Month: October 2011

General · reading

Teaser Tuesday: Darkness Rising

Sonia Lal32 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read

* Open to a random page

* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My Teasers:

The house still smelled of death.

Two months had passed since Mom’s murder, but the air still echoed with her agony and I knew if I breathed deep enough, I’d catch the hint of old blood.

– Darkness Rising by Keri Arthur

General

Happy Anniversary to me!

Sonia Lal21 Comments

Happy Anniversary to me!

I started this blog about a year ago, on October 29 2010. First post was on beginnings, which seems appropriate enough.

The 29th was the day of the first October snow storm in a really long time. Well, driving out in it was one way to celebrate the anniversary, and one that better not happen again next year. If the blog is still around next October.

I am positively amazed I managed a year of a blogging. There was a break months ago (it was a bad time for me) and I thought the blog might die an early death, but that didn’t happen.

And I have gotten into writing flash fiction – sometimes I write flash fiction even when Friday is far far away. Before I started doing Friday flash, flash fiction was very, very difficult for me to do. They are so short and I couldn’t believe you could tell a whole story in less than a 1000 words.

But you can. I can. After a lifetime spent thinking I can’t write flash fiction, I can’t begin to describe how exhilarating that realization is. I think I have managed only 2 or 3 decent Friday flash (even though I do them almost ever week.) But that’s good. Much better than my track record for flash fiction for, well, for years.

And plus, I can also post random thoughts about reading, about writing, about anything at all. It’s pretty good.

Related articles
Short Story · Writing

Succinctly Yours: Food of the Dead

Sonia Lal16 Comments

Succinctly Yours is a weekly meme by grandma. Of this meme she says:

How low can you go?

Use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more. This one is 140 characters.
 

Coming back from death was good, but the food was terribly. Dead, like him. But catching a living girl was so hard. They screamed, they ran.

General

Happy Diwali

Sonia Lal13 Comments

Today’s is Diwali. It’s also known as Festival of the Lights, mostly because people string up lights and put candles in every window. Or so I assume. I have never been in India at this time of year, so who knows?

Never seen a Diwali like in the movies, with fireworks and decoration and people dressed up. Not to mention the food. Lots and lots and lots of Indian holiday food. I wish I could be there and see for myself.

But I got Christmas lights in the window, yes. They’ll stay up for a couple of months. People will think we are setting up for Christmas early. Very early, as Halloween isn’t even here yet. 😉 LOL

Anyway, normally, today I would post my Friday flash. But I haven’t even written one yet and I am not likely to have time today. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe. The weekend will be busy, so we’ll see.

Related articles
General · reading · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: The Tempering of Men, part 2

Sonia Lal11 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Still reading The Tempering of Men! I am pretty slow this week.


My Teasers:

Drapes of white and colored stone swathed the walls, ruched and gathered like the fabric of a queen’s gown. Pillows and clouds and billows of white and gold and orange stone heaped like batts of wool everywhere Brokkolfr’s eyes traveled, and from the ceiling overhead depended a forest of white stone reeds as a young woman’s white hands.

– The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear

Short Story · Writing

Succinctly Yours: Pumpkin Delight

Sonia Lal18 Comments

Succinctly Yours is a weekly meme by grandma. Of this meme she says:

How low can you go?

Use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more. This one is 139 characters.

He screamed, but only vomit came out. Guts and seeds – the witch said she would plant the seeds in lieu of the kids he refused to give her.

Book Review · General · reading

Book Review: Unbound Darkness by Keri Arthur

Sonia Lal3 Comments

From Keri Arthur’s website:

Risa Jones is as extraordinary as her heritage. Born from a lab-enhanced clone mother and an Aedh father, she can not only talk to the souls of the dying and the dead, but she can see the reapers and walk the gray fields that divide this world from the next.

They are skill she rarely uses, however, preferring to concentrate on the business she shares with her two best friends. But when her mother asks her to help the parents of a little girl locked in a coma, she reluctantly agrees. What she discovers scares the hell out of her. Because the little girl’s soul no longer resides in her body, and it wasn’t death and the reapers that took her.

Someone had ripped her soul from her flesh.

As it turns out, a creature consuming the souls of the innocent–and not so innocent–is the least of her problems.

Because someone wants to rip open the gates that divided hell from earth, and Risa is a key component in their plans.

And the only person standing between her and disaster is a reaper who isn’t exactly on her side.

I loved Unbound Darkness! It’s clear and fast-moving.

The plot is complex, but the author presents everything so clearly, you over look that. But truthfully, only 2 of maybe 4 or 5 plot points get resolved by the end – the whole ripping soul the summary above talks about.

The summary also talks about ripping open the gates of hell. I expect the series plot arc will come from this. Unbound Darkness introduces the idea – and that’s all this book does. It’s complex and involves a lot of players. Half of them have been hinted at, but not introduced yet. I don’t even know who the villain is yet, if you can believe that. I suspect the author left out so much because it would be too much for a single book. I foresee quite a lot of books in this series. 😀

I expect (I hope!) it will be related to the smaller single-book-size plot of someone stealing souls. Maybe. I want it to, but this minor villain might not related to the bigger series plot.

I remember Risa as a little girl from the Riley Jenson stories. But in this book there is no doubt Risa is all grown up.  Even though she can’t change into a wolf, she’s still a half-wolf and perfectly comfortable in the wolf clubs. That’s not surprising. But I think I expected her to go grow up and be a psychic for a living, just like her mother. Instead she owns a restaurant. Go figure.

But the most surprising – the most astonishing part! – is that Risa makes a deal with the devil herself: Madeline Hunter, leader of the vampire council.

I don’t think she had to make that deal. Personally, I hope Madeline Hunter ends up dead by the end of this series.

Related articles
General · reading · Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesday: The Tempering of Men

Sonia Lal21 Comments

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

* Grab your current read
* Open to a random page
* Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
* BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
* Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


My Teasers:

Cubs? Amma asked hopefully and Brokkolfr smiled. Amma loved cubs of all species: trellwolf, human, the cats who hunted mice in Franangford’s new storerooms, the geese on the nearby lake. It left Brokkolfr wondering what she would do if she were a wild wolf and there was nothing to eat but baby geese.

– The Tempering of Men by Sarah Monette & Elizabeth Bear

General · Short Story · Writing

Third Campaigner Challenge: Show Not Tell

Sonia Lal43 Comments

The third challenge is write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show:

  • that it’s morning,
  • that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach
  • that the MC (main character) is bored
  • that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting
  • that something surprising happens.

Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: “synbatec,” “wastopaneer,” and “tacise.” (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them).

This is my attempt. It is exactly 296 words. I am number 6 in the linky list, if anyone feels inspired to vote for me.

Title: Broken Islands

Dina smelled sulfur and blood and blinked open one eye. This beach was smooth white sand, palm trees and an ocean still tinted with the colors of the rising sun. It was empty. Sunrise was too early for normal people to up.

She sniffed the air, just to be sure. Nothing. Maybe she was smelling things out of boredom. Dina considered the idea and sat up slowly.

She shoved her feet into pink flip-flops. A big ridiculous sunflower plastic decorated the straps. They were the least flashy pair the big island souvenir store stocked. Dina scowled at her feet and wished for home, where she didn’t have to hop two islands to buy simple black flip-flops.

The smell came again and disappeared as quickly as before. Dina rose, excited for the first time since her boss forced this island vacation on her. As if boredom on an isolated island would be good for her. Well, tacise him!

She stepped out cautiously, careful of her balance. The flip-flops did very little to cushion her banged-up foot. At least the sand was still cool.

The smell came again and this time she was ready for it. Sulfur and blood, two smells she knew well, and something else, something rancid and sweet. Like wastopaneer.

Oh no. Dina called her wolf forward. The change was fast and painless, like every change since the last mission. Joy bubbled up in her when her wolf burst free. Four feet planted in the cool sand, she howled her joy to the sky.

Her hind foot still ached, but the smells were much sharper in her wolf form. Dina lowered her nose, sniffing.  Sulfur, blood, wastopaneer.

Ha! Death had followed her to this remote island. She couldn’t regret it; anything was better than boredom.

Short Story · Writing

Succinctly Yours: Sand Sculpture Contest

Sonia Lal8 Comments

Succinctly Yours is a weekly meme by grandma. Of this meme she says:

How low can you go?

Use the photo as inspiration for a story of 140 characters OR 140 words. It doesn’t have to be exactly 140, just not more. This one is 139 characters.

 He and his sister dragged buckets of sand and water over to their spot. Their sculpture would be the best. No one could beat their pegasus.