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The Bifurcation of Dungsten Crease Blitz!

March 15, 2021 theblindscribe

Science Fiction

Date Published: March 15, 2021

In the course of a morning, Dungsten Crease resurrects his neighbor’s dog, is arrested by TSA for carrying a weapon which never existed, and drowns a woman at an airline ticket counter—or could he be hallucinating? In his panic he locks himself in the men’s room of a coffee shop only to find a strange man in cycling togs sharing the space. The lanky intruder claims to be Dungsten’s neurally implanted concierge unit who has two disturbing messages. Dungsten is a Shaper—an obsolete, genetically programmed tool created by a bankrupt galactic corporation to terraform planetary experiences for vacationing clients; and the woman he inadvertently killed at the airport with his Shaper abilities will be the love of his life. Attracting government agents who want to weaponize him and Galactic Business Council assassins who want to terminate him, fear drives the Shaper within to inadvertently bifurcate, a second Dungsten also now running from his pursuers. But bifurcation comes at a price: loss of appetite, swelling of the hands and feet, an erection lasting longer than four hours, loss of bladder control, rectal bleeding, psychosis, convulsions, and sudden death. To pull himself back together and if he’s lucky, survive, he must master his Shaper abilities before he becomes a victim, or worse, accidentally destroys Earth and everyone he loves along with it.

Excerpt

Hiding in the darkness, door locked, he wanted to feel safe, but he couldn’t shake the feeling he wasn’t alone. As if to ward off the demons, he spoke aloud.

“I am not being followed. They don’t even know where I am.”

“Did they get a good look at you?”

A voice, someone else’s voice, had echoed off the bathroom walls.

Dungsten scrambled away in terror, his movement switching the lights back on and revealing the source of the voice. “Aaah! Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?”

His bathroom companion, for lack of a better term, was tall and lean with an Adam’s apple giving his neck the appearance of being double-jointed. He wore a black Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers” T-shirt, black baggy biking shorts, emerald green leggings covering long, spindly, knobbed-kneed legs, and gold bike shoes. Atop his head sat a red cycling helmet aerodynamically constructed to give the impression of forward motion. The entire ensemble gave him the appearance of a deformed giant leprechaun.

He smiled a big toothy grin. “Calm down.”

Dungsten moved to a corner by the sink, looking to no avail for a weapon.

“Calm down? You pop in here like Captain Picard and I’m supposed to calm down? How did you get in here?”

“You let me in, Dungsten.”

Let him in. No, I didn’t let him in. I’ve been curled up in this bathroom scared shitless. I haven’t moved an inch. “Let you in?”

“Yes.”

“How? And you better do some explaining because, well, my day so far has been off the chart weird. I’ve killed…I think. Yeah, I’ve killed, and I imagine it will be pretty easy to kill again. So, don’t mess with me.”

“Dungsten.” The giant leprechaun balanced against a wall with one hand, grabbing his foot from behind to stretch his quads. “I guess I could say you let me in here with your mind.”

About the Author

Richard Hacker, lives and writes in Seattle, Washington after living many years in Austin, Texas. In addition to the science fiction/fantasy novels, which include The Alchimeía Series, his crime novels ride the thin line between fact and fiction in Texas. Along the way, his writing has been recognized by the Writer’s League of Texas and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. As a judge in literary contests shuch as PNWA and ChicLit, and as a freelance development editor, he enjoys the opportunity to work with other writers. In addition, he is the Sci-Fi/Fantasy editor for the Del Sol Review. When not writing he’s singing jazz and creating visual art.

Del Sol Press books by Richard Hacker are available at Amazon

The Alchimeía Series

DIEBACK: Book One

VENGEANCE OF GRIMBALD: Book Two

Other books by Richard Hacker:

Nick Sibelius Crime Series

KILL’T DEAD OR WORSE

BUZZARD BAIT

ALL HAT AND NO CATTLE

Contact Links

Website

Facebook

Blog

Instagram: lifejazz0526

Purchase Link

Amazon

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Uncategorized

The Kitten Escapades Part 1

March 14, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy Sunday bookish people! I hope everyone’s weekend has been lovely. Today my story is going to be one of the (many!) things that our kitten has done – he’s a crazy ball of fluff, very curious and very mischievous. He knows what things he shouldn’t do he just does them anyway. So, I’m probably going to turn this into a series, that’s why this is part one, because he’s almost definitely going to be doing naughty things for a while yet.

We got him, I say ‘we’ – he’s my Sister’s kitten but he loves me more, in October of 2020. My Sister’s friend had a cat called Luna who had four kittens (Trigger, Rusty, Opal and Shadow) three boys and one girl. Then unfortunately Luna was hit by a car and the kittens were left motherless. My Sister and her friend then hand reared the four kittens and one of them became very attached to my Sister and we got to keep him! Now we have a black and white kitten called Shadow. He’s afraid of everything and he likes to wake up at nighttime and play with his toys that have bells on them.

So, last week I was in the bath, and it was warm and relaxing and lovely. except for the slight breeze coming through the door that has to be left ajar. Shadow doesn’t like being shut out of rooms, he cries and cries at the door if you do. He especially doesn’t like being shut out of the bathroom because he likes to curl up on the purple flower mat that we have in there. If it ever goes really quiet in the house we would probably find him asleep there on the bathroom mat. So that’s why we have to keep the bathroom door open if any of us are in the bath – well, actually my Mum and I are the only ones who keep it open because we can’t resist the cute little kitten.

I’m in the bath, the door is open, and in comes Shadow. I could hear him purring but I couldn’t see him from where I was so I assumed he was just getting comfortable and then he would go to sleep. This is not what he did. It went very quiet and again I assumed he was asleep and I’d just have to be careful not to stand on him when I got out of the bath. So I’m washing my hair and for some reason I do this with my eyes closed, don’t ask me why because honestly I have no idea. Then all of a sudden I open my eyes and a black and white blur shoots over the edge of the bath. The front half of it starts to land on the edge next to me. But then it slips. And suddenly there’s a kitten in my bath. He does not like water and as soon as he hit the water he was already trying to get out, unfortunately for him there was something in his way from doing that. My leg, it was my leg in the way because he had fallen on it and now he was scratching it in his rush to get out. He did manage to get out. I screamed, he meowed, everyone downstairs heard and he showered me in water droplets and cat hair when he was firmly on the bathroom mat again. I might start closing the door from now on…

That’s it for this story! I hope everyone enjoyed it! I’m going to be posting some book reviews today as well so come back to read those if you are interested. Also, the kittens in the picture are not mine, I wasn’t able to post a photo of my kitten for safety reason but there are going to be photos on my instagram @the_blind_scribe if you want to see him!

Uncategorized

The Birthday List Bickers

March 7, 2021 theblindscribe

So.. if you don’t know my birthday is in March (I’m going to be 22! – That feels strange) and, as she does every year, my Mum asked me to write a birthday list. It takes me multiple days to write a list, one – because I have a lot of things to write on the list and two – because I have very few things to go on the list.
Meaning – I end up with a list of about 50 books (not even half the books that I ACTUALLY want) but the only thing on my list is books.
Every year my Mum and I have the same conversation “is that it?” “Mum, there’s like fifty books on it” “but it’s only books” “yes Mum, that’s all I want”.

This year I’ve branched out a bit, now don’t get too excited – I haven’t had a personality switch and asked for clothes or films or a garden patch (although I did very unrealistically ask for a greenhouse every Christmas between the ages of five and fifteen). I asked for a book cart. A green one, obviously because green is the best colour and the thing that is going to hold my most precious items (books – in case you hadn’t guessed) needs to be the best colour, in other words not one I’m going to get bored of anytime soon. There was a beautiful yellow one but my family acted like if I got that one they’d have to permanently wear sunglasses to enter the room it was in. It wasn’t that bright. I am looking forward to getting it, it’s sea green and it reminds me of the colour of the Little Mermaid’s tail. It is going to go next to where I sit in the living room and then all I have to do is just reach out my hand and grab a book! Easy Peasy! Much easier than having to climb up my bed (yes, I have to climb a ladder to get into my bed I usually imagine I’m scaling a castle wall don’t judge me.)
Fair warning, once I get my book cart it’s going to feature in pretty much all of my Instagram photos for the foreseeable future because I’m already in love with it and it hasn’t even arrived yet…

Has anyone else got a book cart? Also, I’d take a guess that the book cart is going to be as tall as me, maybe even taller… I’m a very short person and they look pretty big. That will be an interesting experience trying to push that around – like a tea trolley lady except you can’t see them behind the cart so it’s just like a voice without a body.

That’s it for today’s post I hope you all liked it! Comment and let me know if you like it, or if you didn’t, or if you just want to talk about books (or anything really) I’m always happy to talk and make friends!
My next post is going to be tomorrow, Monday, and it is going to be my first book review on the blog, come back tomorrow and check it out if you are interested.

Monthly TBRs, Uncategorized

March TBR

March 1, 2021March 3, 2021 theblindscribe

Happy 1^st of March. This year is going so fast!
So… last month’s reading was pretty poor but this month seems to be going better already. The 1^st of March and I read the first book on my TBR this morning and I must say it was an enjoyable read. I’ve given myself a huge TBR so hopefully I’ll make it through at least most of them before this month is out.

March is a great month, and not just because it’s got my birthday in it…. Okay that’s probably the main reason but also- there’s six of my highly anticipated books of 2021 coming out this month.
Exciting!
I’ll list them at the end of this post so if you’re interested in that keep reading until the end.

So, onto my TBR!

What A Way To Go by Julia Forster – I anticipate this being a three star for me
Uprooted by Naomi Novik – This could well be a four star, I’ve heard great things about it
The Ravens by Kass Morgan and Danielle Paige – I’m not sure if I will enjoy this book or not. I got it in an Illumicrate box and I know it has witches in it so fingers crossed I will enjoy it.
The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman – does anybody else LOVE books about books? and libraries of course. This book should be right up my alley.
Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson – I do like a good murder mystery… maybe a four star.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater – I have been putting off reading this book for over a year and I think it’s about time I read it.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E Harrow – I really enjoyed her first book the Ten Thousand Doors of January so hopefully this one will be the same amount of enjoyment if not more.
Nine Perfect Strangers by Lianne Moriarty – again, love a good murder mystery, and I heard that Luke Evans has been cast for a TV/film version of this book so that will be interesting.
The Map of Days by Ransom Riggs – I have all of the Miss Peregrines books and I cannot wait tog et back into that world.
The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo – I have actually read this at five am this morning and I rated it four stars. I will put up a book review of it very soon!
The Library of the Unwritten by A J Hackwith – Libraries?! I’m there!
Ever Cursed by Corey Ann Haydu – My friend bought me this because it sounded good so I am looking forward to seeing if I find it as good as it sounds.
Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare – I have Chain of Iron on pre-order so I think it’s time I dive into this first book.
Finally, A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer – okay I will admit it – this was definitely a cover buy but I am very interested in the story as well.

Releases march 2021:
Chain of Iron by Cassandra Clare
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Ravage the Dark by Tara Sim
The Queen’s Secret by Melissa De La Cruz
Bridge of Souls by Victoria Schwab

That’s it for my TBR of this month, let me know if you’ve read any of these and what you thought about them and at the end of March I will post a wrap up and see how well I did!

Monthly Wrap Ups, Uncategorized

February 2021 Wrap-Up!

March 1, 2021March 3, 2021 theblindscribe

We have reached the end of February. February was a very busy month for me.
I had appointments, University classes with issues about who was going to be teaching those classes when the original teacher missed four sessions and didn’t keep in contact…stressful. I started a new job in February! – Which I am enjoying. Also, I finished and sent off my application to study a PhD so fingers crossed I get onto that course.

Because of this it was a pretty terrible reading month for me, I mean I did get some reading done but not half as much as I would have liked. My goals for this blog are to (hopefully) post about four times a week and one will be a book review, so each week I should put up a new book review. Anyway, February’s TBR looked like this:

The Guest List by Lucy Foley – I did read
Magonia by Maria Daevana Headley – I did not read
A mood read that I never ended up choosing a book for…
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black – I did read
Charmcaster by Sebastien De Castell – I started to read but did not have time to finish
The Darkest Bloom by P M Freestone – I did not read
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena – I did read
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell – I did not read
Furyborn by Claire LeGrand – I did not read
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – I did not read
The Queen’s Assassin by Melissa De La Cruz – I did not read
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo – I did not read

What I read: I only managed to read three of the books on my TBR this month which were: The Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena, The Guest List by Lucy Foley and How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories. Book reviews for this will be coming shortly but I will say I did enjoy all of these books although none of them were five stars for me.

My favourite read of the month was How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories, it was my first read of the month before my schedule got a little hectic and I spent a good couple of hours throwing myself into the collection of stories. I was very excited beforehand knowing that I got to go back to the world of Cardan and Jude and although I enjoyed the book, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Most disappointing reads: I was very surprised that my most disappointing read was the Guest List by Lucy Foley. I went into the book with very high expectations, I’d seen lots of people on Booktube and Bookstagram absolutely loving this book and I am always up for a good murder mystery, but the constantly changing POV’s and the way the book went left me feeling underwhelmed. As I said my book review for the Guest List will be going up soon if you are interested in hearing more of my thoughts on this book.

Current Reads: currently I am in between books and deciding which book off my March TBR to start reading later today!

On another note – who else is loving the snippet of Six of Crows in the Netflix Shadow and Bone trailer?!

Book Tags, Uncategorized

Getting to Know Me

February 28, 2021March 1, 2021 theblindscribe

For my first post I thought that some of you might be interested in getting to know a little more about me! So read on below some questions and answers!

What is your full name? Olivia Templeton.
What does your name mean? Traditionally before Shakespeare used Olivia in the Twelfth Night, it was just Olive. So I guess my name means peace.
Does your name make any interesting anagrams? Sort of, you can make the word malevolent out of it!
Who did you look up to growing up? That would be the girls in the books I was reading about.
What would your parents have named you if you were the other gender? Connor, apparently!
What is your biggest accomplishment? Being awarded as Plymouth Young City Laureate for a year.
What is your biggest fear? There are too many to list! Haha!!
What has required you to have the most courage? Probably my eye operations I’ve had.
What is your favourite fairy tale? Beauty and the Beast.
What is your favourite quote? “I am a free bird and no net ensnares me”. It’s a powerful quote from Jayne Eyre.
Can you dance? I used to be able to but when your sight starts going it becomes a bit too difficult to continue.
Do you save old greeting cards? Yes. I put everything in a scrapbook.
Do you have pets? Not me, but my sister has the cutest kitten.
Who sent the last text you received? My boyfriend.
Who would you tell first if you found a dead body in your garden? My Sister!
What is your most embarrassing moment? Probably when I pulled my trousers down in the primary school playground in front of everyone!

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