Dragons

Mythical Pets

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this week? Things here are pretty quiet, which is good. I can’t complain. But I still can’t muster up the motivation to write regularly. Definitely not attempting NaNoWriMo. I’ve just been slacking on every front except for reading. Even that’s kind of difficult since I pretty much hate one of the books I’m currently reading. And, as usual, I had no idea what to ramble about this week, so a friend told me to write about which mythical creature I’d want as a pet. “All of them” is apparently not an acceptable answer. Sadness. So, I whittled it down to three (kind of).

1. Cerberus and/or Fenrir. If you know me at all, this is the obvious answer. Why? Because puppers! Cerberus has always been one of my favorites. Her part in Garnets and Guardians (I should probably try looking at that one again now that I’ve had a couple of years away from it to see if I can fix it) is still some of my favorite writing that actually came from me. What’s not to love about a floofy pupper that guards the entrance to Hades? And all doggos need companionship, so I’d adopt Fenrir too. Poor dude just needs some love and cuddles, then maybe he wouldn’t be so hell bent on eating Odin. A giant wolf and a three-headed hound should be able to get along, right?

2. Dragon. I mean, who doesn’t want a dragon? I’m not even picky about the type of dragon. Something warm to cuddle in a cave with while we enjoy our hoards. What more does a girl need? But then I think about all the other reptilian creatures and I start to waver. A basilisk would be neat, but would require extra special care, so no one makes eye contact. I’d also love Jörmungandr (the world serpent). Why did Loki have all the cool kids? But mostly, I want a dragon.

3. Kraken! Actually, I’m quite fond of most of the water based mythical creatures. Hydra, kelpie, etc. I would say Cthulhu, but I don’t think an elder god would want to be my pet. Same for merpeople and selkies. But a kraken would be lovely and think of how good they are at hugs. They just get a little overzealous and break boats. But they could be fun. I’d just need to get a place by the ocean. It wouldn’t be fair to bring one to north Texas. Not enough water around here for the big baby.

I could keep going, but I don’t think anyone really wants me to keep rambling about the pet potential of mythical creatures. What about you? What kind of creatures would you want as a pet? As always, feel free to share your thoughts, comments, questions, or whatever here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on SHATTER THE SKY

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy!  It’s the last Wednesday of July, so you should all know what that means.  It’s time for another book review!  This month, I felt like getting into something fantastical, maybe with dragons or something, so that’s what I looked for on NetGalley.  They recommended the young adult novel Shatter the Sky by Rebecca Kim Wells, which was released yesterday (July 30th).  It sounded interesting, so I went ahead and requested it.  I must thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for allowing me access to an ARC (advanced reader copy) in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  Now, let’s get to the review.

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A pretty generic YA cover.  No idea what the glowy thing she’s holding is, but I’m guessing a vial which is never described as glowing in the book.

Shatter the Sky follows Maren who leaves her secluded home in the hopes of rescuing her girlfriend, Kaia, who is taken by the Aurati seers.  Maren never actually wanted to leave her home and always believed she was average, especially next to Kaia who was obviously meant for greater things than the mountains could provide.  But when Kaia is stolen, Maren decides she needs to reclaim a dragon from the Flame of the West (the warlord who loves nothing more than conquering lands) and rain down fire and destruction upon the Aurati.  But how is an average girl like her supposed to do that?  With a little help from friends, apparently.  But is Sev, a guy she meets along the way, really a friend?  And can his allies really help her rescue Kaia?  Maren doesn’t have any idea what she’s doing or who to trust, but she does all she can to keep moving forward.

The plot is pretty standard fantasy fare.  An underdog rises above her challenges in order to achieve her goals, discovering along the way that she’s actually super special.  Not only must she face physical obstacles, but there’s also a budding romance with the new friend despite her devotion to her heartmate, which brings up shame and all that good stuff.  And there’s an adorable little dragon that gets sucked into the adventures.  It’s a little predictable at points, but still enjoyable.

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But not so ashamed she’ll ditch him.

It’s not the plot that pulled me in, but the characters.  Of course, in the beginning, Kaia is the obvious choice for a heroine, but then she’s abducted and we only get to see snippets of her in Maren’s visions.  By the end, she’s so completely changed that it makes me want to read the next book to find out what she really becomes.  Maren is headstrong and a little flighty.  She rarely has more than a vague notion of a plan, but that never stops her.  However, her insistence that Kaia is somehow better than her does become annoying.  Sev is an ambiguous character that could either be really good or he could go really bad, which is fun.  He’s adamant that his cause is the only way to a better future, which most villains feel the same way.  But if he keeps with Maren, and lets her influence shape him, he could become a hero in his own right.  This book is leaning toward the latter for him, but it doesn’t mean he won’t veer off in the next book.  Otherwise, I love the dragons and want more of them.

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A Dragon Witch by Nene Thomas.  Just because dragons.

The writing itself was smooth and a made for nice read.  A lot of the description was beautiful and the pacing pulled me along at a good clip.  The dialogue occasionally felt stilted, but not enough to really distract from the story.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Shatter the Sky so much that I’m looking forward to book two and am a little sad that I have to wait for it.

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Overall, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.  Like I said, it’s standard fantasy fare, but the characters made it worth reading for me.  If you enjoy character development and can get past some predictableness, this is definitely worth reading.

It’s In The Bag…

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello!  Hoppy April!  Yes, I did the corny bunny joke since Easter is coming up later this month and I’ll probably forget about it that week.  Anyway, I had zero ideas what to blog about today, so I went to this post and convinced myself I would do the third thing on the list (because it’s the 3rd).  It seems pretty silly to me, but apparently people believe that what people carry around in their bags (purses, backpacks, fanny packs, whatever) can tell you a lot about them.  You probably won’t learn anything about me, but if you do, feel free to share it with me!

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Pretty.

First off, I don’t have a bag or purse or anything extravagant like that.  I have a pouch that Dad bought me from Thatcher’s Leather Artistry during one of our long ago trips to the Scarborough Faire Renaissance Festival.  It’s small enough to tuck it away for short trips out of the house and, if we’re going to be out for the day, there’s a little loop on the back so we can hang it on my seatbelt where I don’t have to worry about it falling off somewhere.  It’s durable.  I can’t even remember how long I’ve had it and it’s still going strong.  But most importantly, it has a dragon on it and I love it.

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Be jealous. ^__~

As far as the stuff that goes in it, there isn’t much.  I keep a handful of my own business cards that I always forget about, thus never giving them away.  There were originally ten of the new ones and I’m pretty sure there still are.  I also have at least one of my old cards as well.  Plus a bunch of other people’s business cards that I collected along the way, though those get purged about once a year, whenever they get unruly.  There’s also a library card that I haven’t used in years and some other random cards.  But, of course, I always forget to toss the gift cards I’ve accumulated in there, so I never have one during my rare stops at Starshmucks or whatever.

There’s also a little baggy of pills hidden in its depths.  Don’t get excited, pouch thieves.  It’s just Dad’s diabetes pills in case we’re out for our first meal of the day and he hasn’t taken his meds yet.  Anyone who steals those won’t get high, but they might end up in a low sugar coma!  I suppose that could be fun.  But yeah, that’s in there.

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It’s a nifty little thing.

I also got this little card holder thing recently.  It holds the few semi-important things I have: my ID, etc.  If the sigil makes no sense, it’s from Supernatural, so don’t worry about it.  I mostly just got it because it was on sale and the colors match my pouch.

Other than that, I don’t keep anything in my pouch.  Not even change.  I might drop a lipstick in on the extremely rare occasion that I wear makeup and we’re going to be out all day, but that’s a once every five years thing.  What about you?  What does your bag say about you?  What does mine say about me?  Whatever it is, it’s probably wrong.  Feel free to comment here or on my social media pages!