Blood Curse (Blood & Fire 2) by Mychael Black

The Vampires in this novella by Mychael Black are fashionable and charming like runaway models. They are all beautiful, alluring, wealthy... the perfect dream men. It's not surprise that "poor" humans are not at all worried by the prospective of being their lovers, what is a pint of blood in exchange of living with them?

Jason, wanna-to-be rock star, is not that different. He was a struggling artist, and alone. Now he is living in a beautiful house, he can devote himself to his art, and to top things with a cherry, he has a willing and beautiful lover, Julian. Their play in bedroom is very much like a gothic porn show, blood is not only the life source for Julian, but becomes also the main focus of their sexual encounters, and Jason learned to enjoy giving it to his partner, more he is eager to do so. Like in the title of this series, Julian is "blood", and so he is cool/cold (if not warmed another source), thick, something of continuous and life bearing, and instead Jason is "fire", impulsive, hot, unsteady and dangerous, but he himself the source of life if rightly used.

But not all is perfect in their life and an unknown stalker is creating big trouble in Jason's life. To help Julian arrives another vampire, Gabriel, another beautiful and alluring creature... those vampires are not all all scaring!

This is only a novella, but I like the mix of innocence and sex: even if it seems strange, I feel like Jason is "innocent", he is young and pretty, full of life and still a kid to life. He thinks to be independent and all grown, but in reality he still needs someone to protect him, someone wiser like Julian. And don't worry, even if "innocent", Jason is a more than willing partner in bed, and so there are a lot of nice sex scenes.

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1249

Series: Blood & Fire
1) Blood & Fire: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/649436.html
2) Blood Curse

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html

Blood Curse (Blood & Fire 2) by Mychael Black

The Vampires in this novella by Mychael Black are fashionable and charming like runaway models. They are all beautiful, alluring, wealthy... the perfect dream men. It's not surprise that "poor" humans are not at all worried by the prospective of being their lovers, what is a pint of blood in exchange of living with them?

Jason, wanna-to-be rock star, is not that different. He was a struggling artist, and alone. Now he is living in a beautiful house, he can devote himself to his art, and to top things with a cherry, he has a willing and beautiful lover, Julian. Their play in bedroom is very much like a gothic porn show, blood is not only the life source for Julian, but becomes also the main focus of their sexual encounters, and Jason learned to enjoy giving it to his partner, more he is eager to do so. Like in the title of this series, Julian is "blood", and so he is cool/cold (if not warmed another source), thick, something of continuous and life bearing, and instead Jason is "fire", impulsive, hot, unsteady and dangerous, but he himself the source of life if rightly used.

But not all is perfect in their life and an unknown stalker is creating big trouble in Jason's life. To help Julian arrives another vampire, Gabriel, another beautiful and alluring creature... those vampires are not all all scaring!

This is only a novella, but I like the mix of innocence and sex: even if it seems strange, I feel like Jason is "innocent", he is young and pretty, full of life and still a kid to life. He thinks to be independent and all grown, but in reality he still needs someone to protect him, someone wiser like Julian. And don't worry, even if "innocent", Jason is a more than willing partner in bed, and so there are a lot of nice sex scenes.

http://www.changelingpress.com/product.php?&upt=book&ubid=1249

Series: Blood & Fire
1) Blood & Fire: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/649436.html
2) Blood Curse

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html

Showboy (2002) directed by Lindy Heymann & Christian Taylor

Directors: Lindy Heymann
Christian Taylor

Writers (WGA): Christian Taylor (written by)
Lindy Heymann (written by)
Jason Buchtel (written by)

Genre: Comedy

Tagline: Your future starts here
No dream is crazy if you want to live it

Plot: When Christian Taylor, a writer on HBO's wildly popular Six Feet Under, agrees to let a British television crew film him for a documentary, he doesn't realize that they will document the moment when Executive Producer Alan Ball unexpectedly fires him.

Rather than admit he's been canned, Christian tells the crew he's got a new project, and has them follow him as he begins an unusual quest to fulfill a life long dream to become a Vegas Showboy.

From strip-mall dance studios to the stages of Vegas' top shows, from Siegfried & Roy to Whoopi Goldberg, the crew observes Christian's erratic passion-fueled journey. Along the way, they meet a cast of wild and wonderful characters who are the true life and soul of Vegas.

Stars Christian Taylor (writer, Six Feet Under and the hit series Lost) and director Lindy Heymann. Features cameos by Whoopi Goldberg and Siegfried & Roy!

"Terrifically funny!" -- Entertainment Weekly

"Clever, amusing and wistful . . .knockout cameos by Alan Ball, Whoopi Goldberg and Siegfried & Roy" –Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Awards: 2002 Douglas Hickox Award to Lindy Heymann & Christian Taylor, British Independent Film Awards
2002 Best Film Award to Christian Taylor & Lindy Heymann, Milan International Film Festival

@IMDb
@Amazon: Showboy
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video



( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Christian Taylor ... Writer "Christian"
Adrian Armas ... Model / Dance "Adrian"
Lindy Heymann ... Director "Lindy"
Marilyn Milgrom ... London Producer "Marilyn" (voice)
Joe Daley ... Roomate "Joe"
Erich Miller ... Showboy "Erich"
Jason Buchtel ... Vegas Producer "Jason"
Aaron Porter ... Dance Instructor
Billy Sameth ... Close Friend "Billy"
Alan Ball ... Himself
( rest of the cast )

Christian Taylor & Adrian Armas

Showboy (2002) directed by Lindy Heymann & Christian Taylor

Directors: Lindy Heymann
Christian Taylor

Writers (WGA): Christian Taylor (written by)
Lindy Heymann (written by)
Jason Buchtel (written by)

Genre: Comedy

Tagline: Your future starts here
No dream is crazy if you want to live it

Plot: When Christian Taylor, a writer on HBO's wildly popular Six Feet Under, agrees to let a British television crew film him for a documentary, he doesn't realize that they will document the moment when Executive Producer Alan Ball unexpectedly fires him.

Rather than admit he's been canned, Christian tells the crew he's got a new project, and has them follow him as he begins an unusual quest to fulfill a life long dream to become a Vegas Showboy.

From strip-mall dance studios to the stages of Vegas' top shows, from Siegfried & Roy to Whoopi Goldberg, the crew observes Christian's erratic passion-fueled journey. Along the way, they meet a cast of wild and wonderful characters who are the true life and soul of Vegas.

Stars Christian Taylor (writer, Six Feet Under and the hit series Lost) and director Lindy Heymann. Features cameos by Whoopi Goldberg and Siegfried & Roy!

"Terrifically funny!" -- Entertainment Weekly

"Clever, amusing and wistful . . .knockout cameos by Alan Ball, Whoopi Goldberg and Siegfried & Roy" –Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Awards: 2002 Douglas Hickox Award to Lindy Heymann & Christian Taylor, British Independent Film Awards
2002 Best Film Award to Christian Taylor & Lindy Heymann, Milan International Film Festival

@IMDb
@Amazon: Showboy
@Netflix
@Wolfe Video



( more pics )

Cast (in credits order)
Christian Taylor ... Writer "Christian"
Adrian Armas ... Model / Dance "Adrian"
Lindy Heymann ... Director "Lindy"
Marilyn Milgrom ... London Producer "Marilyn" (voice)
Joe Daley ... Roomate "Joe"
Erich Miller ... Showboy "Erich"
Jason Buchtel ... Vegas Producer "Jason"
Aaron Porter ... Dance Instructor
Billy Sameth ... Close Friend "Billy"
Alan Ball ... Himself
( rest of the cast )

Christian Taylor & Adrian Armas

Philip Spooner - www.EqualityMaine.org

Gacked from toob (toob) since it's a beautiful video (http://toob.livejournal.com/559892.html). I actually didn't understand all, but enough to understand that this man is a very savy one

www.EqualityMaine.org - Testimony given for and against Maine's marriage equality bill on April 22, 2009. Nearly 4,000 people attended the hearing, with marriage equality supporters out-numbering the opposition 4 to 1.

ETA from elena_62:

Here one can find some more background information on the video testimony of World War II veteran Phlip Spooner:

http://www.protectmaineequality.org/release.cfm?id=155

Personally I liked a lot this ad of the campaign ''Protect Maine Equality'':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QLirv1-vBY&feature=related

Maybe it is also good to remember that at the moment:

//The latest poll shows us in a dead heat-- 48% of Maine voters will vote NO, 48% yes, and 4% are undecided. This proves what we've always known -- this referendum will be won by the campaign with the best Get Out the Vote program.// (from http://protectmaineequality.org/blog.cfm?ID=45)

Let's hope for the best!

Philip Spooner - www.EqualityMaine.org

Gacked from toob (toob) since it's a beautiful video (http://toob.livejournal.com/559892.html). I actually didn't understand all, but enough to understand that this man is a very savy one

www.EqualityMaine.org - Testimony given for and against Maine's marriage equality bill on April 22, 2009. Nearly 4,000 people attended the hearing, with marriage equality supporters out-numbering the opposition 4 to 1.

ETA from elena_62:

Here one can find some more background information on the video testimony of World War II veteran Phlip Spooner:

http://www.protectmaineequality.org/release.cfm?id=155

Personally I liked a lot this ad of the campaign ''Protect Maine Equality'':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QLirv1-vBY&feature=related

Maybe it is also good to remember that at the moment:

//The latest poll shows us in a dead heat-- 48% of Maine voters will vote NO, 48% yes, and 4% are undecided. This proves what we've always known -- this referendum will be won by the campaign with the best Get Out the Vote program.// (from http://protectmaineequality.org/blog.cfm?ID=45)

Let's hope for the best!

Venus Envy by EM Lynley

When I was young there was a cartoon here in Italy that I liked very much. It was about an ipothetical daughter of Apollo, god of Sun, Pollon, and it was Japanese I believe. It arrived in Italy after passing through the censorship and actually very few of the original cartoon survived; I say so since, from what remained, you could understand that the main idea was that all the Olympic gods were highly sexually driven men and women, who practically have sex with everyone (and sometime everything!) was around. Their actual roles were always forgotten and you had to wonder how the human world could function if its gods were like that!

From this childish memory, it remains to me a passion for all the related stories about Gods and similar deity, and I enjoy, here and there, a story that mix ancient legends with modern time (see Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenion).

Venus Envy is something similar to that cartoon, it's setting in Rome instead of Mount Olympus, but basically the gods are the same. Venus in particular, and that is right with her role, thinks to herself like a gift for everyman, and when she is rebuffed by Sancus, god of honesty, she doesn't think twince to curse him with the help of her son Cupid. Now Sancus seems unable to desire, and have sex, with everyone he loves, but has an uncontrollable urge to have sex with evey man he crosses on the street. Being Sancus a good god, with actually a moral, he doesn't find the situation very appealing, even less when he falls in love for Aurelio, a nice man he met one night and is unable to "satisfy" the morning after.

This is only a short novella, so there is nothing much to say. I like one thing in particular, something that is often taught to us in school: in the common imaginary, the Greek gods, and their correspondent Roman version, are always seen as debauched and unstable, always ready to "party" and easy to be enraged, and so also vindictive; the "original" Roman gods instead, always represent something useful and "ordinary", they are more near to the human world than their Greek colleagues, and seems to care more for down to heart things, like jobs and homes and everything related. This is fully respected by this novella, where Venus is a bitch in heat and instead Sancus is more like a library mouse who finds himself in a very embarrassing situation for him.

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/venusenvy.htm

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html

Venus Envy by EM Lynley

When I was young there was a cartoon here in Italy that I liked very much. It was about an ipothetical daughter of Apollo, god of Sun, Pollon, and it was Japanese I believe. It arrived in Italy after passing through the censorship and actually very few of the original cartoon survived; I say so since, from what remained, you could understand that the main idea was that all the Olympic gods were highly sexually driven men and women, who practically have sex with everyone (and sometime everything!) was around. Their actual roles were always forgotten and you had to wonder how the human world could function if its gods were like that!

From this childish memory, it remains to me a passion for all the related stories about Gods and similar deity, and I enjoy, here and there, a story that mix ancient legends with modern time (see Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenion).

Venus Envy is something similar to that cartoon, it's setting in Rome instead of Mount Olympus, but basically the gods are the same. Venus in particular, and that is right with her role, thinks to herself like a gift for everyman, and when she is rebuffed by Sancus, god of honesty, she doesn't think twince to curse him with the help of her son Cupid. Now Sancus seems unable to desire, and have sex, with everyone he loves, but has an uncontrollable urge to have sex with evey man he crosses on the street. Being Sancus a good god, with actually a moral, he doesn't find the situation very appealing, even less when he falls in love for Aurelio, a nice man he met one night and is unable to "satisfy" the morning after.

This is only a short novella, so there is nothing much to say. I like one thing in particular, something that is often taught to us in school: in the common imaginary, the Greek gods, and their correspondent Roman version, are always seen as debauched and unstable, always ready to "party" and easy to be enraged, and so also vindictive; the "original" Roman gods instead, always represent something useful and "ordinary", they are more near to the human world than their Greek colleagues, and seems to care more for down to heart things, like jobs and homes and everything related. This is fully respected by this novella, where Venus is a bitch in heat and instead Sancus is more like a library mouse who finds himself in a very embarrassing situation for him.

http://www.cobblestone-press.com/catalog/books/venusenvy.htm

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html

Moonlight’s Silver by Rayne Auster

This short story is a big teaser, and I'm not sure I'm using the word in a positive meaning :-) Joke aside, I like it but after having just finished one of the nicer sex scene I read lately, I'm here eager to read more and the short story is ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. (big pout).

First teasing: the cover. Have you seen that? well obviously you have, I'm posting it very big so you can see it. The cover is actually a big teasing even if it's not fully respectful of the main character, Ankerite is more a lost puppy than a dangerous killer like he appears in the cover. Nevertheless the cover served its scope, since it teased me into getting this short story, even if I usually don't read the shorts by this publisher.

Second teasing: the story. Yes, I know, many of you are skittish when dealing with human and "animal", and thinking at a boy/man who is not fully man and not fully wolf, a guy with eyes, ears and tail like a wolf and all the rest like a man, makes you cringe. Me? it makes me interested. What can I say, I find it cute. Even more when the guy not only has "external" evidences of his nature, but also some inner "urges", like the need to mating, and get all excited around his mate, Linden. And Linden is more a big mutt than a dangerous wolf... right, he can be dangerous if he wants, and he is an Alpha for his pack, but with Anke he is more a both lover than "brother", he represents all the family the boy lost and now he desperately needs.

Third and last teasing... big one this one: the end. Actually also the beginning and all in between. The reader is plunged in the middle of a story, there was something else before, and it seems really interesting, Anke's original family. They need to be wealthy, they hired a bodyguard for their "freak" son, and this bodyguard was a nice man. What happened? where is that nice man? Why Anke felt the need to leave his family when he was only 16 years old? And then what happened before?

On Linden's side: what is his story? Who is Darren? and Cole and Ron? what is his life before that made him such a nice, but strong man? And now that he has found his mate, what will happen to them? This story is just too short to fully satisfy me, I see a lot of potential in this setting, I really hope this is only an excerpt of something longer, just a taste to tease the reader to come back for more. To me, it worked perfectly.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=55_77&products_id=1477

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html


Cover Art by Evelsys

Moonlight’s Silver by Rayne Auster

This short story is a big teaser, and I'm not sure I'm using the word in a positive meaning :-) Joke aside, I like it but after having just finished one of the nicer sex scene I read lately, I'm here eager to read more and the short story is ended, just like that, in a blink of an eye. (big pout).

First teasing: the cover. Have you seen that? well obviously you have, I'm posting it very big so you can see it. The cover is actually a big teasing even if it's not fully respectful of the main character, Ankerite is more a lost puppy than a dangerous killer like he appears in the cover. Nevertheless the cover served its scope, since it teased me into getting this short story, even if I usually don't read the shorts by this publisher.

Second teasing: the story. Yes, I know, many of you are skittish when dealing with human and "animal", and thinking at a boy/man who is not fully man and not fully wolf, a guy with eyes, ears and tail like a wolf and all the rest like a man, makes you cringe. Me? it makes me interested. What can I say, I find it cute. Even more when the guy not only has "external" evidences of his nature, but also some inner "urges", like the need to mating, and get all excited around his mate, Linden. And Linden is more a big mutt than a dangerous wolf... right, he can be dangerous if he wants, and he is an Alpha for his pack, but with Anke he is more a both lover than "brother", he represents all the family the boy lost and now he desperately needs.

Third and last teasing... big one this one: the end. Actually also the beginning and all in between. The reader is plunged in the middle of a story, there was something else before, and it seems really interesting, Anke's original family. They need to be wealthy, they hired a bodyguard for their "freak" son, and this bodyguard was a nice man. What happened? where is that nice man? Why Anke felt the need to leave his family when he was only 16 years old? And then what happened before?

On Linden's side: what is his story? Who is Darren? and Cole and Ron? what is his life before that made him such a nice, but strong man? And now that he has found his mate, what will happen to them? This story is just too short to fully satisfy me, I see a lot of potential in this setting, I really hope this is only an excerpt of something longer, just a taste to tease the reader to come back for more. To me, it worked perfectly.

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=55_77&products_id=1477

The Rainbow Awards: Phase 2: http://elisa-rolle.livejournal.com/823682.html


Cover Art by Evelsys