ARGH! An Interview with Lord Arkus from the Book, My Sparkling Misfortune by Laura Lond

First of all, let me just assure you that no monsters and/or villains were harmed during this interview.

Next, I would just like all of you to know that it was ARGH who insisted in doing this interview with the famed villain Lord Arkus of My Sparkling Misfortune fame, therefore, should there have been traumatic incidences that occurred during the interview, I am in no way liable.

That said, I'm letting ARGH take the wheel now and I hope you like our beloved monster's first foray into journalism.  Enjoy!

 

Come on, Nina, don't you have any faith in me?  I know how to handle this, I keep telling you that.  Lord Arkus is not dangerous, and besides, all questions I ask him are screened by the ever-present author, Laura Lond, who assures me Lord Arkus cannot hunt me down.

So, hello dear readers!  I am ARGH.  But you already know that.  Well, I'm here to present to you the awesomest character interview in the history of character interviews because Lord Arkus, villain of all villains, the blackest of hearts, and the soulless of all soulless has graced this blog with his presence as he submits himself to an interview and promises not to hit me.

You don't happen to slay monsters, do you?

No, no need to worry. That’s heroic stuff, I don’t do that.

Can you tell us something about yourself that nobody knows?

But as soon as I tell you, everyone will know. So there’s no point.

So you're a villain, can you tell us how that feels?

It’s fun in many ways, you get to set your own rules. But if you are considering this path, I must warn you that villainy is a lonely profession. And you have to always watch your back.

Most villains have a history of how they became a villain.  Can you give us a background on how you came to be?

Well, I am not usually open to sharing personal things like that, in fact I guard my early history, but I suppose there’s no harm if your readers know -- after all, it’s not likely that they make their way into my realm and start talking. So I’ll reveal some of it. I had chosen this fine profession when, as a very young man, I had lost a close friend, and on top of that found myself accused of things I had not done. I figured it was not worth it to try to prove them all wrong -- and I enjoyed their fear of me. So I had embraced this path and proceeded to earn my reputation of a villain.

When did you decide to write your life story?  And what was your aim? 

I thought it was about time a villain had his say. Have you noticed how villains are usually portrayed in books? More like props to move the story along rather than real characters. They are rarely heard or given a chance, they are often misrepresented and underestimated. The latter is fine with me, because when I turn out to be smarter than someone thought, I win. But the overall situation is, well, rather offensive. I thought a book like mine might help to set the record straight.

What are three things that make you most happy?

That would be getting even with enemies, getting even with enemies, and getting even with enemies.

What are books that you love to read?

I like adventure, preferably with sword fights. And of course a respectable villain in the story is always a plus.

I noticed that instead of your name, this book you wrote carries Laura Lond's name.  Do you know her?  And why not your name?

This is something I hope to straighten out someday. Ms. Lond helped to make my book available in your world; I had agreed to it since I did not know how to do it myself, but I had no idea she would put her name on it! If she was a man, I would have challenged her to a duel.

What can we expect from Lord Arkus in the future?  Any plans to conquer the United States?

Luckily for the United States, I reside in a different realm, so the answer is no. But you do have something to look forward to: I am working on a sequel to My Sparkling Misfortune. It will be titled My Royal Pain Quest.

Would you be interested in having a monster in your employ?  I'm not paid much for this book blogging job.

Can you roar and look scary? Those would be the primary qualifications. I do have goblins and other scary things in Arkusville, and there’s always room for more.

-----
Thank you so much, Lord Arkus for answering my questions, and for not hurting me! I enjoyed being in the presence of such villainy and greatness, I was really itching to join his army.  Unfortunately, though, I could not roar, and try as I might, I will never look scary.  What with my spongy body and overall cuteness, I am doomed to look cute forever.  So goodbye, badass monster dreams.  But I am glad that I finally have an awesome villain friend, they're so difficult to find these days.

Armchair BEA Day 4: Nurturing Relationships - from ARGH's Point of View

Today's Armchair BEA topic may be the hardest for me to discuss.  Why?  Because I am not really aware how to work on relationships, I just do my thing and see how things go.  Fortunately for me, they mostly go pretty well.  So to ask me how I establish and maintain relationships with other people is pretty useless.

However, ARGH right here can tell you a thing or two about today's topic, as he must be the most sociable monster there ever is in the world of Monsterdom.  So taking the helm tonight to discuss something very relevant to book bloggers, let me hand over the reins to our resident monster, ARGH!

Hello everybody!  Today I will not be making you laugh or go crazy over my cuteness.  Nina specifically asked me to take this task seriously and I will.  Because I owe it to you to tell you the truth about relationships with the book world.  After all, if anyone can teach you a thing or two about relationships and publicity, why not me, the one who aspires to be the first-ever monster politician someday?

I am not really good at writing long paragraphs that will surely bore you to death - much like Nina's book reviews which, although they make sense, sometimes make me go 'blech' with all the details she puts in.  So like the 10 Good Things on a Monday feature that we do here on the blog - the first feature to bear my photo mind you - I will list things you must forever and ever stick into your brains:

1. To get books, you must NOT JUST RELY ON ARCs FROM PUBLISHERS OR AUTHORS.  Go buy copies of their books in the bookstore.  If you really love an author's book, you won't hesitate to shell out money for a copy of the product of their sweat and blood.  Like how you never hesitated to spend how much dollars just to see Rob Pattinson on screen trying to kiss Kristin Stewart's esophagus.  (I still think I can do a better - if not more graceful - portrayal of Edward than RPattz)
2. In the monster world, before monsters eat their victim, they say, "I'm going to eat you!" To avoid messy skirmishes with an author over a negative review you've written (yes, those situations do exist!), try to give a heads-up to the author first before publishing your review.  Let them be able to read it first, explain to them why you are giving such a review.  Remember that however bad a book is, authors tried to kill themselves writing it so when it gets criticized, it still hurts.  Just imagine if I suddenly told everyone, "(Your Name) smells like rotten corn!" (trust me, it smells really bad) when in fact, although you do smell funky, it's because you're sick and your medication is what's giving you that odor, it'll hurt, right?  But of course, letting the author read your review first does not mean you're giving them the right to make you change what you wrote.  You're just preparing them for whatever your verdict is, and because you care about their feelings.
3. Share a cupcake with a blogger.  Maybe not a real cupcake, but you get what I mean.
4. For really awesome books, instead of five stars, give the author a huge PLANET.  Like Jupiter.  Or maybe Saturn, because it's prettier.
5. When an author/publisher sent you books, thank them profusely, and make sure to tell them that when you become really famous someday, like president of a country, or a god, you'll name an island after them, and they have rights to that island.

You probably already know what I just told you.  But another advice - which I already know that you know, but I need to reinforce:

Be cute.  Be cuddly.  Be more, LIKE ME!

In other words, be confident about yourself, just like how I am.  Look at me.  I'm an undetermined shade of green, I'm fat, I do not have real hands, and my eyes are orange.  But all of you agree that I'm cute.  Why, when I AM A MONSTER?

It's because I, myself, think I AM CUTE.

And that's it, folks.  Nurturing relationships.  From a monster's point of view.

Armchair BEA Day 1: This is How I Blog

Hello there!  You're here for the Armchair BEA?  Well, me too!  So come on, lean back on your seats and let's talk!

I'm Nina, I'm 25 years old, and the reason I could not go to this year's BEA is because I'm all the way from the Philippines *doing my best Rachel Berry voice* "where it's sunny all day!"  So no matter how much I really want to, I just can't drop everything and hop on the next plane to New York.  I'm a nurse, by the way, and as much as I love my job, I get a kick out of reading books more.

Helping me stir things up on my blog is this cute monster ARGH, a real book-loving creature I just picked up one day on the side of the road.  He provides most of the fun, and says most of the crazy things I myself could not bring myself to speak of. 

You are aware that he's just a figment of my imagination, right?  So you won't be bothering me with questions whether he has his own email, or who is the real person behind this green abomination.

As you can imagine, I like to draw.  When I was not yet blogging about books, I used to spend all my time reading and drawing pictures.  This really helped me in making some really unique posts on my blog now because it makes things more interesting.  I'm a very visual person and nothing attracts me more than a good picture.

This is a picture I did for my first About a Book in Four Pictures post.

 These are some pictures I drew when I was not yet book blogging:

My silly bears

As for my favorite books, I really do not have a particular genre I love, as long as the story gets to me, I read it, no matter if it's YA or historical, or a classic.  Sometimes, even dystopians, sci-fi, and paranormal fiction make my day and they're not even my most favorite genres out there.  I do not like series much, but there are also times that I suddenly fall in love with a whole series.  I would love to enumerate my favorite books, but that would take all day; besides, it feels like I'm picking a favorite among my children, and I don't want to be that kind of parent.  So instead of telling you about my favorite books, let me just give you a 10-Good-Things-on-a-Monday-like list and tell you about ten books that I am looking forward on reading:

1. The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan
2. Entwined by Heather Dixon
3. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante
4. The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
5. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
6. Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan
7. Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
8. Other Words for Love by Lorraine Zago Rosenthal
9. The John Cleaver Series by Dan Wells (I know that's three books but they're all part of a series, and I consider that to be just one long book chopped into three :D)
10. Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Too bad, I can't just go into a bookstore and get all of them.

So, that's it for me, now it's your turn to tell me all about yourselves as we spend time together in Armchair BEA :D

Fabulous Follow Friday!

Friday is upon us again, and here in another edition of Follow Friday by Parajunkee's Views is a pretty interesting question that we all need to answer.  But before that question, let me show you the featured blog for this week:

 

And for the question: 

Q. Do you have anyone that you can discuss books with IRL? Tell us about him/her. 

I have lots of people that I discuss books with in real life!  They are:

1. My Mom - she's sort of my 'pusher' because she was the one who really taught me to go read books.  In fact, she herself has about 100+ books in the house (most can be found in her room, the bookshelves in the living room, some in my room, and even some in my brother's), mostly romance novels.  Now, she is also reading some of my books and I sometimes act as the 'pusher.'  I just looked over to where she's seated right now and she is weeping over the ending of Still Alice by Lisa Genova.  Her  favorite YA book is Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers.
2. My brother - ever since I started reading YA, he began to get interested in reading more of my books as YA books are generally easy to read and very light.  When we were younger, he was not too into reading books because he gets bored too easily.  His favorite among my books is Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.
3. The Boyfriend - who not only buys me books, but also borrows some!  He mostly likes thrillers and murder mysteries but he recently read Room by Emma Donoghue and was amazed.
4. My two friends, Mimi and Ira - who love YA books so much.  They even visit this blog to check out new books I reviewed and to get an idea of what to read next.  There were times when they would go right up to me and say, "Hey, I read your newest review and I thought it was great!" or "Do you have any new books?"  It sometimes makes me think that majority of those 9,000 + page views of my blog were from them!  They both loved Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan.
5. When everyone else is not available, I always have ARGH with me.  Seriously speaking, my brother already thinks I have a split personality because of that cute monster.  The things a brother knows.  Oh wait, that's a book!

Have a great weekend!  And welcome to blog hoppers and new followers!

ARGH! An Interview

We've known him for quite some time now, and he's actually one of the best form of entertainment on this blog.  For a time now, we've been laughing at ARGH's antics and his insane love of meatballs.  But what do we really know about this green bookish monster?  Time to find out!

I got ARGH to do an interview but reading through it again, I am a bit doubtful if it was any help at all.  But I still posted it, if only for laughter's sake.

So here goes:

Tell us something about you that we don't know yet.

I am the reincarnation of the Lochness monster but I was born to gentle parents with better family dynamics - which made me less harmful.

I also have this little crush on that girl who played Bella on Twilight.  If I was asked, I would agree to replace Rob Pattinson in a heartbeat!

So it's okay to call you Nessie sometimes?

No!

Aside from meatballs, what else makes you happy?

The color green, the sound of book pages being turned, wrestling, meatball ice cream, Glee, and karaoke nights!

I didn't know you can sing.

You're too busy hoarding the mic to notice.  If you must know, I am related to the great Fred Astaire on my mother's side.  

Really?

Yes!  He is brother to uncle of the cousin of the grandfather of my mother's grandmother's cousin.

So a really obscure and distant relation.

But still related!

You know ARGH, Fred Astaire is more known for his dancing so that should make you a better dancer, not singer.  

Whatever.  You need to have a good ear for music to do both.  And dancing's such a chore.  My flabs get smaller if I dance. 

What kinds of books do you like?

I want whatever you're having.  Wait, you asked about books, right?  I thought we were ordering food.  I like reading thrillers, murder mysteries, and contemporary fiction.  I also like the classics and a little dose of graphic novels.  

We've been together for a few months now.  Any plans to write a book review?

Someday, sure!  But I'm not a very good objective reader and you would have to do a lot of heavy editing to keep us from trouble.  I am better at showcasing your features and doing cute and funny poses for your blog.  In short, I'm better at doing looks.  You take care of the brains.

I am sure I look better than you.

I bet a lot of readers will disagree.

Whatever.  Aside from reading, how else do you pass the time?

Watching TV.  As I told you, I love Glee - I have a little crush on Lauren Zizes!  I also love sleeping and dreaming of meatballs.

So aside from gorging on meatballs, you also like dreaming about them.

Of course!  That's the key to a long and healthy life.

*Rolls eyes*  Any plans for the future?

Appearing on TV commercials, replacing Rob Pattinson in the Breaking Dawn movie - why not have Bella fall in love with a fluffy monster for a change?  I am sure I look better than Rob anyway - write a tell-all book, run for President, and eat as much meatballs as I can.

Write a tell-all book?  What are you going to talk about?

The life and struggles of a fluffy green monster like me.  My pain and suffering, my hopes and dreams - very intriguing story!

But you just said that you dream about meatballs.

I said I love dreaming about them, but I also have non-meatball dreams.

Like what?

Replacing Rob Pattinson.

Clearly this interview is going nowhere but meatballs, Rob Pattinson, and other ARGH stuff.  Before we end this interview, do you have any message to our readers?

We're finished?  But I haven't sang yet.  Oh well, to all the readers:  Thank you so much for following this blog.  I know that the only reason you stay tuned is because of my irresistible cuteness.  I can't imagine you sticking around for others stuff, like Nina's book reviews - BORING!  It's sad that you won't hear me sing right now, but I promise you I'll put up my own music video soon, so prepare to be amazed!

-----

Okay, that went well.  I don't know how he will manage to shoot his own video considering he's took big for a regular video camera - I am actually standing on a spot near his ear while doing this interview - but maybe he'll surprise us.

To connect with ARGH, tweet him a message on our Twitter account - he handles the sweet tweets!

Lots of Things to Tell You About...

First of all, I'd like to tell you about an exciting giveaway over at Ao's blog, aobibliophile.  He just did an amazing bibliochat with author Laurie Bower who wrote the books Moon Rising and Sunrise To Sunset.  Judging from his book reviews (click on the above titles for Ao's reviews), they sound like really awesome reads and all you fans of the paranormal genre would surely love it.  Ao made the contest really easy, he is going to pick FIVE WINNERS and give them a copy each of Moon Rising and Sunrise To Sunset courtesy of Laurie Bower.  Just head on over to his blog and comment on his interview with Laurie Bower and fill out the giveaway form.  Contest ends February 23 so go on, join in the fun, and goodluck!

Next, we have an upcoming interview with a really cool author, Haresh Daswani, and if you've been following my blog lately, you'd know that I really look up to him and his book, Evolution of Insanity is a great read in my opinion.  Watch out for that interview and a cool guest post from him!

Speaking of interviews, I'd like to announce that I just did my first-ever interview over at Amber's blog, AwesomeSauce Book Club.  It's going to be published on February 25 and I am begging inviting you to watch out for that and see for yourself how I made a fool of myself fared on the other side of the interview table.  And if you are interested to be interviewed yourself by Amber, just comment on her post about Looking for Bloggers Who Want to be Interviewed on her terrific blog.  I repeat, February 25 on Amber's AwesomeSauce Book Club!

And last, because this post is so full of interviews, ARGH has finally persuaded me to do an interview with him!  Watch out for ARGH's interview here some time next week, as he attempts to show shows his serious and intelligent side.

So that's all for now, have a great week and happy blogging!  Stay awesome!

The Great Memetastic Reveal!

Last week, I was given the Memetastic Award from Cat of Cat's Thoughts and let me just again tell her Thank You!  So if you recall, one of the instructions was to provide four partially true stuff about me, and one that is completely true and let readers guess which is which.  This post is dedicated to revealing the true and not-so true statements ARGH and I told you, our awesome readers.

Mine:

1. I was born on the day John Lennon was killed. - Not entirely true.  I was born December 8,  but not in 1980.  I'm still in my twenties so that can't be :D
2. I have an older brother. - Not true.  I do have a brother, but he is younger than me.
3. Two days ago, I gave a speech about the dangers of Malaria in a small town north of the city. - Not true.  I did give a speech but it was about Dengue fever.
4. I have never read any book of Harry Potter in my entire life. - So TRUE!  I don't know if I should be ashamed of that fact but yes, I have not yet read NOR watched any Harry Potter for the simple fact that I don't like series much.  This might change in the future, though.
5. I am the only female among my cousins on my father's side. - Not true.  I used to be the only female among my cousins on my  father's side until I was eleven years old, when my newest female cousin was born.

ARGH's:

1. He descended from a noble family of bookworms. - Nope, not true.  He descended from a family of bookworms.  Not a noble family, just bookworms.
2. He loves eating meatballs while hanging upside down from the ceiling. - Not true.  He could not even hang down from the ceiling to save his life!
3. A famous author once wrote a journal post with ARGH's name as its title. - TRUE.  Neil Gaiman wrote a blog post entitled ARGH just recently in January. 
4. He loves books like Hannibal by Thomas Harris, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. - Only partially true.  Although he does love most of these books, if you have read a previous discussion post about first person versus third persona narration, you would know that ARGH prefers third-person narratives and therefore is not a really big fan of The Catcher in the Rye.
5. He is a very cute and small monster. - Nope.  He is a very cute but HUGE monster.

Did you guess correctly?  Well then you're all kinds of awesome!  But if not, that's okay, but I do hope we gave you a good laugh.  Have a great day everyone!

ARGH is now on Twitter!

ARGH and I have been fighting over who would man the blog and the Goodreads account from now on.  But all he thought of doing when he gets to be in charge is look at all the bright colors on the computer screen.  So I have him do something else:  Tweet!  No, not like a bird, but be on Twitter and tweet about our blog posts and make new friends. 

So, if you would like to tweet with ARGH, you can now find him on Twitter.

The Stylish Blogger Award

So ARGH and I were just minding our own business when we saw a comment on one of my blog posts and a message in the mail:  SimplyMe of Simply Me, A Book Addict and the Mad Scientist of Steampunkery and Book Reviews have just given us the Stylish Blogger Award!  ARGH was like:

  what a big mouth!

And then he was like:

We're so surprised and so happy about this award!  Who knew we've got style? :D  And so we'd like to tell SimplyMe and the Mad Scientist and all our other followers who loves us:

As with every award, there are certain rules that need to be observed:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.

2. Share 7 things about yourself.

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.

4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award.

Seven things about myself:

1. Because I so badly wanted to fit in when I was in sixth grade - when the cool crowd all wore glasses, I wore my mother's old 250/20 prescription glasses to school for a week.  I was given my own glasses at the start of high school and by then, the obsession to wear glasses has worn off.  I now have 150/20 vision both eyes.  
2. When I was four years old, I used to fancy joining those Little Miss competitions and I would practice my routine in front of my grandmother.  I would always sing Whitney Houston's One Moment in Time for the talent portion.
3. I love mixing Nutella with dark chocolate spread.
4. While other kids have their 'blankie' or their dollies, I have my own very long pillow that I couldn't sleep without.  Until now.  But no, it's not the same pillow that I had when I was younger, I do change it when it's really old.  I call those pillows 'Mr. Bolster' because they bolster my ability to sleep.
5. I can easily remember numbers off the top of my head more than words.  Example:  I know every cellphone number on my phone book without memorizing them, but I have to memorize a short poem for an hour.
6. I have a younger brother who's taller than me and sometimes, older people who have bad eyes always mistake him as the older kid.
7. I am crazy for the band, Taken by Cars.

ARGH wanted in on the fun too, but he could only think of three things:

1. His body is like a sponge, any object would just bounce off his body.
2. He loves to eat spaghetti and meatballs.
3. He thinks zombies are missing too much out of life to go walking around all day craving for brains.

And now passing this award to these Awesome and Oh-so Stylish blogs I've recently discovered:

A Few More Pages

Frazzled Book Nommer

Biblibio

Tea Time with Marce

Mommy Wants to Read

Emma Michaels

BookAHolics Anonymous

Gaming Gabby

Black Fingernailed Reviews

Books for Company

In the Hammock Blog

Universe in Words

Paranormal Romance Addict

New, Borrowed, Used

Preternatural Primer

Again, thank you, and to the bloggers I'm passing this award on to, Congratulations!  Let's all keep rockin' and stay stylish :D

Who is Mr. Austen Robin Gaiman-Holden III?

He's this monster!

I've finally decided on a name!  I know it does not suit him, but I wanted to make his name as snobbish and phony as possible, and I also wanted it to be immediately associated with books:  Austen for Jane Austen, Robin for Robin Hood, Gaiman for Neil Gaiman, and Holden for Holden Caulfield.  I just added the III at the end to make it sound really phony.  His nickname, though, suits him better: ARGH!

Told you his nickname suits him :D

So that's it!  I now have a name for my monster, and this blog's mascot.  See more of ARGH in future posts!