Interesting vampire read, I think. There’s the potential for a strong female heroine (as stated in the reviews) and you can’t go wrong with that. So many female leads are pulled hither and thither like a dead leaf in the wind, depending on their strong male counterparts to get them out of trouble and save the day.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
I have set up my Facebook page. Like Wordsmithin’ Ain’t Easy HERE
Find me on Twitter HERE
The final stage of the Trixie disease took three hours in the make-up chair to complete. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Let’s talk about zombies.
Don’t scoff at the subject, you never know when you’re going to be in a position to know this kind of information. Besides, when the Zombocalype befalls the earth, how will you know how to defend yourself unless you’re privy to the different breeds of zombie?
With this in mind, we are going to focus this zombie lesson on some of the different types of zombies. At the end I will insert links for some zombologists that are way more prepared and knowledgeable than I.
Necromorphs come from Dead Space fame. They are zombies created and controlled by an alien race. Their organs, instead of rotting and boiling over onto the ground get turned into usable tissue that makes this species brutal and strong. Necromorphs are fierce hunters that tap into their collective intelligence and hunt together in small groups. They are quick, aggressive, and nearly impossible to kill. The only way to kill them is to dismember them completely and burn them so they don’t have time to regenerate.
These dudes are strong. Alone or in hordes, these reanimated skeletal creatures from the beyond are controlled by dark magic. They act like puppets to a dark wizard and can only be repelled by the Firestorm curse. If you’re like me (a muggle) you will not want to get caught in the cross hairs of the mad beasts. With no spells nor wand up your sleeve, you’re as good as dead. My advice is to not find yourself in a situation that involves Inferi.
Infected from bio warfare agent Trixie in the water supply, the Crazies are zombies that exibit bizarre, enraged, and violent behavior. They are very intelligent, holding onto sense of slef identiy and their memories. They ca wield weapons and are made to attack those not infected with Trixie. What’s good (if you can wait it out) is that Trixie kills its host after 48 hours.
We all know this type of zombie: a slow, dumb, reanimated corpse hungry for human flesh. They can travel alone or in hordes and take over the earth with the steady movement of a plague.
The guys are kind of badass and very dangerous. They are vicious, violent, relentless. They are motivated by their hunger and by destruction. With a greater store of adrenaline, these buggers are incredibly strong. The differentce between these dudes and generic zombies is that these fast moving guys have no problem quarreling amongst one another if they feel threatened. They are agile and animalistic so you better make sure you’re wearing your ass-kicking shoes when confronted with these guys.
Intelligent zombies are a terrible thing to behold. With the loss of their humanity coupled with the memories of how to use tools, weapons, and cooperate with each other, these creatures are the real deal. They can maneuver through doors, breath windows, and stalk their human prey. Some example are the Berserkers, Basilisk, and Walking Dead zombies. These guys work through free will and have created a little culture amongst themselves and are trying to prevail to the top of the food chain.
These zombies have been compromised by a parasite looking to infect others and grwo their species. Once the parasite has made contact with its human host if changes the body to adhere to its needs. It shuts own functions in the hold’s body that aren’t pertinent to its survival unti it “kills” the host and takes over completely. Most of these zombies come with accessories like fungal growth blossoming from it various lesions and cloudy eyesight. They typically have low motor function and are not threatening when solitary but can be overwhelming and dangerous when in hordes.
English: “The Writing Lesson” (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In Holly Lisle’s writing course How To Think Sideways, the classroom is taking off to lesson 10 and I am still submerged in lesson 9, barely treading water.
Lesson 9 is Outlining Without Killing Your Story. At first I was daunted. I don’t outline. I put a character in a situation and I let it fly. But since I took this course to adopt new writing skills, I decided to ignore my fears and carry on. And you know what? It’s fun! Well, at least it was. It was fun while I came up with four interesting scenes that lit up my imagination with fierce abandon like a raging house fire. But when I did the working math and discovered that I will need about 64 scenes for my 80,000 word novel my mind shut down. Why is that?
I think it’s because I just don’t write that way. Holly Lisle likes to have her novel planned from beginning to end before she feels comfortable continuing. The one time I used her method of plotting out my scenes I wrote Friday McDaniels and The Case of The Missing Nutsack and I had a blast. But that was only a work of 8500 words and my mind had pretty much formed the entire story before I sat down to plot. The story I’m working on is more complicated than that. First of all it takes place in another dimension and I have three characters that I want to switch POVs with (something else I typically don’t do), and they all have their own agendas and I’m still figuring out how to put the pieces together when it all comes to a head. I have ideas–yes–but the ideas are nothing more than mist that I can grab on to as surely as I can grab ahold of my own shadow.
Of the few scenes I do have fully formed in my mind, one of them took me over when I woke early Sunday morning. The words started flowing from my mind like water from a spout and I raced to collect the words before they spilled onto the floor and threatened to dry up. The scene is from when my MC is visiting her brother’s sleeping form through time travel. She does this often and as it’s the same night over and over again–until this particular night. Here’s a passage of that writing:
When she opened her eyes again she started–an owl, bigger than any she had seen when in her living form, stared through the window at them from the broken light of the telephone pole adjacent. It took up the visual space between the branches of the two trees that stood side by side and she wondered how the light could support the weight of the monster. Her breathing slowed, nay quite disappeared as she looked upon the beast that appeared as if at any moment he would swoop from his perch, descend upon her and her brother and devour them both. Had he been there all those previous nights? She thought not. It would would have been impossible to miss sighting a bird of that size and of that particular disposition.
Her brother stirred and woke. He sat up and looked at her, his eyes fresh and fully awake. She looked passed her brother but the bird had gone. He smiled at seeing her and pulled himself into a sitting position. He interlocked his fingers together and rested his hands on the bedspread that covered his lap in a most grown up and gentlemanly fashion. If she hadn’t been so terribly frightened by the owl and her brother’s abrupt wakefulness, she might have laughed at his attempt at grownup-ness. Instead, her eyes flicked back to the dark street lamp and the empty space the bird had occupied.
“Don’t worry about him.” said her brother, “He’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Her wits rattled upon hearing her brother’s words and she tried to convince herself of his possession as he peered at her with recognition of not only who she was but of what she was. But when she looked into his gleaming childlike eyes she could not deny that it was, indeed, her brother despite the sudden turn of the night’s events.
This is a rough draft of course so this passage is likely to change, but rarely do I write something this coherent in the first pass. A lot of times I have a jumbled mass of words that I have to rewrite two or three times before it’s even ready for my writer’s group to look at. What’s good about this scene, though, is that it unlocked a snippet of the lesson that I had been blocking out: I needn’t outline all 64 scenes of my novel to begin writing, I merely have to outline as many as my muse will allow. I flipped back through my course material and I found the passage that said that very thing:
So how many (scenes) do you need for this to work?
How long do your legs have to be to reach the ground?
Although this reassured me, it doesn’t mean I’m quite ready for lesson 10. I do need to make out more than four or five scene cards. What’s good, though, is that I can make out only the important ones (the ones Holly Lisle calls “candy bar scenes”), revise them, and then move on. I’d say a day or two of brainstorming should do the trick.
_______________________________________________________________________
Writers: For information on Holly Lisle click here
Readers: For information on Holly Lisle’s books click here
Know all about it and want to take one of her courses or purchase a book?
http://howtothinksideways.com/shop/?ap_id=kbeck731
Historical Fiction
Widow Walk by Gerard Lasalle
Greenleaf Book Group Press
Publication Date: May 1, 2013
ISBN 1608324400
In the early days of the American Pacific Northwest, small settlements dot the wilds of streams and dense woods. Isaac Evers, a community leader and former militiaman, has established a small colony on Whidbey Island. Though the area appears calmer than in the past, the northern indigenous clans still threaten the livelihood of Isaac’s growing family.
While Isaac is away on expeditions, his wife Emmy tends to the many duties required of a property owner on Whidbey Island. Bold and assertive, Emmy has little time for the restraint of social mores. But as times on the island become more turbulent, her constitution and conviction are tested.
Elsewhere, Haida native Anah-nawitka feels the rush of his first kill and the satisfying vengeance cast from his hand to the head of the invading white colonists. Basking in the praise from his tribemates, Anah starts down a violent path that will alter a great many lives.
Meanwhile, the British and the U.S. Army are quietly grinding against each other following a boundary dispute, leaving men like Captain George Edward Pickett in a tight situation. In charge of the nearby Union fort, Pickett does his best to maintain his authority while he struggles with tragic events in his past.
Mystery/Thriller
Invitation to Die by Helen Smith
Amazon Publishing Thomas and Mercer
Publication Date May 14, 2013
ISBN 9781477807309
Twenty-six-year-old Emily Castles is out of work… again. So when famous romance author Morgana Blakely offers her a job helping out at a conference in London, Emily accepts. Just as eagerly, American blogger Winnie Kraster accepts an invitation from Morgana to attend as a guest, not realizing she has, in effect, accepted an invitation to die.
As a cast of oddball characters assembles at the conference hotel, grievances, differences, and secrets begin to emerge. When Winnie goes missing, and then is found murdered nearby, Emily begins to suspect that someone involved with the conference is responsible. Could it be one of the organizers, one of the authors, a member of the hotel staff, or even the supplier of the chocolates for the conference gift bags? Emily teams up with guest speaker and eccentric philosophy professor Dr. Muriel to find out.
Science Fiction
The Humans by Matt Haig
Canongate Books
Publication Date May 9 2013
ISBN 9780857868756
It’s hardest to belong when you’re closest to home…One wet Friday evening, Professor Andrew Martin of Cambridge University solves the world’s greatest mathematical riddle. Then he disappears. When he is found walking naked along the motorway, Professor Martin seems different. Besides the lack of clothes, he now finds normal life pointless. His loving wife and teenage son seem repulsive to him. In fact, he hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton. And he’s a dog. Can a bit of Debussy and Emily Dickinson keep him from murder? Can the species which invented cheap white wine and peanut butter sandwiches be all that bad? And what is the warm feeling he gets when he looks into his wife’s eyes?
This week’s trailer is intriguing. I can’t wait to read this book.
The synopsis courtesy of Goodreads
It says quite a lot about Jeremy Johnson Johnson that the strangest thing about him isn’t even the fact his mother and father both had the same last name. Jeremy once admitted he’s able to hear voices, and the townspeople of Never Better have treated him like an outsider since. After his mother left, his father became a recluse, and it’s been up to Jeremy to support the family. But it hasn’t been up to Jeremy alone. The truth is, Jeremy can hear voices. Or, specifically, one voice: the voice of the ghost of Jacob Grimm, one half of the infamous writing duo, The Brothers Grimm. Jacob watches over Jeremy, protecting him from an unknown dark evil whispered about in the space between this world and the next. But when the provocative local girl Ginger Boultinghouse takes an interest in Jeremy (and his unique abilities), a grim chain of events is put into motion. And as anyone familiar with the Grimm Brothers know, not all fairy tales have happy endings. . .
BloodLight the Apocalypse of Robert Goldner
By Harambee K. Grey-Sun
Book Baby
ISBN 9781626750098
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
What I thought the book was about was a struggling African American teen trying to find himself as he copes with racism, the murder of his mother who told him he was a mistake, and a mental/nervous breakdown of sorts. These are wonderful conflicts for a character to have and I liked that racism was a strong theme as it is still something people struggle with daily, especially in small redneck towns like the one our main character lives.
I found the main character, Robert to be a victim in every sense of the word. He’s a victim because his mother told him he was a mistake one drunken night and he never got to confront her about it, he’s a victim because he and his girlfriend fight a lot, he’s a victim of racism (which he does try to pummel out of his teammates at wrestling matches, at least), and he’s a victim of strange hallucinations. There’s also an underlying theme where he may be dealing with his sexuality but all we hear on that is about a crazy night with his best friend (who was in the first chapter and goes to the hospital never to be heard from for the rest of the book) that is told through a muddled memory and he doesn’t really acknowledge it at all.
Robert was just fine playing the victim. After his mother tells him he’s a mistake she cleans up her act and treats him like a mother should. Yet he still carries with him that one terrible thing she said because she was having a moment of weakness. Robert is a selfish character and I couldn’t relate to him at all. Instead of talking to anyone about his problems he just whined and cried about it and figured he’d show everyone how great he was by being an awesome wrestler.
The metaphysical part of the book landed flat as well. He has hallucinations that are severe and some that are mundane and they come and go in waves. It’s confusing and, to be honest, a little boring. The end of the book wraps up nice and tidy when he suddenly gets all the answers are told to him by a girl from his church. Rarely in our lives are the answers given to us that easily and that was another reason I found this to be a poor read. There were never any clues that built up to what is revealed to him in the end and the reader doesn’t get that A-ha! moment at the end when all the pieces fit together.
I wanted to like this book. It’s metaphysical, and strange, and the boy is dealing with a lot things at the time his brain starts going wonky. But I just couldn’t get into it. I thought he was a lackluster main character that didn’t have any character traits that fit with the great discovery at the end.
That’s why the story is only getting 1 giraffe from me.
Today’s Daily Prompt was too good to ignore. I’m interviewing that yellow-pajamaed kid in Dr. Seuss’ Oh! The Places You’ll Go!
Thank you kind sir for agreeing to this interview. Let’s get started then. You’re a world traveler, tell me, what’s the strangest place you’ve been?
For sure and for certain, the waiting place. The people gathered there for all sorts of things but never did anything happen. No one came out of the bathroom for another to enter and the phone never rang and the dentist never showed up. Just lines of people waiting in silence for things that never come to fruition.
What’s the most frightening place you’ve been?
When I was lost at sea with the Hakken-Kraks howling and threatening to eat me.
At least you weren’t stranded in your boat with a hyena, an orangatan, a zebra, and a tiger.
Er…I suppose so.
You managed to get your hot air balloon stuck in a tree branch dangling off the side of a cliff, however did you drop down and manage not to injure yourself?
Well, you see, I found myself in a bit of a Slump. Which is to say a depression. And though I don’t have any visible scars or ailments from the Slump, don’t think I came out of that without some injuries.
I hear that. Sometimes your riding high and loving life, and the next moment you get tangled and confused and you feel all alone. How did you turn it around and find your right path?
It wasn’t easy. I took some risks, I ran through a maze of sorts trying to figure out who I was and where I wanted to go. That’s how I stumbled onto the Waiting Place. I nearly didn’t make it out. So many people encouraging me to make excuses and wait just a few more minutes, a few more minutes until suddenly years had passed.
In your biography written by Dr. Seuss, it implies that music is what saved you. Is that true?
Absolutely. I heard a song one day and the lyrics said, “Don’t waste your time, don’t waste your time.” I guess that’s all I needed to take a look at what I was doing and get my feet moving again. At that point I didn’t care where I went as long as it was somewhere. That’s where I discovered the joy of big band music.
You’ve gone on to move mountains, kid. How did you accomplish that?
Quite simply, I put one foot in front of the other and I didn’t stop until I had reached my destination.
One last question before I let you go: What’s with all the elephants?
(laughs) Magnificent creatures, aren’t they? I like to keep them on my side in case I need someone to provide me shade or to announce my homecoming in a very embellished way. I can be a bit extravagant at times, I admit.
Excellent. Well, thank you Dude from Oh The Places You’ll Go.
The pleasure is all mine.
A forum for a group of writers who can't always meet in person.
Social media support 4 writers
Professional writers talk about the craft and business of writing
open a book, open your mind
Book Reviews & More
Where Words Fail, Music Speaks
