Lazy Sundays: Kill the Boy (Game of Thrones Episode 5.05)

As always, spoilers!

1.  Poor Jon.  I personally think he’s making the right choice in enlisting the help of the Free Folk but it sure doesn’t seem very popular with the rest of the Night’s Watch.

2.  Sansa, just get out of there!  There are warning bells going off left, right and centre: Theon turned into Reek, Ramsay’s clear enjoyment of mind games, etc.

3.  I hope Brienne and Podrick do manage to rescue Sansa, but realistically they’re not going to.  Still, it will be interesting to see them try.

4.  Oh Daenerys…first you almost kill a man then you say he was right and tell him you’re going to get married.  Are you always this romantic?

5.  And wow, that Missandei-Grey Worm scene was amazing.  Those two actors have such great chemistry together that they make every scene together so emotional.

6.  No, Ser Jorah!  Why, oh why, did you have to take Jon Connington’s storyline?  Gah!

What did you guys think of tonight’s episode?

Discussion: Staying Motivated to Write

One of the things I personally struggle with is staying motivated enough to write here on my blog.  I think a lot of other people struggle with this from time to time and it’s an important thing to talk about.  When you’re in a blogging slump or even just really busy, how do you stay motivated?

I personally try to make a list and cross off items as I finish them, like my current one:

1.  Review The Courtesan Duchess

2.  Finish my review of The Dead Days Journal

3.  Read The White Princess by Philippa Gregory.

You get the idea.  Basically, my detail-oriented personality responds nicely when I have a list and physically see things being ticked off.  That’s why I have a to-review shelf on Goodreads as well; it satisfies me to take books off that shelf as I post my reviews of them.  It doesn’t always work but it’s one of the best things I can do to keep myself motivated during slumps.

So what do you guys do to stay motivated to blog/write in general?

I’m Now a Writer for Blogcritics!

A couple of days ago I sent in an application to write for Blogcritics, a site where bloggers write on topics ranging from culture and society to gaming and books.  I emailed in the application along with three samples of my writing here on my blog and today I got my acceptance email.

I’m not sure what my first article will be but it will likely be an author interview.  I’m pretty excited about the whole thing and will definitely be announcing here on The Mad Reviewer when my hypothetical article will be published.  This is sort of my first paid writing gig and I’m very happy to have it.

If you too want to apply to write for Blogcritics, click here.  By all accounts, it’s quite a worthwhile thing to sink your time into.

Ice Kissed by Amanda Hocking Giveaway

In the Ice Kissed blog tour everyone who hosts a part of the tour gets the awesome opportunity to have a giveaway for their followers.  Since I haven’t had a giveaway in a while, I figured having another one would be fun.  So here are the rules:

1.  You must live in the U.S to receive the prize of a print copy of Ice Kissed.  Sorry guys, no international shipping this time.

2.  My giveaway will run from today (May 6) until May 13 at 11:59pm MT.  The winner will be announced the following day.

All you have to do to enter is:

a) follow my blog in some fashion (either email or through WordPress)

b) answer my question in the comments below.

Everyone who answers my question will be entered into a random draw for the prize of a print copy.

Here is the question:

If you could be any character in any book, who would it be and why?

Have fun!

My Interview with Amanda Hocking

 

Amanda Hocking Amanda Hocking is the best-selling author of the Trylle trilogy, the Watersong series and now the Trylle spin-off the Kanin Chronicles.  She’s one of the most famous examples of self-published authors making it to the big time after selling over a million ebook copies of her books.  Read on for our discussion of the difficulties of writing a spin-off series, why her trolls are losing their powers over the generations and possible future character deaths in her latest series.

 

1.  What made you decide to do another series in the Trylle world?

Because Wendy was a newcomer who didn’t know much about the society, the Trylle series had such a narrow focus. There is so much more to the world of the trolls that I was only able to touch on in the Trylle series, and I wanted to be explore it deeper. I also got a lot readers asking me, “What’s it like to be a tracker?” So with this series, I wanted to show the troll world as on a larger scale, and to see the world through the eyes of a tracker.

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