A Sneak Peek at Eric Deblackmere's HAMMER OF THE GODS

Fantasy Author Eric DeBlackmere has been one of Vision and Verse's most popular authors.  He has been kind enough to share with us a sneak peek of his new work to whet our appetites.  Here is an excerpt from HAMMER OF THE GODS:

The woman stood in what had once been the doorway of a simple hermit’s hut. That was before it had been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash and debris. Her neck muscles clenched tightly as she tried to hold back her anger. She lifted a heavily booted foot and prodded the debris in front of her. Soot, ash, and a few faint sparks puffed upwards from the ruins. She drew her sword and flipped over what had once been part of the roof. The gleaming blade of her longsword stood out in stark contrast to the blacks and greys of the ruined hut all about her. She continued prodding with her weapon as she slowly moved across what had once been the modest living space of the old hermit. She barely paid any attention to the sound of someone walking up behind her.

“Captain Elentari!” It was Brother Caedmon, her sergeant and nominal second-in-command. She continued her search, with blade and boot, as Brother Caedmon waited for his captain’s word to report. She tapped an area off to her right with the point of her sword and then gently kicked the area with her foot. She crouched down quickly to get a better look. Her back was still turned to the waiting sergeant. “What have you found, Caedmon?” she asked, now reaching out with a mailed and gloved hand to grasp something in the ashes. She glanced quickly over her right shoulder to the man behind her. The afternoon sun glinted on the burnished armor of his breastplate. He snapped a quick salute, eyes locked on some point above and beyond his captain’s position.

OBSCURE RUSSIAN PAINTERS SERIES II

Another such Russian  painter was Konstantin Ivanovich Gorbatov, (1876 - 1945)

Gorbatov was a post-Impreesionist artist, born in Stavropol.  He studied civil engineering at the Baron Stieglitz Center for Technical Draftsmanship before switching his field of study to painting.

He left Russia in 1922 to settle on the Island of Capri and 4 years later moved to Berlin where he lived out the rest of his life.  Gorbatov was a member of a Russian emigree artistic circle and soon won recognition as a well-known established artist.  However, during WWII, his art was deemed unneeded by Nazi Germany which caused him to become impoverished.

After his death, his works were delivered to the Moscow Regional Museum of History and Arts.

Image featured above is titled "The Invisible Town of Kitezh"  1913, by Gorbatov.

OBSCURE RUSSIAN PAINTERS SERIES I

There are some magnificent Russian painters, who for unknown reasons are not found in mainstream art. It requires a bit of detective work, but the results are astounding. One such painter was Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov (1881 - 1944) born in Mikhailovskaya-on-Don, a cossack village, to peasant parents.

In 1900 he attended the Moscow School of Painting, Scupture, and Architecture.  By 1909, he had been expelled from the school on the basis of his artistic free thinking.  As a student he travelled through western Europe, Turkey, and Egypt.

Little else is known about Mashkov other than he was a member of an artistic association,  known as "Mir iskusstva", and at one point had opened his own school of art.

Image above "Landscape with a Town"  1909, by Ilya Mashkov

MUSICAL INSPIRATION

Much of the inspiration for my fantasy art is rooted in music and lyrics.  The androgenous theatrical pop/rock music of the 1970's was a major influence on my work.  The disguised poetic lyrics of artists like David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Roxy Music,  provided plenty of stimulation for an eccentric imagination.

The work featured above, simply titled "PINK"  by Parker Kaufman is a cardstock and computer enhanced images composition, 8.5 x 11 in.  The piece was influenced by the music and lyrics to "We Are The Dead"  by David Bowie from the Diamond Dogs album.  Follow the link below to hear the song.

http://youtu.be/yJ2AAO9_Los

Author Interview with Colette Saucier

Colette L. Saucier

 Louisiana

What have you written? 

My published works are Pulse and Prejudice—the paranormal adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic—which retells the story from Mr. Darcy’s point of view as a vampire. (Austenprose Readers’ Choice Top 5 Book of 2012); the contemporary romance All My Tomorrows, selected a 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-finalist; and my new release, the romantic suspense thriller, Alicia’s Possession.

What is your favorite genre to write?

Literary and metaphysical fiction, but I haven’t published in those genres yet!  So I would have to say Romantic Suspense.

Favorite food. 

Lobster.

Where would you like to visit? 

My goal is to visit all the continents, and I only have Australia and Antarctica remaining.

Favorite musical artist. 

Pink Floyd

How old were you when you started writing? 

I was reading and writing even before I began kindergarten, but I wrote my first short story in the third grade when I was eight. By junior high, I wrote novellas that my classmates would pass around.

Where do you get your inspiration? 

Anything can be an inspiration. With my new release, Alicia’s Possession, my daughter had just bought a house on a lake that got my creative juices flowing. All My Tomorrows resulted from an argument I had with my other daughter. For Pulse and Prejudice, I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before. I had read adaptations of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy’s point of view and a vampire variation, and I decided to blend the two.  My current work in progress, The Widow?  I’m keeping the inspiration a secret for now.

What do you do when you get a writer's block? 

First, I try meditation, which is how I work out any scene anyway. If that doesn’t work, I use a technique called proprioceptive writing. I took a workshop on it, and it is an amazing tool to get your juices flowing. If all else fails, I go to Amsterdam.

Who is your favorite author? 

William Shakespeare

Best book you ever read. 

When I am reading The Magic Mountain, I think it is the best book ever written, but when I am reading The Brothers Karamazov, I can’t imagine anything better.

Who is the one person who has influenced your personal life the most and why?

It cannot be one person because I had twins. My children completely changed my life. From the moment they were born, I didn’t make a single decision, I didn’t move, without thinking of how they would be affected. They were the primary motivating factor in most of my behavior until they left home.  Even today as adults, they still influence me. I want their happiness more than I want my own.

If you could sit down and have a conversation with ONE person, living or dead, real or fictional, who would it be and why?

John Lennon. Although Pink Floyd is my favorite band, The Beatles are a close second. I think I might love George more, but I have always felt a certain affinity with John, like we shared a certain level of insanity.  In Strawberry Fields, he wrote, “No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low;” but the original lyrics were that no one was on his wavelength; everyone was either higher or lower. He changed it to make it more esoteric. I empathize with him and that feeling, especially when I was growing up and had trouble making friends. Of course, I can always fall back on another line from that song:  “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see. It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn't matter much to me.”

What advice would you give someone who aspired to be a writer? 

Marry well.

Colette is the bestselling author of Pulse and Prejudice—the paranormal adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic—which retells the story from Mr. Darcy’s point of view as a vampire. Colette was selected a “2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semi-finalist” and Austenprose's “Debut Author of the Year” for 2012.

Colette has been writing poems, short stories, and novellas since grade school. Her interest in literature led her to marry her college English professor, but eventually a love of history encouraged her to trade up to a British historian. Technical writing has dominated Colette’s career for the past twenty years, but finding little room for creativity in that genre, she dedicated 15 months traveling to Europe and Britain, researching Regency England and vampire lore and literature, to complete her first full-length novel Pulse and Prejudice. She is currently researching and writing a sequel entitled Dearest Bloodiest Elizabeth set in Antebellum New Orleans, as well as the romantic suspense thriller, The Widow.

Colette lives in South Louisiana with her historian husband and their two dogs.

www.facebook.com/ColetteSaucierAuthor

colettesaucier.blogspot.com

www.colettesaucier.com

About Alicia’s Possession

Haunted by a traumatic accident and her husband’s betrayal, Alicia believes she can never trust again. Now she must surrender her will to Mason if she wants to find out if the bizarre events terrorizing her are the work of the paranormal, her own paranoia, or something far more sinister.

After recovering from a freak car crash that put her in a coma and left her with no memory of the accident, wealthy socialite Alicia Pageant becomes convinced there is a connection between the mysterious disappearance of her neighbor and a series of bizarre occurrences inside her own house; but everyone—including the detective called to investigate—thinks the woman’s head injury has left her unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.

As Detective Mason Crawley investigates this “suspicious incident,” Alicia’s palpable sadness and vulnerability awaken his instinct to protect her and lead her into the light; but when her story begins to unravel, each new piece of information creates more questions than it answers. He begins to wonder if he is falling in love with a woman who is a witness to a cleverly-concealed crime, dangerously delusional, or a murderer.

“A great story. It's got everything—sex, crime, cops, more sex, a twisted mystery, knot tying, and a superb denouement.” — Chuck Hustmyre, screenwriter and bestselling author of THE AXMAN OF NEW ORLEANS

http://www.colettesaucier.com/alicias-possession/where-to-find-alicias-possession/


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Random Drawing for Gift Card

Random Drawing for

$10 Amazon Gift Card

July 15, 2013

Don't forget!

     The Three Month Anniversary of our blog, Vision and Verse, will be on July 15, 2013.  To celebrate Parker and I will be having a random drawing for a $10 Amazon Gift Card.  To be eligible for the drawing, just leave a comment on any of our posts before the 15th.

     You have a VERY GOOD CHANCE of winning!

    

Excerpt from BELTERRA by Carol Ann Kauffman

Some wild horses were grazing at the bottom of the hill.  Neeka dismounted Sunshine, her beautiful blond horse, a special gift from Braedon.  She removed the pack Jennell made for her.

“Oh, now, listen to me, my dear Sunshine.  See those nice horses over there?  I want you to go over there and introduce yourself.  You are sweet and very handsome.  Make some new friends.  Non-human friends.  Believe me, horses are much more loyal.  You have been a wonderful companion to me, Sunshine.  And more loyal to me than the love of my life.  I am going far away, somewhere you cannot come, somewhere there are no horses.  So you go with those nice horses over there.  I love you.  Now go, be free.  Run.  Be happy.  Go!”

Sunshine took a few steps away from her, then turned back and looked at her.

“Go!  Sunshine, go!” she pointed.  He ran in the direction of the horses.

She dropped the pack on the ground and walked away from it.  She walked in the direction of the ocean.  She could feel it.  She could smell it.  She could hear the waves.

She walked down the shore, looking for the sea lavender.  She felt weaker and weaker, sadder and sadder, lower and lower.

She had such high hopes and dreams at one time.  She was an accomplished healer.  She was an excellent rider, good with a bow and arrow, decent aim with a weapon, decent looking, not tall enough, or slim enough, but decent looking.   She knew how to read people.  She was a good cook.  She had a sense of humor.  She had been educated in the best schools in the West.  She could read and write, draw and paint.  She knew how to run a large household.  She knew basic electronics and simple engineering.  She knew math and science.  She had self-defense training in the North with Joss.  She wanted a happy family, a good and loving husband, and children.  She didn’t get that.

She had such hopes and dreams for her world.  She wanted to make Belterra a better place.  One world, no clans, freedom for all people.  No electronic neckware or wristware.  No poison mush.  No torture.  No slavery.  Freedom to move about, live wherever you want, earn a living doing what you want.  Belterra was a very beautiful world.  She had seen all four parts.  They each had special beauty.  But most Belterrans only saw their own part.   She had wanted to change that.  She wanted to bring her people together, to unite them.  She didn’t get that, either.

So now, all she wanted to do was find the sea lavender, inhale its sweet, rich, heady fragrance, throw away her clothes, and then walk straight into the big blue ocean until she disappeared.

THE WRIGHT ARCHITECTURE

With a career that encompassed more than 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright was this country's greatest known and most celebrated architect.  By far, his influence on 20th century American design is the single greatest ever and made him the first American to have such effect on the international scene.

Wright was born June 8, 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin.  As a young child, he was influenced by the theories of German educator Friedrich Froebel, creator of the kindergarten system and whose philosophy included the use of colorful geometric shapes as construction toys.

Later, Wright was apprenticed to Allan D Conover, a Madison, Wisconsin builder and Dean of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin.  He studied at the university for two years where he excelled in drafting.

1887 saw the young aspiring architect leave Wisconsin, landing in Chicago, a city still recovering from the Great Fire of 1871.  That spring he applied for a draftsman position with Joseph Lyman Silsbee.  The influences of English critic and social theorist John Ruskin impacted his work at this point in time as well as the British and European Arts and Crafts movement.  As a result he would maintain his anti classical architectural stance throughout his career.

In the fall of the same year he applied for a drafting position with Adler & Sullivan, where he spent 6 years perfecting his skills before striking out on his own..  He married his first wife in 1893 and they set up a household in a residence he designed in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park.  Wright accepted numerous new commissions, mostly from his suburban neighbors as he became better known.  He continued to develop his building style, featuring more and more of the Arts and Crafts influence in his designs.  This lead to his Prairie House concept, which exemplified open, free-flowing living areas, brightly lighted by windows providing wide continuous views of the surrounding landscape.  With this concept he designed fireplaces that helped designate different living areas.  They became the focal point of family living.  He designed furniture specifically for the home and it's occupants.  The use of beautiful natural materials, plantings, and outdoor fixtures made for a harmonious unification between site and dwelling.

His contemporary view of architecture gained national  attention in 1901 with the commission of several of his designs to be published in Ladies Home Journal.

Wright's designs were not limited to residential structures.  Two Chicago apartment buildings were commissioned in the mid-1890's from his designs.  Numerous office buildings and public spaces were also part of his repertoire.  The Unitarian church of Oak Park, lost to a terrible fire, was rebuilt by Wright under his creative eye in 1904.  With it's soaring walls, pre-Columbian-looking columns, and heavy slab roof jutting outward at different levels, it was a church, the likes of which had never before been seen.

Wright's career hit international heights in 1916 with the Japanese commission of the Imperial Hotel project in Tokyo.  It proved to be most atypical of anything previously conceived by Wright, an imposing and grandiose structure.

With all of his notoriety in the world of architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright will forever be known for the stunning beauty of Fallingwater, the home he designed for Edgar J Kaufmann, Sr, in 1935.  The residence seductively defines a serene wooded site with a stream and waterfall, located in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.  It is this harmony between site and structure that continues to be a theme in modern architecture.

His buildings stand as testimony to his immense energy and creativity.  As an architect and artisan he remains the single most influential architect of 20th century American design.

Image above of Wright designed 1935 Kaufmann home, Fallingwater.

Author Interview with Laura H. Rhodes

Laura H. Rhodes

Kila, Montana

What have you written?
The First Snowflake of Winter

What is your favorite genre to write?

My favorite genre of books is Bedtime Stories, which might not be a separate genre, but it should be.  Some books were just made to be read with a freshly bathed child in your arms who is wearing cozy pajamas preferably with “footies” and a zipper.  Ahh, I can smell the bubble bath and feel the snuggles just writing about it!  A good bedtime story should have a pattern that the little snuggle bug can slightly predict, but it should also have a bit of a surprise for the little one, too.

Favorite food.

My favorite food is - Italian anything! I was raised with a big Italian extended family and food was the center of time spent with them.  We ate homemade raviolis, lasagna, cannoli, Italian cream cake, you name it!  The Italians have a saying, “at the table one never grows old” which means that over a great meal with great friends and family, time stands still.  Indeed it does!

Where would you like to visit?

I would love to visit Jerusalem.  It’s the place with the most history on earth; a place where some of our most dramatic events have not just been dreamed or imagined, but actually lived out by meek, humble characters and bold, vivacious ones as well.  It’s a place where even the dirt has a story; as they dig they find the layers of fire destruction like lines on a page and the layers of building upon building like pieces of an eternal puzzle.  I would like to walk amongst the ancient olive groves on the Mount of Olives, visit the sheepfolds in Bethlehem, and see the sun glint off of the storied limestone at daybreak.

Favorite musical artist.

My favorite musical artist is my big brother, Mark Hathaway.  He has music notes in his DNA, not letters.  He has a perfect ear and can recreate any music he hears.  He plays complex guitar pieces by ear.  He performs with his drums in a Brazilian drum corps.  He played “The Entertainer” after watching a player piano perform it – once!  He also sings well and makes up funny songs about things around him.  He’s the best!

How old were you when you started writing?

I used to write poetry when I was young – pre-K all the way through my 20’s.  Once kids came into the picture, I began to tell the kids stories.  My first two children were eleven months apart.  I started telling stories to the kids in my sleep-deprived state, which only involved describing places I have explored around the world that I knew they would find interesting.  When I ran out of places, I began to tell the kids stories about characters that they could relate to (which was cheaper than going on more adventures and less time-consuming).  The kids enjoyed them so much that after retelling certain ones many times over, my husband suggested that I write them down since all of the kids could read by then.  And that was just the beginning ….

Where do you get your inspiration?

Inspiration is all around us.  If we slow down from the pace of modern life while becoming aware of our surroundings, we can find inspiration even in small moments.  Characters are all around us.  We come into contact with so many people each day – the cashier at the supermarket, the gal at the front desk at the gym, the librarian, the butcher, the baker – well you get the idea!  Everyone has a funny uncle and a crazy aunt to use as a character in their latest story.  If not, then surely there are in-laws worth writing about.  I live in a beautiful area of the country with scenery every direction you look, but cities can provide great settings as well.  Imagine all of those things on another planet and you might really be on to something!

What do you do when you get a block?

I walk away.  When I clean or do some other menial task, I have time to think and the writing has time to “cool.”  When I come back to it, I am refreshed and the ideas flow (plus my house is clean).

Who is your favorite author?

The author I most admire is Tricia Goyer.  She weaves very complex tales in historically accurate times and places all while being a home school mom like me.  She has the same “glamorous” life that I do, taking a break from writing to make lunch for hungry kids.  I wrote a screenplay (as a collaboration with my filmmaker husband) and laughed when I had to stop at a highly suspenseful scene to help with Math homework.  I knew that Tricia Goyer could relate!

What the best book you ever read?

The best book I have ever read is the Bible.  It was written in such rich and complex languages that one word on the page in the original text would take a paragraph to explain.  It tells the rich history of very real humans in the hands of a very real God.

Who is the one person who has had the most influence on your

life and why?

My Dad was the biggest influence in my life.  He loved me deeply and unconditionally.  As a former perfectionist, I appreciate that he always told me to do my best.  I would get disappointed if perfection wasn’t achieved, and he always graciously walked me through those moments.  He helped me to realize that my best effort was just the perfect thing to apply to any situation and the outcome would be something that I could be pleased with.  I was very blessed to have been given such a wonderful father.

What person, living or dead, real or fictitious, would you like to sit 

down and have a conversation with?

I would love to have a long conversation with the apostle Peter.  I appreciate his uncanny bluntness and ability to say what everyone in the room was probably also thinking.  He was Jesus’ right hand man and was in most of the pinnacle moments of the beginning of Christianity.  His perspective combined with his personality would make for one fascinating conversation.

Do you have a book cover to share with us?

Do you have some links to share with us?

Blog and store at tuggersjournal.com

Kindle version http://www.amazon.com/First-Snowflake-Winter-ebook-ebook/dp/B00D381HOY/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370354404&sr=1-1&keywords=the+first+snowflake+of+winter+laura+h+rhodes

Soft Cover at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/First-Snowflake-Winter-Laura-Rhodes/dp/0983967601/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369323935&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=laurar+h+rhodes