Reading Writings

Near the end of Nabokov's Lolita, Humbert makes an honest admission: "[A]nd it struck me...that I simply did not know a thing about my darling's mind." That line sums up the isolate game of memorializing a deceased loved one, which is the basic tension in Nina's Memento Mori, an elegy to Mathias Freese's lost wife. The profound responsibility of answering the question "Who was Nina?" is left to the lone memoirist: I can say or write anything I want about her...There is much writerly power in that. I am the executor of her probate in all things now. She is mine now in ways she could not be when alive. I am the steward of her memory. Freese ends up analyzing himself, putting the "me" in "memento" and the "i" in "mori," thanks to ever-giving Nina posthumously providing a therapeutic mirror or "Rosebud," which Freese appropriates from  Citizen Kane . But Freese mourns more over the burden of exis...

It’s 1971 and a university art instructor has just been informed that his contract won’t be renewed. His life is spiraling out of control. He decides to set out on a solo hiking trip across the U.S. Two men, offer to pay him $50,000, to set up a drug deal in Mexico. He agrees to do it, with the hopes that he will finally be financially secure. In 4,500 miles, he encounters a 7-day rock festival in the woods, an invitation to a lynching, Mexican drug dealers, near death in the wilderness, a spiritual awakening and a ride with a Hell’s Angel. His exploration covers homelessness in Haight-Ashbury, an urban, mega-warehouse commune, a bizarre New Year’s Eve and a stabbing in a cheap hotel. He learns to cope with vigorous hardships of nature and living off the land; hitchhiking and sleeping in strangers’ homes. After the drug deal fails, his designs for a unique energy-efficient building system score him a collaboration with a prestigious, San Francisco architecture firm. He unsu...

About the Book: Can bitter enemies find love? Haunted by visions, Calypso sets out to find the man who stalks her dreams. Calypso, an ageless fae, is convinced this man will enslave and torment her just like the one who held her long ago. Determined to track him down and kill him, she's prepared for anything, except for what she finds. The mortal male she encounters stirs embers she thought long dead, making her yearn for his touch. Lucien has always believed himself to be a mortal slave. The truth, however, is more than he's ever imagined. Born to a fae mother and a warlock father, he is a falock, a being of mixed blood hated by both races. And he's destined for greatness…if he can survive the Roman gladiators' games long enough to grow into his immortality. When the slim beauty rescues him from the depths of his prison, Lucien comes face to face with the truth of who and what he is. Determined to protect the woman who rescued him, he'll risk everything,...

About the Book: WHAT IF THE EARTH YOU KNEW WAS JUST THE BEGINNING? A New York banker is descending into madness.  A being from an advanced civilization is racing to stay alive.  A dead man must unlock the secrets of an unknown dimension to save his loved ones.  From the visions of Socrates in ancient Athens, to the birth of free will aboard a spaceship headed to Earth, The Unity Game tells a story of hope and redemption in a universe more ingenious and surprising than you ever thought possible.  Metaphysical thriller and interstellar mystery, this is a 'complex, ambitious and thought-provoking novel' from an exciting and original new voice in fiction. Book Links: Goodreads * Amazon Meet the Characters: The Setting: Earth New York City. The 1990s. One of the world’s leading investment banks. The Setting: Space A distant planet. A dry surface orbited by three red moons and circling a distant sun. An advanced civilization living in und...

Daughter of the Sun ~ Cult of the Cat Series Book 1 ~ About the Book: Title: Daughter of the Sun Series: Cult of the Cat Series, Book 1 Author: Zoe Kalo Genre: YA Contemporary Fantasy / Paranormal Word Count: 93,000 words No. of Pages: 330 Mystery, adventure, a hint of romance, and the delicious sweep of magic... Sixteen-year-old Trinity was born during a solar eclipse and left at the doorsteps of a convent along with a torn piece of papyrus covered with ancient symbols. Raised by nuns in the English countryside, she leads a quiet life until she’s whisked away to the Island of Cats and a grandmother she never knew.  But before they can get to know each other, her grandmother dies. All that Trinity has left is a mysterious eye-shaped ring. And a thousand grieving cats. As Trinity tries to solve the enigma of the torn papyrus, she discovers a world of bloody sacrifices and evil curses, and a prophecy that points to her and her new feline abilities...