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Angela Korra'ti

Book Log

Book Log #55: A Fountain Filled With Blood, by Julia Spencer-Fleming

It took me a bit to get into A Fountain Filled With Blood, which is the second book in Julia Spencer-Fleming’s series about a young female Episcopalian priest who becomes involved with the police chief of her small town. For one thing, I made the mistake of trying to read this book before I read Book 1. For another, several of the initial scenes involve violence against gay people in the town, and I was genuinely unsure if I could handle reading about that. Nor was I terribly happy about the relationship brewing between Clare, the priest, and police chief Russ–because Russ is married to another woman, and that seemed to me to be asking for all sorts of annoying angst I wouldn’t enjoy reading about.

But then I did go back and read Book 1, In the Bleak Midwinter, and wound up enjoying that more than I expected. So I opted to give this one another chance.

As with Book 1, the writing here is quietly engaging, with just enough descriptive detail to be vivid, and not so much that it gets in the way of the story. The spate of violence–which soon enough includes murder–that must be investigated is suitably complex, and once I got past the uneasiness of seeing gays targeted, it was refreshing to see Clare speaking out against such acts being perpetrated. Clare in general seems to be a highly atypical priest, which for me at least makes her an interesting character even if sometimes I have a hard time buying her plausibility.

The heart of the book is of course her burgeoning relationship with Russ. If the idea of a protagonist being attracted to a married man bothers you, especially if that protagonist is a priest, you might skip this series. But I will give it credit for handling the chemistry between the two leads in a very ethical way so far. My only complaint is that I’d like to see the police chief’s wife on camera, and given the same complex treatment of character that Clare and Russ have gotten so far. I may have to read farther in the series just to see if that occurs. For this installment in the meantime, four stars.

August 10, 2009 by
Short Pieces

Back on track

Got through what little changes I needed to the story and have now returned to adding new words. And… aw, what the hell, here’s a little bit of what I wrote tonight.

Galvanized, Dorcas seized Elias’ arm with one hand and his face with the other, but no matter how she pressed she couldn’t get him to turn his gaze to her. Then Caleb gave a cry and pointed, and shock rolled up from within her, threatening to drown exhaustion and dread alike. The moon’s radiance, thin trickle of light though it was, was enough now to cast a silvery sheen down on the little island–and in the heart of the trees on its nearest bank, she spied the shape of a woman. Dorcas couldn’t see much of her from a distance, what she wore or what her face was like. Yet she could see the moonlight shining right through her as though she were made of mist.

And she could see grief breaking out across the face of Elias Sutherland, enough to tell her he was looking now at his Jenny. His wife, she thought. Her healing Power recoiled in her, as if the shape on the island revolted it somehow, and that was all Dorcas needed to tell her she was looking on no one alive. If that shape was Jenny Sutherland, Jenny Sutherland was dead.

Now I just have to figure out what happens next.

Written tonight: 592
The Blood of the Land total: 3,836

August 9, 2009 by
Short Pieces

Story overhaul

So yesterday I was poking around on Wikipedia, wanting to look up some stuff about Roanoke Island for the story I’m writing–only I discovered that due to the history of the island during the Civil War, there was no real feasible way that my story could take place as I envisioned it on that island. The Confederacy took it over pretty much right after the war broke out, only to be thrown off it by the Union in 1862. So there would have been way too much activity going on there for the story I planned to work.

It did interest me though to learn that thousands of escaping or freed slaves wound up there in a freedsmen’s colony by 1863. Which surely has all sorts of other interesting story potential, just not for the story I’m working on.

I have therefore shifted the action from North Carolina over into Kentucky. I don’t know how much of this will actually come out in the story, given that I’m trying to keep this as short as possible, but I’m now envisioning my heroine and her beloved escaping from a small Kentucky plantation and heading north along the Kentucky River, aiming for the Ohio on their way to Canada. My Warder boy, Elias Sutherland, will now be a secret abolitionist as well as a Warder, and he’ll have been the owner of the first “station” that Dorcas and Caleb were told to shoot for on their escape–the barn where they could find provisions. Only slavehunters will have found Elias out, since he’s suspicious anyway as someone who never ever leaves his land. And the main action of the story will take place on an island on the very edge of Elias’ power range, which is where his wife will have died as well.

Spent most of yesterday trying to work this through, and then started working on changing what I’ve written so far to account for it. Not too much work required here, though I’ve taken the opportunity to edit down some of the verbiage as I go. Today will be finishing that up and hopefully moving the story farther along.

Edited yesterday: -154
The Blood of the Land total: 3,244

August 9, 2009 by
Book Log

Book Log #54: Hands of Flame, by C.E. Murphy

I’m long on record as getting a lot of enjoyment out of ‘s work, and Hands of Flame is no exception. It’s a fine conclusion to the Negotiator Trilogy, bringing some resolution not only to heroine Margrit’s relationship with the gargoyle Alban, but also to the humans close to her. Played off against the more personal relationship is the development of her station among the Old Races, with whom she has gained enough status that they’ve given her a new name: The Negotiator.

There’s some good solid intrigue here as Margrit is hauled in to mediate a deal between the selkies and the djinn–and at the same time, she’s pushed by the dragonlord Janx into trying to destroy her own brand new employer, Eliseo Daisani. Margrit is forced to delve into the history of these two longstanding rivals, and with Alban’s help, uncovers a secret neither the dragon nor the vampire knew.

The pace is fast; a lot of the time on the way through this book I found myself going “wait, what? Wait, what? Wait, what?” and having to process things I read twice. But this is not a bad thing. Just be ready to handle a lot of plot details thrown at you very, very quickly if you take this one on! And for gods’ sake, make sure you’ve read Books 1 and 2 first, else you will be very, very lost. Four stars.

August 6, 2009 by
Short Pieces

Super-quick

Not a bad night’s work on a night when I also had to deal with a code release from work!

Written tonight: 515
The Blood of the Land total: 3,398

August 5, 2009 by
Great Big Sea

Vertical Movement Alert!

This just in off the GBS newsletter, folks: tickets are going on pre-sale TOMORROW for four November shows in WA! However, these ones are in some locales that the B’ys haven’t much hit before, as opposed to Seattle proper. To wit:

Nov 18 – Washington Center for the Performing Arts – Olympia, WA – Presale,
August 5, 9am PDT

Nov 20 – Edmonds Center for the Arts – Edmonds, WA – Presale, August 5, 9am
EDT

Nov 21 – The Admiral Theatre – Bremerton, WA – Presale, August 5, 9am EDT

Nov 22 – Mount Baker Theatre – Bellingham, WA – On Sale Now

I’m eying that November 21 date for Bremerton, as that’s a Saturday and is therefore the one that will not require me to do anything to my work schedule. Who’s with me? 🙂

August 4, 2009 by