tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57102852581739989392024-02-19T07:11:22.918-05:00Word to Your Dungeon Master's UncleExciting forays into the TV, movies, books, and web sites worth geeking out over. Will also feature other random topics of interest to the intrepid blogger.Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.comBlogger64125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-62325215125585312422017-03-20T17:33:00.004-04:002017-03-20T22:12:36.116-04:0048 Hours of Hazel<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'd been hearing about Puppy Yoga for a little while, and it sounded like the best thing since sliced bread. Apparently, from time to time down at the Subaru dealership, they hold a yoga class during which tiny adoptable puppies are released to run around among the participants. I can't imagine any stronger incentive to do yoga. So when one of my friends suggested that we try it, I told her that I was totally in.</div>
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It started out inauspiciously enough. I didn't get enough sleep the night before, and I was so befuddled that I couldn't find anything that morning. I misplaced an iPod somehow and couldn't find the yoga pants that actually fit me without sliding down my body every time I moved. I also forgot my water and my hair tie, so I was painfully thirsty from the time I arrived and my hair was hanging in my face or plastered on my neck through most of the class. </div>
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The actual yoga was . . . okay. I've done yoga before, but by no means am I particularly good at it. I usually take really easy beginner classes. This, however, was strength yoga, by about the third time we got into plank pose and held it, every muscle in my body was like, "no." I kept falling out of poses or having to lapse back into child's pose. </div>
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However, the puppies provided the perfect distraction. The room was filled with the pitter patter of their wee feet as I struggled to force my body to hold each position. When I couldn't hold a pose anymore, I used them as cover, coming down onto my knees to pet them. From early on, they congregated around my mat, so much so that the other participants started laughing and commenting about it. I moved and twisted in a sea of wriggling, wrestling, snarly, barking, happy puppies. I thought to myself, this must be what Heaven is like. </div>
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In the midst of my downward facing dog, an upward facing dog licked my nose. Sweet little brindle baby that she was, I couldn't even be mad at her when she started chewing on my hair. Her collar told me that her name was Hazel. All of the other puppies liked me, but Hazel seemed especially fond of me. She laid down on my mat under my belly while I was in a table top position, and on the backs of my legs while I was in child's pose. This interfered somewhat with my ability to do yoga, but hey, I wasn't doing that well at it, anyway, so who cares? </div>
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We stayed for a second class, and Hazel and I continued to make friends. Every time I put a limb down on the ground, she positioned herself on top of it. After a while, she was chasing some of the other puppies away from me. Everything about her demeanor kept telling me that I was hers. Who was I to argue?</div>
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After the class, all the puppies were swept away for an adoption event in a different part of the dealership. It was called Pets and their People, during which there would be a buffet, mimosas, and people bringing their pets to walk around and get coupons and freebies from local pet-related businesses. My friend and I went over to see what the fuss was about. </div>
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The event was a blast. There were dogs everywhere, plus food from Sonny's Barbecue and even two small ponies! Live music was playing as we selected a free cookie from a booth. I almost forgot Hazel in all the shenanigans.</div>
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"I kind of want to go visit her," I confessed. My friend agreed that she also missed playing with the puppies. We decided to go find them. Why not get in a few more puppy cuddles before we hit the buffet? <span style="text-align: justify;">I told myself this was a good chance to drop in on Hazel and at least say goodbye.</span><br />
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Famous last words.<br />
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From the moment they put Hazel back in my arms, I knew I was doomed. She made these soft, sweet little grunts as she settled, and then those breathy, whistling noises that dogs make when they're happy. Then she nestled up against me and went to sleep. That warm weight in my arms felt so right. I didn't know how to let her go. So I didn't. I let her sleep in my arms for about twenty minutes while I dithered over what to do about my burgeoning love for this puppy.</div>
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<i>You can't afford another pet</i>, I told myself.</div>
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<i>You managed for quite a while to afford a $150-a-month comic book habit, </i>a little voice inside my head responded. <i>When you really want something, you make it work.</i></div>
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<i>Yeah, but what if Bailey doesn't like her? </i>I countered.<i> How big is she going to get? Will I be able to handle the both of them at the same time?</i></div>
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As soon as I heard myself start asking the volunteers these questions, I knew I was quadruple doomed. If I was motivated enough to try and figure this out, I was probably going to end up taking her home if their answers were even halfway convincing. The people from the Leon County Humane Society told me that Bailey would probably be fine with her because she was a girl, and so young that he would be inclined to be tolerant. They weren't sure of her breed, but their best guess was bull dog and hound, and they figured she would end up being about 40 pounds. They assured me that the first 14 days of the adoption were a trial period, during which I could bring her back and get a refund if she and Bailey didn't get along. </div>
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Moments later, I found myself handing over my card to pay the fee.<br />
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<i>I can do this</i>. I told myself. <i> I can make this work. I always have in the past. I got Molly when I was 19 and I didn't know my ass from a hole in the ground. I managed to raise her by myself and keep her alive for almost 14 years. And Bailey was a lot to handle, and so sick when I first got him. He almost made me lose my mind with his stubborn beagle ways, but I got through it and now he's such a good boy. If I could do those things, I can make this work. Bailey will enjoy having another dog to play with. At 40 pounds, they'll probable play well together because they're about the same size. And because he won't give me any trouble, and I can concentrate on training Hazel.</i></div>
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By the time I walked away with my armful of puppy, I was convinced that this was the best thing I'd ever done, and I was deliriously happy. She was perfect. This was going to work. </div>
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It wasn't until I was in PetSmart buying Hazel her bowls and toys and collar that I had reason to question my decision. A lady walked by and complimented her, saying how pretty she was. She said she bred dogs like Hazel, and she could see that my girl was going to be big. Maybe 50 to 60 pounds.<br />
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I'm sure she didn't mean to sew the seeds of doubt, but there they were, and boy, did they blossom quickly. I couldn't imagine having a 50-to-60-pound dog in the apartment with my 36-pound beagle. Especially not when said beagle has a weird reaction to dogs who are bigger than him. He gets nervous and scared, and usually either barks at them or hides from them, whichever seems safest. And the thing was, nobody ever promised me she wouldn't get bigger than 40 pounds. That was just their best guess. The only way to know for sure would be to take her home and see what happened. </div>
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<i>Bailey will get used to her</i>, I told myself. <i>If he learns to love her as a puppy, he will be okay with her even if she gets bigger than him.</i></div>
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Only, when I introduced her to Bailey back at home, things did not go as well as I'd hoped. Beagle Bailey is a sweetheart, and not at all aggressive. That he might hurt Hazel was never my concern. He was curious when I put her down in front of him. His tail wagged as he went nose-to-nose with her, sniffing her over. For her part, Hazel showed little interest in him. As I sat down to watch them interact, she walked away from him and climbed into my lap, claiming me. He sat back to stare at her as if seeing her in a new light. It was as if a speech bubble had appeared over his head that said, "Who the Hell do you think you are? Interloper!"</div>
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Nothing that happened thereafter assuaged his concerns that this puppy was here to replace him. I tried to include him in whatever we were doing, but she was only two months old and needed a lot of attention. I tried to put her in the big bathroom so that I could play with him, but she cried, and that made him nervous and upset. He wouldn't play while she was crying, and he wouldn't play when she came out again. As soon as she was back in the living room, she'd claim me, and he would slink away. Every line in his body spelled out his feelings of dejection and defeat. </div>
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At night, when I laid down, Hazel was right there. She was a born cuddlebug, desperate to be in contact with me at every available moment. There was never room for Bailey beside us, so he would sigh and go lay at my feet, looking forlorn and heartbroken. He didn't even try to join in the snuggling. During the day, he didn't sit beside us on the couch while Hazel was cuddling against me. He wouldn't play with me, and he wouldn't eat his food. He just shut down. He had been the center of my world for almost 4 years, my only baby, the one I sang to and lavished attention on. Suddenly, here was this new puppy, sitting on my lap watching TV with me and sleeping beside me. Hazel and I existed in this happy little bonding bubble, and Bailey was no part of it. And he wanted no part of it. He just wanted me back.</div>
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Meanwhile, while I knew having two dogs would be difficult, but the difficulty went way beyond what I'd expected. When I'd been thinking about juggling the pair of them, I had put Bailey on a mental pedestal. He's a very good boy, and after almost 4 years together, he understands what I want from him pretty well. But he's also a beagle, which means that he's crazy stubborn and a slave to his nose. It's always been the case that when I walk him, if I let anything distract me--my phone, my iPod, whatever--he takes that opportunity to try to drag me where he wants to go, be it into the bushes, down a steep hill, or over a stone wall. It sometimes takes me hauling on the leash with both hands, or throwing it over my shoulder for leverage and walking in the opposite direction to bring him back into line. I wasn't thinking about that at the adoption booth when I imagined Hazel, Bailey, and I happily walking together.</div>
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The first time I tried to walk them both, I knew I was in trouble. Bailey was off like a shot, taking advantage of every moment I spent distracted by Hazel to pull me wherever he wanted to go. He is freakishly strong for his size, and he's not exactly slight. Without both hands to control him, I floundered. He would charge ahead, and Hazel would drag behind, and I'd be in the middle, feeling like I was being drawn and quartered. I could get him back under control, but it distracted me from her, which meant that I occasionally turn around just in time to see her pick something gross up in her mouth or almost step on something sharp. We narrowly avoided disaster on more than one occasion, and I kept thinking, "I won't always get this lucky. Eventually, someone is going to get hurt."</div>
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The next day, I tried walking them separately. This turned out to be a spectacular failure. When I left with her, he cried like his heart was breaking. I could hear him all the way downstairs as I walked Hazel into the grass. When I came back and put her in the bathroom to walk him, she noises like she was being murdered. The only reason this didn't result in someone complaining about me to the apartment complex office is because the apartment below mine is currently empty. It won't always be. In fact, several people had been by to look at it. I became apprehensive about whether or not I could keep them from making a fuss every time I tried to single one out for special attention.</div>
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In the meantime, I had forgotten how draining it is to have a new puppy. Getting up at 4:00 a.m. to make sure she doesn't pee in the bed. Then back up at 8:00 a.m. because she needs to go again. I tried to take a shower with her closed in the bathroom with me to keep her from fussing, and she fussed anyway and tried to climb into the tub with me. I ended up getting out with shampoo still in my hair to hold her and calm her down because she started howling.</div>
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Every time I came home, I'd have to run into the bathoom pick her up and run her outside to keep her from messing in the house. Once, I was gone too long and came home to colossal piles of poo and a puddle of pee in my bathroom. While I was trying to clean it up, I left the room for more paper towels and came back to a puddle that Hazel couldn't have made. She didn't have anything left to pee out! Bailey was in the corner, looking guilty.</div>
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Oh God. This was too much. I had counted on him being good and not needing as much attention while I got her on track. I didn't think he'd start acting out. I couldn't handle it. </div>
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I had made so many miscalculations. I hadn't thought about how difficult Bailey was to walk, and how Hazel would eventually be just as big and possibly stronger. I hadn't thought, when I was thinking about how I made it through Molly's puppyhood and Bailey's puppyhood, how much harder it is to be at your wit's end with a puppy when there's another dog who also needs you, adding another layer of anxiety to the equation. Add to that that he wasn't taking things well and was feeling left out, and basically by the end of the next day, I felt like I'd made a mistake.</div>
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Bailey did eventually start playing with her. Sometimes, I thought that he even seemed to like her. But he didn't like her with me, and the look in his eyes whenever I picked her up, sang to her, or played with her told me that this was the worst thing I'd ever done to him. And I thought, <i>It's kind of the worst thing I've ever done to myself. I can't handle both of these dogs, and it's actually going to get harder in some ways when she gets big. I don't even know how big she's going to get. I don't know why I didn't think that through more. And I can't stop largely ignoring poor Bailey while she's so small because she needs so much attention. If I keep waiting to see if it gets better and it doesn't, it's going to be that much harder for all three of us. Especially for Hazel, who won't be as small and appealing to most prospective adopters.</i></div>
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So I ended up doing one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. When Hazel's foster mom called to check on her, I admitted that I'd bitten off more than I could chew. I told her my beagle wasn't adjusting well, and that I had recently realized that I wouldn't be able to take them both to Jacksonville with me once a month to visit my family. It wasn't going to work out. </div>
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She was so nice about it. She told me it happened, and that finding the right fit for a dog was important. She told me that she cried after Hazel had been adopted because she missed her, and she still had Hazel's sister, Opal. She lives on 5 acres of land with 5 other dogs, and Hazel and Opal sleep in the bed with her at night. She reassured me that Hazel could absolutely come back to her home, and she promised that she'd find Hazel a new owner. She pointed out that Hazel was sweet, smart, cuddly, and pretty, so she had excellent prospects. </div>
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I drove out to the Leon County Humane Society the next morning to execute the surrender paperwork. I asked them to keep $150 of the adoption fee to use toward Hazel's care. Then I went home and walked Hazel and Bailey one last time. We sat in the small dog park at my complex, and they both sniffed around and laid down in the sunlight to chew on pieces of mulch. When I got them home, I pulled Hazel into my lap, where she immediately nestled against me and went to sleep. I held her while Bailey laid on the floor some distance from us, staring at me and crying softly in a thin, nasal whine. Then I packed up Hazel's things and took her to meet up with her foster mom.</div>
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I hated that drive. I kept looking over and her, thinking that if it had just been me and her, we would've made it work. That she reminded me of Molly, who I lost to cancer four years ago. That she was the cuddliest, friendliest, smartest, sweetest little thing, and I wanted her in my life so badly. </div>
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But I also knew I was doing the right thing. I couldn't handle both dogs. I should've realized that with Bailey being Bailey, if I ever did the second dog thing, it would need to be one that would definitely be smaller than him, one I'd know for sure I could always control while I was wrestling with Bailey. Maybe a slightly older dog so that he wouldn't be demoted from the center of the world to barely existing in it on account of the puppy needing all of my attention. And because he's always been particular about his companions, I should've taken him to pick out his sibling and not chosen her for him. If he liked the other dog enough, the way he adores his friends, Riley and Banksy, he might've been happier to share the spotlight. I should've planned this. I should've been more careful. I got swept away by a pretty face.</div>
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When I pulled into the parking lot to make the exchange, Hazel's foster mom swooned over her the harness I'd bought her with the black polka dots and the pink bow. She chuckled over all the things I'd bought her as she loaded them into her car--the toys, the treats, the food, the bed.<br />
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"Somebody went overboard," she said.<br />
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"I always do," I replied.<br />
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I really feel like she recognized that I loved Hazel, but couldn't keep her. She understood, and she didn't judge. She reassured me again that she'd get Hazel a home, and even told me that she'd text me with updates. "You're part of her rescue story now," she said. As I sat in my car next to hers, getting ready to pull away, I looked over and saw her holding up Hazel, nose to nose, talking to her. Then she kissed her on the nose and settled her down in the seat.</div>
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Hazel's in good hands now. And even though I drove away crying, feeling like there's a Hazel-sized hole in my heart, I'll never be sad that I had her. She was special, and I'm glad that she was mine, even for a few days. I have no doubt that someone else will one day know the joy of loving her, and this person will be able to give her everything she deserves. <br />
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Meanwhile, this guy has been positively glowing ever since I came home without the puppy. He's usually an inconsistent cuddler, sometimes wanting to, sometimes not, but he's been curling up next to me every time I sit back on the couch, his head resting on my thigh. For him, all is right with the world again.<br />
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-69554569370796024022016-11-16T12:24:00.000-05:002016-11-16T12:25:03.042-05:00Book Review: Den of Wolves by Juliet Marillier<div style="text-align: center;">
Come for the fairytale mysteries, stay for the complex and lovable characters.</div>
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Buy your copy <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Blackthorn-Grim-Juliet-Marillier/dp/0451467035/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479316974&sr=1-1&keywords=den+of+wolves">here</a>.</div>
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Every time I pick up a Blackthorn and Grim book, I know I'm in for a suspenseful, sometimes heartbreaking, but always rewarding ride. This book was no exception. This particular tale follows our cantankerous healer and her gentle giant of a friend as they become entangled in the goings on in nearby Wolf Glen-- the construction of a heartwood house that brings special blessings on the person who completes it, the return of a wild man who has been trapped in otherworldly servitude for years, the problems of a girl to whom the trees speak and the birds protect, and the threat of a terrible secret that could change the lives of everyone in Wolf Glen forever.</div>
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Honestly, the mystery in this book was exceptional, but I was in it, and will always be in it, for the relationship between Blackthorn and Grim. There's something so powerful between them, so much love, and yet, they are both so damaged they refuse to admit it fully. It makes me bounce in my chair every time they let slip how much they care for each other. For instance, when Grim is explaining why the wild man can trust him with his story, and the wild man asks if he will tell his family, Grim responds, "No wife. No family. Only Blackthorn. My friend. My trusted friend, who I live with. And yes, I might tell her. But that's not the same. Telling her's like telling the other part of me. She'll keep your secrets, same as I will." That, right there, had me swooning.</div>
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In the end, I cannot recommend this book and the series it falls within strongly enough. The writing is beautiful, the plotting is strong, and the characters become like old friends you pine for between books. Go out and get your copy today!</div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-79699312348106173542016-07-12T08:00:00.000-04:002016-07-12T08:00:26.280-04:00Catch Your Copy of SIRENS Today!<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<img alt="download" class=" size-full wp-image-489 aligncenter" data-mce-src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/download.jpg" height="400" src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/download.jpg" style="display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="400" /></div>
<div style="font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
<span style="color: white;">It's heeeeere!</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">The <em>Sirens</em> anthology comes out today, stuffed to the gills with siren-y goodness. My story, "The Fisherman and the Golem," lies waiting inside to entice you into deep literary waters, and it is in some stellar company. If you're wondering where you can pick up your copy, see below for details!</span></div>
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<b>World Weaver Press</b> -- <a data-mce-href="http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p108/Sirens.html" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p108/Sirens.html&source=gmail&ust=1468377632785000&usg=AFQjCNHFQzQqgROf-qLkqh-sW6twfK-gNw" href="http://www.worldweaverpress.com/store/p108/Sirens.html" style="color: #00aadc;" target="_blank">http://www.<wbr></wbr>worldweaverpress.com/store/<wbr></wbr>p108/Sirens.html</a></div>
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<b>Amazon</b> -- <a data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.com/Sirens-Rhonda-Parrishs-Magical-Menageries-ebook/dp/B01E519OI8/" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.amazon.com/Sirens-Rhonda-Parrishs-Magical-Menageries-ebook/dp/B01E519OI8/&source=gmail&ust=1468377632785000&usg=AFQjCNFw0viVdN7frBx78Nk77zHqPjqVsw" href="https://www.amazon.com/Sirens-Rhonda-Parrishs-Magical-Menageries-ebook/dp/B01E519OI8/" style="color: #00aadc;" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/<wbr></wbr>Sirens-Rhonda-Parrishs-<wbr></wbr>Magical-Menageries-ebook/dp/<wbr></wbr>B01E519OI8/</a> </div>
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<b>Kobo</b> -- <a data-mce-href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sirens-9" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sirens-9&source=gmail&ust=1468377632785000&usg=AFQjCNE9lZNabrsFpxktodYBInqAP-kmAw" href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/sirens-9" style="color: #00aadc;" target="_blank">https://store.kobobooks.<wbr></wbr>com/en-us/ebook/sirens-9</a></div>
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<b>B & N</b> -- <a data-mce-href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sirens-rhonda-parrish/1123663386?ean=2940153229133" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sirens-rhonda-parrish/1123663386?ean%3D2940153229133&source=gmail&ust=1468377632785000&usg=AFQjCNH_vA2h-QuhlEEC_q5BvBj-9jUYbA" href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sirens-rhonda-parrish/1123663386?ean=2940153229133" style="color: #00aadc;" target="_blank">http://www.barnesandnoble.<wbr></wbr>com/w/sirens-rhonda-parrish/<wbr></wbr>1123663386?ean=2940153229133</a></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Anyhow, I do hope you'll pick up a copy, and if you do, I'd appreciate you taking the time to review it on Amazon and Goodreads! It's a great signal boost for the anthology, and I'd love to hear what you all think of it!</span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Incidentally, Bailey the cosplaying beagle gave it 5 out of 5 stars! Even better than a slice of cheddar cheese, and at least as good as a tummy rub.</span></div>
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<img alt="20160705_184036" class=" wp-image-491 aligncenter" data-mce-src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/20160705_184036.jpg?w=680" data-wpmedia-src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/20160705_184036.jpg" height="602" src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/20160705_184036.jpg?w=680" style="display: block; height: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="451" /></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-75200406139189525272016-05-17T19:56:00.002-04:002016-05-17T19:56:42.072-04:00Forgive Me, I Must Take a Brief Break to Rant About Why Comcast is Literally the Worst<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">A long, long time ago, in an apartment not so far away, I had Comcast cable and internet. It worked without a hitch for 4 years. Then I moved one street over to a new apartment. The night I moved in, I tried setting everything up, but it wasn’t working. I ended up having to call the next day and make sure things were activated properly. No big. That was to be expected. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Then about three days later, I get a voicemail from Comcast asking if I wanted to cancel service at my old apartment. “That’s weird,” I said to myself. “I called and set that all up a week in advance.” So I called and explained this same information to a representative and made sure that the service for the old apartment was off and I was not being charged past the date I had originally arranged for it to be shut off. And that was that.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Or, well, I wish it was. I got back home from walking my dog and turned on my TV. My cable wasn’t working. Okay, seriously? When I cancelled my service, I meant for the place I USED to live, not the place I currently lived. Did they get it mixed up? Sighing, I called tech support. There was much troubleshooting. It did not work. Not only did it not work, but while I was talking to the guy, he kept asking me things about my internet. “My internet is working fine,” I told him. “Please don’t change anything about my internet.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Then my internet went down.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I was starting to get really annoyed. The guy I was speaking to wasn’t able to help me. He had to pass me off to someone else. That guy also was not able to help me. I had been on the phone for a long time now. My patience was wearing thin. I ended up asking to be transferred to someone who could fix my internet and just said, “Screw the TV. I need the internet more.” </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I was transferred to someone who helped me get my internet fixed. My cable was still down.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I called again later to try and schedule a technician visit. I explained that I’d had a lot of trouble with my service. I told her I did not want to pay for a technician and I’d almost rather just cancel my cable, since I mostly watch Netflix, anyhow. I was convinced to have a technician visit based upon the promise that I would not pay a fee for his visit no matter what. I was told that ordinarily, they charge a fee only if the problem is your fault, but no matter what, I would not be charged. (I may have actually been told this by more than one rep. I sort of remember that I was.) So I agreed, and they scheduled the visit for early Saturday morning. In the meantime, I had no cable for about a week.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">When the cable guy showed up, it took him seconds to realize what was wrong. “They sent so many reset signals to the box that they fried the card inside,” he explained. “This box is no good. I’ll replace it and you’ll be up and running.” So he replaced it, and lo and behold, I was back in business. He also noted that the last tech had hooked up my cable with colored cords instead of an HDMI cable, which meant that I was paying extra for HD TV for all the years since that tech visited (my now 3-year-old dog was a puppy then), but I wasn’t actually receiving it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">For a while, everything was okay. Then, about two or three days later, I went to record something on my DVR. It didn’t work. I called in for technical support. After going through all the troubleshooting steps again, it turns out that this box was also defective. They promised to send me a new one in the mail. In the meantime, I was without a working DVR for three or four days.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The new DVR came in the mail. I hooked it up. I believe I had to call tech support (AGAIN) to get it working, but it worked. I was relieved. For a few days.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">A few days later, I received two bills that didn’t make sense. I called to inquire, and the guy I spoke to was very nice and told me that I didn’t owe anything for the old apartment or the new. I would have no payment that month. He also fixed it so that I could see my account using my old Comcast email address to log in.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I logged in afterwards and noticed that it was showing a $67 bill coming up due. Um, okay, that’s not what he told me. Anyhow, I paid it, because whatever.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">I didn’t use my cable for a while. I really don’t watch TV much, at least not outside of Netflix and Hulu. As a matter of fact, I kept trying to cancel it, and Comcast told me they’d jack up my rate for the pleasure of providing me with fewer services. I only got this “discount” because I bundled my services. Again, whatever. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Sunday, which was about exactly a month since I moved, I turned on my cable to watch “Game of Thrones,” which is my absolute favorite show. My cable was not working. My heart racing in panic, I called for tech support. They tried to send a reset signal and my box didn’t react. They had me turn it off and on. After a friend on Facebook alerted me to the fact that I could watch online, I hung up on them. They’d left me on hold again anyhow. I went to watch my show on my computer, vowing to call back the next day and cancel my cable.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">When I followed through on my plan, I was met by the usual dialogue: I could absolutely do that if I wanted to, but they were going to charge me significantly more because my services weren’t bundled. We went back and forth, and ultimately I got tired of arguing how stupid it was that I couldn’t get them to do less for me without paying them more money. Ultimately, she offered me a discount on my HD TV Fee and transferred me to tech support. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">The person I spoke to next was one of those rare people at Comcast who knew her ass from a hole in the ground. Within a few minutes, she figured out that my cable box was listed for the wrong outlet, which is why they couldn’t send it signals. She fixed it, and I was back in business.</span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Two days later, I get a bill in the mail. $156 dollars. I’m supposed to be paying $69.99 a month. I have no idea where the Hell this number came from. I call to ask for an explanation. While I’m on the phone, I notice a technician fee. I explain that I was promised by a customer service rep that I would not pay a fee for his visit no matter what. I also told her that the man told me the equipment malfunctioned because Comcast customer service reps sent too many reset signals and fried my box. She scoffed like she knew that wasn’t possible (I’m sure she builds cable boxes in her spare time, she totally knows more than the technician), and she said it’s their policy to charge NO MATTER WHY THE PROBLEM HAPPENED unless you pay additional fees for a customer protection plan. I pointed out how ridiculous it was that I should have to pay a fee to fix a problem Comcast customer service caused. I also pointed out that I was told that they usually didn’t charge if the problem was on their end and not mine. She told me that’s not true. THEY ALWAYS CHARGE EVEN IF IT’S THEIR FAULT.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Ultimately, I told her the charge goes away or it’s the last thing they’ll ever charge me for. She said all she could do was give me a $20 credit and put in a ticket on the remaining $30. She said they’d research my (many, many) prior calls to confirm that I was promised there would be no charge, and that they’d contact the cable guy (who apparently wrote down on his paperwork that the complaint was invalid or something). I have to wait to hear back on May 19th. </span></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: none 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">At this point, I would sell my soul to get out of having to use Comcast. This is the worst service I’ve ever gotten from anybody anywhere. They overcharge like crazy, and only every fifth person I speak to has any freaking clue what he/she is talking about. They all tell me different, conflicting things every time I call. This is the policy, until I speak to someone else, and then it’s not. This is what I owe, until I double check on the internet and find out that’s wrong. This is the problem, until I call someone different and find out that wasn’t it. I haven’t had consistent, working service for more than four consecutive days since I’ve moved here. I’ve spent more time on the phone with Comcast than I have talking to loved ones. My stress level is through the roof, and their overriding policy seems to be to gouge money from customers in every way possible. If there is service from any other company available in your area, please, for God’s sake, take it. Don’t deal with what I’m dealing with. It’ll take years off your life. I hear Verizon Fios and AT&T uverse are good. If they were available in my area, I’d leave Comcast so fast there’d be a cartoon puff of smoke where I used to be in their customer files.</span></span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-67354337117184110952016-04-04T22:48:00.000-04:002016-04-04T23:14:19.602-04:00The Devolution of Carol Peletier<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<img src="http://www.geektrench.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/caution_spoilers.gif" /><br />
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<b>**If you haven't watched the season six finale of "The Walking Dead," TURN BACK NOW!**</b><br />
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“The Walking Dead” has often struggled with its representation of women. For instance, we had Andrea, whose eharmony profile could have read, “I enjoy pina colodas, getting caught in the rain, and sleeping with psychopaths who are all about that premeditated murder.” Then there was Beth, who spent a lot of time being pretty and singing in the background like some sort of post-apocalyptic Disney princess. During her involuntary stay at the hospital, she finally began to show some real agency, only to die a pointless and inane death in order to give the other characters FEELINGS. And don’t even get me started on Lori, who occasionally took a break from being a neglectful mother and an awful wife to snap at other women for being useful in ways that didn’t involve housework. </div>
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<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="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvnGugpc-z6N5g6S7djcaY6p9G-UirViYgKCWwJh8joK2XFId-fs547oKW-jNTB_6BYBRLatkDeUV4pcs_2EWL3rrXRozm613XU-WLyuTQshaWYJDh1m2dhXjlKyOEG-7Pxjp6RrVgMYj/s1600/Lori.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQvnGugpc-z6N5g6S7djcaY6p9G-UirViYgKCWwJh8joK2XFId-fs547oKW-jNTB_6BYBRLatkDeUV4pcs_2EWL3rrXRozm613XU-WLyuTQshaWYJDh1m2dhXjlKyOEG-7Pxjp6RrVgMYj/s400/Lori.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">God image found <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_of_God_(Christianity)">here</a>.</td></tr>
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Things have gotten better. Michonne is a smart, capable woman warrior with a good heart. Maggie, who was always likable and intelligent, has come into her own over the seasons as a fighter and a leader. Rosita may be criminally underdeveloped, but girlfriend knows her way around a firearm. And Sasha is a strong character who gave us an intriguing depiction of PTSD. But the biggest saving grace for “The Walking Dead” when it comes to its portrayal of women was Carol Peletier. And believe me, those are words I’d never thought I’d say.</div>
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There was a time when Carol was near the top of the list of the people I didn't mind dying to feed the show’s body count. Shrinking and meek, she seemed to exist in those early seasons solely to feed Daryl’s character development as he transformed from surly redneck menace to gentle victim hiding his bruised heart behind manly posturing. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://p.fod4.com/p/media/d25ce7d6e7/IvK8rxQFKD8ZUZJuCRhA_13carol.jpg" height="293" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Found <a href="http://www.funnyordie.com/articles/d25ce7d6e7/43-more-hilarious-memes-from-walking-dead-season-5">here</a>.</td></tr>
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Then Carol became intriguingly complex. For the good of the group, she killed and burned two sick people to keep their illness from spreading. When Lizzie’s mental illness manifested, making it clear that she was a liability and there was no way to save her, Carol was the one who stepped up and told her to “look at the flowers.” Then Terminus happened, and Carol the battered housewife became freaking Rambo. No, actually, I think Carol Peletier might be the boogey man that Rambo checks his closet for before he can fall asleep at night. The effectiveness of her one-woman assault to save her friends from the cannibals was awe-inspiring. And just when you thought that she was going to openly embrace being the action hero goddess that her friends knew her to be, she went undercover in Alexandria, simpering, wearing cardigans, and baking cookies like a wily, post-apocalyptic Martha Stewart. By this time, Carol had learned all about the element of surprise, and nothing surprises people more than a pink-cheeked, doe-eyed housewife who can mow down ranks of Wolves without batting an eyelash. In this manner did she go from being a ho hum trope to being one of my absolute favorite characters. </div>
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But of course, the good “Walking Dead” giveth, and then the good “Walking Dead” taketh away. Just as Carol was beginning to shine as a beacon, being one of the few, precious female antiheroes on TV, she suddenly began to dim.</div>
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There was no build up. No arc. No trigger. One minute, Carol’s Facebook status was, “I will totally kill Morgan for not killing people.” The next, she’s posted, “OH MY GOD, I’VE BEEN MURDERING PEOPLE ALL THIS TIME???!!? WHY DIDN’T SOMEONE TELL ME?!” (See below.)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Yes, I made this. Yes, I need a life.</span></div>
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I realize that a crisis of conscience is an inherently internal thing, but this is a TV show. In a novel, you could just ramble out her internal monologue so that the reader could follow her thinking. In a show, I need to <i>see</i> what happened to trigger the character arc so I can follow along and evaluate whether it makes sense. Otherwise, the character develops <b>BECAUSE THE WRITERS SAY SO, THAT’S WHY</b>, which is seldom an acceptable reason. And honestly, the only thing that’s been suggested so far as a trigger for her recent transformation is the death of Sam, the kid she threatened and bullied until he got himself killed. After all, she did leave cookies on his grave. The problem is, his death was not her fault. She also had no time to develop any sort of attachment to him. As my friend pointed out, she actually bonded more with Lizzie before she shot her in the head and still walked away without coming anywhere near the mental collapse she suffered in season six's final episode.</div>
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Ultimately, no matter why they decided to turn Carol the Badass into Carol the Whiney Crybaby, it’s not a good reason. Carol the Badass was complicated and interesting. As a rare, morally ambiguous woman who is able to use the fact that people underestimate her to her advantage, she was the TV heroine equivalent of a goddamn unicorn. As a woman whose emotions suddenly got the best of her, putting her and her friends in danger, she’s as common as a TV trope penny. “The Walking Dead” fans deserve better than tired tropes. The fans deserve Carol the Badass. </div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-51024111894773354362016-02-24T20:33:00.001-05:002016-02-24T20:50:40.961-05:00In Which the Struggle is Real, but Infinitely Worthwhile<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 24px;">Once upon a time (in April of 2014, to be exact), I wrote a story that I knew in my bones was good. I was feeling the characters, the dialogue was flowing like coffee in Starbucks during rush hour, and I was still grooving enough on the last Patricia McKillip book I’d read to find flinging out pretty descriptions to be relatively easy. However, by the time I finished it about a month and a half later, I also knew with the deepest, most unshakable certainty that I had gotten the ending completely freaking wrong.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 24px;">I edited it and I stared at it. I edited it some more, and sent it off to beta readers. While they were reading it, I stared at it again, making half-hearted tweaks. Finally, when not even the most brilliant beta in the pool could diagnose the source of the suckage I sensed, I stuck the damn story in a drawer and flounced off to work on something else. After about five months, it began to seem more and more likely that this story was doomed to molder away in the graveyard file until it was nothing but the bones of a good idea buried under a mountain of angst and regret.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Still, there was something in that story I just couldn’t give up on. One November evening, I steeled myself enough to take the story out and tinker with it again. I reread it, and I started to remember why I loved the story in the first place. The wariness and the doubt melted away, and suddenly, the ending came crashing down on my hapless brain in a tidal wave of plot. I didn’t just know it, I saw it, unfurling like a movie in my head in full color, surround sound, rock-your-face-off detail. It took one hour to dash off the ending. One hour, after being stuck for almost half a year. When I sent it to my most trusted beta reader, the reply I got back could be summed up as “Wow.” I knew in my heart that I’d finally gotten it right this time. The ending rang true, the plot flowed naturally, and the story was exactly what I need</span><span style="line-height: 24px;">ed it to be.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;">Fast-forward a year and three months later, and it turns out that it works for someone else, too. Or at least so I assume, because someone offered to buy it. That’s right, my little story that could, “The Fisherman and the Golem,” is going to be published this summer in an anthology called SIRENS which will be edited by Rhonda Parrish and published by World Weaver Press. It is the perfect ending to the epic saga that began when I sat down to write so long ago in April in a world where pe</span><span style="line-height: 24px;">rfect endings are often elusive. Trust me, I know. ;)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "bitstream charter" , serif;"><span style="color: white; line-height: 24px;">Now, for no good reason, allow me to end this post with a picture of my dog and his new guard dog sign.</span></span></div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-60973504643159004452015-12-03T22:01:00.003-05:002016-11-16T12:31:26.353-05:00Book Review: Frostflower and Thorn by Phyllis Ann Karr<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="5164VRCA96L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-126" data-mce-src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/5164vrca96l-_sy344_bo1204203200_.jpg" height="346" src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/5164vrca96l-_sy344_bo1204203200_.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="222" /></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Buy your copy <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Frostflower-Thorn-Phyllis-Ann-Karr-ebook/dp/B0094A0X0Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1449196781&sr=1-1&keywords=frostflower+and+thorn" href="http://www.amazon.com/Frostflower-Thorn-Phyllis-Ann-Karr-ebook/dp/B0094A0X0Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1449196781&sr=1-1&keywords=frostflower+and+thorn">here</a>.</span></h6>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I went into FROSTFLOWER AND THORN forewarned, so I feel compelled to forewarn in this review: this fantasy novel depicts rape and torture. I'm normally not a fan of reading novels that feature rape because it's often used to bring angst to the people around the survivor without focusing on the consequences to the survivor him/herself. There are also authors who use rape as a way to create a gritty atmosphere for their world in much the same way that one might hang up cheap paper streamers at a party to create a festive air, and with much less thought. However, this book neatly avoided both pitfalls and handled the subject with sensitivity. Oh, and it was awesome, on top of that.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The story takes place in a world where only women are warriors. This sounds like a very feminist concept, but actually, women are warriors because the religion in this world teaches that men are too valuable to risk themselves. I found the idea interesting, because it justifies women dominating the battlefield without hand-waving at the logic that women are generally physically weaker than men. Plus, to me, it is not that different from our own world-- it’s only that the manner in which men are put forth as being of greater worth manifests differently.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img alt="7131eiHDSoL" class="alignnone wp-image-119" data-mce-src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/7131eihdsol.jpg" height="377" src="https://amandakespohl.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/7131eihdsol.jpg" style="height: auto; max-width: 100%;" width="227" /></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An older version of the cover.</span></h6>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In any case, it is against this background that we meet Thorn, a badass warrior with a sharp tongue and a strong sword arm. Thorn is dealing with the consequences of being a woman who enjoys sex and isn’t afraid to indulge, but lives in a medieval society sans reliable birth control: she is in the early stages of an unwanted pregnancy and looking to get rid of it. By chance, she crosses paths with a sorceron named Frostflower. Frostflower offers to use magic to help Thorn get rid of her offspring, and all she asks in payment is the child, himself. Thorn is a little unnerved by the notion of subjecting herself to sorcery, but Frostflower promises that she can make it happen in the space of an afternoon, and Thorn is desperate. She doesn’t have the coin to pay a physician or an aborter, and as a freelance warrior of sorts, she’s not in a position to keep the child even if she had a motherly bone in her body (which she doesn’t).</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In this manner are we introduced to the powers of the sorcereri, Phyllis Ann Karr’s version of magic-users. It turns out that one of their abilities is to “speed time.” By tapping into the life force of a creature or a plant, a sorceron can age it forward. Frostflower uses this ability to hasten Thorn’s pregnancy along and safely deliver the child. Frostflower names him Starwind, and it is obvious from the start that she treasures him. The sorcereri take vows of truth, prudence, and purity. They cannot lie, be reckless, or have sex without losing their powers. Therefore, Frostflower had no other way to have a child of her own if she wished to keep her abilities, and it is clear that she very much wanted to have one.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The trouble is, people in this world are suspicious of sorcereri. If Frostflower is seen carrying the child to her retreat alone, people will assume that she stole him, because they know she cannot have had him the natural way. There are also those who would see the child as an abomination if they discovered that he was sorcered out of the womb, so that part is best kept secret. While she does have the power to snatch lightning bolts from the sky and age people who touch her, for the most part, her powers are no defense. The vows of the sorcereri bind them from doing harm, so Frostflower cannot defend herself directly. Grudgingly, Thorn agrees to accompany her to help deflect suspicion. Over the course of the journey, an unlikely friendship begins to blossom between the pair.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, they run afoul of Maldron, a farmer-priest who rules the territory they are passing through. Frostflower and Thorn manage to escape him, but become outlaws in the process. If Thorn is caught, her guts will be filled with stones and she'll be hung on a gibbet to die. If Frostflower is caught, she’ll be raped to strip her of her powers and possibly gibbeted, as well. The story follows the women’s attempts to win free of Maldron, their developing relationship, and the consequences of each having her faith challenged through her association with the other.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now, I’ve mentioned before that I’m a slow reader who tends to languish over the pages to suss out every ounce of meaning and enjoyment. Well, I finished this book in a week. I couldn’t put it down, or at least not for long. I read it with my morning coffee, and on my lunch breaks. Then when I went to bed, I’d switch on a lamp, pick up my ipad, and go back to it.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The prose is solid, and the characters are well-rounded and relatable. I admired tough, blunt, capable Thorn, and gentle, thoughtful, intelligent Frostflower, appreciating both their virtues and their flaws. In particular, I looked forward to Thorn's point-of-view scenes, because there was something so unique and mesmerizing about this rough-spoken, cynical warrior that I loved being in her head. Some of the secondary characters are also unexpectedly intriguing. Spendwell, a soft, cowardly-seeming merchant, initially seems to be nothing more than one of Thorn’s bed partners. As the plot unfolds, he becomes much more, for good and for ill. And Inmara, Maldron’s senior wife, could have presented as a two-dimensional villain, but is ultimately nuanced and complex. She has her own motives and sympathies, and even when her goals run counter to Frostflower’s, it is hard to dislike her.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The pacing was at least partly to blame for while I churned through this book so quickly. I was heavily invested in the characters early on, which made it hard enough to drop in my bookmark and walk away, but every time I tried to put it down, the tension was running too high and I was too concerned to do so. The action was intense, and ultimately built up to a satisfying ending.</span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If I had to nitpick and find something about this book that I disliked, I suppose it would be that the mystery created by the climax was never resolved in this book. Without an explanation, it felt either like a convenient development or the setup to a sequel. Given that a sequel exists, that seems to answer that question. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a book with awesome world-building, great characters, and a fine balancing of grit and heart, this is the book for you.</span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-71721948334238922302015-11-11T22:58:00.001-05:002015-11-12T00:24:08.050-05:00TV Show Review: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend<div style="text-align: justify;">
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So I know people were concerned, based on the advertising and the title, that this show was going to be sexist. Well, I randomly decided to watch the first five episodes and thus far, it doesn't trouble me at all. The story revolves around a young, successful woman named Rebecca. She's a Harvard and Yale-educated attorney who is on the verge of being made a junior partner at her law firm. She has everything she could possibly want, but she's stressed out, does nothing but work, and is utterly miserable. She keeps seeing these butter advertisements that ask, "When was the last time you were truly happy?" Well, one day she's walking down the street and she sees Josh.</div>
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Josh, you see, was her camp boyfriend when she was 16. He's a sweet, hunky dude with a positive personality and a laid-back attitude. When he sees Rebecca, he tells her he's been living in New York for a few months, but it's just not for him, so he's moving back home to West Covina, California. As an aside, he tells her it's too bad they didn't meet sooner, seeing as she's so hot and successful now. He tells her if she's ever in California, she should give him a call.</div>
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Rebecca's eyes glaze over as Josh walks away, and before you know it, she's turning down the partnership and moving to West Covina, California.</div>
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From day one, Rebecca is majorly in denial about why she moved to California. After all, West Covina is no paradise. It's portrayed as a shabby suburb four hours from the beach with an overabundance of pawn shops, cash advance stores, and strip clubs. But she insists to everyone that she is here for a fresh start, and West Covina just happened to be the perfect place for her. Yet, all the while, she's still looking for a way to get back together with Josh.</div>
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Despite Rebecca's decision to move across the United States to chase some guy she dated over a decade ago, she's actually pretty damn relatable. She's someone who was miserable and looking for a way out, and Josh just happened to suggest one. She has a feverish need for other people's approval, perhaps to make up for the approval she never got from her parents, and much better work skills than personal skills. She's also witty and quirky and prone to make literary allusions and do things like give courtly bows. All these things make her a girl after my own heart. And she's not entirely unaware of how bad her decision-making skills are. The one time she starts to realize that she moved to West Covina for Josh, she almost has a nervous breakdown. Luckily, her paralegal/new BFF, Paula, was there to talk her down from the ledge.</div>
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Oh, and did I mention that it's a musical? Yeah, that's the best part. For example, there's the "Sexy Getting Ready Song" in episode 1, which actually shows how unsexy the process of getting ready to go out really is. (Body hair removal, anyone?) </div>
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Then there's the song about her girl crush, Valencia the yoga instructor, in which Rebecca confesses that she wants to grind Valencia's skin into a powder and snort it like cocaine. My personal favorite is "Face Your Fears," a song Paula sings when she's trying to encourage Rebecca to throw a party to get Josh to come over.</div>
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In any case, this show surprised me. There were some aspects of the plot I was 100% on board with, but I'm willing to see how they play out and I didn't find them upsetting or offensive. On the whole, though, I enjoyed it immensely and ended up going through the first five episodes in a single night. So if you like musicals, check out an episode and prepare to be surprised, yourself.</div>
<br />Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-26955309221991699892015-11-04T23:13:00.001-05:002015-11-04T23:14:17.922-05:00Book Review: Eight Days of Luke by Diana Wynne Jones<br />
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Long before a lovable orphan named Harry suffered at the hands of the Dursleys, a lovable cricket-playing orphan named David Allard was hating life with his awful relations, Uncle Bernard, Aunt Dot, and Cousin Ronald. He tries hard to be grateful for the way they've looked after him since his parents died, but it's tough when all they seem to want to do is criticize him or send him away. When he gets stuck in their company one summer, he glumly anticipates months of misery.</span></span></div>
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Buy your copy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Eight-Days-Diana-Wynne-Jones-ebook/dp/B008LV8Z6Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446696319&sr=8-1&keywords=eight+days+of+luke">here</a>.</div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">That is, until he meets Luke. Or, if Luke is to be believed, until he released Luke from a magical snake-filled prison. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">At first, it seems like Luke, charming and fun as he might be, is just plain bonkers. However, David's skepticism is put to the test when he's able to summon his new friend with the flick of a match. Add to that Luke's ability to start fires and wither plants with a touch and maybe he's not so crazy, after all.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">But the trouble is, the folks who put Luke in prison aren't pleased by his escape. One by one, they show up to try to trick or force Luke's location out of David, with the most savvy participant in this battle of wills being a one-eyed gent who keeps company with a pair of ravens.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Ultimately, David will bargain with the one-eyed man to try to keep Luke safe, thereby embarking upon a quest that takes him through a bevy of Norse myths come to life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">EIGHT DAYS OF LUKE is a charming tale steeped in mythology, but offering a new and unique perspective on it. Between Diana Wynne Jones' capable prose and the likable main character, the pages flew by for me. Odd as he was, I also loved Luke, and at least one of David's relations turned out to be unexpectedly kind. If I had any quibble with this book, it's that I'd hoped for some clever twist or reveal as the pieces came together, a la HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, but alas, I knew my Norse mythology too well to be surprised by certain aspects of the plot. Still, even without any shocking twists or turns, this book is entertaining and well-written. I had fun trying to guess how each character and location fit into the Norse mythology motif. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it to any mythology buff looking for a fun read that still has some cleverness to it.</span></span></div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-471159081167335072015-10-02T22:58:00.001-04:002015-10-04T14:31:27.951-04:00I Wrote a Thing, and Now It's in a Book<div style="text-align: justify;">
It's been a long time since I've felt the peculiar mingling of joy and anxiety that comes from seeing my name in print. The first time, a small publisher picked up my two short stories, "A Dark Place Inside" and "Strong Spirits," to feature in a horror anthology. I remember being inordinately proud of these works, despite the latter being the product of a creative writing workshop assignment done around midnight the night before it was due. (I used to think that I worked best under the whip of sheer panic, but honestly, the results have been mixed.) Both stories revolved around blurring the line between the paranormal experiences and mental illness, revealing my profound fascination with the latter. I had to wonder what that said about me.</div>
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That was 12 years ago, and I had a lot of things try to distract me from writing since then. Post-graduation malaise, a teaching career, going back to school for my law degree, graduating from law school at that unfortunate moment that the economy went swirling down the crapper, becoming a litigator, leaving litigation behind to work for the state... Busy times, those. But never did I forget how much I'd loved seeing my name in print, and I never stopped yearning to share my stories with the world once more.</div>
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Now I've got a creepy, wistful, violent, and hopefully unexpectedly rewarding story published in ALIEN ABDUCTION, a science fiction and fantasy anthology put out by <a href="http://robotcowgirl.com/">Robot Cowgirl Press</a>. It follows the story of a fairy** who is lured out of her realm and harmed by an unscrupulous magician. Robbed of something vital in the encounter, she sets out to seek revenge. But is revenge all it's cracked up to be? You'll have to read "The Wicked Fairy" to find out. </div>
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I'm very pleased to have my work featured in this collection. I haven't read all of the other stories yet, but from what I have read, I'm in good company. Anyhow, I hope you'll give it a chance, dear readers. I talk so much about writing in my life, on my blog, and all around social media. Now you get to see proof that I've actually done some of it. I'm not all blog, you know. ;)</div>
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Peace out, homies.</div>
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Buy the Kindle version <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alien-Abduction-Collected-Short-Fiction-ebook/dp/B015UOJ1IC/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443839973&sr=1-3&keywords=alien+abduction">here</a>.</div>
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Buy the paperback version <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Alien-Abduction-fiction-themes-abduction/dp/0692502769/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1443840073&sr=1-9&keywords=alien+abduction&refinements=p_n_feature_browse-bin%3A2656022011">here</a>.</div>
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** You might wonder what a fairy's doing running around in an anthology called ALIEN ABDUCTION. The call for submissions encouraged potential contributors to play with the concepts of "alien" beings--be they the usual extraterrestrials, supernatural beings, or something else entirely-- and "abduction." Thus, the content of the anthology is not limited to the traditional science fiction stories of those who are kidnapped and probed. There's actually a pretty healthy mix between science fiction and fantasy, from what I've seen so far. </div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-8143241457282890622015-08-27T23:31:00.004-04:002015-08-27T23:31:51.425-04:00A Progress Report on My Reading of FOOL'S QUEST<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvh47ESIt3ZR_lecW2ZNr6aHIqcv3nyS_aA6QwSQriRl2QDV_4WMr9eOTpZ1lhKgZAY2PhTvHiNdPcmR4Eh8jr6SA4yj8SU6-wOZ9_hOnVA4Clr_w5yntiQny0yzPGOcekdcb3LuzIo3dE/s1600/51uC2%252BlnV6L._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvh47ESIt3ZR_lecW2ZNr6aHIqcv3nyS_aA6QwSQriRl2QDV_4WMr9eOTpZ1lhKgZAY2PhTvHiNdPcmR4Eh8jr6SA4yj8SU6-wOZ9_hOnVA4Clr_w5yntiQny0yzPGOcekdcb3LuzIo3dE/s320/51uC2%252BlnV6L._SX327_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">Click <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fools-Quest-Book-Fitz-trilogy/dp/0553392921/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440732333&sr=8-1&keywords=fool%27s+quest">here</a> to buy your copy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> I consider myself to be a slow reader. I have a tendency to linger, to reread the parts I like or the parts that I find rich with information, and I set aside my book periodically to mull over what I’ve read. So when I tell you that I’ve read 374 pages of FOOL’S QUEST by <a href="http://www.robinhobb.com/">Robin Hobb</a> in a week, believe me when I say that that means something. Because I don’t stop doing things the way I usually do them because I’m fascinated. I’ve still been rereading, going back to revisit the scenes I like, drinking them in like good wine. There was one particular part that I loved so much that I read it three times. And yet, I’m 374 pages deep. If you added in the number of pages I’ve reread, it’s probably something closer to 500. I have been reading this book in a fever, and that fever won’t break until I've finished.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: white;"> The other thing I am moved to say at this point is that as much as I’ve always loved this series and urged it upon anyone who would listen to me, I’ve always cautioned people that it’s not for the faint of heart. Fitz is one of those characters who just can’t catch a break, and it’s hard sometimes to watch how things play out for him. Then something happened in this book, and I no longer feel compelled to add the disclaimer. I get the sense that everything Fitz has been through is going to mean something in the end, and that it will all be worthwhile. Somehow, that one moment of euphoria-- well, it didn’t wipe away all the pain that came before it, but it gave the kind of joy that is all the more beautiful because it was earned through such pain. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"><span style="color: white;"> So without any caveats, I say to anyone who stumbles across this blog the same thing that I plan to say to all the fellow fantasy readers I encounter from here on out: read these books. Read them all, and read them more than once. They’re brilliantly written, the characters are rich and complex, and the world-building is amazing. Basically, if you’re not reading about FitzChivalry Farseer and you don’t plan to, then I simply cannot agree with your life choices.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> And yes, this is without even finishing this book, or the last book in this particular trilogy. Trust me. They’re just that good.</span></span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-57590778973906281782015-05-27T13:40:00.003-04:002015-07-28T16:56:10.097-04:00Dark Sansa Needs a Nightlight<div style="text-align: justify;">
I love <i>Game of Thrones</i>. I really do. It fills a fantasy-shaped hole in my heart (and TV viewing schedule) I scarcely knew existed before it came along. But it's because I love the show that I feel the need to point out what it could do better. So I'm weighing in, and I'm starting with the latest and most controversial move the show has made: the rape of Sansa Stark..</div>
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Now, before you start groaning and asking me, "Didn't you know this was a bleak show when you started watching?", let me point out that I don't object to rape being included in the plot. Craster's daughters were raped by their father and by the men of the Night's Watch, and while I did not find that pleasant, I accepted it because it made sense for the story they were trying to tell. But the problem with what happened to Sansa isn't so much that it's upsetting (though it is). The problem is that it's crappy writing.</div>
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Just as recently as the end of the last season, the show made a promise to us in the form of Sansa Stark sweeping down a staircase, looking like a Goth empress ready to enter the game and destroy the hearts of her enemies. It was a glorious transformation for the weak, wide-eyed girl from Winterfell who once thought being Joffrey's queen was the realization of all her fondest dreams. Having had those dreams ripped down around her ears via her father's execution and Joffrey's sadistic abuse, we finally saw her emerge from the ashes like an elegant, dark-clad phoenix. She made the decision to lie and protect Littlefinger, who she judged to be her best ally, and apprenticed herself to him to learn how to play the game. She showed agency and cleverness in this, as Littlefinger is one of the game's most astute players, and one uniquely susceptible to Sansa's charms based upon his fondness for her late mother.</div>
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When Sansa found out that Littlefinger had arranged for her to marry Ramsey Bolton, she was justifiably freaked out and confused, as was I. Why on earth would she want to marry the son of the man who killed her mother and brother? But when Littlefinger explained that it was a way for her to wreak revenge, I was somewhat mollified. Now, I supposed, we would finally see Dark Sansa in action. There was further support for this notion when Sansa was reminded by an old serving woman in Winterfell that "the North remembers," and that she had supporters. In my head, I began to have glorious visions of a Stark coup as our clever young lady played upon the anger and sympathy of the Stark loyalists to bring down the man who murdered her family. </div>
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Then Ramsey started torturing her emotionally at dinner, trotting out Theon and having him apologize for murdering her brothers before deciding that Theon would walk her down the aisle at her wedding. "Well," I thought, "this is just stoking the fire. It's just going to make her angrier and hungrier for revenge, to be reminded of what she lost and who she lost it to." But I felt a little dubious. I mean, things weren't looking good, and I still didn't see any signs of Sansa's grand plan taking shape. She had to have one, though, right? I mean, otherwise, why wouldn't she have just lit the damn candle that she knew could summon someone to help her? "No," I assured myself, "she's definitely building to something."</div>
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Then she married Ramsey and he raped her while Theon watched. And our next episode shows her curled up in the fetal position, under lock and key, forced to piteously implore Theon to light the candle because Ramsey's been raping and hurting her nightly.</div>
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And that's when my temper finally snapped. </div>
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Really? I mean, really? You're telling me that after all this Dark Sansa crap, all this apprenticeship to Littlefinger, and all these apparent decisions she's been making to land herself here, she's back to just wilting in a corner while she's abused by a sadist? Given that she's looking to be extricated from her situation via the candle, it's pretty clear that she doesn't have any long game here. Which basically begs the question of why she didn't light the f--king candle in the first place, back when she could move about freely and before she was cruelly deflowered? Why would she go through this when she didn't have to unless she had a plan? But how could she have had any kind of plan if she's just flailing helplessly to try and get the candle lit at this point?</div>
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So basically, Dark Sansa wrote a check that this story couldn't cash. Instead of signalling her rise to try her hand at the tricks and manipulations of the game, it was basically just a stopover on her round trip back to being Helpless Victim Sansa. Which I wouldn't have been half as angry about if they hadn't promised me more. </div>
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Ultimately, I need movements in a story to mean something. As my beta reader will tell me, I shouldn't write things into a novel that I don't plan on doing anything with, because it's a good way to build up reader expectations without any payoff AND waste precious space. And in a TV show with a hundred freaking characters, they really don't have the space to waste. So I devoutly hope that in the future, the show plans out narrative arcs for the character that follow a path that offers some form of payoff, instead of doing loop-de-loops in the plot parking lot until people get bored and annoyed and start wandering off. If you promise me a player, then you better let her play the damn game.</div>
<br />Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-67097751965794252172015-04-18T12:18:00.002-04:002015-07-28T16:56:46.991-04:00Review: Daredevil on Netflix<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Visit this <a href="http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80018294">link</a> for more information on the show.</div>
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I have resisted getting Netflix for ages, a move that has resulted in many of the people in my life questioning my life choices. However, as an avid comic book fan, I knew <i>Daredevil </i>would be my breaking point. At the very least, I had to at least get the one-month trial when the show was released and see if it lived up to my fangirl expectations.</div>
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Color me stunned. After devouring all 13 episodes in a 48-hour period, it took me a day of rest just to be able to speak about them intelligently. And here I am, still fumbling for words to explain just why this show rocked my world.</div>
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I guess the best way to explain what <i>Daredevil</i> does well is to explain all the pitfalls it neatly avoids. Even the best TV shows I watch of late suffer from at least two big problems: (1) uneven character development and (2) poor pacing. With the first problem, perhaps our main character is developed, but too many of the people around him/her are paper cutouts we’re supposed to care about, but don’t. There might be some thin, cliche attempts to make the antagonist have depth, as well, but they’re often just no good rotten scoundrels in a way that real people seldom are.</div>
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With the second problem, you see shows racing to throw out all their best moves upfront to keep people watching. They rush romances to their ultimate conclusion far too soon and then having to manufacture obstacles to keep them from devolving into uninteresting domestic bliss. The story is also in such a hurry to get somewhere that the writers neglect to build up coherent supporting details or allow for any emotional investment. Or, just as bad, the story plods along, meditating endlessly on things that don’t ultimately seem to matter to the story being told. Some shows seem to alternate between the rush and the plodding, leaving the viewer feeling vaguely seasick. It suggests a lack of focus and planning, and a fuzzy view of their endgame for the season and for the series, altogether.</div>
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On both these fronts, <i>Daredevil</i> owns the competition.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJorIzp6GBNlPgHNNbDqD12ugcuSaOJLtyUb_alyL4iW9YxOS1GYnv3Qx3nabzTzRW3blfk_2__LHldze7Ev6pU46BiK0N-gYzkH_VnBxXoRezgnxXKaTGK6Bc07tubOpAaJLzDJpy2Kni/s1600/Daredevil+Cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJorIzp6GBNlPgHNNbDqD12ugcuSaOJLtyUb_alyL4iW9YxOS1GYnv3Qx3nabzTzRW3blfk_2__LHldze7Ev6pU46BiK0N-gYzkH_VnBxXoRezgnxXKaTGK6Bc07tubOpAaJLzDJpy2Kni/s1600/Daredevil+Cast.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Cast image is found <a href="http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80018294">here</a>.</div>
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First of all, <i>Daredevil</i> handles character development like a boss. From Matt Murdock, our blind lawyer turned super-powered vigilante (portrayed by Charlie Cox), to his BFF, Foggy “Foggybear” Nelson (portrayed by Elden Henson), to criminal defendant turned secretary, Karen Page (portrayed by Deborah Ann Woll), everyone who walks across the screen in this show is given enough development to feel like a believable, relatable human being. And it’s not just these characters. Secondary characters like Ben Urich (portrayed by Vondie Curtis-Hall), our world-weary news reporter, and Elena Cardenas (portrayed by Judith Delgado), a beleaguered tenant in danger of being driven from her rent-controlled apartment, also get enough attention to make them interesting and beloved. To top it all off, the cast has amazing chemistry. Every time that Foggy and Karen are involved in hijinks, Matt and Foggy are bantering, or the three of them are coming together in a moment of solidarity, pure television magic happens.</div>
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As for developing the main character into someone worth following, this, too, is a serious home run for <i>Daredevil</i>. One of the things I particularly like about the show is that it does not shrink from showing how difficult the life that Matt Murdock lives would actually be. Often, we see superheroes getting thrown into walls and hopping up, ready to shake it off and get back into the fight. In <i>Daredevil</i>, Matt's heroics are utterly brutal, and often leave him beaten senseless and bleeding. He shows resilience, which is explained partially by his family legacy of Murdock men being able to absorb a beating like nobody's business (his dad being a boxer), but he still takes punishment to do what he does. This makes the fact that he runs out there, still stitched up and bruised from the night before, all the more heroic, but also shows that he's at least slightly unbalanced. He doesn't seem to care much for his personal well-being, so fixated on saving the city that he loves that nothing else matters. There is an obsession here that is both admirable and deeply unhealthy. The way the show depicts his backstory- explaining how he was blinded, his upbringing, and about how he lost his father- it all makes perfect sense. After seeing where he came from, you have to wonder if he could have turned out any other way.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRKfn9X8_rKZU_6TtzD_bqoRI39JOeqe5X2fYV6-MqD9QMwSvc2NvQe1HvZP938nWyNwaMn8LQBJPiHBDxpOQLO9Oq_tiIWtRoHu4iOEKUnReiVIOlAiGmmgFUitSplJAOad48xHb2CK5/s1600/Kingpen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIRKfn9X8_rKZU_6TtzD_bqoRI39JOeqe5X2fYV6-MqD9QMwSvc2NvQe1HvZP938nWyNwaMn8LQBJPiHBDxpOQLO9Oq_tiIWtRoHu4iOEKUnReiVIOlAiGmmgFUitSplJAOad48xHb2CK5/s1600/Kingpen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This image was found <a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/new-daredevil-still-offers-closer-look-at-kingpin">here</a>.</div>
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But it’s not just the protagonist types who get the star treatment around here. No, our big bad, Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. "the Kingpin" (expertly portrayed by Vincent D’Onofrio), also gets his time to shine. And boy, does he shine. A hulking menace with an almost nervous, quiet disposition at times, Fisk has own business, his own friends, and even his own love interest to see to. His world does not revolve around the actions of a single vigilante who is trying to interfere with his operations. More realistically, he often has bigger fish to fry as he busies himself with coordinating the factions of the organized crime in Hell’s Kitchen while envisioning himself as the neighborhood’s ultimate savior. He and his world are complex, and just as deserving as attention as Matt’s. It's only as the show progresses that these two forces begin to circle each other more closely.</div>
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And the plot unfolds just like a flower, one petal at a time, until there is an explosion of goodness all up in your peepers. There is no rush to get people hooked up. Foggy’s obviously digging on Karen. Karen isn’t necessarily on board with that, but seems to be in the throes of a possible schoolgirl crush in Matt's company. Matt, himself, has ridiculous chemistry with Claire (portrayed by Rosario Dawson), the nurse who patches him up after his extracurricular activities leave him worse for the wear. However, the show does not appear to be in a rush for anybody to start picking out china patterns, allowing sparks to grow and fizzle where they naturally may. Meanwhile, who is out there finding true love? Wilson Motherf--ing Fisk, that’s who.</div>
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Additionally, while the action is beautifully done and ever present, this is a show that isn’t afraid to spend most of one episode with two best friends having a terse conversation at a pivotal moment in their relationship. This may sound like boring stuff, watching two guys argue in a room with the occasional flashback, but I was hunched over on my couch, leaned in towards my TV with tears in my eyes, going, “Oh my God. Oh my God, what’s going to happen?” the entire time. The tension played out beautifully, and the subject of the conversation, alone, was enough to keep you riveted.</div>
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In sum? This is basically some of the best TV I've watched in a long time. It’s become one of the shows that I feel I have to preach like the gospel, right up there with <i>Game of Thrones</i> and (sometimes) <i>The Walking Dead</i>. I feel so passionately about the quality of what I've seen so far that I need other people to know, and I feel almost certain that everyone who takes me up on it will come back pleased. So even if you don’t take me up on any of my other recommendations, heed me on this: watch <i>Daredevil</i>. Trust me, you won’t be sorry.</div>
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<b>Further reading:</b><br />
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<a href="http://screenrant.com/daredevil-netflix-marvel-superhero-tv-movies/">Why Marvel's 'Daredevil' Netflix Series has Changed Shared Universe Franchising</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/the-daredevil-binge-blog">The "Daredevil" Binge-Blog</a><br />
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<a href="http://comicbook.com/2015/04/17/netflixs-daredevil-is-now-the-second-most-pirated-show-/">Netflix's Daredevil is Now the Second Most Pirated Show</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/daredevil/390294/">Daredevil: A Longform Approach to Comic-Book Television</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/article/jeph-loeb-talks-daredevil-marvel-studios-promises-its-all-connected">Jeph Loeb Talks "Daredevil," Marvel Studios, Promises "It's All Connected"</a><br />
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<br />Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-46289242704511063622015-02-02T21:48:00.001-05:002015-02-02T21:48:42.922-05:00Book Review: REAPER by Katrina Monroe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSp9eFn6I3xyDJD5d_RXwKFK9TM4LUjjBJp1OR_fUO6PxArKc-DJnyU-8kQsvFqKt5J8SN7-by5AHi9ACJsDk5gKelFKsB6oh9DRx3p7LNn5YIaBar_gcSmIFRh3TdPZ20sdH8uIM9Wot4/s1600/Reaper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSp9eFn6I3xyDJD5d_RXwKFK9TM4LUjjBJp1OR_fUO6PxArKc-DJnyU-8kQsvFqKt5J8SN7-by5AHi9ACJsDk5gKelFKsB6oh9DRx3p7LNn5YIaBar_gcSmIFRh3TdPZ20sdH8uIM9Wot4/s1600/Reaper.jpg" height="320" width="210" /></a></div>
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Click here to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reaper-Katrina-Monroe/dp/1612359752/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1422930449&sr=8-1">buy a copy</a>.</div>
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I'm pretty particular when it comes to what I read and what I don't. I like a fresh take on things, sure, but I like to tread certain familiar genre paths. I don't think I'm alone in that. People whose preferences tend toward detective novels might not be interested in, say, an old-school bodice-ripper, for instance. Personally, I like epic fantasy, chock full of forgotten kingdoms, magical powers, and strange, deadly beasts. Urban fantasy . . . not so much. I don't rule it out, because I never rule out an entire genre on principle, but it's generally not my cup of tea. I like to let my imagination bask in another world the way a sunbather catches rays, soaking it all in and forgetting the place I left behind. Epic fantasy does that for me. But it feels less like of an escape when the main character is driving a Honda and drinking Starbucks, so I tend to steer clear of urban fantasy. So believe me when I say that when I get hooked on a urban fantasy novel, that really means something.</div>
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Enter Katrina Monroe's novel, REAPER, the urban fantasy tale of wannabe writer, Oz, whose untimely death launches his real career as a collector of souls. There is an awkward middling stage-- isn't there always?-- in which he's forced to spend his time in a sort of writer's purgatory, writing ironic deaths. Then a lottery win plunges him into his existence as a reaper, lurking invisibly among the living and learning the ropes of soul-gathering from his grizzled, foul-mouthed mentor, Bard.</div>
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If I had to pinpoint what really drew me into this story in a subgenre that usually has me tiptoeing in like a swimmer into cold water, I'd probably identify three big strengths: (1) solid writing, (2) good world-building, and (3) relatable characters. When you've got these three things going for you, it doesn't matter what genre you're writing in. You're gonna suck people in. And Ms. Monroe has got all three.</div>
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I'll admit, I stumbled in the beginning of the book, thinking "oh God, oh God, there are going to be cars and blenders and shit in this story." Then the excellent use of language caught my eye and sent it gliding like scissors cruising through a sheet of wrapping paper. Of Oz's mother, we're told that, "Her sighs and groans were like their own language, known only to Oz," and that she "was the kind of woman who'd win a gold metal in the Guilt Olympics." With regard to Oz's father, we learn that "[t]he man saw [his] house as his own private fiefdom, and the vacating neighbors only strengthened his claim on the land." In those few phrases, I got where Oz was coming from, and a little bit of why he turned out the way he did. Later, the click of typewriter keys in an office is described as a "syncopated tapping like the hum of worker bees," something that starts to hit Oz's ear-- and mine-- like music. There's also a paragraph about a calender featuring a tabby kitten "frozen in mid yarn ball" that's fabulous in ways I'll leave you to discover for yourself. But the words, they are good. And I know good words.</div>
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The other thing that riveted me about this book was the world-building. I'm a writer, myself, and I know how tricky it is to weave in the details of a magical system or a mythology without having a character just sit around and monologue excessively. However, in seamless little snippets, Ms. Monroe paints a picture of the lonely, surreal world Oz inhabits after his death. And it is a rich, unusual place, from the means that the reapers use to send souls on to the afterlife to the hidden perils that stalk them while they work. The hidden world that Ms. Monroe superimposed upon the familiar was so intriguing that I couldn't bring myself to mind that little aftertaste of reality. There was still a feeling of escape, of new and unusual discoveries the turn of every page. And that satisfied even the most car-phobic, epic fantasy reader parts of my brain.</div>
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Then, of course, there's Oz. It's beyond important to have a main character that people either really like or hate in a fascinated sort of way. Oz delivers on the former quite well. I related strongly to his earnest attempts to seek authenticity in his writing, which resulted in the occasional silly experiment. Say, for instance, slamming a car door experimentally to try and hear the sound of finality in it, as he'd written in his novel, and being rewarded with the sound of his car door breaking. Been there. Maybe not exactly there, but I'm somewhere around the corner, absent-mindedly breaking shit while I plot. </div>
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Oz did make some bad decisions across the pages and there are times when I liked him less for them, but there were moments where he won me over strongly enough that I figured we could weather any storm. The first such moment happened when he was walking along with Bard during his initial jaunt into the real world and Bard catches him making ridiculous faces in the reflection of a shop window. He's died, been to purgatory, and come back as a grim reaper, and this is where his natural urges take him. That's my kinda guy.<br />
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Ultimately, REAPER is not without its flaws. I don't think I've read any book that doesn't have at least one thing I could pick at, if I was in the mood for picking. But all in all, it was an entertaining read that kept my attention, and it delivered an especially solid ending, which is my personal benchmark for a book worth recommending. After all, there's nothing more disheartening than trekking across the pages with a group of characters and then arriving at the end feeling wildly unfulfilled. In my humble opinion, a good ending can make or break a book, and this one really shines. So I recommend you click the link above and get your hands on a copy today.</div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-18714835447892820382014-11-29T11:48:00.001-05:002015-07-28T16:57:26.074-04:00Book Review: Jackaroo by Cynthia Voigt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWxT_Svcw7PngpVasrLNnKJclmDkalXVe40tE8LqrkVCeoNQsVObLonNX_d8our0XbX6A5iBwsOEYxnH0gqHZQbH2so73htoK_0Pmf8gcR6rIb-c0FptkacWNOovAZ9RP1UbMr-EBQhLv/s1600/jackaroo+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXWxT_Svcw7PngpVasrLNnKJclmDkalXVe40tE8LqrkVCeoNQsVObLonNX_d8our0XbX6A5iBwsOEYxnH0gqHZQbH2so73htoK_0Pmf8gcR6rIb-c0FptkacWNOovAZ9RP1UbMr-EBQhLv/s1600/jackaroo+(1).jpg" width="190" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Order a copy of <i>Jackaroo</i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jackaroo-Novel-Kingdom-Cynthia-Voigt/dp/0689864353">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image was originally found <a href="http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcherstinieveen.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F02%2Fjackaroo.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcherstinieveen.com%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2Fbook-review-jackaroo-by-cynthia-voigt%2F&h=475&w=283&tbnid=PeCLDjQI5gVl4M%3A&zoom=1&docid=Qq6XVCGpzG05PM&ei=nfZ5VI3NIYSDNqmdgMAE&tbm=isch&ved=0CBwQMygAMAA&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=635&page=1&start=0&ndsp=43">here</a>.</span></div>
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Long long ago in a galaxy far away (actually, in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, circa 1991 or 1992), my best friend's mother read us to sleep with a book called <i>On the Wings of a Falcon</i> by Cynthia Voigt. Although it shredded my baby feels into confetti, I developed an unreasonable fondness for that book. Later, as an adult, I remembered it with nostalgia and tracked down a hard copy for my library.</div>
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It was only in reading the back of the book that I realized it was number three in a series. My heart went pitter pat with delight. I had just gone through a Patricia McKillip binge and I needed a new author to read. As much as I love McKillip's ornate, poetic prose and her worlds that brim with magic, I felt the need for something a bit more grounded. If <i>On the Wings of a Falcon</i> was any indication, Cynthia Voigt would be just what the doctor ordered. </div>
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Of course, because this is me we're talking about, I got distracted by something shiny and forgot about it for a while. Weeks later, it hit me in an avalanche of renewed joy when I was lying on my couch, suffering through the vagaries of cable TV. I turned off the TV and I downloaded book one, <i>Jackaroo</i>, onto my ipad.</div>
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The rest, my friends, is history. As in, these books have the feel of actual history, a time and a place that could actually happen. Instead of elves, fairies, orcs, and goblins (which definitely have their place), Cynthia Voigt's Kingdom is filled with hardworking people in a medieval society who live under the thumbs of the Lords, their lives filled with toil and difficulty, but softened by family and friendship. In this way, and so many others, the characters come across as real, relatable people whose problems don't feel so far removed from our own. And the best example of this principle is in the main character, Gwyn,</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89z4s-8r0Ds_JDeaOq2Q8C6szGDXHWCZXQR-syyG4_R6hxoBZVHGCPZlR16-kfY7kX3FWt_cF-xPYcU6fOQgN_pn1L2rW4-wCpxh_Q9vrZcdHyQ1dwHpSx21kpyEWHTJxRJ9PhbgW8xMA/s1600/1082537.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89z4s-8r0Ds_JDeaOq2Q8C6szGDXHWCZXQR-syyG4_R6hxoBZVHGCPZlR16-kfY7kX3FWt_cF-xPYcU6fOQgN_pn1L2rW4-wCpxh_Q9vrZcdHyQ1dwHpSx21kpyEWHTJxRJ9PhbgW8xMA/s1600/1082537.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">One of the original covers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image was found <a href="http://heretherebebooks.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/1082537.jpg">here</a>.</span></div>
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Gwyn is the Innkeeper's daughter, and as such occupies a place of relative privilege when compared to the other common people. Times are hard because of a war going on in the south, but the inn's custom always thrives. While others may go without, Gwyn wears good sturdy clothes, always has enough to eat, and her father has the coin to give her a good dowry. </div>
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But this does not mean, as some of her envious neighbors might think, that her life is a bed of roses. For one thing, Gwyn's life is filled with toil, and she is a good, strong, steady worker who is still not valued as much as her bratty younger brother, Tad, the Innkeeper's sole surviving son. Furthermore, she's at a crossroads in her life where she must make a difficult decision. The custom among the people is that when a girl comes of age, she must either announce that she is interested in marriage or declare she'll never marry. If she announces the intention of marriage and no one speaks for her in a set amount of time, she still ends up forever single, owing her labor to whichever male relative inherits her father's holdings. The same results follow from announcing her intention that she'll never marry. If a man speaks for her and she says yes, then it's to her husband's house that she goes, and adds her labors to his. </div>
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Gwyn, unfortunately, has her heart set on a man who hates her father. Out of spite, he'll never ask for her. She doesn't want anyone else, so she's decided that she'll never marry. However, the marvelous thing about this book is even though the story does touch upon the fears of a woman who knows that if she doesn't marry, she'll be looked upon a certain way by society, and she'll have no one to support her as she ages, this is not the sum total of the story. It is not about whether or not Gwyn will have a man in her life, it's about the use she decides to put her life to instead.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXcflynMuNURfze022mg7oYLweUJbZ5qYsSALN-KrCFUgK7G60w8hoaKk8YMjRNABbx236cPZUlUatNuj8dgZVaXWfNHh3e3BB0fCs56Nr3Y8Qiv__uRQtt4edRiAbVxhk73aOiGoySUa/s1600/jackaroo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXcflynMuNURfze022mg7oYLweUJbZ5qYsSALN-KrCFUgK7G60w8hoaKk8YMjRNABbx236cPZUlUatNuj8dgZVaXWfNHh3e3BB0fCs56Nr3Y8Qiv__uRQtt4edRiAbVxhk73aOiGoySUa/s1600/jackaroo.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Another cover.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image was found <a href="https://nataliejoan.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/jackaroo.jpg">here</a>.</span></div>
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In this story, Gwyn sees the injustice that other people ignore and aches to do something about it. She is inspired by the legend of the Jackaroo, a daring highwayman who robs from the tax collector and gives to the poor, who saves innocent men from the noose, and punishes the greedy and corrupt. And when certain events make her realize how poorly she belongs in the neat little world that she's inhabited her whole life, she begins to look for ways to follow the Jackaroo's example and fight for those in need.</div>
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This is not your typical fantasy novel, brimming with magic and curses and fantastic creatures, but Cynthia Voigt's world-building has such depth and detail that the Kingdom still captures the imagination. There is something rich and compelling even in the quiet scenes of life at the inn, showing Gwyn at her tasks or interacting with her family and the Innkeeper's servant, Burl, that one doesn't pine after the clash of swords or the twinkle of fairy dust. It is a quiet story with moments of action and peril instead of an emphasis on breakneck pacing, a thoughtful story with excellent character development, and ultimately, it's a very satisfying story. </div>
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There is something hypnotic about Cynthia Voigt's writing. She isn't the dreamy, poetic writer that McKillip is, for instance, but there is a strong, steady craftsmanship in her words, and they are embroidered with just the right amount of beautiful imagery. They lead you inexorably from one plot point to the next, leaving you unable to look away, until the book is done. It is why I, who usually linger and mull over a book, strolling through the pages and sopping up every last word, was done with this book in two weeks, then promptly reread the ending over again to enjoy it a second time. I was done with the second book even more quickly, and I have plans to go back and reread the last half. I fell under the spell of the world, characters, and the strong writing, and I couldn't stop turning pages once I started. Further, although they can be read separately and they stand alone as distinct stories (with subtle connective tissue between the books, nonetheless), Voigt's Kingdom books are addictive, like potato chips: you can't read just one. </div>
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All in all, I think this book excels at so many things, but it's the stunningly detailed and relatable main characters that really sell it for me. I loved Gwyn, how she was clever and knew her own mind, but never went into that perilous, over-the-top shrew extreme that sometimes gets mistaken for strength. She was competent and capable and brave and compassionate, but she was also headstrong and apt to make impulsive decisions. She wasn't always kind to her brother or the quiet and somewhat mysterious Burl, but never for even the smallest of moments was she unlikable. So I'd highly recommend that you pick up your own copy and spend some time with Gwyn in Voigt's Kingdom today!</div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-59611516215457743822014-09-05T23:07:00.003-04:002015-07-28T16:58:34.860-04:00A Few of My Favorite (Literary) ThingsAll right, I recently got tagged in one of those Facebook games where you're supposed to list 18 books that had an impact on your life. And of course I cheated and listed entire series for some, because I have too many favorite books to be tied down to a mere 18. #StickingItToTheMan! Anyhow, because this is a pretty comprehensive list of my very favorite books in the whole world and I hope to entice others into exploring these literary gems further, I thought I would post my list here for all to see. So here it is, in no particular order.<br />
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Image: "<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/The-Lion-the-Witch-and-the-Wardrobe-364873902">The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</a>"</div>
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by TriaElf9<br />
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1. <i>The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i> by C. S. Lewis<br />
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The first fantasy novel I ever read, it was my first step down a path leading to a lifelong passion for the genre. My love for this book is what made me start writing my own stories. In case you're not familiar with the story, it's about four children sent to live with a professor in the country during the London air raids of World War II. There, the youngest stumbles upon a magical wardrobe connected to a winter-bound world and sucks her siblings into a quest to help the talking animals of Narnia defeat the White Queen. Influences from the fairy tale, the Snow Queen, and from Lewis' own Christian faith abound.</div>
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Image: "<a href="http://www.deviantart.com/art/A-Spell-For-Chameleon-131671824">A Spell for Chameleon</a>" by BrokenApollo</div>
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2. <i>A Spell for Chameleon</i> by Piers Anthony<br />
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Piers Anthony was the guy who showed me that fantasy didn’t have to be all “throw the ring in the fiery mountain lest we all be doomed.” It reminded me that there can be fun in the genre, that characters can fight evil and there can still be laughter and nonsense. Besides, who doesn't love a good pun, especially a magical world filled with puns that just happens to be shaped like Florida?</div>
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3. <i>Child of the Northern Spring</i> by Persia Woolley<br />
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My childhood best friend's mom read this book to us one night while I was spending the night at their house. I think this is where I learned to love Arthurian legends, and I haven’t stopped hunting down good retellings since. Woolley's version of Guinevere is about the only version of the character I've been able to stand. She is a living, breathing, flawed character who I root for in spite of knowing her ultimate fate.</div>
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4. <i>The Crystal Cave</i> by Mary Stewart (and all the ensuing books in that series)<br />
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Luckily, after <i>Child of the Northern Spring</i> created my thirst for Arthurian legends, I found stellar books like this to slake it. This historical, yet still legendary series is part of the reason that I love Merlin so. In Stewart's books, he's not just a wise old sage. You watch him grow from a shy child to an old man, and he feels like a real person. What's more, the likes of Arthur, Uther, Ygraine, and the gang come to life on these pages more so than in any other retelling I'd seen in ages by the time I discovered this series. I reread these books until they almost fell apart.</div>
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5. <i>Merlin’s Harp</i> by Anne Eliot Crompton<br />
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Another brilliant Arthurian legend that puts a relatable gloss on the story without losing its legendary feel. This is one of the most original takes on Mordred’s role in the story and on the Lady of the Lake's identity. The seamless way Crompton wove the pieces of the legend into a framework of her own creating is one of the many reasons I used to reread this book on a yearly basis. Add in her mastery of the language and it's a book I never hesitate to recommend.</div>
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6. The <i>A Man of His Word</i> series and the sequel series, <i>A Handful of Men</i>, by Dave Duncan<br />
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I had been writing my own stories for years by the time I read these books, and they influenced me heavily. I was awed both by Duncan’s brilliant imagination, which created one of the most interesting worlds and magical systems I've ever read about, and by his ability to juggle dozens of plot threads and then handily tie them all up at the end in a way that felt right and natural. And seldom have I been as engaged by any set of characters as I was by his. I still love Rap beyond speaking to this day. Notably, Rap was one of the first fantasy heroes I'd ever read about who wasn't described as ridiculously good-looking, too, and was, in fact, a bit on the unattractive side.</div>
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7. <i>Deerskin</i> by Robin McKinley<br />
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There are a lot of worthwhile McKinley books to seek out, but this one stands out to me as the best of them all. It takes a shallow French fairy tale that makes light of a father’s interest in marrying his daughter (insert this face here: O_o) and gives that plot weight and consequence. It takes the wronged princess on a journey from victim to survivor that was meaningful and moving using language so beautiful it's worth reading just for the effortless descriptions, alone. I have never been so torn apart by a fairy tale retelling, only to be put back together into a better version of myself. Every time I put the book down, smiling through my tears, I immediately want to go through it all again.</div>
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"Royal Assassin" by <a href="http://albinonial.deviantart.com/">AlbinoNial</a></div>
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8. <i>The Farseer Trilogy</i> by Robin Hobb<br />
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These books came along when I was getting bored by the fact that every fantasy hero seemed like a noble, studly piece of beefcake with wicked fighting skills and a flawless mind. People who never do the wrong thing are kind of hard to relate to. Then Fitz came walking into my literary life. Fitz may be a good-looking sort, but he is far from perfect. Leaving aside that he’s the bastard son of a disgraced prince and ends up becoming a royal assassin, he’s a mess of a human being. His intentions are generally good, but he often acts selfishly or impulsively and makes his situation worse. Which is actually infinitely more interesting to read about than a bunch of perfect people who don't know the meaning of the word "mistake." The world Hobbs created in these books is one of the most well-developed and fascinating ones I've ever seen and her writing is beautiful.</div>
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9. <i>The Enchanted Forest Chronicles</i> by Patricia C. Wrede<br />
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These books also came along to save me when I was getting bored with the same old tropes and Super Serious Plots. They were also a ray of light in a world that seemed crammed with people trying to write spunky heroines who ended up coming across as annoying or overbearing. Cimorene was my ideal heroine: smart, capable, tired of being underestimated, but never beating you over the head with a sign saying, “I am woman, hear me roar.” The books were charming and light, but with just weight enough to be satisfying. One of the first novels I ever wrote that I was proud of when it was finished, <i>The Humble Abode</i>, was heavily influenced by these books.</div>
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10. <i>Neverwhere</i> by Neil Gaiman<br />
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I didn’t discover that Neil Gaiman until I was in my early twenties. I don’t know where his books had been all my life before that, but clearly, I had been missing out. And though I love just about everything he's ever written, this is, by far, my favorite of his books. It’s so dark and rich and inventive, and Croup and Vandermar are my absolute favorite literary villains. I could've stayed in London Below forever, even if it slightly terrified me.</div>
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"<a href="http://dreoilin.deviantart.com/art/The-Red-Bull-272411040">The Red Bull</a>" by Dreoilin</div>
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11. <i>The Last Unicorn</i> by Peter S. Beagle<br />
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Though I had known and loved the movie since I was a child, I was skeptical about reading the book. Growing up in a My Little Pony world had convinced me that unicorns were silly and girly. But Peter Beagle’s unicorn is not a My Little Pony unicorn. There’s magic and majesty and tragedy about this creature, mixed with a charming vanity and vulnerability that make her relatable. And Beagle's use of the language is some of the most gorgeous, imaginative, poetic writing I’ve seen. Not to mention the fact that the love story twists up my feels in the most glorious way. This book reminded me of why I wanted to be a writer at a time when I was wondering if it was all worth it. If there's a shot in Hell that I'll ever write anything as half as good as this, it mostly certainly is.<br />
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(Read my full review of this book <a href="http://nerdgirl98.blogspot.com/2013/04/book-review-last-unicorn.html">here</a>. Also, check out my <a href="http://nerdgirl98.blogspot.com/2013/07/tamsin-book-review.html">review</a> on <i>Tamsin</i>, which is my second favorite Beagle book!)</div>
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12. <i>Ombria in Shadow</i> by Patricia McKillip<br />
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I’m gonna be honest: I did not like the way this book ends. And you know what? I don't even care a little bit, because it was the first McKillip book I’d read and it was so gorgeously written I’d have forgiven her if she’d just stopped writing halfway through. Within 6 pages, I was so heavily invested in the characters that I couldn’t look away. I’ve read whole books and not cared that much! Domina Pearl has also joined Croup and Vandemar in my villainous hall of fame, a sort of old lady Darth Vader to their pair of well-spoken brutes. And I swooned harder over a romance that was only mentioned in flashbacks in this book than I have about detailed romantic plots in other books. The world McKillip created here was absolutely fascinating, and there are too many characters that I loved to describe them all briefly. (I wrote a full review on this book, and you can read it <a href="http://nerdgirl98.blogspot.com/2013/07/book-review-ombria-in-shadow.html">here</a>.)</div>
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Original image found <a href="http://www.savannahjfoley.com/?p=430">here</a>.</div>
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13. <i>In the Forests of Serre</i> by Patricia McKillip<br />
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Yeah, I put her on here twice. And it’s not the last time, either. This book showed how cleverly one can take folklore and twist and combine different stories to make something utterly and gloriously unique. With Baba Yaga and her chicken-legged hut in one corner and the enigmatic and beautiful firebird in the other, one hardly knows what to gawk at first as one wanders across the pages of this book.<br />
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And Ronan. Oh Ronan. I have such a huge literary crush on tragic Prince Ronan, who went off to war in the hopes that he’d perish because he couldn’t live with the loss of his wife and child. McKillip takes him through a beautifully written physical and emotional journey through the forests of his kingdom and the haze his grief and brings him out of the other side. </div>
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14. <i>The Changeling Sea</i> by Patricia McKillip<br />
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I could go on and on about Patricia McKillip. Stylistically, she’s probably one of the best writers I’ve ever encountered, and I have trouble finding anything I like half as much now that I’ve found her. This book is McKillip at her best. It’s short and romantic and tragic, yet so beautifully written that I’m glad to take the shots to the feels. And Peri is one of McKillip’s most relatable heroines. I loved her, I rooted for her, and I found her irresistably charming.</div>
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15. <i>The Tower at Stony Wood</i> by Patricia McKillip<br />
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You know, I thought I could keep it to the three, but this book just knocked my socks off, too. The interplay of the various legends was incredible, especially the way she used the selkie legends. You also get a dashing knight worth throwing hankies at, a dragon to make other literary dragons tremble in terror and awe, and more of her unbelievably beautiful words. But lest ye think a tale of dragons and knights means there’s nothing an ordinary person can relate to, you get characters like Melanthos, who is an everywoman type with a goodly dose of spunk. (Also, her boyfriend sounds dishy and sweet.) Plus, you have concepts like loyalty and brotherly love woven throughout, which we can all relate to.</div>
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"Burning Heart" by <a href="http://mariposa-nocturna.deviantart.com/">Maripose-Nocturna</a>.</div>
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16. <i>Howl’s Moving Castle</i> by Diana Wynne Jones<br />
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I saw the movie before I read the book, and that worked out well for me. Watching the movie first helped me enjoy it without punishing it for not being quite as clever as the book. Then I read the book, and it was captivating, a fairy tale with a lot of clever twists and a very relatable main character. And yes, Howl is one of my literary boyfriends. Cowardly though he may be at times, I’d live in his moving castle any day!</div>
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17. <i>Good Omens</i> by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman<br />
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I don’t even know how to explain this book. Its wacky patter, the hilarious plot involving the antichrist being misplaced at birth (along with the resulting the identity crisis of his Hell hound), and the captivating characters (angelic, demonic, and human) make this one of the best pieces of brain candy I’ve ever savored.</div>
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18. <i>The Hero and the Crown</i> by Robin McKinley<br />
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Deerskin may be my favorite McKinley book, but this book is nipping at its heels. It’s another great example of a heroine who is strong and compelling without being obnoxious. And despite the fact that the main character, Aerin, is not only a princess but a dragon slayer, she is STILL one of the most relatable heroines I've ever read about. The mechanism by which she fights dragons actually makes it believable that a princess is able to kick some reptilian bum, and the romance involved, while secondary to her heroic journey, is utterly swoonworthy.</div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-26847947846716844222014-06-21T13:39:00.000-04:002014-06-23T12:11:50.999-04:00Nerdgirl State of the Union Address<div style="text-align: justify;">
I like that blog title. Makes me sound all presidential and junk. Not like someone who almost lost a toenail tripping over a pile of shoes yesterday. Ah, gravity and my own messiness: trying to kill me since 1985. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image was found at this <a href="http://joyreactor.com/post/647150">site</a>.</span></div>
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So, I haven't posted recently. I have been reading a lot, I've simply been too lazy to review things as they come up. However, I am excited to report that I have recently discovered the magical world of comic books, so that's claimed a lot of my attention lately. Now, they're not wholly unfamiliar to me. When I was a kid, I did whatever my brother did because my brother was wicked cool, so I read comics because he read comics. In particular, I remember digging Spider-Man, Daredevil, and X-men. I also branched out into some Cloak and Dagger at some point, but I actually remember nothing about those comics other than the fact that I liked them.</div>
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Getting back into comics has been overwhelming, if enjoyable. I simply don't remember how they work. It reminds me of my frustration with Greek mythology and Arthurian legends when I was younger and more naive. I wanted there to be a RIGHT version of these stories, the accepted version. I'd still read the variations, I just wanted to know which one was more legitimate than the others. I have no idea why. I guess I crave canon in all things, perhaps to create order from the chaos that comes of stories being retold in a thousand different ways. But the truth of the matter is, in some things, like myths and legends, canon is hard to come by. You might find repeating themes, common characteristics, and recurring plot developments, but when something springs up from a largely oral tradition, that shit is gonna vary. Every teller wants to add a flourish, which is why we end up with fairy tales like <a href="http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/asbjornsenmoe/threeprincesseswhiteland.html">this</a> that just go on with the "and then this happened... and this happened..." until you have enough material for three fairy tales. People who swapped stories back in the day did NOT understand the notion of a <a href="http://nerdgirl98.blogspot.com/2013/09/writing-tip-beware-of-saggy-hats.html">sagging plot hat</a>.</div>
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Comic books... aren't that different. I was immediately confused, coming into the comic realm, as to where I'm supposed to begin reading about any particular character. Some of them had recent reboots, like She-Hulk or Nightcrawler, so that made it simple. I just hopped onto those trains as they left the station. But then I read "Night of the Living Deadpool" and fell head over heels for the merc with the mouth. I ran to my Marvel app for more, and... and... I have too many options. *sits down in the corner and cries.*</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSQqwgEGB_Yo4qooGFElN4JLMLZ-QU3jmMefDY_GXrnl8-KMOLHe9RbAEzG3gZv31auVnEHyLA_Lw_yfHtBt-CCZSWYepl7obPPcA3V88rekgd_wUrcaI0AUYFzb7Pe_ZS1leEd0cJM0R/s1600/4936db58-8062-40eb-bb6e-cdc9101cf074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSQqwgEGB_Yo4qooGFElN4JLMLZ-QU3jmMefDY_GXrnl8-KMOLHe9RbAEzG3gZv31auVnEHyLA_Lw_yfHtBt-CCZSWYepl7obPPcA3V88rekgd_wUrcaI0AUYFzb7Pe_ZS1leEd0cJM0R/s1600/4936db58-8062-40eb-bb6e-cdc9101cf074.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image was found on this <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-need-an-adult/photos">site</a>.</span></div>
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Deadpool has had so many runs and miniseries and teamups that I have no idea where to begin. It's like coming to a place in a trail that branches off in nine directions, with a sign next to each branch that says, "go this way." It's okay, though, I'm working on figuring it out. I suspect Deadpool's humor translates well without a lot of background knowledge, so I really just need to decide where I want to jump in. I have a similar issue with Dr. Strange, who seems to have quite a lengthy history, but I love him enough to figure it out. His backstory fascinates me and he seems like an intriguing character. Plus, I hear he's getting a <a href="http://io9.com/marvel-wants-jon-spaihts-to-write-doctor-strange-1593047140">movie</a>.</div>
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What helped me to get hooked on comics initially without being overwhelmed by all the iterations of the stories was that I began my foray into comics by choosing two series that have one linear storyline to follow: Sandman and Fables. While I know Fables has a few spinoffs and Sandman seems to have some bonus stories, it's pretty easy to find and follow the main thread. I've only read volume one of Sandman so far, but I did enjoy it. The stories got a bit gruesome, but not enough to deter me, so I've ordered volume two. As to Fables, I made it up to volume 10 and stalled. Volumes 1-5 were solid, with <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fables-Vol-Wooden-Soldiers-Graphic/dp/1401202225">volume 4</a> being one of the best things I've read. Then my <a href="http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/shipping">ship</a> started floundering in a weird way and my favorite powerful, independent female character got turned into Donna Reed, so I threw my hands up in the air. I don't think I'm done with the series, but I need a break to think about things. Hopefully, this doesn't turn into the <a href="http://nerdgirl98.blogspot.com/2011/12/handcuffs-tigers-rusted-knives-and-yeah.html">pre-breakup timeout</a> I took with "Castle" years ago... </div>
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In any case, I've found this article, "<a href="http://www.themarysue.com/how-to-buy-comics-a-beginners-guide/">How to Buy Comics: A Beginner's Guide</a>," to be helpful as I traverse this new territory. It also certainly doesn't hurt that the two comic book stores I tend to frequent, the <a href="http://www.bookshelf-tally.com/">Book Shelf</a> in Tallahassee and <a href="http://superheroinchq.com/">Superhero Beach</a> in Jacksonville, are magnificent places where newbs are welcomed and the staff is friendly and helpful. I heart the Book Shelf in particular, not only for the long conversations and helpful hints I've gotten from the owner, but for the fact that it is filled to brimming with rooms of used books. Even as I feel overwhelmed by my newbness, wading into a sea of comic books, the mountains of books across the room feel like a life preserver.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmN2kFNxbv-vHiOoOCuChHi0YhVo5BBwAPo78u_gcHfuUIseUYw4DllQZ_w6_WCk8OMCqVjXVfYvvQauJdWArYpxeP4Hi_9xnIb0RIxgcHIRMuyrvzuCDXuNvPUz86r89y-KSBUNYxD8s/s1600/2661f5f35f8f0f9af24f813a770f6c46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSmN2kFNxbv-vHiOoOCuChHi0YhVo5BBwAPo78u_gcHfuUIseUYw4DllQZ_w6_WCk8OMCqVjXVfYvvQauJdWArYpxeP4Hi_9xnIb0RIxgcHIRMuyrvzuCDXuNvPUz86r89y-KSBUNYxD8s/s1600/2661f5f35f8f0f9af24f813a770f6c46.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image originally pinned <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/198017714840234774/">here</a>.</span></div>
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Of course, I haven't been just reading comics these days. I also read Neil Gaiman's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/662482556">The Ocean at the End of the Lane</a></i>, which was quite good, and I've been rereading Robin McKinley's <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/645644046">Deerskin</a></i>, albeit very slowly. Now, I say slowly because I used to reread <i>Deerskin</i> on a yearly basis, and it always tore me apart. I'd weep and snuffle through the pages, wanting to rescue the main character from her hardships, and then promptly smile and sigh and want to do it all over again. Now that I'm about 200 pages deep into my reread, I'm hitting some seriously heart-wrenching moments, so I've developed the habit of reading for a while and then stopping to feel all of the feelings. However, please don't think that this talk of weeping and being torn apart means that you should avoid this book. You should only avoid this book if you want to be deprived of the beauty of an exquisitely written and emotional fairy tale retelling that brings both mysticism and relatability to the old French yarn, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkeyskin">Donkeyskin</a>. So, you know, it's your life, if you want to do it wrong, I'm not going to judge you. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunsnGbmk0nygedyZhcWL9L3eKVGykgrYLaQ2KTqyytCCv5AbjtQ6iIEMM2pZc20cy1gd9uHzJZJGNj7gQvguyqLNxVxXKCGvHtmgF-4W0mkJxdrJXum6Ls7wfLlLAE7h3SvbGAIZrR0YJ/s1600/love+and+tolerate+the+shit+outta+you.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunsnGbmk0nygedyZhcWL9L3eKVGykgrYLaQ2KTqyytCCv5AbjtQ6iIEMM2pZc20cy1gd9uHzJZJGNj7gQvguyqLNxVxXKCGvHtmgF-4W0mkJxdrJXum6Ls7wfLlLAE7h3SvbGAIZrR0YJ/s1600/love+and+tolerate+the+shit+outta+you.png" height="261" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image found on this <a href="http://neverknowsbest-blograptor.blogspot.com/2012/01/friendship-is-awesomein-defense-of-my.html">site</a>.</span></div>
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I've also been writing, of course, because that's what I do. [1] I finished my novel, <i>Ash</i>, a while back, and I'm querying it. I also wrote several short stories that I've been shopping around. I've gotten three rejections so far on the short story front, with the jury still being out on two others, but at least one rejection actually turned out to be a positive development. One of my stories, "The Turning," had been bothering me. I felt like I had a cool setup, but maybe not enough of a "so what?" in the end. Sitting there, staring at the rejection in my inbox, I suddenly knew what the answer to the "so what?" was. It all clicked into place like some kind of magnificent Lego castle, and I could've hugged the editor who rejected me for giving me the kick in the pants I needed to think it through properly. So I put my nose to the grindstone to rework the ending. </div>
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It was tough going for a while. I kept thinking, "Well, I was in a very specific mood when I wrote this beginning, and it's very dreamy. I'm not there anymore, so I'm afraid if I mess with it now, the tone will be inconsistent. I should wait to be in the right mood again." Then I read this blog post on "<a href="http://pcwrede.com/not-writing/">Not-Writing</a>" by Patricia C. Wrede, which explains the difference between true writer's block and just plain not writing, and it hit me kinda like this: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAqSeYKiRDwmTp7DK8NXGUM_ObnlrgpuTfwaUmWd4pO7jWBAarjGuD045lcxGX9_CnA99738UmqiXOsY6fifbhyphenhyphenHpT-DL5OtAX2yTkknh4LIwV0gkgaJpZinuIZAUjvjtQAn0W05Tbnvv/s1600/d3c33a9d4ae94c5356cf9d5df1f00808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAqSeYKiRDwmTp7DK8NXGUM_ObnlrgpuTfwaUmWd4pO7jWBAarjGuD045lcxGX9_CnA99738UmqiXOsY6fifbhyphenhyphenHpT-DL5OtAX2yTkknh4LIwV0gkgaJpZinuIZAUjvjtQAn0W05Tbnvv/s1600/d3c33a9d4ae94c5356cf9d5df1f00808.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image is also pinned <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/198017714840471455/">here</a>.</span></div>
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Ahem. So. No excuses. I kept on working. And in the end, I think my perseverance paid off. I finished the story and I'm pretty pleased with it, so it's off to the beta reader for feedback and then the final spit-shine. And in fixing that story, I actually figured out how to solve a plot problem in my novel, <i>Beauty. </i>So essentially,<i> </i>I'm walking on sunshine right now. Mind, I still have another story languishing in mid-process that I'm supposed to be working on right now instead of blogging. But given as this was how I felt the last time I attempted it-- </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOo-y5jygxywkVdDRCk0g5G_FEm_HELOTUVo_ZkpQILuTcavB5HxRI3l9YDeTHzv57TszPBLBZfWIpPxykWNxqVFflsn8B3uYFlwpaXQZvjuK6_P402x2isM-xCJU8AIk7Sz4ituA83QS/s1600/b0b3934b95405b08053ad9fb61bf10a2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOo-y5jygxywkVdDRCk0g5G_FEm_HELOTUVo_ZkpQILuTcavB5HxRI3l9YDeTHzv57TszPBLBZfWIpPxykWNxqVFflsn8B3uYFlwpaXQZvjuK6_P402x2isM-xCJU8AIk7Sz4ituA83QS/s1600/b0b3934b95405b08053ad9fb61bf10a2.jpg" height="203" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This image is also pinned <a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/198017714840446748/">here</a>.</span></div>
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-- I thought a little procrastination was in order. Besides, my blog was looking lonely and unloved. Something had to give. </div>
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Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed the nattering, and will make good life choices and read <i>Deerskin</i>. Uh, also, if you have tips on how to dive into a comic book series with a long history, I am dying to have them. Until next time, gentle readers!</div>
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[1] Footnote: Does anyone else mentally finish the sentence, "that's what I do" with "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyFVG4VfPmg&feature=kp">it's what I <i>live</i> for, to help unfortunate merfolk like yourself</a>"? No? Is it just me? Rats.</div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-12690064969085021772014-04-27T15:55:00.002-04:002014-04-27T16:19:30.329-04:00Book Review: The Riddle-Master Trilogy by Patricia McKilliip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9SyDcGJG4rOgaExNMhhVSUMI6XyyGB13oyIe1kw5zO3DbrdT4fwPKOYgD4HLHJdypq-b92cyyAlfunYW0kkjJiIA1l7ZFM7cAjan52dw3tAvDLm9A-qIIh9UBJKa9r9BrupCOfeqgInM/s1600/the_harp_no_longer_sings_by_gold_seven-d5w6shw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9SyDcGJG4rOgaExNMhhVSUMI6XyyGB13oyIe1kw5zO3DbrdT4fwPKOYgD4HLHJdypq-b92cyyAlfunYW0kkjJiIA1l7ZFM7cAjan52dw3tAvDLm9A-qIIh9UBJKa9r9BrupCOfeqgInM/s1600/the_harp_no_longer_sings_by_gold_seven-d5w6shw.jpg" height="400" width="298" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">"The Harp No Longer Sings" by Gold-Seven.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"> You can check out the artist's work <a href="http://gold-seven.deviantart.com/">here</a>.</span></div>
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I have a confession to make. I actually tried to read Patricia McKillip's <i>Riddle-Master</i> trilogy once before and failed. Despite the glorious things I had heard about the books, I got lost in a maze of odd names and confused about who was who, and I stopped reading about 20-some pages in due to an information overload. But I promised myself that I'd come back to it one day, because some of the things I'd been told about the books made them sound like a story that should not be missed. </div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Buy your copy of this magnificent book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Riddle-Master-Patricia-McKillip/dp/0441005969/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398572436&sr=1-1&keywords=riddle-master">here</a>.</span></div>
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To say that I'm really glad that I did is an understatement. Once I learned to focus on the important things and allow the story to tell me which details were important, things went much more smoothly. All the place names and people that were mentioned slid off my mind like beads of water while I fixated on the main character, Morgon of Hed, his funny, brawling family, and his high-tempered friend, Prince Rood of An. And of course, once I realized that there was a romance in this book, I was hooked. (I'm a sucker like that.)</div>
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As the story unfolds, we learn that Morgon is the Prince of Hed, a tiny, inconsequential farming kingdom where very little happens of note. That is, until Morgon decides to challenge a ghost in the land of An to a riddle match. When his sister finds the crown he won under his bed, Morgon discovers that he's stirred up a hornet's nest by quietly winning a contest so many men have died trying their hand at. He also discovers that the crown was not the only prize for besting the ghost: King Mathom of An also promised his daughter, Princess Raederle, to whoever beat the ghost's riddle game. Raederele is the sister of Morgon's friend, Rood. Morgon has known and admired Raederle for some time, and he's quite smitten with her. With visions of a beautiful, amber-eyed redhead dancing in his mind, he sets out from Hed with the intention of coming forward with the crown and seeking Raederle's hand.</div>
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As much as Morgon would have been perfectly content to take his princess back to Hed and return to farming, making beer, and bickering with his siblings, the universe has other plans for him. No sooner does he leave his little island than do strange enemies come out of the woodwork, endangering not only Morgon, but those he loves best. In fighting and fleeing his foes, Morgon finds himself faced with a host of riddles even he can't answer that all seem to revolve around the mark of the three stars that has been on his face since birth. Those stars seem to mark him for a destiny that is larger than life, one set in place thousands of years before he was born. He must either give in to it or perish, even if embracing his destiny means giving up all of the things he holds most dear.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Vesta" by Dusksong.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The original image is found <a href="http://dusksong.deviantart.com/art/Vesta-73065258">here</a>.</span></div>
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The journey Morgon undertakes makes this Patricia McKillip's most traditional fantasy novel yet, as it has the quest structure and some of the familiar high fantasy archetypes. However, what elevates it and makes it extraordinary is her rich, imaginative world, filled with golden horned vesta bounding through the snows, land-rulers who are bonded to their lands such that they share an empathy with the earth itself, and odd, beautiful magic, where even the gentlest harping may hold great power. Once I started traveling with Morgon into these other lands, I couldn't have put the book down if I'd tried. Each new place held such marvels that I couldn't wait to see where he went to next or who he would meet. There is no doubting after you read this book that Patricia McKillip's imagination is a national treasure.</div>
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The characters are another strong draw. Morgon, himself, is a sympathetic and flawed hero. He is not entirely willing to be sucked into the role of a legendary hero, but when duty calls, he has enough honor to step up. He's a kind, gentle man and a good brother, and relies on wit and intuition rather than pure brawn. And it also speaks well of him that he respects his lady love. Even though he has won the right to marry her by winning the riddle match, it is never Morgon's intention to show up and claim her like lottery winnings. No, Morgon's first through is to ask her if she would be willing to marry him, and then and only then will he take her back to Hed. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9qfGvAZM-Ppopi0WW6SQ3aaNiX6JFaWED3XlMlM30jKULWPneyV2kBmP4zJTeh32KW89RN6rwCQKqmDXqsuH3e3KCmrxPWnOCNAY2C9kT2hZPjfVV9_MLI-lUCimeJCmy5RsX78nK57F/s1600/Pepper_Breeze_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9qfGvAZM-Ppopi0WW6SQ3aaNiX6JFaWED3XlMlM30jKULWPneyV2kBmP4zJTeh32KW89RN6rwCQKqmDXqsuH3e3KCmrxPWnOCNAY2C9kT2hZPjfVV9_MLI-lUCimeJCmy5RsX78nK57F/s1600/Pepper_Breeze_.jpg" height="320" width="250" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Pepper Breeze" by Artgem</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Original image found <a href="http://artgerm.deviantart.com/art/Pepper-Breeze-9940074">here</a>.</span></div>
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Raederle, herself, is absent from the first book, but takes on a very nontraditional role in the second book. And that's the other thing that is so spectacular about these books. This fair princess is not sitting somewhere knitting booties for her future offspring while the hero does all the work. Raederle is an active heroine in the story herself, a fiery, spirited, independent, strong-willed woman who knows what she wants and goes after it. After all, Morgon is not the only one with a destiny here!</div>
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I could go on about how beautifully McKillip handles Raederle's interactions with Morgon, keeping a legendary tone to the story, but also with a thread of realism and relatability, but I don't want to get too spoilery. Suffice it to say that this is not your typical fantasy story, though it's every bit as lovely and magical as you would hope it to be. </div>
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Even without Morgon and Raederle earning gold stars for awesomeness, there's a whole host of supporting characters who shine in these books. Deth, the High One's harpist, is an intriguing riddle of a man who kept me on my toes throughout the books. King Har of Osterland, Danan Isig, Astrin Ymris, the Morgol, and Mathom of An also earned my respect and devotion in their time on the pages. I loved every one of them like they were old friends and anytime any of them had cause to grieve, I wanted to wade into the story and hug them. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C3FAs43XcrIf1sr36mKavudpFtpnHiebqlqO4QK6CTmIV-xqC5qY8l61YqlXaFMtnk8JzGwap20X2V9sPtO8wT6FCNAYxIJSLC3E9I04-vG_eAljDBGPeMyuJ3z4SrfNNtrkRrT3DQB3/s1600/Raerdale_by_CaithnardStudent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5C3FAs43XcrIf1sr36mKavudpFtpnHiebqlqO4QK6CTmIV-xqC5qY8l61YqlXaFMtnk8JzGwap20X2V9sPtO8wT6FCNAYxIJSLC3E9I04-vG_eAljDBGPeMyuJ3z4SrfNNtrkRrT3DQB3/s1600/Raerdale_by_CaithnardStudent.jpg" height="320" width="280" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>"Raederle" by CaithnardStudent</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Original image found <a href="http://caithnardstudent.deviantart.com/art/Raerdale-132191349">here</a>.</span></div>
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And did I mention how beautifully McKillip writes? You've heard me wax on about this before, if you've read some of my other reviews about her books. Still, it cannot be said enough: this woman has a poet's soul and a novelist's mind. Her words glitter and glint on the page, filling your mind with gorgeous, dream-like images. When describing a character's impatience, we are told that she feels that "even the dead of An, their bones plaited with grass roots, must be drumming their fingers in their graves." And then you have passages like this, that make me want to hang up my keyboard and stop pretending like I can share the name "writer" with someone like McKillip:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfspycwmjfU3WzQXA2TX1c8FC9WwwPSgSvplCj9r4EoZrST-uNvD24Ljx8WgTAnywNvtOAmU2_mFBufSCNg9bnoakT9mjJfK0AaJWTTgxR5_dZ5bPItVfybOybaAyvkOWIIBrvLlqpR64y/s1600/BlORBw7IQAAEi7u.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfspycwmjfU3WzQXA2TX1c8FC9WwwPSgSvplCj9r4EoZrST-uNvD24Ljx8WgTAnywNvtOAmU2_mFBufSCNg9bnoakT9mjJfK0AaJWTTgxR5_dZ5bPItVfybOybaAyvkOWIIBrvLlqpR64y/s1600/BlORBw7IQAAEi7u.jpg" height="90" width="400" /></a></div>
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In the end, as the pieces of the story came together, I could clearly see what McKillip had been building to from the beginning. Even the small patches where I doubted, thinking she was meandering a bit, snapped into focus as crucial moments that shaped the ending. In other books by this author, I've had to spend time mulling the rightness of the ending, wondering if the plot points truly lined up in the direction she had chosen. Usually, I come around to appreciate it, though I sometimes find myself wishing that things had played out a little differently here and there. This time, I didn't even have to think about it. I felt the rightness in the story, even though parts of it broke my heart.</div>
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Ultimately, these books will resonate in my memory as some of the best I've ever read. So, to put it mildly, I'd recommend them. To put it less mildly, why are you still sitting here reading this review? Quick, order your copy now! And then come back and tell me how much you loved it in the comments! :) </div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-11709537397155827542014-04-10T20:44:00.002-04:002015-07-28T16:59:18.225-04:00The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Literary Fortune<div style="text-align: justify;">
I've been rejected a lot in my 34 years of life, both in literary endeavors and personal ones. But since it's a lot less embarrassing, today's blog will focus on my literary rejections.</div>
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Just last year, I finally completed polishing and editing <i>The Humble Abode</i>, a fun and quirky fantasy novel I had been writing off and on for ten years. I spent a good deal of time painstakingly crafting my query materials with the assistance of my lovely and talented beta reader and, with my heart in my mouth, I launched my opus out into the world. </div>
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Then I watched it get shot to ribbons in a 21-rejection salute. BOOM! Too light-hearted. BAM! Doesn't fit my list right now. POW! Form rejection letter. FIZZLE! An ominous lack of reply than can only be construed as a rejection.</div>
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I tried sending it EVERYWHERE. I sent it to several small publishers and just about every likely literary agent who represented fantasy and did not operate on a street corner with a sign reading "will agent for food." Nothing. No one wanted it. I got some kind words in response from agents who took the time to tell me that they liked my writing and my characters, even if they didn't feel like it was a good fit for them, but all in all, I walked away empty-handed.</div>
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I could have done a lot of things in response to this utter failure of my greatest dream in life since I was eight years old. I could've been childish. I could've replied to rejection letters with this gif:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFHjaocoNO_MFIylubKTgGtDVfGFgJffZBAv49JXq_Owwam-VGl6GqHZFT90zWmpn6jGSrHVsQBI0yqYq5PEpVCutC5NiCb9Y0YA-CrFIdBfzWBto5kP9fOzkPd0xWyQ3CI-fAKaTLEEb6/s1600/big-mistake.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFHjaocoNO_MFIylubKTgGtDVfGFgJffZBAv49JXq_Owwam-VGl6GqHZFT90zWmpn6jGSrHVsQBI0yqYq5PEpVCutC5NiCb9Y0YA-CrFIdBfzWBto5kP9fOzkPd0xWyQ3CI-fAKaTLEEb6/s1600/big-mistake.gif" width="400" /></a></div>
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But I didn't. Because, maturity. Because, professionalism. But mostly because I know "not now" actually may mean, "not right now."</div>
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As well we all know, the published market is ever-changing. It trends in one direction, then corrects and goes in another as people start to get burned out on carbon copies of the same old thing. For a while now, we've all seen the thousands of YA novels about brooding but sexy vampires, <i>Hunger Games</i>-esque dystopian works, and the many dubious <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> fan fiction stories being published as works in their own right. And now we begin to see the backlash against some of these trends. I see a lot of agents saying things like, "Don't send me anymore paranormal romance. The market is crammed, so unless it's awesome, I can't sell it." I'm also reading that folks are getting tired of first-person YA meant to emulate the <i>Hunger Games</i>. And I don't know if people are getting tired of the <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> fan fiction being treated as legitimate creative works, but I am, so you know, fingers crossed.</div>
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Ultimately, it's a numbers game and a waiting game. You have to hold onto hope and keep trying, or you won't even have the possibility of something good happening, right? </div>
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Maybe someday, quirky madcap fantasy will be in vogue, and when that day comes, I'll be ready and waiting with <i>The Humble Abode </i>in my hands. And in the meantime, I'm gonna keep on keeping on. Right now, I’m polishing up my query materials for yet another novel, a post-apocalyptic fairy tale called <i>Ash. </i>I've also got another novel in progress and I’m continuing to write short stories. I've even submitted two to paying markets to try and get my name out there. (I've gotten one rejection out of that so far, but bygones. The venue with the longer response time is the one I sent my absolute best story to, so I have high hopes!) I'm going to keep tapping the keys, rattling my solitary writer's cage to try to get people to notice what I'm doing, and dreaming of the day it all works out. Because it can happen, but only if I'm trying. What matters is that I don't give up.</div>
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And my day of triumph comes someday, as I just know it will, I imagine it will look something like this: </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/fCGIeHp9GT0?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<i>A clip from the episode "The Excelsior Acquisition" of "The Big Bang Theory"</i></div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-3511215528904500742014-04-09T20:14:00.000-04:002014-04-10T11:41:41.354-04:00Book Review: Song for the Basilisk by Patricia McKillip<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhigSLJPIMagsYrWfZhAJG4hZlqpCOJXsQRSDK7kCTdgn-OV2P0MPSpUJgx8vSepWaxDCTh_ZigEbxZoaoi8D69NaLro4MviVJJSt2620DZOmyudwfs6Kf4bWDjvbHFoSsE1-FbaP43Vt4r/s1600/mckillip-patricia-a-song-for-the-basilisk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhigSLJPIMagsYrWfZhAJG4hZlqpCOJXsQRSDK7kCTdgn-OV2P0MPSpUJgx8vSepWaxDCTh_ZigEbxZoaoi8D69NaLro4MviVJJSt2620DZOmyudwfs6Kf4bWDjvbHFoSsE1-FbaP43Vt4r/s1600/mckillip-patricia-a-song-for-the-basilisk.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
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Buy the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Song-Basilisk-Patricia-McKillip/dp/0441004474">here</a>.</div>
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So I just finished reading <i>Song for the Basilisk</i>, and once again, Patricia McKillip blew me away with her mastery of the English language. Her words wove a beautiful dream from which I never wanted to wake, even when that dream turned unnerving or heartbreaking in places.<br />
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The plot follows a young boy who is rescued from the ashes of a fireplace after witnessing a tragedy and spirited away to a rocky island to hide among the bards. He's given a new name, Rook Caladrius, and taught to forget the life he left behind. But though he's happy to hide from his past in the bards' school, the music sometimes rouses painful memories of fire and sorrow. When the danger he left behind begins to close in on him, Rook will have to face his past or perish.<br />
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This story starts with a bang, with a beautifully macabre and tragic scene unfurling that thrills and horrifies at the same time. From there, there is romance, music, magic, and adventure. What more could a reader ask for?<br />
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I will admit, I'm still mulling the ending. It was satisfying, but I can't decide if I didn't see it coming because it wasn't built to smoothly or because I just wasn't paying close enough attention. Either way, I'm still delighted to have read this book and chances are, I'll reread it again and find that I'm wholly on board with it. That's usually where I end up with McKillip's trickier endings. Regardless, I would recommend it to anyone who loves beautifully written, richly imagined fantasy novels.Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-70281533052897469612013-11-11T17:17:00.002-05:002013-11-11T17:17:48.610-05:00Book Review: Wool by Hugh Howey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQK5mfjqWdod6OJcyRq8AAvVXBBQGUOKjzdiq-TMQyqZkLVYnykdosi3FiZGU6WDqQ1uhwJ-YKorQ2SQPkqhqEdV8ivo2-8LMr9Jk8lQw7i9GVSbMC_5f21MqS8jK4sFkutbueqeFdbxK/s1600/wool-hugh-howey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQK5mfjqWdod6OJcyRq8AAvVXBBQGUOKjzdiq-TMQyqZkLVYnykdosi3FiZGU6WDqQ1uhwJ-YKorQ2SQPkqhqEdV8ivo2-8LMr9Jk8lQw7i9GVSbMC_5f21MqS8jK4sFkutbueqeFdbxK/s320/wool-hugh-howey.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Get your copy <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0071XO8RA/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0XKS705EKSMRPYFPFY6Z&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1630083502&pf_rd_i=507846">here</a>.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">I had many reservations about reading this book. I'm not a huge fan of science fiction as a genre because it has a tendency to be painfully bleak. I read to escape the bleakness of reality, and when it resurfaces in my fiction, it better be freaking awesome or I'm jumping ship.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">So when I started reading this book, I was instantly wary. The plot centers around a population of people driven to live in an underground silo by a disaster that has rendered the surface uninhabitable. Now it is forbidden to speak about the outside world. The punishment for expressing a wish to go outside is to get exactly what you asked for: they send you outside in a suit that will enable you to live just long enough to clean the camera sensors that let the silo see the world's surface. Then the toxic air eats away your suit and your flesh, and the oxygen runs out, and you become just another corpse decorating the silo's view of the surface. These executions are called "cleanings." </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg18jT1gkz8HQvqbgduEfVFEtVmTD52h9OLjtKYHQ8ixijQSwGXgODu9xJU4V7Q7Pw7cJDREhAhHDAA_in_Hb4Z5x-kA2S-OGaN2R2GI1XZENu5s2ewx4_HF7Bf1cI8z95J48mDSDcO_x8i/s1600/Wool-Featured.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg18jT1gkz8HQvqbgduEfVFEtVmTD52h9OLjtKYHQ8ixijQSwGXgODu9xJU4V7Q7Pw7cJDREhAhHDAA_in_Hb4Z5x-kA2S-OGaN2R2GI1XZENu5s2ewx4_HF7Bf1cI8z95J48mDSDcO_x8i/s320/Wool-Featured.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Original image found <a href="http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2012/11/geekdad-gift-guide-books/">here</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">After being introduced to the silo's preferred manner of justice and the tragedy unfolding in the first few pages of the book, I almost put it down and went on with my life. Maybe this genre just isn't for me, I thought. But I hate giving up on anything, so I decided to press on, to give it a little longer to prove to me that the brilliance of the writing was worth the gentle well of depression building up in the back of my mind. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">And in the next point-of-view section, I was utterly hooked. Even as the plot went trouncing along my feels in lead boots for a second time, I was too engrossed by the elaborate world of the silo to even think about giving up on the book. And then I met Juliette, and subsequently her star-gazing friend, Lukas, and I was at its mercy.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The world Howey creates is incredibly rich and imaginative, the details making it resonate with authenticity. For instance, in the silo, people who are apprentices learning a trade are called "shadows" and those who teach them are called "casters." When you train apprentices, it's called "casting shadows." The different levels are all engaged in varying trades, from the mechanics of the down deep to the farmers on the hydroponic farms all the way to the IT level with its mysterious hum of servers doing God only knows what. And up and down the winding staircase that conveys the inhabitants from one level to the next, porters run on strong legs to deliver goods and messages. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The characters I met in the first half of the book captured my imagination and made me love them. Holston, Marnes, Jahns... I felt like I knew them, and I cared deeply about what happened to them. And Juliette, a mechanic from the down deep, was a triumph, in my mind. It's always refreshing to see a pretty female character who doesn't exist just to be a male character's eye candy. She was strong-willed and smart without being grating, and self-sufficient and independent without being too in-your-face feminist. In short, she was exactly the way I like my female characters, and so few authors do that type justice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">However, this review ends with four stars rather than five because, after a promising start and an engrossing middle, it was all I could do to make it through the end. Too many fatalities among the more interesting characters, with the plot then scattering survivors and taking away their more intriguing interactions. The relationship I was most interested in seemed like it was only being developed off-camera, which was incredibly frustrating, because I'd been dying to watch it grow and I never really got the chance to. The struggle became monotonous, and I ultimately ended up skimming to the end to see what happened.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Still, I stand by my four stars. If you look through my reviews, you'll see I tend to be stingy with my stars, and usually a so-so ending would leave me thinking that three stars is generous enough. But because the characters were so wonderfully developed, the world was so incredible, and the book captivated me for over 300 pages, it definitely deserves four stars. And I would still highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the genre, or even to skeptics who, like me, don't normally think sci-fi is for them. Judging from all of the five-star reviews and Howey's enormous success, it may be that I am one of the few who was troubled by the ending, whereas you might think it was utterly fantastic. And regardless of how you feel about the final destination here, the journey is definitely worthwhile.</span></span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-51232978885758352082013-09-19T08:42:00.000-04:002015-07-28T17:00:06.053-04:00Conversations with Fictional CharactersSipping my coffee, I spent the morning studying the scene that rambled out from my fingertips last night at 1:00 a.m. It wasn't as bad as I'd expected to be, given the hour and the fact that I was hastily thumbing it out on a smartphone so I didn't have to get out of bed. When I got to the final flourish of my male MC's thinly veiled unkindness towards my fictional princess, the following exchange played out in my head.<br />
<br />
PRINCESS: "Why do we find it so hot when he's mean?"<br />
<br />
ME: "I don't know. Clearly, we have issues."<br />
<br />
PRINCESS: (rationally) "Well, my issues are your issues. So really, this is your fault."<br />
<br />
ME: "I know. I spend a lot of time worrying that these books are going to be used someday as the basis for the wrong kind of class."<br />
<br />
PRINCESS: (raises eyebrow inquiringly.)<br />
<br />
ME: "Psych 101, not Literature."<br />
<br />
PRINCESS: "Yeah, you probably should be."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixgUP8GrGkldr2_2agwlksdGPFdfQZGKy37lVaVF7_jumrumEJyIvVUWJjkm-W9aBkaUx_ew3HpdqUitp0Q0ot0_IwzO0jj3pLjToZ6-WTokAsx6J7rwLsJbUrWjgSA_8M7o718HAPSJKc/s1600/lucy_doctor_is_in_color_decal_sticker__58383.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixgUP8GrGkldr2_2agwlksdGPFdfQZGKy37lVaVF7_jumrumEJyIvVUWJjkm-W9aBkaUx_ew3HpdqUitp0Q0ot0_IwzO0jj3pLjToZ6-WTokAsx6J7rwLsJbUrWjgSA_8M7o718HAPSJKc/s320/lucy_doctor_is_in_color_decal_sticker__58383.jpg" width="249" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Original image found <a href="http://www.theforceexpansive.com/blog/2012/6/20/a-yard-sale-for-real.html">here</a>.</i></span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-53533397582861301732013-09-18T08:06:00.000-04:002013-09-18T10:47:05.452-04:00Writing Tip: Beware of Saggy Hats<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
As a child, my favorite book was “Go, Dog, Go,” by P.D. Eastman. The reveal in which the poodle appears in his spectacularly tall hat decked with
spiders and pin wheels and all manner of random and fabulous things will live in
my memory as a great moment in literature. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1bMg51RZOV5Y2n9GPW6yhGnjJ5Dp7AF9KfF9KEki-MjMDUlt7va-Rl-NxnXmPEBrsVZxUWg92nWtJYJyAk4kPq8rCZ4PwRZ8KZ8Xom5stg7VFu0Czb2Tc0qiF_4a_G_DuvCgfeMB7ADor/s1600/partyhat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1bMg51RZOV5Y2n9GPW6yhGnjJ5Dp7AF9KfF9KEki-MjMDUlt7va-Rl-NxnXmPEBrsVZxUWg92nWtJYJyAk4kPq8rCZ4PwRZ8KZ8Xom5stg7VFu0Czb2Tc0qiF_4a_G_DuvCgfeMB7ADor/s320/partyhat.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
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And yet, when it comes to plots,
sometimes adding that many flourishes makes the fabulous hat sag. When
you get enamored with your own twists, or start piling on subplots with reckless
abandon, or it requires half the book just to explain why a character would do what
you want them to do, suddenly, you’re not a poodle that has won over a
dubious Labrador with your amazing sense of style. You’re just a dork in a bent hat
with a bunch of crap stuck to it.</div>
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Don’t make the hat sag.</div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-42403175666031208482013-09-12T09:01:00.002-04:002013-09-17T22:58:36.323-04:00An Excerpt from THE HUMBLE ABODE<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white */; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<i style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Here is a brief excerpt from chapter two of THE HUMBLE ABODE, in which Evyn and Jior find themselves in trouble while trying to rescue Chit from the ghouls of the Lost Wood.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">Evyn grabbed the Phlelf as Jior started to hurry forward to
help her. "Don't move," he hissed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Why?" Jior blinked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Because, you ninny, we're now surrounded by banshees.
And if you walk through the one in front of us, you will die before you come
out of the other side. And if you provoke them, they will scream. Not even the
lantern could protect us from that sound."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">Jior peered around them. He could just make out thin, filmy
gray shapes ringing them round, red eyes glowing maliciously as they peered
back at him. "What happens if they scream?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white */; line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"We die."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"And if we just stand here?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Eventually they'll get bored and scream."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"And?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">“We die."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Hmm. What if we make a break for it?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"I told you, we'd pass through them."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"And die?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"It does seem to be the trend."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">Jior pursed his lips a second. "And Chit can't help us
with the spirit lantern?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"I told you, it doesn't block out the screams. It would
just keep them from touching us."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"And Chit has twisted her ankle," the girl
interjected shortly. "So Chit can't even get up."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Chit's in the circle of the lantern, so Chit should
shut up and be grateful," Evyn snapped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">Chit snorted at that and went back to spitting the residue
of the ghoul slime on the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"So..." Jior looked around at the looming
banshees. "We're going to die."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Looks like it."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">"Any last words?" Jior asked hopefully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%;">Evyn sighed. "Shut up."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQszjn1zg5ekAO0b4eOppwJkP5wCFYqBtBiHgEvIF_OsL3yWtxvdwPGmt8cjSOQ2n2NtKhPo7RpNRpwFQ1f0VS538WtKNzysfgWbWuLFJ7r4m-YI90ksmYjMv1Y1SToxmRoWiRmDKxzaf/s1600/spooky_forest_study_by_jrcoffroniii-d4yhaw8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQszjn1zg5ekAO0b4eOppwJkP5wCFYqBtBiHgEvIF_OsL3yWtxvdwPGmt8cjSOQ2n2NtKhPo7RpNRpwFQ1f0VS538WtKNzysfgWbWuLFJ7r4m-YI90ksmYjMv1Y1SToxmRoWiRmDKxzaf/s400/spooky_forest_study_by_jrcoffroniii-d4yhaw8.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">Original image found </span><a href="http://jrcoffroniii.deviantart.com/art/Spooky-Forest-Study-299778920" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">here</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;">.</span></span></div>
Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5710285258173998939.post-43862714295274458352013-07-27T18:21:00.001-04:002013-07-27T20:36:17.879-04:00Book Review: Ombria in Shadow<div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.727272033691406px; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Patricia McKillip is one of those writers who, much like Peter S. Beagle, makes the rest of us lowly wordsmiths want to hang up our words and call it a day. Maybe it's sentences like "The river narrowed, quickened, its surface trembling like the eyes of dreamers" or phrases like "but in that house who could assume that even fire and water would not conspire?" that make me melt into a puddle of envy. Or maybe it's the fact that I loved her characters better in the first five pages than I've loved other characters after entire books spent in their company. Whatever the case may be, from those first few twinkling words in <i>Ombria in Shadow</i>, I was enchanted. I wanted to pour those gorgeous words on the floor and roll around in them like a dog, hoping their scent would rub off on me.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAjuKHVTXZAwCz8gFMlOvTDbTTU7fAqzYO4kH4pSBFKPh5iY2ioYB9CbdafltvIov1h7dkvBw_KoagwaNnn_WxjLIX1OhI4voHOWryimE7nQRYSoQRJXXFrHKVTcW4kGTRAYwIBpwgJ64/s1600/9c95ec11f1e5128bf7667dff208b10dc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAjuKHVTXZAwCz8gFMlOvTDbTTU7fAqzYO4kH4pSBFKPh5iY2ioYB9CbdafltvIov1h7dkvBw_KoagwaNnn_WxjLIX1OhI4voHOWryimE7nQRYSoQRJXXFrHKVTcW4kGTRAYwIBpwgJ64/s1600/9c95ec11f1e5128bf7667dff208b10dc.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-small;"> The cover art for <i>Ombria in Shadow</i>, featuring the lovely Lydea.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-small;">Buy it <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ombria-Shadow-Patricia-A-McKillip/dp/0441010164/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374961342&sr=8-1&keywords=ombria+in+shadow">here</a>.</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">The story begins with the death of the Prince of Ombria as his mistress, beautiful flame-haired tavern girl, Lydea, mourns with the child heir, Kyel. One by one, the young prince's guards and servants are sent away as his great aunt, Domina Pearl, seeks to isolate him and appoint herself regent. After Lydea is cast into the streets like rubbish, no longer having her royal lover to protect her, the bastard lordling, Ducon Greve, is left as the only person in the castle looking after his cousin, Prince Kyel's, interests. As the claw-like grip of Domina Pearl closes over the kingdom, the city of Ombria looks to be in dire straits. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">And yet, there is a legend of a shadow city beneath Ombria, filled with the ghosts of Ombria's history. Lurking among those ghosts is an ancient sorceress named Faey and her precocious waxling, Mag. While Faey isn't normally interested in the affairs of the world above, Mag is drawn to investigate the unfolding events in the castle, fascinated by Ducon and Lydea and disgusted by Domina Pearl. But her meddling puts the two parallel worlds on a collision course that could change the city of Ombria forever. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQO4zyUES5QGbILE9gExQTG5dHqi176ZmF7BiB0SZMcYcDzIiRWB9sXYpUIOojN6b87EjPQXEetLYWcfzLtOSJjtMxvdfks83plz88iMOKJVYKM88pjRsVshLjhKK2yAYjC7YBK7ZgN_Z/s1600/lydeapc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDQO4zyUES5QGbILE9gExQTG5dHqi176ZmF7BiB0SZMcYcDzIiRWB9sXYpUIOojN6b87EjPQXEetLYWcfzLtOSJjtMxvdfks83plz88iMOKJVYKM88pjRsVshLjhKK2yAYjC7YBK7ZgN_Z/s320/lydeapc.jpg" width="223" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-small;"><b>Fan art of Lydea. (No pun intended.)</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: x-small;">Original image found <a href="http://megasis_l.tripod.com/newevan/">here</a>. </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">There isn't a person in this book that doesn't evoke a strong response in the reader. Lydea has a strong, sad grace to her, obviously stricken by the tragedy of losing her beloved, but channeling her energy into bravery and loyalty rather than disappearing into grief. Ducon Greve is intriguing and seductive as a beautiful, mysterious man fixated on drawing shadows with his ever-present piece of charcoal, seeming to see something in the ruins that others cannot. Devoted to his young cousin, Ducon is as quiet and steady as a marble pillar as he tries to "hold up the sky over the young prince's head," as one character put it. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"><b>Fan art of Ducon Greve. Original image found <a href="http://liberatedlocks-club.deviantart.com/art/Ducon-Greve-by-GothDream-17003913">here</a>.</b></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">Much like the castle laundresses, a reader finds </span></span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">herself</span><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"> thinking she wouldn't</span></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 12.727272033691406px;"><i>mind a little charcoal on her sheets, for this fellow.</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">And Kyel. Poor Kyel. The embattled young prince is so vulnerable and forlorn that you want to hug him and hide him away from the Black Pearl's menace. And then there's Mag, who is beginning to suspect that she might be human and not just one of Faey's concoctions. She is so curious, quick-witted, and warm that you'll end up wanting to scamper through the shadows of the city with her, hiding in plain sight as you explore the city's secrets. </span>Even relatively minor characters like Lydea's father, who suffered the sting of having been abandoned by his daughter for her royal lover, tug at your feels until you're trying to convince yourself that there's just something in your eye. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;"><span style="font-size: 12.727272033691406px;">When it comes to Faey, with her changing faces and casual magical prowess, I get an impression that she had a little scary Galadriel-under-the-influence-of-the-One-Ring lurking under the surface of her graceful reserve. Yet as arcane and mysterious as she is, there is humanity in her, as well as humor and practicality. She serves as an elegant counterpoint to Domina Pearl's potent malevolence. A</span>s villains go, Domina Pearl is the creme de la creme of baddies. She comes on like an aged Lady Vader, complete with impeccable helmet-like hair and mysterious powers. Such was her badassery that every time somebody shook a fist and railed against her, all I could think was, "Good luck, man. I hope that works out for you. But, you know, <i>doubtful.</i>" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Aside from her magical way with words, unmatched creativity, and engrossing characters, McKillip offers any aspiring writer a crash course in how to show rather than tell. I never needed to get a thinky inner monologue from Lydea as to how she felt about losing Prince Royce, because it sighed out hauntingly from her actions after his death such that I got tear-eyed over a love I never actually witnesses in its heyday. It's just one example, but I walked away from this book so captivated by her skill that I wanted to try some of these tricks, myself, and hope to be even half as good at them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">So, to sum, if you like beautifully written books that capture the imagination and make you fall in love with the characters, pick up a copy of <i>Ombria in Shadow</i> today!</span></div>
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Lizard219http://www.blogger.com/profile/17323783922285546401noreply@blogger.com0