Keeper - Blog Tour

 

        I am pleased to be hosting my friend, Elizabeth Altenbach, for the release of her new book Keeper - view here.    To help celebrate, I'm giving away a little prize on my FB page. Come over!

Prizes

     Now without further ado, here's Elizabeth:

    Hey y’all! This is the sixth post of my blog tour journey, which started here:Link

    Today I’m talking about Pride and Prejudice.

    “But wait,” you say, “this is a Keeper blog tour.”'

   Well, I mentioned the movie a couple times in the book, so I thought I’d tell y’all a little bit about what it means to me. Here are a couple excerpts from Keeper:

 -

My mother kisses my forehead and asks if I need anything; I tell her no, thank you, but ten minutes later, my father comes up carrying the television that hasn't been hooked up in the living room yet.

“Dad, you really didn't have to,” I say.

“I wanted to. And you aren't going to want to climb up and down the stairs very often with that ankle and your head, so I thought this would make it a little less boring for you in here.” He sets it on my dresser and kneels by the wall to plug it in.

Twenty minutes later, the remote is on my nightstand, the family DVD collection is in a big plastic container by my dresser, and I have a convertor box and antenna hooked up, as well as a surround-sound speaker by my bed. All in my room. I've never had a television in my bedroom before, let alone one with a built-in DVD player, hooked up to a convertor box to receive a TV signal, with a sound bar right below the screen that projects excellent, crystal-clear audio through every inch of my bedroom.

I sound like an infomercial, don't I?

But I don't feel like taking advantage of any of these new additions to my bedroom's technological offerings, though I did let my dad put on a movie for me. Pride and Prejudice, from 2005 – mainly because it's familiar, the scenery is pretty, and the music is relaxing, and that's what I need right now. I saw it a hundred times with Livvy, and she liked it for the same reasons – scenery, music, and familiarity. It's one of those films that never gets old.

    And the second excerpt:

At last, after walking slowly for ten minutes, taking a break to sit on a U-shaped hanging vine and rest, and then trudging on for five more minutes, I come to where the trees abruptly stop and our property ends. There is a rusty chicken-wire fence separating me from the sheer drop beyond. I see fields and forestlands stretching out below for miles, and mountains on the other side of the valley. I didn't know I had this breathtaking a view right in my own backyard. A breeze blows, and I lift my chin, closing my eyes, and imagine I'm Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice, in that beautiful scene where she stands on the edge of a cliff at dawn and the piano music that plays makes you feel like you can fly.

When I finally tear my eyes away from the view of the valley and turn around, I can't see the house at all. This is a lovely place to just . . . be. Where no one can see, and no one can judge you for laughing, crying, or punching a tree.

* *

    Pride and Prejudice 2005 is a film that I loved from the first time I saw it. I used to watch it to help me get to sleep on rough nights. It’s a beautiful film, with amazing scenery, gorgeous music, and of course, one of my favorite parts, the English accents. That’s why I chose to mention it (twice) in Keeper.

    And that’s all! Hope you liked the excerpts. 

    The next post will be on Faith Blum’s blog. See you there!

~Elizabeth Altenbach 

Krioson And Saphieka - Dragons

 

 

 Rin, known as Lady Kitra Mimetes on Holy Worlds made these crocheted dragons for me!

(If you'd like to see the pattern, it is here: The Leaky Cauldron)

 

The tan one is named Krioson. (His name is pronounced: Kuh -rhye - Oh -Son).

The blue one is named Saphieka (Her name is pronounced: Saff - I - Kah).

 

They are from my work in progress, 'Rider Of Pure Motion'.

 

 

 

 

 

How did I choose their coloring? Hehe, it wasn't a complicated process. ;)

After I read Eragon when I was about 13, I went dragon crazy and started drawing dragons.

 *Points to first drawing* (Yeaaah... I've never been good at drawing. *Grins*)

I thought Kri was the cutest out of the dragons I had drawn, so he became my favorite. Later, when I actually  began trying to write a story, I went back and chose from the nineteen dragons I had drawn to be in my book. Eventually I ended up with five dragons that stayed in my story.



I made changes later on to how they looked. (Spines, horns, etc.)

These drawings were drawn a few months after the first set.

Saphieka's name used to be Safire, until I decided she needed a more original sounding name.

          I'm not totally satisfied with this back cover text (or whatever you'd call it) but here you go anyways:

        Anza, a girl with unusual powers, tries to hide from the world in the shadows of the North Carolina Mountains - hurt, angry, and intent on forgetting. After narrowly escaping the police, she is suddenly responsible for a run-away orphan who is in possession of five large gem stones, and left wondering what to do next. When two of the stones hatch as dragons a few days later, she has to face the reality that more people are coming to claim the remaining eggs and her quiet, hidden existence has ended. Now with three others to look after, and more on the way, how long before her secrets will come out?

       As people she thought she'd never see again arrive and the past resurfaces, she struggles to maintain control of something much bigger than her. By the time she lets go of her hate and mistrust will it be too late to find a new future?

And here's the (current) prologue (I've completely changed it several times) :

 

Prologue

I don't know when I decided to stop caring.

Maybe it was when my only friend began to use me.

Or maybe it was when she turned on me.

It could have been the night when Jared came to taunt me.

I just decided it wasn't worth it to care anymore. . .

But I think the real question is,

When did I start hating?

I think it was the night my parents died.

Or the day Denise screamed at me.

Even the night I slammed Jared against the wall; it's his fault she hates me now.

Hating is even easier than pretending not to care.

When I'm filled with anger I don't have to think about how empty I feel.

 

 

      And thus ends this random mishmash of: the wonderful dragons Rin made, an explanation of why they are those colors, pictures showing my complete lack of drawing skills, and a teeny bit about my book that I may never actually finish writing. ;)

 

 

 

 ~Ophelia - Marie

 

 

 

crocheted dragon pattern

APRIL FOOLS DAY!

Picture From Wiki
(Isn't this such a weird looking thing?)

     Hi'ya! So, it's April Fools. I didn't plan anything (and I don't put blog posts up on Mondays... normally) but with all the fun stuff going on around the internet, I wanted to post something. . .  So,  here is something random for you. This is a scene that popped in my head a bit before 1AM (on Christmas Eve of all days), after I was in bed under the covers. I got up and wrote it, despite being only half awake. *Grins*

~

    He was dead. Such a short life he had lived, and now it was ended. Now I would have to let him go, never to see -

    “Callie!” My sister's voice rang through the thin bathroom walls as she banged her fist on the door. I just stopped myself from spilling the small container, dead fish and all, over the bathroom rug. When I didn't immediately answer Laura pounded louder. “Hurry up in there! What are you doing?”
 

    “Just a minute,” I hollered at her. So much for my dramatic funeral. I dumped Bob into the toilet. His golden, limp body floated strangely in the water.

    My thoughts wandered back to my dramatic spiel. He'd been so vibrantly alive only hours before, almost unaware that his life was soon to end.

    “Callie, I mean it! I can't be late! John is picking me up in forty-five minutes for dinner!”

   
    Aww, that's plenty of time. How long can it take her to mess with her hair and makeup?

    For a moment I considered fishing him out – no pun intended – and starting over. She'd really ruined the whole moment. If my goldfish had to go, he might as well go out well. The snow had ruled out an outdoor funeral, and this was my next best solution.

    “If you don't get out here right now, I swear-”

    Nope. I wasn't going to get to start the funeral over.

    “Sheesh! Can't a girl have the bathroom for a few minutes?” I reached for the handle and flushed, watching Bob's limp body swirling down as he left this-

    Bam, bam, bam! The flimsy door shook as Laura pounded it again. “Okay, you're done! Now let me in!”

    I scrambled to my feet and flung open the door. Laura gave me a death glare and pushed past me into the bathroom. The next thing I knew I was in the hallway with the door shut behind me.

    She should've gotten ready sooner. It's not my fault she was yapping at her friend about her date.

    When I got back to my room, I glanced in on my other goldfish – Terrance,Wilford, Obadiah, and Richard. They hadn't seemed to notice that their long time buddy, Bob, wasn't there. 

    So callously they had moved on, forgetting all the times they had spent -

   I ended the thought there and let out a wry laugh.

   I'm one strange kid. Good thing people can't see my thoughts.

~

 

I hope your April Fools has been as goofily fun as mine has!

 

 

~Ophelia - Marie