Mind Sieve 07/29/22

 

Table of Contents

News/Musings	StoryOrigin Swap 1
Mini Movie Reviews	Movie/TV Show Previews
StoryOrigin Swap 2	Just for Fun!
Strong Women Strange Worlds	Forward to the Future Giveaway

Greetings!

It is still hot, Hot, HOT down here in Texas. 🔥 I hope you are keeping cool. We’ve been doing okay for most of it, just a couple of hours when the A/C, fans, etc. can’t keep up.

 

News/Musings

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The JOY of Murder Release Celebration Giveaway is almost over! If you’ve not entered yet for your chance to win the three hardcover prize pack, you need to do so ASAP! (US Only)

Loads of freebies from cozy/mystery/thriller authors are also up for grabs on the same page and those are good for everyone!

 

I was originally going to a post on 7/22/22 to let everyone know that the JOY of Murder’s ebook editions were live, but I decided to skip it. The last thing I want is to become spammy!

That being said, you still have a few days to send me your purchase receipt to get the BONUS short story Romeo’s Revenge.

I got a shock a couple of weeks back or so. I had believed the header fonts were coming through in the ebook editions. (The two I republished after the publishing company went bankrupt and the two mysteries.) I was terribly wrong! (I could see them because the fonts were on my PC. But no one else could! Despite embedding them.) 😭

Then I had a bit of an epiphany! I could use images not only to preserve the font headers but also to add even more bling to the books themselves! 🤯

So I spent a frantic week trying to spruce them up! The four books and Jacques are done. Amazon has approved them all, though I have two I need to fix for the Smashwords catalog (Cross-eyed and Black Jade) and the third parties they send them to. There’s an issue with the default navigation data. The plan is to have those fixed before the end of the weekend. Booyah!

I also decided to spend the $$ and get my reader magnets professionally edited. It hasn’t felt right to give them away without making them as shiny as can be. I’m updating the bling on these as well! (Jacques was already professionally edited, but it now has more bling!)

So right now, both Jacques and Elixir of Life have been updated. Join the Newsletter and then feel free to download one or both and see the improved versions!

As I get the other reader magnets done, I’ll post about them in the news section of the newsletter/blog post. Enjoy!

 

Extra stuff I’ve shoved in here:

1) One StoryOrigin Swap (Review Copy)

2) Two StoryOrigin Swaps (Freebie!)

3) Strong Women – Strange Worlds Readings

3) Forward to the Future Giveaway (More Freebies!)

 

More deets on all of these in their sections. 😊

 

StoryOrigin Swap 1 (Review Copy)

Monarch in the Flames

Once you’ve been burned, everything is fire.

Stephan’s peaceful reign as the king of Frenland is in jeopardy. Only one person stands a chance at preventing his assassination. Unfortunately, Valerie is in exile.

What could entice the crown princess of the former tyrannical regime to risk burning at the stake to help him? Nothing, unless he succeeded in capturing her heart last summer.

Monarch in the Flames is book 2 in the Modutan Empire Series.

Mini Movie Reviews 🎥

★ – Why did I go see this? Why?!

★★ – Showed promise but on execution, crashed

★★★ – Enjoyable, just don’t look under the hood too closely

★★★★ – A great film, totally worth seeing!

★★★★★ – 🤯 Too fabulous for words!

Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank

Mel Brooks is back! And so are several old jokes. Lol. This film makes fun of so many things. Scenes from West Side Story, Bruce Lee films, Mel Brooks films, Kung Fu films, the 4th wall, anachronisms, and more. They explore several themes, several to amusing effect. Fun popcorn and nostalgic flick. Much fun to be had. 😁

Rating: ★★★.75 out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price to See Again!)

 

Thor: Love and Thunder

Though the previews make it look like a comedy, there is a lot of seriousness in here, too. The first few minutes as we are introduced to the “bad guy” Gorr are quite tear-jerking and dramatic. The narrated storytelling by Korg sets a nice tone for the hijinks. The goats, the jealous hammer, and the interactions with the Guardians of the Galaxy brought many snort moments. You almost rubberband back and forth between the drama, comedy, and touching moments. There are a lot of harsh truths covered in candy sprinkles to help viewers through them without getting too depressing. Overall, it was a fun ride!

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price to See Again!)

 

Minions: The Rise of Gru

Like Paws of Fury, the film has a very 70’s vibe. The themes touch on group trust and team building. Prepare yourself to groan or snort through the names of the Vicious 6 – Wild Knuckles and Belle Bottoms but two of them. Lol. Nun-Chuck: a literal nun who wields nunchucks. (Lucy Lawless?! Squee!) A lot of poignant and fun moments. Minions doing what minions do best – causing chaos! These films are so much fun. Nostalgia for the win!

Rating: ★★★★ out of 5 (Hubby’s Rating: Worth Full Price to See Again!)

 

Movie Previews 🎥

SHAZAM 2: Fury of the Gods Comic-Con Trailer (2022) – looks awesome!

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Movie Trailer – oh! Some of my fave creatures, too! Looks great!

She-Hulk Attorney at Law trailer – this looks fun! And a funny Bruce Banner, who knew? Lol.

Story Origin Swap 2 (Freebie)

Where Weaver Daire

On a world where ancient magic and technology exist, the skeletons of the past never stay buried for long. Melinda Scott should know. She just found a big one.

Where Weavers Daire is the first book in a new rip-roaring space opera series in the same vein as Babylon 5, Farscape and Star Wars!

Just for Fun!

Love Runs Out by One Republic – funky video! Some cool visuals. The song is good, too! 😎 (Hubby shared this one.)

How Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Should Have Ended video – this is a riot. I did watch the movie again and I still like it. A lot of parallels between Strange and Wanda, like two sides of the same coin.

Smooth Criminal – with Chinese Instrument Guzheng Cover – she’s amazing! (Hubby shared this one, too!)

Strong Women Strange Worlds is having their next virtual reading on 8/5/22. Click the link to register.

Forward to the Future Giveaway – free science fiction reads for July 2022 – only a few more days to grab them.

Stay cool out there! 🧊

Gloria

Virtual Tourist 12/31/21

 Table of Contents

News/Musings	StoryOrigin Swap 1
Virtual Tourist – Call of the Sea	Cozy Up with a Mystery Giveaway

Greetings!

I hope you and yours had a Merry Christmas or at least a fun set of holidays. Ours was different than usual, as we celebrated at home and didn’t visit relatives. My daughter is a Petrie dish sponge so we figured better safe than sorry! Hubby had some back issues the day of (he thought it was a new kidney stone for a while), so we mellowed out all day watching season 1 of Kill Monkey (nothing says Christmas like assassins?) and the last three Harry Potter films.

Our tradition of stocking stuffers went well and we worked hard not to go into sugar comas. (Seemingly, as we get older, that’s a major no-no. Bah humbug!) 😁

 

News/Musings

Hubby’s kidney stone is GONE! 🎊 He has an appointment next week to check its composition (and therefore hopefully stay away from what makes them) and to be sure it’s all out. 😍 Yay!

In the never-ending quest to find something that will actually help with marketing and not make me go broke, I started digging into some of the other options available at StoryOrigin. I felt pretty stupid when I realized they have GIVEAWAY Promos and I’d totally missed it. So you will get news on a couple I joined for 2022 so you can get free stuff. Basically, unlike the other promo groups which were books in exchange for reviews, these will just add you to the author’s newsletter to get the book. I figure that’s a better and easier deal for readers overall. 🤞

Another thing StoryOrigin has recently set up is a Beta Copies option. So I’ve decided to experiment with that and have uploaded the first few chapters of The Secret Humankind there. This is supposed to allow people to see and comment on uploaded chapters. You can help shape the book! I like that any participants have to comment on a chapter before they can move on to the next. It even has star ratings you can select for each chapter. The stuff I have up there has already had a first pass with the Future Classics Writers Group so you’re not getting a totally raw story. This novel will be book 1 of the Discoveries of Julia Xero – an urban fantasy series.

If you’re interested in participating, or just want to take a look at what this is about—Click Here: https://storyoriginapp.com/bet…

Extra content today:

1) StoryOring Swap

2) It’s January—Cozy Up with a Mystery Book Giveaway!

Scroll on down to get all the deets. 😉

Coffee, Angels, and Murder

StoryOrigin Swap

You try solving a murder with a novice angel getting in your way!

Wren King has just had the worst date of her life. Her father is a gambler. Her life is directionless and lonely. Then a bossy angel appears to sort Wren’s life out. Fiona is an angel who won’t take no for an answer.

All is going well until the local coffee shop owner is murdered and Wren’s father is accused of the foul deed. Can Wren and her angel partner sort through the clues and the suspects (including a drag queen gangster, a cheating wife, and a son with a terrible secret) and discover the real murderer?

A cozy mystery with plenty of red herrings, twists, cats, and drag queens, perfect for fans of Joanne Fluke, Laura Childs, Richard Osman, and Steve Higgs!

 

Call of the Sea

Call of the Sea is an indie game by Raw Fury Games.

The game has great background music, easy-to-hard puzzles (walkthroughs are awesome!), great voice acting, and a captivating story. It’s a 6+ hour game, depending on your puzzle-solving skills and what achievements you try to get.

I loved 95% of it. Then we hit the throne room where Norah makes a HUGE mental leap (No hints on this whatsoever beforehand, so not sure how she reached this conclusion about Harry), and then a final decision is to be made by the player. I chose what I felt had to be the Choice. That circumstances really left Norah no other true action. You get to see more that way, though they then tacked a final scene I felt was heavy-handed to make you regret taking that route. (Again, after all that’s happened, and all the sacrifices made, I felt it was the ONLY choice IMHO. Not a happy choice, but the best one under the circumstances.) I looked online for a video of the second choice, which is short and doesn’t show the reunion—however short-lived and pain-filled that would have been—and throws away all that was done and those who died as if their sacrifices meant nothing. Others may see things differently than I, though. 😋

I uploaded all the pics I took in the game at once, so you can find those below and all the rest here.

Our protagonist—Norah. The game is from her POV. Wracked with a weird illness, she’s left home to chase after her husband, who went on a quest to find a cure for her.

​The Island where the majority of the storyline takes place. Beautiful watercolor images are used between the chapters and loading.

 

 

Norah wakes from a bizarre dream in her ship’s cabin hours before reaching the island.

Norah’s first close-up view of the island. The ship’s captain will row her to shore and the ship come back to get her in three days time.

 

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Objects found on the South Pacific island resemble Polynesian culture but others, like this one, resemble nothing she’s seen before.

 

​It’s easy to dismiss the rock face on the left, but looking at it closely shows a weird tendency of having six or more sides and look like individual columns.

 

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Huts for those who originally lived here can be seen on the right. Toward the top of the picture, you can see giant statues.

 

Contraption inside the well. Harry and the others in the research team were finally able to get inside, but not without casualties. Dum dum DUM!

 

 

It’s January – Cozy Up with a Mystery Giveaway!

​Click the banner to see all the books available!

​Have a great New Year!

Jumping ahead by a day, but so I don’t forget, let me wish you a wonderful Happy New Year for 2022!

 

Gloria

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