Her heart gallops when she sees the monster
But she does not blink or scream
It isn’t paralysis that keeps her still
But the heart of a thoughtful warrior

Draw his attention away from her, Bryah,
Don’t look him in the eye
…is he even human?
What does he want?

Oh, I see.
So that’s what you want.
Back slowly into the kitchen
Grab the rolling pin on the counter

Swing with all your might—
Crash.
Stars pinwheel across the horizon
Pain and blood and shards of glass

Black, blurry light
A little girl’s scream.
Germaine. NO!
The sound of heavy footsteps

Pounding across the floor
Out the door.
Gone.
Silence…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hur hur hur, I wrote this in about five minutes. It does not have proper punctuation. Or interesting words. Or nifty poetic devices. So I'd like to re-write it in the future. It's a story I'm working on in my head. About a group of demons living in the Everglades. They're immigrants from Haiti. And they think Germaine is the reincarnation of their Queen. Germaine is a six-year-old little girl and Bryah is her sixteen-year-old older sister; the protagonist. Their parents died when Germaine was a baby and they now live with their uncle who is never home because he works three jobs. Bryah is calm, confident and pragmatic. Nothing phases her. She's a loner by nature, but she's forced to enlist the help of several kids from school when her sister is kidnapped. I haven't really figured out the back story yet, but I'm really looking forward to writing Bryah's story. Others see her as emotionless and robotic, but that's just because she's a private person and has a great poker face. She's also fearless and honourable and I think her first encounter with one of the demons will be really interesting. The idea actually came from listening to Iron Maiden's "Dance of the Dead." Amazing, amazing song.

But in conclusion, this kind of free verse style is how I'd like to start writing some of my future entries. :3 AND NOW BACK TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING: ESSAY THAT IS DUE TOMORROW! (i.e. stop writing poetry and start analyzing Blake, damnit)!

GAAAAHHH.

Essays... Midterms... Assignments... @_@


*Note to self: Write an entry about J. R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Mentioning your deep desire that Butch will drop Marissa and go make tender, sweet love to Vishous, the racism the series projects, and Ward's amazingly addictive and unique style.

Just a reader

I am a reader. I've been reading fairly avidly by myself since I was 11--L. J. Smith and Animorphs still own my soul. Started flipping through Julie Garwood books from my mom's collection at age 12 out of curiosity. Cut my teeth on romance novels at the same age when I read Stella Cameron's *True Bliss.* At the age of 20, I own over 500 romance novels. Still not all that into historical romance. Still hoping Octavia Butler will come back from the dead and join forces with Ursula K. Le Guin to revolutionize the romance genre (because, c'mon, sci-fi + romance + versatile amazing kick-ass authors = so much amazingness). Dean Koontz can join them too. =)

So yes, 95% of what I read comes from the romance genre. Obviously I like the romance genre, but I've been having some trouble with it lately. In fact, I can't seem to stop criticizing it and demanding more diversity. The fact that I recently analyzed Catherine Anderson's newest book for an essay is very indicative of my changing attitude toward the genre. But I still love the genre and I foresee it going in a lot of exciting new places in the future. I want to hear new voices, see new forms of it, and one-dimensional archetype characters just aren't going to fly with me anymore (Sasha Lord, I think you're a fantastic new author, but your latest book and heroine? She made me want to strangle her myself).

This blog shall therefore be used to connect me to the widening world of author blogging. I haven't really discovered too many author blogs out there, mostly because I haven't really been searching, but so far my two favourites are PBW (S. L. Viehl) and The Way There (Monica Jackson). It may be interesting to note that I discovered Monica's blog through S. L. Viehl's blog and love the excerpts of her books and the woman herself so much, that I will probably end up buying her entire backlog. I'd say these two writers are on to something, wouldn't you...? ^_~

Next on the list: I would love to see Suzanne Brockmann, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Julia Quinn get blogs too. (I would also like to see Suzanne write that Kirck/Spock Star Trek series I know she's always wanted to. I'd like to see SEP do some gender bending with her characters like I know she's always wanted to. Aaand I'd like to see Julia do some sci-fi erotica graphic novels).

P.S. Dean Koontz, why have you not broken in to the romance genre yet? (What's the hold-up, man!)

P. P. S. Fine, fine, I'll admit it! I haven't exactly read all that much by Octavia Butler, Ursula le Guin, or Dean Koontz. But the books I HAVE come in contact with were pretty amazing, and I intend to read more! :D