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11/7 Visiting Author: Nephylim with Face in the Window

Way back in the beginning of this story's life, I got to read it. The main characters face their own set of problems, but this is probably one of the sweetest stories Nephy's ever written... which is an odd thing to say some might think, but her fans would understand. So, without further ado, I want to welcome Nephylim to my blog with Face in the Window!



The Face In The Window

There are those who can’t see, and those who don’t see, but we are all blind sometimes.

The Face in the Window is a story of two very different boys, trying to find their way and bring together two worlds that are as different as night and day.

Ace’s world is dark. Born blind, he’s learned to open his eyes in a different way and from the very start he is a stabilizing and calming influence on Haze.

Haze’s world is lonely, filled with the crushing pain of a long past event and the crippling fear of the uncontrollable outbursts of rage it left in its wake.

Ace struggles with a brother who is intent on making his life miserable in every way, and  Haze struggles to control the rage that threatens whenever he does so.

Gradually, they learn about each other’s world and, as the two are brought together the boys head toward an explosive climax when they meet.

Let’s hear what the boys have to say in their own words about the journey that led from the first glimpse of the face in the window to the traumatic events that very nearly part them forever.

So, Ace, how do you do that thing where you turn to someone and look into their face? How do you know where their face is when you can’t see it?

Ace: I don’t know, It’s not something I’ve ever thought about. I suppose, it’s something to do with how they sound. I can’t do it if I can’t hear them. When someone speaks, I orient on their voice and look where I think the voice comes from. I picture the person’s face, if I know what they look like, otherwise it’s just looking into the dark like usual.

How can you know what someone looks like?

Ace: I see them through my fingers. If I touch your face I create a picture in my mind of what your face looks like and then I always see that picture when I hear your voice.

Haze: It’s truly amazing. He doesn’t think it’s anything special about it but it’s almost uncanny how close he can get. He has amazing ears. He’s very particular about where we sit in a cinema or in his room, so we get to the best place possible to hear the sound. It all seems the same to me.

Ace: You’re a philistine when it comes to music anyway. The rubbish you like does sound the same wherever you sit. I’m going to give you an appreciation of the depth and nuances of classical music if it kills you.

Haze: They teach you a load of crap at that school.

Ace: They teach me how to kick your ass.

Haze: You wish.

Ace: Don’t make me have to do it again, here and now.

Haze: You wouldn’t want to destroy the image of sweet little angel would you?

Ace: That’s not the image I’ve ever had of myself. I’m quite happy for it to be destroyed.  On your feet and prepare for a good old fashioned ass kicking

Haze: Easy ninja. Trust me, this is not the place for that kind of shenanigans

Ace: Okay, but you know I could, right?

Haze: You can do anything.

Ace: When you are with me I can.

Me: Alright, guys, enough of the smooshy stuff. We get that Ace is pretty amazing, but I’ve been hearing good things about you too, Haze.

Haze: There’s nothing amazing about me.

Ace: Yes, there is. You saved me.

Haze: No I didn’t. You saved me

Ace: We saved each other.

Haze: No, seriously, you saved me. If you hadn’t recognised the sound of the waterfall I might never have been found and I was in no shape to get out of there on my own. I’d likely be dead.

Ace: No. You’d have found me if I hadn’t found you. I know it.

Me; You sound so certain.

Ace: I am. We were meant to be together and that’s it.

Haze: Ace sees the world in such simple terms. It’s all black and white to him.

Ace:  Actually, it’s all black. I’ve never really got my head round colours. I’ve never seen them, after all. I think in pictures but I don’t think they’re pictures you’d recognise.

Me: That’s very interesting.  I didn’t think about colours, or rather not being able to see them. I can’t imagine a world without colour.

Ace: I can’t imagine a world with colour. I see shapes and patterns, sometimes shadows and light.

Me: You see patterns?

Ace: Yes. Actually, I see sounds. Mostly sharp sounds. When I listen to music I see a lot.

Me: That’s fascinating. What does sound look like?

Ace: Depends on the sounds. Sharp sounds usually look sharp. Sweet sounds, softer, like bubbles or words. Sudden loud noises kind of explode out of the middle and sometimes loud and sharp make black and white squares.

Haze: He can be really weird sometimes.

Ace: So can you.

Me: I hear you’re going to university next year.  Have you enrolled at the same one?

Ace: Yes. It took some organisation but we got there in the end.  My mother wanted me to go to the same university as my brother, Nick, so he could keep an eye on me, but they didn’t do the courses we both wanted, so it took some investigation and discussion. The university we’re going to have amazing facilities for blind students.

Haze: When we went to look around, they assigned Ace a girl who’s just like him, except not as beautiful, of course. *At this point Ace smiles coyly and snuggles up to him. It’s so cute* She’s in her third year and is absolutely amazing. She’s do bubbly and brilliant. She showed us around and had Ace using all kinds of hi tech stuff I couldn’t begin to understand. The blind students have so much going on I don’t know when he’ll find time to spend with me.

Ace: I’ll always find time to spend with you. Besides…. We’re going to be living together.

Okay, that look needs censoring, so I think this might be a good place to draw the interview to a conclusion.

I can tell you two are going to do just fine. Maybe one day you’ll come back and let us know how university works out for you. Somehow, I know you’ll have plenty of adventures to recount.

 

If you would like to read more of Ace and Haze’s story, you can find it here at Featherweight Press

 

Blurb

Ace is blind and Haze is damaged. They live in different worlds and not everyone is happy when they become boyfriends. Haze is struggling with the after effects of a traumatic event in his past that has left him at the mercy of an uncontrollable rage. When Ace’s brother steps up his campaign of torment against Ace, they’re all in danger from Haze’s outbursts, though it isn’t until things get completely out of control that the healing can really begin. But with Ace unseeing and Haze perched on the edge of a cliff, will either of them survive long enough to benefit?

Excerpt

Next we went to the phone shop and I started browsing the displays while Ace breathed in the sounds and scents.

A young salesman came shyly over. “Hi. I’m Shaun. I hope I’m not being presumptuous but I was wondering which one of you was looking for a phone.”

“That would be me,” said Ace orienting on Shaun. “Although it’s my friend who’s doing the looking for me.”

Shaun coloured slightly and became even shyer. Speaking directly to Ace he said, “We have a new phone which I think might be of interest to you. It’s just come in. It has special features which make it particularly suitable for people with impaired vision. Can I show it to you?”

“Absolutely,” Ace said, clearly excited as hell. His excitement was infectious and Shaun was lit up as he showed him the phone. Right from the offset he put the phone in Ace’s hand and guided his fingers over the keys.

“It’s no bigger than some of the other phones we carry and the only obvious difference is that the screen is absent, which allows the buttons to be larger. It is very durable and can be thrown at a wall, dropped in water, even stepped on without damage.

“From your point of view the most significant feature is that it’s entirely voice activated. We’ll teach it to recognise your voice and you can dial, disconnect, check the time, set alarms, in fact use all the normal features including texting, by touching a button and speaking.

“When you touch a button, it will tell you what you’ve pressed and what options you have opened. After that it’s all voice. Let me show you.”

He gently took the phone out of Ace’s hand and pressed a button. A surprisingly gentle, although clearly electronic voice said, “You have accessed the menu for alarms, applications, calendar, tasks, notes, timer, stopwatch, calculator, and menu.”

Shaun said, slowly and clearly, “Calendar.”

“To set an appointment,” said the voice, “please say ‘set’, to check an appointment already entered, please say ‘check’, to add a note, please say ‘note’, to set a task, please say ‘task’.”

“Set,” Shaun said.

“Please state the date on which you wish the appointment to be entered into the calendar.”

“Twenty-sixth of June two thousand and ten.”

“That’s the twenty-sixth of June two thousand and ten.”

“Yes.”

“At what time does the appointment commence?”

“Eleven fifteen.”

“At what time does the appointment end?”

“Twelve fifteen.”

“Would you like a warning?”

“Yes.”

“Of how much?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“Would you like to add a note?”

“No.”

The voice read back all the details and then said, “If all details are correct, please say ‘close’, to change any of the details please say ‘change’.”

“Close. Lock,” Shaun said and smiled at the awed expression on Ace’s face. “That’s in tutorial mode. Once you’re used to it you can turn that mode off and you won’t get all the prompts just the check back at the end.”

Shaun then proceeded to take Ace through a few more applications but I could already see that the phone was about to be his.

“How much is it?” I asked eventually.

“£350. But if you take out a twelve month contract it’s only £100.”

We haggled slightly and finally settled on a tariff and filled out the paperwork. Ace was bored by this but was more than content playing with the phone, running his fingers over it, feeling the smoothness of its glossy black surface. It was a way cool phone.

When we were done Shaun set up Ace’s phone and had him to speak into it a few times until it recognised his voice and then to practice some of the applications. In the middle of it all a loud buzzing sound came from the phone getting progressively louder.

“What’s that?” Ace asked, alarmed.

“It’s the warning, remember we set it earlier?”

“Wow. It must be eleven o’clock then, yeah?”

“Absolutely right. You have a good memory.”

Ace grinned happily. “What about all the numbers I’ve saved?”

“If you want to give me your old phone, I’ll transfer them all over for you.”

When Ace handed him the Disney phone, his eyes widened.

“Cruel brothers who pick out his stuff knowing he can’t see how hideous it is,” I explained, surprised by how much the words stung.

Shaun nodded. “Would you like me to recycle that for you? We have a £25 gift voucher available if you do.”

“Hell yeah. Never mind the gift voucher just get rid of that hideous monstrosity.”

Shaun spent no time at all transferring all of Ace’s numbers onto the new phone and showing him how to access them.

Ace would have been happy sitting outside the shop playing with his phone all day but I had a whole different agenda.

 Bio

Cheryl was born into a poor mining family in the South Wales Valleys. Until she was 16, the toilet was at the bottom of the garden and the bath hung on the wall. Her refrigerator was a stone slab in the pantry and there was a black lead fireplace in the kitchen. They look lovely in a museum but aren’t so much fun to clean.

Cheryl has always been a storyteller. As a child, she’d make up stories for her nieces, nephews and cousin and they’d explore the imaginary worlds she created, in play.

Later in life, Cheryl became the storyteller for a re enactment group who travelled widely, giving a taste of life in the Iron Age. As well as having an opportunity to run around hitting people with a sword, she had an opportunity to tell stories of all kinds, sometimes of her own making, to all kinds of people. The criticism was sometimes harsh, especially from the children, but the reward enormous.

It was here she began to appreciate the power of stories and the primal need to hear them. In ancient times, the wandering bard was the only source of news, and the storyteller the heart of the village, keeping the lore and the magic alive. Although much of the magic has been lost, the stories still provide a link to the part of us that still wants to believe that it’s still there, somewhere.

In present times, Cheryl lives in a terraced house in the valleys with her son and her two cats. Her daughter has deserted her for the big city, but they’re still close. The part of her that needs to earn money is a lawyer, but the deepest, and most important part of her is a storyteller and artist, and always will be.

Wednesday Briefs: Take Flight Part 17

And... we're back! It's Wednesday and that means another update for Birch and Sayer. I almost didn't make it. I've been felled by a nasty virus that has me sleeping 14+ hours a day, so forgive me if this is rough. I just couldn't leave the story where it was last week, though.

As always, the Wednesday Briefers are a group of authors who write 500-1,000 word flash stories/chapters based on prompts every Wednesday. We welcome authors of any genre, and if you're interested in joining, let me know and I can point you in the right direction! This week, my flash prompt is: Make a Mr. Ed reference.

Take Flight Part 17

Wordless shouting surrounded Birch. He stood, frozen, locked in horror as Sayer changed. His dazzling white hair darkened to black and his skin became gray and pebbled. His eyes, now a malevolent red, began to shine.

“Sayer,” Birch whispered.

His beloved raised his hands and the shouts became fever pitched. Two muscle bound fae, the ones who’d been guarding the inside of the doorway, shoved the butts of their weapons into Sayer’s stomach, knocking him back.

“Move, my lord!” Birch stumbled to the side as they rush forward. The iron door of the cage clanged shut. The guards cursed as they drew the bolt on the lock.

Sayer collapsed.

“What did you do?” Birch rushed to the cage. His hands flexed around the bars. He wanted to touch Sayer. He couldn’t reach him through the bars.

“He’ll be fine, my lord. The iron of the cage cut off the magic. It hits Darklings that way at first. They collapse from the loss of the magic.”

“Will he…?” Birch stared at the limp form that looked nothing like the Sayer he knew in either his human or fae form.

“He won’t change back. They never do.” The second guard grunted.

Birch glanced at the guards. He took a deep breath and let go of the bars. “Watch him for me, okay?”

Both fae bowed. “Of course, my lord.”

Walking away from Sayer took every ounce of Birch’s will. He couldn’t collapse in hysterics. There was no one else to save Sayer. He had to find the Alchemist and hope he got a fix on the magic’s source.

Birch began to run. He could do this. His chest hurt by the time Croll guided him to the roof.

The guard turned with his hand on his sword when Birch burst out onto the roof. He dropped his hand and bowed. “Sorry, my lord.”

“Did you see it?” Birch waved the guard off. He rushed over to the Alchemist where he stood at the edge of the roof next Vernon. “Did he draw enough magic?”

“Yes.” The Alchemist pointed toward a large forest beyond the field of flowers where the other Darkling had been. “Out there. I can still see it, even after the flow cut off.”

“Where is Lord Sayer?” Vernon asked.

Birch felt tears sting his eyes. He blinked several times and took a deep breath. “The taint was too much for him when he drew in that much magic.”

“He’s a Darkling?” Vernon gasped.

“Only until we figure out what is causing this. We’ll save him and the other fae too.” Birch swung around. “Let’s go.”

“My lord?”

“We’re going without him. Croll, you’re in charge here, as Sayer wanted. We need some fae to go with us. A mix of types, just in case we find something magic could help with.”

“I anticipated that.” Croll headed down the wide stairs. “I have six guards waiting for you. One Dinnshenchas who can manipulate fire, two dryads who can manipulate nature, a Formorian water fae, and Ledishe. They can manipulate air, and they have a special affinity for nature. They stay far from the borders, usually. They’re unable to handle the destruction humans wreak on the land.”

Birch froze on the last step. “And it never occurred to you before to use these Ledishe to track the imbalance in the magic?”

Croll shook his head. “No one ever looked at the problem like you did. We never considered that the magic might be polluted deliberately by an outside source.”

That shocked Birch. It seemed so obvious. “Why else would magic, stable for eons, I’m assuming, suddenly go wrong?”

“We can discuss our nearsighted inability to adapt to new problems in our realm, or you can go find the source and stop it,” Croll snapped.

“Asshole.” But he was right though Birch hated to admit it. He kinda liked that Croll wasn’t all ‘my lord’ this and that to him.

“I want my friend back.” Croll looked away.

Birch felt bad. He’d forgotten that other people cared about Sayer too. “We’ll find the source.”

***

“Horses? Really?” Birch eyed the tall animal he was supposed to ride. “Where’s the saddle?”

“You don’t need one.” Vernon helped the Alchemist hop onto his horse.

“They’re fae horses. They won’t let you fall.” Ange, one the dryads, grabbed his horse’s mane and leaped gracefully onto its back.

“If you say so.” Birch used a rock to hop up. The back of the horse was a lot wider than he expected, and not nearly as comfortable as it looked. The horse looked back at him and nickered, showing its teeth.

“Um, hi.” Birch leaned forward and patted the horse on shoulder. Land with no cars… so he got stuck riding Mr. Ed. “You don’t talk right?”

The other guards mounted their horses.

“You still have the trace of the magic, right?” Birch asked the Alchemist.

He tapped his glasses. “These don’t lie. South.”

“Let’s go.” Birch grabbed two handfuls of the horse’s mane and held on for dear life. “Flying doesn’t sound so bad now,” he muttered.

Birch quickly grew accustomed to the swaying beat of the horse. Plans swirled in his mind. He knew how to neutralize oil damage, to rebuild ecosystems… but he knew next to nothing about magic. Sayer was supposed to be here.

“I’ll figure it out.” He had the help of the Alchemist, and a variety of fae guards dedicated to Sayer.

“Find the source of the taint, fix it, get Sayer back. Easy as pie.”

TBC

Now check out the other great updates from the Briefers!
Lily Sawyer 

Chris T. Kat

MA Church

Shelly Schulz

Nephylim  

Renee Stevens

Elyzabeth VaLey   

Victoria Adams

Andrew Gordon

Tali Spencer

Jon Keys

JC Wallace

Julie Lynn Hayes

 

Contest! Signed book from Julie Hayes!

Feeling lucky? Wanna a great story to read? Enter to win one of (3) signed copies Julie Haye's novel, Revelations! The contest is super simple and runs through November 19th, Julie's birthday. She's giving presents away!

 

Enter to win HERE!

*You must be located in the US to enter*

eBook Review: Finding Home by Diana DeRicci

Finding Home by Diana DeRicci
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Sometimes, I like a feel good story. Diana DeRicci's story, Finding Home, starts out rough for our main character, Parker. He's gotten the crap kicked out of him by life. Sometimes, pride is all a person has left but Parker takes the ride and the $20 offered to him by a well-meaning older man. Even more amazingly... just a short time later, he takes the help offered by a local gay couple, one of which is a local cop, to stick around for a while.

People pop up to help Parker settle in to Jasper. No one offers him a handout after the initial effort of the ride and a bit of money for food, but they certainly offer him a hand up. I loved the realism of the struggles Parker faces as he begins to stand on his own two feet once more.

Diana could've given us a pat romance device of uniting Parker with his first love, and the reason for his journey on the road, but she's a better writer than that. I loved the interweaving of Parker's past life and people from it with the connections he was making in the present with Ian and Caleb's families. I adored Summer, as we were meant to, of course.

Okay, so the plot moves a bit fast for all the changes and the emotional leaps for the characters. I'd have enjoyed more story and getting to know Parker and his romantic interest more as a couple. That, however, is exactly what every really good story I read leaves me wanting. I know as an author that isn't always the way it works, but as a reader, I WANT! lol

All in all, I definitely recommend reading this story! Oh, and I read this outside of the series, having never read the first or second, and had no troubles keeping up with the story as a stand alone. I'm sure I might have been more familiar with a few of the other characters had I read it after them, but it wasn't necessary.

View all my reviews