Stuff We Like This Week: September 11 Edition
Sep 11
In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
Catching Fire Giveaway!
Sep 01
You all read The Hunger Games, right?
If the answer to that question is “no,” please stop reading this IMMEDIATELY and get thee to a bookseller/library/other place where you might find book-like things. Because this is easily one of my favorite things I’ve consumed all year, and when asked who I would recommend it to, I usually say something like “you know, people who like things that are awesome.”
Suzanne Collins’ gripping story focuses on a post-apocalyptic future wherein a ruthless government selects a group of random kids to battle it out to the death in a televised game of survival. When 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen’s younger sister is chosen to compete, Katniss volunteers to go in her place. What follows mixes a heady cocktail of crazy-brutal adventure, delicious teen romance, and deft commentary on our increasingly televised culture.
And now there’s a sequel, Catching Fire, and you — yes, YOU, lucky Alert Nerd Reader! — can win the book and some exciting swag.
Three lucky folks will win…
*A limited edition Catching Fire t-shirt, suitable for wearing to cons and post-apocalyptic death battles
*A collectible mockingjay pin, like the one Katniss wears in The Hunger Games
*Your very own copy of Catching Fire
To enter, simply leave a comment answering the following question: are you Team Peeta or Team Gale? (If you have no idea what this means, guess. We won’t bust you for not being intimately acquainted with the Games-verse just yet.)
Rules/fine print: The giveaway is open to participants with a United States mailing address only (international readers can enter if you have a friend in the States who can accept your prizes by mail!). Entrants under age 13 must have parent or guardian permission to enter. The giveaway runs from September 1 to September 25. Winners will be announced on or around September 30.
Check back with us throughout the month as we’ve got some thrilling Games/Catching Fire-related posts cookin’.
In the meantime, here’s the book trailer.
Stuff We Like This Week: August 28 Edition
Aug 28
In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
Stuff We Like This Week: August 21 Edition
Aug 21
In an effort to combat our occasional…okay, okay, near-constant negativity, we give you a regular feature full of nothing but love — Stuff We Like This Week. Appearing every Friday, SWLTW will recap the things that have set our little nerdly hearts aflame within the past seven days.
Amber Benson, 2009 Edition
Aug 19
Earlier this week, we hopped in the trusty Alert Nerd time machine and revisited a vintage Amber Benson interview from (dramatic voice) the year 2000. Today, we’re catching up with Amber Benson, 2009 Edition: filmmaker, Buffy alum, and newly-minted urban fantasy novelist.
Amber’s book, Death’s Daughter, is the first in a trilogy about grim reaper spawn Calliope Reaper-Jones. When Dad goes missing, Callie is forced to leave behind her normal girl life and venture into a fantastical world of vengeful deities, high stakes questing, and ridiculously cute hellhound puppies. There are off-kilter versions of familiar mythological figures, like Kali and Persephone. There is a prissy sidekick faun who isn’t exactly the epitome of helpfulness. There is a brain-scorchingly hot guy named Daniel who may have his own supernatural thing going on.
Why are you still reading this? You could be reading this book.
Anyway, Death’s Daughter is just the tip of the Amber Benson, 2009 Edition iceberg. She’s got both the second Callie tome and a middle-grade book, The New Newbridge Academy, coming out next year. On the film front, she and actor-musician boyfriend Adam Busch (Warren on Buffy) recently co-directed a feature called Drones, which she describes as “an office comedy with alien undertones.” And she Twitters a lot.
Somehow, in the midst of all these goings-on, she had time to chat with me over waffles. Here’s what transpired.
