Teaser Tuesday!

My teaser comes from:  The Ways of Khrem by D. Nathan Hilliard

"The watchmen's coach waited outside my front gate, the embodiment of everything I spent my life trying to avoid."  page 18 (Chapter 2)

(Cover info:)

The Ways of Khrem, D. Nathan Hilliard's debut single-author collection, features three interconnected movellas:

The Reach of Talanturos

The Cistern

The Ghost of Candlewalk Lane

Cargill the Bookseller lives a quiet life, in a modest house, overlooking the vast city of Khrem...a magical metropolis of cavernous treets, lofty spires, and dark secrets.  His life is turned upside down when Captain Wilhelm Drayton of the City Watch arrives at Cargill's doorstep and confronts him with his criminal past. Now Cargill must assist the Captain in solving mysteries in a city where the villain may not even be human, bringing all of his skills to bear as he finds himself at odds with gods, monsters, and  psychopaths alike.

My Mailbox is overflowing!

I have had a book buying binge week!  I won some books on blogs, my friend Kathy gave me a book, I ordered books from the Scholastic book orders, amazon, and I shopped the book fair at the school!  Wow - toooooooo many books - my TBR just exploded!  My son just started reading the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan and we only had the first two books - so....off to Amazon.com and get the last 10 in that series.  They arrived yesterday!  I will list the books and where they came from - I am skipping the pics this week.  My boyfriend sometimes reads my blog and there is no sense in adding fuel to the fire by adding a visual!!!

Won on blogs:  Thanks so much to the bloggers who have hosted the contests/giveaways and for the great books that I have received!!!

Hannah by Hannah Westberg - won from Kari at A Good Addiction

    Won at O.W.L. 

Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School: We are the Children by Andrew Clements

Nightmare at the Bookfair by Dan Gutman

Brixton Brothers: The Case of the Case of Mistaken Identity by Mac Barnett

Amelia Rules: The Tweenage Guide to NOT Being Unpopular by Jimmy Gownley

Spaceheadz by Jon Scieszka

Lesley Hauge sent me her book (won at Icy Books): Nomansland

Gift from Kathy:  

Never After (four stories: Laurell K. Hamilton, Yasmine Galenorn, Marjorie M. Liu, and Sharon Shinn)

From Amazon:

Alpha by Rachel Vincent

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love by Larry Levin

From book orders:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wolven by Di Toft

Waggit's Tale by Peter How

The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld

The Girl Who Survived by Bronia Brandman and Carol Bierman

Don't Judge a Girl by Her Cover by Ally Carter

Battle Heroes by Allen Zullo

Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson

The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O'Roark Dowell

Mudshark by Gary Paulsen

I Survived by Lauren Tarshis

Return of the Homework Machine by Dan Gutman

The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Sabotaged: Missing Book 3 by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Amulet #3: The Cloud Searchers by Kazu Kibuishi

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins

Bone: Tall Tales by Jeff Smith

Lost in the Labyrinth by L.A. Peacock

Clementine, Friend of the Week by Sara Pennypacker

From the book fair:

Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick

Candle Man: Book One by Glenn Dakin

Framed by Gordon Korman

Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink

Eon by Alison Goodman

Wereling by Steve Feasey

Vampire High by Douglas Rees

Dark Fire by Chris D'Lacey

Seekers #4: The Last Wilderness by Erin Hunter

Lockdown: Escape from the Furnace by Alexander Gordon Smith

Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee

Kandide: The Secret of the Mists by Diana S Zimmerman

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby

Trance by Linda Gerber

Dark Life by Kat Falls

I love Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite holiday!  I know that most people would choose Christmas or maybe even Thanksgiving, but for me....it's all about Halloween!  

I don't know when it started, but it's been that way as long as I can remember!  I have about 10 rubbermaid totes that are filled with decorations!  I usually started getting ready the first week in October so I can get the whole house decorated in a week or so.  I decorate EVERY room in my house for the event!  I usually theme each room: ghosts and witches in the kitchen, pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in the bathrooms, skeletons, mummies, and vampires in the living room.  From there the themes spread out to general creepiness and Halloween ideas.  I have rolls of scene-setters that I put up on the walls to make the rooms look like castles and dungeons and such.  I cover all the windows in the front of my house with enormous black spider webs and giant spiders.  I live in the country now and so I don't get trick-or-treaters anymore, but I still have bins of candy laid out all over (although I have realized that the window ledges are now place for chocolate! Way too soft by the afternoons).  I have Halloween dishes, serving dishes, and both stemware and glassware!  I even put out some glow-in-the-dark plastic flatware shaped like skeletons and ghosts!  

I have a collection of Halloween clothes and dress in them for the week before Halloween and then I dress up as a witch every year (on the Friday before Halloween at school if the holiday falls on a weekend) and go out on the town!  

My favorite Halloween read is:

Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman and S. D. Schindler

It has been a favorite of mine for years so of course my kids love it too!  When I was going to school in Winona, one of my assignments in my Children's Lit. class was to choose a story and do a read-aloud to a kindergarten class.  Since it was October, I chose Big Pumpkin!  I made a storyboard story out of it - I used a tri-fold presentation board for the setting and then made all the characters from the book out of craft foam.  My kids and I made a tape of us reading the story so I could play it while I "acted" out the story on the board.  It was amazing!  We all chose different characters and did the voices!  I dressed up as the witch to tell the story and was great! The little students loved it!  If you have never read this story, go check it out!

I am guest posting on two blogs - Scarrlet Reader and The Book Rat

The contest rules for those are:

1. You must be a follower of both the host blog and The Wormhole.

2. You must be at least 13 years old.

3. You must come HERE and post a comment with a valid email address to enter.

4. May only enter once - multiple entries will be discarded.

***contest ends 10/31/10 (noon - central time) - winner announced and notified by 11/5/10***


The prize? There will be one winner for each of the guest blogs - the winner will receive either a Halloween gift basket or a Halloween book sent from The Book Depository.

Halloween Giveaway!

 Halloween Gift Basket!  

It's a Halloween goodie basket! Witch broom pen, Halloween pencil, three large Halloween erasers, 2 rubber ducks (dracula and a mummy), an eyeball ball, a stretchy skeleton, 2 eyeballs, a large bat sponge, a skull and crossbones jewel iron-on, and a great Halloween basket!  I will also be adding a Halloween bookmark!

(for followers who are international - the prize will be any book (up to $10.00) from The Book Depository - they must ship to you for you to win).

Rules:

1. Must be at least 13 years old.

2. Must be a follower of The Wormhole.

3. Must fill out the form below to enter. 

Comments are awesome, but won't count as entries.

4. May only enter once - multiple entries will be discarded.

***contest ends 10/31/10 (noon - central time) - winner announced and notified by 11/5/10***

I am also guest posting for:

 Caitlin at The Scarrlet Reader Blog so please stop by her blog and check out her great Halloween event!

and

Helluva Halloween hosted by Misty!  Swing by her event too!

Coming soon...

Halloween guest post information!

Review of Minder by Kate Kaynak --- WOW, AMAZING story!!!

Halloween contest information!

(as it is currently the middle of the night and I am super tired - I will post this little shortie note to let you all know what I have in store for you in the next couple days!

STAY TUNED!!!

Waiting on Wednesday!

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine that spotlights eagerly awaited upcoming releases.

I just have to post this once and say - although I am waiting for books to arrive and I have a bundle + a ton of books on both my TBR and my wish list....

I am waiting on NOTHING today!

Wow! That was freeing!!! I have been waiting for so many books and now I am in possession of three of my "really, really, really waiting fors"

Blameless by Gail Carriger

Bayou Moon (The Edge Book 2) by Ilona Andrews

Alpha by Rachel Vincent

Could a girl get luckier???

Okay - I have to go with "NO WAY" for that answer!

What are you waiting for? Or are you taking a break from waiting and have immersed yourself in your own "Drop Everything and Read" and if so what is it?