Deposits Collected at the Blood Bank

The final book in the Tanya Huff series, Blood Bank, is not a novel but a collection of short stories with the Blood Book Series characters. I liked the short stories for the most part except "The Vengeful Spirit of Lake Nepeakea." It took me the longest time to read because I was not engaged in the storyline as much as I was in the others. The breakdown of the stories between Vicky and Henry Fitzroy were not very even, with more of the stories about Vicky and Celluci after her change. I really enjoyed the stories with Henry in them the most.

Blood Bank, however, was an apt title for this collection given the vampire characters and the variety of "blood types" or stories in the book. I am glad to find that Vicky's commitment and abandonment issues are addressed in the last short story, "So This Is Christmas," although it was a bit cheesy following the traditional "Christmas Carol" (by Charles Dickens) outline with the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. I'm glad that the underlying character flaw is addresses, but I think that it could have been done differently.

Overall, the short stories are a great way to revisit the characters in a shorter amount of time, but the novels themselves are much better.

Blogger Gift Exchange

I got my package from my Secret Santa some time before the holiday and waited until Christmas to open it. I thought that I would post a photo of it here for everyone to see what I got from Bookgal.

I have never heard of this book before, but from reading the back, it sounds great. The hurricane of the century in Texas....hmm sounds vaguely familiar...but it is in 1900 not 2005. This should be an eerie read at least. I'll have to review it and let everyone know how it is.

I hope everyone else got great gifts from their Secret Santas. Thanks to Nymeth for putting this together.

I'm on the Campaign Trail

The information you need to save this great show.

LIFETIME'S OFFICIAL STATEMENT - Revealed on 12/15

Slice of SciFi announced an official statement on the Blood Ties situation. They said: Lifetime does not own the rights to the series so therefore they are unable to make any decisions as to the show's fate, nor do they have anything to do with the release of the North American DVD release.

The ultimate decision as to whether the show continues or comes to an end lies in the hands of Insight Film Studio in Canada. You can contact them at:

Phone: 604-623-3369
Email:info@insightfilm.com

Here's some other information:
Scifi channel:

(_) E-mail the SciFi Channel at scifiweekly@scifi.com.
(_) E-mail the SciFi Channel at program@www.scifi.com.
(_) E-mail the SciFi Channel's feedback page at feedback@www.scifi.com.
(_) Call the SciFi Channel viewer comment line: (212) 413-5000.
(_) Call the SciFi Channel programming line: (212) 413-5821.
(_) Call the SciFi Channel comments line: (212) 413-5577.

The Sci-Fi Channel
USA Networks
1230 Avenue of the Americas, F115
New York, NY 10020-1513

Sci-Fi Channel

8800 W. Sunset Blvd., 4^th Floor

West Hollywood, CA 90069

(310) 360-2300

CBS

CBS Television Network
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

Main Number:
(212) 975-4321

http://www.cbs.com/info/user_services/fb_global_form.shtml

if anyone has a contact email for CBS please post it

Oxygen Network

Oxygen
75 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10011

CW

CW Network
11800 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 575-7000
(818) 977-5000

email: dawn_ostroff@upn.com

Fox

Fox Broadcasting Co.
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
(310) 369-1000

HBO

Home Box Office (HBO)

1100 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10036-6737

(212) 512-1000

Showtime

Showtime Networks

1633 Broadway

New York, NY 10019

(212) 708-1600

Spike

Spike TV
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
(212) 846-2566

TNT

TNT
1010 Techwood Drive
Atlanta, GA 30318
Phone: 404-885-4538

email: tnt@turner.com

TBS

TBS

1 CNN Center

P.O. Box 105366

Atlanta, GA 30348-5366

(404) 827-1700

email: tbsinfo@turner.com

I say send as many emails as you can to get this show back on the air. It worked for Jericho; Why not this show.

Here's another way we can possibly save the show. I may be doing this for people, so be prepared!

Pay Your Blood Debts

Blood Debt by Tanya Huff is the fifth book in the Blood Book series, and it is the most emotional yet for the reader, especially if you are invested in the Henry and Vicki portion of the triangle. How does one repay their lover or friend for changing their life so profoundly? That is the greater question that comes to mind after reading this book.

I've read on the Web that Vicki chooses one of these men, but thus far, I have not seen a conscious choice made on her part. In fact, this book to me shows the choice being made for her. She is forced to accept a decision made for her at the end of the last book and the beginning of this one.

****Spoiler Alert***

The bodies are piling up again with organs missing. The clinic and philanthropist involved with a surgeon are selling organs to the rich and powerful. The bodies become ghosts that haunt Fitzroy and he's forced to call in Vicki from Toronto. She and Celluci, who reluctantly agrees to come along, jump into a van with a blacked out room in the back to drive across Canada to Vancouver.

The trip across the country is nearly as eventful as when they arrive in Vancouver and Vicki and Henry are forced to occupy the same city, let along small space. You may have guessed by now that this is the book where you find out Vicki is no longer mortal and she and Henry cannot live in the same city because they are territorial beings, except when engaged in mass killings of gang members and murderers.

My one qualm with this book is that it starts the year after the change occurs in Vicki, leaving the reader in the dark about the love and teaching that must go on between Henry and Vicki as he teaches her how to feed and control her dangerous urges. I do love how she no longer has to deal with the eye degeneration. That was something I expected when I presumed on my own that she would become immortal. I only wish that had been her choice and not that of the men in her life.

***End Spoiler Alert***

The questions this book raised for me were how does one repay their friend or lover for changing his/her life so profoundly and irrevocably? I'm not simply wondering this from a vampire/child point of view, so much as a friend impacting another friend. Vicki's profound effect on Fitzroy's traditions and notions about how his kind reacts and interacts with the world around him, allow him to hopefully evolve beyond his own imaginings and consider alternative ways of being. It's not that Fitzroy is out of control and killing anything that walks, but he does hold specific notions about how his kind operates in the world and with one another. He never once questioned whether those notions or teachings were accurate or impossible to circumvent until he requests Vicki's assistance with the ghosts.

The dynamic between these characters goes beyond the sexual tension and jealousy of a love triangle and illuminates how human interaction--or inhuman in this case--can improve an individual's outlook on life and their ability to improve their own interactions with others, as well as how they can impact traditions and humanity as a whole.

It's now onto the next read Blood Bank.

Producers Stink; Blood Ties Saga (Repost)

I just found out online today that the last two episodes of Blood Ties on Lifetime will not be aired on television, but online.

I have three problems with this idea.


1. It is inconvenient for viewers to track down episodes on the Lifetime Website, which I generally find confusing and hard to use in the first place.

2. Paying for episodes on iTunes when I already pay for the channel and service through my cable provider is like paying twice for one haircut. I find that to be a rip-off.

3. Isn't this exactly why writers are on strike in Hollywood? So they can be paid for their work appropriately regardless of what medium it is shown on?! I am appalled by the business of Hollywood and the lack of respect given to writers whose creativity and ability to string words and images together is the reason television and movies have blossomed in the first place. As a writer, I find it completely unprofessional for a firm to not pay me for work. It takes a while to come up with the best images and words to convey a story, poem, play, or show. My hard work and that of other writers should be appreciated in the same way that construction workers' sweat is appreciated.

I've grown to love Blood Ties and the characters, but do I love them enough to watch episodes online and deny the writers payment? I think not. I am appalled by Lifetime's decision. I watched Blood Ties on a whim, and then got involved with the characters to the point that I needed to get the books to read those stories. I hope that the outraged viewers can send a message to Hollywood and Lifetime, especially about the Blood Ties show.

Don't forget to weigh in on the dilemma in this week's latest poll.

Blood Ties That Unwind a Confused Love

Tanya Huff's Blood Pact is the best of the books thus far. I read through this book quickly, and though I knew the inevitability of the series, I was unprepared for the final outcome. Throughout the series, there have been werewolves, mummies, vampires, and now Frankenstein monsters. When you deal in the unknown, mad scientists are bound to come out of the woodwork. I guess I never expected the mad scientist to be so young. Though Catherine is a genius, she is utterly naive about her work and why the administrator, Dr. Burke is interested in her work. While many of us like to think we are smart and on the verge of discovery or just great work, we often fail to recognize our own motivations or those of our colleagues and bosses. Even now, this may be the case.

****Spoiler Alert*****

Vickie Nelson's mother is in trouble, worse than a life or death situation can be. Marjory, who has driven her daughter crazy with her questions and advice, becomes a scientific experiment of a young graduate student at the Life Sciences unit. The conspiracy to create Frankenstein-like creatures goes beyond the graduate student's ideas and genius to reach up into the upper ranks of the University's bureaucracy.

Vicki finds her mother's body has been stolen and she buries the pain of loss to search for her mother's "kidnappers." The struggle to keep the loss inside and remain removed from the situation enough to find her mother's body and the criminals who took her is apparent in all of her actions and interactions with Henry and Celluci.

The love triangle also rears its ugly head in this book, though both men agree to be civil to one another and put Vicki first. It's admirable, but in the end, one of them has to choose to let her go and leave her forever.

****End Spoiler Alert****

Now, in this series, there is one particular tidbit of the Vampire reality that I do not find very conducive to love stories per se, but I can see why it was written into the story because the love triangle would never have ended. For all of Vicki's strength, she has this uncanny ability at being unable to commit. She cannot commit in her personal life and she is inevitably forced to commit because of circumstances within and yet beyond her control.

There is a great deal of inner turmoil in this book. Vicki, Celluci, Henry, and even Dr. Burke. It also highlights some of the most interesting problems in graduate schools among naive yet intelligent students and faculty. I cannot wait to see what happens in the fifth book, Blood Debt.