Week 17 - Q is for Quick and Quills

Romance.   I'll admit it.  I like a good romance, especially when it is mixed with a mystery, a bit of history or futuristic with a touch of magic.   One author I discovered fits all three.

Amanda Quick aka Jayne Ann Krentz aka Jayne Castle

I particularly like her Arcane Society series which revolve around a secret organization involved in paranormal research.   Written under under both Amanda Quick and Jayne Ann Krentz, the stories cross over from historical to modern times.  I've read several of the stories, just finished reading The Third Circle set in late Victoria England and just picked up Running Hot which is set in 21st century Maui.   Each book stands on its own though each one does provide some history on the society that is interesting to know. 

I just discovered Jayne Ann Krentz  last year and am working my way slowly through her books.   I'm looking forward to reading her futuristic paranormal Harmony Series which are set in the late 21st century on the new world Harmony.  Krentz has written many books under 7 different pens names over the years from the 80's to the present.

Jayne blogs at Running with Quills along with Susan Andersen, Stella Cameron, Kate Douglas, Lori Foster, Elizabeth Lowell, and Carla Neggers.   I've read quite a few of Lori Foster and Elizabeth Lowell's books (love their writing)  and am working my way through reading the other authors works.   The first book I read by Carla Negger's "The Angel" really captured my attention.   Their blog is great and filled with posts about their books, writing, what's happening in their lives and even contests.   Be sure to drop by their blog and check them out for yourselves.  You'll be glad you did. 

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Book Week 16 -- Things that start with P

I had originally planned to highlight just one particular author today - Marcel Proust.  I have heard much about the french novelist and his writings and wanted to learn more about him.  However, we just returned from our county's creek week clean up in which our cub scout pack took part and I'm tired, sore and have a big case of brain fog, that even a nap hasn't cured.  So will save that for another day.  Instead I will leave you with a few interesting links to things that start with P.   Who knows, you may just discover a new to you author and decide to read more of their works.

Project Gutenberg:  30,000 free ebooks you can read online or download to your e-readers.

Poemhunter.com:   In honor of national poetry month, a place to find all kinds of poetry by well known and some not so well known poets.

Marcel Proust:   "As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost and science can never regress."

Thomas Paine:  "The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security."
 
Plutarch:  "Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly"

Edgar Allan Poe:  "I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat."

Penguin Group Publishing online:  Excerpts from their newest books


 

Evening Star by Edgar Allan Poe

'Twas noontide of summer,
And mid-time of night;
And stars, in their orbits,
Shone pale, thro' the light
Of the brighter, cold moon,
'Mid planets her slaves,
Herself in the Heavens,
Her beam on the waves.
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold- too cold for me-
There pass'd, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud,
And I turned away to thee,
Proud Evening Star,
In thy glory afar,
And dearer thy beam shall be;
For joy to my heart
Is the proud part
Thou bearest in Heaven at night,
And more I admire
Thy distant fire,
Than that colder, lowly light. 

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Book Week 15 - O is for Ozymandias

 Book Week XV

The battle of two poets

Percy Shelley and Horace Smith had a competition and both wrote a poem for the same magazine about the same subject - Egyptian Pharoah Ramesses II 

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792 - 1822)

I MET a Traveler from an antique land,
Who said, "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings."
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.




Ozymandias by Horace Smith
(1779 - 1849)

In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
Stands a gigantic Leg, which far off throws
The only shadow that the Desert knows:
"I am great OZYMANDIAS," saith the stone,
"The King of Kings; this mighty City shows
"The wonders of my hand." The City's gone,
Nought but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.
We wonder, and some Hunter may express
Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness
Where London stood, holding the Wolf in chace,
He meets some fragments huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

What do you think and which one do you prefer?  

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Book Week Fourteen - N is for Nobility

Nobility -  Nobleness of mind, character or spirit, exalted moral excellence

"Many Moments of his Nobility"

Of All The Moments
In Jesus’ Life
This … Is The One
Draws Me Closer To Christ

… In The Garden of
Gethsemane
When He Prepared
To Face The Dark’s Army

On That Moonlit Night
The Agony He Felt
But What Humility
As He Nobly Knelt

The Holy Breeding
Of His Personality
Even In Such Plight
… He Proved Regally …

GOD’s Own Champion
GOD’s First-Knight
The Noble Warrior
Who Fights Our Fights

But That One, Moment
In Heaven’s Sight
Drops, Like Rubies
Glittered Bright ...


Such Was His Anguish
That His Pure Sweat
Became As Blood
Squeezed For Our Debt

And His Plea
Heart-Torn, As It Was …
Was Still Heart-Set
To His Father’s Cause

… Of All The Moments
In Jesus’ Life
This Is Another Why
I Call Him ‘Christ’ …

When They Nailed
His Feet and Hands
He Was Still, The Noblest One
In All The Land

In Pain, He Fulfilled
Prophecies Grand
Jesus, The Son Of God
Was The Greatest, Son Of Man

… and Of All The Moments
In Jesus’ Life
This One … Rends Me Speechless
‘His Holy Cries! ’ 

(Moonbee Canady) 

Happy Easter!!!!

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