The SULLIVANS - The Results Are In!

The votes have been counted, the awards have been made, and the results are in! A big thank you to the people who voted so not all decisions on who should win were in my trotters alone.

And now:
The Winners!


Best Science Fiction:

The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass
This book is the first book in a series and takes place at a military academy in space. It is totally awesome.


Best Urban Fantasy:

Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie
This is the first book in a really fun Urban Fantasy series full of action and cool characters.


Best Young Adult Fantasy:

Pawned by Laura Bickle
This book takes place in a pawnshop and has a demon who looks like a miniature T-Rex! It is awesome!


Best Zombie Book:

Flesh by Laura Bickle
A funeral home where the dead go missing, a creepy catfish and lots of (st)icky situations. Another awesome read.


And lastly:
The book that won both Most Swooniest Romance and the Award for Awesomest Book of Awesome:

The Arrows of the Heart by Jeffe Kennedy
This book has it all: a swoony romance with the most dreamiest hero according to Voodoo Bride and Olivia. A suspenseful story, creepy creatures and even more creepy people, and even a sort of zombies. This book released last year and we've already read it several times, because we can't get enough of it!


I will be personally handing over the award for Most Swooniest and Awesomest Book of Awesome to Jeffe Kennedy later this year, and I hope to hand Melinda Snodgrass her award rosette as well. Laura Bickle will get send her special award piggy for winning two categories her way, and I'll see if Annette Marie will want her rosette send her way as well.

*The piggies started their life as piggy banks, but were transformed into award piggies by me and Carien especially for the SULLIVANS. The rosettes were altered by us as well.*

Let me know if you want to see me do another SULLIVANS event next year.

The SULLIVANS - Last Call

Get your nomination or vote in before the end of May!
I'll be announcing the winners in June.

Best Zombie Book:
- 100 Days in Deadland by Rachel Aukes
- Deck Z by Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon
- Dread Nation by Justina Ireland
- Flesh by Laura Bickle
- Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
- Zom-B by Darren Shan

Best Young Adult Fantasy:
- Pawned by Laura Bickle
- The Archived by Victoria Schwab
- Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart
- Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton
- The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross
- Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Best Urban Fantasy:
- Shrill Dusk by Helen Harper
- Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie
- How to Save an Undead Life by Hailey Edwards
- The Burned Spy by K.A. Krantz
- River Road by Suzanne Johnson

Most Swooniest Romance:
- A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
- More Than Comics by Elizabeth Briggs
- Dangerous by Minerva Spencer
- Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt
- The Arrows of the Heart by Jeffe Kennedy

Best Science Fiction:
- Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
- The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass
- Contagion by Erin Bowman
- Valiant by Merrie Destefano

The SULLIVANS - Best Science Fiction

Another category where it was hard to narrow down the nominations, but I finally managed to select four.

- Tin Star by Cecil Castellucci
- The High Ground by Melinda Snodgrass
- Contagion by Erin Bowman
- Valiant by Merrie Destefano

Vote for your favorite or nominate another great SF!

The SULLIVANS - Most Swooniest Romance

Our Nominations for Most Swooniest Romance are:

A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
More Than Comics by Elizabeth Briggs
Dangerous by Minerva Spencer
Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Arrows of the Heart by Jeffe Kennedy

Vote for your favorite on this list or nominate another book.
And keep an eye out for the reveal of the winners in June.

The SULLIVANS - Best Urban Fantasy

If I nominated all the Urban Fantasy books I love, this list would be ginormous, so I decided to pick four more recent UF books, and left out books I've already raved about more than once in the past.

So my nominations for Best Urban Fantasy Book are:

Shrill Dusk by Helen Harper
Three Mages and a Margarita by Annette Marie
How to Save an Undead Life by Hailey Edwards
The Burned Spy by K.A. Krantz

Vote for you favorite of these books, or nominate another book in the comments!

The SULLIVANS - Best Young Adult Fantasy

Today I bring you my nominations for Best Young Adult Fantasy!
I picked both modern Fantasy/Paranormal settings and classic Fantasy settings.



*Pawned by Laura Bickle

*The Archived by Victoria Schwab

*Grace and Fury by Tracy Banghart

*Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

*The Queen's Rising by Rebecca Ross

*Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder


Feel free to add your own nomination in the comments or to vote for one of my nominations.

You can also leave your nomination or vote for Best Zombie Book if you haven't done so yet:

Best Zombie Book Nomination:
- 100 Days in Deadland
- Deck Z
- Dread Nation
- Flesh
- Rot & Ruin
- Zom-B by Darren Shan *New!*

The SULLIVANS - Best Zombie Book Nominations

Here are my nominations for
the SULLIVAN Award for Best Zombie Book.

Let me know in the comments what book you are rooting for. It can be one of these books, or another zombie book you love.

The winner will be announced during my Award Event in June.
(there might be a vote if needed)


100 Days in Deadland (Deadland #1)
by Rachel Aukes


Deck Z
by Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon


Dread Nation (Dread Nation #1)
by Justina Ireland


Flesh
by Laura Bickle


Rot & Ruin (Rot & Ruin #1)
by Jonathan Maberry

Introducing: The SULLIVANS!

Award season is upon us with lots of books getting nominated, judged, etc...

And as always only few of my favorites appear on the lists. I grumbled a bit, but then I decided:

Why not have my own awards!

So the SULLIVANS was born.

And you can join the fun!

I will have my own award season in June!
I'll make an amazing award for one book I think really deserves ALL THE AWARDS! This award will be the SULLIVAN for Awesomest Book of Awesome!

But...
There are more books that deserve awards!

So these next few month I'll be nominating books for the SULLIVANS in different categories. Think: Best Zombie Book, Best YA Fantasy, Best Urban Fantasy, Most Awesome Sidekick, Total Cover Buy But Did Not Regret, Swooniest Romance, etc...

And here you guys can help!

Know a cool category for a SULLIVAN, or a book you think really deserves to be nominated for a cool award? Let me know! Either in the comments of one of my SULLIVANS posts or email me. I'll have some voting rounds if enough people are interested.

Lets give the books we love some extra love!

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Blog Award

I got nominated for the 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Blog Award' by Gini Koch!!

Thanks Gini!
I feel honored.

What is it about:
The award was created to honor those whose blogs who exemplify the qualities Katherine “Kitty” Katt has -- those who always stay cutting edge, who always find the fun, the funny, and the cool, and who are always one step ahead of the competition.

The “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Award” is only given to the amazingly awesome, so get down with your bad self, you’re deemed worthy to run with the A-C’s! And you’re also one step closer to being in the running for some cool prizes. (Contest is international.)

Now you get to spread the awesome by nominating other bloggers who are also harder, better, faster and stronger than the average blog bear. Not everyone’s as cool as you, so choose carefully!

---------

Oh! I get to nominate people as well!!
And there's also cool stuff to win if I'm lucky!
Check it out here
Hmmm...... Who shall I nominate. Let me see.


- vvB32 Reads
- The Bookish Brunette
- Stella
- M.A.D.
- Bibliognome


Congrats girls!
You are now in the running to win the Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger Blog Award!

We're Stylish Bloggers

Voodoo Bride and me got awarded with the Stylish Blogger Award by Kerry Schafer!

Thanks Kerry:
We both feel quite honoured by this!

Here's the rules connected to this award:

1. Thank the Stylish Blogger Award giver and link back to their blog.
Already done!

2. Share seven little known things about ourselves.

- Voodoo Bride actually never got to be a real bride. There was some kind of tragedy at her wedding day that resulted in her being left at the altar, but as she refuses to discuss the details, that's about all I can tell you (except that I'm pretty sure there was voodoo involved).

- My big dream is to be my owner's muse and inspire her to write a story full of zombie mayhem. (Ok, maybe that's not a little known thing, but it's an important one I think.)

- Even though I tried real hard to convert my owner, she's fond of bacon and sometimes even eats it while I'm with her!

- I myself only eat animals if they're made out of chocolate or marzipan.

- Voodoo Bride's favourite movie is Titanic. Not because of the lovestory, (she can't stand Leonardo) but because of the real stories that are told: Mr and Mrs Straus who stay together even though Mrs Straus could have gotten a seat on a lifeboat, Mr Guggenheimer who accepts his faith by dressing his best and refusing a lifebelt, etc.. Next to having watched the movie a gazillion times (and crying at it every time) she has lots of books about the Titanic disaster.

- My favourite computer game is Left 4 Dead, a game where you fight zombies. Voodoo Bride's favourite computer game is The Sims 2, a game where you can create families and run their lives.

- Our favourite Holiday is Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas Eve) which is on the 5th of December. Sinterklaas and his helpers bring presents to everyone of that day, much like Santa Claus does at Christmas. I think they're cousins or something.



3. Pass the award on to other bloggers
I'm giving this award to:
Becky from Bibliognome
I just love the name of Becky's blog!

Enbrethiliel from Shredded Cheddar
Another blog name I love!

Both ladies also have really interesting blog content, so check their blogs out!

And lastly:
All the ladies of Word Whores
Even though the bacon frotting is giving me nightmares, you are all classy whores to me ;-)

4. Alert the bloggers to the fact that they’ve been awarded.
I'm on it!

"Worth Your Weight in a 'Gator Battle Award"

Just look what a cool award I got!!

Both Gini Koch and Becky from Bibliognome awarded me with the "Worth Your Weight in a 'Gator Battle Award"!

Here is what it is about:

====================================

Congratulations, you’ve won the honor of being Worth Your Weight in a ‘Gator Battle!

The award was created in honor of (at least according to them) the real stars from “Alien Tango”. No, not Katherine “Kitty” Katt or Jeff Martini. Alliflash and Gigantagator, Alligators Extraordinaire!

The “Worth Your Weight in a ‘Gator Battle Award” is only given to the wily, the brave, and the cheeky, so get down with your bad self, you’re deemed worthy to run with the A-C’s!

Now you get to spread the awesome by nominating other bloggers who would also be worth their weight in a ‘gator battle. Battling ‘gators is not for sissies or wimps -- only the strong survive -- so choose wisely!

Your mission details:

0.Slap the graphic on your blog post.
0.Give link props to the person who gave you the award (don’t rile a ‘gator fighter -- it’s dangerous).
0.Spread the awesome and nominate five (5) other bloggers who you think will be worth their weight in a ‘gator battle.
0.Let the recipients know they’ve won this honor on their blogs.
0.Last but not least, shoot Gini Koch an email at gini@ginikoch.com and let her know you’re worthy of running with the A-C’s (put “Worth My Weight” in the subject line!) by sharing that you’ve been nominated and telling her which other bloggers you nominated, and she’ll enter you into the “Worth Your Weight” Contest. Keep reading to find out more details and what the loot is below.

Of course, you can choose to ignore your awesomeness, but then you’ll never have a chance to nab your own A-C or win the loot. And you know you want both.

Contest runs from Wednesday, February 1, 2011 through Monday, February 28, 2011.

*****

Worth Your Weight Contest

International Contest!

Are you worth your weight in a Gator Battle?

Let’s hope you are, because we’ve got a Battle Royale going on right now to see which blogger is the one who can best the ‘gators (and, at least per them, the true stars) from “Alien Tango” -- Alliflash and Gigantagator.

Why do you want to win? Well, we’ll give you not one, not two, but FOUR good reasons!



That’s right. Whoever wins the ‘Gator Battle Royale will win a signed and personalized copy of “Touched by an Alien”, “Love and Rockets”, “Boondocks Fantasy”, AND “Alien Tango.” Yes, really, four books.

But wait, there’s more!

The ‘Gator Battle Royale winner will ALSO receive a signed ARC of “Alien in the Family”. That’s right, it’s really FIVE books!

How can you pass this battle up? That’s right -- you can’t! So…get ready to RUMBLE!

But what about those who fight mightily, but don’t win it all?

Glad you asked! There will be four consolation prizes!

•Consolation Prize 1: Touched by an Alien tote bag and pen
•Consolation Prize 2: Alien Tango tote bag and pen
•Consolation Prize 3: Alien in the Family tote bag and pen
•Consolation Prize 4: Alien Collective tote bag and pen

=============================================

Wow! That is some cool award and contest!
So now for 5 bloggers to bestow this award on!

Enbrethiliel from Shredded Cheddar
Velvet from vvB32 Reads
Laura Bickle from Salamander's Tales
Demented Wench from Demented Wench's blog
Titania from Fishmuffins of Doom

These ladies are all awesome and certainly worth their weight in a Gator Battle!
If you haven't yet, be sure to check out their blogs to see so for yourself!

*Award: Life is Good*

Meghan gave me the Life is Good award!
Thanks Meghan

This is what it is all about:

1.Thank and link back to the person that gave this award.
2.Answer the following 10 survey questions mentioned below.
3.Pass it on to another 15 Blogs that are fairly new and interesting to you.
4.Contact the bloggers so they know they've been chosen.

On to the questions:

1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

Well, I'm on almost every picture I post, so I'm not anonymous and I like being recognised by people. My owner on the other hand is more of a private person and is perfectly ok with me getting all the attention.

2. Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side:

I'm never stubborn!! *cough*

3. What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

A handsome pig with green trotters.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

Cherry flavoured Milkshake

5.When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

Read, watch movies and play computergames

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

Visit Paris and London

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever , the shy person, or always ditching?

Pigs don't have to go to school.
My owner tells me she thought she was the shy kid in the background, but years after leaving school she still got recognised as the 'The Cure fan'.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see?

Me meeting Midas Dekkers, my favourite Dutch author. And I hope to meet other authors in the future.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

On this blog I post reviews and such, but on my other blog everything is about me!

10.

Hey where's question number 10?!



And now for breaking the rules:
As I'm very busy at the moment I will skip rule 3 and 4!!

And just so you know:
If I'm following your blog or am a frequent commenter it means I think your blog is worth reading!

Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits award

What is this?
Me in a pinstripe suit?

I got the Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits award from vvB32 and decided to dress up for the occasion.

Thanks vvB! I feel strange indeed.

What is it about:

Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits award

This award is based on the release of Cate Gardner's short story collection, Strange Men in Pinstriped Suits. The book is available for pre-order and at a discount of $1.99 off of the cover price. To help celebrate this release, Cate and Strange Publications have a contest with two prize packages to choose from.

The 'Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits' award is given to only the strangest of folk, and as the recipient of such you are deemed very strange indeed.

Congratulations.

Now you must go forth and celebrate the strangeness of friends (and strangers - strangers are always allowed) by nominating blogs run by strange folk. *Beware, some people don't like you to refer to them as strange…Try to avoid them if possible.

Some rules:

1. Add the logo of the award to your blog post.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to you (don't mess with strange people).
3. Nominate seven other blogs telling us why you think the recipient is strange enough to deserve the award.
4. Leave a message for those nominated on their blogs.
5. And, if you email catephoenix(at)gmail(dot)com and tell her you've received the award for your strangeness, she'll enter you in the biggest kick-ass Strange Men competition ever. Details over at strangemeninpinstripesuits.com (click on the award link on the home page)

Hmmm..... 7 strange friends. Do I have 7 strange friends?

Let's see:
- Enbrethiliel of Shredded Cheddar (Naming your blog Shredded Cheddar is a cool kind of strange I think!)
- Beanie Mouse (He doesn't even have to dress to look like he wears a pinstripe suit)
- Hammie (Does being a hamster or having big teeth make you a strange man?)
- Demented Wench (When she hears I gave her this Award she'll get creative with a wooden spoon, I think that qualifies her as strange.)
- Gini Koch (She writes about aliens!)
- Eve from Through Eve's Looking-Glass (She's on a bit of a blog vacation, but she's beautifully strange no matter what)
- Leaving number 7 open as you never know when you need a legitimate reason to call someone strange.

ps: those awarded are free to ignore their strangeness and/or the award

Awards

I got a couple of cool Awards!

first up I got the Xxtraordinary Blogger Award from Book Addict Patti.
Thanks Patti!

The Award Criteria: This award is awarded to those bloggers who:
1~post almost every day, if not every
2~reply to every comment that's posted
3~just down right LOVE blogging!
The Award Rules: Share one extraordinary thing that's happened to you
then pass this award to 5 Xxtraordinarly bloggers.

Well, you can probably guess she gave the award before I went offline because of my move ;-)

And something extraordinary....
I think it's extraordinary how many cool, fun and nice people and animals I met since I started blogging. The (book)blogging community is one great community I think.

And awarding this to:
vvB32 Reads
Shredded Cheddar
Midnight Sapphires Books
Ex Libris
Audrey's Country Crafts

Next up I got the Versatile blogger Award from both Birdie and Alice Audrey!
Thanks Birdie and Alice!

The Rules:
1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Pass the award along to 15 who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason! (in no particular order...)
4. Contact the picked [bloggers] and let them know about the award.

Ok, here's my seven things:
- I love horror movies
- Especially Zombie movies
- I dressed up as a pirate for Halloween last year
- My favourite colour is green
- My all time favourite book is 'American Gods' by Neil Gaiman
- My favourite restaurant is the Chinese Wok Restaurant Ni Hao in Groningen
- I'm very grudgingly starting to get into reading ebooks

15 people to pass this on to?! Hmmm...
Well, if I'm a follower of/frequent commenter on a blog you can bet I think it has something fantastic, so giving this to all of you who feel versatile.

Thanks again to the great people who bestowed these awards on me!

Another Award!

I got the Prolifilic Blogger Award from Stella at Ex Libris.
Thanks Stella!

"A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content. After accepting this award recipients are asked to pass if forward to seven other deserving blogs."

Hmmm... Now let me think.
I'm so bad at picking people to pass awards on to, so I'll just give some love to a couple of blogs I really enjoy:

- Diary of an Eccentric
Anna manages to get me interested in books I would pass over in the store if not for her reviews.

- Fishmuffins of Doom
Titania shares my love of zombies!

- Shredded Cheddar
I always love reading Enbrethiliel's posts, be it about movies, books or other stuff.

- vvb32 reads
A fellow lover of Steampunk and Zombies

- Fantasy & SciFi Lovin' News & Reviews
This blog always manages to give me my much needed dose of fantasy and sci-fi

Now don't be offended if I didn't name you! I can tell you all that if I take the time to leave a comment on your blog or if I decide to follow it, it means I enjoy your blog.

As for the blogs I just named: If you want you can claim the award and pass it on, but there's absolutely no obligation.

Awards

I got two awards that I want to share here:

Well, this one speaks for itself. I got it from vvB32.
And to follow her example I'm giving this award to all my followers. You guys/girls are great and you make blogging even more fun.
And thanks vvB32 for this award!

This Award I got from Jen G. from The Introverted Reader. Thanks Jen G.
Along with posting this award I'm supposed to tell you seven things about myself.

Here goes:
1 - I love watching scary movies
2 - I have four brothers. One of them is my twin brother
3 - Although I have family in Canada and the US I've never been outside of the Netherlands
4 - Zombies are my favourite kind of monster (Bet you didnt know that :-P )
5 - My favourite movie is Black Sheep
6 - I love chinese food
7 - I'm always having difficulty finding a last interesting thing when making lists like this

And I'm giving this award to anyone of my followers who feels creative.