Review of Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher

I admit it; Jim Butcher's Dresdan Files is addicting. And this latest novel, Proven Guilty is no exception. Harry Dresdan, a wizard who's also a P.I. has new challenges, finding out that nothing in his world is totally white or black, as there's too many shades of gray in between.

In this book he is approached by Molly, the daughter of Michael, a friend who is also a Knight of the Cross and works for God, and whom Harry has avoided for the past two years. He discovers that she wants him to bail her boyfriend out of jail. The boyfriend, Nelson is accused of beating up a movie theater owner at SplatterCon, a horror convention. But Harry suspects Nelson is innocent and as he investigates into it, discovers possibly demons or spirits are using movie monsters to do their dirty work. Mix that up with Molly's mother who has never liked him, a convention full of horror fans and other strange things that get stranger, obviously nothing will be easy for Harry to dig up the truth.

Take all the cool detective novels you ever read, then spiced them up with magic, monsters and mayhem, add a little wizardry on a par with Harry Potter, just more grown up, and you have one incredible adventure that you won't want to put down.

I give this novel 5 DRAGONS.

Fallen Angels Review of Crimson Promise

Michelle of Fallen Angels Reviews reviewed Crimson Promise and read what she said: "Sapphire Phelan packs a great big boatload of story into these eleven pages. Crimson Promise is a tale bathed in blood and lust; Ms. Phelan’s ability to craft worlds is shown off in this scorcher. Characters are interesting and there’s plenty of fodder here for sequels galore. Dipped in desire and bursting with blatant eroticism, Crimson Promise makes good and delivers! Don’t miss this hot and spicy little number! Four Angels!"

You can read the rest of the review at http://www.fallenangelreviews.com/2006/August/Michelle-CrimsonPromise.htm

Review of Sorcha's Heart

Isn't the picture above so cool? I was next door at the Byrd Theatre for an interview with the manager about the second-runned movie theatre's ghost for my nonfiction ghosts of Richmond book I'm writing when I walked over to Bygones (a vintage clothing store) and had to take this photo of their window display. Obviously, Pirate of the Caribbean has made pirates so cool these days.

Anyway, I'll be doing reviews sometimes as part of my blogging. And since I am a big dragon fan, I will be giving dragons, in rating from one to five--like this one dragon. Today, the first one will be Sorcha's Heart by Debbie Mumford. The publisher is Freyer's Bower and the ebook came out in 2006.
I had won this lovely erotic fantasy in a contest and was pleasantly surprised to get a book that I really enjoyed.
The heroine, Sorcha goes against her mother's wishes to find the Heart of Fire and end the war between the humans and the dragons. But when she is close to finding it, a black dragon appears, telling her that he was summoned to witness its rebirth. But the Heart of Fire does when Sorcha gets it and places the chain of the medallion around her neck, is something unforseen. Its magic causes a metamorphosis, changing her into a dragon. The the black dragon, Caedryn, takes her under his wing and helps her to become a dragon. What is also unforseen is the growing love Sorcha develops for Caedyrn, further complicating her desire to find a way to become human once more.
An deeply erotic fantasy, it is well-written and is almost a fantastic symbol of what life and love between two different races means in the real world today. Debbie Mumford shows us that even with such a relationship between two different species the gap can be bridged, as love is the greatest equalizer.

I give this story five dragons.

Horrorfind Weekend

Well, I'm back from Horrorfind Weekend. Tired, but it was a good time, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Above with me in the picture is horror author Mark Rainey, his daughter and artist Deena Warner.
My husband, Bill and I left Friday, August 11th by 8AM, an hour later then I wanted but oh well. . . The drive up wasn't bad--it wasn't a hot day, so we didn't need the air conditioner on and we drove with the windows down. No congested traffic either , even in Northern Virginia or on the Capital Beltway. The only time we had any worries about congestion or stopped traffic was when we just gotten into Maryland and noticed flashing lights up far ahead. A car had caught on fire and was still burning wildly, with firefighters still trying to put it out as we passed it by, but everyone kept going and so we had no problems getting through and actually made it about ten minutes earlier to the hotel then the normal four hours it takes to get there from our house.
We even got into our room, at Noon and not the 4PM check-in time! After getting our lugguge and other things taken up and unpacked some things, we went downstairs to check things out and see if we could find anyone we knew. We saw where things would be for the con, got my guest badge and Bill's weekend wrist band, and ran into good friends, Gina Farago and Terry and Glenn Bane setting up their tables where they would be most of the weekend, selling their books and artwork. They went to do something and Bill and I stopped at the Hunt Cafe and bought us a small pizza with everything (but olives) on it, and ate it and drank couple cokes from our coke supply we had brought up in our room, watching TV.
Closer to four o'clock, I took a quick shower and got dressed. My reading was at 5:15PM and I wanted to be prepared. I put some things into my World Fantasy bag I had gotten a few years ago when I attended the con and dragged the books and CDs I had in the small suitcase on wheels Bill had gotten for being with Chesterfield County twenty years. Ran into Gina and Terry and Glenn again, then went through the dealer's room, and at around 5PM went to Salon E where my reading was to be held with author Steven Shrewsbury. I found out that Steven wasn't there and would be late getting it (he was flying in, and after the terrorist thing, knew this would be happening a lot). Luckily Gina came in to be my partner in crime, I mean, reading. It was too early, plus we had competition from my friend, Elizabeth Blue's reading next door with her set up party-atmosphere, including wine and special effects, but couple people did attend. Afterwards I went to listen to Beth read a 'goat' horror story, and then back up to my room, changing into comfy clothing of jeans, sandals and a top, and to drop the suitcase of books back in there.
Bill and I went to the dealer's room, where I bought a DVD from Darkstone Entertainment (they're a horror studio from Charlottesville, Virginia whom I auditioned for before), a couple books, couple bags of coffee from Coffee Shop of Horrors and a T-shirt. (On Saturday we did buy another bag of coffee for my mother-in-law from Coffee Shop of Horror since she was watching our dog, Indy for the weekend.) Later that evening Bill took me to the Haunted Sanitarium and then he went up to bed, as he was dead tired. But me, I still felt hyped up and went back downstairs, joining Mark Rainey, Gina Farago, Terry and Glenn Bane, and went back into the haunted house thing again. We went to Gina's room for a while and at about midnight headed over to the paranormal guest's talk. At 1PM everyone went to bed--the next day started at 10AM for the convention.
Bill and I got up about 8AM. Well actually, I got up at 7:30, and I dressed in my bathing suit and used the hotel jacuzzi as my feet were aching bad. Afterwards, I showered, made me a bagel and cream cheese and a grabbed cup of coffee I had made in our in-room coffeemaker and watched the news on the television. Bill and I went downstairs, checked out the dealer's room, where I filled up my big scary mug I had gotten last year from ealmart during Halloween and went to listen to Mark Rainey and Paul Melniczek read. I attended another reading while Bill went to watch a movie from Darkstone Entertainment. One of the actors in it had Brinke Stevens (I knew her from when we both were members of S.T.A.R./San Diego years ago) in it. The reading ended and I ended up watching the rest of the film with him. Afterwards, we went up to our room, made lunch and ate it. The rest of the day, was spent in attending readings and more, with supper later in our room. Later though , to feed my sudden craving for chocolate, we had dessert at the hotel's restaurant. That done and being close to 8PM, Bill and I headed over to Mark Warner's party in his and Deeena's room. It was being put on for the premiere of his new book, Eyes Everywhere, from his publisher, Raw Dog Screaming Press . A super party too, talking with friends and meeting new people. I would suggest to anyone to check out his book at Raw Dog Screaming--it's had great things said about it and his reading he did, reading from it was really, really cool. By the way, he shared the limelight with author/movie producer, Frazier Lee from his Urbane book, which he will make the first film from it next year.
We climbed into bed by 11:30PM though as Bill got sick (he drank alot more then normal for him and not eating enough most of the day didn't help), The next morning, after 8 hours of sleep, I got up and exercised in the hotel's exercise room while Bill showered, dressed and made coffee. Feeling good from the exercising, I showered and ate a bagel, a banana and had a cup of coffee, then helped Bill get all of our stuff down to the car as we would be driving home after attending couple readings and checking out of the hotel. Golly, it was a beautiful day too, not hot, just gorgeous!
By 1:15PM, after some goodbyes, we were on the road for home. This time though, it took us the total four hours, as we ran into congested traffic, the first one as we drove over into Virginia. This first oen was due to an accident by exit 160, which was far away from the Virginia/Maryland where we entered. After that one, we hit a couple more, but finally got close enough to home and took an exit to go eat at Golden Corral and get gas, before going completely home.
All in all, it was a good weekend, hopefully getting people to know about me, Beyond the Four Walls and Ravencon, as we took up flyers for this too. All of the flyers disappeared fast and many authors and also some publishers, had heard of us and were very interested.

Another Review of Crimson Promise at SimplyAli's Blog!!!

Check out another review of Crimson Promise, by Ali at http://simplyali.blogspot.com/.
Here is some of it: Sapphire Phelan has wrote a unique and different story, than one I've read before. She is not only able to tell the story of Victor and Na'lesa, but she describes this new world she has created well enough that we can visualize it, and is even able to give a little history. The plot and its characters fit well together. Had anything been changed, I think it would have taken away from the story.
Read the rest of the review at her blog, and check out the other reviews she's done, and a contest she's holding until August 13th, where you're entered when you suggest e-books for her to read and review.