tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38603403305841346772024-03-05T21:46:36.362-08:00WISHFUL THINKINGfree pipe-dreams and paracosmsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-52254500830201020542015-10-04T22:23:00.001-07:002015-10-04T22:23:01.676-07:00Site Under Maintenance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Be Back Soon :)</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-57736158997942263922014-08-19T09:03:00.002-07:002014-08-19T09:26:29.163-07:00Guest Post: Hellbounce by Matthew W Harrill<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hey guys! Just settling into my new school and surroundings,
and therefore the dearth in new material. But here's a guest post from Matthew
W. Harrill, whose action filled book has just hit Amazon! </div>
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<i><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hellbounce by Matthew W. Harrill </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Demons don’t always hide in the dark.</span></i></div>
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Synopsis:<br />
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">As a psychologist in a prison hospital, Eva Ross had always dealt with her share of sinners. The corrupt, the insane, their minds were all hers to unlock. But when those around her, those she trusted with her life start to exhibit the same characteristics, she is forced to turn to a stranger, a man whose name she is incapable of even remembering, for sanctuary.</span><br />
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Follow Eva as she crosses continents to unlock the answers, and her eventual destiny.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzdGUkKcSk5flvBhW7al81-pT7cWTQ_4z2_Bq6MrekZn0Ms_mJyBzzMiARTdChRx3sWr20MY2F59warZmp92nG6R312rYx69CcKbipbBa2brJQZ3vumMI12S6ln1xi8BXq4xE-veih0xA/s1600/bannertwo.jpg"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzdGUkKcSk5flvBhW7al81-pT7cWTQ_4z2_Bq6MrekZn0Ms_mJyBzzMiARTdChRx3sWr20MY2F59warZmp92nG6R312rYx69CcKbipbBa2brJQZ3vumMI12S6ln1xi8BXq4xE-veih0xA/s1600/bannertwo.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Excerpt:</span></b><br />
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<i>Harold Fronhouse was a short man, not far over five feet in height. He sat secured in a straightjacket, and strapped to a wheelchair. He wore no mask. As Eva and Jenny entered the room, he watched, unblinking. As Jenny sat down, he gazed at her with the eyes of a predator. “Nice.”<br /><br />Eva glanced at Jenny, who watched Harold the way a small child watched a stranger, not taking her eyes off him. She was uncomfortable.<br /><br /><br />“Harold. How are you today?”<br /><br />“Hungry,” came the reply, although Fronhouse still had not taken his eyes off Jenny. This was going bad quickly.<br /><br />“Well I see from your records you don’t appear to have had much problem with your meals.”<br /><br />Fronhouse eyed Jenny up and down once more, and then turned his head to Eva. “Unsatisfied.” His eyes widened slightly and he fidgeted.<br /><br />“Nothing changes then,” agreed Eva, motioning Jenny to take notes, more to give her something to do than for the need. “Harold likes to play games,” Eva lectured. “One-word answers can go on for days if he feels like it. It’s a shame. He is such a conversationalist. But I know what you love to talk about, don’t I?” Eva spoke as she would to a pet.<br /><br />In response, Fronhouse grinned, the vacuous smile of one not in possession of all their mental faculties. “The bomb.”<br /><br />Eva leaned forward, a conspirator to his cause. “Yes the bomb. Why don’t you tell us the story of the bomb.”<br /><br />Fronhouse trembled with excitement, and looked at Eva as if seeking to please a master. “I was young, not more than a child. We lived in a farmhouse in the hills. My parents used to have parties. The sorts of parties where you put your car keys in a jar and the wife left with whoever owned the keys she pulled out. They loved that sort of thing. It gave them excitement.<br /><br />"Over time, my mother pulled the same keys repeatedly. My father grew suspicious.” Fronhouse cackled to himself at some perceived vision.<br /><br />“He took me with him once and showed me my mother and her lover through a window in the house. He was behind her. They were naked. She was moaning.” Fronhouse again watched Jenny as he said this, evidently gauging the impact of his words. Jenny had dropped her pad and pen in her lap, just staring.<br /><br />Fronhouse, restless now, fidgeted more. “My father took me home and told me he was going to make my mother pay for this, and he wanted my help. We built a bomb, and fitted it under her car.” He turned his head to one side and growled: “Yes, I can feel it, too.”</i><br />
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<b>Reviews:</b></span><br />
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<span style="text-indent: 36pt;">Hellbounce is the first book of the ARC chronicles and was recently released by Heart Powered Publishing. Since then, the novel has gained exceptional reviews from people across the web:</span><br />
<br />“This book caught me in the opening and never let up.” -ruffy, Amazon review<br /><br />“Wow. This guy has talent. Serious talent. . . . [Hellbounce] pulls you in, mangles your emotions and pushes your senses to the brink, and when you're done, you need a drink and a good night's rest. With the lights on.” -P. Palmer, Amazon review<br /><br />"Hold on to your seats and take a ride to hell and back. A prison hospital psychologist spends a romantic night with a man she simply cannot remember. When you think her life could not be any more complicated, all hell breaks loose and she finds herself on a mission unlike any other." - Claudia, Goodreads review <br /><br />"This is not a genre I would generally read, in fact it's a genre I dislike. . . . However . . . I was hooked from the first few pages and I haven't devoured a book this quickly in long time. . . . I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy." - Sean Groom, Goodreads Review<br />
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<b style="color: #3d85c6; text-indent: 36pt;">Where to Get it:</b></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Learn more about Hellbounce, read other reviews, or purchase it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hellbounce-The-ARC-Chronicles-Part-ebook/dp/B00KNLZO4S/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8">Amazon</a> or <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/hellbounce-matthew-w-harrill/1120033211?ean=9781311282071">Barnes
and Noble</a>.</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Title: Night Film</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Author: Marisha Pessl</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Publisher: Random House</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><b><b>Rating: 3.5 stars.</b></b></span></div>
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Goodreads Summary: </b>On a damp October night, beautiful young Ashley Cordova is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. Though her death is ruled a suicide, veteran investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. As he probes the strange circumstances surrounding Ashley’s life and death, McGrath comes face-to-face with the legacy of her father: the legendary, reclusive cult-horror-film director Stanislas Cordova—a man who hasn’t been seen in public for more than thirty years.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><br />For McGrath, another death connected to this seemingly cursed family dynasty seems more than just a coincidence. Though much has been written about Cordova’s dark and unsettling films, very little is known about the man himself.<br /> <br />Driven by revenge, curiosity, and a need for the truth, McGrath, with the aid of two strangers, is drawn deeper and deeper into Cordova’s eerie, hypnotic world.<br /> <br />The last time he got close to exposing the director, McGrath lost his marriage and his career. This time he might lose even more.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">REVIEW<br /><br />Whether you like this book or not depends on the kind of reader you are. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;"><i>Night Film </i>by
Marisha Pessl is a mystery, a fast-plotted semi-noir with glimmerings of the
paranormal. The plot follows disgraced investigative journalist Scott McGrath
and his tagalong motley crew—there’s Nora the coat-check girl who wants to be a
star, Hooper the drug-dealer, and a supporting cast that comprises of
everything from a piano tuner to witches to Jamaicans to washed-out heroines to
adorable kids to Armenian drag-queens (this last only in passing,
unfortunately.) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">In <i>Night Film,</i> a
freakish cult-like following worships the legendary (and very fictional)
film-maker Stanislas Cordova, who has made some of the scariest, darkest, most
secretively filmed movies Hollywood has ever seen. Think maybe a cross between
Stephen King and Vito Corleone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Cordova has a motto of sorts: <i>Sovereign, Perfect, Deadly,</i> and his fans hold red band screenings
for his movies in catacombs, meet up in darkened Montauk beach-houses, collect
Cordova movie paraphernalia from black markets, and really get up to a sort of
cult-like idolatry. Cordova himself has not been in the public eye for years,
living instead in the comfort of his sprawling Adirondacks mansion, with
prodigious daughter Ashley and a line of wives/women who comes and goes on
Cordova’s whim/turns of fate. By staying away from the public eye, Cordova
attains a sort of bogeyman image, and this force of Cordova’s charisma is what
alone drives the book and Pessl’s other, much forgettable characters.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">The novel begins with the death or apparent suicide of
Cordova’s daughter, the beautiful and talented Ashley Cordova, in a seedy
neighbourhood in New York. The narrator, Scott McGrath, immediately delves into
the case all guns blazing—aiming to clear his name of the disgrace he wrought
on himself by implying that Cordova was a danger to society on national TV.
With his marriage fallen apart, and his career in the dumps, this is McGrath’s
only chance. But he quickly realizes that there are forces that want to prevent
him from finding out the truth, and the complicated twists and turns of the
case take him places he never thought he’d go, and into cultures and lifestyles
he never thought he’d be a part of. Magic, whether real or not, is a very
important part of <i>Night Film.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Where <i>Night</i> <i>Film</i> succeeds is with Pessl’s engaging
writing. She brings twists and turns and new concepts to the plot that enriches
it, and McGrath is a reasonably authentic voice for a 40-something cynical man.
New York appears to be as much a character as anyone else. Ashley’s mystery
touches upon Native beliefs, voodoo, and even takes detours into wicca. It’s
fun and fast-paced and doesn’t have a boring moment. It’s a mystery in a grand
sense, and while I didn’t like the resolution all that much, I still liked this
book well enough that it kept me turning the pages well into the night.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">The book uses extra media—images, paper clippings,
photographs, and using a scanner app on your phone, you can access even more
media online. While these kind of gimmicks are growing more popular in books,
it occasionally detracts from the actual story. Some of it is necessary, most
not at all, and <i>Night Film </i>maintains
a precarious balance between the two. I think it’s rather time for Pessl to
leave behind these gimmicks and visual tricks and focus on the story she’s
telling.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Another problem I had with <i>Night Film </i>is that it set up to provide some sort of great,
cataclysmic meeting between McGrath and Cordova, but instead I first got a
false alarm, and then half-involved descriptions of a meeting that was mostly just
talking and boredom. I wanted some crazy, crazy twist.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Pessl’s debut novel, <i>Special
Topics in Calamity Physics,</i> was praised by readers and critics alike for
its self-parodying, quirky teenager voice, the storytelling, and the general
throwing around of references that range from obscure botanical journals to
quotes from every writer under the English Literature curriculum and then some.
I enjoyed <i>Special Topics </i>to an
extent, and thought it had its flaws. <i>Night
Film</i> is not anything like it, which I sort of see as Pessl’s growth and her
ability to produce works that belong to a wider range. Pessl’s characters are still all unfortunately
quirky and similar-sounding, and while quirk is good, too much of it just comes
across as amateurish. There are some metaphors that seem overblown, and likewise with her tendency to populate her pages with
extremely colourful characters—sometimes it’s quite overdone, and can be quite
tiring.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">Bottomline: <i>Night Film
</i>is entertainment, plain and simple. It’s not a deep foray into the mind of
a crazy man, as I half-way expected it to be. Go into the book expecting a
character-driven novel and you come out disappointed. Go into it expecting a
cozy murder mystery...and you just might like it enough to finish it, or even
actually love it. I did. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">I have to applaud the
E-Book makers—with all the extra media, it’s always a gamble whether images and
text will mesh well in iBooks, and <i>Night
Film</i> does the job well where several other books, including <i>Special Topics</i> and the honestly silly <i>Miss Peregrine’s </i>whatever-it-is failed
to work.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9;">3.5 stars. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-54606912422209273772014-04-06T13:36:00.001-07:002014-04-06T13:36:54.007-07:00Review: Alabaster by Caitlin Kiernan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
So I was talking the other day about discovering new authors and new ideas in literature. Here's something very YA friendly, and honestly, if it were released by a major YA publisher, I can see this book doing very very well in the YA demographic. As is, Alabaster by Caitlin R Kiernan has a comic-book adaptation that is equally wonderful, but let me just take a moment to review the book.<br />
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Warning though: it was difficult to get my hands on this one.<br />
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TITLE: <i>Alabaster</i><br />
AUTHOR: <i>Caitlin R Kiernan</i><br />
COMIC-BOOK Artist: <i>Steve Lieber, </i>cover designed by <i>Greg Ruth</i><br />
RATING: 5 stars<br />
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GoodReads Summary:<br />
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An albino girl wanders the sun-scorched backroads of a south Georgia summer, following the bidding of an angel - or perhaps only voices in her head - searching out and slaying ancient monsters who have hidden themselves away in the lonely places of the world.<br />
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REVIEW (Please note that this is the review for the <i>book</i>, not the comic)<br />
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Dancy Flammarion is an albino girl with a big blade and an angel watching over her. Or is she? Is the angel only in her head, a fragment of an insane imagination? What about all the monsters that she has to face on lonely Southern roads and in the dark places that others don't see? Could that be her imagination too?<br />
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Caitlin R Kiernan creates an incredibly fascinating character in Dancy Flammarion. The concept is enthralling: a young girl, pink-eyed and white-skinned, wandering the lonely roads of America facing down monsters who are centuries old, sometimes incomprehensibly evil, all at the bidding of an angel who may or may not be <i>good</i> himself. Kiernan pulls no stops in describing the darkness of Dancy's world, or the extent to which magic worms through it.<br />
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<i>Alabaster</i> is actually a collection of five stories featuring the character, from her childhood in Wampee Creek, to her misadventures on the road. If the first story in the collection, <i>Le Fleurs Des Empoisonnes (</i> "In the Garden of Poisoned Flowers") takes you from a dark highway to a bright house populated by ghoul women, <i>Waycross </i>and <i>Alabaster</i> feature monsters shacking up in derelict old lighthouses or the basements of gas-stores. <i>The Well of Stars and Shadow, </i>is about Dancy's childhood, while <i>Bainbridge</i> is slightly different from the others, skipping between Dancy taking on a monster a little too much for her to chew and two other timelines, one of which is reminiscent of dark faerie tales.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflckEIVdoQ0Glvg48BtgR_HWJkn9LI3OZ1TMuxw4vkCWjdMms-hwci9Dc-klVq96zpCKg811X2RUuuYaf7kZV5NX7gykiUrJRMcZQofrynutJ8Wfe0f_lheLcCqDn-tgSoVC0aGByVDQ/s400/Alabaster.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhflckEIVdoQ0Glvg48BtgR_HWJkn9LI3OZ1TMuxw4vkCWjdMms-hwci9Dc-klVq96zpCKg811X2RUuuYaf7kZV5NX7gykiUrJRMcZQofrynutJ8Wfe0f_lheLcCqDn-tgSoVC0aGByVDQ/s400/Alabaster.bmp" height="232" width="320" /></a><br />
This kind of story-telling is quite effective, for the YA market at least, as it cuts down on the tedium of a novel with a beginning, middle and end. I love that these horrific creatures that Dancy faces don't exist in another dimension, and that Dancy does not exactly have any magic powers except for her knife. She's quite often at a disadvantage, only barely scraping out of the messes alive.<br />
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Dancy is also an insanely complex character. Why does she obey this angel? Exactly what happened to her mother? Is it, all of it, just in her head? All the monsters try to mess with Dancy's head, but the girl has some spunk. Here's a heroine who is both vulnerable, lonely, and desperate-- but beautiful and kickass at the same time.<br />
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The magic in Alabaster is also worth mentioning. There's bottled pain and creatures that ask riddles; ghouls that augur corpses and dead girls and vampires. There's Dancy's terrible, magnificent angel who never helps her. There's the ghost of her mother. There's Kiernan's writing, which is absolutely enchanting. There's lonely highways and boys with silver eyes and a panther in a cage.<br />
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If you can get a copy, read <i>Alabaster.</i> Or grab a copy of Dark Horse comics' version of it. Steve Lieber's art is absolutely wonderful.<br />
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*The first image used is actually the comic-book, while the black and white one represents the jacket of the hard/paperback collection.<br />
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Here are some links to reviews of <i>Alabaster: Wolves:</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<a href="http://readinggraphicnovels.blogspot.in/2013/04/review-alabaster-wolves.html">Reading Graphic Novels</a><br />
<a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2012/04/there-can-be-only-one-alabaster-wolves">Tor.com's kinda-review</a><br />
<a href="http://comicbooknerdsarehot.com/page51/index.php?id=5917863408511934412">Comic Book Nerds Are Cute</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tor.com/images/stories/blogs/12_04/FINAL%20paper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tor.com/images/stories/blogs/12_04/FINAL%20paper.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-36173933567257575702014-03-29T10:20:00.002-07:002014-03-29T10:20:49.194-07:00Comeback Post: Hi again, and How are You? (+free stories)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Remember me? How are you, dear follower? Drop me a line so it doesn't feel like shouting out into empty space. I've missed book-blogging, and hope to get back to it, but I see a few of you have left, there are plenty new faces around, and the YA blogging world is still its fiiiiiine self.<br />
<br />
I’m incredibly busy these days, trying to fit in projects and final semester and job interviews and such into a schedule made worse by my writing commitments, but I had to talk about what I was reading and my relationship with Young Adult literature in general.<br />
<br />
I haven’t been reading very much YA these days, basically because I stumbled across writers in an adult genre who I enjoy reading. Granted, I am still very much enamored by fantasy and speculative fiction, and I have been reading a lot of what is called “slipstream” or “weird fiction”, the likes of which you don’t find a lot in YA.<br />
<br />
One of my favorite authors at present is Catherynne M Valente. Her writing is incredibly touching and beautiful, drawing from vast sources that stretch from Russian history to Japanese mythology, creation myths to popular culture, film noir to universes populated by intelligent singularities. For all the fantastic characters that populate her pages, Miss Valente can still do sentences like this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Cassian Uoya-Agostino set the box on the boardroom table. I caused it to sink down into the dark wood. The surface of the table went slack and filled with earth. Roots slid out of it, shoots and green saplings, hard white fruits and golden lacy mushrooms and finally a great forest, reaching up out of the table to hang all the ceiling with night-leaves. Glowworms and heavy, shadowy fruit hung down, each one glittering with a map of our coupled architecture. Ceno held up her arms, and one by one, I detached leaves and sent them settling onto my girl. As they fell, they became butterflies broiling with ghostly chemical color signatures, nuzzling her face, covering her hands.
Her mother stared. The forest hummed. A chartreuse and tangerine-colored butterfly alighted on the matriarch’s hair, tentative, unsure, hopeful.</i></blockquote>
<br />
[From the highly remarkable Silently and Very Fast]<br />
<br />
And this is why I love fantasy with all my heart; because it is so unsure, so hopeful, so beautiful in that it makes you dream.
The author’s novel Palimpsest, is a speculative fiction triumph. It is incredible, and if anyone is looking to crossover into the adult genre, Palimpsest is a book that gives you the wonder of new ideas and new mythologies as in YA, but does it in a lyrical way that will weave a spell about you.
Here are links to 3 free works by Valente, so you can get a taste of her writing.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb430/bookswithoutanypictures/12887497.jpg?t=1342906680" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i1205.photobucket.com/albums/bb430/bookswithoutanypictures/12887497.jpg?t=1342906680" /></a></div>
<a href="http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/valente_10_11/">SILENTLY AND VERY FAST</a>, won the Locus award for best short novella, and was a Hugo and Nebula nominee. For the uninitiated, these are all very prestigious awards in the speculative genre. This novella tells the story of an artificially-intelligent house-like being called Elefsis, and is <i>wonderful.</i><br />
<a href="http://www.tor.com/images/stories/stories/Valente/full_ValenteJuan_Girlwho.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.tor.com/images/stories/stories/Valente/full_ValenteJuan_Girlwho.jpg" height="140" width="200" /></a><i><br /></i><br />
<a href="http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/07/the-girl-who-ruled-fairylandfor-a-little-while">THE GIRL WHO RULED FAIRYLAND FOR A LITTLE WHILE</a>, is set in the same world as the author's popular <i>The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in A Ship of Her Own Making</i> and is as wonderful as the book. If you're a Gaiman fan, you will love this.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Here is finally, <a href="http://www.farragoswainscot.com/2007/valente.html">a collection of three poems</a>, one of which is a Rhysling Award winner. One is a retelling of Rapunzel, one addresses loss and rootlessness through the eyes of the girlfriend of a Russian immigrant, and the last one is both about love and about how we relentlessly destroy the earth in pursuit of precious metals.<br />
<i><br /></i>
Have a read.<br />
<br />
<br />
Other than that: things are changing in life, but I'd like to come back to blogging about books and writing. I'd like to do more Trifecta, and more reviews. How are you all? Got any great book recommendations? Just want to say hi? Hit the comments!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-67468143822824546202013-07-08T10:50:00.002-07:002013-07-08T11:04:21.761-07:00Trifecta Week 85: Little Monsters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Owing to ridiculous amounts of school-work, I couldn't do Trifecta last week or the weekend, but thank you for the first place on Week Eighty Four, the support spurred me on to think about more plots with the character, and maybe there'll be a book. We shall see.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></b></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Obviously, this one is fantasy too, I shall call it Little Monsters.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The word this week is: </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><b><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly">FLY (intransitive verb)</a><br /><br />1a : to move in or pass through the air with wings<br /><br /> b : to move through the air or before the wind or through outer space<br /><br /> c : to float, wave, or soar in the air <flags flying at half-mast><br /><br />2a : to take flight : flee<br /><br /> b : to fade and disappear : vanish<br /><br /><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly">3a : to move, pass, or spread quickly <rumors were flying> </a><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly">b : to be moved with sudden extreme emotion <flew into a rage> </a><br /><br /> <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fly">c : to seem to pass quickly <the time simply flew></a></span></b></span><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b>LITTLE MONSTERS</b></span></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2013/120/9/5/suave__debonair__and_red_by_dulali-d63mes6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/f/2013/120/9/5/suave__debonair__and_red_by_dulali-d63mes6.png" width="281" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I JUST HAD TO, OKAY? *grin*</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sometimes we’re baby dragons, nibbling at a
piece of string or wilting flowers with puffs of smoke from our nostrils.
Sometimes we’re tiny ants building a giant home with ten storeys and a hundred
windows. Once we all planned together and built up ourselves to look like a man—
flesh and bone and legs, hands and arms and fingers, little crescent moon nails
so white and perfect. </b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We thought and thought of what he should
wear, from the shape of his tie to the little mole on his cheek (that was my
best friend Maura: she was so very proud!) and then we walked out of the house
and down the rolling green hills and to the train station, and when the first train
came, we only stood and watched the
wagons fly past: we were rapt in the shimmering strangeness of it all. </b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>We climbed into the second train and
climbed out at the city, and our feet owned the sidewalk and our smile charmed
the girls. There was a starlet with a string of rubies around her neck like
drops of blood, and she flirted coyly so we bought her dinner (we were the
money too: how confused the manager must have been when we fell apart!) and
after dinner we bought her wine, and then we stood on the threshold silhouetted
by moonlight on one side and candlelight on the other, and she kissed our lips
so firmly, and she tasted of strawberries and smoke, and we all fell apart amidst
all the kaleidoscopic feelings, and went skitter-scatter over the asphalt. Everybody
screamed and the starlet collapsed and we think she had to get therapy later.</b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The witch was very angry with us when we
came back and locked us in a jar for a month and there really was no space and
we nearly ate each other.</b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>These days we’re only ever dragons or ants:
humans are too much work.</b></span></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-13046901956491449172013-06-24T11:43:00.003-07:002013-06-24T12:05:22.113-07:00Trifecta: Rusty: Mechanical Treasure Boxes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trifecta again!</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span></b>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></a>
<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span></b>
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br /><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">This week's word is:<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rusty">RUSTY</a><br />1: affected by or as if by rust; especially : stiff with or as if with rust<br />2: inept and slow through lack of practice or old age<br /><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rusty">3a : of the color rust </a></span></b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rusty">b : dulled in color or appearance by age and use <rusty old boots></a></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br />4: outmoded<br />5: hoarse, grating</span></b></span><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Before I go into the story, a small preface: I've been thinking and writing of Lo Maxwell for a long time. He's a boy of indeterminate age- sometimes he's ten and sometimes he's fourteen, and at least in one of my stories he's seven. He's a lone mortal stuck in a different, bloodier, monstrous world, trying to get back to his own but in a very strange sense. Sometimes he's angry, an avenging angel. Sometimes he's sweet. Most of the time he's hungry. This is my fourth Lo Maxwell story, and the shortest. It's not much. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>*and I should probably mention that Lo's dog, despite appearances to the contrary, really doesn't like him much*</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b>
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</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5218312/il_fullxfull.43973313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5218312/il_fullxfull.43973313.jpg" width="320" /></span></b></a></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mechanical
Treasure-Box</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Mortal Boy, Lo Maxwell, sits in her living
room and sips at the purple tea.</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“What kind of a name is Lo?”</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“A made-up one,” he smiles. He has no sharp
teeth; only flat, harmless ones. <i>Human, </i>she
thinks, and offers him cookies. They skitter around the plate when he reaches
for them, and he drops his hand, squeamish. He looks up at her shyly with those
famous blue eyes. <i>Like them sea-glass
love charms the mermaids brought to the Rilke Fair, </i>Miss Jones had said,
and oh, she was right, he looks delicious.</span></b></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His dog is curled around his feet; a
gigantic rusty thing with four white crescent-moons gouged in its neck. It makes her uncomfortable.</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Maybe I have some candy somewhere,” she
keeps her tone kindly and warm, pretending to be <i>nice</i>.</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the
short trip it takes her to find him some candy- <i>sweeten him up, Aramantha</i>- and bring the box, he’s moved
over to the window and the screaming sea on the other side. </span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“This was Jacinda’s treasure-box,” she
says, and he comes to watch while she winds it up, sets it in motion. The key
spins and the box opens in a whirl of gears and silver. There are doll heads
inside, a ship in a bottle, hairpins and dried flowers. “Can you find her with
this?”</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lo picks up a hairpin. “She passed through
a mirror and into the Other World?”</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Yes.”</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then he’s leaning over the box, and she
can’t help it: he’s like a drug she has to have, <i>right now</i>. Her eyes become slits and her arms lose human shape, and
her mouth of two-hundred teeth is almost snapping down on him, but then she
looks up and screams.</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She’s heard the stories about Lo Maxwell,
who hasn’t?</span></b></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That he travels with a dog. That sometimes
the dog is a mangy rusty thing, but sometimes it’s a man with four bloody
faces.</span></b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that sometimes it eats monsters for him. </span></b></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #2e2d2d; font-family: Cardo;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-47297544439673361732013-05-24T11:34:00.002-07:002013-05-24T11:40:02.877-07:00Trifextra: We Live Our Virtual Lives<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<br />
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<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This weekend we are asking for a thirty-three word confession. You're free to write non-fiction or fiction or to blur the lines in between. We just encourage you to get creative and give us your best<span style="background-color: white; color: #2e2d2d; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;">.</span></span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This week's Trifextra Writing Challenge is to write a 33 word confession, and here's mine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Uh, I suppose it's...fiction? Non fiction? Non fiction, I guess. We all have our virtual avatars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here it is:</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/285/1/5/code_binary_by_mihaelaj-d30mvom.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/285/1/5/code_binary_by_mihaelaj-d30mvom.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By http://mihaelaj.deviantart.com/</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t dance; she does. </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I don’t smile; she
does.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am reserved; she speaks of sex and violence, politics and ambition, dreams
and illusions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am her.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She is me, only binary. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-53854303119717196162013-05-21T09:29:00.000-07:002013-05-21T10:24:47.408-07:00Pedantic Signs: Trifecta Writing Challenge<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br />Holy Blonde-Cheerleader-Batman!<br /><br /><br /> I wrote Trifecta again. I am freaking writing again. I am not staring at a blank Word document wanting to bang my head against the wall anymore. Holy holy holy holy crap. (As you can see I am way too happier than any sane person should be)<br /><br /><br /> God, I love Trifecta. Honestly, this entry is just crappy and weird, but I'm happy there's an entry.<br /><br /><br /> This week's prompt:</span><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedantic" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PEDANTIC (adjective)</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 : of, relating to, or being a pedant(see pedant)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2 : narrowly, stodgily, and often ostentatiously learned</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pedantic" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3 : unimaginative, pedestrian</a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><br /> (a.k.a what my writing has been for the past few months)<br /><br /><br /> MY ENTRY:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXAwxmkA0Zrh2ECHFbVRq8H7fTFHFn26QhvWUPfpT1p1FpPkf_h6IXjhX6D3NRe67vhyhb2EMRX9QmHRrXZFRjbtAMR8ZCFwPBJUlDpeShwHa5q7_qVdAhSVU0mpzX4LzIPZ-UNtVJvWH/s1600/sds.png"><strike><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisXAwxmkA0Zrh2ECHFbVRq8H7fTFHFn26QhvWUPfpT1p1FpPkf_h6IXjhX6D3NRe67vhyhb2EMRX9QmHRrXZFRjbtAMR8ZCFwPBJUlDpeShwHa5q7_qVdAhSVU0mpzX4LzIPZ-UNtVJvWH/s1600/sds.png" /></strike></a></span></span></div>
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<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b>The girl raised her head to look around at the world.<br /><br /><br />There were three glass birds pecking at a lamppost. The lamppost was wriggling around trying to admonish them, but lampposts couldn’t speak. Beneath a laburnum tree, two girls were helping their sister to break free of the roots her feet had pushed into the earth. Little leaves were sprouting all over her arms and the rooted girl was crying large green tears. The trees shook their branches in protest every time they tried to heave her out, sighing and howling and shedding leaves in annoyance. <br /><br /><br />(Trees liked new neighbors.)<br /><br /><br />Two steps in front of the girl, her boyfriend paused and turned around to look at her. <br /><br /><br />“What is it?” he asked, worry turning his large wings teal-colored and full of jumbled letters. When he was thinking, they had the tendency to shimmer with the words running through his mind, so she never had to ask what was bugging him. The only hitch in their relationship was when he thought in purple prose. <br /><br /><br />She pointed. “It says ‘please don’t create your reality recklessly’.”<br /><br /><br />He looked at her gravely, his dark hair windswept. “Are you going to comply?”<br /><br /><br />She shrugged. “It says ‘please’. And we’re in their neighborhood.”<br /><br /><br />Looking a little pissed, he disappeared in a sparkle of light, and so did the glass birds. The snowflakes with the stories written on them turned to regular snowflakes. The three sisters began playing skip-the-rope and the trees were silent. The lamppost did one last wriggle but stilled when she glared at it.<br /><br /><br />She hoped the sign was happy with this reality. It didn’t look very reckless, but realities could sometimes be deceiving bastards.<br /><br /><br />She walked a few paces before she saw the next sign. <br /><br /><br />It said “Thank you.”<br /><br /><br />Some signs are just tragically pedantic.</b></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-68109400220608526832013-05-20T07:10:00.000-07:002013-05-20T07:10:09.916-07:00Review: Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Goodreads Summary</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Rating: 5 stars.<br />Paperback, 225 pages</span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Published August 3rd 2010 by Holt Paperbacks</span><br />
<i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.</span></i><br />
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Occasionally I have these periods where I can’t read. Where I don’t find interest in any book on my iPad, where I start a million different books and leave them half-done, plot threads gathering dust at the back of my mind. And nearly always, there’s a book that comes to pull me out of the funk. Last time, it was <i>The Marbury Lens</i> by Andrew Smith. Before that, it was <i>The Magic Toyshop</i> by Angela Carter.
This time, it’s Reapers are the Angels. And to Alden Bell, I say:</span><br />
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<img alt="You're Awesome" height="153" src="http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/youre-awesome.gif" width="250" /> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I’m not a zombie-apocalypse fan. Guts and brains and long paragraphs about reeking alleys and stench making babies with other kinds of stench don’t interest me. Blood-drenched heroes don’t interest me either, I always want the human factor rather than the hero factor. I loved Zombieland, but for the laughs. I hated Stephen King’s <i>The Cell</i>. I tried a hundred other zombie books- most notably Andrew Fukuda’s <i>Rot and Ruin</i> series, Carrie Ryan’s <i>The Forest of Hands and Teeth</i> series- and while I gave up on one, the other I read for the romance. How do you write a literary zombie book though? How do you write a literary zombie book with a teenage heroine and not make it sound, say, extremely pretentious? How do you pare the details of your FUBAR world to a bare minimum and stay in the head of your not exactly reliable, not exactly child, not exactly adult heroine? This is what <i>Reapers are the Angels manages so easily.</i>
Temple is written beautifully. Her southern accent, her observations about the minutiae of post-apocalyptic life, the breadcrumb trail that opens door to her past: I loved all of it. Look at this snippet: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>She’s thinking of a thousand things—waterfalls and lighthouses and record players and men who travel with wonder and the deafening mumble of cicadas in the dry grass of the plains. She’s thinking of corpses piled high and all the dead things that still move and the hard rain that falls and drives the mud and waste into all the corners and seams of the world, and she’s thinking of airplanes and little boys and grown men with grit teeth and beards and others with soft moans that bleat on and on without cease unless you find the right song to sing and you fill the car with your voice so that he doesn’t have to hear his own loud crying.</i> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> I’m a sucker for this. I adore this kind of writing, stream of consciousness if you will, and it’s so rarely that you find something like this in a Young Adult book. (Not that I believe Reapers actually belongs on the YA shelf: violence is very much PG 13) It’s brilliant. It’s an explosive build up to an emotional state that leads to awesome, gut-wrenching things.
Alden Bell also does one-line characterizations extremely well. It’s wonderful to read a book where you get that the evil guys are evil, without repeatedly being bashed over the head with examples after examples and/or Persian cats and Cuban cigars. Evil Moses Todd is evil. And oh so human too. Maury gives me intense feels. The moment Abraham lays eyes on Temple, the description of his gaze is so visceral, my skin literally crawled. And oh lord, the ending:</span><br />
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<img alt="I have FEELS" height="281" src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lp8huiFw9U1qe31u9.gif" width="500" /> </span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> All in all, to me at least, A+ book.
Thank you, Alden Bell, for kicking me off the stupid threshold and into the world of books again.
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-25861142492204191162013-04-10T10:57:00.002-07:002013-04-10T10:57:42.894-07:00Waiting on Wednesday (And No More Radio Silence)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Wow, been a while right?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I just couldn't find the time to do a post, and it's really been gnawing at me. I'm reading TONS as usual (Okay, how great was Clockwork Princess? Pretty GREAT!) but there's just no time to post anything, and yeah sure, you've alllllll heard me whine the same thing before, I do it again and again and agaaaaaaaaaainnnnn.....</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>So. Right. Waiting on Wednesday. Hosted by Jill at <a href="http://www.breakingthespine.blogspot.in/">Breaking the Spine</a>, featuring all the latest awesome.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Without further ado, here are my picks:</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>INK by Amanda Sun</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Expected Publication : June 25th, 2013 by Harlequin Teen</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>GOODREADS SAYS:</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh1oinipYMREJVsSN_oPSwHZPIALav8aStZ6fTmqtOzU9dCjaODBr48sanpirIBPs2Ttq3s2igGdH5HSLyniRiUv74oOTQ8TnHy7MKcgrFa6bLtCLYaDlx0QixRCIo9fow-RSKK0iuolp2GvLd26c4O7QuaLDc=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEh1oinipYMREJVsSN_oPSwHZPIALav8aStZ6fTmqtOzU9dCjaODBr48sanpirIBPs2Ttq3s2igGdH5HSLyniRiUv74oOTQ8TnHy7MKcgrFa6bLtCLYaDlx0QixRCIo9fow-RSKK0iuolp2GvLd26c4O7QuaLDc=" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>I looked down at the paper, still touching the tip of my shoe. I reached for it, flipping the page over to look.</i></b></span><div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br />Scrawls of ink outlined a drawing of a girl lying on a bench.<br /><br />A sick feeling started to twist in my stomach, like motion sickness.<br /><br />And then the girl in the drawing turned her head, and her inky eyes glared straight into mine.</i><br />On the heels of a family tragedy, the last thing Katie Greene wants to do is move halfway across the world. Stuck with her aunt in Shizuoka, Japan, Katie feels lost. Alone. She doesn’t know the language, she can barely hold a pair of chopsticks, and she can’t seem to get the hang of taking her shoes off whenever she enters a building.<br /><br />Then there’s gorgeous but aloof Tomohiro, star of the school’s kendo team. How did he really get the scar on his arm? Katie isn’t prepared for the answer. But when she sees the things he draws start moving, there’s no denying the truth: Tomo has a connection to the ancient gods of Japan, and being near Katie is causing his abilities to spiral out of control. If the wrong people notice, they'll both be targets.<br /><br />Katie never wanted to move to Japan—now she may not make it out of the country alive.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I SAY:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I ADORE ANIME. I love the colors, the craziness, the intense storylines. Ink sounds right up my alley! In fact, the title Paper Gods reminds me of some anime. There were 3 sisters who could make paper stuff come to life...or something like that, I don't know. How SQUEEEEE worthy is the cover?</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ANDDDD</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Indelible by Dawn Metcalf</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Expected Publication: July 30th, 2013 by...um, Harlequin Teen again (See the pattern?)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>GOODREADS SAYS:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="color: #9fc5e8;">Some things are permanent.<br /><br />Indelible.<br /><br />And they cannot be changed back.<br /><br />Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep, and a life that will never be the same.<br /><br />Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink’s chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future...and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both. Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes.<br /><br />Somewhere between reality and myth lies…<br /><br />THE TWIXT</b><br /><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I SAY:</b></span><div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />That blurb is just MADE OF AWESOME. CUT OUT HER EYE! WTF! Monsters, Illusion, bad boys, glowing glowing GLOWING GIRLS? And oh, you beautiful, beautiful cover. *wibble* This one better be good or I'm gonna be RANTING.</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348428535l/15797050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348428535l/15797050.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<b><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pantomime by Laura Lam</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Paperback, US, 392 pages<br />Expected publication: February 5th 2013 by Strange Chemistry<br /><br />My copy: NetGalley<br /><br />Goodreads Summary:<br /><br />R. H. Ragona’s Circus of Magic is the greatest circus of Ellada. Nestled among the glowing blue Penglass—remnants of a mysterious civilisation long gone—are wonders beyond the wildest imagination. It’s a place where anything seems possible, where if you close your eyes you can believe that the magic and knowledge of the vanished Chimaera is still there. It’s a place where anyone can hide.<br /><br />Iphigenia Laurus, or Gene, the daughter of a noble family, is uncomfortable in corsets and crinoline, and prefers climbing trees to debutante balls. Micah Grey, a runaway living on the streets, joins the circus as an aerialist’s apprentice and soon becomes the circus’s rising star.<br /><br />But Gene and Micah have balancing acts of their own to perform, and a secret in their blood that could unlock the mysteries of Ellada.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REVIEW:</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pantomime by Laura Lam is a book with a secret. Whoever made
its blurb is a sweet, highly intelligent liar. You need to read the book to
find the secret, and trust me when I say that you are going to be surprised. It’s
the kind of thing that if I were to just tell you right now, would lead to you
saying “WHAT?” with extreme independent eyebrow movement. But Laura Lam manages
to work it into the book, into the emotion of the book, in a light, magical way
that is exciting and original.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Pantomime is not an exciting book. It’s not the kind of book
that will lead to pounding hearts and “OMG, OMG, WHAT JUST HAPPENED, MY HEART
BLEEDS” It’s a slow, explorative book. It’s layered and light and dark at the
same time. There is magic in it and a different world, but it is not a book
that delves deeply into its world. Instead it skims lightly over the surface,
promising more to come. It sets up, it confuses, it frustrates at times, but
you always know that this is jus</b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">t the superficial stuff that you’re seeing.
Laura Lam’s got a lot more to give us.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It’s a book about circuses. I love books about circuses. I
loved The Night Circus so much that I still won’t lend my copy to anyone.
Pantomime looks at the darker side of circuses though. Like Water for
Elephants. There are freaks and a self-important, occasionally cruel circus
manager. There is loneliness and difficulty to accept someone new and dreams
that can’t be realized. It’s different from The Night Circus in that very
fundamental way: the circus is the story in The Night Circus, but in Pantomime,
the circus is simply the setting. The characters are the story.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Iphigenia Laurus hates everything about her life: from the
ladylike life she’s supposed to lead to her ridiculous name. This girl would
rather climb trees than wear a ballgown, but her mother is insistent on finding
her a good society husband. But Gene has new things to worry about, secrets old
and new are suddenly rearing their heads and she needs to do something before
she loses sight of who she herself is. Micah Grey is a boy who becomes an
aerialist at the circus. He has his secrets, secrets that may hurt the girl
that he’s coming to love, secrets that may mean something to the world he lives
in. Gene and Micah have to come to terms with who they are in Pantomime, and
with that nasty cliffhanger Laura Lam leaves us with, its sure that they still
have a long way to go in the sequel.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This is a book as much about identity and self-discovery as
it is about anything else. My only quibble is that it could have had a better
execution. While Lam’s writing is fresh and her premise original, it could have
been a really exciting book, a really exciting world. Magic makes everything
better, but just the right dose of it! Usually I have a problem with authors
going overboard and all kinds of deux-ex-machinas happening, but this time it’s
so understated it’s barely there. That sense of wonder I was expecting didn’t quite
happen with Pantomime. That quirk I was looking for wasn’t there.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But Pantomime is a good read. Most of you will love it, and
the pretty cover helps. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3.5 stars from me, and I will be picking up the next
installment.</b></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-7816718477433225842013-01-01T13:59:00.002-08:002013-01-01T14:28:29.942-08:002012 Roundup (a.k.a What The Hell Was I Doing This Past Year?)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Well, Happy New Year y'all.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It's time for the roundup. (I say that like I do the bloody thing every year when this is the first time I ever bothered)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This is a me-vs-me Q&A round, complete with random GIFS ( All of them Supernatural, because for me this is the year of Supernatural, YO) and craziness, because it is 2 A.M in the morning here and I'm not feeling very verbose.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>1) Things that happened to you in 2012?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Winning a Writing Contest (an important one) for the first time in my life. It finally pushed me into the take-your-writing-seriously camp.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Learning that sometimes- sometimes- the time gap between having an idea and putting actual words onto paper can be very, VERY long. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>That City book I'm writing with the boy with the wings and the things with wheels and the sparkly shiny buildings? Yeah, I'm still planning it. It's been a YEAR, people, and I'm still PLANNING it. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>See? Patience. I have.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.deviantart.com/download/317329810/supernatural_gif_8_by_orangeeyededen-d58xh8y.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.deviantart.com/download/317329810/supernatural_gif_8_by_orangeeyededen-d58xh8y.gif" width="320" /></b></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Patience. More than even Castiel.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Finding the Supernatural fandom. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The show is only half of it, the fandom makes this the holy-mother-of-all-shows. It's like the fangirl in me has been let loose and I suddenly understand this whole other world, where random phrases like "ganked' and "nerd angels" and "holy blonde cheerleader batman" and "pig in a poke" all warrant long-winded discussions about angels in trenchcoats, brothers in arms and a 1967 Chevy Impala called Baby that saved the world. (Plus I found my critique partner from the fandom, Hi Kristin!)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Finding THIS WHOLE NEW WORLD OF INCREDIBLE MUSIC. Suddenly, at the end of 2012 I feel so</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>ENLIGHTENED</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>because I have discovered The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam and Oasis and America and even Tori Amos and most of my new writing music is by Rise Against and The Arcade Fire and Credence Clearwater Revival and Blondie and Styx and Asia and Survivor and oh, oh Carry on My Wayward Son by Kansas....(And even Jefferson Airplane!)!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>AND THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE BUT I WAS SO BLIND, SO BLIND!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>And I feel awesome.</b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbPg-L5IxFmpeiQSh0blZavCUH3LN4ohyphenhyphenPu509ruJkV6M-W2BLEnfM0ULgWypAQO32p-8-SnXxw1He_1tGtEjAen9bSt3E2Oy7IPzgUt3cesTfViSw1AhbVsA-66TyIGsgKfMavzNqRqM/s1600/Supernatural-Gif-supernatural-33019501-500-279.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivbPg-L5IxFmpeiQSh0blZavCUH3LN4ohyphenhyphenPu509ruJkV6M-W2BLEnfM0ULgWypAQO32p-8-SnXxw1He_1tGtEjAen9bSt3E2Oy7IPzgUt3cesTfViSw1AhbVsA-66TyIGsgKfMavzNqRqM/s320/Supernatural-Gif-supernatural-33019501-500-279.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- BOOKS!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(Oh! That reminds me- this is also the year I said bye-bye paperbacks, hullo e-reader! Got an iPad and I've been responsibly trying to reduce my carbon footprint since.)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>HOLLY BLACK. LAINI TAYLOR. ANGELA CARTER. ANDREW SMITH. MELINA MARCHETTA. MARGO LANAGAN. DEAN KOONTZ. UMBERTO ECO. ERIN MORGENSTERN. Sarah Rees Brennan. (Oh, oh, Susan Ee! ANGELFALL!)</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2012 was frankly not a great year for me when it came to books. TV shows, I lucked out. Books, not so much. Midway through 2012, I realized all my favorite want-to-read-this-right-now picks on Goodreads were coming out only in 2013 and then I was like:</b></span><br />
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<a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lltrwi9fKA1qbdfj5.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lltrwi9fKA1qbdfj5.gif" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>2) What about the people in your life?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Two births in the family</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Two deaths among beloved teachers.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Several marriages.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Lots of new virtual friends.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Not very many new real life friends.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Two celebrity crushes (oh, just bloody guess who)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Two book-characters in my own book who make me want to hug them and tell them "it'll be okay, it'll be okay" (Mama's lying)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- One incredible trip with friends.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- So many incredible moments with family.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Greater responsibility.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Two people- best-friends- who made me realize so many times this year that I'm lucky to have found them. Every girl should have friends like them.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>3) What were your resolutions at the beginning of 2012?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Write a BOOK. Write A book. WRITE a book.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>4) Resolutions kept?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Kinda. Sorta. I have a plan. (No, I do)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>5) What was the worst decision you made this year?<br /></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Honestly? Reading Fifty Shades of Grey. </b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah, that was a train wreck.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>6) How are you a better person at the end of this year?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- I'm not. I've become even more of a horrible person to all my characters.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>7) What was the most AMAZING, STUPENDOUS, FABULOUS thing that happened to you this year?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- 10 day vacation with friends. So much insight, so many places, so many things at which to say "bitch, please"</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>8) What do you wish you'd done more?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- BAKING! I realized I'm really good at baking, so MORE BAKING. But, also: More writing. More plotting. More hugging. More reading. More fangirling. More family outings. More <strike>engineering problems studying preparing for exams.</strike> More running on the treadmill. More exercise, period.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>9) What was the scariest moment of this year?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Being stuck in a train for ten hours with a riot raging outside.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>10) What was your greatest literary discovery this year?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Angela Carter.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>11) What was your favorite movie?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- The Hunger Games. Midnight in Paris (wait, was that last year?) The Dark Knight Rises. Les Miz. The Hobbit.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>12) Favorite manga?</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- One Piece.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>13) What do you wish you'd done less of?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>- Losing my temper. Hating engineering. Drama. Trying to be too literary. </b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>14) What are your new year resolutions for 2013?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>WRITE A BLOODY BOOK.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I have a plan.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I do.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Deep breath.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I plan to be doing this at the end of the year. (Holding a book and saying "Dude, yes", not pasting random gifs)</b></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/4zjJf.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="179" src="http://i.imgur.com/4zjJf.gif" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>REREAD HARRY POTTER.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>REWATCH HARRY POTTER.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>REWATCH SUPERNATURAL.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>MORE MUSIC. More music with THE BAND. More singing live on stage with the band that we might call Jaggery. Or Buggery. (That was completely random)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>MORE YA BOOKS.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>MORE BLOG POSTS.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>LESS BLAH BLAH. (Wait, who am I kidding, I love my blah blah)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(Here's one last gif for everyone who loves blah blah)</b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://i.imgur.com/4vacY.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" height="173" src="http://i.imgur.com/4vacY.gif" width="320" /></b></span></a></div>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Okay, so I love you all.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Now go have yourselves A HAPPY NEW YEAR!</b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-74139083825775598222012-12-26T09:20:00.002-08:002012-12-26T13:40:53.279-08:00Review: Mockingbird by Chuck Wendig (Miriam Black #2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thought I wouldn't get time to get in a review before the year ends but then I realized I'd written this two months back and forgot to post it!</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">TITLE: MOCKINGBIRD (Miriam Black #2)</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AUTHOR: CHUCK WENDIG</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PUBLISHER: ANGRY ROBOT</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">GOODREADS SUMMARY:</span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Miriam is trying. Really, she is.<br />But this whole "settling down thing" that Louis has going for her just isn't working out. She lives on Long Beach Island all year around. Her home is a run-down double-wide trailer. She works at a grocery store as a check-out girl. And her relationship with Louis--who's on the road half the time in his truck--is subject to the piss and vinegar Miriam brings to everything she does.<br />It just isn't going well. Still, she's keeping her psychic ability--to see when and how someone is going to die just by touching them--in check. But even that feels wrong somehow. Like she's keeping a tornado stoppered up in a tiny bottle.<br />Then comes one bad day that turns it all on her ear.</span></b></blockquote>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chuck Wendig’s ‘Blackbirds’ disturbed me to no small extent. The purist in me rebelled against the
language and profanity, the girlie-girl
in me cowered from the extreme violence, and the responsible book-blogger in me put out a warning that this book was
addictive, but not for those faint of heart. The reader in me also made it abundantly clear that I was going to pick
up the next installment- I was hooked
by Miriam Black in ‘Blackbirds’, and in ‘Mockingbird’
she appears with talons to reel me right back into her story.</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, what a story. </span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When you look at it from outside,
‘Mockingbird’ is a deceptively simple onion. A pretty one, yes, but kind of
procedural. Psychic-girl, visions of a murder, character drama, resolution. But
when you peel back the layers, it becomes much more. Miriam’s going to snark at
me for going philosophical on her, but take a breather, Miss Black. Let me talk
about you.</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This time around, Miriam is trying to
settle down. Be a happy checkout girl
at a department store. Live with Louis in a trailer park. Keep her psychic ability under check. At least
until bullets get involved, and a bit of scalp is lost, and the psychic drifter
witch is out on the roads again. </span></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It isn’t long before Miriam is neck-deep in
it - this time the trouble starts at a school/prison for delinquent girls. The
Caldecott School for Girls. There’s a murderer loose and he’s killing the
schoolgirls. Of course, Miriam knows this by touching the victims and has to stop it from happening. </span></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But in Chuck Wendig’s world,
killing them is equal to cutting off
tongues, lopping off heads, singing a creepy song and lots and lots of barbed
wire, so Miriam really is up against some major psychopath. </span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’d see why Miriam would get involved. This time around she might have bitten off more than she can chew, because
she’s up against a pretty formidable enemy. Maybe even more than one.</span></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Louis Darling remains my favorite one-eyed trucker ever, although there’s a scene with
bloody feathers and eye sockets and car wrecks and river water that will
probably not let me sleep easily for a while at least.</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I said in my review of ‘Blackbirds’ that
what makes the book is the main protagonist. She’s back and she ain’t lost her charm. (Or extreme
lack of it.) She’s still trash-talking her way through her dark little life,
seeing hallucinations that creep me the hell out, and getting into so much
trouble that you want to lock her up somewhere. Not that Miriam wouldn’t bust
out. Just saying.</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The real good thing about Mockingbird,
however, is that it doesn’t simply draw Miriam as a dark, brooding,
pot-mouthed, psychic young woman with a one-eyed trucker boyfriend. Her
home-life appears in tiny Interludes between chapters, and we learn how Miriam
became well…Miriam. Uncle Jack teaching her to hold a gun and shoot a bird, her
over-religious mother (<i>Carrie </i>parallel?)
destroying her stuff, the strange house that she grew up in- we get to visit
each scene through the writer’s extremely
cinematic prose.</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The story moves fast and is paced so
violently, with so much blood and fighting and crazy dialogue involved, and I
loved that. It’s slightly less…well, French, than the book before but there’s still plenty of bombs for those who try to avoid stuff like that
(or, alternately, enjoy stuff like that, whatever floats your boat).</span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I reiterate- THIS IS NOT YOUNG ADULT. But if you’re like me and enjoy bloody
paper-and-ink conquests, kickass UF heroines, trucker lingo, awesome dialogues, razor-sharp prose, subtle shout-outs to<i> Stephen King, </i>and a good old-fashioned serial killer tale, you’ll
dig <i>Mockingbird.<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And hee. I love the damn cover. Joey Hi-fi
is rockin’ it. Do you see the detailing in it, with the stuff in her hair? There's an axe, a hand, a detailed bird beak. There's the school on her shirt. You could play "spot that" with the cover the whole day.</span></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4 on 5 stars, and bring on more Miriam! </span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://fictionflaire.blogspot.in/2012/05/review-blackbirds-by-chuck-wendig.html">Previously: My Review of Blackbirds </a> </span></b></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-76332449272194306852012-12-05T07:28:00.000-08:002012-12-05T08:07:35.576-08:00Guest Post: Prophecy Girl<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm taking a minute to breathe here, and announce before we go into the guest post that I'm so very very sorry for all the erratic posting that's been happening on the blog. There's just too much going on in my life! Add to that finals-related stress, and I'm like a zombie with a polka-dotted headband, shuffling around the house in pajamas the whole day.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>(Plus Jeremy Carver is killing me with Supernatural Season 8, dammit)</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>This is the last post for the year, guys and girls. I'll be back new year with a new design and other stuff.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>But wait!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Today we have Faith McKay, author of Prophecy Girl, doing a guest post for us!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Welcome, Faith!</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On to the guest post!</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br />Ten Facts You Didn't Know About Prophecy Girl</b></span><b style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></b><br />
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<b style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ Every character in this novel has at least one nickname, though only some of them are mentioned in Prophecy Girl.</b><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br />+ The working title for many years was NEXT SERVICES, because of a sign in the valley that reads Next Services: 74 Miles. The scene including the sign happened to be one of the first things I wrote, so it just stuck.<br /><br />+ My husband actually came up with the title Prophecy Girl, and he only did so once I was already completely done with the novel.<br /><br />+ The next time Sam goes on a date, she's supposed to be dumping a body. Uhh, book two, anyone?<br /><br />+ The main character, Sam, is a vegetarian.</b></span><b style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ I compiled playlists to the next books in Lacuna Valley to organize my plots.</b><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br />+ Lacuna Valley is a fictional place, but it was based on a real place where I actually once lived. It was an isolated valley, it was an hour long drive to the nearest stoplight, and it was a western themed town. There just wasn't anything supernatural living there, that I know about at least.</b></span><b style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">+ There is a bullying sub-plot. It was based on my own horrifying high school experiences.</b><span style="color: #d9d2e9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br />+ I wrote four completely different versions of both the beginning and ending.<br /><br />+ Nick's sunglasses are one of my favorite things in Prophecy Girl and helped make Nick real to me. I have a thing for sunglasses myself, and have a few pairs mentioned in the book.</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65kq7_HzP-gU5celQzBd_OqqCcjQwkFOHaJ0H-rK856fIVhnRHNVmpkbRqEEuYnHVj7H88DLk8CVNNQAcAgUoSS415D3IY8aImarA4ZkjJBjuWkjp2ABe0QX00FLTRkT3pJ9Krpvgm8gI/s1600/Prophecy+Girl+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj65kq7_HzP-gU5celQzBd_OqqCcjQwkFOHaJ0H-rK856fIVhnRHNVmpkbRqEEuYnHVj7H88DLk8CVNNQAcAgUoSS415D3IY8aImarA4ZkjJBjuWkjp2ABe0QX00FLTRkT3pJ9Krpvgm8gI/s320/Prophecy+Girl+Cover.jpg" width="213" /></a><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><br />Here's a synopsis of Prophecy Girl. It looks terrific!<br /><br />Ever since Samantha Winthrop's mother moved them to Lacuna Valley, supposedly in search of better weather, the list of strange questions she has no answers for has been growing out of control.<br /><br />Does her little sister, Violet, have the ability to make things happen just by "praying" for them? Are Sam's dreams really predicting the future? Is she destined to marry the boy she just met, and what is the mysterious orb that he's guarding? Why does she get the impression that there are dangerous creatures watching from the woods?</span></b></span><b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">While Sam should be focusing on answering those questions, there is one other that makes them seem almost irrelevant: Is her mother planning on killing her and Violet?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><b><span style="color: #6fa8dc;"><br /></span></b>
<b><i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AUTHOR BIO</span></i></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxbpxnz4c9Do-KXd9qvkHWYYwz_MwjX5sNWBCEgL3Vw4vZp6pqXWTCJFj7Se4LW5Tqzj4Bdh18d6jQVwDuFpxpR25xAry7whHL5y1qnqG9Q8Y52IZpJAnIgnoVPdP3EQityxLeR3EURds6/s1600/sv.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxbpxnz4c9Do-KXd9qvkHWYYwz_MwjX5sNWBCEgL3Vw4vZp6pqXWTCJFj7Se4LW5Tqzj4Bdh18d6jQVwDuFpxpR25xAry7whHL5y1qnqG9Q8Y52IZpJAnIgnoVPdP3EQityxLeR3EURds6/s320/sv.jpg" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><span style="color: #674ea7;"><br />Faith McKay writes stories about characters with real world struggles in otherworldly settings. She is the author of PROPHECY GIRL, a story where characters struggle with the idea of having a destiny. In comparison, she feels really lucky that her destiny was to struggle with comma placement and be that awkward lady who points out puns at parties.<br /><br /><br />Other things to know about Faith… She wears two different colored shoes. She is a survivor of child abuse. She has lived with chronic illness for over a decade. A lot of people don't like her because she laughs too much. It's also the reason a lot of other people do like her, so go figure. She listens to more music than people are probably supposed to. She's a nomad. The word sounds really cool, so a lot of people say it, but she actually lives in an RV with her husband and their pet bunny rabbit, Dorian Gray.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://faithmckay.net/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://faithmckay.net</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/faithmckaybooks" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/<wbr></wbr>faithmckaybooks</a></span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://twitter.com/faithmckay" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/faithmckay</a></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-11367171011032261822012-11-19T22:16:00.002-08:002012-11-19T22:16:13.186-08:00Review: Black City by Elizabeth Richards (and an SPN tangent)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345736401l/12568505.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1345736401l/12568505.jpg" width="213" /></a><b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Publisher: Penguin</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Copy: e-book purchased for iBooks</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Goodreads Synopsis</span></i></b></span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></b></span></i></b>
<b><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war.<br /><br /><br />In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable—they fall in love. Bonded by a mysterious connection that causes Ash’s long-dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they’re caught, they’ll be executed—but their feelings are too strong.<br /><br /><br />When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.</span></i></b><br />
<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>RATING: 2.5 STARS</i></b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>To say I had high hopes for this book is an
understatement.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>BLACK CITY by Elizabeth Richards has been
on my TBR pile forever. It just resonated with what I’m writing right now- I’m
working on a full-length novel with a creepy city too- and I wanted to see how
she pulls it off (because I’m having enough trouble making up a city). I wanted
to see if the world building could actually be done right, or if the
love-triangle could actually be non-cliché and entertaining.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Sadly, Black City just doesn’t work for me.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>WRITING</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I’ve read rave reviews for Black City, some
praising Richards’ writing. The thing about a book like Black City, which
focuses on romance as well as rebellion, beauty as well as callous cruelty, is
that it needs to be written…well, a little less like R. L. Stine. I love R.L. Stine
and his writing suits the plots he creates, but in Black City the writing was
just too clean and simple and non-lyrical. I’m not the kind of reader that gets
swept off simply by a great plot. To me, writing matters. If it’s choppy that
will suit your book, go for it. If it’s something like Daughter of Smoke and Bone, go lyrical. This was what I was
expecting with Black City, the kind of tugging at hearts writing. I did not get
it.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>CHARACTERS</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>While Ash was interesting enough, not even
that exceptionally, I just fell asleep when Natalie was talking. Maybe I’m just
getting tired of emo. </i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This book switches POV’s every chapter, and
while I find that absolutely fine- look at This
is Shyness or Incarceron, which
does this perfectly- again, in Black City I wasn’t…invested.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Yes, that’s the word. Invested. I couldn’t get
invested in the plot or the characters, no one ripped my heart out and chewed
it up and spat it out in little pieces (boo) and I. Just. Didn’t. Care.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Then there’s instalove. I swear we should
petition for some rule to ban this, like, forever. I DID NOT expect instalove
in Black City, that was possibly the problem. I WANTED a developing love story.
I WANTED two characters from two entirely different backgrounds to meet and
understand each other and slowly move into a dance-phase (the do-I-love-him/her,
how-do-I-let-him/her-know plot that I adore)</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>PLOT</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>This was okay, and I won’t give much away.
At least it held me interested. Although towards the end, the villain was
looking more and more like a ghost of President Snow. And Ash was the “Boy Who
Rose From the Ashes”, which is uncomfortably similar to “The Girl on Fire”. The
near-end scene is just too much like Katniss being threatened by Snow.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>THE GOOD STUFF (bullet-pointed, because I’m
out of time)</i></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 52.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">Pretty decent world-building</span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 52.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">CRUCIFIXION. There’s a good,
scary image.</span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 52.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">“And so begins my heart.” I
could sing that line.</span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 52.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The unbelievable, gorgeous
cover.</span></i></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 52.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">-<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US">The different types of
Darklings.</span></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></i></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>OVERALL</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Black City didn’t work for me. I was put
off by Instalove, and by a mediocre plot, plus unspectacular writing in a book
where I thought spectacular could do WONDERS. Part of this disappointment was
probably due to my own high expectations, so give Black City a try. </i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>You might love it.</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>UNRELATED TANGENT</i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></b></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/images/SeasonEight/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin/SPN_0016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/images/SeasonEight/WeNeedToTalkAboutKevin/SPN_0016.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Guys, voting for People’s Choice Awards is
now open. I will be voting like CRAZY for Supernatural
in every category it has been nominated. That is Favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy show,
two nominations for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles in Favorite Dramatic
Actor (I’ll throw an even amount of votes for both; I can’t choose between the
Winchesters!) and Favorite Fan Following, which I hope we win regardless of all
the ill sentiments from last year, because we’re a very tight, very wonderfully
crazy fandom. (We’re still a little bummed that People’s Choice didn’t put SPN
on the Favorite TV Drama list- come on, it WON last year. There should at least
be a nomination this year!) </i></span></b></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>I’m also voting for Castle’s Stana Katic (Kate Beckett) in Favorite Dramatic Actress,
and Revolution in Favorite New Show. </i></span></b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Plus, Potter fans, do vote for Potterheads
in the Favorite Film Franchise Fan Following </span><span lang="EN-US">J</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></i></span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Go to <a href="http://www.peopleschoice.com/">www.peopleschoice.com</a>
to vote, and if you’re a die-hard SPNFamily member, what the hell are you still
reading this for? Go Vote! </i></span></b></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-77616986434454235792012-11-12T08:35:00.002-08:002012-11-12T08:39:08.294-08:00Review: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war. This is not that world</i>.</b><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /><br />Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is--and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it. <br /><br />In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life. <br /><br />While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope. <br /><br />But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?</b></span><div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Oh, Laini Taylor, you wonderful woman. I am
so in love with your epic awesomeness that I’m sort of jealous of your two-year-old
daughter (who I will never match in amazing cuteness).</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">When the <i>Daughter of Smoke and Bone </i>came out and took several months more to
come out in India, I defied all cosmic odds by finding an online bookstore that
would ship it to me for free. And I DEVOURED it. I composed entire poems in my
head while reading the book. I wrote, “You will be rewarded with cosmic
goodwill and hard cash” on the front of my notebooks. I even bought a glossy,
hardback copy of Lips Touch: Three Times because I knew Laini and Jim wouldn’t disappoint.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">This time, though, I just couldn’t find a
bookstore with no shipping costs, and I had to get the e-book. To my surprise,
the e-book version was gorgeous too! Sigh, bliss…</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">On with the review, already!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Days
of Blood and Starlight, </span></i><span lang="EN-US">is as incredible as its
predecessor. In South India we get this little snack called a “bonda” It has crispy
deep-fried dough on the outside, and as you crunch your way through the
high-calorie goodness, you suddenly reach a spicy filling. And as you continue
chewing, you get to the bittersweet coconut chutney. Then to an explosion of
spices again. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Days
of Blood and Starlight </span></i><span lang="EN-US">is that. It starts off crisp
and well-paced with hints of humor and wonder. It gets to the spicy part with
the Revenants and the Dominion and the bastard army (Legion, I guess). It has
the bittersweet moments with Karou and Akiva (I am all praise for this
relationship- but I promise, more on that later) and even some of the minor
characters. And then it has that incredible ending.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">(For the record, I love bondas. Sometimes I
think I subsist on the awesomeness of the bondas we get in the college canteen)</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">KAROU, our hither-and-thither girl:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Oh, Karou. Karou, Karou. You’re no longer a
blue-haired fairy skipping through the streets of Prague. No, you’ve become
sharper, leaner, harder. You’ve had to make difficult choices and ally with difficult
people. You’ve had to battle your own conflicted emotions, and deal with the
loss of the only family you know, and deal with the bloody world of Eretz and
the chimaera rebellion that is so new, yet so old to you.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">My heart broke for Karou at several points
in the story. I swear, when she went from loneliness to having wonderful people
around her again, I cried for joy. Karou deserves happiness. She isn’t a whiny
YA heroine. She has her self-doubts, yes, who doesn’t? But with Karou, that
character of hers shines. She isn’t weak, no. Lonely and conflicted, yet
headstrong and wonderful, she is my favorite YA heroine.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">And she remains to be so with this second
book.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">AKIVA, Beast’s Bane and Prince of Bastards:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Well, he isn’t really. A bastard, I mean.
Literally, yes, but…never mind.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">I loved Akiva again in <i>Days. </i>His pain, the hard reality of his life and his purpose in his
bloody world- everything we knew about him from <i>Daughter- </i>is magnified tenfold in <i>Days. </i>The stalwart love he has for Karou shines brighter than the inferno
of his wings. And Akiva is not simply a love-interest fluttering around doing
nothing. He has his own story-arc, his own <br />
“choices” (an important word in the book), and two secondary characters attached
to him who make the story incredibly richer. He is well fleshed-out and written
with beauty, solemnity and the right amount of brokenness. He is a consummate and
powerful soldier, but one with a heart, and also a wonderful brother and man.
(Notice I say ‘man’.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">The secondary characters in this book are
also incredibly well-written. Take Zuzana and Mik, who I love to pieces. They
are great comic relief and wonderfully placed as well. Take Hazael and Liraz,
who we didn’t know much about in <i>Daughter</i>
but come to brilliant life in <i>Days. </i>Take
Thiago with his games and Joram with his brutality. Take even Ziri (he’s new).
Everyone is important and no one is cardboard. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">The plot itself is amazing. It came
together so incredibly in the end, all the little threads and the big snowballs,
all the big-bads and magic and blood and pain and love and beauty, to build to
an incredible climax. When Madrigal and Akiva dreamed of a new world, I wondered
how they’d ever get anywhere near that dream. With the end of <i>Days, </i>they seem one step closer but oh,
still so far.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><i><span lang="EN-US">Days</span></i><span lang="EN-US"> does not bring the lovers close in one epic apology but explores
both of them- their motivations, their mindsets, their surroundings- and brings
them together in one genius move that leaves them in each other’s presence but
still unsure. I applaud Laini Taylor for this. Karou and Akiva are both so
clear. Why they do what they do, why they then regret or accept it, how
difficult it is to make tough choices when you’re on opposite sides of an
endless war- everything is laid out for the reader to understand and interpret.
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">The setting itself is vastly different from
<i>Daughter. </i>While <i>Daughter </i>had a fairy-tale charm to it, <i>Days </i>is so much more. It is bloodier, nastier, with monstrous
armies that carve smiles on their enemies and villains with a penchant for
hands. It is about the choices we make and the true meaning of being a hero or
a soldier. It is about a world torn by war, which can be remade only by love
and coexistence and infinite tolerance. It is about friendship and loyalty and
trust and the ability to protect rather than avenge or destroy.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">(It also occasionally has passages as
fluffy and delicate as lace, and language that sparked off the page in typical
Laini style)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">I loved the <i>Days of Blood and Starlight. </i>I loved it for matching my high
expectations, I loved it for not being just a filler-book, and I loved it for
its epic ending. I loved it for Zuzana and Karou and Akiva and Mik and Ziri. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">5 stars, and an excited-Zuzana-hop. <i> </i> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #b4a7d6;">ALSO</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fictionflaire.blogspot.com/2011/10/review-daughter-of-smoke-and-bone-by.html"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">I reviewed Daughter Of Smoke and Bone</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fictionflaire.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-books-one-review-new-decisions.html"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor and Jim di Bartolo Review</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://fictionflaire.blogspot.com/2012/01/cover-crazy-daughter-of-smoke-and-bone.html"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Cover Crazy: Daughter of Smoke and Bone variations</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/454225568"><span style="color: #b4a7d6;">Goodreads Link</span></a></span></div>
</div>
</span></b></span></div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-33443209457550448392012-11-06T08:16:00.000-08:002012-11-06T08:44:36.784-08:00Trifecta Writing Challenge: Cut Out Ones Will Suffice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>For Trifecta Writing Challenge: Prompt is Year (as in usually represented by a number)</b></span></i><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>NOTE:</i></span><br />
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How this one came to be, I have absolutely no idea. At first it was about sisters. Then it was about basements. Then I watched too much Supernatural. </b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Suffice to say, this one is the most scary 333 words I've ever written.</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hear me?</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Morbid! Very! Apologies in advance for any nightmares.</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></i>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/309/e/d/___sisters_by_vvola-d3270gc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/309/e/d/___sisters_by_vvola-d3270gc.jpg" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">source: <a href="http://vvola.deviantart.com/">http://vvola.deviantart.com</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></i><i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I'm calling this....CUT OUT ONES WILL SUFFICE. Here we go!</b></span></i><br />
<i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></i>
<i><span style="color: #b4a7d6; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></i>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Rose.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Three times, like a charm. Whispered so
soft that I can pretend not to have heard it; pretend that the sound of my name
has gotten lost in the space between us; has become entangled in the clouds of hair that spans a golden bridge between us.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“It’s time, Rose. It’s almost here, the new
year.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“I wish it weren’t.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“I’m sorry, Rose.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I open my eyes. Marie’s eyes are open and
violently blue. Ships are wrecked in the maelstrom of those irises. Cornflower fields
bloom in mine. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I hurt inside, a raw and terrible hurt. It
colors my voice pale. “This year hurts more than any, Marie.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“I know, sister.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Why should we do it every year? Dying is
not so bad. Birds do it. Plants do it. Butterflies, they don’t even live a week…”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Marie smoothes the curve of my cheek with
her soft, young hand. “But you and me, Rose. You and me, here forever. You wanted
it too.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“A hundred years ago, maybe I did…”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“We’ll stop, Rosie. We’ll stop, just not
this year.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Our feet are silent against the stairs,
silent all the way to the table. My shoulders shake. She gives me the scissors
and picks up her knife, but then the scissors fall from my fingers. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US">Crash,
</span></i><span lang="EN-US">the sound of my heart breaking.</span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Will you do it alone?”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Marie goes to the basement. I sit at the
table and think of him. His eyes are blue too, blue as the deep ocean. He likes
to dance. He smokes too much. Paints. Falls for girls who will be the death of
him. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Now he also probably hates basements.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Marie is back. One bloody Ziploc in her
arms. Marked Year 2013.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Too quick?”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“He was a quiet one.”</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I cut a lock of her hair, one lock of mine.
We put it in the Ziploc. The spell is too short for something so significant.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Some sell immortality in return for broken
hearts. </b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cut out ones will suffice.</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: white;"> </span></div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-46605616823891617862012-10-27T08:34:00.001-07:002012-10-27T08:39:52.192-07:00Trifextra: Halloween, Zombies and 33 Words<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>Hullo, Halloween.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>You mean nothing to me except pumpkins and scary movies on English TV channels, and I find that a little sad, since you seem kind of fun. </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>I first heard about you from R.L Stine's Goosebumps books when I was a kid. I thought of you as a mega costume-party. My favorite version of you is, of course, from Harry Potter- that isn't going to change- at least until I see you for real if I ever visit a Western country on Oct 31st.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>That said, you inspire a lot of creativity, especially among writers, and there's nothing wrong with a good dose of creepy on a sleepy Saturday.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>So here's the Trifextra Writing Challenge, this week in the spirit of Halloween: </i></b></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /><br /><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">In 1937, a naked woman was found limping through the streets of Haiti. Upon interrogation, she was unable to give any details as to her identity. The woman was eventually identified in hospital as Felicia Felix-Mentor. The only issue is that Felicia Felix-Mentor had been dead for nearly twenty years. Felicia was, therefore, a zombie.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">It so happens that well-known author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston was in Haiti researching a book at that time. Hurston met and photographed the woman/zombie, and pop culture took the story from there. Not surprisingly, there are a ton of internet articles discussing the authenticity of the claim of zombification, </span><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/26/vbs.haiti.nzambi/index.html"><span style="color: #c27ba0;">the chemical mix needed to create such a phenomenon</span></a><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">, and then, of course, instruction on how we should all behave in the event of a </span><a href="http://blogs.cdc.gov/publichealthmatters/2011/05/preparedness-101-zombie-apocalypse/"><span style="color: #a64d79;">zombie apocalypse</span></a><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">. There is even a</span> <span style="color: #a64d79;"><a href="http://youtu.be/YmKPjh5RX6c">video on </a><a href="http://youtu.be/YmKPjh5RX6c">Youtube</a> </span><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">of Hurston describing the encounter.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">Here is the photo that Zora Neale Hurston took of the supposed zombie.</span><br /> <br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATGaSQCvtDcRg1hyOkgpLvpR-MLjZaNWMnQWr8PfOuAPXcczFN1fwaJ3Z8xVsbmmbpNHU0F7znbjZu131-Dc9NweOTVvya6ZfMFl_ej4-uIw72BBxbY6uDQv3wqtsUpbaVQ5WrXboAmU/s1600/04.jpg" style="color: #d5a6bd;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjATGaSQCvtDcRg1hyOkgpLvpR-MLjZaNWMnQWr8PfOuAPXcczFN1fwaJ3Z8xVsbmmbpNHU0F7znbjZu131-Dc9NweOTVvya6ZfMFl_ej4-uIw72BBxbY6uDQv3wqtsUpbaVQ5WrXboAmU/s320/04.jpg" /></a> </i></b></div>
<br /><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #d5a6bd;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">Credit: Zora Neale Hurston </span></i></b></div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /><span style="color: #d5a6bd;">We want thirty three words that are somehow related to Hurston's zombie sighting. How you structure your response is entirely up to you.</span><br /><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>And my response to the prompt:</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>COME.</b></span></span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Where?</b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>TO
ETERNAL REST. PERPETUAL PEACE.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I don’t know the way.</b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>FOLLOW
THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></i><br />
<i><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>They took that away. </b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>I am lost.</b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Will you help?</b></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Hullo? </b></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #b6d7a8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>God?</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-17080266184962959212012-10-26T06:47:00.002-07:002012-10-26T06:54:28.327-07:00(Review) Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan leaves me...very VOCAL!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan</i></span></div>
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<a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333397426l/10866624.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1333397426l/10866624.jpg" width="212" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><i>Goodreads Summary:</i></i></span></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>
</i></span>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<i>Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met . . . a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. She wasn’t silent about her imaginary friend during her childhood, and is thus a bit of an outsider in her sleepy English town of Sorry-in-the-Vale. Still, Kami hasn’t suffered too much from not fitting in. She has a best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is in order, just the way she likes it, despite the voice in her head.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>But all that changes when the Lynburns return. </i></div>
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<i style="text-align: left;"><i>The Lynburn family has owned the spectacular and sinister manor that overlooks Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries. The mysterious twin sisters who abandoned their ancestral home a generation ago are back, along with their teenage sons, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami. Kami is not one to shy away from the unknown—in fact, she’s determined to find answers for all the questions Sorry-in-the-Vale is suddenly posing. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him? Does she hate him? Can she trust him?</i></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am hysterical. This is a gush fest. You should probably go
find a boat now so you can survive the ocean of adoration this review might
possibly become. </span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before reading this
book:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Oh, look. Nice
cover. Wonder, wonder…</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REST OF THE BOOK-BLOGGERS: Read Unspoken! Read Unspoken!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Meh, it’s just going to be typical YA.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REST OF THE BOOK BLOGGERS: Jared is hot! We love Jared! Kami
is awesome! We love Kami!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Meh. See what I mean?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">REST OF THE BOOK-BLOGGERS: Unspoken is funny! Hilarious!
Imaginary friends!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Funny? Did you say funny? And imaginary friends? Ok- I
love imaginary friends. Did you guys ever watch this cartoon show called
Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends? I love that show. I’ll show you a
screenshot. The little blue thing is imaginary, and his name is Blue. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://sharetv.org/images/fosters_home_for_imaginary_friends-show.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://sharetv.org/images/fosters_home_for_imaginary_friends-show.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is
all completely unrelated to the book, of course, but hey.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways. You win, big bad book-blogging world. I’ll take my
chances with Unspoken, though I’ve never read a Sarah Rees Brennan book before
(except her short story, “Let’s Get This Undead Show on The Road” which was
really, really strange) and I loathe love triangles so much that I want to kill
them all dead. Die, love triangles! DIE!</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> “<i>One of the lambs fixed its attention on Jared. “Baa,” it flirted.<br /><o:p></o:p></i></span><i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Boo,” said Jared.</span></i><i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Oh my God, Jared.
Don’t tough talk the lambs.”</span></i><i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“It was giving me a
funny look.”</span></i></blockquote>
</div>
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<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><u><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MIDWAY THROUGH
‘UNSPOKEN’:<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Hee, I love Jared. That’s new in a YA book, me actually
loving a leather jacket-wearing delinquent hero. Now let me call BEST FRIEND
and gush.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: It’s funny! The world is brighter because Unspoken is so
funny! Kami is a fun heroine. Ten and Tomo, her brothers, are adorable. Angela
and Holly, her best friends, aren’t cardboard. So maybe the plot is a bit silly
and kind of whatever…still. You have to read this!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND: Why the hell are you texting me at midnight
about some random book? But I’ll run along and get the iBook right now since
you’re always so awesome… </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: I know, I know.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Okay, that didn’t actually happen- no proof- but we’re in
each others’ heads all the time…)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND promptly becomes silent, withdrawing into
reading-mode.</span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Why are you putting
on lip gloss, my daughter?” Dad asked. “Trip to the library? Trip to the
nunnery? I hear the nunneries are nice this time of the year.”</span></i></blockquote>
<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><u><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SEVERAL HOURS AND WAY
TOO MUCH GIGGLING LATER<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND: WHaaaaaaa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: What?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND (sobs uncontrollably): WHAT’s WITH THE ENDING? I
HATE YOU FOR MAKING ME READ THIS BOOK! NOW I HAVE TO WAIT TILL…TILL…oh,
forever, since the next book isn’t even titled yet… </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(BEST FRIEND has serious problems waiting on sequels to
arrive)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: Yeah, I know, what’s with the ending?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND: WHaaaaaaa.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ME: It was funny, though. You have to admit that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEST FRIEND: Sob. Sob. Go away. Sob. Call me when the sequel
comes out.</span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Looks like an octopus
made of smoke,” she said, and gave him a shiver of a smile.</span></i><i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“I was feeling like a
pretty badass sorcerer until you said that,” Jared told her.</span></i></blockquote>
</div>
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<i><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Unspoken is funny. That’s what you probably gathered from
all the crazy-talk above. Kami is fun, Jared is fun, and the secondary
characters are all amazing. You’ve probably gathered that too. My best friend
does not like waiting for sequels, and if you haven’t gathered that, that’s
okay. That’s lateral. We can still be friends.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unspoken basically takes place in an invented town named
Sorry-in-the-Vale somewhere in “Oxfordshire. Gloucestershire. Some place ending
in ‘shire.’” The Lynburns have lorded over Sorry-in-the-Vale for centuries, but
before intrepid journalist Kami Glass was born, they left town. Now they’re
back.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kami Glass has been talking to an imaginary friend inside
her head for years. The boy, Jared, is her closest companion. They’re like two
halves of a whole, and although she pretends he’s real, she kind of knows he
isn’t. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Until he appears in flesh. He’s Jared Lynburn, the
delinquent son of Rosalind Lynburn, twin sister to the mistress of
Sorry-in-the-Vale, Lillian Lynburn.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And suddenly, Kami’s world is tipped upside down.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because, imagine yourself in her shoes. Your every secret,
every joy, every sadness, every triumph has been shared with a boy you never
thought would be real. He knows you as well as you do. He sees inside you. He’s
a safe presence, like a diary, because he could never hurt her in any way. He’s
imaginary. But then, suddenly, he’s not.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved that Jared and Kami both react to this situation in
different ways. Jared is desperate and lonely, and losing Kami is unthinkable
to him. He wants her to be happy that he is real. To both of them, they are
each other’s most important person, but for Jared, Kami is the <i>only </i>thing that matters- unlike Kami,
who does have other people to love her. He immediately cottons on to the idea
of them being “soulmates,” a tried and tested YA cliché that Brennan gleefully
leaves in the dust, but Kami is not a TSTL heroine who’d gush and follow Jared
in whatever he does. She wants to get to the bottom of it all. She’s not ready
to easily accept Jared’s corporeality and his individuality. It’s complicated
for her.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I loved how difficult it was for Kami and Jared when they
actually meet; I loved that they kept contrasting the ease of being imaginary
to each other and being two different people. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unspoken never veered too much into the territory of
romance. There are hints, yes, but the romance didn’t kill the plot.</span><br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is the plot that I have to frown at, a bit.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://bunburyinthestacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Sarah-Rees-Brennan-triology-plan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://bunburyinthestacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Sarah-Rees-Brennan-triology-plan.png" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It’s not a,
“I’m blown away” kind of plot. Its more “all the characters are running around
doing strange things and I’m laughing at the jokes” kind of thing. I saw the
twists coming. I didn’t truly get what kind of magic the Lynburns can use. I
got confused by the Henry Thornton character. The villains weren’t creepy
enough, and the occurrences in Sorry-in-the-Vale wasn’t scary enough. It was
simple, fun, the kind of plot you can shrug at and say “Okay, interesting.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><spoiler></span><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why the hell did it take Jared’s group so
long to get to Kami in the end when it took him only seconds to find her in the
well? It was much annoying. I no like. I also got confused by who was doing
what at the end. Where did Rosalind come from? Where was she in the first
place? And I don’t get Lillian. Or Ash. And I don’t like them either</span></span><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></end of
spoiler></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only the end was kind of like kicking a sad, sweet puppy. My
heart hurt a little. So did best friend’s.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all, for making me laugh, and for being so adorably
quirky, 4 gold glowing stars. Seriously. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One last funny quote? Awesome. All right, here we go:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><i><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Is this true, Kami?
Are you going out on a date?” Dad asked tragically. “Wearing that? Wouldn’t you
fancy a shapeless cardigan instead? You rock a shapeless cardigan, honey.”</span></i></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-49238952904802926942012-10-24T01:07:00.000-07:002012-10-24T01:07:24.710-07:00Waiting on Wednesday- Waves and Devils!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN6XI_E0TZTDT1Avu4LA2uG5v-WT11aZPjbop2XglC3mfzxpD_trfOcelITotZdJzUxa3z25aOeRgvZKG6u3JI1EfN2esDmHdayROTVo6oM3nHSTPes1ALyvPhL4gIe73x3_SZi-r09g/s200/New+WoW.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" oea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCN6XI_E0TZTDT1Avu4LA2uG5v-WT11aZPjbop2XglC3mfzxpD_trfOcelITotZdJzUxa3z25aOeRgvZKG6u3JI1EfN2esDmHdayROTVo6oM3nHSTPes1ALyvPhL4gIe73x3_SZi-r09g/s200/New+WoW.JPG" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Here we are, post-hiatus! And what better way to be back in the blogosphere than with two awesome pre-publication can't-wait titles! Happy WoW guys!</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(There will be more on the hiatus, and pictures, later. For now----here we go!)</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>This week both my picks have something in common: beaches. I'm in that phase where I'm finding books set by the seaside and devouring them.</strong></span><br />
<br />
<h1 class="bookTitle" id="bookTitle" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1350334557l/12930909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" oea="true" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1350334557l/12930909.jpg" width="215" /></a></h1>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><em><strong>Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea <br />by </strong></em></span><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5288442.April_Genevieve_Tucholke"><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><em><strong>April Genevieve Tucholke</strong></em></span></a><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><em><strong> (Goodreads Author) <br /></strong></em></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #9fc5e8;"><em><strong>You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…<br /><br />Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery...who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.<br /><br />Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch</strong></em></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>And this second one, guys, is an Annabelle Lee retelling. Love Poe retellings, so this one is definitely going to be on my shelves. Hope it's better than Masque of Red Death.</strong></span><br />
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<br /><br /><strong><em><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Ashes on the Waves <br />by </span></em></strong><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2931654.Mary_Lindsey"><strong><em><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Mary Lindsey</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span style="color: #9fc5e8;"> (Goodreads Author) </span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Liam MacGregor is cursed. Haunted by the wails of fantastical Bean Sidhes and labeled a demon by the villagers of Dòchas, Liam has accepted that things will never get better for him—until a wealthy heiress named Annabel Leighton arrives on the island and Liam’s fate is changed forever.<br /><br />With Anna, Liam finally finds the happiness he has always been denied; but, the violent, mythical Otherworlders, who inhabit the island and the sea around it, have other plans. They make a wager on the couple’s love, testing its strength through a series of cruel obstacles. But the tragedies draw Liam and Anna even closer. Frustrated, the creatures put the couple through one last trial—and this time it’s not only their love that’s in danger of being destroyed.<br /><br />Based on Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling poem Annabel Lee, Mary Lindsey creates a frighteningly beautiful gothic novel that glorifies the power of true love.</span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are your picks this week? Leave your WoW links so I can check them out!</span></strong></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-81396325863197072132012-09-09T09:48:00.003-07:002012-09-09T09:59:50.298-07:00Sunday Scribblings: Existing and Living<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>For Sunday Scribblings, and the prompt is "Revolution".</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<em><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I took the earth-goes-around-sun definition of "revolution", and here's a little fantasy nugget:</span></strong></em><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs30/i/2008/104/c/d/Earth_by_scott2753.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" hea="true" height="213" src="http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs30/i/2008/104/c/d/Earth_by_scott2753.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2753productions.deviantart.com/">image by 2753productions on deviantart</a></td></tr>
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<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other world revolved around the sun in exactly 12 hours, and we looked at the people there and pitied them.<br /><br />There were six hours for sleep and six hours for work, and no time for leisure. There were no dogs on leashes being walked by its owners and no galleries full of art connoisseurs blabbering about symmetry and surrealism. There were no parties that went on till the morning and no time to learn the names of the constellations. Once they had beautiful names and shone with the majesty of their mythology, but now they were just stars in an unordered cosmos. There were no beautiful ponds of koi fish as there was no time to admire them, and birthday cakes were simple things with no butter-cream or chocolate. Weddings were quick affairs and dreams often had to be cut short for the sake of life. Books were short and had to be read at the workplace or in quick snatches just before sleep. Dads had no time to play ball with their sons and Moms had no time to knit. Girls never learned how to slow waltz and boys knew only to peck, not kiss. Library books caught dust and the librarian didn’t have enough time to dust them. There were no serenades and no gondolas under the moon, no opera or acid-tossing rock concerts. There was no time to dance with gypsies or run through the waves, no circus elephants dressed in red or festivals that celebrated only mangoes. There were no long walks through foggy parks or stolen moments under gas lamps. Friends didn’t meet for pizza and old men didn’t meet to discuss the affairs of the world.<br /><br /><br />The other world revolved around the sun in exactly 12 hours and the people there were adapted to it. They didn’t miss what we had because they never had them, but still we looked at them and pitied them because their lives had no magic.<br /><br /><br />The other world revolved around the sun in exactly 12 hours, and those 12 hours were the gap between “existing” and “living”.</span></strong></blockquote>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-66754830894920117992012-09-08T07:25:00.002-07:002012-09-08T07:45:13.440-07:00Trifextra Writing Challenge: 66 word story<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a border="0" href="http://www.trifectawritingchallenge.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><img src="http://i1132.photobucket.com/albums/m573/SeekingBlog/Picture11-1.png" /></strong></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The Trifextra Writing Challenge is a writing challenge that happens every weekend- and it's a lightning fast one at that! This week, the challenge is to add 33 words to this 33-word story:</strong></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>The last strains of sunlight lingered in the corners, grasping every available point of refraction. She slid her fingertips along the glass wondering if this was all there ever was. Or could be.</strong></span></em></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Here's my take on the challenge:</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcpyy7N82NrUJVQ9eiFD862GfkbBd0dXkq50D8lgTj01lmE-8p9XTirg-YjAgaUxETYzyqUjuZOzgrUlrtt7GNV38DsB5FrU24ooCbQBX7lxjKUMElcBNRhEc1JDIOZKD9zKV8OMw4bflR/s1600/Bottle_of_Shine_by_wb_skinner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" hea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcpyy7N82NrUJVQ9eiFD862GfkbBd0dXkq50D8lgTj01lmE-8p9XTirg-YjAgaUxETYzyqUjuZOzgrUlrtt7GNV38DsB5FrU24ooCbQBX7lxjKUMElcBNRhEc1JDIOZKD9zKV8OMw4bflR/s320/Bottle_of_Shine_by_wb_skinner.png" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">thanks to <a href="http://wb-skinner.deviantart.com/">wb-skinner on DeviantArt</a> for this image </td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="color: white;">The last strains of sunlight lingered in the corners, grasping every available point of refraction. She slid her fingertips along the glass wondering if this was all there ever was. Or could be. <o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u><span style="color: white;">She had spent hundred years collecting as much as possible, and there was never enough happiness in the world to fill a bottle. <o:p></o:p></span></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><u>But sorrow was black as tar and filled entire rooms. </u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>(I just couldn't help but go all fantasy on this as well) </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Happy Weekend! Be back tomorrow with Sunday Scribblings :)</strong></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-31903739155162469022012-09-02T08:17:00.000-07:002012-09-02T08:17:59.651-07:00Sunday Scribblings: Gypsies or Dragons?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Note: I want to tell you so many stories. They're just bouncing around in my head, and I don't know which to write. I don't know how to start because the images and characters are so strong in my mind I'm afraid they won't translate as well to paper. I could cry, but instead I'll write till I get it right, or until a particular little story sits up and says "Just publish me on the blog, already!"</em></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>This one is kind of weird. It got stuck in my head and spun round and round and wouldn't let go, although I kept telling it that it was too fantastical for such a tiny, insignificant, dreamy little thing. The unedited version had a paragraph about 700 sheep and another one about The Sound of Music, but somehow I couldn't put that in the final version.</em></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>This one is for </em><a href="http://www.sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/"><em>Sunday Scribblings</em></a><em>, and the prompt is Soothe.</em></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://li421.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dreaming2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="249" src="http://li421.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dreaming2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Her soul was restless- twisting and turning, trying to break out of its shell, fluttering wildly as a butterfly caught in chewing gum. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She reached for the sleeping pills but she was supposed to be off them. A doctor had said so. She was already at the threshold of dreaded narcotic dependency. Addiction, habituation, substance abuse, white plague. The man had had a vocabulary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Call this number if you can’t sleep,” he’d said, pressing a yellow sticky note to her arm. She’d pushed it into the pocket of her jacket, and she could see it on the floor now, peeking out of the jacket like a sunshine yellow beacon.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">WE SOOTHE, </span></i><span lang="EN-US">she read, picking it up. We Soothe. What kind of a name was that? <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was two a.m. by the clock; two a.m. with the moonlight streaming through the window and the apple-tree outside rustling in the wind; rustling and rustling and raising its branches to the sky like something that wanted wings- any kind of wings- dragonfly wings or angel wings or the wings of a tattered devil; it didn’t matter as long as flight was achievable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(It was two a.m. by the clock and her soul was restless, imagining apple trees flying.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hotline rang thrice when she dialed it. And then a boy said, “Hullo?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Hullo? I was supposed to call this number. If I couldn’t sleep…”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Of course.” The boy said. “Gypsies or dragons?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She sat on the bed and stared at the receiver. “What?”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Which one do you like? Gypsies or dragons? Don’t say wizards, I’m sick of wizards. And we don’t even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">offer </i>vampires anymore.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Gypsies, I suppose. Dragons sound frightful.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Okay.” Said the boy, and then the phone was dead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">She swore and lay back, but already something seemed to be short-circuiting in her brain. There were shifting sand dunes and a drowsy, golden afternoon sun in her mind. There were a long line of camels and a scent of soporific spices. A fire crackled purple and orange and whispered soft, strange whispers in the way only fires in fantasy books can. There were swirling, twirling skirts around her in a profusion of colors- purple and coral and grenadine and crimson- and gold jewelry flashed in sleepy blinks from brown, lithe limbs. A voice smooth and cool as the deepest, quietest cave sang a lullaby, and she felt her eyes close. <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-size: small;"> We soothe, indeed.</span></span></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><em>*note*: I couldn't find the original artist to credit this image to, it's been used in the internet for so long that the original source is quite untraceable. So if anyone knows, please tell!</em></span></span></b></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17245199686136573125noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3860340330584134677.post-46463901991956566072012-09-01T09:08:00.003-07:002012-09-01T09:08:58.215-07:00Bookshelves, Bookshelves, oh my!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So my shelves are all filled! With my little brother and I both buying books left and right, being gifted books, and showered with books from all sides (we are notorious bookworms, I think) our shelves are full. Believe me, this is no simple feat. We have four built-in glass-door wall shelves, two large metal shelves and a smaller wooden shelf in the Library, one blue cutesy shelf in my room and one in my brother's, and there is no place to keep the new books. They're sitting on the floor! (If I could find my camera, I'd photograph them for you!) So we need a new shelf. And while getting one seems unlikely right now (we've just bought a lot of other furniture) looking at glorious bookshelves can't hurt.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right?</span></strong><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I would totally love this one. But more for CDs maybe?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So neat!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yin- Yang. Aren't you gorgeous?<br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/844493649723901_kdvYiRVc_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/upload/844493649723901_kdvYiRVc_c.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
squee!! Blue shelves!
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/upload/270145677618075596_Jd9OofiE_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="http://media-cache-ec3.pinterest.com/upload/270145677618075596_Jd9OofiE_c.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gasp, more blue!<br />
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Now, for the insanely awesome stuff:</strong></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/69172544247001854_ttJWhTyo_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/69172544247001854_ttJWhTyo_c.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gasp! Can't be real.<br />
No way. I refuse to believe.<br />
(Oh my pretty!)<br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/914862394577745_Ica2e5El_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/914862394577745_Ica2e5El_c.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
Want want want!<br />
Need need need!<br />
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Holy hell!<br />
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swoon-worthy. also, something that seems right out of Twilight.<br />
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<a href="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/249175791853240847_UU1xebeG_c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" fea="true" height="320" src="http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/249175791853240847_UU1xebeG_c.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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i love you. i do.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe next week I'll actually blog about something useful. (Not that this isn't useful. It is. It inspires me to get rich, or get really, really artistic, or get a really, really artistic carpentry-loving, book-adoring friend)</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For now, eye-candy galore. </span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more (actually buyable) and bloody awesome bookshelves, check out one of my favorite eye-candy furniture stores that will never ship anything to India, </span></strong><a href="http://www.fabulousandbaroque.com/"><strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fabulous and Baroque</span></strong></a><br />
<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have a great Sunday.</span></strong><br />
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<strong><span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ciao!</span></strong><br />
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