Memorial Day 2009

Friday Fun Quiz: Has American Culture Ruined You?

This seemed like a good quiz for the week we chose a new American Idol.

You've Been a Little Ruined by American Culture

Whether you live in the US or not, deep down you're a little American. And there's nothing wrong with loving American culture, but it may have negative effects on your life. Slow down and enjoy what you have. Reconnect with life's simple pleasures. You don't need to be in a consumerist rat race. Life's too short to overwork yourself!

Has American Culture Ruined You?

So back to American Idol. Was Kris the right choice or should it have been Adam? I tried to vote for Adam but couldn't get through.

Linda

Two Sentence Tuesday: The Value of Storytelling

I haven't been reading much except blogs and online articles lately, but I found some quotable lines in this article from Salon.com:

The evolutionary argument for Dr. Seuss: Why do we often care more about imaginary characters than real people? A new book suggests that fiction is crucial to our survival as a species
by Laura Miller

Her opening sentences really hooked me:

Why do human beings spend so much time telling each other invented stories, untruths that everybody involved knows to be untrue? People in all societies do this, and do it a lot, from grandmothers spinning fairy tales at the hearthside to TV show runners marshaling roomfuls of overpaid Harvard grads to concoct the weekly adventures of crime fighters and castaways.

Miller's article is actually a review of a new book called On The Origin of Stories by Brian Boyd, professor English at the University of Auckland. This is a subject of endless fascination to writers, especially those of us who write popular fiction which has its roots in mythology and fairy tales. Popular stories are timeless and, despite their fantastical elements, sometimes reflect reality. Miller mentions the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf', something we've all witnessed in real life, and which I believe led to the familiar dictum "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

I really enjoyed the first part of the article, but will admit to getting a little lost toward the end, maybe because I wasn't a lit major or maybe because I don't know much about "evolutionary biology". (My B. A. is in Social Science with emphaisis in History.)

I didn't write anything new this week, so I'm going to pull a few sentences from a published e-book, Ilona's Wolf, my first erotic fantasy story.

Once upon a time, in the Kingdom of Velosia, magic was more precious than gold. The few who possessed it were highly prized, for not everyone could learn to wield the magic, only those who were sorcerers born.

Please forgive the blatant self-promotion, but I'm including a buy link, and there's a longer excerpt at my website.

Linda / Lyndi

Check out the wondrous Women of Mystery blog for more Two Sentence Tuesday posts.

Friday Fun Quiz: American English

This week I started the process of installing a WordPress blog at my Lyndi Lamont website, so that's where my blogging time has primarily gone. Tomorrow I'll have a post on the newly announced Kindle DX at my RWA Chapter blog A Slice of Orange.

During my life I've lived in several different states, from Pennsylvania to California, including short stays in Miami, Florida and Austin, Texas, so I found this quiz quite interesting. I no longer have my Pittsburgh accent and I think the quiz backs that up. My apologies to any Canadian friends for whom this may not apply.

Your Linguistic Profile:

50% General American English 30% Yankee 10% Upper Midwestern 5% Dixie 0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

Linda

Friday Fun Quiz: How Nerdy Are You?

In honor of the new Star Trek movie, I'm posting a quiz on nerdyness. I'm actually a little surprised I only got 36%, but then I don't have a game machine or a comic book collection. I do love Star Trek, though, and I'm hoping to get to see the new movie in the next week or so. So far all the reviews I've seen have been pretty positive.

You Are 36% Nerdy

You're a little nerdy, but no one would ever call you a nerd. You sometimes get into nerdy things, but only after they've become a part of mainstream culture.

How Nerdy Are You?

And are you planning to see the Star Trek movie?

Linda

Book Review Club

Two months ago I reviewed The Reincarnationist by M. J. Rose, and promised to review the sequel, The Memorist, next.

The blurb for The Memorist states:

The dreads are back. As a child, Meers Logan was haunted by memories of another time and place, always accompanied by the faint strains of elusive music. Now the hand of the past has reached out again. An envelope addressed to her and delivered to the Phoenix Foundation--an institute dedicated to the recovery of past life memories--contains a childhood drawing of an elaborate box that Meers recognizes...and a sheet from an auction catalog identifying the object--which she spent years imagining-- as an eighteenth-century gaming box.

Determined to unlock the mystery of who she once was, she travels to Vienna to find the box. With each step, she comes closer to remembering the connections between a clandestine reincarnationist society, the lost Memory Flute linked to Ludwig van Beethoven and rumored to open the door to the past, and to David Yalom, a journalist who knows all too well how the past affects the future.

Malachai Samuels of the Phoenix Foundation (from The Reincarnationist) is under investigation by the FBI, but that doesn't stop him from his quest for a personal experience of reincarnation. This time the memory tool he seeks is an ancient bone flute rumored to have once been possessed by Beethoven. Since childhood, Meer Logan has been haunted by a tune and images of an ornate memory box along with what she believes to be false memories of another lifetime. Malachai helped her through the difficult times then, so she turns to him now. When the box in her visions turns up in Vienna, she goes there and the visions return with a vengeance. Again, there is someone willing to kill for the memory tool as well as an Israeli journalist out to avenge the deaths of his family by terrorists.

The plot is fairly complicated, but the plot comes together nicely at the end, with a few loose ends for the next book. (I hope.) The flashbacks to previous lives are fascinating, and I found the ending to be satisfying and emotional; a beautiful story in many ways.

Linda

The Book Review Club is the brain child of Tween/Teen Author Barrie Summy. Click on the Book Club graphic to read her review and for links other club members.