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Sora’s Quest – Free Kindle Book

Sora's Quest (The Cat's Eye Chronicles, #1) I’m in love with this book Sora’s Quest. It is currently available to download for free on kindle. Not sure how long that promotion will last, but go get it while the gettin is good.

Impressions and why you should read it:

Not an entirely unexpected plot, but it has some new twists and a wonderfully developed world full of history and atmosphere. It lives up to expectations and is a thoroughly engrossing ‘fantasy quest’ type story.

The characters were not what I expected them to be. They constantly surprised me and gradually showed sides of themselves that made me forget that they were not real live people.

Original impressions of the main character were that of a spoiled rich girl, which she is. At first this annoyed me, but as the story develops, she grows and changes into someone relatable and likable.

The description from amazon:

Sora Fallcrest always dreamed of adventure, but as a member of the nobility, she learned the ways of a Lady instead. Now seventeen, she is expected to choose a husband and marry. She plots to run away, but just as she is stepping out the door, she runs into a mysterious man–and is kidnapped.

Abducted from her manor, Sora is plunged into a world of magical races, arcane jewelry and forgotten lore. She finds herself at the mercy of a dangerous assassin, haunted by an even darker past. She yearns for freedom, but he won’t let her go–not when her Cat’s Eye necklace is the only thing that can save his life.

But the necklace itself presents a problem. It is an ancient device from the long forgotten War of the Races, and its magic has the ability to steal souls. Can Sora learn to wield its power–or will the power wield her? (Winner of the SKOW 2006 Best Fantasy Award)

Tags: book, fantasy, kindle, quest, read, reading, Sora, story

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Categories Books

Writing- Psychology without the price tag

6 Mar

Writing Quote by Joss Whedon

I never know what I’m thinking or understand how I’m feeling until I do a bit of writing. Usually something completely unrelated. A fictional short story or thought tossed into words.

It is like a session at the therapist…

And so this happened last night at writing group. Not sure what it says about me except that I might be a bit stressed.

***

She tripped and fell into the burning sand… and they laughed. From the stands above, toothy smiles and wicked sneers leered down at her prone form.

Alaska Lee dug her hands into the grainy sand that scraped and chafed. Feeling every molecule of pain, every grain of hurt. She focused on the feeling of betrayal and simmered in her hatred.

“She has fallen!” The announcer screamed into his mic, flinging spit in his enthusiasm. “Will she make it up in time? For her, every second counts in this dance of death.”

Cheers and laughs from the crowd as they leaned forward in their seats to see the disaster that was her life falling apart and devoured by the Gloom.

The Gloom stalked towards her. Circled her. A beast of ever shifting shadows. Darkness filled with teeth and unquenchable hunger.

Alaska Lee stayed frozen. An iceberg in the pit of burning sand. It wasn’t a large enclosure, but the walls were high and lined with seats. The exits were barred and only the Gloom and Alaska Lee faced off within. Or rather, the Gloom hunted and Alaska Lee tried to stay alive.

“This looks like it folks. Any second should be the end of that human girl who caused us so much grief. The naïve girl who thought to befriend the dead and their minions. Stupid girl who thought she would help us. Foolish creature who thought to change our very nature. You cannot change the dead!”

“Do you see the Gloom calculating when to strike? Do you feel it in the air?! For her, the end is near!” The announcer was wild and rabid with bloodlust. The crowed growled in rage and excitement.

The Gloom leaned down close to her, in no rush to end this because it knew it had always been in control. Face to face with its prey the Gloom stared wordlessly at her. It was a void of malice and starless night.

Alaska Lee stared back at the king of nightmares and into its fathomless depths. She knew madness awaited there, but vaguely wondered which would be the better choice. Madness or death by the hands of the Gloom.

Tags: book, psychology, read, story, therapy, write, Writing

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Categories Short Stories, Writing

From Book Snob to Book Whore

3 Mar

Happiness is a book that changes your life.

Although I’ve always been a book lover, I am embarrassed to say that I’ve hardly read much of anything in the last few years. This is because I’m a Book Snob. (Oh the humanity! Oh the shame!) BUT – I’ve learned my lesson!

Only reading those authors I know, love, and trust (Neil Gaiman, Laurel K. Hamilton, etc) I stopped exploring books and lost a lot of joy in reading.

Then my world got rocked. Not the gentle roll of a 3.0 earthquake – this was an off the charts, collapsing buildings and destroying cities kind of earthquake that made my heart tremble.

It came from a most unexpected place.

Prince Revolution is a site that does fan translations of author Yu Wo’s novels. She is from Taiwan, writes in Chinese (so you can’t buy any English versions currently) and writes the most lighthearted and whimsical stories ever. Seriously, this lady has taken the title of my favorite author.

Here is the thing, because these chapters are translated by many different people with varying writing skills the story doesn’t read as smoothly as it could. It is flawed, the flow and word choice change with writers/translators, but the stories – Oh goodness the stories are epic. (As a side note: The translators from PrinceRevolution are amazing people. They deserve lots of cookies and hugs for all the translations they do. They bring me so much joy!!)

Lesson Learned: It is OK for the writing not to be top notch to love an author and the stories he or she weaves. (This seems obvious… but somehow I missed it.)

Anyways, since discovering Yu Wo, I’ve been devouring all books like a starving lady. I’m not sure how I survived this long without reading so many books.

My two favorite series by Yu Wo are:

½ Prince: A new immersive RPG is released and a college student decides to play with a male avatar because of an argument she got into with her brother. She doesn’t want to rely on anyone else and becomes a strong warrior in game. Collecting a goofy group of friends to adventure with there is love, danger, fighting, and so much awesome I’m not even sure how to describe it. These characters are larger than life and command attention as they try and find their way through real life and gaming.

Side note: This story is also available as a translated manhua (Chinese comics/manga) and can be read here if you are interested.

1/2 Prince The Gang's All Here!

Legend of the Sun Knight: Grisa is the Sun Knight which means he is expected to be kind, merciful, and forgiving. To anyone outside the Church of the God of Light, he is exactly that, but on the inside Grisa is anything but what he seems. He wants to curse out “F***” and really has no desire to forgive anyone’s sins. When a Death Knight appears and Grisa is sent to deal with it, even though his swordsmanship is exceptionally poor, he realizes that there is actually more to this position than smiling and forgiving sins. Grisa is quirky, meddlesome, and almost completely incapable – but that’s what I love about him. He and the other 12 holy knights (who are equally quirky and not what they seem) somehow manage to do some mystery solving and death knight fighting. This series only gets better as it goes on and you get to know all the characters as if they were really alive.

The Legend of the Sun Knight! <3 by Yu Wo

Tags: author, book, knight, manga, manhua, prince, read

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Categories Books

The Fabulous People of NaNoWriMo

15 Nov

Minstrel (Tir Athair) Marissa Ames Last Wednesday I met author Marissa Ames who happened to show up at my writing group for some NaNoWriMo fun.

We did our NaNoWriMo thing, and busted out some wordcount between relaxed chatting and laughing.

She is a seriously cool person (not only does she write but she also paints and has her own urban farm!)

If you are looking for a new author checkout her website and book. I haven’t read it yet, but will be starting it soon. I’ll tell you how I like it once I finish, although I have some pretty high expectations after reading the short stories posted on her site and actually meeting her.

Tags: author, book, nano, NaNoWriMo, writer, Writing

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Categories Books, Writing

Adding Character Flaws to Enhance your Writing

1 Nov

NaNoWriMo is here!!!!!!

I’m starting my writing off with a cast of characters that I’ve been thinking about for a couple of weeks and developing bits and pieces of their personalities.

If you really want to make your characters pop try adding flaws. I found two very in depth lists below and chose about 2 flaws per character. I used my handy dandy random number generator -i.e. my husband- to pick some that I would have been too nervous to choose ordinarily.

Character Flaw Index

Dark World RPG – Character Flaw List

One of my favorite characters turned into an alcoholic and child hater. Ironically I think it strengthens his character instead of damaging it. Now he has his own daemons to fight.