It’s hard to stay cordial while fighting for your life, even when your life doesn’t amount to much.
Kiln People by David Brin
A continuation of my recent trend of re-reading some science fiction favorites.
I’ve been doing a lot of that too.
"You come upon the White Hart quite unexpectedly in one of those anonymous little lanes leading down from Fleet Street to the Embankment.
Tales From the White Hart by Arthur C. Clarke
“Numerous severed crayons lay in disarray before me.”
Nuts & Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way), by Roman Agrawal
“A lot had changed on the campus since I’d left it in '58.”
In Ashes Born Nathan Lowell (Book One of A Seeker’s Tale - From the Age of the Solar Clipper)
“The custodian at St. Mark’s had just scraped three inches of snow off the sidewalks when the man with the cane appeared.”
– The Confession, by John Grisham
“All good novelists have tasted the joy of deception, but Graham Greene was addicted to it.”
*Graham Greene: The Enemy Within" by Michael Shelden
“Canon Daniel Clement AKC, Rector of Champton St Mary, stood in his pulpit, looking down on his parishioners.”
Murder Before Evensong, by the Reverend Richard Coles
“In the summer of 1605 John Wright began selling copies of a newly printed play called The True Chronicle History of King Leir, which had first been staged around 1590.”
The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606, by James Shapiro
“Clay Hutmacher, Jr., twenty-five, stood knee-deep in the Twelve Sleep River, casting for trout with a determined look on his face and an engagement ring in his pocket.”
Three-Inch Teeth by C.J. Box
A post was merged into an existing topic: Gigabyte’s posts now live in the cornfield
“Minutes after I walked into Alamo Plaza I saw my first Davy Crockett Ghost.”
–Born on a Mountaintop: On the Road with Davy Crockett and the Ghosts of the Wild Frontier by Bob Thompson
“Most of them told the time very roughly by their meals, which were unpunctual and irregular: they amused themselves with the most childish games all through the day, and when it was dark they fell asleep by tacit consent–not waiting for a particular hour of darkness for they had no means of telling the time exactly: in fact there were as many times as there were prisoners.”
The Tenth Man, by Graham Greene
“It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark little clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars.”
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I think the entire first paragraph is worth sharing.
Some time in 2014, I was approached to write ‘a short story’.
The lengthy (14-page) introduction to Voices of Rome, a collection of short stories by Lindsey Davis.
As soon as I got there, my mother said, "We must put on a revival of Falco’s old play to celebrate.’
“The Spook Who Spoke Again”, the first story in Voices of Rome.
“I was born in Holly Springs, Mississippi, before the close of the Civil War (16 July 1862).”
Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells
“A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast.”
– The Boys from Biloxi, by John Grisham
“The Scopuli had been taken eight days ago, and Julie Mao was finally ready to be shot.”
Leviathan Wakes, by James S. A. Corey
“The go sirens ululated through the Jannisar cruiser.”
The Wolf Worlds - Chris Bunch/Alan Cole
“We shot dogs. Not by accident.”
Redeployment by Phil Klay
I had just come home after telling my favorite sister that her husband had been eaten by a lion.
One Virgin Too Many, by Lindsey Davis