Joseph Carrabis – Page 210 – Joseph Carrabis, Author Blog

Gable Smiled (work in progress)

A different take on A Horse and His Boy

[[Note: This content is edited from the public version. There’s a five question quiz at the end.]]

Valen patted Gable’s muscular neck as they trotted into Lensterville. They’d been ten days out, mostly soldiering Sipio’s vast Northern Plain, and this time of year that meant heat with a capital “H”. Valen could feel his own sweat trickling through the hairs on his chest and back, and every time his Ranger issue travel cords relaxed around him, his scent rose like steam washing his face.

Not pleasant.

Not so Gable’s smell. Gable was a Callisto class ModEquid, part horse part…something. Valen was never sure what and Gable liked to keep him guessing. Mostly horse on the outside, Gable’s sweat was the sweet musk of heavy horse, working horse, a gentle giant unless riled and it took a lot to rile him. There was a tang of trail dirt and rich plains tallgrasses and lathering neck and flanks that Valen thought wonderful, comforting, reassuring, and it made him proud that Gable had taken so to him.

“Let me know when,” he said to the horse.

Gable smiled back, Any time you’re ready.

Valen performed an emergency dismount, Gable still trotting so that Valen landed running beside him on the horse’s left, reins in Valen’s right hand. He knew Gable liked to run side-by-side, the two of them together, and the horse always smiled laughter at the man’s two-legged gait.

No speed, Two-Legs, he would smile at Valen.

“Yeah, well…speed when I need it,” Valen said back.

Greetings! I’m your friendly, neighborhood Threshold Guardian. This is a protected post. Protected posts in the My Work, Marketing, and StoryCrafting categories require a subscription (starting at 1$US/month) to access. Protected posts outside those categories require a General (free) membership.
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I Have Codes and I Know How to Use Them

Listen Up! Free Audibles!

Have you ever been caught in an Enigma? How about being caught by a book about an Enigma? How about being caught by award winning authors Rox Burkey and Charles Breakfield in one of the Enigma Series best selling books?

Next question; Are you listening?

If you responded positive to the above, today’s your lucky day! Award winning Enigma Series authors Rox Burkey and Charles Breakfield gave me eight (8, count them, 8!) US and eight (count these, too!) UK Audible.com codes for books 1 through 8 of their Enigma Series. You can get an idea of how pulse-pounding these books are by clicking on the book links on this page.

Like Enigmas?
Like Award Winning Books?
Like to listen?

Then do I have a deal for you…

What’s the Catch?
You have to sign up for my blog. You can choose a free membership or sponsoring membership, doesn’t matter. The first eight (8) folks from the US get Enigma Book Series Audible.com codes for any book, 1-8, and ditto UK based folks on the UK based Audible.

Sound like a deal? Then join us! As soon as we’re notified you’ve joined we’ll email you your Audible code and give you a Twitter Shout Out!

Now look what I’ve gotten myself into…

It was so much fun I did it twice…so far…

(if you missed the live show, watch it on Youtube and enjoy!)

(hot dang I was so much fun on Episode 39 they had me back for Episode 42!)

Well…now…most everyone knows I’m not only out on a limb most times, I’m also the first one to shake the tree and leap off the branch without even a dare.

That noted, I hope you’ll all be able to tune in, tune up, or at some point watch and listen to an upcoming author talk show I’m taking part in.

(this is so exciting…)

The Magic Tassels

What we see often determines the magic we possess

There was once a little boy who left his village and returned knowing how to journey the way shaman do. He returned to his people wearing tassels on his wrists and everybody who saw these tassels knew they were magic but nobody said anything to him about them.

Each day, the young boy helped tend the village herds and fields, each evening he ate with the old and not-so-old, the young and not-so-young in the village. He laughed at their jokes and made some of his own, cried at their grief and mourned all of his own.

Finally, one evening, a little girl from the village came to the boy and asked, “Boy, what are those tassels you wear on your arms?”

She did this at the village fire and everyone grew quiet to hear what the big boy would say.

He smiled at the little girl and asked, “What do you see, little one?”

“I see snakes,” she said. “Big, beautiful snakes. Snakes to ride on and carry me away.”

The boy nodded. “Thank you, little girl. Thank you for telling me what these tassels are on my arms. Now I know they are snakes. Thank you very much.”

The little girl smiled and laughed and the grown boy did, too, as the little girl went off to play.

A few nights later one of the oldest men in the village came up to the boy by the village fire and asked, “What are those tassels on your arms, boy?”

“What do you see, Grandfather?” asked the boy.

Barry Longyear’s “Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop – I: An Introduction to Fiction Mechanics”

A Series of Open Book Exams on Writing, Regardless of Genre

This is another book I picked up years ago during my first round at writing. Longyear signed it and I’d highlighted parts of it so obviously read it before and didn’t remember doing so.

The power of this book is that it’s written from a student’s perspective. Longyear (I’m thrilled to see he’s still active. I lost track of him for several years) puts in the effort to remember his mistakes and the mistakes of others, and show the reader how to correct them. Another strength is the book’s examples – mostly from Longyear himself – with detailed explanations of what’s wrong with them and how to fix them.

Each chapter comes complete with an extensive Q&A/Study guide at the end, every answer to which can be found in that chapter or by combining knowledge gained from previous chapters with the current chapter. Anybody remember “Open book exams”? This is one and it’s a wonderful training program.