Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tuesday Tunes vs CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Top Ten Midnight Songs

If I had a little more time, I'd have found the Top Ten Cyndere Songs, but there are surprisingly few in my CD collection, so you'll have to make do with the hastily compiled Top Ten Midnight Songs:

10. Amy Winehouse - Round Midnight
I could quite happily live without the Winehouse, but I was stretching for ten as it was...

9. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come on Eileen
A wedding disco staple for over 25 years.... but you could have any of their other songs. If you know any.

8. Abba - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
You've probably heard of Abba. There was a film about them, or something...

7. Billy Joel - River of Dreams
That's the one that goes 'In the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep...' I told you I was stretching...

6. Marc Bolan & T-Rex - Midnight
Hooray! A welcome return to Tuesday Tunes for Marc and the boys!

5. Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Midnight
Off the By The Way album. I liked them around that period.

4. Linkin park – Minutes to Midnight
While we're in the alt-rock ball park (or should that be skate park? I don't know, I'm not even going to pretend to be down with the kids...)

3. Brand New Heavies - Midnight at the Oasis
A song about an all-night party at a leisure centre in Swindon. True.

2. The Psychedelic Furs – Midnight to Midnight
Who doesn't love a bit of post-punk Brit rock, eh? On the subject of which:

1. The Jam - Down in the Tube Station at Midnight
I've been in a tube station at midnight. It's only marginally less scary than a Swindon leisure centre.

This week's Top Ten was brought to you by Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. To find out more about the book, follow the CSFF Blog Tour, participants listed on yesterday's post.

Monday, February 16, 2009

CSFF Blog Tour: Cyndere's Midnight

I guess posting here has been a little lacking so far this year, but I guess a blog tour is as good a time as any to put that straight.

This week, my tourmates and I will be taking a look at Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet. This is the second novel in the Auralia Thread, the first of which, Auralia's Colours, was toured in January 2008.

It's got a bloodthirsty beastman, a grieving heiress, and a mysterious well. It sounds, from a quick look at the reviews and publishers blurbs, a bit like Beauty and the Beast on steroids. And I can say that because, although I haven't read the book myself - it being fantasy and all - the author admits to 'hearing echoes from Beauty and the Beast' while he was writing it.

I'm not sure exactly where this fits on the spectrum of Christian fiction, so I'll be browsing a few of these blogs over the next couple of days to (possibly) find out:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Andrea Graham
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Magma
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Wade Ogletree
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Alice M. Roelke
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Fred Warren
Jill Williamson

Monday, February 02, 2009

On Demons...

Take a teenager who unexpectedly turns out to be the last in a long line of vampire hunters. Give them an eccentric foreign mentor called Rupert, who has access to a vast library of occult reference material, a vampire-turned-demon-hunter who the hero might take a fancy to, and a best friend who apparently has nowhere else to be. Then send them out to battle not only vampires, but all manner of demons and other nastiness.

The problem with any TV series about vampire hunters – and especially one about teenage vampire hunters – is that it’s going to be compared to the TV show about vampire hunters.

And you have to have something pretty special in order to stand up to that… hijacking the Van Helsing mythos and giving Gene Hunt a pointless American accent is not really going to cut it.

So Demons, ITV1’s latest attempt to tap into the Doctor Who fanbase has left me about as underwhelmed as Primeval did. It’s a decent enough way to waste an hour in front of the telly, and being a 6-parter, it doesn’t threaten to take over too much of life…

On the other hand, the series is nearly over and I’ve only just mentioned it because I’ve ended up stacking episodes up on my Sky+ box, just not caring enough to watch them.