If you're anything like me, you've spent too much time thinking, "I want to be a writer/artist/musician/craftsperson," and not enough time thinking, "I am a writer/artist/musician/craftsperson." Maybe you spend time writing, drawing, painting, playing music, knitting, doing woodwork, making collages, but, because you aren't doing it full-time or professionally, because you think what you've created isn't wildly original and brilliant, you think of yourself as someone who "wants to be" instead of someone who is an artist. Which is pretty silly, because all creative ty
Great Caesar's ghost! I missed this series when it aired on ABC Family in 2008. Heck, I'd never even heard of it until a couple of weeks ago when I randomly stumbled across it. And boy, am I glad I did!
Adam scores the ultimate tickets to the last concert of rock star Jimmy Earle. How does he know that it is Jimmy's last concert? Because Jimmy has taken Death, the latest and greatest drug on the street. Live one glorious week on the high of your life...then die. Adam and his girlfriend Lizzie are there to see Earle give the performance of a lifetime, then die on stage. As the crowd goes wild, the two escape the area to find masked members of the Zealots handing out Death capsules on the street.
Ananna is the only daughter of the leaders of the Tanarau pirate clan. When her parents try to marry her off to the son of the Hariri clan, Ananna chooses to flee both families and the arranged marriage. The Hariri are so angered, they send a magic-using assassin after her. But when the assassin, Naji, confronts Ananna and she accidentally saves his life, he becomes bound to her through a powerful, magical curse. They set out on a quest to break this "impossible curse," all the while fleeing the angry Hariri clan and strange, otherwordly beings with a mysterious agenda.
I love a good fantasy story, full of high adventure, mystery, intrigue, romance, and strange magic. For a long time, a lot of fantasy worlds, influenced by Tolkien's Middle-earth, have been based on a romanticized version of medieval Western Europe. Which is fine, I love me some Tolkien, but I've been wanting to branch out to other fantasy lately, fantasy that's less Tolkienesque.
The kingdom of Carthya is in trouble. The royal family is dead, the neighboring kingdoms are starting to whittle away at its borders, and a civil war is brewing between nobles. To prevent chaos from descending upon Carthya, Conner, an unscrupulous nobleman, devises a desperate plan. What if the king's youngest son, who has been lost at sea, suddenly returns to save the kingdom and stop the invasion of its neighbors? All he needs is someone to act the part. Enter Sage, orphan, impertinent thief, and general pain in Conner's side.
The main character of Michael Ende’s Momo is a nine year old girl who, after noticing subtle changes in her friends and neighbors, quickly finds herself battling the mysterious and evil Men in Grey. Who are these ominous, bald “salesmen” who go around convincing just about everyone that by saving as much time as possible and depositing that time in the Men in Grey’s bank, they will get it back with interest at some later point? No one really knows.
If ever there were an author who could squeeze the most meaning out of the least amount of writing, it is Australian author David Malouf. In a spare 150 pages, Malouf tells the story of an exiled Roman poet living among “barbarians” who discovers a boy alone in the wilderness. He convinces the tribe’s leader to capture the boy so that he can teach him to live as a man. The task is fraught with attacks from wives and grandmothers who believe the boy is possessed by an animal spirit that will infect their families. Infection occurs, but of what kind . . . and why?
I confess, I was not immediately entranced by Harvest, and it was not until I started following the popular Downton Abbey television series that I began to appreciate the perspective presented in Jim Crace’s novel.
