Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion
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BOOK TITLE: Force of NatureAUTHOR: C.J. Box
YEAR: 2012
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Mystery/Thriller
Sollis began to slow down on the highway. The two-track road that led three miles to Nate’s had no markings or signs. In the winter, it drifted over and was inaccessible.
Joe looked to the southwest. A lazy curl of black smoke rose from where the river coursed through the valley where Nate’s place was located.
“Trouble,” Joe said, chinning toward the smoke.
I see you're reading C. J. Box again. Do you have a favorite book in the series yet?
I can understand that. I'm slowly learning that with Joe Pickett there are good or great novels. I hope to one day read up to the very newest!
If I remember correctly, there are currently twenty novels in the Joe Pickett series. You've got a lot to get through and it'll be a joyride all the way! :)
Garrison wrote: "If I remember correctly, there are currently twenty novels in the Joe Pickett series. You've got a lot to get through and it'll be a joyride all the way! :)"Thanks for the hopeful wishes Garrison! Oh yeah and I forgot to ask (I know I ask this a lot. To the point you KNOW probably what I'm going to say, lol).
Have you thought of getting into the Travis Chase trilogy? I've been thinking lately of revisiting it but my bro has the first book currently (and it's collecting dust, he says he will get back to it just "one day" lol). I know you said you go about reading your next book in a (I think you said) random kind of way but have you wanted to check it out? Just curious. :)
And that I love this trilogy of "left-wing themed" books like you like this seeming "right-wing" type of series as you've called it.
Title: The ArkWriter: Boyd Morrison
Genre: Action/Adventure
Excerpt:
Tyler thought about them, but nothing was familiar. "Beyond the obvious, none of them are jogging my memory. But you're saying all of this has something to do with Noah's Ark?"
"Right."
"And me?"
"Yes."
Tyler had to admit this all sounded weird to him. What could Noah's Ark possibly have to do with him?
To answer your question, CJ, I haven't started the Travis Chase books yet. Random selection aside, this year has been particularly slow for me in terms of creative output, whether it's reading, writing, or editing. I've been having lots of mentally ill episodes and low-energy days, both of which make it harder to concentrate on reading anything, much less a Travis Chase book.
I understand Garrison. And keeping focused is problem we're all facing because of current tough curcumstances. Hope ur episodes become less frequent and you feel better soon my friend. :(
Thank you, CJ. You're a kind soul. :)
BOOK TITLE: Catching FireAUTHOR: Suzanne Collins
YEAR: 2009
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Dystopian Sci-Fi
We slog back to the train in silence. In the hallway outside my door, Haymitch gives my shoulder a pat and says, “You could do a lot worse, you know.” He heads off to his compartment, taking the smell of wine with him.
I'm kind of cheating as I'm putting here a book I just re-read and finished recently! I am on a completely different kind of book now lol.
Book: The BreachAuthor: Patrick Lee
Paragraph:
"I want to know what all this is," he said. "I saw the steel container on the plane. And there were details in the First Lady's note, but not enough. I'm going to help you get to Coldfoot, regardless, but if I'm going to risk getting killed over something, I need to know what it is. I don't think that's asking too much."
C. J. wrote: "Book: The BreachAuthor: Patrick Lee
Paragraph:
"I want to know what all this is," he said. I saw the steel container on the plane. And there were details in the First Lady's note, but not enough...."
Seems like a reasonable request to me. Hehe!
"C. J. wrote: "Book: The BreachAuthor: Patrick Lee
Paragraph:
"I want to know what all this is,"...but if I'm going to risk getting killed over something, I need to know what it is. I don't think that's asking too much.""
Garrison wrote: Seems like a reasonable request to me. Hehe!
Lol, Garrison. :D
Book: The Order Author: Daniel Silva
Genre: Fiction, Thriller (Gabriel Allon Series) Date: 2020
Paragraph:
"This matter is far too serious to be entrusted to a journalist. It needs to be handled by someone skillful and ruthless enough to find out what really happened. And quickly."
Book: The Big FourAuthor: Agatha Christie
Excerpt:
"Good gracious, Poirot," I cried, "are you pretending to see all this?"
"I see it with the eyes of the mind, mon ami. So, and only so, could it have happened. Come, let us go back to the house."
"You want to see Madame Olivier again?"
Poirot gave a curious smile.
"No, Hastings, I want to see the face of the lady on the stairs."
I reposted because I realized I posted something wrong in the excerpt, lol.
BOOK TITLE: The Ever-Burning LightAUTHOR: K.L. Cottrell
YEAR: 2015
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Urban Fantasy
I can’t even breathe enough to bellow, “Fuck!” All I manage is a choked-out whimper, leaving all the stunned shock and immense pain to get stuck in my chest.
Schlink, Bernard. The Reader. Trans. Carol Janeway. New York: Vintage, 1998.“Don’t touch me.” She was holding the narrow leather belt that she wore around her dress; she took a step backwards and hit me across the face with it. My lip split and I tasted blood. It didn’t hurt. I was horrorstruck. She swung again.
BOOK TITLE: The Hunger Games: MockingjayAUTHOR: Suzanne Collins
YEAR: 2010
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Dystopian Sci-Fi
From behind door 3908 comes a sound. Just a tiny whimper. Like something a cowed dog might make to avoid being struck, only all too human and familiar. My eyes meet Gale’s for just a moment, but it’s long enough for two people who operate the way we do. I let Cinna’s sketchbook fall at the guard’s feet with a loud bang. A second after he leans down to retrieve it, Gale leans down, too, intentionally bumping heads. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he says with a light laugh, catching the guard’s arms as if to steady himself, turning him slightly away from me.
Title: Critical CareAuthor: Candace Calvert
Genre (s): Fiction/Christian/General
Paragraph:
"(Erin) dumped the contents of the tote bag onto the nurses' lounge coffee table. Protein bars, makeup pouch, Bible study workbook, copies of her staff schedule, CISM packet, and the valentine from Brad. But no money envelope. How could that be? She pressed her fingers against her eyes and forced herself to think, backtrack. Please help me remember. This money is for Jamie "
Bakewell, Sarah.
How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
. Chapter 1 "Be Born".Other aspects of Montaigne's early life were governed by similar principles of ease. It was though that 'it troubles the tender brains of children to wake them with a start', so Pierre had his son charmed out of bed by the plangent sound of the lute or other musical instrument. Corporal punishment was almost unknown to him: in his entire boyhood, he was only twice struck with a rod, and then only very gently. It was an education of 'wisdom and care'.
Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Second Series. New York: Viking Press, 1965.[Excerpt from Donald Hall’s interview with Ezra Pound, in Rome, in 1962.]
“The world in twenty years has piled up hysteria--anxiety over a third war, bureaucratic tyranny, and hysteria from paper forms. The immense and undeniable loss of freedoms, as they were in 1900, is undeniable. We have seen the acceleration in efficiency of the tyrannizing factors. It’s enough to keep a man worried. Wars are made to make debt. I suppose there’s a possible out in space satellites and other ways of making debt.”
C. J. wrote: "Hi Guy! :D"Hello, C.J. It's been a while. How have you been? You appear to be busy and have good work production. I've been just busy and with very few words! :-) All good.
M wrote: "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, Second Series. New York: Viking Press, 1965.[Excerpt from Donald Hall’s interview with Ezra Pound, in Rome, in 1962.]
“The world in twenty years has..."
Wow! Continuation of same, but Ezra didn't foresee the manufacture of flu hysteria as a means of manufacturing panic. And I wonder if it hasn't manufactured debt in some form too. In his book Debt: The First 5,000 Years Graeber describes how the presence and creation of debt contributed to the tyrannical monetary motivations for conquest versus the motivating power of curiosity for exploration.
Guy, I had a feeling you would find that interesting! The interview was intriguing to read.
M wrote: "Guy, I had a feeling you would find that interesting! The interview was intriguing to read."Hello, M. I have noted it as something to peruse. :-)
Guy wrote: "C. J. wrote: "Hi Guy! :D"Hello, C.J. It's been a while. How have you been? You appear to be busy and have good work production. I've been just busy and with very few words! :-) All good."
Yes I've gotten very busy with work (one reason I was not as active on here for a while. Then also I got lazy getting back to the contests also, lol!) and am now on a project that will be posted here but hopefully become something huge in the near future!
It's good to be busy Guy. Glad you are still giving us updates on what's going on with you as well! :D
What a coincidence! Just finished reading Fool Moon myself. (Trying to work my way through the series.)Here's one from:
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
"It's what I was born to do," he said, his brow dark. "I have taught myself, since I was 8 years old -- the attic of this house if full of old weapons & training manuals. It's what you were born to as well."
BOOK TITLE: StarlightAUTHOR: Hannah Lee Kidder
YEAR: 2020
GENRE: Fictional Short Stories
SUBGENRE: Horror
Kathryn doubles back and crouches down in front of me. I jump on her back and she walks. Kathryn’s short and stocky, and she carries me easy. My limbs have stretched the past year, but I keep getting skinnier.
BOOK TITLE: MOXAUTHOR: Jon Moxley
YEAR: 2021
GENRE: Nonfiction
SUBGENRE: Wrestling Memoir
They gave us a three-page script. Paragraph after paragraph of words. Roman: paragraph. Seth: paragraph. Dean: paragraph. None of it made a goddamn bit of sense. We spent all fucking day memorizing these lines, going over it over and over again. We went out there in the ring and delivered that sumbitch verbatim, exactly as we’d been instructed to. Afterward was all high-fives and congratulations. Yet another new challenge. We stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park. About an hour later, I had a strange empty feeling. Something felt a little off. After the adrenaline of live TV wore off with the stress of having to memorize every single note of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor lifted, we sat in the car ready to drive to the next town, and I asked my partners, “What the fuck did we even say?”
BOOK TITLE: Super HumanAUTHOR: Michael Carroll
YEAR: 2010
GENRE: Fiction
SUBGENRE: Superhero Novel
He couldn't stop himself. He slung the jetpack onto his back and fastened the clips across his chest. It didn't seem quite so heavy with the weight distributed across his shoulders.
How is it I keep forgetting about this game? It's probably my favorite one on here too!
:) I've got to get the book I'm currently reading on here. An epic fantasy type of book.
It's an interesting story about a character torn between living a life (that is almost like a priest) and staying with his royal family but finds out there is some dangerous underhanded things going about. Then he realizes he is in danger because he is a prince and possibly the next person in line for the throne and someone wants to take that from him. A good allegorical (and it is religious too) epic fantasy story. I never heard about it before hearing about it on this site.Title: The Light of Eidon (Legends of the Guardian-King #1)
Author: Karen Hancock
Genre Listed: Allegory/Fantasy
Section:
As the smacking of his footsteps faded, Eldrin swayed with a wave of light-headedness. Suddenly his stomach hurt and his knees quivered violently. Deliberately he drew a deep breath, then unclenched his shaking hands, aghast at the sudden desire to heave one of the porcelain lamps against the wall and see it smash into a thousand pieces. It was an old familiar feeling, the frustration of an injustice that was never righted, no matter how hard he wished it, no matter how hard he fought it. Gillard always won. He had forgotten how impotent it made him feel-- and how furious. Probably because he hadn't felt this way in... well, eight years.
BOOK TITLE: Chicken Soup For the Pet Lover’s SoulAUTHORS: Various
YEAR: 1998
GENRE: Nonfiction
SUBGENRE: Animal Shorts
I pulled into the nearest parking lot and grabbed a five-pound bag of dog food, a container of water, and a twenty-dollar bill from my purse. I approached the ragged-looking man and his unhappy dogs wearily. If this man had somehow hurt these creatures or was using them as come-ons, I knew my anger would quickly take over. The older dog was staring up at the sky, whining pitifully. Just before I reached them, a truck pulled up alongside them and asked how much the man wanted for the older dog.
Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. New York: Walker, 1954.The first step was to get a microscope. That is the first step, he kept repeating forcefully to himself as he undressed for bed, ignoring the tight ball of indecision in his stomach, the almost painful craving to plunge directly into investigation without any priming.
Thich Nhat Hahn, editor Melvin McLeod, The Pocket Thich Nhat Hahn.We are afraid of nonbeing. “I am somebody, I am something,” we feel. “Today I am, and I am afraid that one day I will no longer be.” But it is impossible for being to become nonbeing. The Buddha said it in absolutely simple terms: ’This is, because that is.’ This refers to the manifestation of phenomena on the basis of the law of interdependent origination. When conditions are sufficient, there is a manifestation. You could call that “being,” but that would be inaccurate. In the same way, you could call the situation before [a] manifestation arises “nonbeing,” but that is equally incorrect. The situation is simply one of manifestation or non-manifestation.
Hey M, I'm excited you put a quote from I Am Legend on here. Hope to one day read that one!
I highly recommend it, C. J.! I’ll be interested to know what you think of it. Matheson was a screenwriter, so it may not be surprising that I Am Legend has a sort of Twilight Zone-episode feel about it, a quality I found both appealing and intriguing.
Oh wow I see. Plus I think didn't he have stories adapted to Twilight Zone, if I have that right?
Yes. I think several, and at least one episode for the original Star Trek.
He did an episode of Star Trek too? That's cool!
I loved 'I am Legend.' it gave me the creeps - in a good way!
Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company!
Books mentioned in this topic
Debt: The First 5,000 Years (other topics)How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer (other topics)
Adult Onset (other topics)
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (other topics)
Morning Star (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Ann-Marie MacDonald (other topics)Gabor Maté (other topics)
Marie Kondō (other topics)
Barbara Stoler Miller (other topics)
Marcus Aurelius (other topics)
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AUTHOR: Frank Mundo
YEAR: 2015
GENRE: Nonfiction
SUBGENRE: Contemporary Short Stories
Four days ago the bank that I work for was robbed, and the guy that robbed the bank was someone I knew back in high school. I recognized him – despite the ridiculous wig and dark glasses, despite the many years passed (nearly a decade) – almost instantly.