Papa Pat reviews “The Ugly Knight”

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Papa Pat gave me a very nice review for my book, The Ugly Knight. 🙂

Excerpt:

This is such a pleasant, pleasant book! There is a lightness in the way it is written, that even in the scenes where Korton (The Ugly Knight) and Elzi (his resolute love interest) face the Ultimate Evil, it’s almost…peaceful. There is one exception, which I’ll get to later.
I THINK that the reason the book is so pleasant has to do with the nature of Korton. He is an unassuming young man, the son and grandson of a tailor, so he doesn’t have snooty attitudes to get over before he becomes likable. He succeeds in his difficult apprenticeship process because he works hard. He gets up early. He takes care of his own horse. And while he does not have the raw, natural talent of Jelan, a senior squire who befriends him, he just keeps practicing and hammering away until, pretty much to everyone’s surprise, he finishes early and with greater skills than any of his peers.
It’s true character, not just a role that he is playing. On his first quest, to kill a dragon, he takes the time to befriend an aged house servant. Because this is a book, of course, it MUST be shown that his easy-going relationships with servants produce unexpected rewards, but honestly folks: he’s not doing it for that reason. He’s just a nice guy. And he meets a nice girl, and good things happen: they become friends, and eventually fall in love.

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For Cyber Monday

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The Ugly Knight

(Since everyone else is doing it. 😀 )

I’ve put “The Ugly Knight” on sale for the next few days at Amazon. Today it’s on sale for $1.99, tomorrow it’ll be $2.99, etc.

If you like it, or even if you don’t, please leave a review.

And yes, I know the cover could be improved, it’s too generic.

I’ve taken the plunge

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I’ve put my first novel (written over 20 years ago) out on Amazon, blurbless, coverless as it may be. That’s a generic cover, made with Amazon’s Cover Creator. It isn’t too bad looking, but I’m going to see if I can’t find/make etc., a better one in the next couple of weeks. This is the story of a young knight going out to fight a dragon (and that’s part of the reason I haven’t written a blurb yet. What else is there to say? 😕 )

This isn’t the novel about An & Mattan which still has the first draft linked in the sidebar, and which I’m still working on with Barb, my editor friend. I was trying to make Mattan like a rock, but according to most of my alpha readers, I missed, and turned him into a doormat instead. There still is an implied inertness, but one that comes from weakness instead of strength.

Barb, bless her, thinks that he really is a rock, and he’s just so reserved that no one can get to know him until we draw him out some more. She has me working on various pieces of the book, and swears that it’s getting much better. All I can see at the moment, though, are pieces of the book strewn all over, like the time my parents refinished the piano.

Anyway, I plan to get back into blogging regularly soon. I keep getting distracted, by real life, by my characters An & Mattan, and by books I’m reading.

Please Help Me Fix My Non-Working 2010 Hyundai Accent

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My friend Barb could use some help in getting money to have her car fixed.

Barb Caffrey's Blog

Folks, I’m beyond frustrated. I had to set up a GoFundMe page to help me fix my car…and I didn’t want to do this.

Here’s what happened:

Over the past 41 days, I’ve tried to get Hyundai USA interested in fixing my non-running 2010 Hyundai Accent Blue. I bought it in November of 2011 at 37,000 miles; it conked out due to the transmission’s casing having cracked at 67,000 miles on September 1, 2014 — three days before I was scheduled to go in for surgery.

So I had the use of my car for less than three years before the transmission’s casing cracked. I’ve never had a car do this before. Not at any amount of miles.

Mind, I have had transmissions go out before. But not like this, and certainly not this early.

I realize that cars, like anything else, are on a continuum. Some cars do very…

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Say “Hi” to the Neighbors

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Today’s Blogging 101 challenge was to follow five new topics and five new blogs. Unfortunately, I’m already following enough blogs and feeds that I have difficulty keeping up with them all. So, instead, I’m going to list five blogs (of the many) that I follow:

  1. According to Hoyt The ramblings of Sarah Hoyt (and friends). This includes political commentary, novel chapters, discussions of writing, and the writing industry, and much more.
  2. The Elfyverse My friend Barb Caffrey discusses writing, her books, sports, politics, book reviews, whatever else is on her mind.
  3. Mad Genius Club A group of indie writers discuss various aspects of self-publishing, from making covers, to editing. They discuss the perils and perks of self-publishing. And have great fun doing so.
  4. Nathaniel Hoover’s Blog Nathaniel Hoover posts many game play-throughs on YouTube, under the names GeminiLazer and GameCola (he also is an editor at the GameCola site). My son loves watching his videos (among others), and so I get to hear them (over and over and over). Somewhere along the line, I’ve gotten to really like his sense of humor, and started following his blog, and commenting frequently. (Probably not as frequently as I do at According to Hoyt or Mad Genius, but it stands out more.)
  5. Be Swift, Be Precise My husband’s blog. ❤ He tries to blog every day. Frequently it’s on things he covers in the classes he takes, some thought on movies, books, life in general.

I have numerous other blogs that I enjoy and follow, but I limited it to five. I had a tough time deciding which ones to include. (Other than my husband’s. That one was easy.)

Who am I?

No one can see Rocky on the couch.
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I know it’s been a long while since I blogged. Every so often, I just get tired of broadcasting into the void, and lose heart and take a break.

Since I do want to get back into the discipline of writing a blog at least a couple of times a week, I’ve decided to sign up for WordPress’s course, Blogging 101. The assignment for Monday is to tell a bit about yourself. (I know, it’s Tuesday. So, sue me.)

Any, I’m Jasini. I’ve been Jasini, or a variant thereof, on-line for probably close to 18 years. I pronounce that as jah-SEE-nee. I’ve heard other people pronounce it closer Jazzy-knee. Since this is all written text, it probably won’t matter too much.

I’m a home-maker, with two teen-aged children in high school. (When did my babies get so big?) I’m married to a handsome husband, and we have a big black dog who likes being walked in the cold weather (hot weather, not as much).

The last few years I’ve tried to get back into my life long idea of writing. I know I don’t write as much as I really need to to do what I want, but I’m working on that.

I expect to post various thought I have from time to time, story snippets, bad poetry, etc. If I put my stories out in Indie (Amazon, Nook, etc.,) I’ll let you know here. I’ll also probably put out reviews of books I’ve read, movies I watched, and other things. The books and movies are unlikely to be new (though anything is possible).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading my ramblings. 😀

Bye!

Star Spangled Banner

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For our National Anthem’s 200th anniversary: (A day late)

By Francis Scott Key

Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!