Happy Hump Day. :)
Welcome back to Wednesday Words, where I use Random.org to show you all a piece the book I am currently reading.
At the end of last year, N.K. Jemisin published The Awakened Kingdom, an e-sequel to the awesome Inheritance Trilogy that became my life a few months back. This book follows a brand new godling named Shill who gets herself tangled up with mortals while trying to find out what her nature is. She's a very interesting godling, being less than 6 months old, only 1 month when the story starts. She has a thought process of someone with no attention span, which is always a hoot to read. :)
I'm about 3/5 of the way through, so let's see where Random.org takes us today.
From 1-100%, Random has chosen for me to go back to the 36% mark. (I just learned how to get to a location in an e-book! Multiply the number of locations by the percentage where you want to go.)
Counting these lines aren't as easy as I thought. I'm going to veto Random and myself and give you a few lines from the 36% mark.
His eyes narrowed. "You'd do my bidding? In exchange for...what, exactly?"
Oh, this! I inhaled. "Let me follow you around and do stuff like you do and talk to you and watch how you do things and maybe be your friend!"
The innocence of children. :)
Greetings
- Debra Renée Byrd
- Delaware, United States
- Deborah Hawkins, penned Debra Renée Byrd, began writing after a blank book project in elementary school and never stopped, fashioning stories based on her favorite TV shows and movies before creating more original works. She studied at the University of the Arts and Florida State University before settling down and graduating from Temple University. She now resides in her hometown of Dover, DE, where she spends most of her time at work or at church. She loves fantasies, superheroes, is a trekkie and a brown coat. She loves television and lives for Final Fantasy video games, having collected most of them. She has read a myriad of authors, and her favorite authors change whenever she finds a new book that changes her life... "When you can't run, you crawl. When you can't crawl...well, you know the rest." -Tracey, Firefly, "The Message"
Showing posts with label N.K. Jemisin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label N.K. Jemisin. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
Friday Freeday: The Feels
Happy Friday!
So, I've read a lot of books in my day (who of us hasn't?), and every now and then, there is a book that just sticks into my spirit and sews itself into my soul. That's really dramatic, but that's the best way to explain it.
The first book that ever did that to me was The Outsiders back in the 7th grade, and I spent a whole half of a class period bawling my eyes out as quietly as possible when Johnny died. Then, I spent a year or two trying to write a book like it because I wanted to see more like it.
Thinking of all of the books I read between 1998 (sheesh) and now, another book didn't really touch me like that until Octavia Butler's Fledgling. Shori's hardship bled through the pages, and I was an emotional wreck through most of the story. That it was Octavia's last book before she died also left such a huge mark. I call her my spirit mother and wrote a novella that may never see daylight but continues the story with Shori's daughter Ruby. I wanted to expand on the world of which she only got to give us a smidgen, and I hope one day someone will see it and say I did well.
The next books that touched me that hard was the Enduring Flame Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. This was the first solid fantasy book I picked up from the library, and what struck me most was how different it was from the general medieval fantasy that dominates the genre. The language was genuine and modern, and the main characters, even though they were boys, were just like me in a sense. I related to them and went through their trials with them on a deep, personal level. These novels inspired me because they helped me know there is a place for my book out there, and it doesn't have to be the traditional fantasy to make it.
If you follow me on Twitter and don't have a non-stop feed (I do) so that you've seen my tweets, you know I just finished N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy and will not be reading again for another couple of days to recover. She doesn't know it yet, but she is now my spirit sister. The emotions and struggles tied into these three books definitely left their mark on me. The stories were rich and different, and complete. (PAUSE. What is The Awakened Kingdom? Oh, my God, it's a fourth book. I'm dying right now. I am now writing you all from the grave.) I've read other authors in binge-mode when I discover them, but I feel like Ms. Jemisin will be on the same level for me as Octavia Butler, a new look at writing that I understand on new levels that I didn't ever expect to reach. I'm very excited about her and reading more (Oh my God oh my God, I can't wait for payday) of her brilliant works.
Do you have any books or authors that touched you in a special way?
So, I've read a lot of books in my day (who of us hasn't?), and every now and then, there is a book that just sticks into my spirit and sews itself into my soul. That's really dramatic, but that's the best way to explain it.
The first book that ever did that to me was The Outsiders back in the 7th grade, and I spent a whole half of a class period bawling my eyes out as quietly as possible when Johnny died. Then, I spent a year or two trying to write a book like it because I wanted to see more like it.
Thinking of all of the books I read between 1998 (sheesh) and now, another book didn't really touch me like that until Octavia Butler's Fledgling. Shori's hardship bled through the pages, and I was an emotional wreck through most of the story. That it was Octavia's last book before she died also left such a huge mark. I call her my spirit mother and wrote a novella that may never see daylight but continues the story with Shori's daughter Ruby. I wanted to expand on the world of which she only got to give us a smidgen, and I hope one day someone will see it and say I did well.
The next books that touched me that hard was the Enduring Flame Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. This was the first solid fantasy book I picked up from the library, and what struck me most was how different it was from the general medieval fantasy that dominates the genre. The language was genuine and modern, and the main characters, even though they were boys, were just like me in a sense. I related to them and went through their trials with them on a deep, personal level. These novels inspired me because they helped me know there is a place for my book out there, and it doesn't have to be the traditional fantasy to make it.
If you follow me on Twitter and don't have a non-stop feed (I do) so that you've seen my tweets, you know I just finished N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy and will not be reading again for another couple of days to recover. She doesn't know it yet, but she is now my spirit sister. The emotions and struggles tied into these three books definitely left their mark on me. The stories were rich and different, and complete. (PAUSE. What is The Awakened Kingdom? Oh, my God, it's a fourth book. I'm dying right now. I am now writing you all from the grave.) I've read other authors in binge-mode when I discover them, but I feel like Ms. Jemisin will be on the same level for me as Octavia Butler, a new look at writing that I understand on new levels that I didn't ever expect to reach. I'm very excited about her and reading more (Oh my God oh my God, I can't wait for payday) of her brilliant works.
Do you have any books or authors that touched you in a special way?
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Wednesday Words: The Kingdom of Gods
Good Humpday to y'all!
Every 2nd-5th Wednesday, if I am reading a book at a good enough pace, I use Random.org to share with you a few lines of what I'm reading. I began reading the third book in N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods after reading The Broken Kingdoms in about 3 days. Even though I'm a few years late, what a great debut for Ms. Jemisin! I'm a big fan now.
The Kingdom of Gods is a much bigger project than the other two, coming in at 613 words, and we're looking through the eyes of the Trickster Sieh in this one, so whether or not he's reliable is on a very thin balancing beam.
Alrighty, so in the way of pages, Random.org has chosen..........................page 454.
There are 28 lines on that page, so from 1-28, Random has given me...................line 6.
I'm going to jump up to 4 so you all have a little bit of context.
The continent that had been destroyed by the Arameri when they'd been foolish enough to try and use Nahadoth as their weapon. He'd done what they wanted, and then some.
There's always a valuable lesson in being careful what you wish for.
Every 2nd-5th Wednesday, if I am reading a book at a good enough pace, I use Random.org to share with you a few lines of what I'm reading. I began reading the third book in N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods after reading The Broken Kingdoms in about 3 days. Even though I'm a few years late, what a great debut for Ms. Jemisin! I'm a big fan now.
The Kingdom of Gods is a much bigger project than the other two, coming in at 613 words, and we're looking through the eyes of the Trickster Sieh in this one, so whether or not he's reliable is on a very thin balancing beam.
Alrighty, so in the way of pages, Random.org has chosen..........................page 454.
There are 28 lines on that page, so from 1-28, Random has given me...................line 6.
I'm going to jump up to 4 so you all have a little bit of context.
The continent that had been destroyed by the Arameri when they'd been foolish enough to try and use Nahadoth as their weapon. He'd done what they wanted, and then some.
There's always a valuable lesson in being careful what you wish for.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Wednesday Words: A Hundred Thousand of them!
Happy Wednesday!
By Blood We Live was CRAZY good! I'm so glad I stumbled onto Glen Duncan. Phenomenal writer!
On a whim a couple of weeks ago, and I tweeted the article I'd read, I decided to look up black fantasy writers to see what I'm working with, so to speak. (Being a black speculative fiction writer is a totally other topic, and I'll probably work on that for Friday, but...) The article gave me SIX fantasy AND sci-fi writers, only one of which I'd heard of already, my spirit animal/vampire mother, Octavia Butler. The writer of the article said there were more, but geez, can you write an article with a list, or something? (I'll Google them, but still, if he could only pick 6, then I imagine there aren't that many others.)
I went with whichever cover gripped me most for fantasy (One book was voodoo-y, and the cover of another was jungle-looking, sooo...) and chose N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which is actually Jemisin's debut. The cover is AWESOME. Look at it. The story is set around the daughter of an outcast princess whose grandfather named her one of three heirs to his throne. So I'm guessing a fight to the death will ensue.
Now, because it is Wednesday Words, I will be using Random.org to pick a page and a line from the page to give everyone (and myself) a taste of what I'm reading.
There are 427 pages in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and Random has chosen page........358.
There are approximately 21 lines on that page, and they're all like half sentences (the print is wide-set), so I'm going to go with sentences today. Random has.........gone down the middle and chosen sentence 10.
I consoled myself with the fact that at least the poor soul in the oubliette was dead now.
Yikes.
By Blood We Live was CRAZY good! I'm so glad I stumbled onto Glen Duncan. Phenomenal writer!
On a whim a couple of weeks ago, and I tweeted the article I'd read, I decided to look up black fantasy writers to see what I'm working with, so to speak. (Being a black speculative fiction writer is a totally other topic, and I'll probably work on that for Friday, but...) The article gave me SIX fantasy AND sci-fi writers, only one of which I'd heard of already, my spirit animal/vampire mother, Octavia Butler. The writer of the article said there were more, but geez, can you write an article with a list, or something? (I'll Google them, but still, if he could only pick 6, then I imagine there aren't that many others.)
I went with whichever cover gripped me most for fantasy (One book was voodoo-y, and the cover of another was jungle-looking, sooo...) and chose N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which is actually Jemisin's debut. The cover is AWESOME. Look at it. The story is set around the daughter of an outcast princess whose grandfather named her one of three heirs to his throne. So I'm guessing a fight to the death will ensue.
Now, because it is Wednesday Words, I will be using Random.org to pick a page and a line from the page to give everyone (and myself) a taste of what I'm reading.
There are 427 pages in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, and Random has chosen page........358.
There are approximately 21 lines on that page, and they're all like half sentences (the print is wide-set), so I'm going to go with sentences today. Random has.........gone down the middle and chosen sentence 10.
I consoled myself with the fact that at least the poor soul in the oubliette was dead now.
Yikes.
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