Book Review: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

11/22/2012

Posted by Christinain book reviewcoralinecoraline joneshorrorneil gaiman0 comments

Pic from Wikipedia The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring....
In Coraline's family's new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.

The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it's different.

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter

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Novel - A Nation With No Name - Chang

11/22/2012

Posted by Christinain a nation with no namechangcreative writingnovelscience fiction0 comments

I hate this dress! Māma loves it, though, and twirls me around yet again to get a look at my impossibly low neckline and bare shoulders. She squeals like a child playing with her dolls, and I can’t help but smile.

“Oh, you are just perfect! You’ll get a nánpéngyou in no time!” she skips around with glee. “Boyfriend, boyfriend, Chang will find a boyfriend,” she trills in a singsong voice. I glance fearfully in the mirror and stare at the intensely revealing neckline. I’ve always tried to dress more like my stepsister, Fen, but this seduction stuff is so sordid and underhanded that I’ve never been good at it. How can modesty be considered such a

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Novel - The Universe Quilt - Chapter Three

11/22/2012

Posted by Christinain chapter threecreative writingnovelthe universe quilt0 comments

At first, the miller’s daughter wasn’t sure what she was seeing. The dimensions of this new place were beyond her comprehension, and for a moment all she and Lorabeth could do was gape like dumbstruck fish. Then they felt an indescribable liberation of their souls, a floating sensation that baffled them until they observed that they were rising through an amorphous column of fog, damp and sweet-smelling. It must be that they were flying.

Their heads came up out of the cloud, lightly drizzled with unfallen rain. The miller’s daughter asked herself where they might be, and a surprisingly firm voice in her mind answered that of course they were in the sky, though the sky above what

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Cover Reveal for My NaNoWriMo Novel!

11/21/2012

Posted by Christinain cover reveal0 comments

Okay. Isn't that just beautiful?

This is the cover design, done by the AMAZING Fena Lee of .book cover design, for my NaNoWriMo novel, The Universe Quilt. (You can view chapter posts at http://lifeisinexpressible.blogspot.com/search/label/the%20universe%20quilt.)

Fena's website is at http://pheeena.com. She has a portfolio and the best website design and EVERYTHING. I can't even explain how much symbolism and dedication and OH MY GOODNESS AWESOMENESS went into this. Fena is super nice and wonderful and my, my, my, I must stop gushing!

But anyway. That's

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Book Review: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

11/18/2012

Posted by Christinain book reviewdaniel bar jaminelizabeth george spearehistorical fictionthe bronze bow0 comments

He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. —from the Song of David (2 Samuel 22:35)

The Bronze Bow, written by Elizabeth George Speare (author of The Witch of Blackbird Pond) won the Newbery Medal in 1962. This gripping, action-packed novel tells the story of eighteen-year-old Daniel bar Jamin—a fierce, hotheaded young man bent on revenging his father’s death by forcing the Romans from his land of Israel. Daniel’s palpable hatred for Romans wanes only when

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Novel - The Universe Quilt - Chapter Two

11/15/2012

Posted by Christinain chapter twocreative writingnovelthe universe quilt0 comments

The goose gave a great honk and alighted on a grassy knoll. The miller’s daughter slid off its enormous, feathery back and walked to the little table that was laid out neatly before her. A pretty, sharp needle and spools of gossamer thread waited as if expecting her, arranged beside a towering pile of diaphanous, almost invisible fabric. The giant goose flapped its wings to set off on another journey in that magical land with sweeping whooshes and a call like a carved horn. She reached for the needle, but it dissipated in her grasp—
She blinked rapidly as her eyes fluttered open. It had been a dream, which of course it had, since all the

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Novel - A Nation With No Name - Para

11/09/2012

Posted by Christinain a nation with no namecreative writingnovelparascience fiction0 comments

Hey! This is a novel that my friend and I are working on together. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Gunfire and light footsteps ring through the compound’s hallways - not an uncommon sound here, but I walk towards it anyway, because the fast breathing accompanying it sounds girlish, frightened. Picking up my pace slightly, I half jog towards the direction of the sound.  I turn the corner and collide into a thin form, clumps of long hair flying on both sides. The other girl’s hair is brown, though - a Caucasian chestnut brown. There’s only one person in the whole Empire with hair like that.

“Run, Para,” Brenna gasps. “They’re coming.”


Annoyed that she isn’t being more

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Novel - The Universe Quilt - Chapter One

11/08/2012

Posted by Christinain chapter onecreative writingnovelthe universe quilt0 comments

I can't believe I haven't told you this before - I'm a 2012 NaNoWriMo participant! My novel is called The Universe Quilt and you can read more about it on the Long-Term Projects page. Here's Chapter One for my faithful readers :)

The miller’s daughter sat with a needle in her hand. Then, in, out, in, out, it flashed over and under the faded blue fabric. It was a silver serpent ready to do her command. With a needle and thread, the miller’s daughter could do grander things. But focus now, she thought to herself. Focus on mending the broken pieces that come to you.

A door opened in the next room. Startled, the miller’s daughter hid

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