Catherine Stine's IDEA CITY

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Showing posts with label swag. Show all posts
Showing posts with label swag. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Memorable lines from novels-what's yours? And last week of Ruby Tour!

After you finish reading a novel, there are inevitably lines that keep on playing in your head. It's always fascinating to find out which lines people like best. Ruby's Fire is in its last week of touring with the fabulous Giselle of Xpresso Tours, and I'm really enjoying finding out what parts of Ruby the bloggers and readers find memorable. Here are a few:

Words Create Scenes favorite quotes:
"You start with the tools you have at hand, but you don't have to end up using those same tools."

"The sky drifts to that magic place where violet and orange blend in candy swirls over the horizon."

YA's the Word's favorite quote:

"It feels wrong to lean on Armonk right now with Blane staring at me, a hungry, lonely look in his eye. It’s as if he’s never been hugged, never been fed, never been loved.”

Lucinda from Goodreads's fave line:
"It makes sense that I ended up with the one who was a brute, yet blossomed into a sensitive, smart man. After all, I started as a drug-addled tease, whose method of connection was manipulation and seduction."

Lines that I like:
"I hate to admit that the flex and release of Blane’s substantial shoulders under his burn suit is mesmerizing me. So much so, that when he stops in mid-step I hurtle right into him."

"Thorn’s answer is a wide grin that spreads over his serious face, reflecting the crimson brilliance of the miraculous creature called Red."

"My arm is smarting. I turn it over gingerly to survey the damage, and gasp. It’s not bleeding red—rather some thin, greenish liquid. My insides freeze. “Armonk, I need to find that doctor now.”"

Do you have a favorite line from your novels? Or one from someone else's that keeps playing in your head? Tell us what it is!

Here is the lineup of stops in this last week of the Ruby's Fire tour. Links go live on the day of:
August 12th

August 13th
Bookmarks, Spoilers and Happily Ever After >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek

August 14th
-Fae Books >> Guest Post

August 15th

August 16th
-Marked By Books >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek
-Brooke Blogs >> Review

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, July 29, 2013

Ruby's Fire Tour Kicks Off, July 29-Aug 16, mega prizes, including a Kindle!


The Ruby's Fire tour, sponsored by the fabulous Giselle at Xpresso Book Tours starts today and runs from July 29 through August 16! It's packed with reviews, juicy excerpts, posts on how to find and keep inspiration going, love triangles (Team Blane or Team Armonk), and interviews. Of course, we have epic prizes, including the grand prize: a Kindle with built-in WiFi and a USB charger tossed in as icing on the cake. Other prizes include a signed poster of Catherine's illustration of the flying Reds from Ruby's
Thorn's flying Reds,
from Ruby's Fire by Catherine Stine
Fire,
and loads of free books and ebooks. Check to see which prizes are US/Can and which are INTL. So, without further ado, here's the lineup. Links will go live as the bloggers post. Enjoy hopping around and sampling, and do leave comments! We love getting feedback.

July 29th
YA’s the Word >>  Review
Lazy Day>> Excerpt
Christine’s Blog >> Review

July 30th
Jessabella Reads >> Interview
Escaping… One Book@ a Time  >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek: Ruby's Three Big Problems!
Comfort Books>>Review

July 31st
Simply Infatuated >> Interview
M. Pax >> Review
Seeing Night Reviews >>  Review

August 1st
The Indigo Quill >> Interview
Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile >> Guest Post: How do You Create Your Characters?

August 2nd
Share My Destiny >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek
Nazish Reads >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek

August 5th
JeanBookNerd >>  Guest Post: Fiction that Inspired You and its Effect on Ruby's Fire

August 6th
Whimsically Yours >> Interview

August 7th
Feed Your Fiction Addiction >> Review
alwaysjoart >>  Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek

August 8th
Donna Galanti >>  Post: Extreme Beauty-Pleasure, Power, Peril

August 9th
FlutterealFlight >>  Review
Rally the Readers >> Review of Ruby's Fire & bonus review of Fireseed One

August 12th
Words Create Scenes >> Review

August 13th
Bookmarks, Spoilers and Happily Ever After >> Excerpt/Special Sneak Peek
Starbucks & Books Obsession >> Review

August 14th
Fae Books >> Guest Post: What Inspires You to Write?
Read Books and Live Green >>  Review

August 15th
Mousehead&tales >> Review

August 16th
Marked By Books >> Sneak Peeks & BONUS mini-review!
Brooke Blogs >> Review

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Ellie Garratt's Story Collection Launch & the Apocalypse Blog Hop Continues!

I've got two events: the continuation of the apocalypse blog hop and the launch of sci-fi and horror writer, Ellie Garratt's story collection, Taking Time.
For those who hopped over for the apoc-hop, scroll down to the awesome prizes and the Rafflecopter!!!
A blurb about Ellie Garratt's Taking Time:
Science fiction stories of time and space...

The future of humanity must be decided in Next Phase. Winning the Planetary Lottery is not as lucky as it first seems in Schrodinger's Gamble. An apocalypse and its aftermath threaten to tear one couple apart in Daiker's Children. In Life As I Know It a reclusive man finds both his heart and home invaded during an alien harvest. In Taking Time a demon seeking shelter on a distant planet finds himself facing a very different kind of demon, after answering a frontier settlement's plea for help. Stories range from flash fiction to novelette in length.

Amazon, Amazon UK, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Ellie's website
About Ellie:
A life-long addiction to reading science fiction and horror meant writing was the logical outlet for Ellie Garratt’s passions. She is a reader, writer, blogger, Trekkie, and would happily die to be an extra in The Walking Dead. Her short stories have been published in anthologies and online. Passing Time: Nine Short Tales of the Strange and Macabre was published in March 2013 and contains nine previously published stories. Taking Time and Other Science Fiction Stories is her second short story collection.

As far as apocalypse goes, one of my favorite writers, Don DeLillo posits in his novel, Point Omega, we have an irrepressible urge to become “dumb as stones”, to unburden ourselves of our consciousness in one great, cataclysmic endgame explosion? What happens after the Omega Point—the rising timeline that rushes to the point of maximum complexity, after which the universe will become unrecognizable due to its enormous changes?

Or is it more an urge to reconstruction and reinvention—to a re-virgined world, fresh and exciting in its newness? Why else would we keep creating these explosive “ends”?

In DeLillo’s Point Omega, his characters who discuss the state of the world, have a very personal omega point after a shocking turn of events.

In Ruby’s Fire, my post-apoc fantasy, the world has already experienced a fiery sort of death, and is in the infant stages of reforming—that perilous place that could tip to metamorphosis or final death.

In Jonathan Maberry’s Rot and Ruin, the world is being overrun by Zombies.

In this blog hop, I'm giving away a copy of each of these books (and more), to the person who leaves the most insightful and creative comment about their take on apocalypse. That and entering the Rafflecopter suggestions. Get your apocalypse on, and after you’re done here, visit other great sites in the apoc-hop.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, July 12, 2013

Winners, winners, WINNERS!

Ruby's launch party might be over but the announcement of the prize winners has just begun!

Robyn K won the $40 Amazon card

Ariel S won the illustrated book illustration

Jennifer C won a signed copy of Ruby's Fire

Jess H won ebooks of Ruby's Fire & Fireseed One

Jak C won an ebook or paperback of Ruby’s Fire

And now, the winner(s) of the most creative guess as to what that Red flying critter is..... drum roll please... ta dum!

A detail of the Reds by Catherine Stine
Maureen won for her creative guess that the Red is Ruby's hallucination (not necessarily correct).
Debbie also won for her equally creative guess that the red critter is a manifestation of Ruby's inner desires (also not necessarily correct) Curious now? You'll have to read Ruby's Fire to really find out what that thing is!).

Thank you all for Liking my new author page, and subscribing to my shiny, new newsletter. Or if you haven't yet, here's the link.

For anyone who won copies of Ruby, a review is certainly appreciated if you're inspired to. I'll give you virtual hugs and chocolate.
Also, stand by for the Apocalypse Blogfest coming up from July 13-20, where I'll be running another Rafflecopter that includes a bunch of bad*ss apocalyptic novels, including a signed copy of Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry!

What hijinx have you all been up to during July?

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Huge Giveaway & Chocolate Blogfest, Two Treats in One!


Idea City has two exciting events: a giveaway and a blogfest! First, we invite you to help celebrate fellow blogger and author Sheri Larsen’s signing with Literary Agent Paula Munier of Talcott Notch Literary! As you know, Sheri has an awesome blog called Writers’ Ally. And because she thinks that our literary community is so freaking fabulous, she has decided to have a Bigger-Than-A-Shopping-Mall GIVEAWAY!! You only need to enter one Rafflecopter for a prize. Enter all three and you have a shot at the grand prize. The giveaway’s open until September 27. Winners will be chosen on September 28.

And now for the What’s Your Chocolate Blogfest that M Pax, Laura Eno, Brinda Berry and Ciara Knight are running. Chocolate, ahhhh, the essential treat that we writers need by our side, along with a hot cuppa joe, for long writing stints. They want us to relay a chocolate memory, or reveal what our fave chocolate is. The memory that sticks in my mind, (literally), was when I was around ten, and my dad took me to the Philadelphia Orchestra. I had on a fancy dress and brand new pink wool coat. He bought me a Swiss chocolate bar, which I half unwrapped, in order to start munching along to the violins and horns. Well, I guess the Beethoven, or whatever it was got pretty distracting, because the next thing I knew, I couldn’t find the chocolate bar anywhere! 
After the concert, as we stood up to walk out, my dad gasped. I spun around, and he pointed to my back. The chocolate bar had melted onto the right seat of my pink coat! Talk about embarrassed! To read other chocolate tales jump over to M Pax’s list of participants here.
But first, don’t forget to enter Sheri’s three giveaways and leave a chocolate-inspired comment on your way out. Everyone who does gets a virtual Hershey’s Kiss. Thanks!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click to open the last-a grand prize entry
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

After a month of Hitchcock-style events...

Sometimes you get that perfect, thoughtful review by someone who totally gets your book. In the middle of a dreadful month of apartment floods, five weeks of no hot water and gas for cooking due to a gas leak, no Internet and other Hitchcock-style horrors, I got one of those reviews that made my heart stutter with delight. Indie Ebook Reviews had actually posted in April what I'd just stumbled across. It was like digging up that perfect, golden potato under the soil. Because Ms. Glass so got it, I will post it here:

In the world of YA fiction, the paranormal romances Twilight inspired have recently been replaced by an outbreak of dystopian fiction – with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games leading the way and Scott Westerfield’s Uglies and Ally Condie’s Matched close behind.  Catherine Stine’s Fireseed One taps into this trend, although its slightly retro cover signals she is steeped in traditional sci-fi and not just an arriviste to the genre.


Also differentiating it from those other recent hits is the fact that the lead character is male – 18-year old Varik – although he is soon joined by the feisty Marisa Baron.  The novel is set in 2089, with the US a lethal ‘Hotzone’ full of ‘refugees’ who the propaganda channel known as ‘the stream’ insists are dangerous. Varik’s father, a marine biologist, has been murdered leaving his son in charge of his sea-farm and valuable seed-banks, which are the world’s main food supply.  When he catches Marisa stealing seeds and his crops are struck with the plague, Varik sets off with her on a quest that leads him into the Hotzone to find the ‘fireseed’ his father is rumored to have created, learning along the way that the lines between good and evil are more blurred than he thought.


The vision of the future Stine creates – of a world divided into have and have-nots by climate change and utterly dependent on GM crops – is convincing.  The book has a strong satirical slant, with interesting things to say both about the way the media demonizes refugees and how advertising penetrates every corner of our lives – each news update from ‘the stream’ ends with an ironic sponsor’s ad, devastating news of riots being: ‘brought to you by Restavik Chophouse, where the boar is better than home-grilled and the ladies drink free on Saturdays.’


Shin Kaskade, Tech Wizard
by Catherine Stine
The writing is strong, using the present tense to create freshness and full of vivid verbs.  It is the little, specific details that make this world so three-dimensional.  In the first few pages we get the horrific, cinematic image of Varik’s father’s corpse (‘famished viperfish had gouged his hands’), along with tender details that really nail the father-son bond (‘I’ll miss our docksides fish fries, our midnight boat rides…our poker games for abalone.)  Varik’s trendy friend Audun has a ‘shark-tooth earring’.  A firestorm burns the sky with ‘molten arteries of light.’  Stine has also created a believable slang for the teenagers, with Varik exclaiming ‘yummo’, ‘fry me’ and ‘burn it’.


I do think there’s one plot hole – if the entire world is dependent on Agar as a food-source, why would it be left in the hands of one nice, ordinary seeming biologist and then his disinterested 18-year old son?  This was, ultimately, a bit unconvincing – especially when Varik leaves the last feeble Agar plant in the hands of his best mate who seems more interested in baking scones.  A brutal regime which uses propaganda to stamp out sympathy for the starving would surely be a bit more hands-on about its supply chain!
...It’s a great young adult book though, with a sweet central romance and lots of inventive thrills.

Review by Evie Glass


Juko
by Catherine Stine
To celebrate, I am offering a signed paperback copy of Fireseed One at a huge discount--$5 (includes postage)--to anyone who emails me at kitsy84557 (at) gmail (dot) com.
Or, if you prefer, order an ebook, on sale at B&N or Amazon for $0.99, and I'll send you a signed copy of an illustration from Fireseed One.
Offer good for two weeks (Through Aug 15).


Now, to do a power visualization that Con Ed will come turn on our gas and hot water!

Cheers, Catherine