The Graceling Realm Series

Today I finished Bitterblue, the last last book in Kristin Cashore’s Graceling Realm Series. I started on book one and read straight through.  The series was great.  Author Cashore managed to start a series very much like Tamora Pierce where every book is about the same land yet stars a new character.

In the first book, Graceling, Katsa rebels against being a tool.  Graced with the ability to kill or maim anyone Katsa feels like that isn’t all she is good for.  True to her feelings she finds that the world holds more for her.  On her journey she meets people who are to be intertwined into the next two books.

The second book focuses on a kingdom Katsa only thought was a dream.  The Dells is a kingdom of Monsters, creatures we know with abnormal colors and mind control.  During the time period of the book the kingdom is on the breach of war, and the last human monster is the only one who can save it.

Bitterblue, the last book features a Queen that Katsa once helped aptly named, Queen Bitterblue.  The Queen is taking over a kingdom that was previously ruled by a mind reader and is in shambles.  It takes help from all of the characters from past books to get this kingdom where it needs to be.

The series is full of ever evolving secrets that keep the reader moving.  It isn’t a book for the youngest teens but anyone old enough to know about sex who enjoys fantasy will enjoy this series.  My one criticism being that at times Cashore seams to bring in  modern day terminology and few things that just don’t fit with the time period but this goes mostly unnoticed.

Pick it up, read it, enjoy it.

In Class Writing Prompt 4-30-2013

Prompt

Our prompt today was to take a random action passed out in an envelope and work in an obsessive thought while that action is taking place.  The thoughts were handed out in the same manner.  I really liked this exercise because I got a pair that catered to my genre.

Action: Juggling Knives

Obsessive Thought: The fact that s/he hates his/her boss and wants to quit his/her job.

Response

Lyle was an expert at juggling knives.  It was one of the few magic tricks that he knew how to preform.  Growing up under the tutelage of a master wizard he had to learn how to be calm and collected and avoid distractions, or at least continue working despite them.  Juggling had been his tutor’s idea of how to learn to be distraction free.  Starting off easy, Lyle first learned to juggle bean bags then worked his way up to knives.

It was because of this constant training that instilled juggling as a second nature for Lyle and allowed him to think of other things while doing it.  As the knives twirled threw his fingers on their way to being airborn Lyle thought of his job.  It was not boring, it was not mundane, it was not for the feint of heart, yet sometimes he hated it.  Now was one of those moments.

As a protector, Lyle’s job was to defend those without any magickal inclinations against those who would do them harm with magick.  Now it is not magic that he was charged with defending against, for magic is cheep tricks like the juggling act he was performing as he thought.  No, magick with a k is the kind that most people would like to deny existed.  It can run anywhere from a low level clervoyant who knows who is calling before they look at the phone to a full fledged wizard like Lyle.  Someone who is capable of doing extreme damage to those around them.

Earlier in the day a mother had come to Lyle claiming her child had been kidnapped by some mystickal creature.  It wasn’t uncommon in a place like Seattle where he weird is the normal and the paranormal can fit in.  What was uncommon was what Lyle had found several hours earlier, the boy’s body, completely destroyed.  Destroyed was the only word Lyle would allow himself to use, for it was a horrific scene and not one he cared to remember.  This was the reason he hated his job sometimes.

The world gave him these jobs and he was in no position to say no.  Vary rarely were the cases something pretty.

Archer Mayor’s The Dark Root

The Dark Root by Archer Mayor takes Joe Gunther into the world of Asian crime.  It starts out with a home invasion that has links back to a past crime and from their Lieutenant Gunther must find his suspects who travel illegally between the United States and Canada, where he has no authority.  As he continues on the case Gunther suspects the ensuing violence is more than just regular gang violence.

Archer Mayor’s writing style has definitely improved since his first books and this book flows a lot more.  This book covers a fair amount of time and handles serious issues.  Archer Mayor handles these well by finding ways to handle the time.  While some of the other books were impersonal Archer Mayor deals with feelings in this book and portrays them as they would appear to readers, the outsiders.

Updated Reading List

My reading list has been updated.  Books that have been read since last update are blue.  Books started since last are green.  Books added without being started are orange.

    • Brad Taylor’s One Rough Man
    • Brad Taylor’s Necessary Force
    • Boyd Morrison’s The Vault
    • Boyd Morrison’s The Ark
    • Boyd Morrison’s The Catalyst
    • Garth Nix’s The Fall
    • Garth Nix’s Castle
    • Garth Nix’s Aenir
    • Garth Nix’s Above The Viel
    • Garth Nix’s Into Battle
    • Garth nix’s The Violet Keystone
    • Sam Lipsyte’s The Ask
    • Garth Nix’sFast Ships, Black Sails
    • Archer Mayor’s Open Season
    • Archer Mayor’s Borderlines
    • Archer Mayor’s Scent of Evil 
    • Archer Mayor’s Skeleton’s Knee
    • Archer Mayor’s Fruits of the Poisonous Tree
    • Archer Mayor’s The Dark Root
    • Kristin Cashore’s Graceling
    • Kristin Cashore’s Fire (reading)
    • Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue
    • Bear Grylls’s Mud, Sweat, and Tears
    • Faith hunter’s Bloodring: A Rogue Mage Novel (reading)
    • Hamilton Wright Mabie’s Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know
    • Lynne Truss Eats, Shoots, And Leaves (reading)
    • Jim Butcher’s Cold Days

4/11/2013 Long Form Fiction Prompt – Burger Joint Wizard

Prompt

Today’s prompt I didn’t completely follow but I started to.  I wanted to write a lot of set up because I liked the idea I had.  Not everything I wanted to get in it was completed but without further delay lets get to the actual prompt.

Part One

Write a day in the life of someone who works in a burger joint.

Part Two

Write an hour in the life of someone who works in a burger joint.

Part Three

Write a minute in the life of someone who works in a burger joint.

 

Burger Joint Wizard

 

Stan was the burger joint wizard.  By day he slaved away behind the grill of his New York diner and by night he fought the forces of evil with his magickal abilities.  If you had asked him a year ago though, he would have been plain old Stan who ran Stan’s Diner.  His burgers were good, not great, but good.  His milkshakes were nothing special but they weren’t bad.  His fries were okay, better with added salt, but edible without.  With combination of regular food he was able to make an okay living.  Money was not what got him in to using his supernatural abilities.

When the war against the Argon rose to its peak he still didn’t use his powers.  He was comfortable in his little diner.  Not many people even knew his power existed so he was left alone to flip patties and yell order up.  Stan only let one other person cook, Frat, a boy he had taught thoroughly, so the joint required him to be there constantly.

The disappearances weren’t even what got him into using his abilities.  Two months ago people with power started disappearing.  More and more over New York and the regular people, which at this point Stan consider himself one of, were even starting to notice.  Occasionally a body would turn up but it was barely recognizable and was quite rare.

Stan new without a doubt these disappearances weren’t due to normal causes but he didn’t care.  He was content in his little diner serving his mediocre food.  When his regular patrons started to go missing, instead of using his abilities to defend his diner Stan used his power to fortify his little diner against evil.

He hadn’t thought about the downsides of his fortifications carved into the wood of the doorframes and windows though.  Painstaking detail was put into the carvings to make them look decorative but that didn’t fool his supernatural customers.  Soon word spread that Stan’s Diner was a safe haven for all those supernatural and good.  At first Stan’s business doubled, then tripled.  Eventually he had Frat working double shifts alongside him just to make enough food.

This is what got him into the battle against the Argon.  His patrons that he cared deeply for.  Every day he would spend business hours flipping patties, toasting buns, adding condiments, and plopping them on plates.  Order up he would then yell and the plate would disappear into the front end of the diner.  Then when the diner closed Stan would go out and investigate.  Plodding flat footed through the city of New York.

After hours of investigation Stan would go home and fall asleep, completely pooped.  The next day he would get right back up and do it all over again.  Weekends had become even busier and now required his attention at the diner during business hours.  That meant less time to sleep if he were going to have enough time to run his investigations.

On average his hours at the diner went by pretty quickly and pretty uniformly.  Order after order would come in and he would make them ready as quickly as possible.  Stan was good at what he did for he had been doing it for years but Frat had only been doing it for a couple and without a doubt the two would constantly be bumping into each other but never did they let the food fall.  And always there was an apology, sometimes even from Stan.

These hours he loved, for Frat was a good person to share the kitchen with.  Frat was an Oblesque, or magick reader.  He could see who had supernatural blood and usually what their abilities were.  Without thinking about it he could see the writings of magick highlighted and three dimensional wherever they stood.  In other words Stan liked Frat because he didn’t have to hide from Frat and when Frat was around he didn’t have to worry about something magickal sneaking up on him.  Frat was also companionable, he was easy to talk to and friendly.

Just because Stan liked his hours uniformed and busy didn’t mean he didn’t like his minutes off here and there when lulls in the orders formed.  Stan would walk into the corner of the kitchen pick up a book that detailed some form of dark magick and read it thoroughly for whatever time he had.  Usually only a minute.  These books he read were not for practice but to identify what was causing these disappearances.

Seconds would tick by and he would flip pages until he found something that was remotely relevant.  He would then read it, decide it wasn’t what he was looking for, and flip the page again.  This process repeated itself until he had to rejoin Frat at the grill.  This was how Stan spent his minutes, his hours, his days, for a month.

Update

Haven’t seen a new post in a while?  That’s because there hasn’t been.  I overloaded with credits last quarter and turned in a 154 page senior project.  Additionally, I have been training to pass physical tests for the police academies I have applied to.  This quarter I have a regular amount of classes so there should be more content coming.

English 314 – Writing Fictions: Longer Forms

This quarter I am taking English 314 with Dr. Meyers.  So far the class is extremely enjoyable.  Not only that though, it includes writing prompts to open the class.  If you have been following my blog in the past you can probably guess what that means… regular prompts.  I will be posting my responses to most of the in class prompts on here.   I might also post other work for this class.  We shall see, it is only the second week of the class.

Books

Since the last time I was on my blog I have finished several books and the regular recap of the books I have read will be posted soon.

Personal Writing Update

Currently I am working on a piece titled “Noble Lady by Birth, Lady Warrior by Heart.”  It is a fantasy piece set in a kingdom known as Hiddenvalle.  More details will come as the story progresses.  But it is my piece for my English 314 class so it will get worked on.