A couple of weeks ago, I won the book Darling Jim by Christian Moerk in a giveaway from Girls Just Reading (thanks, GJR!), so that's where this week's sentences come from. This is a weird and dark book, but it's absolutely fabulous. Part horror, part fantasy, part mystery, part thriller, it would appeal to anyone with a taste for the macabre.
The book starts with death, and large chunks of the text are from diaries of the dead, so you know something about the end of the story, or at least the end of some of the stories, before you begin. But that won't stop you being sucked in, I promise. So to titillate you just a tad, here are three sentences:
If my aunt was suffering from cancer, then I was Madame fucking Curie. This was about revenge, pure and simple. And we would never leave this house alive.
And two from my own WIP this week:
Bob Redmond owned Redmond’s Hardware and Housewares and came across as a decent enough sort of guy if a bit brusque. You could get him going if you asked about plumbing supplies or do-it-yourself projects, but he didn’t have a truly social bone in his body.
What are you reading? Anything good? And how's your writing going? Post your two sentences here, or just tell us where to find you and we'll update this post with a link!
- I do have to wonder about the hamster in Leah J. Utas' sentences this week.
- Crystal Phares' sentences this week illustrate a feeling familiar to many of us.
- Scott Parker gives us two full paragraphs this week. Lucky us!
- Linda McLaughlin has a glimpse into a world of magic for us.
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11 comments:
"... large chunks of the text are from diaries of the dead" sounds very intriguing. And I bet I could get along with Bob Redmond. But he doesn't turn out to be a killer does he?
Laura, the selection from what you read got me good.
Your sentences gave me all the character description I need.
My two are up at my place.
Laura, now I have to go and find the book Darling Jim. It sounds like something that I should add to my 'to be read' pile. I think I would like to meet Bob Redmond. Your description is wonderful.
My two are up on my site. Have a great day!
Laura - great sentences this week! The book you're reading sounds intriguing, and your sentences are great - concise and descriptive.
Most of what I've written this week is probably slanderous..... and I haven't had time to read, unfortunately.
I agree with Leah: your two sentences give you all the framework you need to paint a picture of Mr. Redmond. As a flowery, often wordy writer, I greatly admire concise writing.
I've posted some flowery writing of my own at my blog today. And, yes, I've stretched and broken the two-fer rules but I wanted to get something out today and, oddly, I've been writing in three's recently.
I'll never tell who turns out to be a killer, David! (Mostly because I am never sure until I've written about half a book who actually *will* be a killer.)
Thanks, Leah and Crystal!
Bag Lady - hey, it's not slander if it's true...
Scott - and here, I am exactly the opposite. I admire folks who can think in the kind of language you do!
This is what I was reading, refreshing, and rereading after my flight back from Atlanta.
"If you have notified one of our representatives that your bags were delayed, you received a file reference number. You can use that number to check the status of your bag in the form below."
About 24 hours after arriving home, we were reunited with our bags, which was good news. The bad news: I've written next to nothing over the last week.
However, I'm enjoying everyone else's, and Bob sounds like a good neighbor. Useful and not too nosy.
Darling Jim sounds very odd and interesting.
Darling Jim sounds very noirish indeed. Not sure it's my kind of book though. Loved your concise description of Bob Redmond.
I have a Two Fer up today, too.
Laura - DARLING JIM sounds like a page-turner.
Sounds like there's a lot going on behind Bob Redmond's facade.
Here are two that I wrote, it's from my WIP, about the day my brother was killed (8th anniversary tomorrow), after a priest asks me (after learning I was a cop), if I'd be willing to identify my brother's body. I say yes and follow a nurse after leaving my family behind in the grief room of the hospital:
I hear the words, “Hail Mary, full of grace,” but then I realize the sound is coming from my own throat. I had made no conscious effort to speak; it was as if my broken heart and my cop-mode-auto-pilot-mind had somehow become detached -- and a prayer emerged on its own.
The two I read from MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN: A MURDER IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND by Patricia L. Bryan & Thomas Wolf, as they refer to Susan Glaspell, a journalist (who was so touched by this case that she wrote a play, TRIFLES and a short story, A JURY OF HER PEERS), after her visit to the crime scene:
It was a moment that stayed in her memory for the rest of her life. Reflecting on that event twenty-seven years later, Glaspell wrote, "When I was a newspaper reporter out in Iowa, I was sent downstate to do a murder trial, and I never forgot going into the kitchen of a woman locked up in town."
[FYI: The ax murder occurred in 1900, and the victim's wife, who was tried twice, had a jury of all men both times.]
Oh Kathy, heartbreaking sentences this week.
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