Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas
I love love loved the first two books in the Throne of Glass series about a bad ass lady assassin living in a semi-medieval world. It has everything: romance, magic, monsters, and the complete ability to rip your beating heart out of your chest. I’ve heard it only gets worse from here.

Spider-Gwen Vol. 0: Most Wanted? by Jason Latour
While I’m not the biggest fan of Spider-man Peter Parker, I really do enjoy his alternate universe counter-part Spider-Gwen (AKA Spider-Woman) who made her first web-slinging appearance in Dan Slott’s Spider-Verse. She will return this month in Marvel’s All-New, All-Different comics.

Jem and the Holograms: Showtime by Kelly Thompson
Kelly Thompson, the author who caught our attention with her kick-ass story The Girl Who Would Be King writes this remake of 80’s animated series Jem. The artwork is adorable and I love the diversity, but the plots are definitely aimed at much younger readers.

The Big Bad Book of Bill Murray: A Critical Appreciation of the World’s Finest Actor by Robert Schnakenberg
This unofficial biography details the life and the films of actor Bill “the Murricane” Murray as well as his personal antics, which include crashing funerals, bachelor parties and kickball games. Part biography and part film critique, this book is all Murray. [READ FULL REVIEW]

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
I really wanted to like this young adult dystopian child murder novel about rulers who give their kids up as hostages to ensure worldwide peace. Unfortunately, while it was well-written, the characters were boring and the plot equally so. It did not live up to its premise. [READ FULL REVIEW]

Hawkeye Vol. 5: All New Hawkeye by Jeff Lemire
Jeff Lemire makes his Marvel debut in this series, picking up where Matt Fraction left off. The series manages to keep the artwork unique, alternating between the modern day Hawkeye in a more typical comic book style and young Hawkeye with a water-color technique.

Outcast Vol. 2: A Vast and Unending Ruin by Robert Kirkman
While I continue to like the Outcast series, I still don’t love it the way I do Kirkman’s ongoing zombie comic The Walking Dead. However, I will give the next volume another chance, mostly to prepare for the Cinemax adaptation.

How to Tell If Your Cat is Plotting to Kill You by the Oatmeal
While “running” a 10K this past weekend organized by web comic artist the Oatmeal, I decided to pick up his cat-centric collection, which told me what I already know — that yes, my cat is plotting to kill me. Don’t let her innocent face fool you.

Descender Vol. 1: Tin Stars by Jeff Lemire
Apparently it was a Jeff Lemire heavy month. In this brand new science-fiction series, Lemire writes about a robot boy named TIM-21 who awakens ten years after a catastrophe in a world where all androids have been outlawed. It’s off to a good start so far!

Source: http://dimarinski.tumblr.com/post/80247848501

Alice in No-Man’s-Land is the story of a privileged girl who only thought of the Blocs, huge areas of towns that have fallen into disarray after a food based disease ravaged them, as a cheap form of entertainment. After all, they’re only there temporarily until Cerulean Holdings goes in and fixes them. Up until she is stranded in one of them with only two of its citizens to help her. Alice’s journey through the decaying bloc is full of brushes with danger and moments of clarity. If she manages to get out of Ypsilanti Bloc, she won’t be leaving as the same person she was when she entered.

While the idea at the core of Alice in No-Man’s-Land was something that I could have gotten behind, the novel read too much like a formula. There’s a girl who has no idea that there’s something very much wrong with her world. When she is suddenly thrust into the very essence of what is wrong with her world, she begins to realize that things have to change and she is apparently in charge of doing this. I think that’s why Alice read as boring to me. She’s the typical hero of a dystopian novel, but she didn’t have anything that really made her stand out. I didn’t feel like she was a very relatable character, even though she did have some character development later on.

Although I found her boring most of the time, Alice adapted to the world inside of the bloc even though it was challenging things that she had grown up believing. She used to have an unshakable belief in her father, but as she spends more time with the people in the bloc she starts doubting the methods he uses to “save” the crumbling bloc and those who live in it. She takes what she learns from inside Ypsilanti Bloc and adjusts her worldview accordingly. It didn’t happen immediately and it didn’t happen without a little resistance, but I would have been annoyed if it had happened any other way.

I was far more interested in Maya and Basilio. They were characters I would have loved to follow. Instead of getting Alice’s impressions of Ypsilanti, I would have enjoyed seeing more of how they reacted to her and how she acted toward them. They’ve had a more difficult life than Alice and have really had to work for things. Although they are characters in a dystopian setting, I think their struggles of surviving and making a life for themselves in a world that has extreme poverty, violence, and gender gaps would have been more relatable. I do realize that sounds a bit strange.

The world was really interesting. I wish there had been more description of it. We got a lot of miniature information dumps when Alice checked the black book or they went through a section of the bloc, but it felt very general to me. I liked the presentation of these blocs as the degradation of society, so those in power had put walls around them. There was a time when people could have moved out, so why didn’t they? I wanted to know more details, but instead I felt like only very basic information was shared with the reader for most of the novel until the information was given too late for me to be hooked.

I understand why people have enjoyed this book, but it ended up not being for me. It took me a very long time to read this, and it wasn’t just because I was busy. If I really want to read a book, I make the time. So although this book is well-written, I couldn’t truly get into the story and it’s characters enough to give it a higher rating.

2.5 stars.

I received a copy of this title from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  It was published on May 13th, 2015.

by Alex

A libertine Denverite

The Hunger Games, based on the book of the same name by Suzanne Collins, is a by-the-numbers post-apocalyptic tale with a number of familiar tropes all assembled into a loose pile, lacking a skillfully applied thematic bow to bind it all together. Taking place in the aftermath of a cataclysmic nuclear conflict, the film concerns a young woman from what I can only assume is the future equivalent of West Virginia finding herself shanghaied into appearing on a reality television program for the amusement of effeminate weirdos in Imperial Roman Denver, Colorado. One of the central mysteries of the setting is whether their love of the declining Roman Empire leads them to adopt perverse and decadent lifestyles, or if they were deviants from the beginning and decided to use Roman names and terminology just to make that abundantly clear.

Our protagonist, whose name I initially believed to be “Catnip” before my stupid friend, Eric, informed me that it was “Katniss,” which is simply ridiculous, volunteers to take place in a brutal gladiatorial contest taking place in a vast arena filled with devious traps, dangerous beasts, and bloodthirsty competitors, all under the watchful eye of many television cameras and broadcast to a bloodthirsty public in order to spare her younger sister from the same fate. Personally, I don’t understand this at all, because all of that sounds very cool and exciting. For some reason, though, the Nuclear West Virginians don’t like it, or that one of them has to compete in it. Setting aside the fact that it’s a pretty bitchin’ way to die, it also seems like offering up one of your children to almost certainly die in spectacular fashion for the hollow amusement of bizarrely dressed weirdos who control your life from afar is the least they can expect in exchange for the social safety net the Roman Coloradans provide for them (and which is surely an immense drain on the resources of the far more productive members of their society).

In any case, predictably, Katniss wins the competition while defying her hegemonic overlords, despite the fact that her opponents are better-trained, better-equipped, and more ruthless. (Typically, ruthlessness is portrayed as a negative characteristic- more leftist cant!)

Peeta Mellark, the only character with the moral sanity to have a patriotic name

Now, none of this is necessarily a fatal flaw, were it not that the one overarching thematic concern is applied only intermittently and without the sort of conviction required to make it stick. The film itself is called “The HUNGER Games,” one of the major characters is a baker, and the country is called “Panem” (Latin for “bread”), and yet only one character has a name that is related to this central motif (namely, the aforementioned baker, Peeta). Why could not the protagonist have been named, for instance, “Nonn”? Or perhaps “Rie”? Even “F’lahful” would have been acceptable! In what is clearly an ode to the importance of staple foods, why is it that so much attention is paid, instead, to elaborate costumes, state surveillance, and celebrity culture? Grain is what matters, Ms. Collins! Grain and the processes by which its lead is transmuted into that edible gold we know as bread, and which has been the chief cornerstone of the survival of western civilization! Have the courage to carry the work to completion or do not begin it at all. To leave half-done is worse than to have done nothing.

* (one star)

You should not see this movie.

The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow 

Summary: To prevent war following a catastrophic change in the climate, an AI working for the UN instituted an ancient peace-keeping measure: all world leaders must submit a child to be held hostage. If war is declared, their children’s lives are forfeit. One such hostage is Greta, the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of Elián, a hostage from the Cumberland Alliance. Will Greta and the other Children of Peace keep war at bay or will their parents sacrifice their own for the greater good. And what do goats have to do with it?

Before I begin I have to say that I really wanted to like The Scorpion Rules — and sometimes I even did — but as with a lot of concept novels that deal with dystopian worlds and child murder (see also Dualed and its sequel Divided), it just didn’t live up to its premise.

The book begins as most dystopias do with an apocalypse, starting with the melting of the polar ice caps because yes Virginia, global warming is real. This rise in sea levels leads to a decrease in land, a loss of water and food, new diseases and plagues and a series of disputes calls the War Storms.

As readers we are not shown but rather told these events by a former human now a Class II artificial intelligence named Talis, a sassy entity and lover of the Terminator films who saved humankind from the War Storms, holding all of humanity hostage with their own mortality.

400 years later, we are introduced to the Children of the Peace, child hostages who are meant to keep the world in a state of — you guessed it — peace. In order to rule, leaders must give up one heir as hostage, to be held in robot and cyborg monitored prisons called Preceptures. Should two countries decide to declare war, both their heirs will be terminated in the mysterious Grey Room.

Perhaps due to their royal status or the way they were raised, none of the children are relate-able, and with the exception of the first few chapters (which had my hopes up so damn high) and a few in the middle, I had a really hard time caring whether anyone lived, died or was tortured with an apple press.

The book itself starts off promising enough. Our apparent hero is seventh-generation hostage Greta Gustafsen Stewart, Duchess of Halifax and Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy — AKA, what’s left of Canada — who only has 16 months left until she comes of age and is released. Of course she is in constant fear of death. And let’s face it, a little boring and vanilla (and not french or bean either).

Then the hostages start raising goats and bad boy/love interest/fellow hostage/most annoying teen ever Elián Palnik shows up referring to himself as Spartacus, robot spiders are introduced and the children started a cringe-worthy food fight and all hope is lost.

Did I mention that the goats are named Flopsy, Mopsy, Topsy, Bat Brain and Dipshit? Because they definitely are.

There are a lot of strange choices scattered throughout the story. For example, even though the world is overrun with cyborgs and giant robot scorpions, Talis forces citizens to ride around on horses and eschew air conditioning (unless you’re a royal of course) in order to better planet earth and prevent further destruction to the environment. This of course would be all well and good if a giant spaceship doesn’t appear when it suddenly becomes convenient.

Another strange choice is to make former human Talis retain a level of sass that includes writing a book of quotations that humanity must obey if they want to prevent their overlord from blowing up populated cities — a book called the Utterances which includes phrases such as “Resistance is futile” and “Everybody, out of the pool!” Usually I would enjoy a petulant villain with a god complex, but Talis becomes too heavy handed once he appears outside of the prologue.

Again, I really wanted to like The Scorpion Rules, the premise is intriguing and the cast of characters is incredibly diverse. Unfortunately, the story gave me nothing to chew on, the plot left me with little to care about and the characters left me rooting for no one.

THE GOOD

• The premise was interesting and things started off really promising
• Well-written if clunky at times
• There was plenty of diversity in race and sexual orientation

THE BAD

• Did not live up to its promises
• The plot fell short and took some bizarre turns
• Unrelateable and occasionally annoying characters left no one too root for
• Too much goat stuff

THE QUOTES

• “We’re all running … Sometimes we fall.”
• “Maybe there’s something after death, even for monsters.”
• “I wished for impossible things. It was never going to have been a fairy tale for us. There are no fairy tales about two princesses.”

Have you finished The Scorpion Rules? Did you like the turn the end took? You should definitely read the much more intriguing Skinned trilogy by Robin Wasserman. It will make you think all the things about human consciousness.

So as a very few of you may be aware, I got hired to write the story for an app called Frequency. Its a cool text based adventure set in a post apocalyptic wasteland! And as of today it has been released for iPhone!! So go check it out!

“Someone from the future desperately needs your help. Will you guide them to safety? Or will you send them into the dangers of a world with no rules?

Frequency is a text-based adventure game that puts you side by side with one of the only sane survivors left on a post-apocalyptic Earth. You are equipped with a Tachyon Communicator that sends messages through random time warp fields- and that’s it. Do you have the what it takes to lead this lost soul to salvation?

Immerse yourself in a survival story told through unique gameplay features- Frequency allows you to send messages through the app AND through notifications giving access to the game no matter what you may be doing!

Those with Apple Watches are equipped with extra communication capabilities that aid in helping you get the future-dweller out of (or into) trouble.

What are you waiting for? Boot up your Tachyon Communicator today and save tomorrow!”

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id1012492584

Screen Gems in association with DMG Entertainment and Tokyopop present…

I eagerly waited for this movie so I will be able to say and justify Paul Bettany’s previous Legion should be redeemed since I do acknowledge his strong demeanor and versatility as an actor!

Based on a Korean comic which infuses a mix of supernatural and post-apocalyptic elements, Priest was actually intended more on Angels and Demons scenario and has in-depth analogy of God and his fallen angels. But the film was revised to a more Earth bound premise.

Director Scott Stewart (Legion) and Writer Cory Goodman still needs to show much more enthusiasm in the films they make not just based for imagination and to cut sequences because it was good enough for one take.

Opening scenes were a bit given, I knew for the fact that one of his comrades would be…let’s just say Fallen. It follows a brief animated excerpt of what is known throughout history: Man versus Vampires.

For years they have in constant battle and it made the world on its knees, on a defensive end, found wanting to hide in their own tribulations and weakness. So, they have built cities for walls and the Church for haven and sanctity. From here Priests were ordained, trained in the art of war against evil without comprehension, soldiers of the light the paved way to freedom and yet into their demise, disbandment for they are another reason to be feared by the populace.

Acting was sub-par and I do find it melodramatic and redundant for cheesy intros and one liners for the main protagonist and the supporting cast. I still moved on and carried the film. Mere fact is, I really get giddy with these films, lots of noir, grit, filled with imagination, design and backdrops that give more palpability in the plot and setting.

As for the production and Screen Gems, visual effects and a budget of $60 million I could say that it was a movie to be made with full of CGI since the lore and story has ambiguity in its settings. It was mediocre for my taste let alone the props and design department from skulls on sand, to green screen backdrops it made the film more a horror theme park ride instead. A bigger budget I guess or is it just wishful thinking…

For the cast, Cam Gigandet (Pandorum) as Sheriff Hicks who still needs some more acting credits but do can say is way better than Channing Tatum and Sam Worthington. The ever so lovely Maggie Q as Priestess (Mission Impossible III, Die Hard 4.0) is always a sight for sore eyes.

Christopher Plummer (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) plays Monsignor Orelas whose penchant for order has been in-line with chaos as well. From the Clergy, the vow states that “To go against the Church, is to go against God”, this can be with no absolution and its proclivities define mundane, manmade impositions that has left with doubt, generalization of law and religion.

Karl Urban (Star Trek XI) started the same with Paul but carried through the films that made tills robust with previous blockbuster films. He is also now in the lead role for the upcoming another comic based character…Judge Dread and it keeps getting better for this actor. I can’t help but put a smirk on my face when I see Karl’s character, it reminds me of Mr. Smith of the Matrix speaking in a raspy, low voice while uttering philosophical statements. Rendering he’s objectives and how his new found life can save the world of its uncleanliness.

I miss the time when Paul made headway and was starting in the film industry specifically in the Knight’s Tale with Heath Ledger (bless his soul), I’m still waiting to be impressed for yet another film to grace the screens and for Paul to be able to climb the ladder’s another step. Only have great supporting roles like in the Beautiful Mind and Iron Man but falls short in his lead acting.

I wish that the upcoming film in the same genre The Watch Tower will be given more attention to story and in detail (and a bigger budget), this is a dark, Western based film the connotes biased screenplay and script that should have been taken more into consideration by its creator Min-Woo Hyung.

Overall, it’s a C film still it proved that it can better even for Legion by the way. Same scenario that always ends up in a climactic battle between good and evil, invigorating moments, yes! but still a fall short for its quirky dialogue, lazy delivery, over the top final scenes which makes it more pedantic even for comic and movie geeks alike.

Priest definitely is neither Blade nor a Selena for that matter, but it’s a popcorn flick for me, entertaining but with high hopes left dry like a bitter taste in my mouth quenching for new blood (maniacal laughter).

The trainees noted their senior shaking his head by his forehead light swinging in arcs across the tunnel.  “Nay, Sanjer.  Ahead are trials scary enough.  Needn’t you monsters to distract you from the knowing of a good tunnel from a bad.”

“Now then, Athan.  Not to be prepared, is that how you want them?” said Luesh from a tunnel fork just as the little party arrived.  The two older boys eyed each other with mutual irritation.  “Lurking in the dark, beasties of every design, waiting to snap up the unawares what travel within their byways.  Old Luesh can lead you the way.”

Athan shook his forehead light again.  “Nay, Luesh.  I’m these ones’.  Leave their minds alone.”

“That can’t do at all, for without the learning, survival is a hope and nary else.  Tell them about the Vo-oles, have you?”

Though he stuttered, Sanjer managed to get out:  “Nay.”

“Monster moles with maws that gape and show the olden sky?  Hungry because the Disaster what forced your grandpappy’s grandpappy down here fiddled them up inside, putting vortexes where bellies resided.”

A few gasps were heard from the younger boys.  Athan made a disapproving click of his tongue.  “Away, Luesh.  Need they clear heads.  Checking not for monsters, but for…”  The smell hit him.  “Bad air!”

The boys echoed his cry, “Bad air!  Bad air!” as they turned to run back.  Luesh and Athan put aside their rivalry to help the children scrabble forward.

“Pray against a Whiteheart!” shouted Luesh.

“Look not into its depths!  Listen not to– to…”  But Athan was lost, because he heard it.  The whisper inside the flame rushing across the flat, stale air behind him.  It bade him turn and face the hot, blinding flash of demonic fire, more frightening to tunnel dwellers than any shadow ever could be.  Athan held a hand forward, touching the hissing inferno, and he was consumed.

With Athan absorbed, the flames retreated into the shadows.  The trainees looked to Luesh, slumped against the tunnel wall.  “Now you know,” he said, staring straight ahead.  “Now you know.”

Skin – .:JUMO:. ~ Viola Skin ~ Porcelain
Eyes – [LUoLI] ~ Shine Eyes *FREE*
Hair – Alice Project – Bells II – Mini Medley
Tattoo – [White~Widow] ~ Divergent ~ Black {new @ CSR}
Horns – Astralia ~ Candles and skulls RARE {new @ CSR}
Hells – AZOURY ~ Titane Shoe Metal {new @ CSR}
Phone – !six o’clock! ~ Vintage Phone {new @ CSR}
Sofa – !six o’clock! ~ Caged Sofa ~ RARE {new @ CSR}

<3

VALKYRIE: THE ROAD
A Novel of Post-Apocalyptic Horror

Author: Tony Bowman

Type of Book: Softcover

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fiction, Horror

Length: 334 pages

ISBN: 9781515051671

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

* I received a free autographed softcover copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

This is NOT your typical apocalypse. There have been books that describe a virus wiping out most of humanity, a multitude of books that describe the zombie apocalypse, and there
have been books that describe the economy collapsing or an EMP pulse that returns North America to the time of the pioneers. This book does not subscribe to any of these potential apocalyptic scenarios. Instead, Tony Bowman has imagined a supernatural wave of horror that sweeps across the nation.

Demons, vampires, werewolves, witches, voodoo practitioners, ghouls and cannibals fill the pages of this novel.

Sounds ridiculous, right? Nope! Somehow Tony Bowman has made the existance of these creatures 100% believable. In fact, their supernatural origins are almost irrelevant to the main story. You will have to read this book to “see” for yourself what I mean.

The characters are superbly written and each one has their own fully realized backstory and readers will find themselves invested in their welfare. I absolutely loved the characters and am hard-pressed to choose a single favorite. In fact, characters who do not have huge parts in the story are still written with depth and these characters are also memorable.

Cole is human. He drives a truck. On the eve of the apocalypse he finds himself in a truck stop with people he doesn’t know. Fortunately for him, one of these people is a young genius (nicknamed Monkey) who is prepared for just such an event.

Perhaps the most significant possession Monkey has is called Valkyrie – a large truck. But, this truck is far from an average eighteen wheeler. This truck could be more accurately described as a rolling fortress rather than just a mere truck.

Fast forward quite a few years. Cole and Monkey and the Valkyrie have figured out how to survive in the new world.

The demons have mostly stepped back from the running of the world. Vampires reign supreme in the cities, but outside the cities cannibals, werewolves and witches have all claimed territories of their own.

Nowhere is safe. Humans are treated like either slaves or cattle, but the crew of the Valkyrie have figured out how to make themselves indispensable to those in power.

The vampires believe that the crew are collaborators. Werewolves avoid them because of Valkyrie’s firepower. The voodoo priest also believes they are collaborators. The cannibals want to kill and eat the crew and seek to take possession of Valkyrie.

No one seems to suspect that the crew may have their own agenda. But, maybe the vampires do suspect, because Valkyrie has a new crew member … one of the most powerful vampires in the city.

Can they keep their true purpose hidden or is this the end for the Valkyrie and her crew? And what about humanity? Are humans doomed to extinction?

I am astounded by how much I enjoyed this book. This is a MUST READ for everyone who loves post-apocalyptic fiction, paranormal fiction and/or horror fiction.

I give VALKYRIE: THE ROAD a hearty 5 out of 5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is the second book by Tony Bowman that I have had the pleasure to read and it will definitely not be the last. I am now a fan of author Tony Bowman.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Tony Bowman is the author of four full-length novels as well as many short stories. His short story collection entitled “Morgue Dreams and Curiouser Things” is an amazingly well written collection of seventeen short horror stories.

Tony currently lives in North Carolina with his wife, Laurie, his daughter, Sara and a hundred pound Catahoula Leopard dog.

To learn more about Tony Bowman and his books, visit https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8080065.Tony_Bowman

Check out his blog at:
http://thattonybowman.blogspot.ca

*~*~*

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next day the morning sun caresses Snow’s strands of mahogany and honey. Yay for purple prose!

After a few pages of describing the supply situation, Pen and Snow wander off and find some dead children hanging from trees, accompanied by a crying couple, the male half of whom she instantly knows was a loser in high school. Because he looks like one!

The couple argues about their son, who they’ve apparently been feeding children too, and Pen and Snow wander off again. I’m sure this will have a point later on, but right now I’m drumming my fingers against my desk.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Pen asks Snow if the couple were feeding the ‘low demons’—when they’d said outright it was their son. Maybe he’s a low demon? Snow, of course, knows nothing.

Then Pen asks him if he’s married. Seriously.

He isn’t, due to his Night’s Watch vows, and the fact that the love between humans and angels create monstrosities; like Hush, Hush, and A Beautiful Dark.

Anyway, after hiding from Obi-Wan and some angels, neither of whom notice them or each other, Pen and Snow resume their travels.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Our heroes make it to San Francisco thanks to a conveniently abandoned car (how long has this apocalypse been going on again?) and are close to Angel HQ (the ‘aerie’). Pen is upset by the destruction of the city, asking Snow ‘how could you do this’?

Does she really expect an answer at this point?

Anyway, they stop so Pen can change into a skimpy dress and Pen mentions that the apocalypse has now been going on for a couple of months.

A couple of months!?

‘Luckily, every girl knows how to change in public’.

Uh, we do, do we?

Anyway, Snow glues his wings back on (not really, but it makes as much sense) as a Cunning Disguise and they continue into the aerie.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pen and Snow arrive at ‘the checkpoint’ to get into the city. Who’s running this checkpoint? Angel pimps. Well, I suppose there have been worse administrations in California.

The pimps have also hired Crazy Mum, not as a prostitute, but as a guard, who cattle-prods people through the fence along the checkpoint. I guess their diversity policy had a clause concerning the mentally ill.

So they reach the gate where the angels are deciding who’s fly enough to enter the city (lol—fly, geddit?) and when Pen asks why so many people have gathered around this spot Snow tells her it’s because people always gather places. In other words, he doesn’t know.

Well, these angels were obviously inspired by ‘The Wicked Woods’ (now there’s something I never thought I’d say) because they all wear old-timey clothes and stand around doing jack shit. Thus, Snow leads Pen into the aerie…

Chapter Twenty-Eight

At the aerie there are female angels, because it always makes sense that female angels exist.

Also there are angels with swords, and to avoid attracting their attention, Snow gives Pen twu wuv’s first kiss. Hooray. Pen spends the rest of the chapter obsessing over it.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

After much faffing about, Snow tells Pen to get the attention of the whitest angel ever and make him follow her to the men’s room. Pen is shocked, and I wonder why Snow didn’t try to plan anything out with her before now. Just thought they’d show up and the rest would sort itself out, I guess.

Chapter Thirty

On her way to Whitey, Pen sees a guy she describes as a ‘politician’ because he makes nice with everyone, but he and the women attending him are clearly dead on the inside. The Big Bad? I suppose we’ll wait and see.

Then one of the twins shows up and offers her a drink. I guess they were less useless than I thought, if they too were able to infiltrate the angel’s clubhouse. Wonder how skimpy the dresses they had to wear were?

Chapter Thirty-One

On getting closer to Whitey, Pen tells us that unlike all the other male models that comprise the angels in the room, this new character is Not Hot. Why? Because he has red eyes, a far more off-putting affliction than all the disabilities suffered by the kids Paige used to hang out with and organise parties for—wait, wasn’t she seven years old?

Pen knows instinctively that Whitey needs the magic of friendship to bring him out of his shell. She tries the oops-I-spilled-my-drink-on-you-totes-an-accident ploy, and it’s Super-Effective. She leads him into the men’s room to talk to Snow, whereupon it is revealed his name is Josiah, and Snow rescued him from being a slave.

Wait, angels have angel-slaves? What?

Anyway, Snow really is Raphael, big surprise (though Pen’s proverbial penny has yet to drop on that matter); and the pimp-parties have been organised by Uriel as bribes for electing him to Gabriel’s former position. None of the angels know what’s happening, Uriel might be in league with hell, the only person who can arrange for Snow’s wings to be sewn back on is someone called ‘Laylah’ and Josiah knows nothing about all the kidnappings, because no one knows anything in this book.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Snow and Pen take the elevator up to a room where the curtains have been left open by maids, which totes must be a political statement and not because they were lazy.

Pen showers, they argue, she eats, she ogles Snow… ah, Josiah comes back with… a Nazi woman? And Pen feels embarrassed that she’s eating and stuff? Well, she’s Laylah, and she’s here to talk about whether or not she should sew Snow’s wings back on until Twin1 brings them room service.

Then Pen and Laylah bitch at each other and Snow agrees to an unknown favour to get re-winged.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Welcome to the three-quarter mark, boys and girls!

Today we find out that Snow doesn’t believe in God, which makes perfect sense because—oh wait, no it doesn’t. Sorry, author, but just as Meyer could only take so many liberties with vampires, there are only so many liberties to be taken with angels too.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Pen torments a woman who’s come to bring more room service, and orders yet more until Twin1 shows up again. He decides to take her to where there might be some children, but has to be quick because La Resistance is about to assault the Death Star. Pen takes [steals] Snow’s magic sword along, which comes in handy when they’re randomly attacked by some guys…

Chapter Thirty-Five

… but then Crazy Mum shows up!

The random guys don’t want to get on Crazy’s bad side, so they get da fuk out and Crazy Mum joins their party. Twin1 leads them to where there might be some kids and then he gets da fuk out too, but after a few pages wandering around all they find are some deformed freaks of nature in giant tubes.

I was wondering when something like that would show up…

Chapter Thirty-Six

These freaks have dragonfly wings, which we all know from Inescapable means they’re fallen angels who want to steal souls. Or not. For some reason they also have scorpion tails.

Inside one of the tubes, one of the freaks is draining a woman of all her precious bodily fluids, because I guess vampire angels had to show up sometime. Soon Pen sees more of the same in other tubes.

Pen suddenly Takes a Level in Heroism and decides she can’t leave these people to their fate, then climbs a ladder to try to get to the top of the tank. What she finds instead is…

Chapter Thirty-Seven

… a wall of dead children!

And it’s not even Christmas.

Then Paige comes crawling out of the dead bodies looking all Frankenstein-ish.

Yay?

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The sisters are immediately found by a Mad Scientist angel. Mortal Combat ensues!

Unfortunately, Mad Scientist angel is not as easily defeated as our buddy Boden, and strangles our Penny.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Pen is saved by Paige, who has apparently been turned into a super-strong flesh-eating demon by Mad Science experiments. She takes a few chunks out of the angel, and—

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!

Mad-science by supernatural beings turning humans into cannibal-demons is what happens in one of MY novels!

NOW EVERYONE IS GOING TO THINK I WAS COPYING ANGELFALL!

AAAAARRRRRRRRGH!

Oh well, never mind.

Pen freaks out wondering whether or not she’ll still be able to feed Paige non-human meat. Don’t worry, Pen—I hear there’s a doctor in Baltimore who specialises in these kinds of cases. I doubt the apocalypse has finished him off. /Red Dragon.

Anyway, she finishes off the angel only for two more, including Laylah, to run in, but before that can have an effect on the plot, La Resistance begins their attack.

Hang on a minute, what happened to Crazy Mum?!

Chapter Forty

Well, some bombs are going off overhead, but Pen can’t leave without smashing up the tanks to try and free the tank-monsters’ lunches. Mum pops back up again and give’s Paige a big hug.

Aww.

Chapter Forty-One

The trio make their escape, but then Snow White comes hurtling down the hallway, thrown by an angel whose had Snow’s wings sewn onto his back, so I guess we know how well the surgery turned out.

Thanks, Laylah!

Shit, now I’ll have to call this angel Snow instead, and that means I might actually have to start referring to our Snow by his actual name!

Nah, screw that.

On Snow they’ve sewn a pair of bat wings, making him Batman, and the new Fake!Snow is the same guy who cut his wings off at the start. Snow asks Fake!Snow (called Belial, thus ‘Belle’ henceforth, for the Disney theme) why he didn’t just kill him. Belle’s answer?

Politics.

He doesn’t know shit either, does he?

Pen gives Snow back his sword, but it doesn’t work for him anymore and Belle (who is apparently from Hell? What?) attacks him. But Pen comes to the rescue, now possessed with magic sword powers, Mortal Combat ensues, something grabs Pen’s ankle—

Chapter Forty-Two

It was………………………………………………………………. A SCORPION FREAK!

It stings her in the neck, and Scorpion poison is Super Effective against YA dystopia heroines, but not against the Love Interests, so Snow picks it up and throws it away.

Sadly, Pen is now Dying in His Arms Tonight—it must have been something he said, and Snow is sad, because… they were in love or something. Hey, they knew each other almost a week! It counts!

Chapter Forty-Three

Belle was apparently Not Dead Yet, and rises again to kill Snow White, but is stopped when the Politician-type angel randomly appears to tell him not to, because it would turn him into a martyr for all his men.

His name? Ariel.

Well, okay, it’s Uriel—but they’re one letter’s difference and I have a theme going here!

Belle points out that Snow’s men don’t really care all that much about him anymore, but Ariel says they have to wait until everyone knows he’s Batman, or else. Pen becomes completely paralysed, Snow thinks she’s dead and does a Darth Vader ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO’. Belle does some epic taunting and then he and Ariel leave… kind of awkwardly.

Snow beats up their surroundings in grief, and then carries Pen off.

Chapter Forty-Four

Outside the fighting is underway, La Resistance versus the angels who aren’t anything like angels. Snow White is able to make people Run Away with his Batman wings though, getting them as far as Obi-Wan’s people, who he leaves Pen with before flying away, never to be seen again. (for another chapter)

Chapter Forty-Five

Obi-Wan wants to leave without Pen’s body, but Paige has super-strength now, so she lifts it into the truck herself, and they ride away just before the aerie explodes.

Somehow.

…

Yay?

Chapter Forty-Six

As they’re on their way Pen is happy to see Snow White, flying around again. The soldiers shoot at him… and miss.

What a pointless chapter.

Chapter Forty-Seven

Pen’s paralysis wears off. What another pointless chapter.

Oh, also it’s The End.

*~*~*

FINAL THOUGHTS

Dawn: No, freak! Don’t do it! You’ll never recover your reputation!

Uh, it’s just a rating system on a website, Dawn.

Anyway, Angelfall. It was… not bad.

Hmm. Now my world view has been thrown completely out of balance. It’s almost like an apocalypse.

*Explosions occur outside mediocre reviewer’s window*

Huh, what do you know. Looks like angels are coming to destroy the world, Dawn—who’d a thunk it?

Dawn: Oh, those aren’t angels, freak.

They aren’t?

Dawn: Nope, this is the Disney Princess apocalypse. Abandon all hope, losers!

OH SHIT! EVERYBODY PANIC!

Okay, wait, it might be all right if I can just stay in my room and they won’t find me…

*Knocks occur on reviewer’s door*

Cinderella: Open up! This is the Disney Princess Gestapo, here to sell you into medical experiments!

NOOOOOOOOOO! How did they find us!?

Dawn: Simple. I sold you out, freak.

Bzuh?

Dawn: You didn’t really think there’d be no consequences for giving a YA paranormal romance book more than one star, did you?

But… but we’ve been through so much together! I THOUGHT WE HAD SOMETHING SPECIAL!

Dawn: Yeah, but didn’t you notice something strange? My name being Dawn and all. You know, ‘dawn’? Also known as ‘aurora’? As in PRINCESS AURORA!

What!?

Dawn: Dun, dun, dun, motherfuckers!

*Reviewer is dragged off screaming, never to be seen again—readers cheer loudly*

There is nothing with more artistic potential than the human body, after all.

The Curators

“Destroy that which constricts your potential. Mankind may not be perfect, but her creations can be.” – etching into pre-War statue of a lion crushing a serpent

– – – – –

Perfection, as understood by the Curators, is as much a process as it is a state of being. One does not simply become as Siddhi; they must work for it and labor until it is achieved. Expression is important, and there is no better way to portray one’s ideas regarding human perfection than in the form of art.

While not deified itself, the act of creative expression has become an important aspect of Curator worship. The multitude of statues littered around Delphia have become Siddhite shrines, and ancient pre-War museums are reclaimed and kept as temples embodying the ideal of perfection. Many Curators pride themselves in their ability to restore and preserve pre-War artwork, maintaining its condition as well as possible given the circumstances, and despite having almost no context for the art’s original meaning or purpose. They congregate en masse at the Halls of Expression – formerly the Philadelphia Museum of Art – for worship as well as adding their own art to fill the barren and broken halls.

Those who choose to modify themselves will often opt for form over function, preferring that the aesthetics of their mods be given as critical an eye for detail as the reason for their installation. It is not uncommon for Curators to look at their modifications as art itself.

The Curators are rather theistic in nature – more so than their contemporaries at least. They depict Siddhi as a strapping young man with well-sculpted musculature and chiseled features. The inspiration for this interpretation can be seen embodied in the statue of a pre-War figure known to current residents only as “the gloved man.” The solid bronze figure, standing proudly outside the Halls, is seen gazing at the sky with his fists held high in triumph.

Summary from Goodreads:

From the author of the award winning Unspeakable, and the best selling PODs, comes the highly anticipated sequel to PODs. A world where death stalks the unsuspecting, and this time even the PODs might not save them. 

A virus nearly wiped out humankind…

Months have passed since a human infection has been reported. Survivors of the deadly pandemic have finally started to build a life in a world left devastated by plague.

Ironically, for nineteen-year-old Eva, life made more sense when she battled the deadly Infected than it does in the serenity of her new home in Rosewood. Separated from fiancé and former POD-mate, David, after an impossible ultimatum, Eva finds her life a little lonely and a lot confusing.

But as troubled as Eva’s life is, it’s about to take a turn for the worse as untold dangers watch and wait for the right moment to attack…

The virus refuses to die quietly.

PODs (PODs #1) on Goodreads

About Michelle K. Pickett
I can’t write without a hoodie. Yeah, I live it Texas. We all have our quirks.

I majored in accounting in college. I was required to declare a major, but I had no clue what I wanted to do, so I picked accounting because it was the first thing listed in the booklet the counselor gave me. Surprisingly, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA. Go figure.

Forget coffee. Hand over the Red Bull or Monster Khaos and no one gets hurt. Seriously, just set it down and step away. I will turn into a normal human after I guzzle my can of caffeine.

I hate to cook, but love to watch cooking shows on television.

I paint my nails weird colors just to see my husband roll his eyes and make my 9 year-old twin girls giggle. Oh, and mortify my 13 year-old son.

I’m a hopeful romantic and love swoon-worthy endings that keep the butterflies going for days, but I don’t believe a HEA always ends with the boy getting the girl. Sometimes a HEA is an ending we don’t see coming, but is still best for the characters.

I write across genres in the young adult and new adult age groups while eating way too many peanut butter M&Ms (but we’ll keep that second part just between us).

I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, but now live in a suburb of Houston, TX with my very supportive family, a 125lb rescue “puppy” and a 12lb attack cat, also a rescue animal.

And last, (but certainly not least), I love my family with everything in me. Everything I am, is theirs. There are no words in any language known to man to describe my love for them. They are my center.

I’d love to hear from you. So drop me an email! Let’s chat. You tell me what you like in books, what you’d like to see happen in the writing community, what type of books you like to see more of…less of—I want to hear it all! So tell me, please. Because the one thing I wish I could put on my list, but I still haven’t figured out how to do, is mind-reading. But don’t tell my kids. I still have them fooled. J:)

Author Links:  Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook

Source: http://mrleecarter.deviantart.com/art/concept-art-208674612

And yes, it’s angels again. Evil angels who cause the apocalypse, because that’s never been done—Cough!Evangelion!Cough!Dominion!Cough!—before.

But I’m sure this will be a masterpiece to rival even the likes of Eva. Then again, I don’t like Eva that much anyway, so I suppose it wouldn’t be too hard.

(The Condensed Goodreads review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1054600302 )

*~*~*

Chapter One

We begin with the knowledge that the angel apocalypse has made the sunsets prettier because… irony?

Well, if aesthetics for aesthetics sake isn’t a good indicator of how this book will turn out, we meet our tough heroine Katniss, the only person who can protect her little sister Prim in a dangerous world, since her father isn’t around and her mother is crazy.

Yeah, I used that joke again. In actuality we meet our tough heroine Penryn (?!?), the only person who can protect her little sister Paige in a dangerous world, since her father isn’t around and her mother is crazy. And for added bonus, Paige is in a wheelchair. This chapter involves them getting ready to leave the house… and that’s it.

Chapter Two

This terrific trio step out into post-apocalyptic wherever they are, and let us know that when people aren’t running from evil angels in this world, they’re spraying graffiti evil angels on the sides of walls and forming gangs who nail fake angel feathers to doors.

Also, the apocalypse has caused the people of Silicon Valley (I guess that’s where they are) to throw their smartphones into the streets, because they were infected with the SYMBOLISM! virus. After some wandering around, Prim—uh, Paige, finds a feather that apparently comes from a real angel this time.

And a real angel swoops down to give Penryn an opportunity to explain how angels have been killing everyone for… some reason.

Chapter Three

More angels follow, and fortunately for our heroes, they seem to be more interested in killing each other than in Penryn. These angels all have different-coloured wings, designed to give me Inescapable flashbacks, no doubt. Also they look like ‘the type to be heavily scarred’, but aren’t, whatever that means.

A fight ensues between five crazy-winged angels and one with normal white wings, described in such terms that I’m guessing he’s the paranormal love interest. Yay. Then they cut his wings off. Take that, Patch!

At this point Pen refers to two of the other angels as ‘bullies’, despite having no idea what’s going on.

One of them expresses his regret that he has to cut ‘Snowy-Wings’ snowy wings off, making me suspect his story would be far more interesting than the one I’m reading, and Paige falls for the old, making-a-noise-that-gives-away-your-location-when-trying-to-hide cliché.

Chapter Four

Pen tries to distract the angels so her family can get away, instead of just… trying to get away while they were already distracted by carving up some wings, but mommy dearest runs off without Paige, leaving her wide open for a kidnapping plot. Meanwhile Pen, an untrained teenage girl, manages to get a sword from the ground and throw it to Snow White before the fearsome angels can do shit.

With Snow White armed, the others RUN AWAY. Unfortunately, one of the other angels decides that spiting Pen is more important than running away, and abducts Paige on his way out, laughing maniacally. Well, not really, but he may as well have been.

Chapter Five

Man, these are some short chapters. Anyway, Penny then looks for mommy, although their relationship is ‘complicated’, and her ‘rosy love’ for her mother is ‘slashed with black’ and ‘spattered with grey’, and inked ravens of despair claw holes in the arse of the world’s mind.

No one will get that reference.

But poor old mum is nowhere to be found, hopefully she will avoid the supermarkets which we are told the gangs have turned into ‘torture stations’. As you would. (given the many stations I’ve been to, I think perhaps the ‘torture’ part is redundant).

So, Pen decides to grab herself a slice of Snow White, as angel wings go for big bucks on the black market. And also to see if he knows where the other angels took Paige. She applies first aid and tosses him into Paige’s wheelchair, making sure to act as though it’s really difficult for her to lift him as that will mean anyone watching will think she’s strong.

Wait, what?

Chapter Six

Pen holes up in an office with a corpse outside to ward people off. Luckily there’s still running water and intermittent electricity (why did everyone throw away their smartphones again?) so the apocalypse isn’t that bad.

Two days later Snow White wakes up to inform Pen that her sister is totes ded. Pen doesn’t believe him, because she’s read the blurb for this book. So she shows him his severed wings to prove… that she has his wings? She claims doctors could sew them back on, but I wouldn’t think Snow was stupid enough to—oh wait, he is.

Chapter Seven

Apparently Buffalo Bill’s come by to put make-up on the corpse outside the office; no, wait, it was Crazy Old Mum, who now vandalises corpses because… she’s crazy, and that’s what crazy people do. Also they have radar powers because how else could she have found Pen?

Well, according to her a ‘demon’ told her. Sounds legit. Meanwhile we get some backstory which tells us no one knows how Paige got ‘crippled’, she was in the house with Crazy Mum and there was an ‘accident’ that was apparently never investigated, so Mum made Pen get a bazillion different types of self-defence lessons even though they had no money to pay for them. Also she kept a scrapbook of stories about mothers who killed their children.

I have so many questions I can’t even list them all.

Chapter Eight

Pen duct-tapes up Snow White for safe-keeping, they exchange ‘witty banter’ then fight. Then more banter, then more bondage. And we get this line:

“When I was little, I always thought I’d be Cinderella, but I guess this makes me the wicked witch.”

You thought you’d be Cinderella, huh?

And wait—there was no wicked witch in Cinderella!

Chapter Nine

Crazy Mum leaves the lights on, attracting one of those evil gangs. A fairly written action scene ensues, although Snow White does leap to her defence for no reason. Guess he has Schlockholm Syndrome. Mummy knifes up some guy while Snow White takes on the rest of them.

Then Pen decides to lend him a hand, seeing as he’s her only link to poor Paige, and they fight and they fight and they fight and they fight… and they win. Deciding to leave, Snow White realises that Pen has his super-special-awesome sword, and Pen doesn’t give it back to him, because I guess she’s not an idiot.

Chapter Ten

I’m beginning to fear this book might be worth more than one star. I hate books like that!

Anyway, Snow White is in bad shape after some walking, leading me to wonder how exactly angels work in this world, because they seem to be slightly stronger humans with wings. This one’s name is ‘Raffe’. Short for Raphael? Who knows, I’m still going to call him Snow White.

Pen lets us know that Snow is totes gorgeous, claims she isn’t afraid of him, or god, then moves onto another subject. Why have angels decided to destroy humanity?

Well, I could make several jokes about why humanity deserves to be destroyed, but Snow’s answer is, word for word:

“Beats me.”

That sounds legit to Pen, and they have lunch. And they talk and they talk and they talk and they talk… we find out the angels have been collecting children, but Snow doesn’t know why because it appears Snow knows fuck all, really. When Pen asks him why the others were attacking him, he tells her not to be a victim-blamer, and nothing of interest happens.

Then there’s a dream sequence that lets you know Pen watched Titanic one too many times before the apocalypse and when she wakes up Snow agrees to take her to… somewhere. Her sister might be there, I guess.

Chapter Eleven

Now we learn that angels take longer to heal from wounds inflicted by angel swords, and Snow’s sword had to give Pen permission to use it because I guess it works by Excalibur rules.

Snow and Pen eat some cat food and set off on their journey.

Oh, and we’re at the quarter-way mark. Exciting.

Chapter Twelve.

Our heroes begin by finding some dead bodies, dead bodies that were apparently gnawed on by zombies, or possibly just crazy people. Or a pack of feral children. Or Mummy.

Who cares, next chapter!

Chapter Thirteen

In the woods, Paige’s wheelchair gets stuck in the mud and Snow White banters at Pen for a bit. Then they go to a place called Skyline, where the local people don’t like outsiders and set the hounds on them.

Chapter Fourteen

Snow White stuffs Pen in a tree and leads the doggies away just before a group of organised guys appear and find him. Pen is aggrieved that they are taking her captive captive, and goes after them.

Chapter Fifteen

It’s much easier to summarise chapters when stuff happens, rather than mindless bullshit. That’s another mark against you, Angelfall—I’m starting to get annoyed with your lack of badness!

The random guys take Snow White back to their base, and Pen follows along, waiting ’til night to perform a daring rescue… that gets her immediately captured. Yay.

Chapter Sixteen

So the thing about this book, I think, is that it has no… je ne sais quoi. I know that sounds super-vague, and I’m sorry, but I’m just… underwhelmed. Ever since chapter nine there’s been nothing wrong with the story and at the same time there’s been nothing compelling about it either.

Like now, when the random guys shoot the shit with Pen and Snow as they’re tied to chairs. There’s not even anything to say about it, it’s just talking. Then their leader comes in and feeds them. His name is Obadiah, and he excels in Boring Conversations.

Once both sides have reassured each other that they’re not living off Soylent Green, Obi confides in them his plan to find the crazy cannibals and train them to fight angels. There, that’s the kind of awesomely stupid idea I read books for! For once, I’m happy our heroes have found La Resistance!

Chapter Seventeen

Obi-Wan lets them know that he’s not deluded enough to think the local cannibals will be able to defeat the evil angels, (I don’t know—if they’re the Inbreds from the Wrong Turn franchise I think they could pull it off), but he does hope that it will at least inspire the people—and I for one find it very inspiring.

He leaves them to their escape attempt, and Snow breaks his bonds, because angel-powers. Pen mentions how the angels might have started killing humans because Gabriel got shot and killed, so apparently angels are weak against bullets?

Anyway, they’re immediately re-captured.

Chapter Eighteen

La Resistance tells our heroes they have to stay until the camp moves, because otherwise they might give away their location. If this was good old Ember, she would have been whining indignantly about it. Pen is actually reasonable.

I’m Very Disappointed, Angelfall!

Obi-Wan wants to recruit them though, and his guard Boden calls them ‘dildos’. Time will tell if he becomes my favourite character or not…

Anyway, they stay in the camp, where the men build walls out of computers instead of any of the hundreds of things that would make better walls than computers because SYMBOLISM! Pen goes to talk to Obi-Wan to see if he’ll let them go since they’ve been there a whole day, but runs into Boden who tells her to get back in the kitchen before he orally sodomises her.

Perhaps not my favourite character then.

Pen punches him in the face, he punches her back, she breaks his finger, he punches her in the boob, the onlookers take bets.

Yes, really.

Chapter Nineteen

About this time Pen decides to ‘get serious’ about this fight and turns the tables, right before Obi-Wan shows up to break it up, and Pen feels bad that Snow White didn’t bet on her winning. Because his opinion of her is so important to her now, apparently.

Obi-Wan tells her that brawling and gambling are cornerstones of their resistance movement, which is why no one tried to stop the fight. Great policy! Somehow, Pen doesn’t decide to join La Resistance after this, though she is tempted. She has to find Prim, after all. Uh, Paige.

But she wants to live in a world where her biggest worries are the PROOOOM, and pretending she does will obviously make it so!

(Hey, maybe Angelfall takes place in the same universe as Halo? Guess Bethany’s mission backfired big-time, maybe she should have actually paid attention to it rather than mooning over Xavier all the time)

Then Fred and George Weasley show up (called Tweedledum and Tweedledee in this book, though the character models match), seemingly to become Pen’s annoying cheerleading-squad. They gush over how awesome she is for a bit and try to recruit her into more fighting, saying if she throws a fight for them, they’ll help her escape.

She accepts, but not before interrogating them as to what Snow bet in regards to her fight.

Chapter Twenty

After a day of hard work Pen worries because Snow will be expected to take his shirt off, revealing the bandages with bloodstains in the shape of wing joints; and there’s just no possible explanation for those, except wings. Derp.

Luckily the woman the Hitachi twins (Hitachi doesn’t get a red line? Are Microsoft Ouran fans? Well, Ouran got one, so probably not) wanted Pen to fight; Anita (I’m saying nothing), sidles up to flirt with Snow and Pen pretends to be a jealous bitch to distract everyone.

Anita, it seems, is a Dawn character—yay! I hadn’t dared hope!

They mud-wrestle, but are interrupted by men with gnus.

(If you’re in my NaNo group, ‘gnus’ is a joke. If not, sucks to be you!)

Chapter Twenty-One

Panic ensues, people RUN AWAY, and Snow and Pen take the opportunity to escape. They come across some of the soldiers fighting… something, they don’t see what it was, but it was scary and some of the soldiers have been disarmed. In the sense that I’m putting my Horatio Cane sunglasses on.

Anyway, the soldiers leave, and our heroes go back to where Pen stashed Snow’s wings. They collect them, and Snow leads Pen back to camp Fight Club before telling her her sister’s in San Francisco. Then he gives some incredibly vague lines about how the whole massacre thing happened because of him, Pen is safer on her own, and then he buggers off.

Pen, of course, still has that Millstone to rescue, so instead of going back to Fight Club, she wanders off into the forest.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Pen wanders around in the woods and is attacked by things.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Snow shows up to save her. The two of them fight the… things (I don’t know, they’re little shadow demons or something) until they leave. Snow apparently doesn’t know what they are, and doesn’t recognise the term ‘Bizzaro-ville’ either, despite having no problems speaking colloquial English up ’til now.

Wait a minute, I just realised. I’ve been calling him ‘Snow’ all this time… and he knows nothing…

Aha. Ahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, I crack myself up.

Moving on, we’re halfway through the book, let’s celebrate with another dream sequence!

*~*~*

CONTINUED TOMORROW IN PART TWO

Apple’s gonna party like it’s 1989.

(2015) Retro Sci-Fi Action (Epic) Munro Chambers, Laurence Leboeuf, Michael Ironside, Edwin Wright, Aaron Jeffrey, Romano Ozari, Orphee Ladouceur, Steeve Léonard, Yves Corbeil, Evan Manoukian, Anouk Whissell, Franҫois Simard, Tyler Hall, Martin Paquette, Pierre Sigouin, Yoann-Karl Whissell, Christian Picone, Eric S. Boisvert, Abdul Ayoola, Nathaly Thibault. Directed by Franҫois Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell

There was a time when movies just had to be fun, when things like BMX Bandits and Solarbabies filled the 8-screen multiplex with kids and teens. Big floofy hair and a synthesizer-based score were offset by plenty of gore and sex scenes set to power ballads. Mad Max ruled the wasteland and The Last Starfighter soared into deep space. These were good times.

The year is 1997 and acid rain and killer robots have decimated the surface of the earth and reduced the population to a handful of scared townsfolk trembling in the confines of a town on the edge of the badlands, trying to find water wherever they can but most have to get theirs from Zeus (Ironside), the despotic and de facto ruler of the badlands and pretty much anywhere else he can get to on a BMX bike – apparently gasoline is a super-precious commodity that is only used to power cars in emergency situations.

This is the world that the Kid (Chambers) lives in. He’s an orphan who lives in a fallout shelter. He gets by going into the badlands and scavenging for whatever he can find, then trading his goods for water, food and comic books, especially Turbo Rider, the kid’s favorite.

One day he comes across Apple (Leboeuf), a pink-haired chipper happy-go-lucky young girl with ethereal blue eyes. At first the Kid finds her annoying but eventually they become friends and the Kid teaches her the rules of survival. However, the Kid runs afoul of Skeletron (Wright), the right hand man of Zeus which is somewhat ironic because Skeletron has saw blades where his hands should be. In trying to get away, he falls through an ancient door and discovers the Turbo Rider’s suit and power glove, which shoots off a powerful blast of….umm…a powerful blast.

Now armed with a powerful weapon, aided by Frederic (Jeffery), an arm-wrestling champion whose brother was killed by Zeus and whose right arm was chopped off by Zeus and now seeks vengeance. The Kid has his own reasons – first and foremost, Zeus has kidnapped Apple but also nearly as important, it was Zeus and Skeletron who orphaned the kid all those years ago. And before the final confrontation occurs, we discover that Apple has a secret of her own.

As I started watching this, I wasn’t sure whether this was an homage or a spoof of 80s movies and I eventually came to the conclusion that it was the former. Spoofs tend to be mean-spirited but one gets the sense that the filmmakers have a genuine affection for the films and pop culture of the era. The movie is littered with different references to life in the 80s, from the vaguely New Wave synth score to the Legend of Zelda to ViewMasters to rockin’ headbands to the aforementioned BMX bikes to a bazillion cinematic and TV references. The movie began life as a short film that the filmmakers submitted to the ABCs of Death anthology but were not selected; they decided to push on by making a movie of their own based on the short. Either way, Gen X kids are going to get nostalgia overload watching this movie.

There is a ton of gore here but it is not realistic in any sense; blood is essentially red Kool-Aid that fountains from anyone who gets even the merest scratch and while body parts are blown up and limbs scattered everywhere, probably the more freaky images are those of long-dead corpses in the wasteland that are little more than bones and dust.

Chambers is a likable actor who gives the Kid a certain naiveté that is endearing and occasionally annoying, while the out-of-this-world pretty Leboeuf comes off sort of like Goldie Hawn on happy pills. Ironside, a veteran of the sort of films that the movie is paying tribute to, is a bit long in the tooth but still has the gruff skills to make Zeus deliciously hissable.

The special effects are era-specific and look primitive to modern eyes but that’s intentional. In fact, the cheese factor here is off the charts, which some may not appreciate as much as those of us who lived through the era and loved many films from that time. As a matter of fact, I have to say that it brought a nice warm feeling to this reviewer’s gizzards as I was reminded of a whole ton of movies from my misspent youth. Devotees of 80s films will no doubt feel the same, although I think that audiences of a certain age group are going to appreciate this more than younger audiences who might not get the references, at least in any emotionally attached way as a Gen X-er might.

This is a movie that grows on you. Sure, it’s a one-trick pony and maybe you might find it gimmicky and start to get fidgety towards the end but I was definitely in the right frame of mind to experience this movie and fell in love with its goofy charm. No, this isn’t going to win any Oscars but I think it’s got a good shot at being a cult movie that a lot of people are going to adore for a very long time.

REASONS TO GO: Really grows on you. It brings up the warm fuzzies of long ago matinees.
REASONS TO STAY: Cheesy to the max. A bit one-note.
FAMILY VALUES: A decent amount of violence and gore, some foul language and a little bit of sensuality.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Originally set in a desert wasteland, filming in Quebec – which as far as I know doesn’t resemble a desert wasteland anywhere in the province – was marred by particularly rainy weather. Because of this, the storyline was changed to an environment polluted by acid rain and standing puddles were tinted green by the film crew to simulate this.
BEYOND THE THEATER: VOD (check your local cable/satellite provider), Amazon, iTunes
CRITICAL MASS: As of 9/28/15: Rotten Tomatoes: 88% positive reviews. Metacritic: 60/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: A Dog and His Boy
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
NEXT: Pawn Sacrifice

I apply lighter tones to the penciled drawing. This is the first few photos.

Then I add dark grays.

Then black, and I adjusted the levels in photoshop.

Then a color layer in PS

And some gradients to render the Endoskeleton a little more.

This weekend, I took another bold step in the direction of becoming the thing I hate when you made Urgency. an Amazon best-seller in New Age Mysticism. Good for you! Good for all of us! But you know what, the UK? You’re slacking. For it is, as of this writing, not an international best-seller. Get off your asses for fucksake. Enlightenment is just a click away! Still… for that I shall reward you with yet another acceptance speech. No sequel, but I’ll think about starting a cult. I do live in Hawaii. It’s perfect weather for culting.

Let’s keep it going. This one is going to be a tougher nut to crack because it involves book categories that people actually read. I’m talking Horror novels and Post-Apocalyptic literature. I’m talking about Into The End. Make Into The End a top 100 best-seller in either of these categories by next weekend and I shall reward you with another comedy roast speech.  Crack the top 50 in horror and I will also turn it into a trilogy.

Thanks for playing. Now get to paying.

And the UK? Isn’t it time you beat the Americans at something? No, squash doesn’t count. Grow up.

The Good:

The central focus of this story was definitely the growing romance between Perry and Aria, and although they were separated for the vast majority of this book I was glad to find that the distance never resulted in any unnecessary wavering in their commitment to each other. Even when Perry was confronted with the temptation to cheat on Aria when Kirra was plonked in front of him, he never did. In fact many relationship difficulty clichés were nicely avoided, which was nice to see. This separation allowed the author to show just how much the couple were in love with one another, not simply tell us.

The Bad:

Somehow the story managed to be both fast and slow paced at the same time. I think this may possibly because the chapters were short and the action would happen very quickly, almost to the point where everything was being skimmed over far too fast. Also, chunks of time would be missed in places which would interrupt the flow of the story. No sooner would one crisis be averted than the next would come along to take its place. However, when you get down to it, not a lot actually happened – Aria went somewhere, she came back; Perry had leadership difficulties and lost people, then went and rescued some dwellers.

My other major complaint was that we, as readers, were not given enough time to care for the character of Liv. She’s mentioned a bit in book one and seen for a while in this book before she’s suddenly gone again, and in the space of this short period of time we’re expected to believe in the intensity of her and Roar’s relationship and feel bad for her character’s situation. Any emotional impact was utterly lost on me because I simply didn’t care; to me she felt purely like a plot device for Roar to aid his character development.

The Verdict:

This was still a solid three star book but I wouldn’t say it was as great as the first one. It did address one or two of my complaints from the end of book one, thankfully, but some of the same problems I picked up on in my book one review (see: Paisley) remained. I think that all in all Through the Ever Night was more of a filler book; setting up the final novel which I hope will be awesome!

Source: http://apostolon-iam.deviantart.com/art/Patriots-Train-Concept-263268701

Source: http://chriscold.deviantart.com/art/Sinister-Plans-140221826

Creativity and world building, being an observer of the world around you, having patience, free expression without self-doubt. . . Then there’s the more pragmatic side, writing good sentences, building scene and sequel, character development, plot arc, creating dialogue, balancing the rhythm of your work. I could go on.

All of these things are crazily important. Every writer is different, in that some of these skills come easier or more naturally, and others take time to develop. Sometimes we must adjust our very perspective to be better writers.

But one faculty rules them all, like Sauron and the one ring.

A willingness to be wrong. And with that, the thirst for growth.

There is nothing more definitive on whether a writer will be successful than this. If you write a story, are so confident in it, flat out refusing to believe it could need moderate to serious rewriting, you just have no hope. None. Even great authors have to hack apart their work, get their hands bloody.

All the cliches about first drafts being shit aren’t just lip service. You need to write. And rewrite. And rewrite. And rewrite. And edit. And edit. And edit.

If you can’t enjoy that, if you can’t get excited about that process of improving your writing and your writing skills, than the process of creating a good to great story is going to be exhausting, emotionally paralyzing.

I’d like to think I’m a decent writer naturally. What I know I am exceptional at, is learning. I get so excited I can barely contain myself when my editor comes back at me with my work with a boatload of changes, with new ideas and ways to adapt the work. When I originally wrote HOOD, Book One of the American Rebirth Series, I sent it to my wonderful, brilliant editor, who very nicely helped me realize there were a some strengths to the book, but huge, huge weaknesses. Ones that would take massive rewriting. With a deft touch, she helped me realize the book simply wasn’t good enough as is.

My book was 280ish pages to start. I cut 180 after I took a day of self-loathing to truly digest what my editor told me, and rewrote the story. It finished with around 240.

Once that I realized I’d taken two years to write a book and needed to butcher block 2/3s of it, I wanted to die. But once I realized the potential of my story, how much better it could be, I couldn’t contain myself. It only took me around 2-3 months to rewrite the whole thing, after it had taken me 2 years to write it in the first place. And I could see how much better it was.

Now, I’m waiting on my editor’s feedback for a final round of editing. I’m so excited to see what she has to say I am literally counting the days. And I’m so, so glad I feel that way. Because it would suck if I hated this process, knowing how important it is.

The beauty of it is, the next book I write, it will be easier and require less re-work because I’ve learned what not to do, I’ve learned what my weaknesses are when I write, and now I understand what it takes to overcome them.

If you talk to any established author, they’ll tell you this: a microscopic few writers just write brilliantly, naturally.

The vast majority of great authors started off writing sucky, flawed writing, but loved doing it. And they learned (even if they didn’t love it) how to improve their writing, put their ego aside and really soak in what they could learn from editors and other writers. That’s how most of them become great. Experience and willingness to be wrong, and learn.

I’m so, so SO glad that willingness to be wrong and learn from it came easy to me. That it was something I liked. Because it is everything in the world of writing. I won’t sit here and claim my story is great. That is for the readers to decide. I’m just glad that if it doesn’t live up to what I think it could be, I have the right approach. Break it down. Learn from it. Come back stronger the next time.

-Evan Pickering

In tonight’s episode we are going to talk about I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. We will cover the novel and the 3 film adaptions.

So join Scott, and I on our trek thru the Cursed Earth we think you’ll enjoy the company.

In tonight’s episode we are going to talk about I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. We will cover the novel and the 3 film adaptions.

So join Scott, and I on our trek thru the Cursed Earth we think you’ll enjoy the company.

You will be able to watch the podcast live right here and on the blog or our other social media sites.
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/PodcastatGroundZero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/podcastatgroundzero
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Podcastatgroundzeroshow
You can find our blog here http://pcagz.com/ or http://podcastatgroundzero.com/

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For that reason, the federal government recommends putting together a disaster preparedness kit—more commonly known as food storage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has come out with guidelines on what to store in case of emergency. Families should remember, though, that each family’s needs are different and what may be healthy for one family may not be healthy for another.

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Assess your family’s needs before putting together your food storage

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Before starting, evaluate your family’s likes as well as needs. While the idea of food storage is a good one, it will not be helpful if family members refuse to eat the food because they dislike it. Children can be especially picky, so adjust accordingly. Dietary restrictions should also be taken into account; some may not be able to eat grains or consume milk products, so make sure that all food is able to be consumed.

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It should also be decided how many people the food supply needs to cover; some may be single and only have responsibility for themselves, while others may have responsibility for not only their immediate family but others as well. Make sure there is an accurate count before beginning the initial food storage purchase to ensure everyone has enough to eat, and if you have pets make sure that they are provided for as well.

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Make sure that basic nutritional and water needs are covered

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FEMA recommends at least a three-day supply of food and water, with one gallon of water per person per day for drinking and sanitation. Foods suggested include salt-free crackers, canned foods with high liquid content, and whole grain cereals. Avoid foods that will make you thirsty, as water may be hard to come by.

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A suggested list of food from FEMA includes:

• Ready-to-eat canned meats, fruits, vegetables and a can opener
• Protein or fruit bars
• Dry cereal or granola
• Peanut butter
• Dried fruit
• Nuts
• Crackers
• Canned juices
• Non-perishable pasteurized milk
• High energy foods
• Vitamins
• Food for infants—ready-to-feed formula if possible
• Comfort/stress foods, especially if you have children

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This is only a suggested list; your family’s needs may vary.

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Check and rotate your food storage on a regular basis

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Many people will take the time to lay in a supply of food in case of emergency, then ignore it until a disaster strikes. Unfortunately, not everything lasts for years; what may have been fine when placed in storage may have expired. Peggy Van Laanen, an associate professor and nutrition specialist for the Texas A & M University system, noted that ready-to-eat cereals will last up to 12 months when stored in a cool, dry place, while shelf-stable meats can last up to 2 years.

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When laying in food storage, make sure that the food is off the ground, preferably on high shelves. Keep track of the dates on the packages when placing them in food storage, and rotate products out periodically to be replaced with newer stock. Using the food in storage not only means that product is being rotated properly, it also helps the family to get used to what is in food storage.

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Thoroughly check canned goods to make sure they are still good, and do not simply rely on the expiration date; make sure that the cans are not swollen, corroded or dented. If they are, do not eat from them as the food may look fine but may actually be spoiled. Make sure that all grains are in sealed airtight containers.

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Many families do not plan ahead and are caught flat-footed when an unusual event cuts off their normal food sources. Disasters or family emergencies may seem like insurmountable obstacles, but with some careful planning and continued work, healthy food from a safe source is easily possible if appropriate precautions are taken.

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As toddlers, the world of wonder for these children is shaped by the newness of parental guidance. It’s at this age that toddlers begin to make judgments. Helping children to form good judgment is one of the most important things parents can do. When children grow to adulthood, they need to be able to make sound judgments as young adults. For now, toddlers observe parental behavior, often mimicking what they see to the chagrin of their parents.

Learning to be Human
Teaching young children the important lessons of sharing, service to their community and understanding that freedom and responsibility are equal partners, takes patience. Whether children are biologically related to parents or parents go through the oftentimes, lengthy adoption process, all children need a sense of bonding with other humans.

By the time children enter school, they have shown some semblance of their inner talents, skills and strengths. Their teachers encourage them to follow a path that enhances these assets that become our greatest resource. The adoption process may be emotionally draining for parents. The reward is the child who becomes part of their family unit.

Children Teach the World
Though adults may not realize it, children teach the world many things. When adults are too preoccupied or not attentive to childhood nuances, they miss the enormous lessons children teach. It’s important to recognize the fact that children are like a beautiful, glistening snowfall. They are as perfect and awesome as each snowflake from the moment of birth.

Children are only marred by hurtful experiences they cannot emotionally resolve or process without the help and guidance of adults. The adoption process can affect older adoptive children by instilling a sense of insecurity that may only be reversed by consistent love, reassurance and guidance. Adults learn the value of restoring a child to their natural born perfection.

Observe each phase of a child’s life as if it was a precious memory. They teach us much about the pure innocence of love, sharing, whimsy and curiosity adults may have forgotten. From the moment an infant reaches out with its tiny hands, it is already setting goals.

Children are Our Future
From the dawn of time, children have been valued as a major link to the future. For some adults, children represent the mark of immortality. A child is born with the burden of creating their future from their first breath. Children are often unaware of their effect on their family unit and the world they live in. Once children reach the age of reason, they become viable, thinking human beings who have a solid investment in their future and that of the entire world. Their choices are many. With a solid foundation of principles, ethics and a strong sense of direction, each child is the world’s most valuable natural resource.

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10. Tokaimura, Japan 1999

A Level 4 accident occurred when unqualified workers put more than the permitted amount of enriched uranium into a precipitation tank. Along with two workers killed in the incident, 56 plant workers and 21 civilians were exposed to high levels of radiation. Residents within 1,000 feet of the plant were evacuated as a precaution.

9. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1983

This Level 4 incident resulted from operator error during a fuel plate reconfiguration. The plant operator died after being exposed to extremely high doses of radiation. Seventeen employees outside the reactor room were also exposed to varying levels of radiation.

8. Saint-Laurent, France 1969

A Level 4 graphite-annealing incident occurred when 50 kilograms of uranium began to melt in one of the plant’s gas cooled reactors. A brief heat excursion enabled trace amounts of plutonium to enter the Loire River.

7. SL-1 Experimental Power Station Idaho, USA 1961

This U.S. Army experimental nuclear power reactor experienced a steam explosion and meltdown that killed three operators. The Level 4 incident was caused by the improper removal of the control rod, which was responsible for absorbing neutrons in the reactor core. Approximately 80 curies of iodine-131 were released.

6. Chalk River, Canada 1952

The first nuclear reactor outside the United States experienced a hydrogen explosion. This Level 5 accident was caused by a combination of human error and mechanical problems that led to a power surge and loss of reactor coolant. In addition to the reactor’s roof being blown off, 4,500 tons of radioactive water pooled in the facility’s basement.

5. Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, USA 1979

Control problems and human error caused the failure of a relief valve that allowed tons of reactor coolant to escape, which resulted in a partial meltdown of the reactor. During this Level 5 accident, 40,000 gallons of contaminated waste was released into the Susquehanna River. As of yet, no cancer cases have been linked to the disaster.

4. Sellafield, UK 1957

Known as the Windscale Fire, a Level 5 accident occurred when the core of one of the reactors built for the British atomic bomb program caught fire and released a substantial amount of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. For approximately one month after the incident, all the milk produced within 500 kilometers of the site was diluted and destroyed. Two hundred forty cases of cancer have been linked to the fire.

3. Kyshtym, Russia 1957

A Level 6 radiation contamination incident occurred at the Mayak nuclear fuel processing plant. Eighty tons of coolant quickly evaporated after a storage tank broke causing an ammonium nitrate explosion. Radioactive waste contaminated a 350-kilometer area of the Eastern Urals when the explosion blew off the 160-ton containment lid.

2. Fukushima, Japan 2011

When a tsunami and earthquake caused power outages, reactor coolant pumps stopped working. Backup generators were destroyed by the tsunami. As a result, Reactor One overheated and exploded. Reactors Two and Three had total meltdowns. The long-term effects are not yet known.

1. Chernobyl, Russia 1986

Considered the worst nuclear disaster in history, this Level 7 event occurred when technicians experienced an unexpected power surge during an experimental shutdown. The containment vessel burst and the building exploded. The disaster has caused 53 direct deaths and countless chronic illnesses as the effects of the incident are still being experienced in the surrounding area. Due to the devastation that occurred hundred of thousands were not able to return to their homes which led to mass poverty.  This poverty resulted in many Russian parents having to give their child up for adoption in order to survive. Chernobyl is not an incident that will soon be forgotten.

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As the adult in the house, you know that you are responsible for preparing in the event of a disaster. You can read all of the guides in the world to learn about what to stock up on; however, that doesn’t mean you know how to talk your kids about disaster preparedness.

What They Already Know

Your children may already know more than you think they do. For example, if you live in an area that is often affected by tornadoes, teachers and administrators may have already covered what to do in the event that one of these emergencies arises. As a result, children have a sense of how powerful the storms are. You may wish to speak with the school to find out what your children have been taught, but you should also have open and honest conversations with your kids. Keeping some tips in mind when doing so will prove helpful.

Knowing What Disasters Are

Maybe your children are too young to have learned such lessons in school, or perhaps they did not fully comprehend the lesson when it was taught. While you don’t want to frighten your children, you do want to let them know what the reality of disasters is. As a result, you should teach them about the different problems that could emerge, especially ones that are particular to your area. At home, you can show them videos of destruction that the storms have caused so that they recognize how serious these problems are.

Plan an Escape Route

Some disasters preclude you from leaving the house, but other emergencies mean that you need to get out as soon as possible. For example, you should speak with your family about what to do in the event of a fire and where each of them should go. You should run a fire drill so that your children know where they should go, especially if they are confronted with a fire in the middle of the night. Make sure that everyone knows where the escape routes are from their bedrooms. You should also discuss safety for your pets in the event of a fire with your kids.

Maintaining Emergency Food and Water Supplies

When your kids are rummaging around the house looking for a snack or a drink, they may accidentally dip into the emergency food supply. If you never told them that these products were strictly for emergencies, then they would have no way of knowing that information. Therefore, you should let them know what those products are there for. Also, you should show your children how to prepare the foods for themselves. While you don’t want to think about your children being on their own, something could happen to you in a disaster or an emergency, and they may need to fend for themselves.

Teach Your Children Self-Sufficiency

The goal is for your entire family to stay together throughout the disaster. However, by its very nature, a disaster does not allow you to plan every detail so thoroughly. A time could come when you are split apart. You may also become seriously injured, and you need to let your children know what to do if that situation arises. Disasters do kill people, and that is a reality that you have to confront. Make sure that your children know how to call for help, how to keep themselves hydrated and how to avoid additional disasters in the event that they are alone at some point after the disaster has struck. Many people want to ignore this component because they don’t want to picture a disaster ever getting to that level, but it is possible for such a situation to occur.

Guides about the amount of water you should keep in the pantry or how to protect your house against disasters can’t tell you how to talk to your kids after the effects of a disaster.

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