Teaser Tuesday

Here are the rules:

1. Post 2 sentences from the current book you're reading. You can either

a) open the book and share 2 sentences from anywhere on that page or
b) share your favorite 2-3 sentences from the book (they have to be in a row)

2. List the page #

*PLEASE DO NOT POST ANYTHING THAT CAN BE INTERPRETED AS A SPOILER!

3. List the name of the book and the author


"Vasiliy's white eyebrows rose. 'Or?' 'Or this meeting is over. We will consider your actions to be a declaration of war.' The two volhvs looked at each other."

p. 236 (Kindle edition)

Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Share your teasers in the comments or give a link to your blog if you're running a Teaser Tuesday

Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World - week of July 30th

 To jump start this week, here's an offering of great contests & giveaways in the writing world for this week:

I'm excited about this one because I love Ilona Andrews! Candace's Book Blog is giving away Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews. Don't forget to also check out the review of this book.

Reena Jacobs, of the Ramblings of an Amateur Writer, is hosting a giveaway with many prizes to celebrate
I Loved You First 1-year anniversary! There are over $100 in prizes, including gift cards to B&N and Book Depository! There's a new giveaway every day until August 3rd, so hurry!

Last chance to win Kindle Fire on Fang-Tastic Books! Don't miss it, only one day to go.

The Biting Cold Blog Tour & Scavenger Hunt is about to begin over at Chloe Neill blog. Sounds like a lot of fun and some great prizes are there for winning! The giveaway will begin on August 11th, but you have to collect all the pass code words along all the tour stops, so start today!

And of course, don't forget to cheer Team USA at the Olympic Games in London. These athletes are an unbelievable source of inspiration and examples of determination, perseverance, discipline and achieving ones goals - and we can all take lesson from them!

*As always, please contact me for the inclusion of your contests/giveaways into the Monday Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World posts.

Have fun and good luck!

JSKA Karate World Championship in Cancun - Album II

We're back home after a great tourrnament. I won 3rd place in kata and the rest of the tournament went great. Here are more pictures.



Team USA and family



Our littlest competitor on the team (8 yrs. old), Itzel

Some of the masters of the organization. From left: hubby (Thomas Casale), Abe Sensei (the head of the organization), Ricardo Galina (one of the organizers of the tournament), Nagaki Sensei and Teresa Orta (the other organizer and Galina's mother)

Itzel getting all serious for her kata competition

Itzel fighting (kumite)

Me on the podium to accept my bronze medal (left) for kata

Well, this was fun...now back to work. :)

JSKA Karate World Championship in Cancun - Album I

So we're half-way through the World Championship week and the actual tournament starts tomorrow. Today, I wanted to share a few of the pictures from this trip so far (hence, Album I). :)

First off, the resorts we're staying at where the World Championship 2012 is taking place - Iberostar Cancun, Golf & Spa Resort:



This is the view from our balcony

Here's the same view at sunset:

Another part of the resort:



Here's our team (minus one member). Hubby is the team's coach and the President of the organization in the Pan-Americas:

Another pic of the team, now minus the hubby but plus the member of the team who wasn't in the last pic :)

We had a great three hour training this morning with all the members of various teams. The first part of the seminar was with Abe Sensei, the head of our organization from Japan, and Nagaki Sensei, one of his senior students. Then we trained with other senior Senseis (teachers), including my hubby, Sensei Thomas Casale. Here are a few pics from that training.

Part of the training this morning. Hubby is on the right, teaching part of that seminar

Training hard

Kids having fun playing "zombies" :)

The hubby and I at dinner:

With a dear friend and the member of the Mexican karate team, Suzel (her husband is the organizer of 2012 Championship):

Lounging around

Well, that's it for Album I. Album II coming in a few days and will include the tournament pictures.

Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World - Week of July 16th (From Cancun)

Well, no Monday blues for me this week...Not while I'm writing this on a palatial balcony (with a Jacuzzi!) overlooking this  view:

I'm in Cancun, Mexico for the JSKA World Karate Championship and the resort is beautiful. Most of the competitors begin arriving today, but we're already been here for the last few days and they have been very restful. It'll probably get a bit more stressful and busy, but it should still be fun and hopefully we can continue to enjoy everything.

Also, met some of the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who were here for a camp and did a two day thing with kids here. I'll post those pics later this week.

I'll keep you updated on the hhappenings here throughout the week, but for today, let's get to the contests and giveaways in the Writing World!

First off, check out a contest from Lisa Burstein - enter to win a 3 chapter critique. But wait, there are three critiques for the taking - 1 from Lisa's editor, one from her agent and 1 from Lisa herself! Check out the rules here.

Enter on GoodReads to win Cyndi Tefft's book Between. Giveaway ends July 31st.

Shannon Stacey is part of the The Amazing, Fabulous PIMP MY READ Contest! She, along with three other writers, are giving away 4 - yes, you heard it right, 4 - e-readers! What can be better than that?! The giveaway lasts until July 22nd, so don't miss out.

Well, have to run and meet some of our US Team members who arrived today, so talk to you all soon!

Cancun - Karate World Championship - possible blog schedule changes

 I'm going to be away for two weeks in the sunny Cancun, Mexico at a World Karate Championship.

Hope to have wireless there - and if that's the case, I will keep posting.

Friday Art & History Feature - Art of Joe Jusko

One of the art books of Joe Jusko's art

Joe Jusko is one of the best known fantasy and comics artists out there. His first Heavy Metal Magazine Cover happened at the age of 17 (in 1977). Since then, the artist, who was born in 1959 on the lower east side of New York City, has worked for every major comics book publisher and has had a thriving fantasy art business. His love for art began when he was a child, and was encouraged by his family, especially his older brother. Visit Joe Jusko website for more information, a detailed bio and collection of all his work. Meanwhile, here's a little sampling of this great fantasy artist.

*Note: All works of art represented here are the property of Joe Jusko.

Dragonfyre

Lady Killer

Sad Wings of Destiny

Peace on Earth

Wolverine

 

 

Tiger Girl

Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World - week of July 2nd

After spending a few very needed days in Florida at hubby's dad's house enjoying the sun, the pool, and most important, the quiet, and looking at these

I feel like this today:

However, I am also extremely inspired by the gymnastics Olympic trials that I watched this weekend:

Gabby Douglas made the Olympic Team!

Jordyn Wieber also made the Team!

    

I will do a separate post on how inspirational these athletes are to me and what we can learn from them.

















Whether you feel the Monday blues or feel energetic and inspired to do great things this week, these giveaways and contests are a good way to start the week!


So, You're a Writer... by Carrie Butler is hosting a guest blogger, the wonderful Becca Puglisi of the Bookshelf Muse, who's talking about the "Three Ingredients of a Good Scene". But wait...there's also a giveaway for the one of the greatest tools for writers out there: The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression! You simply cannot miss this one!


Books With Bite is picking 2 winners to give away books of the winner's choice from the top ten on Savannah's list. The list includes Grave Mercy, Goddess Interrupted and other great reads!


A fun contest coming to you courtesy of Devin O'Branagan's Forum. The challenge is to write a piece under 1,000 words about a writer who falls in love with one of his or her characters. Contest ends July 15th, so hurry!


There's still time to enter the awesome giveaway that Tina Moss is running to say thank you to her 1000 Twitter followers! Lots of prices to scoot over there right now to check it out!

*As always, please contact me for the inclusion of your contests/giveaways into the Monday Contests and Giveaways in the Writing World posts.

Have fun and good luck!