Anna Tan's Blog, page 73

#musicmonday: What it means to be loved | Mark Schultz

So I recently found my Best of Mark Schultz CD and started listening to it again. Out of all the songs I love, this usually doesn't rank very high, but I guess it's resonating with me now because I've just been helping my friend edit the testimony of their miracle son. (Seriously, I'm like thinking how did this baby even alive right now and reaching a year next month?)

A writing update!

I have been sitting staring at this blank space for ages, trying to write a little piece of flash fiction, but I have to admit that I am all fictioned out. So I guess I'll write a writing update.

I looked at my submissions tracking list and realised that I have submitted a short story almost every month since January. Well, if you take into account the fact that I submitted two in Feb, that makes up for the non-submission in March. Oh wait, and two in January too (not counting the stuff I edit...

#bookreview: The Princess and the Captain by Anne-Laure Bondoux

The Princess and the Captain by Anne-Laure Bondoux
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Skimming through the reviews, you find a very polarised opinion of the book. To be frank, if you're looking for a happy ending, don't bother reading this book. If you're looking for a tale of magic, love, adventure and the fantastical, you just might like it.

Princess Malva is sick of her life and the expectations her parents, the Coronador and Coronada of Galnicia, have placed on her. Encouraged by her tutor, the Archon...

#musicmonday: Saturn | Sleeping at Last

You taught me the courage of stars before you left.
How light carries on endlessly, even after death.
With shortness of breath, you explained the infinite.
How rare and beautiful it is to even exist.

I couldn’t help but ask
For you to say it all again.
I tried to write it down
But I could never find a pen.
I’d give anything to hear
You say it one more time,
That the universe was made
Just to be seen by my eyes.

I couldn’t help but ask
For you to say it all again.
I tried to write it down
But I could never f...

In lieu of a #fridayflash, here's a... strange #poem? #throwback

I was looking for a pastel yellow slightly-smaller-than-A5 MGS co-op notepad with Forever Friends printed on it, which contains notes I remember writing for a Christmas exhibition/thing I once wanted to do that sounds very like what is being proposed for this year's Christmas thing, but I found this instead.

As far as I can tell, there were two brothers - Sean and Jordan - and Sean is writing about Jordan's cat, but I... have no idea what it was about. Or who they are. I remember writing a Jor...

#bookreview: Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn

Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kaye Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'd heard a lot of good stuff about this book, so when the second edition came out and I had money (i.e. Amazon gift card balance), I decided to get it. Also, I was there as a book blogger when she first released Open Minds, and then she started becoming like this big name in something like 2 - 3 years, and I'm thinking, dang, how did she do that?

Then it sat in my kindle for ages and ages and ages until January when I was w...

#musicmonday: Death, Be Not Proud | Audrey Assad

Death, be not proud
Even death will die

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Last post on this topic. Promise.
The show is this week!


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#fridayflash: Mince Pies

She'd been small then, a little slip of a child. Small-boned, brown-skinned, black-haired. Undeniably other. She peered up at the shelves of pastries. Stared at them hungrily.

He'd loomed large over her. Tall, white, hunched. A crazy grin on his face. Or maybe not so crazy. Just other.

"Which d'you want, eh?"

She pointed.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"That one, please."

"The mince pie?"

"Mince?" She frowned at it. Squinted, rather. "It's meat?"

He laughed. "Vegetarian meat. I assure you."

"Vegetarian meat?"...

So we cope

Geoffrey Walter Elwell1952 - 2016

#bookreview: The Know: Preservation | Ed Kurst

The Know: Preservation by Ed Kurst
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

John Preston has always had this talent that he calls "The Know" - it's something like a premonition, or an ability to see the future. Any significant usage of this ability, however, leaves John exhausted. He's resigned himself to imminent death - until an exceptionally strong Know takes him all the way to the past: to when Tril, the leader of primitive humans, first Knows that the earth is going to be destroyed in a Fiery Catastrophe....