Book Review: “Taking the Night” by J.F. Posthumus

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021

Book Review: “Taking the Night” by J.F. Posthumus

Taking the Night mixes the mafia and magic and comes up with an adventure in the underworld, both criminal and magical. Selia Lascari is the daughter and employee of a well-heeled mafia boss. And she has a secret. But it’s not the kind of secret you might expect. Selia is highly trained in a number of ancient fighting techniques, and she controls magic. One evening on an errand, which she presumes is for her father and boss, she walks into a trap set by a rejected suitor. Between what she hopes is a subtle use of her magic, and New Campania’s mysterious vigilante crime stopper, the Sandman, Selia escapes the trap, but now faces a more deadly foe from her past as well as family members who will kill her for associating with the Sandman, their sworn enemy.

August 9, 2021August 9, 2021

Who’s Driving?

And August begins…as summer wanes. Even though this year has been more open and active than last year, I’m still not certain where it’s all gone. But the prompts go on and I am grateful for them as they keep me writing. I think I’ve figured out a writing schedule that I’ll keep to and that will keep me productive. If I’m going to do this writing and author thing for a living, productivity is crucial.

August 4, 2021August 4, 2021

Neighbors

My neighbor Bill passed away last week. I just found out yesterday when we ran into his son. Bill suffered a stroke a little over two years ago and his youngest son moved back home to help his mom take care of Bill. We first met Bill at a block party almost twenty years ago. We had just moved in and our landlord (and neighbor) lived, and still does, two doors down. He and his wife made sure to let us know about the block party. It was a great way to meet all the neighbors.

August 3, 2021August 3, 2021

Hidden Heritage

This week I managed to get this prompt in on time. Yay! Still fighting through a bit of either block, or frustration, or aimlessness, or something. But the prompts keep me going in a writing direction at least. So, this is Week 30 of MOTE and my prompt came from ‘nother Mike: No one understood how it got there, but the MRI showed that the pain in your back was really a ….

August 2, 2021August 2, 2021

Late prompt: Silver Feather

I’ve been distracted procrastinating, whatever, last week and this week. Not writing. I didn’t get last week’s prompt done on time so I’m doing both today. This is the prompt for Week 29 of the Odd Prompts. My prompt came from Leigh Kimmel who gave me: The mysterious stranger’s calling card is a single silver feather. I started on it last week, but never finished. It struck me that this prompt would make a good start for a second adventure for my cursebreaker Jack.

July 19, 2021July 21, 2021

Fisking WuFlu “News”

I have read and enjoyed many fiskings of articles over the years, but I’ve never done one myself. That changes today. I ran across this article from ABC News and the stats professor in me couldn’t resist (if you’re wondering, teaching stats really makes me ornery!) There is just sooo much wrong with this garbage, it will require a paragraph by paragraph discussion and fisking. This is the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say that the sole goal of the media, when “reporting” about the WuFlu (or Republicans, or Trump, or those who disagree with Biden, or anything else) is to stoke fear and anger.

July 19, 2021July 19, 2021

Planet Found

The middle of July, middle of the year, it’s Week 28 of prompts at More Odds Than Ends. This year is not going as planned, so I’m no longer planning and simply going with the flow. No, it’s not a cop-out, it’s more of a recognition that the universe has its own plans for us and my life will be less stressful if I do what I need to do, quit worrying about the “what-ifs”. While I do remind the universe of my wishes, I am grateful to be doing what I’m doing right now.

July 15, 2021July 15, 2021

Gatekeeping, Agenda-Setting, Censorship, and Tin-Foil Hats

Apparently only about 40% of Americans trust our media. Shocking, I know (that was sarcasm, by the way). Gallup reports that 60% of Americans have very little or no trust at all in the media. And, on top of that, the number reporting “no trust at all” is at a record high (33%) which is five points higher than 2019. That translates to almost an 18% increase in the number of people who say they have no trust. And that is pretty sad.

July 12, 2021July 12, 2021

Friendly City

For Week 27 at More Odds Than Ends, My prompt came from Leigh Kimmel: On a distant world is a single city with people remarkably human, and astonishingly friendly. Yet when asked about their society and history, they give evasive answers. Anthropologists attempting an ethnographic study came to mind and with that I thought of Jake and Serena, the anthropologist and archaeologist couple who have started to occasionally wander through my head.

July 11, 2021August 11, 2021

Deep Space Noir

Other Rhodes is a far-future, deep space noir detective story and another fun genre mash-up from Sarah A. Hoyt. Our heroine, Lily, finds a cyborg in her airlock when she expected her husband. Now she has no option except to team up with the completely illegal creation to locate her missing husband. Additionally, with no other allies, she has to trust that her husband’s long-time friend is also her friend and will give her the help she needs. The book combines elements of classic noir detective stories (Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe) within a space-faring and high-tech universe.