Beth Durkee's Blog
January 18, 2016
Grandmother's Magic Ring
by Mel Corbett
Click the Photo to Buy from Amazon.Jim Wilkenson is an assistant professor of physics who has just moved cross-country to begin his new job. With him came McKenzie, his long girlfriend and fellow Ph.D. On the night before his first physics class, McKenzie demands to know if Jim is going to propose marriage to her or if she has been wasting her time with him. She exits their home in a fluster, leaving him alone with his thoughts.
Jim reacts by rushing to his safe to look for the h...
December 14, 2015
[Preview] Engaging Enchantment
by Beth Durkee
Chapter 2
Melador gazed out his office window into pitch black. He could just make out the silhouette of his favorite tree, a gnarled old thing with a broad canopy that was perfect for sitting underneath. Just beyond the tree spread the waters in which his boyhood home, the ancestral grounds of his race, slowly sank. Avalon had been sinking for generations and for those generations whole families had evacuated their beloved homeland. Melador’s family had been one of the last to l...
Chapter 2
Melador gazed out his office window into pitch black. He could just make out the silhouette of his favorite tree, a gnarled old thing with a broad canopy that was perfect for sitting underneath. Just beyond the tree spread the waters in which his boyhood home, the ancestral grounds of his race, slowly sank. Avalon had been sinking for generations and for those generations whole families had evacuated their beloved homeland. Melador’s family had been one of the last to l...
December 7, 2015
Engaging Enchantment
by Beth Durkee
I am on extended vacation for the holidays while I also devote some time to writing. So I am going to cheat just a little by positing reviews by other people of a fantasy book I have written, myself. Next week, I will post an excerpt from this same book. Following that, I may repeat with another of my books. But I do plan to get back to reading and reviewing after the holidays. Thank you for your understanding.
[Following is the official Readers' Favorite revi...
I am on extended vacation for the holidays while I also devote some time to writing. So I am going to cheat just a little by positing reviews by other people of a fantasy book I have written, myself. Next week, I will post an excerpt from this same book. Following that, I may repeat with another of my books. But I do plan to get back to reading and reviewing after the holidays. Thank you for your understanding.[Following is the official Readers' Favorite revi...
November 30, 2015
In Our Skies
by Mel Corbett
RECOMMEND
Ken and Drew are the pilot and co-pilot of British Airlines flight 219, flying from London to San Francisco. When they are almost to their destination, they make contact the air traffic control tower. For the past few weeks, Ken has heard stories from other pilots of sightings of strange flying objects. Even his own copilot told him of one, but he has seen nothing and nobody seems willing to be called crazy for reporting an incident. But today, the c...
November 23, 2015
Typewriter in the Sky
by L. Ron Hubbard
RECOMMEND
The story opens with Horace Hackett, a mid-grade novelist who has spent all of his most recent book advance without yet writing a word. The book is promised to be out by year's-end and there are but two months left to the year. Thus, the publisher's agent pays Horace Hackett a visit to demand a progress report. He finds Horace at home entertaining a friend, Mike de Wolf.
Mike is a talented pianist who is scheduled to audition for the New York Philh...
RECOMMEND
The story opens with Horace Hackett, a mid-grade novelist who has spent all of his most recent book advance without yet writing a word. The book is promised to be out by year's-end and there are but two months left to the year. Thus, the publisher's agent pays Horace Hackett a visit to demand a progress report. He finds Horace at home entertaining a friend, Mike de Wolf.Mike is a talented pianist who is scheduled to audition for the New York Philh...
November 16, 2015
The Druid and the Bracelet
by Chris Dews
RECOMMEND (For Adults Only)
The story opens with a grotesque scene: A woman gives birth in a room of faeries who take the newborn, seal it in a lead sarcophagus, and burn it while uttering incantations. A jet bracelet is placed on the sarcophagus, just in case it may one day be needed. A bound woman is then carried into the room. But before she can also be burned, she frees herself and escapes with the bracelet from atop the infant's sarcophagus .
A t...
RECOMMEND (For Adults Only)
The story opens with a grotesque scene: A woman gives birth in a room of faeries who take the newborn, seal it in a lead sarcophagus, and burn it while uttering incantations. A jet bracelet is placed on the sarcophagus, just in case it may one day be needed. A bound woman is then carried into the room. But before she can also be burned, she frees herself and escapes with the bracelet from atop the infant's sarcophagus .
A t...
November 9, 2015
Dragon Trials
by Ava Richardson
RECOMMEND
Thea is a young noblewoman in her early 20's who has dreamed all her life of becoming a dragon rider, like so many in her family line. Sebastian is the son of a blacksmith from the lower town who has no particular dreams or aspirations, and expects to follow in his father's footsteps. Neither is a likely candidate for selection as a dragon rider, she because she is a woman and he because he is a commoner. Yet the young red dragon, Kalax, chooses them both t...
RECOMMEND
Thea is a young noblewoman in her early 20's who has dreamed all her life of becoming a dragon rider, like so many in her family line. Sebastian is the son of a blacksmith from the lower town who has no particular dreams or aspirations, and expects to follow in his father's footsteps. Neither is a likely candidate for selection as a dragon rider, she because she is a woman and he because he is a commoner. Yet the young red dragon, Kalax, chooses them both t...
November 2, 2015
We Don't Plummet Out of the Sky Anymore
by M. David Blake
WARNINGRead at Your Own Risk
Stan is an actuary at an insurance firm who has almost enough money saved to buy a new aerocar, and he wants a new aerocar because he wants bliss. Bliss is the name of his next-door neighbor, a beautiful college student who does not seem to have a brain or a personality other than fawning over Stan and trying to talk him out of buying a new car.
One day at work, a co-worker suggests that Stan speak to the boss about the new car decision he is t...
WARNINGRead at Your Own Risk
Stan is an actuary at an insurance firm who has almost enough money saved to buy a new aerocar, and he wants a new aerocar because he wants bliss. Bliss is the name of his next-door neighbor, a beautiful college student who does not seem to have a brain or a personality other than fawning over Stan and trying to talk him out of buying a new car.One day at work, a co-worker suggests that Stan speak to the boss about the new car decision he is t...
October 27, 2015
Teleporting While Intoxicated
by William Petersen
Recommend
A smartly written short read! The story begins with a sobriety test. "Charlie," a "rookie" officer, instructs the suspect to walk a straight line and touch his nose while Sergeant Monroe silently muses. We, the readers, are privy to the sergeant's thoughts -- which is where the majority of the action in this short read takes place. As he describes to us the scene and the actions of his fellow, the image takes shape. This is not a DWI...
Recommend
A smartly written short read! The story begins with a sobriety test. "Charlie," a "rookie" officer, instructs the suspect to walk a straight line and touch his nose while Sergeant Monroe silently muses. We, the readers, are privy to the sergeant's thoughts -- which is where the majority of the action in this short read takes place. As he describes to us the scene and the actions of his fellow, the image takes shape. This is not a DWI...
October 21, 2015
Being the Bad Guy
by Daniel Devine
Recommend
An entertaining, short read laced with humor.
Told in the first person, this story's hero is the supervillain "Nightshade," aka Chris. It opens at the beginning of a meeting of the Order of Chaos, the sinister conglomerate to which our hero has sworn allegiance. It is an elite group of the best of the worst supervillains of the era and area -- who all happen to be either middle aged or old "has beens."
This meeting has been called to determine the Order's next great evi...
Recommend
An entertaining, short read laced with humor.Told in the first person, this story's hero is the supervillain "Nightshade," aka Chris. It opens at the beginning of a meeting of the Order of Chaos, the sinister conglomerate to which our hero has sworn allegiance. It is an elite group of the best of the worst supervillains of the era and area -- who all happen to be either middle aged or old "has beens."
This meeting has been called to determine the Order's next great evi...
