Tag Archives: Splintered

Writing on a Sunday Afternoon

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It’s Sunday. Hallelujah and amen! I’m sitting in a bakery, enjoying a latte and working on my book. I think I may have developed arthritis in my left hand, but it might just be the cold. It’s still chilly outside. Why do they have the a/c on? Regardless, I’m working on my book for the first time in a month, and I’m ready to be done!

I had planned to work on it a little yesterday, but my friend had other plans. Part of that is my fault. I really wanted to go the The Cheesecake Factory for their avocado egg rolls. It was worth driving almost 400 miles. I had to suffer through two pet stores, but I eventually got my egg rolls. Also, I ate a delicious burger, and a beer.

But even before then, having to wait an hour and a half to be seated, we went across the hall at Stonebriar’s Mall to the Barnes & Noble. I don’t know about you, but I get excited when I’m in a bookstore, and a little sad. Excited because of the number of books at my disposal to be read, and sad because of the limited state of my finances.

I didn’t let that deter me from searching, finding several titles that I need to buy. I always scan the bargain tables first, hoping that a title or two may jump out. Then I see what’s on the best sellers table and new releases. I walk with no clear idea of what I want, only desiring for a book to jump out at me. One did, The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell. I can’t wait to start on it!

My friend also bought a couple of autographed books, Splintered and Unhinged by A.G. Howard. I already bought her an autographed copy of the third book when the author was signing books at the B&N in Amarillo. While there, I couldn’t resist looking to see if my friends might have their books in stock. Sadly, they didn’t have them in the store. Oh well.

Still, I see in the bookstore an indwelling space of knowledge and entertainment. I’ve met a few authors, most just at the beginning of their careers, but exciting nonetheless. This is what I’ve chosen to work towards, to have my own writing published, hoping and waiting for a reader to spend their hard-earned money to read what I have to say. That, I believe, would be satisfying and humbling.

Until then, I’ll labor in obscurity, honing my craft, working towards that moment when I’ll be ready to put myself out there to be read, to be enjoyed and criticized. It is at once scary and exciting. I want to enjoy this for a moment longer. Maybe, God willing, I’ll find some small measure of success. I can only hope and dream for it. No, that’s not true. I’ll also have to work to earn it. So be it.

Book Review: Ensnared

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22447220I just bought, and finished A. G. Howard’s final book of the Splintered series, Ensnared, and I have to admit, it was worth the wait. For those not familiar with the series, it is a new take of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, told from the point of view of Alice’s great, great, great-granddaughter, Alyssa Gardner.

It would be all but impossible to review the third book without alluding to the previous novels, so consider this a warning that there will be spoilers, though I promise to do my best to keep those to a minimum. That said, onto my review.

In the final installment of the series, we join Alyssa as she attempts to break into Wonderland. The portals to the realm have shut themselves due to her actions in the previous book, but not without first taking her mother, and the two young men vying for her affection.

To do so, she had to enlist the help of her father, a man who had been taken into the land as a child, but rescued and had his memory erased. Knowing no other way, she begins the quest by restoring to him his lost memories, and in so doing, discovering that his own familial destiny was intertwined with the realm, and therefore to her own.

With her father’s memories restored, Alyssa, along with her father, begin the almost Quixotic quest to attempt to rescue their loved ones, restore balance to the Kingdoms of Wonderland, and restore Alyssa’s rightful place as the Red Queen. Alyssa has to battle not only the spirit of Queen Red, a spirit of malice intent on remaking Wonderland in her own twisted image, but first has to try to bridge the gap between Jed, the mortal she loves, and Morpheus, the Netherling who also has a claim on her heart.

The war for her love is very much at the center of the story. She is by birth a halfling, both mortal and a Netherling. The evil queen takes advantage of her dual heritage and curses her heart, splitting it in two. Her two halves are at war and are in danger of tearing itself as she tried to decide to whom her love belongs, the mortal or the immortal.

That love is key because it also speaks to her love of the human world but also to her desire to be the queen her realm deserves. That love threatens not only her life, but the future of her loved ones, and all of Wonderland. Their fate rests on her making peace with her decision, but also on Jeb and Morpheus coming together to do what is best not only for their kind, but for the woman they both claim to love. Together, they must find a way to make her whole, or risk the destruction of all they hold dear.

What I fell in love with is that this series is very much a story about growing up. If you take away the fantasy aspect, it’s about learning to take responsibility for one’s actions, and that those actions have consequences. It’s a tale of perseverance, that even when things don’t go right, giving up isn’t an option.

I found the story to be mesmerizing, as was Ms. Howard’s imagery of a forbidding landscape, that is at once dangerous as it is beautiful. I loved how lunacy trumped sanity, that only by embracing her own madness could Alyssa come to terms with her power and fulfill the destiny she once tried to forsake.

So, I give Ensnared five stars. It’s a wonderfully written book that took a story that has become part of our popular consciousness and gave it new life. A. G.  doesn’t simply continue Carroll’s story, she reinvents it, making it a wholly unique take on a classic tale. For anyone who loves fantasy, and all lovers of books, I highly recommend that you put this on your reading list. You will not be disappointed.

List of Book Reviews
Next review –  41: A Portrait of My Father
Previous Review – Through Kestrel’s Eyes

Autograph this

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Photo of A. G. Howard’s books, Splintered and Unhinged.

I stopped by the Amarillo Barnes & Nobel bookstore this past weekend. Author and Amarillo resident, A. G. Howard dropped in to do a reading of her book Unhinged, the sequel to her first book, Splintered. 

The week before, my and a friend dropped by the bookstore, just looking to kill some time. On the storefront, I saw a poster for a book signing along with a photo of the cover art for the book. The dark beauty of the covers were haunting and breathtaking. I had to see what they were about.

I left with a copy of the first book. I didn’t get a chance to read it until the day of the signing, but what I read seemed promising, so much in fact that I bought a copy of the second book and had them both signed by the author.

I spent most of the night Saturday – after I wrote my 2100 words for my own work in progress – reading. The next day, after returning home from church, I climbed back into bed to finish the rest of the book.

I have the second book on my desk, but I’m rereading the first book, trying to absorb the this world she created. In brief, it’s a reimagining of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The main character, Alyssa Gardner is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell. When she returned from Wonderland, she came back with a curse, one that drives the Liddell women insane.

I’ll get more in-depth if I should I decide to do a review, which I’m thinking about doing. I rarely review books that are not self-published, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. I really think this is a great book. It’s so vivid that I had to reread it before moving on to the second.

The third book of the series, Ensnared, is set to be published early next year. Of course I’ll have to get a copy, then figure out a way to get it autographed as well. I’d like the complete set. I’m silly that way.

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Autographed copy of Unhinged.