took a look at some of his books. He is know for using a pinch of surrealism and fantasy in his novels, which sounds like something I would love to read. She lent me this book, which is the only one she had with her, with the warning it is a bit different to his other works, but still well worth a read.
It is a relatively small book, only 213 pages but is superbly written. The beauty is in the little details. This quote in particular I really liked:
"Her hand, which up till then had laid on the back of the sofa, she now placed on her knee. I stared vacantly at her fingers tracing the plaid pattern of her skirt. There was something mysterious about it, as if invisbly thread emanating from her fingertips spun together an entirely new concept of time." (pg: 15)
If I am honest, this isn't a book I would choose to read, but I am really grateful that I have had an introduction to a fantastic author. There is a lot of buzz about him online, and some of his other books sound a lot more my style.
I particularly enjoyed the participation with the audience
and I got some great answers to my questions about how to convert social media
sceptics. So I just thought I would do a quick summary post on what I learnt.
Social media is well social, and it is difficult to get technophobes
and sceptics to listen to the advantages of this fast moving and valuable tool to businesses. Here are some of the best tips I was given and how they can help individuals and businesses get the
most out of social media:
Know what is in it for youMake sure you understand what you niche is and research them online. Twitter has some great advanced search techniques, as well as Google so make use of them to really understand who your target market is, where they are talking and how to engage them. You don’t
need to replace traditional marketing techniques, but simply enhance them.
Followers on Twitter, likes on Facebook and views on YouTube all mean more
traffic to the your website.
Set out your objectives Setting up a twitter account is easy, but knowing why you are doing it and who
you are going to target is more difficult. Do you want to sell more products?
Do you want to build brand awareness? Or just see what other people are saying
about your brand? Make sure you know what you are saying, in what tone and to
who before you jump in and start randomly posting.
Know your stuff Almost anyone can set up and account on these sites, but running them can sometimes
be a little more complex. What might work best for Facebook, might not work on
Twitter so make sure you are educated on how to make the most out of these
sites. If you’re not sure, don’t post. There are a lot of people that are
professionals so turn to them for help.
Don’t be anonymousHaving a good profile on all social networking sites is important. A good profile
picture is essential so people can recognise you / your brand easily. A short
and snappy bio is also vital to let followers and friends know who you are and
what you are about quickly. It will help build your followers and make sure
potential followers can find you easily online.
Be authentic, be the expert, be funnyIts okay getting the followers but keeping them is another matter. It only
takes seconds to unlike something on Facebook, or unfollow on Twitter so make
sure every message counts. Be true to yourself, personal accounts always get more
followers than business style pages. Be the expert in your field, if you cannot
write original content RT or post other peoples – just make sure you give the
credit where it is due. Most importantly keep the tone light! No one wants serious
tweets all the time, so if you find something funny or cute share it!
Want to know more?:
Sue Llewellyn - Social media trainer and Twitter wizz!
RTS Southern - Good Facebook page, better website.
Me - Follower my Twitter to get more related stories by me and other people.
It seems that follow up television adverts are a real trend
right now. In my last post I spoke about the new Lynx Effect advert ‘My AngelGirlfriend’ and how much I loved their new humours advert.
Yeo Valley Organic has also got a really good follow up advertisement to their Yeo Valley Rap also played in the advertising break of the X Factor featuring their band The Churned singing ‘Forever’.
I really love the way they draw on the conventions of boy
bands, and their pop music videos in such a way it’s almost a parody of the
whole X Factor concept. The song is even downloadable with an online campaign to
beat the X Factor winner-to-be Christmas No. 1!
The television ad prompts us to go and look at the YeoValley Facebook page and sing along to appear in the ad break of the final of
the show. The Sing Star style app asks fans to 'Sing in Harmony' to the advert into their webcams
to hit the right notes and achieve high scores. You can compare top scores with
the rest of the UK and your friends on Facebook in a nice interactive package.
I also love the customization on their YouTube channel with even the the
Yeo Valley logo being adapted to mirror/parody the YouTube logo.
Overall this is a really creative integrated marketing
campaign that has got people talking!
I am really enjoying the creative approaches being used to grabbing consumer’s
attention at the moment particularly with mass consumables. I just dread to think how much this cost for a 2 min advert at peek time!
As promised here is my top 3 make-up gurus I watch on YouTube.
I can spend hours watching these 3 everyday and I hope you will enjoy reading about them.
Follow the links underneath each of these to go to their YouTube channels and blogs.
1. Kandee Johnson. Professional make-up artist and devoted mum of 4 turned to YouTube as entertainment, and has now turned into a sort of career!! Her two channels on YouTube as well as here two blogs keep me coming back daily for my Kandee fix!! She is simply the happiest person I have ever seen, and her infectious smile and love are real motivators for me. I love her look-a-like style videos and make-up tips are also really interesting to watch, alongside her personal channels everyday updates on her beautiful new baby. I would really recommend viewing just a couple of her videos just for your personal and mental health, as she is sooo happy all the time!
2. PixiwooIt gets more difficult to choose after number 1. I regularly watch around 10 gurus and catch up on others from time to time and it’s really difficult to choose. But my second favourite has to be Pixiwoo. The British sisters Sam and Nic are really charismatic and will stop at nothing to provide brilliantly inspired make-up looks and tutorials. I love their dedication to the videos and love all there updates. They seem very knowledgeable and inspiring.
3.Michelle PhanMichelle was the first guru I ever watched on YouTube and I have loyally watched every video she has created since. I do prefer the older style of bedroom videos with simple make-up looks over the new collaboration styles but all her updates are fun to watch. She stands out from the crowd with her expertly filmed and edited videos that are like little movies rather than self filmed tutorials. However she has slipped down to third on my list as I feel that she does not update as often as some other gurus and lacks the personal touch I love with vlogging that sometime accompanies other gurus.
by Kelley Armstrong #2 in the Darkness Rising series.
