The Uakari is a primate native to the Amazon basin in South America. In the wild, they can leap up to 6 meters but in captivity aren’t nearly as active.
#AtoZChallenge – Uakari
#AtoZChallenge – Tiger
The tiger is the largest of all the cats and can be found throughout Asia and India. They are solitary but social animals and have featured in ancient mythology and folklore.
#AtoZChallenge – Stoat
This little guy might look cute, but he’s a killer. Also known as the short tailed weasel or ermine, this critter has been known to have a devastating effect on bird populations.
The fur from the stoat, is used in British coronation robes, and often in the robes of the Catholic Pontiffs and Cardinals.
THE STARLET SERIES by Carla J Hanna BLOG TOUR #StarletTour
Titles: Starlet’s Man / Starlet’s Web / Starlet’s Run / Starlet’s Light
Series: The Starlet Series #0.5–#3
Author: Carla J. Hanna
Publication Dates: 2012-2014
Genre: Young Adult Romance
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Synopsis–Starlet’s Man
Lights, Cameras, and Lies. High school student athlete, Manny Biro, is caught between the boy he should be and the man he wants to become.
Everyone around him accepts the Hollywood life. He doesn’t. Manny wants no part of acting. On the surface, his childhood best friends seem to have it all: money, power, success. Between the lines, they are all confused. Alan is a messed up want-to-be director focused on pushing scenes to their sexy potential. Beth is an athlete driven to escape from a dark past. Janet is Manny’s kid sister caught up in fashion and trends. And Marie is a lonely actress exhausted by the culture that makes everyone’s favorite stories.
What is the price of fame for all the characters? Conflicts and truths will unfold in this thought-provoking installment of Carla Hanna’s young adult Starlet Series, Starlet’s Man.
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Synopsis–Starlet’s Web
Love. Lies. Acting. A novel about celebrity influence & teens in Hollywood. What makes a star shine? Humility empowers the spirit. Sometimes.
Discover the Starlet Series for new adult & college readers and uncover the life of a talented actress caught in Hollywood’s web of lies.
I’m actress Liana Marie Michael. I won an Oscar at 17 but whatever. Celebrity is what it is: marketing a product. I’m part of a tight-knit group. I keep to myself and don’t complain about my life. I’ve been happy until lately.
Evan dumping me leveled me. Matthew shocked me. I knew he couldn’t hurt me with my bodyguard so near, but his eyes…so I have trust issues. Dating super-hot Byron didn’t help clear the confusion either. I’m torn between going to church on Sunday and making a living from pop culture.
But experience builds perspective. My days of shutting up needed to end. First, I told Manuel. Then I told my mom. It turned out awesome until I learned the truth.
Now I’m screwed. Totally. Let’s face it: Hollywood’s web entangles everyone.
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Synopsis–Starlet’s Run
Love. Intentions. Acting. Life is more complicated than a Hollywood story.Fictional actress Liana Marie Michael writes her second memoir, Starlet’s Run, as she suffers through the Five Stages of Grief. But when Lia’s scripts speak for her and drama becomes her life, can she find the strength to run her own lines and shape her new role?
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I’m actress Liana Marie Michael. Hollywood’s obsession with beauty made my actress-mother stay competitive. Athletes use steroids. Actors use plastic surgery and anti-aging drugs. So now I’m a physical mess inside, dealing with it, and starring in a major motion picture.Of course I can’t quit. I have brain surgery, feel alive at Grandma’s Montana ranch, go back to Hollywood and act. My boyfriend, Manuel, and I want to get married. Everyone has an opinion. I ignore the millions of naysayers until consequences turn dire.I believe that dwelling on pain is a waste of time. Indecision is exhausting. I want to write my own future. But I’m only eighteen years old.In a world where an actress is a product and everyone is a critic, can our young love survive? Should it?
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I’m actress Liana Marie Michael. Hollywood’s obsession with beauty made my actress-mother stay competitive. Athletes use steroids. Actors use plastic surgery and anti-aging drugs. So now I’m a physical mess inside, dealing with it, and starring in a major motion picture.Of course I can’t quit. I have brain surgery, feel alive at Grandma’s Montana ranch, go back to Hollywood and act. My boyfriend, Manuel, and I want to get married. Everyone has an opinion. I ignore the millions of naysayers until consequences turn dire.I believe that dwelling on pain is a waste of time. Indecision is exhausting. I want to write my own future. But I’m only eighteen years old.In a world where an actress is a product and everyone is a critic, can our young love survive? Should it?
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Synopsis: Starlet’s Light
Love. Trust. Acting. Cancer survivor-actress gives up the fight until she sees the light. Liana Marie writes her third memoir as she struggles with trust and commitment and shapes the role she plays.
I’m actress Liana Marie Michael and am dying. In my last two memoirs, I show how I’m the ideal Hollywood product. In writing Starlet’s Web and Starlet’s Run, I realized that the drama in our stories affects the lies in our real lives. The thin, young ideal of beauty is as much of a lie as the plot twists and dialogue we create to hide our insecurities.
In this memoir, I make a mess of my love life while shooting a film in Great Britain. I dump Manuel for his own good. I love him with all my heart. So how could I not when he has a bright future? My dad visits and puts my past in perspective. I spend weekends in the hospital. I learn to rely on Franz, Evan and Amelie. Yes, I hook up with my Swiss billionaire-heir friend Pierre even though I miss Manuel every minute. But it all makes sense, especially since I am so done with acting.
We are all flies and spiders in a web of stories. If I live a more authentic life, can love prevail despite my many faults? Can truth alter Hollywood’s web?
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Character Interview:
Thank you for featuring the Starlet Series on your blog! I’m so excited to share my memoirs with you: Starlet’s Web, Starlet’s Run, and Starlet’s Light. I wrote them in the hospital while I recovered from surgery. A spiritual counselor suggested I work through The Five Stages of Grief to help me find my own voice. I’ve been acting for so long that I didn’t even know how to use my own words to describe my feelings. Now, I no longer speak in scripts all the time. I write my own story and am excited about my future.You won an Oscar at 17. What was the role that you won it for?I play Muse in the feature film Muse Series, an immortal destined to
ignite the passions of revolutionary artists and leaders throughout time.
ignite the passions of revolutionary artists and leaders throughout time.
My Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role was for my characterization of a mixed-race black woman, aka Sally Hemings, in the controversial hit historical-fiction Jefferson’s Muse.Before you started dating Manuel, how did he fit into your life?Manuel has always been my best friend since we were in diapers. I don’t have many friends. People don’t know what to say to me on the street, and I don’t talk to strangers. I’ve only connected with Manuel. Everyone else thinks I talk like a fool, especially Manuel’s friend Beth. She and I were friends once but she didn’t like Kate, my former BFF. Kate was a great BFF who turned into total nightmare. I’m so grateful she and Manuel broke up so I could date him. I love him so much.How did you react to finding out you had cancer?I was so mad at my mom, Mommy Dearest squared. I threw-up and trembled at first. Then I thought about why she snuck me anti-aging drugs and just totally understood somehow. The pursuit for perfection in Hollywood is so intense. I was born into the mentality that I have to be sweet and nice and cute and sexy. If you’re not young and smooth, you can’t work. So I “get” my mom but I don’t like her. She’s said she’s sorry so many times. I know she is but I also don’t want to hear it. I want to forgive and forget, move on and heal. I also want to change Hollywood so that more kids don’t have to get cut up or take anti-aging drugs to compete. I see it like steroid use for athletes to be competitive. If the entertainment industry doesn’t stop pushing the Barbie body, every teen acting-hopeful
will do what they have to do to compete.
will do what they have to do to compete.
Assuming you had some time to travel when you were in Great Britain filming, did you get to tour around some of the country? Was there any particular place you liked best?
I did. The set was in Wales, outside of Newport. My nurse was from
Aberdare so I visited it with Pierre, Evan, and Amelie. We all loved it. I connected with Wales, appreciating the harsh working conditions of a coal-mining people in the setting of peaceful, rolling hills. I bought a t-shirt there of the Celtic knot and think it is a perfect reflection of how we are all interconnected. I liked London, too, but a piece of my heart stayed in Wales.
If you had the chance to do it all over again, what if anything would you do differently?
I’d stick up for myself. I did what I was told to do. I didn’t have a
backbone. When you’re an actor, you mold to the will of writers and your director. Since there is so much pressure, you deal by staying focused and playing a role. We call it compartmentalizing. But the truth is I succeeded because I was a wimp. Evan dumping me wiped me out. Kissing Byron after I had Manuel didn’t make any sense and tore at me daily. How could I be such a loser? It was different when I was sure I was going to die. I thought my actions were unselfish. But I learned from being in Wales and studying the Celtic knot that we are all tied to each other and need to be honest and accept that we can’t control our future. We have free will and have to choose an authentic path based on trust and the best intentions.
Thank you for stopping by today, Liana. I know the part of Wales you mentioned having been there myself. It truly is a beautiful part of the country.
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Author Bio
Carla J. Hanna lived in Santa Monica, CA where her children played with the children of celebrities. She mingled with plenty of nannies and a few good celebrity moms. Her award winning books, The Starlet Series, include Starlet’s Man, Starlet’s Web, Starlet’s Run, & Starlet’s Light. Starlet’s End is scheduled to release September 2015, subject to change from publisher interest.
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Giveaway: There is a giveaway for this tour. $25 Amazon/Barnes & Noble Gift Card or Book Depository Spree; One (1) Necklace (Based on Cover Image). Ends 5/1. The code is provided below.
#AtoZChallenge – Raccoon
The raccoon is a medium sized, North American mammal that can adapt readily to living conditions – whether in the wild or urban setting. This masked marauder is adept at getting lids off garbage cans and scavenging through the contents looking for tasty tidbits that we, humans, have tossed aside.
#AtoZChallenge – Quokka
The Quokka is a marsupial native to Southwestern Australia, particularly the islands off the coast. This little mammal is an herbivore and primarily nocturnal.
It has no fear of humans and will approach, however, it’s illegal for members of the public on Rottnest Island to handle the animals in any way. A$300 fine can be issued by the Rottnest Island Authority for doing so and prosecution of the offense can result in a fine of up to $2,000.
#AtoZChallenge – Porcupine
The porcupine is a prickly mammal belonging to the rodent family. It eats leaves, herbs, twigs and green plants and in the winter, the North American variety will eat bark.
#AtoZChallenge – Orangutan
The orangutan is an exclusively Asian ape. They are currently only found in the Borneo and Sumatra rainforests.
The reddish-brown orangutan spends most of its time in trees and primarily eats fruit but other things like vegetation, bark, honey, insects and bird eggs are consumed.
Orangutans are highly intelligent and one featured as Clint Eastwood’s sidekick “Clyde” in the movie Every Which Way But Loose.
#AtoZChallenge – Nilgai
The nilgai is the largest Asian Antelope. It’s found primarily in India although can also be found in southern Nepal and eastern Pakistan and is often spotted in scrub forest or farmland.
Mother and calves
#AtoZChallenge – Moose
Moose are the largest members of the deer family. These large herbivores eat shoots from trees, grass, nuts and aquatic plants.
Quite often during the winter, moose are drawn to the roads to like the salt that has been used to melt ice.
On a trip home from up north one summer, we decided to drive through Algonquin Park and are so glad we did. At one spot, the shoulder of the road was lined with cars so we knew there was an animal of some kind (moose, deer, bear) in the woods by the roadside. Parking the car, we ventured closer and there it was – a solitary young bull moose.
As people pushed toward it from behind, my husband and I moved in the direction is was going and I was rewarded with some fantastic pictures of the large animal. We watched it for a long time before it took any interest in us and slowly ambled off further into the woods.