Two For Tuesday

I haven’t had a whole lot of time to read fiction lately. We have been doing a lot of reading for class. The last I read was last night, and it was on signs and identifying children who have been victims of sexual abuse, so, I am going to skip the last two lines read part. I had nightmares all night.

Skipping forward, I haven’t written a lot lately, I’m trying, I really am, but by the time I get sat down to start, I’m physically and emotionally drained. But, here are a couple of sentences from a previous chapter, and yes, I cheated, there are three.

He thought of those lush pink lips and immediately started to sweat. She was all deep eyes, plump lips and rich, dark hair. It made him glad to be a single, healthy male.

For more Two Sentence Tuesday, head over and visit the Women of Mystery.

Sunday Scribblings on a Windy Monday

The prompt at Sunday Scribblings today is: Well, we're all as old as we have ever been, and we're all at different stages of considering the aging process. What thoughts do you have on the subject?

I’m older than I ever thought I would be. I feel older than I am some days, and others, I don’t know how old I really am. Life is funny that way. Sometimes things happen, and weigh a person down, dragging at their hopes and dreams, until all they feel is lonely, detached and hollow. Days like those are when I feel the oldest. I ache those days, not just mentally, but physically I hurt. Then there are times when life goes your way. You waste a dollar on a scratch off lottery ticket and have to rush home and wake your husband up from his nap to confirm that you did just win $250. Days when the sunshine rains down on your, the air is calm and you can take a break to play with your dog in the backyard, those are the young days. The day you cross the street to go swing in the park and your husband pushes you higher and higher, when you lean back and get dizzy from staring up at the swaying sky, those are the carefree days – days when the world doesn’t strike out at you. Dizzy, sunny, laughing days.

You're Good For My Ego

I just have to say that being on here has been great for my writing ego. I know every writer goes through times when they feel like they aren't good enough, I feel that way frequently, but then I write something quick and dirty for a blog on here and the comments I get back are amazing, even if they sometimes sting a little. So, I just want to say thanks! You are all awesome!

3WW x 2

Since I was out of town last week, I used last week's three words and this week's three words for today's post. For more three worded fun head over to 3WW and see what everyone else is writing. Again, this is a continuation on the last two 3WWs.
Last weeks words were: burden, natural, ubiquitous. This weeks are: earnest, layer, and reactive.

The burden of finding the slaughterer of innocence rested heavy on his shoulders. His earnest search uncovered layers of hidden flotsam and jetsam and the ubiquitous fear that he would never avenge her haunted him. The fact that his life had become a reactive routine bothered him less than the reality of his liability in his sister’s death. The rage tearing at his guts night after night had become completely natural to him. The only thing that had pulled him out of his pattern in the last weeks had been his wife’s abandonment. She couldn’t live with the new hollow out version of the man she’d married. He couldn’t work up enough emotion to shed even a single tear when she’d taken the kids and gone to her mother’s. Let them live with the bitch for a few weeks. By the time they came back, he’d take care of the murdering trash that killed his sister. By then, there might not be anything left for them to come back to. If he didn’t find something to fill up the void left in his soul soon, the insanity he’d been holding back for weeks would take over and nothing would matter.

I'm BACK!

I have never been so glad to be in an airplane as I was on Friday night. We landed at about 8:15, my amazing hubby was waiting for me at the gate. We went and visited my parents and my brothers who were both home from college, then...we went to Hastings for the midnight release.

Don't tell me you don't know what midnight release. Twilight. I'll say it again and again, it's not a 'cult,' it's a following. I'm sticking to that. And yes, I dragged my weary self with luggage into our house at a little after one in the morning. Threw my suitcase on the couch, pulled the movie out of the bag, ripped that puppy open, stuck it into the DVD player in the bedroom and fell asleep listening to the dulcet tones of Edward. (I think hubby may banish this movie from the sleepy time routine!)

Saturday, oh Saturday, what the hell did we do on Saturday? Oh, yeah, hubby had a hockey game and my youngest brother and I taped and painted the living room. Well, half of it anyways, it's going to be two colors. Sunday, finished painting the living room and touching up the hallway, it is so pretty. Then, I got to go and buy new clothes. How fun is that.

I'm still super exhausted from a week in El Paso. It wasn't a bad place to visit, but I wouldn't want to stay for any real length of time. There are some shady characters there. I got to visit some amazing museum's and eat the best food I've ever had (I love all things hot and spicy), but I was more than ready to come home.

So how did everyone else spend their spring break?

Five Fabulous Blogs

Here are the rules:
You must include the person that gave you the award, and link it back to them.
You must list 5 of your Fabulous Addictions in the post. You must copy and paste these rules in the post. Right click the award icon & save to your computer then post with your own awards.

My five obsessions as:

1. My amazing hubby.
2. My family.
3. My Writing.
4. Books.
5. Learning.

And my Five Fab Blogs:
1. One Word, One Rung, One Day
2. A Day In The Life
3. Women of Mystery
4. Attack of The Redneck Mommy
5. I Need My Wit To Kick In

(Of course, there are many other good ones too, so don't hesitate to check out all the links.)

Purple prose on crack

This is what happens when metaphors go feral. I think my brain may have exploded. It make me feel MUCH better about what I write though. Seriously, pop on over and take a look. You'll understand. Take some ibuprofen with you, I promise, you'll need it!

The Reader - A Book Review in Threes

I was asked by a few of you to give a review of The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. So, here it is in a shamelessly stolen format. Thanks, Travis! (Go visit Travis’ blog, it’s awesome!)

The Reader is the story of a young Michael Berg. At fifteen he gets sick on his way home from school, and is rescued by Hanna, a woman more than twice his age. They become lovers until she disappears.

Michael is haunted by Hanna’s disappearance and compares every lover he has to her, and none measure up to Hanna. Years later, Michaels sees Hanna again. He is a law student sitting in on a case of Nazi guards accused of horrible crimes, and she is one of the defendants. During the trial, she refuses to defend herself against the accusations. Michael becomes obsessed with her, but is confused by the inconsistencies of her testimony. He knows she is hiding something.

After the trial, Michael is consumed by his thoughts of Hanna, until he figures out a way to continue their relationship, and to try to put the past to rest.

3 Reasons To Like This Book:

1. The Reader is a quick read, it took me about a day, but it is still emotionally engaging.

2. There is a lot of literature dealing with WWII, but most is from the Jewish and Polish perspective. There isn’t a lot about post-war Germany. The Reader shows a slice of the emotions and reasoning from a character that is passionate about the wrongs done by his country, but also conflicted about his feeling for one of the perpetrators.

3.The book is filled with deeper themes – Michael and Hanna’s relationship, the impact of the Nazis on Germany, how love and loss change a person. Because all of these themes are brought about subtly, it doesn’t feel like you are being beat over the head with them.

3 Reasons Not To Like This Book:

1. The author is very descriptive and occasionally talks in circles, making some passages overly descript and almost confusing.

2. You don’t enjoy reading in the first person. This annoys some people since they don’t know what other characters are thinking and feeling. With this book, you only get Michael Berg’s perspective on things.

3. You aren’t interested in the far reaching ramifications of war, or don’t like well written, sensitive reading material.

3 Lines beginning with the 3rd sentence on page 33 of the novel:

I don’t mean to say she lacked tenderness and didn’t give me pleasure. But she did it for her own playful enjoyment, until I learned to take possession of her too. That came later.

There was a sentence in the book that was incredibly powerful for me. It is on the next to last page of the novel and sums up life, love and loss very well.

The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive.

3WW

Today's words, furnished by 3WW were: Cajole, temper and recluse. I chose to do a continuation of last week's 3WW. It is dark too.

The pain, the rage, the guilt – it ate at his soul. Night after night, he rambled through the park. Seeking out the recluses hidden in deep, dark places. Cardboard surrounded barrels of fire. The smell of wasted hope and unfulfilled dreams suffocating in the black pool of despair. Pieces of his soul withered and died every time these unseen people denied him entrance. They tempered refusal with sorrow, but none of that helped him. He had to find the refuse of humanity that had taken his sister. The scrap of a man that had spoiled the one spark of light left in his life. He tried to cajole the dismal outsiders into giving him any hint of where the murderer had gone. When that didn’t work, he flashed the burnished chrome-plated Smith and Wesson. The effort was futile – they’d scattered like fragments of a nightmare, scurrying off to dark corners. The police wouldn’t help him, vigilante justice was beneath them. The hidden society of humanity, living on castoffs of society wouldn’t help him, he wasn’t of their community. So, he walked, and searched, and screamed wordlessly at the night, anguish coating the sound. He’d take care of the murdering bastard. Then, he’d take care of the source of his torment.

For more fun and games, go visit 3WW and check out what others have written.

Two Line Tuesday

So, I haven’t written anything this week, I’ve been too busy with classes, but here are two random sentences from the last few pages I wrote:

“Why would you want me to go to the gym with you? Last time was a disaster. I limped for two weeks.”

“Detective Dawson goes to the gym every morning. Here’s your chance to see him all hot and sweaty.” Serena waggled her eyebrows.

I’m about to start reading The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. The first two sentences of the book are:

When I was fifteen, I got hepatitis. It started in the fall and lasted until spring.

On a personal note, our first home inspection is this coming Monday. I’m still scared, but am working on calming down.

For class we had to do a detailed family tree, and I never realized before that my family breeds like rabbits - there was a population explosion during the 90s.

Karin’s beautiful baby turns one year old on the 16th, and I got some WAY cute stuff for him.

My brother-in-law and his wife are still doing well with her pregnancy and Kaden is due June 11th. I got some WAY cute stuff for him as well.

Our last class is on April 13th. By then we will be licensed and ready to go. We learned a little about the process last night and it is much faster than what I thought, but not as fast as I’d hoped.

I’ll be out of town next week, starting on Tuesday. I’ll miss you guys, but I have to go to El Paso for a week and hang out with other museum type people. Okay, I know, we're museum geeks.

Send good thoughts our way, we need all the luck we can get!

For more two line fun head over to The Women of Mystery and The Education of a Pulp Writer.

Three Word Wednesday

So, over at 3WW, today's words are: Avenge, Genuine, Ramble.

Here is my attempt with those three. A little dark, a little mysterious, possibly a good start to my next MS. I like this one, and had a great time writing it!

The need to avenge his sister’s murder was a genuine rage under his skin, biting and burning, until it led to his ramble around the park. Searching for the monster that killed her, night after night, brought him some measure of relief from the pain and anger, but nothing eased the guilt that ate at his gut. It was his fault she was dead. His fault she’d been wandering around after dark, crying, drunk. It was his fault someone had attacked her and left her to bleed to death, laying on the path near the rhododendrons. If he hadn’t told her the man she thought was her father, the man that raised her and loved her, wasn’t really her father, she wouldn’t have left to go have a drink or two at the bar. She’d been smart enough to know she couldn’t drive herself home, but not smart enough to call a cab. She’d been easy prey for the thief, or rapist or murderer. Whatever you want to call him. The mud caked in her nostrils said he forced her face down in the flowerbed, the torn clothing said he forced himself on her, and the fact that her wallet was missing said he forced her to give it to him, or maybe he’d just taken it after he stabbed her. It didn’t matter now. Once he found the monster that killed his sister, it would be over. All the pain, all the rage, all the guilt. He’d take care of it all.

Two Line Tuesday

I made my deadline for the contest! Thanks to everyone who asked. I didn't get the short story finished, but that means I will have it ready for next years contest, oh well. I haven't had a whole lot of time lately to do much reading, but I am going to start a new "need to read" today. It is Kim Harrison's White Witch, Black Curse. I love reading her books. She is a lot of fun and pulls you into a great fantasy world.



So, the first two lines of the book are:

The bloody handprint was gone, wiped from Kisten's window but not from my memory, and it ticked me off that someone had cleaned it, as if they were trying to steal what little recollection I retained about the night he'd died. the anger was misplaced fear if I was honest with myself.

I haven't written much this week either. But the last two lines I wrote are:

Mariska’s laughter died in her throat when she looked across the gym and saw Kellen staring at her, face intent and serious. She shivered when he strode toward her, stopping less than a foot away.

For more two line fun, head over to the Women of Mystery.