A Fantastic Adventure-Book Review of The Bracelet

ad·ven·ture

   [ad-ven-cher

noun

1.

an exciting or very unusual experience.

2.

participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises

3.

a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.

It’s funny how our cable company designates drama, suspense, history, musical, animation, science fiction-fantasy, comedy, action, western, horror, romance and adventure movies. Doesn’t it seem strange to separate the adventure and action movies? While all books and movies should have some sense of adventure, the same applies to most categories, for example, musicals can be dramas or comedies. Wonder how many good movies I’ve missed because it said drama instead of adventure, or how many funny movies I missed because it said musical? Have you ever searched for a book in a bookstore only to find the humorous book under mystery or the commercial fiction book in the romance section? In book publishing, there seems to be a disparity from the movie categories with genres like Mystery, Woman’s Lit, Chick Lit, Romance, Paranormal, Erotica, Gothic, Christian, SteamPunk, Commercial Fiction etc. all of which contain adventure as well as other elements of the other genres. As a consumer of movies and books, I wish there was a way to merge things for the sake of clarity. Maybe it would have helped Blockbuster stick around. Anyway, the following book review is about a paranormal-fantasy that’s also part romance and 100% hair-raising adventure.

Imagine a bracelet that can magically send you to another realm? Growing up, I always enjoyed reading fairy tales when the weather was bad and I couldn’t play outside. Few things are as entertaining as transportation to a mysterious planet, a new island or a faraway castle. The genres I choose as an adult are usually varied but rarely include fantasy fiction and yet I ordered this book on Amazon the minute I heard about it. Even adults on occasion, like zoning into a dream or escaping into a parallel universe.

 Last week I wrote about a warrior princess, but this week I’m introducing you to Aislinn. Seems a lot of things are happening in the world of the warrior princess. For example, the movie Brave just came out with a character by the name of Merida and even though she’s supposed to be Scottish, the name Merida as far as I know is from Spain. (There’s a town by that name.) The movie is by Pixar and if you like tough heroines and Disney-style princess films, well then you’ll probably love it. In fact, if you know someone who makes Disney films or Pixar films you should tell them about my friend Beth Muscat’s book, ‘The Bracelet’. I can almost hear the musical score with Elton John singing about Lytingorms! Remember the first time you dropped one of those dry, magic sponges into a tub of water and it amazingly came to life, impressing everyone around you? That’s what this writer’s imagination is like. She took a simple story about a college girl and created a whole world of exciting characters and animated living creatures! Every paragraph brings to life an emotional array of sights, sounds and aromas that tug on your heartstrings making you immediately care or hate the characters. Her descriptions are definitely impressive!

  Within the first few pages, I was lured into Aislinn’s world on Earth and then I got sucked even further into her life on Polasia. Aislinn is a warrior princess who wants the knights in the kingdom to see her as an equal, willing to fight alongside the man she loves. Of course proving herself might be tougher than she thinks. Beth’s descriptions flashed in Technicolor in front of my eyes and I was certain she had hypnotized me into loving green hair, blue squirrels and crossbred fruits. There are monsters, serpents, ogres and trolls not to mention kings, queens, wizards and quite a few demons. I enjoyed the adventure and if you like Disney, J.K. Rowling, Grimm or Andersen, you too will have fun reading The Bracelet.

Beth Muscat has written five books all with very interesting characters and for more information, here’s a link to her site: Bent River Books

Lessons in Distraction

Not quite Godzilla but almost. See my friend William Kendall’s blog this week and read about Godzilla.

 Speak of The Devil and Godzilla (Please click here after you comment)

Hi!  Fiona's my name and distraction's my game. Sounds sweet huh? Yeah, well keep laughing and watch your ankles. I am a new employee at The Desert Rocks. Essentially, I’m a warrior princess from Chihuahua, Mexico that doesn’t tolerate boredom. My job is to be as annoying and as naughty as possible. My favorite words are rough and roof. I can’t write and I don’t really give a crap what everyone is doing as long as they pay attention to me. Me, me, me. Maybe I will be a writer. That reminds me, I think I will crap now.

The minute a good idea comes into my bosses’ head that’s when I start making loud obnoxious noises and act like I’m gagging so she’ll come to my rescue. With my help, perhaps she'll kick it up a notch. Doesn’t she know poetry is excruciatingly boring? No wonder she lives in the desert.

First The Desert Rocks, then the world!!!

Have you heard of The Writers of Mass Distraction on Facebook? Great group of peeps but the idea that they know how to distract is absolutely false. Do they chew shoes? How about new flip-flops? No, I didn't think so. They’re still hemming and hawing about adverbs and punctuation. Chasing my tail, now that’s fun. Sure, I’m also a dog but that’s no reason to be cruel. I mean it’s 110 degrees outside and while she’s in here using the little girl’s room, I’m supposed to go outside in a shaded courtyard? Isn't that a bit much? What about these stupid puppy pads that I like shredding into millions of pieces? What could possibly be wrong with that? Besides, all the nice rugs around here work fine for piss. 

When she picks me up and tells me I’m cute, it makes me want to puke. Just one of the reasons I try clawing her eyes out and biting her ears off. Last week everyone wore bandages and complained about a little blood. So shoot me, I’m teething. Wait until I go for your jugular! Sometimes I climb up high and start digging around in that fur-ball hairstyle of hers to see if there is anything between her ears, but I haven’t found anything significant and she screams every time. For goodness sake, I’m only three pounds, there’s no reason for a conniption. Ever since that girl bamboozled her into rescuing me from euthanasia, I've enjoyed torturing her soul by barking and whining when I could be sleeping. Why should I care about the youth in Asia?

Trust me when I tell you that distraction is a full time job around here. The way she jumps up from the computer, and starts chasing me around with a can of Lysol is classic. Can you imagine they call me the bitch?

Note from Managing Editor: No dogs were harmed during the making of this blog post. Cat lovers please don't gloat.

Desire The Moon

Growing up, I told everyone that I was going to be a poet. A high school friend made me business cards that said so. My parents were laughing and dying of embarrassment when I mentioned it to one of their esteemed acquaintances or colleagues. Their friends were very smart technical people who designed things that helped send people to the moon. When I heard the word Apollo I thought of Greece rather than space exploration. I wrote poetry about the moon and waxed nostalgic about my future as a poet. We all know that God works in mysterious ways. Ways beyond our grasp and understanding and though I majored in English literature and my poems were featured in the University newspaper, it was as clear as my twinkling tears,  that writing poetry would be a tough way to make a living. That’s when fate stepped in and for many many years, I wrote headlines for advertisements. Sometimes they’d rhyme but mostly they would say mundane things like, "Moonlight Madness Sale" or “Massive Blowout Sale.” Hardly poetic. One graphic artist put a toilet in one of those blowout sale ads to keep me laughing. After all, I had to maintain my sense of humor while life was passing by…. I was writing but not what I wanted to write. At least I made a living.
The moon continuously orbits but someday....someday, as God is my witness, I’d be that poet that embarrasses everyone. I will write and some readers will like it---but even if they don’t, I will be true to myself.
I worked feverishly to establish my goal—and thirty years later.... Well, I  haven't met all my goals and  I'm no Poet Laureate, but this week felt like a rocket-launch blowout, because two of my poems were published. (Other poems have been published before, but this is special because these were very different publications and very different poems--two in one week? Must be the cycles of the moon!) Wish my parents were around so we could laugh and giggle about it.

1. Rusty Nail Magazine
2. Zeluna.net

 Desire helps us jump, dive and evade obstacles while we're listening and watching for opportunities.

A Book Review

My Review of Karla Telega’s  "Box of Rocks"

Obviously, with a handle like The Desert Rocks I was immediately drawn to the title of Karla Telega’s book. First, I read a few reviews about how funny it is and then I plunged in and plunked down my credit card for a brand new copy. Honestly, I was rarely as excited to read any book because from everything I’ve read about my friend Karla, I feel connected to her—somehow--in a comical but spiritual—skewered-writer sort of way. Her  description of a community newspaper called The Messenger, almost made me cry. After all, I spent many years at local community newspapers and I remembered the dust and the piles of papers on all the counter tops. You should have seen me dance when Minnie mouse jumped out of the file drawer on my desk. I’m pretty sure my screeching was audible at The New York Times, over 3000 miles away.

 Anyway, back to Karla. Sometimes I read books that are about as murky as southern swamp water. Others make me want to invest in toothpicks just to keep my eyes from closing and going to sleep. Karla on the other hand wrote a book that’s interesting and it’s probably why I identify with her and relate to her perceptive observations. (Don’t tell her I said that, she might think I’m weird. Well, I am, but she is super talented.) Interestingly enough, the book was not just humorous but seriously an exciting page-turner type mystery. The kind of book you want to enjoy when you’re practicing your posture and sitting on the edge of your seat. The main characters are Maggie and her best friend Cher who do everything together but are getting bored of the typical neighborhood options. The local ghost and graveyard tour was possibly the last straw. They decide to write a list of fun things to keep themselves occupied, and finally zero in on rock collecting and panning for gold, hence the title of the book. What starts out being a routine hike with a little quest for excitement, soon morphs into a murder mystery with full on Bogie-style suspense. In fact, the two friends who seem like they would do anything for each other--begin at one hair-raising point-- suspecting each other! Of course, there are many possible scenarios floating around the small town and Maggie and Cher are on a mission to dig out the truth. That’s if they can stay alive!

For More Karla-Click Here

Lastly, this book is a Maggie Gorski Mystery which hopefully implies that there will be more escapades with Karla’s characters. I also thought it funny that out of all the books I’ve read lately, none of them felt more similar to my manuscript, which is a romantic adventure but not a mystery. My point is that if you like my blog, you’ll probably love reading Box of Rocks. Thanks Karla for writing this wonderful book. I’m sure all your fans are drooling for more and once you read it, you will become a fan and want more too. I certainly do.

Cars in My Manuscript

Don't you think it’s fairly reasonable that a person who spent over 15 years doing automotive advertising would have cars in her manuscript? If you said yes, well then read on and if you said no, well you're probably right because the cars don't really move my plot forward on the story superhighway.Cars are just a small personal luxury I've added to make things more  realistic. Besides, aren't you suppose to write what you know? These models are not actually mentioned, but reference is made to raindrops on windshields, rent a cars, crashes, etc. In fact, it seems automobiles are popping up all over the place.

I’ve blogged a little bit about Penniless Hearts and since I’m always afraid of giving too much away, I think that the car is a nice way to get to know my characters without divulging too much information. So fasten your seat belts and let's go....

My main character Penny drives a faded old Volvo in need of new windshield wiper blades.

The woman she works with is Tina who drives her boyfriend Darin’s car. Darin owns a few car dealerships. Here are Tina’s wheels.

Penny’s dad drives a giant Oldsmobile from the seventies. A classic gas-guzzler.

Her boyfriend John drives a truck for his carpentry business. It’s a regular small truck like this....

The pilot rents the nicest car at the airport.

Alevina, the Hawaiian family man about to have a holiday luau drives up in one of these:

The hamburger guy has a filthy Honda with a loud stereo.

Later on, we need some more rental cars.

Penny gets a Sentra.

The petrologist and her husband are driving a white sedan like this:

Glenn the reporter is driving a black Hyundai.

What kind of vehicles do you have in your book?