Lottie Barrett Lives (Again)
By: Hugh Centerville
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Aug. 1, 2012
Genre: Paranormal
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It’s Halloween night,
1966. 13 year old Lottie has been dead a 100 years and the kids go up to
the graveyard with the book of spells Charlene Pendergrass swiped from
Miss Robespierre. The kids are going to have some fun scaring
themselves, bringing Lottie back, but it turns out Miss Robespierre
isn’t the faker everyone says she is and there’s nothing fake about her
book either and now there’s a ghost-girl walking the streets of Hope
Mountain and what to do with her?
Maybe nothing.
Lottie’s no
zombie ax-murderer. She’s just a peculiar kid who wants to be a
teenager, something she missed the first time. What else she wants is
Bobby Clyde, cutest boy in the freshman class and how can Bobby resist?
Lottie is cute and sweet and funny, or are those things illusory, a
witch’s spell on Bobby? And what’s Bobby going to do when it’s time for
Lottie to go back up onto the hill? Bobby is determined to go with her.
Lottie doesn’t think he should go but she doesn’t think she could live
(or die,) without him. Only Bobby’s mom and big sister can save him and
before they can save him, they have to convince themselves it really is
true, and there isn’t much time.
Rambling on Grammar
Some things I like about grammar, some things I don’t.
Don’t let bloggers or indie writers or anyone else tell you grammar doesn’t matter. It does. If you think it doesn’t, spend some time on the internet. (Or on the Internet, because there’s only one Internet, which means we’re talking about one specific Internet, which makes it a proper noun.)
I was disturbed when I came across some websites dedicated to banishing the apostrophe. Why banish the little dude and where’s he supposed to go, if he’s exiled? Elba? There are a few reasons given for doing it and mostly it comes down to apostrophes not being worth the effort. Huh? One little slash can say a lot, depending on where it’s located and they’re not really so difficult to do correctly. I mean, if you’re going to banish something because it’s difficult, banish commas. Apostrophes at least have sense enough to follow their own rules.
Fear not, apostrophe-lovers. Apostrophes aren’t going anywhere. Nothing is ever banished in grammar. Things do go away but it takes a while (not awhile) for them to go. Language doesn’t banish, it evolves and besides, there are more important grammar things to worry about.
Like T-shirts. Why do we have to capitalize T-shirts? One reason I’ve seen is because T-shirts are shaped like Ts. Come again? What’s shaped like a T? The T-shirt? So what. And aren’t all shirts shaped the same, more or less? Contoured to fit a torso? Or maybe we capitalize it because any letter standing alone on the opposite side of a dash from the rest of itself deserves to get capitalized, you know, like e-mail and e-book. Compensating the single letter for its isolation from the rest of itself I could maybe buy. It makes more sense than just being shaped like a shirt.
I may not like capitalizing my T-shirts but you can see I’m doing it, otherwise folks might think I don’t know any better.
Maybe we capitalize T-shirt because consistency matters (it does,) and we capitalize X-ray and G-clef, except we don’t capitalize g-clef unless we feel like it. One of my books was about kids spending a summer on a lake and there were plenty of T-shirts. Nineteen of them, as I recall, and none of them initially earned a big T and finally and after a few revisions and after hearing from folks who could only shake their heads at my ignorance, I went back and begrudgingly capitalized all nineteen of my T-shirts.
And can someone please tell me why I have to capitalize TV? This one really bugs me. I mean, it’s not like I have a choice, like I do with OK, or, I should say, choices with OK – O.K., OK, o.k., ok, okay already! (Not to be confused with all ready.) OK comes in a lot of styles but TV is TV. Period. Must be an abbreviation for the proper noun, television.
Why are some words words and some aren’t? Like ahold. It seems to me there’s a real need for the word ahold, but check your dictionary, it’s either not there or if it’s listed, it’s with a caveat – non-standard, which means it’s not a real word but you’re going to use it, so just you go ahead and flaunt your social inferiority. Well, I’m sorry, all you educated people, but it seems to me we have a need for ahold, in fiction, anyway, especially in dialogue.
Say you’re writing a story about a schoolyard bully. A kid stands up to the bully and the bully runs away and the kid shakes his fist at the fleeing bully and says what kids say in the schoolyard: Just you wait until I get ahold…eh, just you wait until I clasp, embrace, enfold, press, squeeze, clinch, bosom, clip, embosom you…
Which might lead one to ask, if there’s a glaring need for a particular word, why does the word have to settle for junior status? Ahold is considered informal, which is a kind of incubator for words. They put you in the deep freeze until they figure you’re old enough or whatever to be a real word and they release you. Poor ahold has been waiting four hundred years. Maybe they put it in there and forgot about it.
Same for alright. Non-standard, socially inferior, but acceptable as an evolved form of all right. Somebody (or someone, your choice,) asks how are you doing and you say alright, not all right. It’s an inflection thing, a nuance, like yes, sir, or, and if you’re in the army, yessir!
There’s one word battle that snooty grammarians will never lose and I’m with them on this one – the most horrific four letter word in the English language, the ultimate outcast in the world of words – ain’t. You very well know, “ain’t ain’t proper language.” Most dictionaries don’t include it and those that do have that notation and talk about socially inferior. Say ain’t and the venom drips.
Ain’t is a contraction although it’s hard to figure out exactly what two words ain’t is contracting, which is the rule of contractions, combine two words by taking out a letter or two and replacing them with an apostrophe, for example - won’t.
Ain’t, like most four letter words, has a cringe association. And speaking of cringe factors, how about a word that has a cringe factor or not, depending on how it’s used - like crick, for creek. I can have a crick in my neck but I can’t have one running through my backyard.
And what about French fries? Yes, French fries, not french fries. In another of my books I had a girl who was obsessed with French fries and since her dad had Popeye arms and drank Scotch whiskey and the girl’s mom was a Shakespearean actress (or are actresses all just actors now,) I figured it was OK for the girl to eat French fries. Want to know why folks say don’t capitalize the French in French fries? Because French fries were invented in Belgium. Seriously. OK, it’s because of common usage. Eat enough French fries and they’re not special anymore. I figure I’ll keep on calling them French fries until they change English muffins into english muffins, or until Belgium waffles become just plain waffles. Or until I get enough grief over it.
WJ Smith, aka Hugh Centerville lives in New York State’s Hudson Valley. He is the author of the sword and sorcery, Christian fantasy epic, The Denouement, and is the author of two paranormal boomer fiction books, Bobby Slater’s World and Lottie Barrett Lives (Again). Hugh likes, in no particular order, baseball, dogs (especially beagles,) tall spreading sycamores and old Indian stuff.
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Hot Redemption
By: K.D. Penn
Publisher: Dragonfairy Press
Release Date: Summer 2013
Genre: Erotic Cyberpunk Romance
Goodreads
Epic and his brothers
don’t rob strip clubs for fun or fame, but to use the electric currency
to take care of their family. With androids and robots flooding the job
market, it’s almost impossible for humans to find work. Besides,
stealing comes easy to the gang, until Phoenix steps into their lives,
snatching away their bounty and fogging up Epic’s mind with her
seductive scent.
Shots blare. A chase ensues. Both sides refuse to yield. And the small compromise that comes is
brought by chains and a promise for a bigger hit--on a planet far away from earth.
Can Epic and Phoenix work together to rescue themselves from poverty?
Or
will they find another type of redemption, one lathered in lust and
warmth, pleasure, and the type of undemanding love that no human can
live without?
K.D. Penn is the pseudonym for the writing team of Kenya Wright and D.T. Dyllin.
Kenya
D.T.
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Proximity
(Proximity, #1)
By: M.A. George
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Sept. 23, 2012
Genre: Paranormal Romance
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Dr. Palta Capal would be a typical American career woman…if only she were human.
She
has found her calling in this world as a physician. It’s an ideal
outlet for her compassionate spirit...and unearthly healing powers.
Palta
may spend her nights rereading Jane Austen novels, but she deliberately
avoids pursuing her own love story. Human men—attractive as they may
be—inevitably grow old and wither, leaving her to grieve in solitude.
Frankly, no one has seemed worth the torment.
Enter Eric Moran,
the intensely attractive and enigmatic new coworker on the scene. With
his quiet confidence and warm smile, he manages to draw Palta’s
attention. Little does she know that he, too, holds a secret…one that
will propel them both into an escalating collision of two worlds.
Excerpt
Mercifully it was the weekend, and I couldn’t have been more relieved to put the medical center in my rearview mirror. I wasn’t on call this weekend, so I resolved to turn off my phone, hole up in my house, and live off leftovers. I knew Sabela would worry if I didn’t at least check in—so I sent her a quick text saying I was overtired from a rough day at work and needed some alone time, promising to stop by and fill her in after work on Monday.
Immediately upon reaching home, I took a long shower and changed into some incredibly unattractive but extremely cozy pajamas. I left my hair to air dry (I’m pretty bad off if I don’t see the need for a blow dryer) and tossed a frozen lasagna dinner into the microwave.
The occasion clearly called for a melancholy movie, but as a rule I don’t buy any DVDs that I find too depressing. I scanned my collection for something reasonably dark and settled upon one of the four versions of Jane Eyre I hold in my possession. (You heard me right, that’s four—I know, I practically have a disease. I am physically unable to resist good classic romantic drama.)
By the time the lasagna was done heating, it no longer seemed very appealing. I picked at it for a minute while the previews ran, then gave up and put it in the fridge.
It’s definitely not like me to miss a meal.
I sprawled out on the couch and tried to get absorbed in the movie. I was reasonably successful until the scene where Mr. Rochester proclaims his love for Jane, calling her a “strange, almost unearthly thing”. Clearly I know the story by heart—and it has been many years since it has moved me to tears—but I suddenly found myself blubbering like a baby.
If only it were the case that “unearthly” women had that kind of luck in love.
M. A. George is part proud mother of two adorable children, part super top secret agent…Oops, probably just lost that job.
Writing is what keeps her up into the wee hours of the night.
Fortunately, she has a lot of energy (Read: caffeine is her friend).
She has a bit of an obsession with music (It does a fantastic job of
tuning out rambunctious children while she attempts to focus).
She sincerely hopes people out there enjoy reading her work as much
as she enjoys writing it. And if anyone hears of work for a super top
secret agent, she’s now available (Discretion guaranteed…).
Today we are going to do something a little different. We're going to spotlight a new book that's just come out. Rogue Hunter: Inquest is a sci-fi novel that sounds amazing! Kevis has been kind enough to offer a copy of his new book to one lucky reader! Now before you start scrolling down to read the synopsis, I want you to scroll past it to the video I've added and listen to the theme song while you read the synopsis. Yes, it's a strange request, but trust me, it's pretty cool.
Rogue Hunter: Inquest
(Rogue Hunter, #1)
By: Kevis Hendrickson
Publisher: Self-published
Published: Nov. 1, 2012
Genre: Science Fiction
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LUST AND FURY COLLIDE IN A GALAXY ON THE VERGE OF WAR.
Fearing
retribution from ruthless gangsters over an unsettled debt,
intergalactic bounty hunter Zyra Zanr ventures to a distant world to
collect the reward for Boris Skringler, a notorious terrorist, who has
been sentenced to death by political rivals of the InterGalactic
Alliance. When she fails to secure his release, she decides to break him
out of prison. Zyra soon finds herself an unwilling participant in
events that lead to a climactic showdown between the most powerful
worlds in the galaxy.
Torn between her desperation to rid herself
of the threats to her life and her guilt in agitating the conflict
between two galactic superpowers, Zyra is horrified to learn that the
lives of an entire world of people hinge on her ability to return
Skringler to his captors. However, her distrust of Skringler gives way
to lust, unraveling her plans. Will Zyra give into her passion and
allow Skringler to go free? Or will she surrender him to her enemies to
stop an impending war? The fate of billions depends on whether she
chooses life for a killer or the death of her lover.
Kevis Hendrickson is an aspiring filmmaker, musician, songwriter, novelist, poet, and illustrator. He has penned three full-length novels, one novella, one epic poem, and eight short stories and plans to become a best selling author in the future.
For more information on Kevis, check out his website.
You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter.
Kevis is offering one lucky reader a chance to win a copy of his new novel Inquest!
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Joining us today we have John Nelson, author of Against Nature.
The U.S. is ground-zero for a mysterious global pandemic. The disease is
highly infectious and kills its victims within two weeks of exposure.
It’s neither bacteria nor a virus and all traditional treatment regimens
have failed.
Serena Salus, a radical scientist, discovers the organism is an
extraterrestrial dust mite brought to earth by a shuttle astronaut. The
government contends it’s a genetically-engineered organism created on
earth by enemies of freedom.
Dr. Salus uncovers a vile plan for distributing her experimental
vaccine and finds herself in a deadly confrontation with powerful forces
that’ll stop at nothing to control the distribution of her vaccine.
Modern Dystopian Fiction in the Post- 9/11 Landscape
As a fiction writer, you often don’t have to look very far to find inspiration for a storyline. I saw the news headlines over the past decade as road signs for a modern dystopian thriller. I believe that from fact comes great fiction. In the wake of 9/11 the headlines included tales of secret prisons, extraordinary rendition, torture, military tribunals, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, suspending habeas corpus, ignoring the Geneva Convention and so many other misdeeds befitting an Orwellian novel.
I wondered how we would react to a catastrophic event greater than a terrorist bombing or a broken levy. In my new novel Against Nature, I created a global pandemic; a disease without a cure and superimposed some of our post-9/11 reactions onto this new crisis. Just to spice things up a bit I made the disease causing organism an extraterrestrial dust mite introduced to earth in the wound of an astronaut. I also added in the recent rise of Social Darwinists on the political scene and what came out the other end was a frightening and all too plausible dystopia in the spirit of Orwell, Huxley, Crichton, and Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here.
I think if you want to write in the dystopian genre you have to have a keen sense of the current landscape. You have to look critically at your own society and then reflect on it. I wrote a dystopia about a global pandemic. At the heart of such a story line must be the vaccination plan. In the recent Hollywood film Contagion, the vaccine for a mutated strain of avian flu is doled out by lottery and all the citizens wait in line in an orderly fashion. I guess it feels good to feel good, but is that realistic? What would pandemic America really look like?
Based on our experience of the recent past, I wondered how we would dole out an experimental vaccine for a fatal and highly contagious disease that was spreading unabated across the globe. Would we distribute it in an egalitarian way? While writing Against Nature I pondered such questions and decided to look at our national economic model of wealth distribution as a framework. Considering we live in a society where four hundred Americans control half the wealth of the entire nation and one-percent of Americans control ninety-five percent of the national wealth, I wondered if those four-hundred would wait in line with the masses. Would the Wall Street banker get the vaccine before the day laborer or the venture capitalist before an inner-city pre-school teacher?
I think as a fiction writer you have to ask those questions and view the world through different lenses. To write a compelling dystopia you have to be more than just a good storyteller; you also have to be a social critic. You have to look at your own society from “outside the fishbowl” and be willing to move away from your own comfort zone. If not, you run the risk of writing a predictable Hollywood-style story that’s been done and redone.
I didn’t want my readers to flip through 300 pages and find the same old good versus evil tale where good triumphs or some version of the tired old rags to riches story. I wanted to write something more complex and complicated. I wanted to write a fast-paced thriller without the same old tired formula. I believe that with the right formula you can take the reader on a wild ride and leave them breathless. One key ingredient to any good dystopia is to allow the reader see the reflection of their own society in the pages of the fantasy society. That’s what draws the reader in and that’s what I tried to do in Against Nature. I leave it up to the reader to decide whether I succeeded or not
John is a retired Air Force Master Sergeant and former Special Forces Medic. He's now the Director of Quality and Risk Management, Patient Safety,
and Infection Control at a community hospital in Utah. His novel Against
Nature was released on April 5th, 2011 by Wild Child Publishing.
For more information on John Nelson visit his Website
You can buy Against Nature on
Amazon
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