Patricia Briggs
Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, Book 2 - Paperback)
Hachette Livre Orbit (AU: October 2008)
Buy
Mechanic Mercy Thompson is woken at 3am by a vampire calling in a favour. He has to deliver a message to a fellow undead and needs a witness that won't be noticed - and Mercy's shapeshifting abilities make her the perfect candidate. But the assignment turns into a bloodbath and Mercy attracts the attention of not just a powerful vampire, but the even more powerful demon possessing him. She can count on the supernatural community for protection - and alpha werewolf Adam would like her to rely on him in other ways too - but when it comes to being proactive, she's on her own.

Patricia Briggs
Iron Kissed (Mercy Thompson, Book 3 - Paperback)
Hachette Livre Orbit (AU: October 2008)
Buy
Mercy Thompson enjoys life as a mechanic, but life is never simple given her increasing closeness to the local werewolf pack, and her ability to change into coyote form at will. And when a member of the fae community calls in a favour, needing her skills for a covert murder investigation, she jumps into the hunt. But the dangers multiply and she clashes with shadowed creatures of great power. When her old boss Zee is charged with a brutal assassination, Mercy find herself fighting alone. There are those who love her, who would keep her safe, but she is wary and holds her freedom precious. Until, that is, she has nothing left to lose but her life...

Rachel Caine
Chill Factor (Weather Warden, Book 3 - Paperback)
Allison & Busby (UK: 1st October 2008)
Buy
Living, dead or Djinn, Joanne Baldwin just can't stay out of trouble. Now she's on a time-sensitive mission to Las Vegas to retrieve the world's most important Djinn from the world's most dangerous teenager...and she's doing it alone. That's bad enough, but having to deal with a past that's determined to buy her, and suffering from serious wardrobe shortages...Well, that's over the line. One thing's for certain, Joanne is gambling everything this time.

Heather Graham
Deadly Night (Flynn Brothers, Book 1 - Mass Market Paperback)
Harlequin MIRA (US: 1st October 2008)
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The Flynn brothers have inherited more than a New Orleans plantation. They've inherited a ghostly presence...and a long-kept secret. Aidan Flynn, a private investigator and eldest of the Flynn brothers, scoffs at the haunted-house rumours - especially since Kendall Montgomery, a tarot card reader who has been living in the mansion, is the one to tell him the tale of a woman in white. But when he finds a human bone on the grounds and another by the river, Aidan delves into the dark history of the Flynn plantation. Forced together to uncover the truth, Aidan and Kendall realise that a serial killer whose victims seem to vanish into thin air has long been at work...and that their own fates are about to be sealed forever unless they believe in the unbelievable.

Maggie Stiefvater
Lament (Trade Paperback)
Flux (US: 1st October 2008)
Buy
Sixteen-year-old Deirdre Monaghan is a painfully shy but prodigiously gifted musician. She's about to find out she's also a cloverhand - one who can see faeries. Deirdre finds herself infatuated with a mysterious boy who enters her ordinary suburban life, seemingly out of thin air. Trouble is, the enigmatic and gorgeous Luke turns out to be a gallowglass - a soulless faerie assassin. An equally hunky - and equally dangerous - dark faerie soldier named Aodhan is also stalking Deirdre. Sworn enemies, Luke and Aodhan each have a deadly assignment from the Faerie Queen. Namely, kill Deirdre before her music captures the attention of the Fae and threatens the Queen's sovereignty. Caught in the crossfire with Deirdre is James, her wisecracking but loyal best friend. Deirdre had been wishing her life weren't so dull, but getting trapped in the middle of a centuries-old faerie war isn't exactly what she had in mind...

Anya Bast
The Chosen Sin (Trade Paperback)
Penguin Berkley (US: 7th October 2008)
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The Chosen are vampires fighting for their very existence. It is Daria Morris's destiny to become one of them...Daria is a special forces agent with one obsession: to wreak vengeance on the vampire who nearly destroyed her. But to succeed, she must become something she detests: a vampire. Her fate rests upon Alejandro Martinez, a sexy vampire with whom she once shared an unforgettable night of scorching passion. Now, while Daria struggles against her newfound bloodlust, the two must slip into the shadows to bring a monster to justice - even as their desire threatens to consume them...

Charlaine Harris
An Ice Cold Grave (Harper Connelly, Book 3 - Mass Market Paperback)
Penguin Berkley (US: 7th October 2008); Orion Gollancz (UK: 9th October 2008)
Buy
Harper Connelly was struck by lightning as a teenager, and now she can find the dead. In her third case, Harper and Tolliver, her stepbrother, are hired to find a missing grandson. But the truth is far worse than a single dead child, for numerous teenage boys, all unlikely runaways, have disappeared from Doraville, North Carolina. Harper soon finds the eight bodies, buried in the half-frozen ground, but then, still reeling from coming into contact with her first serial killer, she is attacked and injured. Now she and Tolliver have no choice but to stay in Doraville while she recovers, and as she reluctantly becomes part of the investigation, she learns more than she cares to about the dark mysteries and long-hidden secrets of the town: knowledge that makes her the most likely person to be next to end up in an ice-cold grave.

Charlaine Harris & Toni L. P. Kelner (eds.)
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe (Hardcover)
Penguin Ace (US: 7th October 2008)
Buy
The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone. They are particularly hard for lycanthropes. Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner have harvested the scariest, funniest and saddest werewolf tales by an outstanding pack of authors, best read by the light of a full moon with a silver bullet close at hand.

J. R. Ward
The Blood Dagger Brotherhood: An Insider's Guide (Paperback)
Penguin NAL (US: 7th October 2008); Hachette Piatkus (UK: 9th October 2008)
Buy
This is a book no Black Dagger Brotherhood fan should miss - an insider's guide that will seduce readers as powerfully as the sexy band of Brothers and the world they live in. And also included is an original short story about stars Zsadist and Bella! This comprehensive guide features insider information on the Brotherhood, their dossiers, stats, and special gifts. Readers will savour interviews with their favourite characters, deleted scenes, exciting material from the J. R. Ward message board and the answers to their burning questions. They'll learn what it's like for J. R. Ward to write each installment of the series, and in a fascinating twist, read an interview with the author - conducted by the Brothers. Plus readers will get a sneak peek at the much anticipated next book in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Avenged.

Kevin Anderson (ed.)
Blood Lite: An Anthology of Humorous Horror Stories Presented by the Horror Writers Association (Trade Paperback)
Simon & Schuster Pocket (US: 21st October 2008)
Buy
Charlaine Harris reveals the dark side of going green, when a quartet of die-hard environmentalists hosts a fundraiser with a gory twist in "An Evening with Al Gore"...In an all-new Dresden Files story from Jim Butcher, when it comes to tracking deadly paranormal doings, there's no such thing as a "Day Off" for the Chicago PD's wizard detective, Harry Dresden...Sherrilyn Kenyon turns a cubicle-dwelling MBA with no life into a demon-fighting seraph with one hell of an afterlife in "Where Angels Fear to Tread"...Celebrity necromancer Jaime Vegas is headlining a sold-out séance tour, but behind the scenes, a disgruntled ghost has a bone to pick, in Kelley Armstrong's "The Ungrateful Dead." Plus tales guaranteed to get under your skin - in a good way - from Janet Berliner, Don D'Ammassa, Nancy Holder, Nancy Kilpatrick, J. A. Konrath and F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale, Will Ludwigsen, Sharyn McCrumb, Mark Onspaugh, Mike Resnick, Steven Savile, D. L. Snell, Eric James Stone, Jeff Strand, Lucien Soulban, Matt Venne, Christopher Welch.

Kelley Armstrong
Living with the Dead (Women of the Otherworld, Book 9 - Hardcover)
Random House Spectra (US: 21st October 2008)
Buy
Robyn Peltier moved to Los Angeles after her young husband's sudden death, trying to put some distance between herself and her memories. Though she's still grieving, the challenges of her new life as the PR consultant to Portia Kane - the world's most famous celebutante wannabe - can sometimes be amusing, even distracting. But when her client is gunned down in the back room of a nightclub, Robyn is suddenly on the run as the prime suspect in the murder. And as more bodies pile up around her, it seems like only Hope Adams, Robyn's best friend, and Hope's somewhat spooky boyfriend Karl are on Robyn's side. Hope Adams follows the kinds of stories whose headlines scream from supermarket checkout lines. But the difference is that Hope's stories are even weirder - and they're all true. Though determined to help Robyn, Hope knows it's only a matter of time before her friend is caught. But it's not the police Hope is worried about. For Robyn has gotten herself in the middle of a turf war between two powerful Otherworld cabals who'll spill any amount of blood - human and inhuman - to protect what they consider theirs for all eternity. And the only way Hope can keep her friend alive is by letting her enter a world she's safer knowing nothing about.

Scott Westerfeld
Bogus to Bubbly: An Insider's Guide to the World of Uglies (Trade Paperback)
Simon & Schuster Pulse (US: 21st October 2008)
Buy
The world of Uglies, set in our not-so-distant future, is a complex place filled with bubbly technology and lingo, yet bogus rules about status and appearance. That's why a guide to the world of uglies has been requisitioned from the hole in the wall. Inside you'll find: A rundown on all the cliques, from Crims and Cutters to tech-heads and surge-monkeys. The complete history, starting with the destruction of the oil bug to the launch of Extras in space. How all those awesome gadgets came to be: hoverboards, eyescreens, skintennas, sneak suits...Plus an exclusive look at Scott Westerfeld's first draft of Extras - starring Hiro, not Aya. And so much more, it's mind-wrecking.

Mario Acevedo
The Undead Kama Sutra (Felix Gomez, Book 3 - Mass Market Paperback)
HarperCollins Eos (US: 28th October 2008)
Buy
Felix Gomez returned from the war in Iraq a changed man - once a soldier, now forever a vampire. So the undead underworld put his skills to work as a private detective, specialising in the sordid, the sexy, and the supernatural. After surviving aliens, nymphomaniacs, and x-rated bloodsuckers, it's high time for a vacation. Now the aliens are back in a fiendish conspiracy with the U.S. government, and only Felix stands between them and the Earth women they covet. But when an army hit man attacks Felix and the bodacious vampire sexpert, Carmen, not even the astonishing erotic powers of the Kama Sutra for the Undead may be able to save them.

Keri Arthur
Destiny Kills (Myth & Magic, Book 1 - Mass Market Paperback)
Random House Dell (US: 28th October 2008)
Buy
When Destiny McCree wakes up beside a dead man on an Oregon beach, she knows only this: she has to keep moving, keep searching, and keep one step ahead of the forces that have been pursuing her from the heart of Scotland to this isolated spot. Why? The death of her lover has left her alone, with little memory of her past. A glimmering serpent-shaped ring is the one clue she has - and a bargaining chip in a most dangerous game. Enter Trae Wilson, a master thief with a sexy, knowing grin and a secret agenda of his own. Destiny and Trae both have powers far beyond the human - and both are running for their lives. Together they're riding a tide of danger, magic, and lust...but with killers stalking their every move, they must use any means necessary, even each other, to survive - until the shocking secret of one woman's destiny finally unravels...

Kim Harrison
A Fistful of Charms (The Hollows, Book 4 - Hardcover)
HarperCollins Eos (US: 28th October 2008)
Buy
The evil night things that prowl Cincinnati despise witch and bounty hunter Rachel Morgan. Her new reputation for the dark arts is turning human and undead heads alike with the intent to possess, bed, and kill her - not necessarily in that order. Now a mortal lover who abandoned Rachel has returned, haunted by his secret past. And there are those who covet what Nick possesses - savage beasts willing to destroy the Hollows and everyone in it if necessary. Forced to keep a low profile or eternally suffer the wrath of a vengeful demon, Rachel must nevertheless act quickly. For the pack is gathering for the first time in millennia to ravage and to rule. And suddenly more than Rachel's soul is at stake.

A. J. Menden
Phenomenal Girl 5 (Elite Hands of Justice, Book 1 - Mass Market Paperback)
Dorchester SHOMI (US: 28th October 2008)
Buy
Lainey Livingston has just been made a member of the Elite Hands of Justice, the world's premiere cadre of superheroes. Her work with the Red Knights and the Power Squad was impressive; all her senses are extraordinary, and her great strength and ability to fly are equally remarkable. But no one gets a free pass to active duty, and Lainey's next test is going to be her hardest. She's to train with the Reincarnist. Robert Elliot, the Reincarnist. A magician who has lived multiple lifetimes, he's the smartest man in the world - and Lainey’s last obstacle. He was personally responsible for seeing Pushstar wash out. But his eyes are the softest, kindest that Lainey has ever seen, and he's just the sort to knock her for a loop. Lesson #1: Romantic entanglements among crime fighters are super exploitable, and falling in love with a man who "can't die" is like waving a red flag at a bull. Especially when the most fiendish plot ever is about to break over Megolopolis like a wave of fire.

T. A. Pratt
Dead Reign (Marla Mason, Book 4 - Mass Market Paperback)
Random House Spectra (US: 28th October 2008)
Buy
As chief sorcerer of Felport, Marla Mason thought she'd faced every kind of evil the magical world had to offer. But she's never faced a killer like this. He's dark, glib, handsome as the devil - and exactly who he says he is. Death - in the flesh. He's arrived in Felport with a posse composed of a half-insane necromancer and the reanimated corpse of John Wilkes Booth, and he isn't leaving until he gets what he came for. Only Marla is crazy enough to tell Death to go back to Hell. With the Founders' Ball just around the bend, drawing together the brightest, meanest, and most dangerous of Felport's magical elite, the last thing Marla needs is all-out war with the King of the Underworld, but that's exactly what she's got. As the battle lines are drawn, she can count on her hedonistic, body-hopping partner Rondeau...but how many of her old allies will stand by her side when facing the ultimate adversary? To save her city, Marla will have to find a way to cheat Death...literally.

Jim Butcher & Mike Mignola
Backup (Hardcover)
Subterranean (US: 31st October 2008)
Buy
This time Harry's in trouble he knows nothing about, and it's up to his big brother Thomas to track him down and solve those little life-threatening difficulties without his little brother even noticing.

Emilio Estevez ci racconta così l’ultima giornata di speranza per l’America, quella in cui finì il sogno e assieme al sogno i favolosi anni ‘60. L’omicidio di Bob Kennedy all’Hotel Ambassador fu la morte di una nazione, cui seguì una chiusura individualista, priva di slanci, senza più ideali, ripiegata definitivamente sul mito del denaro. E Bobby è il film che un fervente democratico, Estevez (così come tutto il cast, che comprende anche il padre Martin Sheen) realizza per parlare al proprio paese e dirgli di ripartire da quella notte all’Ambassador, di ripartire da quel sogno e da quegli ideali. Ripartiamo dall’idea di un’America giusta, democratica, compassionevole, sembra insomma dire Estevez, riecheggiando i discorsi di Bobby. In fondo, al di là dei difetti del film (non sono pochi), è questo che emerge potentemente nel magnifico finale. Se il soggetto è di per sé straordinario, la resa non lo è sempre e a tratti il film stanca: le storie dei personaggi non sono molto interessanti, non appassionano, e la mano di Altman (paradossalmente, è il vero Bob cui dedicare il film…) non sta tenendo la macchina da presa, il che salverebbe anche la più piatta delle vicende corali. Quindi il film, per un bel pezzo, non entusiasma.

Poi, una specie di magia: l’arrivo di Bob cambia tutto e apre il film a un’inaspettata sferzata finale. Qui il regista fa la scelta migliore, quella di non mostrare un attore che interpreta Kennedy, ma di mischiare il materiale documentario con il girato originale. Ci troviamo così di fronte al vero Bob Kennedy, al suo discorso all’Ambassador, ci troviamo di fronte a un campo e controcampo tra lui e la platea (con Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan, Martin Sheen, Helen Hunt, Antony Hopkins e tanti altri). E succede qualcosa di forte, perchè il cortocircuito funziona ottimamente. Di colpo capiamo una nuda verità, assistiamo a una rivelazione: comunque fossero, quelle persone erano unite dal bisogno di politica, dalla speranza nella politica. Dal sogno e dal mito che le idee possono costruire. E siamo ancora noi quelle persone, sembra dire il film, il cui finale vale di per sé l’intera operazione. Bobby si dimostra insomma un’opera di cuore. Un appassionato film americano, fatto da un americano per parlare agli americani. Realizzato da attori che credono nella causa democratica e vorrebbero un’America profondamente diversa da quella che è oggi.

Bobby, di Emilio Estevez, USA, 2006, 114 minuti

Cast: Harry Belafonte, Joy Bryant, Nick Cannon, Laurence Fishburne, Brian Geraghty, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Joshua Jackson, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Christian Slater, Martin Sheen, William H. Macy, Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Freddy Rodriguez.

Uscita: 19 gennaio 2007

Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages - Publisher: Mira (February 1, 2005) - Language: English - ISBN-10: 0778321371 - ISBN-13: 978-0778321378

Back of the Book reads:

New York Times Bestselling author Heather Graham choreographs a sexy thriller of Passion and Murder...

Private investigator Quinn O'Casey thinks Lara Trudeau's overdose is a simple case of death by misadventure - until he goes undercover at the Moonlight Sonata dance studio and discovers that everyone who knew the accomplished dancer had good reason to want her dead.

Shannon Mackay is equally suspicious of Lara's death - and equally concerned as the deadly events at the studio start to multiply. But she's asked one too many questions and now fears she's being followed. Worse, someone may be trying to kill her.

Someone does have decidedly fatal plans for Shannon. And as a drama of broken hearts, shattered dreams and tangled motives unfolds, only Quinn can stop the killing.

Dead on the Dance Floor on Amazon.com

Dead on the Dance Floor on Chapters.ca

Dead on the Dance Floor on Amazon.ca

18-Aug-08 to 20-Aug-08

Review: Not Graham's best, but a good book nonetheless.

Lara Trudeau, one of the top ballroom dancers, dances her last dance, a spectacular performance, only to wind up dead on the dance floor. Cause: cardiac arrest due to a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol. Most believe it to be an accident, but Shannon doesn't. Sure, Lara was known to take a pill or two right before a dance to calm her nerves, but she never mixed with alcohol. To Shannon, it doesn't add up, but everyone else is convinced... all except for Doug O'Casey.

Doug had been sleeping with Lara and doesn't believe that Lara would have done that to herself either. Being a cop, and everyone at Moonlight Sonata dance studio knows that, he asks his brother, Quinn, to investigate. Quinn, a P.I., doesn't really want the job - he's supposed to be on vacation, sees the distress in Doug and reluctantly agrees.

Quinn begins asking questions, seeming innocent, but Shannon is suspicious of him, just as he is suspicious of her. Shannon was previously Ben's dance partner, but after a broken ankle, Ben had moved on to Lara, eventually marrying her, then divorcing. If anyone would be a suspect of murder, it would be Shannon. But Quinn spends more time with Shannon, becoming convinced it isn't her, and getting closer to her all the time. He's falling for her, just as she is for him, and neither are really liking the idea.

I would have never guessed who it was. There were too many possibilities, and at one point, it didn't make sense. You do get the point at the end, but it still leaves a bad taste. It was like the book was hastily written without any real thought. Surprising just the same.

Enough details of ballroom dancing so that you get the idea of what's going on. If you watch Dancing with the Stars, you'll catch on really quick. I do think, however, that the ballroom dancing angle was played just a little bit overboard.

Shannon and Quinn start off hot and heavy and remain that way. Other than the sparks between them, I didn't feel much spark in the rest of the novel, which would be disappointing for me. I've always given Graham's novels at least a 4-star rating if not a 5 - this one doesn't deserve that much from me. But I won't give up on her.

Rating:

Slash said: 'This band is all about its fans and its music and Scott Weiland isn't 100 per cent committed to either. Among other things, his increasingly erratic onstage behaviour and personal problems have forced us to move on. (Ouch Scott! that hurts! does it? does it? hahahaha)

I leave you with Lenny Kravitz and Heather Graham in "American Woman" .... Cheers!

[caption id="attachment_6" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Heather's personal message to me!"][/caption]

Starting in LA at Book Expo, Author S. Lander Marks (Artist's Proof) brings the book home to Las Vegas then packs it for reading company on her cruise vacation to Scandinavia. The first book in the Traveling Book Club library passes hands in Copenhagen, Denmark destined for Israel.

From After Ellen:

"I'm not a lesbian, but I play one on TV."

This is a phrase more likely to be used these days, as casting for lesbian roles in TV and film appears to be much easier today than it was even a few years ago. The increasing success of movies and TV shows with lesbian characters has diminished the stigma of playing a lesbian character to such a degree that directors who once couldn't convince well-known actresses to even look at lesbian roles are now turning them away in droves.

Besides the recent sapphic roles played by Salma Hayek (Frida), Charlize Theron (Monster), Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry), Gina Gershon and Lori Petty (Prey for Rock 'n Roll), Frances McDormand and Kate Beckinsale (Laurel Canyon), and Meryl Streep and Allison Janney (The Hours), we will soon see lesbian or bisexual women in upcoming movies played by Heather Graham and Saffron Burrows (Gray Matters), Monica Belluci and Ling Bai (She Hate Me), and Kelly Preston and Famke Janssen (Eulogy)--while everyone from Brittany Murphy to Renee Zellweger to Pink vies to star in the upcoming Janis Joplin biopic.

In the last year on television, well-known actresses like Jennifer Beals, Rosanna Arquette, Lolita Davidovitch, and Kelly Lynch have all played lesbians on The L Word, and next season is likely to see even more familiar faces guest-starring on the series.

But it wasn't always this easy--as recently as 1998, directors looking to cast lesbian or bisexual roles still frequently encountered resistance from actresses to playing gay, as writer-director Maria Maggenti (Without a Trace, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love) discovered when she was first casting her bisexual-triangle film Us, Them and Me five years ago.

"There were several actresses trying out for the film," Maggenti said in a May 2004 interview, "who were concerned about kissing another woman."

Director Jamie Babbit ran up against a similar problem when casting the lead role in But I'm a Cheerleader (a role which eventually went to Natasha Lyonne). "My first choice rejected me on the basis of being too Christian," Babbit admits in a recent interview with AfterEllen.com. "Although she cried when she told me she couldn’t do it, and she was clearly very torn, she just couldn’t have her family see her face on this poster."

The tide seems to be turning, however. When Maggenti set out to recast Us, Them and Me this year, concerns about kissing another woman "didn't even come up once." First-time director Angela Robinson told AfterEllen.com in an interview last July that when she was casting for her feature film D.E.B.S., she was "barraged with actresses who wanted to be in the movie. The actresses I met with were generally not that worried about playing a gay character."

She eventually cast two up-and-coming actresses--Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) and Sara Foster (The Big Bounce)--in the lesbian roles, something Robinson doesn't believe would have happened five years ago.

Olga Sosnovska, who played the groundbreaking bisexual character Lena on All My Children, told AfterEllen.com in an October 2003 interview that she wasn't fazed upon receiving the information that her character would turn out to be bisexual. Although she "didn't think it would be as controversial as it turned out to be," Sosnovska insists "it wouldn't have made any difference."

Her very public role as one-half of daytime's first lesbian couple clearly didn't hurt her career: she departed All My Children recently for a prominent role on a hit British spy series. (continue reading)