Merry Christmas to my Favorite Men of 2010

I’m

wishing all of

my favorite male

fictional characters a

very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Scott Finn, my favorite Boston defense

attorney~The Black Dagger Brotherhood-The

Blind King~Vishous~Rhage~Butch~Rehvenge~Quinn~

Zhadist~John Matthew~Blaylock~Lassiter~Murhder~

Tohrment~Phury~, these are the men who named me Kate in my

dreams~Jack Cassian, a D.C. Officer with a nice bed-side

manner~Tom Kozlowski, Boston P.I.~Jack Reacher, seriously,

your blue eyes will forever haunt me~Lestat~Marrius~Tarquinn

Blackwood, some of my favorite men from The Vampire

Chronicles~Andrew Wallace Graham III, I still love how you met up with

 your wife on the bottom steps of your first apartment in New York

City~Vittorio~David Trevellyan, okay-so he’s more like a brother to me,

but my life wouldn't be the same w/out him~Tommy Tomzak, the seriously hot
NTSB Investigator from the south~Nick Heller, I think I’m in love with him more

 than all of the others, but even I know I’m not good enough for Nick~Mitch Rafferty~DetectiveTaggert~Gale~Peeta~Dominor~Rydan~Andrew

Mayhem, minus the “indirect” killings, I think we’re pretty much alike~
Evin Driscol~Your story is still unread, but you already have my heart~

And Oscar Martello, Yes-it’s true. Since my college drop out status

 probably knocked me out of the running for Nick Heller, I decided I should

 set my sights on you. After all, you’re supposed to be leaving

 “the business” and I figure I just might be the girl to help you find the proper

 path to goodness. Plus, I was really impressed with how you used your
ceramic hunting knife on Johnny Quinn.  I think I just might have an inner bad
 girl inside of me after all...as you can see from all the men I've loved this year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to

my favorite men of 2010~

Love-Kate!

Die Twice by Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant, like David Trevellyan, the main character in his novels Even and Die Twice, does not worry too much about finesse. His writing beats the reader over the head, delivers a swift kick to the jugular, and leaves him gasping for air. Okay, that may be putting it a bit too strong; however, the point is that Grant’s books go from exploit to exploit, fight to fight, without a whole lot of let up. Which, of course, is what you want if you are reading a crime thriller in the first place. 

In Die Twice Trevellyan travels from New York, the scene of Even, to Chicago to take down a rogue British agent who is trying to sell highly toxic gas to terrorists. He searches for the rogue agent, and then for the gas, and in the process covers just about all of downtown Chicago. The rogue agent is actually working for terrorists from a small African nation who want to use the gas to poison their whole country, for reasons that are not entirely clear. Luckily, Trevellyan finds the terrorists and some of the gas. Unfortunately, there is more gas, (“dun dun dun”), and it falls into even worse hands, to be used for even more nefarious purposes. What could possibly be worse than wiping out a small African nation? You’ll have to read the book to find out, though you may wonder which is worse. Of course, to save the day Trevellyan has to break a lot of noses, shoot a lot of people, and bust down a lot of doors. If this sounds a lot like Even, it’s because it is. Not in a bad way, but rather in a, “if you liked the original, you’ll love the sequel” way.

As I read Die Twice I wondered how close to being a rogue agent Trevellyan is himself; he doesn’t ever worry about back-up or following procedure and regularly takes justice into his own hands. His justification for killing is often that the people are bad (they are) and they deserve to die (they do); however, I was often left wondering what it would take for him to go off the rails and decide that someone who isn’t bad deserves to die and then just do it. He does seem to have gone a little bit more on edge in Die Twice than he was in Even and a little closer to that point. Maybe that kind of edge is good in a fictional action hero, but…I just can’t help wondering if he couldn’t do with a little more sense of principle. He is British after all. Wondering what Trevellyan will do next, and whether he’s going to eventually go nuts, will keep me reading the next installment. Which is probably the point anyway.

You can read more about Andrew Grant and the David Trevellyan series at http://andrewgrantbooks.com/.

Review written by The Senator

Can I Really Rewrite This Dream?

I'm really not one for having nightmares. Overall, I find my dreams funny and they mostly involve unrealistic plot lines after I've become obsessed with a new book character. For instance, some of my dreams include me fighting Lessers with the Black Dagger Brotherhood in Caldwell. Other dreams have me battling legal motions along side Scott Finn in Boston. My current dreams have me battling crime with David Trevellyan and Jack Reacher in major cities throughout the U.S. - Does any of this even surprise you? After reading an article about rewriting nightmares, I told my husband about a really horrible dream I've been having, and insisted that he set out to help me rewrite it. (I married a really great man that understands how important it is for me to find perfection in all things-including and not limited to...my dreams) This dream centers around my favorite character, David Trevellyan. We're hunting down a criminal in some major city when suddenly we are overpowered by two really bad looking characters that can only be described as, Paul Bunyon types (they only look like Paul Bunyon people because I was trying to help find a roadside attraction in Oregon for my nieces speech class). They manage to take David's weapon away and shove me against a wall. At that point, I'm just kind of stuck in the background watching. Really not much I can do. The Bunyon men clearly aren't interested in me. They didn't even check me for a weapon. Which wouldn't have mattered anyway when you here what happens next...David manages to knock one of the men down but he's struggling with the second one. That's when he starts yelling at me; "Shoot him, Kate. Shoot him!" At this point in my dream I always start to panic, and end up forcing myself to wake because I know this really bad dream is about to get worse and I don't want to see how it ends. David wanting me to shoot seems logical since I do indeed carry a weapon. The problem is with my weapon choice for said dream! The only gun I technically own is a Walther PPK collectors edition. I found it the night my husband insisted I buy my own weapon for the shooting range. He took me to the gun counter and showed me all these really cute revolvers with hot pink handles. I admit, I was impressed, but somewhere during the demonstration by the store owner, my eye wandered just a little to the right, and the gun I chose was even more spectacular than the one he was wanting me to buy. Unfortunately, owning a collectors edition means you can't use it. Apparently that same rule applies in my dream. So, tonight, my husband is taking me to the shooting range to practice with his SIG SAUER 238. I'm hoping that the time I'm taking out of my schedule to practice with this weapon will ensure my ability to assist my most beloved character the next time he yells at me for help in a dream. I'll let you know if this rewriting your dream stuff really works. As you know, I'm bound to blog about it!