Checkout Ambient Mixer

I saw a post about Ambient Mixer on Epbot.com (one of my favorite blogs). It is a great site that has audio you can listen to, it is more than white noise but not music, ambient audioscapes. There are many categories to checkout, environmental, movies, unreal, etc.

When you pick one and go into it, for example221b Baker Street, a Sherlock themed one, you can customize the sounds if you want.

They are nice to listen to as background noise or play when you are meditating. There are several rooms that could inspire writing. If you are writing a story set on a pirate or space ship, there is one that sounds like you are on them.
Oh and there are bunch of Harry Potter themed ones, one for each common room.
Or  you could make your own set of sounds for free.
I really like The Alien Sounds of the Darkest Ocean Depths.

Go check it out and enjoy. http://www.ambient-mixer.com/

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisen Review

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

Book One of the Broken Earth

The Fifth Season is the first in The Broken Earth series. The setting is on Earth but it is long past our time, many civilizations have flourished and been destroyed. The Earth is unstable. Large earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions that can darken the sky for years happen. Sometimes sending the world into a Season, a period of ruin, some survive some do not. The world is littered with deadciv artifacts. In the first few pages, an unnamed character does breaks the Earth to bring about the beginning of a new Season.

The basically enslaved orogenes are people born with the ability to affect the geological. There are Guardians, they have the ability to control orogenes. The main characters are all orogenes. We meet one as she loses a child, one as a child who has just learned what she can do, and another as she embarks on a mission for the Guardian controlled Fulcrum.

I enjoyed the layout of the book and the weaving of the characters. I had an inkling of a twist, but wasn’t sure how the author could pull it off. She did it and after I thought of course, very satisfying. The characters are the heart of the story. I worried for them all. And hoped. I was angry at some of the choices they made but understood them.

While I did enjoy this book, I mainly read it on my lunch break. It wasn’t till over half way through that I couldn’t wait to take it home and read. By the time I finished the book I was hooked, if the second one was near I would have started it immediately.

One thing I would have liked a little more time on were the node maintainers. I don’t know if that will be possible in the next book. I get enough of it to understand the horror but still have some questions. I also want to know more about the mysterious Stone-eaters and the obelisks. Hopefully, book two The Obelisk Gate will be come in on hold for me today.

Amazon Description:

 THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS... FOR THE LAST TIME.

A season of endings has begun.

It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun.

It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter.

It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester.

This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy. 

This book is available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.

Honk Honk

This video tickled me. I remember being a little kid sharing the backseat with my younger brother.
We we're on a 500 mile road trip to my grandparents house when my Mom or Dad first taught us the arm pulling honk request. My brother and I probably did it to every semi we passed. Enjoy the video.

Friday Writing Post

I Google image searched unique people and these are some of the results. Use one of the pictures to inspire a story.

Have fun!

Some Funny Wildlife Photos

I came across a post on Neatorama about the 2016 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. I clicked over to the finalist page to see all of the finalists for 2016. The 2015 winners are worth a click as well. Below are my five favorites.

                                                      Shut it, Bob

                                                    We've all had days like this.

          "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." - Princess Bride
                            If you haven't read the book or seen the movie do so immediately.  

Let the Right One In Movie Review

Let the Right One In is a 2009 Swedish vampire film based on the 2004 book of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist. It is about a timid 12 year old boy Oskar. He lives with his mother, spends occasional time with his father. He is a loner who is preyed on by a pack of aggressive bullies. One night while pretending to get revenge on the bullies he meets new neighbor Eli, who may not be human. 
The movie has a moody atmosphere that pulls you in and keeps you interested. It is a unique twisting of the vampire and coming of age stories. The actors were superb. I full on believed Eli was twelve and had been twelve for a very long time. While watching the movie I felt a full range of emotions. There was a level of tenderness that I loved.
There was an American remake called Let me In, do yourself a favor and skip that and watch the original Swedish one.TNT is making a tv show out of the book it is set to air sometime in 2017.

Both the Swedish film and the book are available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.

Friday Writing Prompt

                                              1.  No Remorse
                                              2.  Signs
                                              3.  Meet Bill
                                              4.  Dead Man Down
                                              5.  Dogma
                                              6.  Iron Horse
                                              7. The Way of the Coyote
                                              8.  Gone the Dreams and Dancing
                                              9.  Night Passage
                                             10. Silent Hill
                                             11. Shattered Memories
                                             12. The Amazing Promise
                                             13. Warm Bodies
                                             14. Shadow Thieves
                                             15. Innocents Lost
                                             16. One Thousand White Women
                                             17. Insidious
                                             18. The Ice Harvest
                                             19.  The Jealous Kind
                                             20. Let the Right One In
Have fun.