Explore This! Pondicherry, India

I’ve just finished reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel for my final first year English course at university. I was curious about the originating point in the main character (Pi’s) life…Pondicherry, India. Though most of his tale is told in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as a castaway, he retells, with such fond memories, his early life in this place I’d never heard of until now.

Pondicherry sits on the Bay of Bengal, and if you’ve read Martel’s book,
you’ll understand a bit more about the corrollation.

You can just feel the heat emanating from this image…

It is these brightly coloured buildings that enhance the contrast for me
between India and North American living…

Genres 101: The world is ending!! (A.K.A. Dystopian and Apocalyptic Fiction)

As you may have noticed, Speculative Fiction is a pretty large bag of mixed tastes. Today, I thought (since I’m currently reading Wither by Lauren DeStafano and have recently read other books that fit into these categories) that we’d take a look at Apocalyptic, Dystopian, and, because it usually is linked with dystopian, the Utopian novel, too. Utopian aside for a moment, the other two sub-genres have a fairly common element: life is bleak, if there’s still any life around.

First up, there’s Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. Apocalyptic novels, by definition, are set as the end of civilization is iminent, be it from plague, nuclear war, impending disaster (as I write this I have Aerosmith singing “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”, in my head, as a large meteor is …

New Releases: Mar. 28 – Apr. 3, 2011

Lover Unleashed by J.R. Ward

Payne, twin sister of Vishous, is cut from the same dark, warrior cloth as her brother: A fighter by nature, and a maverick when it comes to the traditional role of Chosen females, there is no place for her on the Far Side… and no role for her on the front lines of the war, either.

When she suffers a paralyzing injury, human surgeon Dr. Manuel Manello is called in to treat her as only he can- and he soon gets sucked into her dangerous, secret world. Although he never before believed in things that go bump in the night- like vampires- he finds himself more than willing to be seduced by the powerful female who marks both his body and his soul.

As the two find so much more than an erotic connection, …

Explore This! La Jolla (San Diego, California)

Today, we are heading west and getting ready to “Hang Ten”. And this is kind of exciting for me because, before today, I had never heard of La Jolla. So, why am I featuring it? Well, the inspiration for today’s locale comes from Susi Sunshine; she recommended La Jolla to me as it was the setting for Jill Sorenson’s book, Crash Into Me. With elements in the book including famous surfers, romance, and murder, it looks like this is the perfect place for it all to happen.

La Jolla, nicknamed Jewel City, is in the northwestern part of San Diego. It is called “affluent” and one look at these pics will reinforce its nickname and its desirability to the rich and famous.

A hotel in the city.

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson "Punk"

Today, I’m going all out Punk…I’ve dyed my hair green and spiked it, now we’re really ready to rock! Oh, wait….wrong Punk. In our last talk, I mentioned “Splatterpunk” which was a subgenre of Horror, but there is a separate part of the Speculative Fiction category that encompasses many other Punk types. It seems it started out with the term “Cyberpunk“, thought up by Bruce Bethke in the early 1980’s, which blends cybernetics with the punk music of the originating time. It’s essence is about a type of technology that has become highly evolved, for example blending humans with computers and usually occurring in a dystopian society. The first thing that comes to mind here are those scary, crazy Cyborgs in Star Trek….Yes, I’m a trekkie and a trekker (and I know the difference, lol). There are a bunch of movie versions of this genre …

New Releases: March 14-20, 2011

Steel by Carrie Vaughn

It was a slender length of rusted steel, tapered to a point at one end and jagged at the other, as if it had broken. A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her.

This was the tip of a rapier.

Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.

The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate’s life is bloody and brief, and …

Explore This! Saint Petersburg, Russia

Today, our travels take us to a place that has always fascinated me. Thanks to Joy Preble’s new novel, Haunted, the second book in her Dreaming Anastasia series, I was inspired to revisit Russia during the time of Tsar Nicholas II. Though the Joy’s novel takes place in modern times and in New York, the story of the Tsar and his doomed family is one that is very sad and still fairly recent in history.With elements like the suspicious character of Rasputin, the illness of the young son, the deep affections of the Tsar and Tsarina, and of course, the mystery surrounding Anastasia, it has all the workings of an amazing work of fiction.

But, the story of the Romanovs and their ultimate tragedy is all too real. …

Genres 101: Today’s Lesson "Horror"

I want to thank everyone for the awesome feedback on these posts! It’s fun learning and sharing the info with you!

For the next little while, I’ve decided to stick within the Speculative Fiction category because there just so many levels, that I feel it needs special attention. Today, I want to focus on Horror. The first thing that comes to mind, for me, under this title is Stephen King. For me he embodies the dark, scary stories that are synonymous with horror. What I was surprised to learn through my research is that a) horror , though created long ago, was a genre revived in the eighteenth century, largely with a female audience in mind and written by women and b) one of my fave types of literature, the Gothic novel, also falls within the realm of horror.

New Releases: February 28- March 6

River Marked by Patricia Briggs

Car mechanic Mercy Thompson has always known there was something different about her, and not just the way she can make a VW engine sit up and beg. Mercy is a shapeshifter, a talent she inherited from her long-gone father. She’s never known any others of her kind. Until now. An evil is stirring in the depths of the Columbia River—one that her father’s people may know something about. And to have any hope of surviving, Mercy and her mate, the Alpha werewolf Adam, will need their help…

Falconer and the Death of Kings by Ian Morson
Captured by a Highlander by Julianne MacLean
Scones & Bones by Laura Childs

Explore This! Meiringen, Switzerland

Today, our world tour takes us to Meiringen, Switzerland. I must admit, before looking into this area, I had never even heard of Meiringen!

When I think Switzerland,  I think Geneva, mountains, skiing and just a general sense of peace. What I’ve never associated with it though is Sherlock Holmes! But, it is the famous detective that has brought me to this scenic destination, which, of course, I had to share with you.

Meiringen is the home of an apparently fantastic Sherlock Holmes museum, complete with items from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s own study and a re-enacted set up of Holmes’ environ (this is according to Graham Moore, author of The Sherlockian.)

A statue of Holmes, truly a larger than life figure in popular fiction for over a …