Vlog it! Alien in the Family by Gini Koch

Grab what you are reading, grab your video camera...and read! Anyone can join in, show off your book, show off your pretty face and just how literate you are! Just Vlog it!

"Worth Your Weight in a 'Gator Battle Award"

Gini Koch, author extraordinaire, and now social marketing genius has devised a very deviously and delightful ploy to get your to enter her contest and ultimately read her books.

"Fun Fun Fun," I say.

Here is the skinny. First you are nominated for a "Worth Your Weight in a 'Gator Battle Award"

By accepting the award you are entered into a contest to win some VERY fab prizes.

Then you pass it on. Tag you are it.

The bloggers that you tag for the award are also then entered into the contest, if they accept it. Isn't this fun? Puts a new spin on two old ideas. So who am I tagging? (I tagged people that share the GK obsession) Here goes:

Lucy @MoonlightGleams - http://moonlightgleam.blogspot.com/
Jenny @sprntrlsnark - http://supernaturalsnark.blogspot.com
Kristin @mybookishways - http://www.mybookishways.com/
Julie( My 5 Monkeys) @aprilmom00 - http://tableforseven-julie.blogspot.com
Patti @BookAddictPatti - http://www.bookaddictpatti.com

Here are the rules as posted on Gini's site, you can also view the original post here: http://ginikoch.com/winstuff.htm

Your mission details:

1. Slap the graphic on your blog post.
2. Give link props to the person who gave you the award (don’t rile a ‘gator fighter -- it’s dangerous).
3. Spread the awesome and nominate five (5) other bloggers who you think will be worth their weight in a ‘gator battle.
4. Let the recipients know they’ve won this honor on their blogs.
5. 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.

 

What you win:

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

Timeline

Contest runs from Wednesday, February 1, 2011 through Monday, February 28, 2011. Winners will be announced by the week of Monday, March 7, 2011. Prizes may take 4-6 weeks to arrive; longer for international winners.

Rules, Gotchas, Legalese

1. You must have been given the honor of being nominated as being Worth Your Weight in a ‘Gator Battle, either directly by Gini Koch or by another blogger
2. You must have the ‘Gator Battle graphic posted on your blog
3. You must have passed the honor along to five (5) other bloggers
4. You must have notified Gini Koch via email (gini@ginikoch.com) by March 1, 2011, that you were both nominated and have passed along the Worth Your Weight honors; put “Worth My Weight” in the subject line, list who nominated you, and list the blogs you nominated in turn
5. All entries will be verified -- if you don’t have the graphic on your blog, you’ll be disqualified
6. Contest is open to anyone with any kind of blog, worldwide; yes, prizes will be shipped to international winners
7. Contest runs from February 1, 2011 through February 28, 2011. Last day to advise you’re entered is March 1, 2011
8. Winners will be announced no later than the week of March 7, 2011
9. Prizes can take 4-6 weeks to arrive; longer for international winners

And that is it folks!!!

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch

Touched by an Alien by Gini Koch
Review copy purchased for blogwithbite.com participation.

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PJVs QUICKIE POV: The X-Files meet Senfield doesn't sound like a flattering description of this novel, but what can I say the book inspired two things in me... hilarity and intrigue. A comedy of sorts, Touched by an Alien, is ripe with witty one liners, bizarre behavior and the hottest aliens I've ever had described to me (well Showalter has some hot aliens also) and a lot of romance. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to reading Alien Tango.

REVIEW: Katherine "Kitty" Katt is having one hell of a day. Jury duty ends early for her and so it is back to work, but she is delayed by a man going postal on his wife and turning into a winged monster, killing his wife and then turning on the crowd. Kitty does what she thinks is the best idea ever, and slams her Mont Blanc pen into the grotesque gelatinous mass on the killers back, which luckily kills the monster.  She is about to retrieve her expensive pen (present from her father) and sneak away, but is intercepted by what appear to be male models in expensive Armani suits.  The male models are intent on having her join them in the sleek gray limo that is waiting for her...Kitty is pretty sure she doesn't have much of a choice.

In the next couple of hours Kitty learns that the human race isn't exactly alone in the universe and she might be the key to putting an end to an alien invasion, intent on making Earth a Hell like environment. There is no way Kitty can turn her back on the operation, or her very sexy other agents, one of which seems to have the extreme hots for her almost immediately.  Is Kitty up for the challenge? With another pen and her iPod, she might just be the human for the job.

A very wild ride, Touched by an Alien highly entertained and kept me laughing and on the edge of my seat. The wit was great, the action was intense and the romance was well, romantic - even though I wanted to kick some shins on a few of the characters.  All the typical nuances of UF romance was in play, even with the hint (ok not so much a hint but a glaringly obvious 3rd party) of a love triangle in the works.

There were only a few minor problems with the novel that I feel I should mention.  There is a lot of discovery in the novel, the mystery of the "bad guys". I feel that conclusions were made that weren't really explained, where other things were lingered on far too much.  I'm not going to mention specifics because it might be a spoiler, but around the middle point of the book a few chapters are nothing but explanations of back-story and this dragged a bit for me. I think this could have been compacted a bit more... but two sides to every coin and if things were cut, I might be stating that some of the story was left too much for interpretation and there needed more explanations.

Overall a great read and I look forward to reading more by Koch.

RECOMMENDATIONS: There is romantic entaglements that lead to sexual interactions...recommended for mature audiences of the non-teen variety. Science Fiction, Romance, Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance fans should all be able to delight. I wouldn't exactly call this chick-lit and put it in the category of authors like MacAlister, but it is not hard-hitting UF. I really can't think of an author this compares to, mix Kelley Armstrong with Mary Janice Davidson and you get Gini Koch.

BWB Rating: 3/4

Discussion Questions:

1. When dealing with aliens, what do you think is more likely: the scary, super-smart, totally different species entirely aliens? Or the pretty-much just like humans, easy to relate to, here to save Earth aliens?

I think the scary, super-smart aliens would be more likely. I guess it really is if you believe in evolution or not. If you believe in our evolution a lot of our evolving seems random...and based on climate conditions and diet etc. If another planet was to start with the same exact simple celled organism, a meteor or forest fire could drive that evolutionary pattern down a completely different path...leaving them still on four legs, instead of upright just because of the predators at the time, thus making very different aliens. And that is if it was the same simple organism, which it wouldn't be since we are different planets. It might be more likely that we encounter nitrogen based water beings than oxygen breathing carbon-based lifeforms.

2. Did you think it was convenient that Kitty's parents were so accepting of the aliens and that they both had "secret" jobs?

Yes, I thought it cleaned the plot up nicely. Kitty's dad just so happened to be a cryptographer from NASA, mom a high ranking government agent...but isn't that why Kitty was targeted from the onset?

3. Did it seem that Kitty's sex life actually helped focus her and make better decisions and conclusions?

Well sex tends to relax a person, and better decisions and thinking are made when not under stress...so this seems like a reasonable conclusion.

4. Which one? Jeff or Christopher? Why?

Christopher. Jeff was a bit too pushy, that would have totally turned me off. I mean really...can we say crazy stalker? I like those boys you have to work for, Christopher seems like he might not go all psycho on her.

5. The parasites had a very strange and grossly exaggerated form when they manifested. Do you think this was a little over the top, or just totally kick butt and you would love to take on a giant slug?

I thought it was a little crazy and didn't make much sense, you know why would they manifest as these crazy big animals, that had all the weaknesses of the smaller creatures they emulated. Especially since they weren't from Earth...so why become big Earth creatures??