Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Alone with the Unknown - A WEP Flash

Youthful Frights vs Adult Fears - Halloween Nights when the veil thins between this world and that other one. . .

Don't listen, don't look, don't turn around. . .


Paris - An Old Cemetery, by DG Hudson

A child sleepwalks, unbeknownst to the rest of the family. Out the door, and into a nearby cemetery, stepping gingerly, not feeling the cold night air.  She halts amid the dark stone tombs of yesteryear, eye closed and hands sensing her path and her active mind guiding her tiny feet.

A cat growls and hisses in the shadows of a nearby tomb and the child awakens. There is fear in her eyes yet she knows not what caused her to awaken. She looks around, feeling an aura of restlessness in the spirits biding in the place. All the things around her are dark and foreboding. . .she screams, breaking the stillness of the night. . .

Back in her own home, a few houses away, a mother hears the scream through her sleep and awakens panicked.  She knows her child walks at night. What calls her? She is up in a minute knowing where to find the little one. The child is always drawn to the cemetery, as if for a purpose. A shiver runs down the mother's spine.

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I woke up sweating, looking about me and trying to determine where I was. In the dark, my sleepy eyes could still make out some things by the light of the moon shining outside, its light beaming in the window. I tried to calm myself, this was familiar, not like the dream from which I had woken. A dream where I was alone in the dark, in the middle of a cemetery hundreds of years old, with no idea why I was there nor how I had gotten there. I drifted back into sleep and the dream continued. . .

I didn't recognize the place at all, and there was a feeling of very old things lurking. Why was I standing still, why did I feel like something was getting closer, something I didn't want to see. Why wasn't I running or at least moving away? 

I turned, hearing something behind me. There was nothing there. I looked for my house, but I couldn't see anything, the fog has rolled in, damp, cloying and thick enough to smell. An earthy smell, like earth freshly turned.  Or, musty like a grave. What am I doing here? How did I get here?

***

The doorbell rang, and I nearly fell off the couch. I had fallen asleep again, Was that really a bell I heard or did I dream that too?  There was no way I was answering a door after midnight.. .especially on Samhain, All Hallows Eve, when the spirits can cross over.  No way.

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WEP

Minor feedback acceptable Or MPA
WC=449


That's my entry for this October Challenge of WEP, Write...Edit...Publish, hosted by Denise and Yolanda at the WEP site. This is Flash Fiction using your creative turn of mind in the form of prose, poetry, non-fiction, art, or photos. 


Check the WEP site for details

The prompt: Tell us about the horror that stalked you in the night. Write about it for this challenge and turn those childhood fears into a scare-fest like no other. . .but then leave your night light on when you go to bed.  It's supposed to prevent the spirits coming in under cover of darkness, or so my friend's Italian grandmother told her.  . .

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Do you dislike being in dark dank places, especially cemeteries? Do you feel an affinity to the spirit world, walking dead or otherwise?

Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by and I'll respond.  Don't forget to check the list for DL (Direct Link) at the WEP site to read more Halloween tales. It's your treat for Samhain.

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Thursday, October 8, 2015

Diana Gabaldon's Dragonfly in Amber, A Review

If you could travel through a portal in time 200 years in the past, would you? If you left a beloved spouse behind, would that change your mind?





In the library belonging to a deceased clergyman scholar and his adopted son Roger, Claire Randall delves into historical records of her current time to find out what occurred after the battle at Culloden, fought in 1745 in Scotland. In Dragonfly in Amber, the story of her journey back in time unfolds after Claire has been back in her own time twenty years. She wants to tell her adult daughter about her real father. Roger's connection with that time in the past must also be explained.

Roger and Brianna listen as Claire tells how she arrived in 1745 from 1945 and why and how she came back. What she is burning to know - did Jamie Fraser, a man from that time, survive the battle which decimated Scottish clans? In the past from whence Claire came twenty years before, political turmoil gripped Europe, with the Bourbons, the Stuarts, and other nobles all plotting in Scotland, France, England, Spain, and Italy. From Scotland to France and back again, loyalties shifted and royal favour depended on whom you were backing.

Jamie and Claire establish a business in France, intent on keeping an eye on the Scottish royalty in exile there. They manage to get close to certain royal circles, but the game keeps changing. The intrigues of the French court under Louis XIV, and the pompous and tedious daily rituals of being 'at court' start to weigh on the Scottish visitors. 

A duel ensues after Jamie discovers a secret of the hated English officer from Outlander, Jonathan Randall and challenges his nemesis. Dueling is against the law, landing Jamie in the notorious Bastille prison, where only a royal pardon will release the prisoner. Once Jamie is released, he and Claire are given safe passage back to Scotland where preparations for a battle in support of 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' is gathering momentum.

Following on the heels of Outlander, this novel continues to explore the Jacobite uprisings. I recommend this book if you like historical fiction seasoned with time travel, romance, historical battles, duelling, attempted murder and blackmail. . .I enjoyed Dragonfly in Amber and its story nested within a story approach.

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Are you a Diana Gabaldon fan? Have you read Dragonfly in Amber? Would you like to time travel? To what time period?

Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and I'll respond.  Thanks for stopping by! I'm currently working on something for Halloween, via a challenge hosted by Denise and Yolanda at WEP ...Write Edit and Publish. . .. check out the link, you might be interested.



Reviews Coming Up: 
I'm going to be reviewing two totally different books for this blog soon: Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls, and Anne Rice's 'Don't Look Back'. 

Currently reading: 
French Quarter Nocturne (R. Yeomans) and Sacré Bleu (Christopher Moore).

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