Seeking Xanadu

It's time I think. I am closing this down. I have saved out the posts, hopefully that worked and will be closing the account soon.
If you want to contact me I am at hageltoast @ yahoo.co .uk or @hagelrat on twitter. If you drop me a line I will gladly friend you on facebook.
I will leave this up for a couple of weeks before shutting the doors.
If you want to know what is taking my time visit www.unboundblogzine.com it's been going two years now and although I have a team it's still my baby and you will always find me there.
Thanks all for sharing this part of my life with me. I hope you'll join me soemwhere for the next bit.

Kick Ass & stuff

Went to see Kick Ass on tuesday and Hit Girl is my hero. Totally excellent film, silly, entertaining, occasionally moving. LOVED IT!!! Go see it, all of you. 

Other than that every day seems to go the same at the moment, sleep badly, get to work early, have a great productive happy day, come home, feel a little low. Thank god for the internet and all you guys out there in the webiverse, I tend to withdraw when I am not feeling at my best and without my online network I would struggle.

Finally on a brighter note Un:Bound just got a bit of a facelift and is even more gorgeous than ever.

http://www.unboundblogzine.com/
http://hagelrat.blogspot.com/

World Horror

I escaped my responsibilities, husband and cats last weekend and headed off to Brighton for World Horror. I had no idea how it would go and was frankly terrified. It was awesome! I had the best time ever and wish it could have gone on a few more days, although on two hours sleep a night not sure how well I would have survived a longer weekend.

It was bliss though to immerse myself in the world of books for a weekend and forget everything else for a while.  
all the gossip on Un:Bound http://hagelrat.blogspot.com/

My Library

Ok, since I am focusing on authors libraries on Un:Bound, here is mine for you.

One of the small bookshelves. If you look you will see they are double stacked. This is a recurring theme
and that is a little bit of my New Rock boots you can see.

 

Ok, for the record, my husband plays guitar and I was learning bass, but then we moved and I haven;t practiced since, so I am utterly shit. The only thin I can play properly is Polly.

 

I should also mention, that although it's my library, Mark's got some books in there too. The top shelf is my Clive Barker books, except the Imajica which I keep with the other signed books. And yes, lots of things have bookmarks part way through.

  

yes these are double stacked too, you just can't see that. The chick lit, poetry, literature and some other stuff is shoved at the back, although sadly many books i'd like to see are back there too.

  

Ok, that's it for upstairs, now, in the dining room we have my cookbooks, yes Mr Devereux, if you publish it, I will add it to this lot. :)

  

and in the living room we have my Gaiman books, soon to be moved upstairs, our shared Pratchett collection, for Mark really because he loves them and the signed or ltd edition books. It's the living room so there is junk in there and a cat.

 

There are of course always small piles of books on the side table in the living room, on the  bedside table, the dining table and in a couple of other spots. But that is basically the shape of it. 

It's elementary!

Ok so there are two things you should know going into this review. I used to read the Holmes stories over and over as a kid but haven't read them for a few years now.

Also, I love Robert Downey Junior and would cheerfully pay to watch him stare at himself in the mirror.

So it's stupid. The plot is outrageous, there are tonnes of intoxicating substances, some punch ups, some explosions and a very silly bit with a ship. Thing is, except for the explosions and the ship, it's pretty much how I remember the books. Punch ups, bad disguises, notes to Watson and send him of to do his bit on trust, mad logic leaps over insanely complex plots, a dead guy with red hair and just a joy. Sit back relax enjoy a ludicrous romp.

To me it was in keeping with the spirit of the character and the books. It's nothing like previous TV incarnations. You need to just go and be open. 

Amazon now delivering.....

I left a box out and cuteness ensued.

 
 

Purr or Pooch

M has been on about getting another pet. We have two cats, we got them together from a rescue centre and while they are fine with us one of them is still nervous around strangers , and by nervous I mean stays behind the sofa the whole time when new people come around. They are both affectionate but the bloder one is my shadow and sleeps next to me on the bed sometimes. The timid one loves us both but isn't a lapcat in any way. M wants something that's his relly. If we are honest he might settle for another cat, but what he wants is a dog. Someone to take for walks and play loud annoying games with. I'm not sure what the cats would think of a noisy new member to the family, and we are planning to have kids eventually, but i'm not sure whether a cat, even one tht dotes on him, is going to satisfy his need for a playmate. *sigh*

Thinking of talking to some rescue centres about what we need. What do you think?

Avatar

OMG! I don't care what you say about it's plot holes and lack of character development. This may not be the hardest thinking film ever but it's soooo pretty. Oh and the 3d was incredible, not like other films i've seen in 3d. Oooh it was just gorgeous and the main characters were cute and oh well it's slightly silly very shiny sci fi. Absolutely adored it.  

There as an evil general, greedy corporation, heroic jarhead, geeky scientist and Sigourney Weaver as head science chick. What more could you want? Ok you also get tree hugging, mechs, big flying things, sacred trees and weird alien horses. For saying it's over two and a half hours long it flew by. There are some slower bits where I got happily lost in the shininess and the 3d, it may be slower in 2d, dunno, will find out when I get it on DVD, which I will, coz I loved it.

Bringing in the new year

Well, over on Un:Bound we had a busy 2009. I read & reviewed over 100 novels which doesn't account for all the interviews, events, reviews by the rest of my awesome team, articles, guest posts and so on.

Well to start 2010 out as we mean to go on, I stuck up a couple of short reviews, Stray has added a fantastic review of a Wyndham novel and our very first post of 2010 was an interview with the delightful Cat Connor
.

I am looking forward to an even more brilliant 2010 from a bookish perspective.

As for everything else. I'm pleased to say being married seems to suit both me and my brother although sadly Piers has given up his pottery. He had a real talent but no business head and no time so he has finally called it a day. He has however bought a house. 

I'm optimistic about the coming year generally and heading off to see Avatar today. I've been neglecting the movie reviews and this blog completely, I intend to be back here this year, albeit still in a reduced capacity. Un:Bound is a timesuck.

I love Pride and Prejudice. I love the book and all the different film and TV versions. They all have different things that I love about them. At the end of the day though, there is something too wonderful about Colin Firth as Darcy.