Snippet from 'The Hand and the Eye of the Tower'

'The Hand and the Eye of the Tower' used to be 'Never Lose Your Path, Your Patience, or Yourself'. More than one person thought the latter title was too much like a lecture. :( I've changed it, yet again (yes, this title has been changed twice already) to 'The Hand and the Eye of the Tower'.  Here's another snippet from 'The Hand and the Eye of the Tower', the very first six lines of the book...

“I know you’re there. I can feel you. I’m blind and cannot touch without you.” It was a childlike plea, as well as a seductive whisper. Danyell wanted to respond, but didn’t dare. He lay very still, so the voice couldn’t find him.

Snippet from 'Never Lose Your Path, Your Patience, or Yourself'

Here's another six word excerpt for 'Rainbow Snippets'. If I post at wordpress, I always feel I should post at blogger, as well. :) This is from my novel, which is undergoing revision at the moment, 'Never Lose Your Path, Your Patience, and Yourself'.

'He looked down at his hand. It was larger, paler, and much smoother than it should be. Startled, he looked up. Sure enough, the sky was no longer blue, but a dark purple, the color of early evening. Thoughts that weren’t Danyell’s poured into his mind, as he looked at the darkness pooling at his feet. It would swallow him whole, shatter him into a million pieces, if he wasn’t careful.'

Learning about Love from 'The Symposium'

Every time I read ‘The Symposium’, I marvel at all the aspects of love, which are described in the various speeches. There’s tributes to love, tales of heroism, sexual desire, passionate friendship, searching for your other half, how it ennobles and debases, and how it’s a gateway, leading to an even greater passion, akin to a religious devotion. Every one of these loves is possible. Every one is true, to the person speaking. As a college freshman, I found myself thinking about how each speaker in ‘The Symposium’ was right and wrong. Socrates is much more skilled at arguing, as well as revealing the fallacies in other people’s arguments through questions, but I wasn’t convinced he was any more correct than anyone else. His experiences wouldn’t necessarily be the same as his companions’, any more than his thoughts would be. At that moment, I caught a glimpse of how complex thought could be. At that moment, you could say I fell in love. It was a love, which had already been growing in my passion for stories, for the printed word. I fell in love with ideas, with complex thoughts, and how fictional characters could be the very embodiments of those thoughts. As your characters grow and developed, so can the thoughts, which first gave form to them. I wanted to devote myself to those thoughts, wrapped around and embodied within my characters. This devotion has made my life, as well as my writing, much richer experiences than they might have been. It can be a lonely devotion, if you have no else to share it with. Not everyone understands, or tolerates such devotion. I treasure the people who do, particularly the one person, who decided he wanted to share his life with me, even if he didn’t always understand me. After being together with my husband for twenty-two years, there are still things about each other, which remains mysteries. This means there is still a lot left to explore. We continue to grow and learn from each other, just as Socrates and his friends grew and learned, from sharing their sentiments about love with each other. May each and every one of you have someone you can grow and learn with, even if that relationship doesn’t quite take the form you might have expected. May each and every one you experience the kind of love, which makes it a joy to continue to strive to go on living, even if it’s a love, which takes on a surprising form. 

Learning About Love from 'The Symposium'

Every time I read ‘The Symposium’, I marvel at all the aspects of love, which are described in the various speeches. There’s tributes to love, tales of heroism, sexual desire, passionate friendship, searching for your other half, how it ennobles and debases, and how it’s a gateway, leading to an even greater passion, akin to a religious devotion. Every one of these loves is possible. Every one is true, to the person speaking. As a college freshman, I found myself thinking about how each speaker in ‘The Symposium’ was right and wrong. Socrates is much more skilled at arguing, as well as revealing the fallacies in other people’s arguments through questions, but I wasn’t convinced he was any more correct than anyone else. His experiences wouldn’t necessarily be the same as his companions’, any more than his thoughts would be. At that moment, I caught a glimpse of how complex thought could be. At that moment, you could say I fell in love. It was a love, which had already been growing in my passion for stories, for the printed word. I fell in love with ideas, with complex thoughts, and how fictional characters could be the very embodiments of those thoughts. As your characters grow and developed, so can the thoughts, which first gave form to them. I wanted to devote myself to those thoughts, wrapped around and embodied within my characters. This devotion has made my life, as well as my writing, much richer experiences than they might have been. It can be a lonely devotion, if you have no else to share it with. Not everyone understands, or tolerates such devotion. I treasure the people who do, particularly the one person, who decided he wanted to share his life with me, even if he didn’t always understand me. After being together with my husband for twenty-two years, there are still things about each other, which remains mysteries. This means there is still a lot left to explore. We continue to grow and learn from each other, just as Socrates and his friends grew and learned, from sharing their sentiments about love with each other. May each and every one of you have someone you can grow and learn with, even if that relationship doesn’t quite take the form you might have expected. May each and every one you experience the kind of love, which makes it a joy to continue to strive to go on living, even if it’s a love, which takes on a surprising form. 

Agathon's Party Doesn't Have to End. Shall we continue it?

Centuries ago, Plato created ‘The Symposium’. It was a dinner gathering, which included Socrates, Phaedrus, Pausanius, Eryximachus, and Aristophanes, hosted by Agathon. (If you have no idea who these people are, don’t worry. The point is they’re the main characters/players/speakers in Plato’s ‘The Symposium’.) Each of these men gives a little speech about love. Sometimes, the speakers contradict themselves and each other. Some speeches are better than others. I found the whole to be fascinating. As a college freshman, I wrote my own little ‘Symposium’, a dinner party peopled by various original characters, talking about love. Part of me would welcome a chance to rewrite this story, in spite of being busy with many other stories. Now, I welcome you to join me on February 14th, 2016 in creating our own ‘Symposium’. What do you think about love? It doesn’t have to be romantic love. It can be any kind of love. You don’t even have to use your own voice. Plato often used Socrates to voice ideas, debate them, question them. Use a character of yours to ponder love, if you wish. Ponder it in as general or specific a fashion as you like. Simply have it be in some way connected to love. This is all you have to do, to join this little ‘Symposium’ on February 14th, 2016. Write your blog ahead of time, if you’re busy on Valentine’s Day. I know I am, so I’ll be writing mine ahead of time, too. Just take a moment to share a thought, a feeling, a sentiment, or a story fragment regarding love on that day. 

'Fairest', Coming in the spring of 2016

My story, 'Fairest' comes out in 2016, written under the name of K.S. Trenten. It will be in Prizm's 'Rainbows Come in All Colors' line. 'Fairest' is a retelling of several old fairy tales in a unique femslashy blend. It's a story of magic, broken hearts, and hearts healed in surprising places, as a young princess unravels the mystery of the witch, who cursed her as an infant. Everyone else is afraid of this witch, but the princess is strangely drawn to her, as she finds out more and more about her. Unraveling this mystery only increases her determination to save the witch from her loneliness, even as she struggles to save herself. For whether it's a bite from an apple, or a prick from a spindle, no one knows what you will change into, once the curse falls upon you.

Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration: Frustration: Crippling, or Creative?

Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration: Frustration: Crippling, or Creative?: Ever gotten frustrated, as you write? Do you look at your work, groan inwardly, as you realize you haven’t achieved what you’d hoped? Did y...