YouTube Storytime: I Started a Field Fire

2 Netflix Mysteries Featuring Woman Sleuths

While I’m a little miffed Netflix is going up another $2 this month, I can’t deny it's still one of the best things smoking.  At least not to answer the call to scale back and just stick with its competitors for a while.  Truth is, I’m too engrossed in two (though the third doesn’t pertain to this post’s theme, there is one) British serial mysteries currently streaming.  One, in all actuality, I finished in over a week.  The other, I’m comfortably working my way through night after night; lights low and a bag of chips at the ready.  Naturally, the two shows have a running element that has always captivated my attention: women solving murder mysteries.  And while one has a cozy texture to its storytelling, the other not so much.  Or, at least, it’s a hell of a lot darker to even brush a cozy.

So for those who love reading mysteries and its various sub-genres, I present to you these interesting TV shows you may find yourself binging on.

The Bletchley Circle 2012-2014

Rosemary & Thyme (2003-2006)

If you've watched any of these shows or have recommendations of the same theme, please share them in the comments below.

Until then, ENJOY!

Come Ride With Me, Youtube

5 National Parks Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon Books Got Me Scared Of

My summer of reading Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon park ranger mystery series continues.  I’m currently halfway through book #14, Winter Study.  If the title doesn’t give away any hints, the story takes place in Isle Royale during the winter season.  Between October and May the park shuts down to tourist.  This allows fifty-plus years of research to continue, regarding the study of the moose/wolf activity surrounding the island.  And that’s a dollop of information best left to experts and the internet to explain to you.  I could break the research down–coming from what's given to me via the book.  However, it would appear as weak as pre-generic Dollar Store coffee.  So with one operational gear of Winter Study aside, my issue is that the book takes place in fiercely below freezing terrain.  Terrain chillingly described within Barr's juggle of metaphors (lots of movie references in this one) and icy prose.  So far as my reading, Barr's Anna Pigeon has slept in this literary blizzard outside in a tent!  A tent which found her and her team under attack by an unidentified creature.  (Similar to what happened in Blood Lure, if you're familiar with the series.)  However, as of where I stand, the team believes it’s a mutated wolf of some sort.  So I must keep reading to see.  

Anna has also skidded across a froze Siskiwit Lake while setting up wolf traps, apropos the research.  And, as such elementally-heavy mystery books go, she immediately found herself thrown over into the icy waters to nearly drown.  What else crazy happened?  Oh, the team has to collect snow for water; an interesting nugget of information mentioned that quickly boiled snow is actually bad for you.  I never would've known.  Also, Anna and the team spend a day dissecting a wolf and examining moose body parts.  Cool but grizzly by way of Barr's description of rotting flesh and bloody innards.  

There's just a slew of craziness taking place in Winter Study.  But because a murder hasn’t happened yet (except for a couple of moose and a fallen wolf), I got a feeling the story is about to get crazier.  Like, Jason Voorhees level crazy!  Especially as ice and cabin fever sits in.

Yet, this is precisely why I enjoy this series; Anna’s always in some crazy-ass situations.  And it's in these situations where she has to think her way out, before she gets the ax.

So before I run off to fix a cup of coffee and throw myself into Winter Study, I want to share a few of the national parks Anna Pigeon has got my ass scared to go to!  In order from least scary to MOST!  But, being the nature lover that I tend to be, this listed is for fun.  So of course I’m not serious, because all I've wanted to do since reading these books is start a GoFundMe to see if I can tour all Anna's spots.

So the list goes...

GUEST POST: The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book 2) by Jean Nicole Rivers

JNR Publishing Presents

The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book 2) 
by Jean Nicole Rivers

Title: The Unwanted (Black Water Tales Book 2)

Author: Jean Nicole Rivers
Publisher: JNR Publishing

Genre: New Adult Horror & Psychological Thriller

Length: 306

Release Date: OUT NOW (Ebook & Paperback)

ISBN: 978-0692549926
Synopsis:  In the remote, eastern European town of Borslav there is St. Sebastian orphanage, a place where people discard their unwanted children. For the American, Blaire Baker, it’s the perfect place to volunteer her services. Paired with a cheerful volunteer nurse, Blaire is enthusiastic about the possibilities, but is quickly discouraged when she encounters the nefarious nature of the staff and the deplorable conditions of the facility and the children.

Upon arrival, one of the children informs Blaire, “There’s something in the basement.” It isn’t long before strange things begin happening, including Blaire’s flashbacks of the accident that killed her parents. The children soon suffer injuries that Blaire, first, fears may be the deeds of the callous workers but she soon thinks the abuse may originate from a source that is less than human, something unwanted. 

The unwanted is coming but in order for Blaire to fight it, she must dig into St. Sebastian and herself in search of truth. Blaire wants nothing more than to help the children, but when she discovers the tragedy that happened in the basement and learns that the same evil forces are still at work, it will be Blaire who needs help…There’s something in the basement.

5 English Degree Goals (Unless You Missed Like I Did)

The title says it all; but just a little backstory to its conception.  I remember talking to an old coworker about blogging–but without sharing my particular interests and activities doing so.  As I’ve stated before, you must be discerning about who you share your ideas with.  Anyway, the conversation was about how it's possible to support yourself blogging, if vigilant.  Or how blogging came make you at least enough to build an extra income outside of working a 9-5. Combining your interest/passions with a solid monetization strategy–BOOM.  Interesting stuff to talk about at the workplace, right?  

Well, most of my expressed ideas fell on moot ears.  Abandoning the conversation, I started thinking about the paths we take in life.  Specifically, the detours we take when stumbling through brush and granite toward our life goals.  Then my English major years in college bubbled up in thought, as well as how I tumbled out of its expectations.  And while my expectations fell apart along the quest, these days I’m kind of already doing what I wanted to do.  Granted it's super-super small scaled, independent, flooded, and removed of any foreseeable safety nets.  But it's all about the tethered-less joy of expressing oneself through words and language (and drawing and talking life).  And, ever so naturally, reading.  Yet, let’s be real, you usually get degrees to get hired off somewhere.  Personal Flaw: I'm known for blowing interviews by being too honest when asked questions anyway.

Anyhow, just as I reflected on those years scratching around campus looking for the meaning of life through words and language, the idea for this post emerged.  Let's talk about five career paths one could get hired on with an English Degree.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1.       TEACHER.  Ever notice when telling people you're majoring in English the first thing they ask is will you teach?  Of course the question comes after their gaping expression for your choice in majors. Anyway, most of us are all too familiar with this type of scenario.  We know it too, too well.  It’s a conversation we generally try to avoid with those outside of liberal arts.  For me, when asked will I teach, I would sometimes respond with a “kinda-sorta”.  Then I'd attempt to sedge out of the conversation to avoid an approaching sermon.  Sometimes I could see judgment in the eyes, and would rather risk eating a dish of cassava than share dreams of becoming a crime fiction writer.  I was always pretty tactful, but mainly because I grow exhausted explaining myself about anything.  

Nonetheless, the perceived inadequacies some people place on the major is rampant.  We hear it all the time dripping in a conversation, as we sub-speak and hint-dodge around how we’ll "pay the bills reading books."  I guess this is why so many think the default profession for an English major is teaching.  It’s almost as if the teacher path is the most rational way to go, and more or less income stimulating.  This path gets the compassion of receiving a little security and safety, and with less starving artist anecdotes.  Even if teaching appears as the English major’s default, it’s a needed path.  And it has its own challenges and rewards for the passionate leader.  Because that's what it takes–a leader.

While We're on the Subject of L. A. Banks...

I miss this lady.  Still can't believe she's gone.  But I really want to reiterate the magnitude of her work by sharing one of my favorite interviews with her.  Especially as a black female author writing sci-fi and fantasy novels.

L. A. Banks on Amazon!

Dealing with a Book Snob, Per Phaedra Parks

Now I don’t get into bookmanship (just made that up) debates with people often.  Without preamble, I know I have one of those oozing “ain’t no way you can tell me what to do” attitudes.  And it bubbles up especially when someone tries to talk down to me with their angle on the front line.  The memo goes: you can never tell an Aquarius what to do, think, sniff, or taste without opposition.  (Taurus and Scorpios are not to be trifled with as well.)  So that kind of spares me from having to tangle with another’s judgment of my reading choices.  It also serves  to the opposite effect of the wielder.  Nevertheless, with one life in hand, I’m old school and willing to shoot from the hip if admonished about what sits on my nightstand.  

But sometimes the energy between two readers sharing what they’ve read comes vibrating with silent judgments.  Naturally, as a close acquaintance to the often considered “fourth tier” mystery genre, my antennae has caught such in the past.  So I know when a little shade is thrown my way, and will handle it in whatever degree it is given.

But anyway, there’s always been this despairing conversation between literary fiction and commercial fiction.  Literature versus genre fiction.  YA versus adult books.  Read only books written by this group of people; or that.  Hell, physical book versus e-readers is in there as well.  It’s almost par the course for us bookworms.  I blame the once elitist aura books and reading had (and generated) centuries ago.  You know, when only Anglo men could be accounted for constructing what was in and what was not.  But digressing to the present; sometimes, when caught in defending your reading choices, you just got to let a judgmental snob know what time it is.  "Time" as in you don't have it for his or her shit.

And here lies “Dealing with a Book Snob.  Per Phaedra Parks.”

The Snob Who Thinks He Should School You

Now here's one thing I can’t stand.  You ever run into someone so high on their own reading fumes that he or she tries to tell you to ingest their opinion/perception of a particular book over your own? Furthermore, finding him or herself getting enraged because you continue to contest their view upon their pressure to convert?  And even furthermore, begins to take the matters personally by attacking you and your intelligence?

Chile, remind this person God gave you two good eyes, a couple of ears, and enough brain power to think for yourself–just as they supposedly have.  (I say "supposedly" because some folks follow the literary criticisms of critics to shape their thoughts.)

Backroom Susan Too

Snoopy me was listening to a volunteer library worker sighing in the backroom of their used bookstore.  She had the door parted, and I glanced up and saw these two puppies sitting high on a shelf.  As the other two workers–men who held in their sighs with the recently trucked six boxes of donated books–cleared out of the stockroom to stock shelves, I stage whispered to the agitated woman could I step inside.  (Hell, I almost wished she asked me to help so I could peek through what was in the back.)  However, it wasn’t until the fourth, raised hissed that I got her attention.  I asked could I step inside and take a look at what was in back stock, but immediately went to these hardback Susan Wittig Albert books; as a part of Albert’s China Bayle series.

I'd already did my routine search around what was out front and found nothing.  But why, oh why do they always keep the good stuff in the backrooms?

Anyway, Bloodroot is China Bayles #10.  In this entry China goes back to Mississippi to confront, or uproot (heh), pieces of her past.  I’m almost certain her recovering alcoholic mother, Leatha, will be in the mix.

A Dilly of a Death is Bayles #12.  While there’s much more to the synopsis, this has the queen of a pickle festival (remember, these books take place in Texas) disappearing.  Rumor has it she sold her business and dashed.  Other rumors point to her missing boyfriend.

I just want to read the damn book and see.

I got a lot of ground to cover before I get to these entries.  Still I felt for a $1.50 apiece, I could hold them in stock for myself instead.

Problem solved.  And now they have a little more back stock room.  (Lowkey: not really.  That room was a mess!)

Sisters in Urban Fantasy

I need to do a quick share of two urban fantasy African American writers writing African American women in leads.  Both these series are on-going with me, and I'm desperately in need of reawakening my thirst.

First is Kira Solomon, the lead of Seressia Glass’s Shadowchasers series.  The series is only three books long.  Though I have the first two, I’ve only (shamefully) read the first.  Don’t judge.  I may just not want the series to end so quickly.  (At least I told myself that after reading the first book back in 2012.)  Anyway, here’s the synopsis…

Kira's day job is as an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission, dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she's got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside down in search of a millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira's hands.  

Then there's Khefar, the dagger's true owner -- a near-immortal 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit, looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow forces, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever....

First, we still love and cherish you L. A. Banks.

While I’ve devoured the hell out of Banks’ Vampire Huntress series, I’ve yet to fully eat her Crimson Moon titles.  Pitiful of me, I know.  I’ve gotten through the first two books, and have yet to follow through with the third in her six-book series.  Nonetheless, Banks is a writer that stays on my heart, and I one day plan on tackling this series into completion.

The synopsis of the first book:

Sasha Trudeau knows all about working beneath the shadows, back-alley deals, and things that go bump in the night. She also knows that the world is unaware of the existence of the paranormal―and that the government would like to keep it that way. 

As a highly trained Special Ops soldier, Sasha and her team are an elite group of individuals who are survivors of werewolf attacks, now trained to be loyal to only to each other and their government. But when she returns from a solo mission, she finds that her team has mysteriously gone missing. Shocking government conspiracies, double-dealing vampires, and a host of stunning revelations about who―and what―she really is are only just the beginning…

That’s all for today, guys.  I just wanted to share these authors/books to remind us that our Sisters does do urban fantasy just as well.  And with that said, share any black female writers you know who have found or taken over an avenue of this sub-genre.

Walker's Jubilee | Me and Vyry Had a Fight

I’m super, super behind on my Final Thoughts regarding the books I’ve read.  Like, behind.  As far back as my February reads.  I kind of left off with Margaret Walker’s Jubilee, and it’s where all my written thoughts stalled out.  It’s a tough book to breakdown and shape my perspective around.  And it's also increasingly difficult to do with more than a few months stacked between now and my reading.  And that’s okay.  That’s cool.  

Nonetheless, to break it down, Jubilee chronicles the story of a bi-racial slave named Vyry; Vyry’s story travels through the South’s Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction years.  In the beginning of Vyry’s story, her slave master–and consequent father–comes rushing to his slave mistress' (Vyry's mother) deathbed.  One outcome of this death pulls Vyry closer to her father’s home.  Here she becomes a house slave and witness/bearer to his wife's mistreatment, and Vyry's half-sister's obliviousness to the running circumstances.  Nonetheless, though however torturous of the exploits, Vyry’s given small cycles of grace by her father.  Even if his moments of kindness inflames his well-aware wife.  And she's a lady who has no problem excising her power and control over other slaves.

Ultimate Nevada Barr Haul

THE OUTS

One tends to lose his or her mind in all the book-loving concussion.  Which leads to this current obsession–excuse me–Friday book haul.  More or less knowing what I was getting myself into (having spent two days desperate for another Anna Pigeon book to quell my forever fervent soul); I decided the best method to cut into the approaching madness was to turn some books in for credit.  Though the two Sandra Brown books (see two posts previous) didn’t garner any attention.  Apparently they were overstocked with her titles, because she doesn’t move well.  Yet the mass markets weighted in perfectly.  (FYI: I only gave up Stephen King's Misery because it's been over three years of me hating this particularly unread copy.)  And, two different stops later, this is what I came up with…

THE INS

With absolutely zero shame, the Anna Pigeon series haul list goes…

Blood Lure (Pigeon #9)

Hunting Season (Pigeon #10; has to go back because of the previous owner's widowed mark-ups)

Flashback (Pigeon #11)

Hard Truth (Pigeon #13)

Winter Study (Pigeon #14)

Borderline (Pigeon #15)

Burn (Pigeon #16)

Park Ranger Anna Pigeon mysteries for DAYS...!  Good-bye sleepless nights fueled by melancholy.

2K DRAMA 2 POP | NEW SPREADSHIRT STORE

4KDRAMA2POP

Summer Breakup with an Author?

What's that Don Henley song?  "After the Boys of Summer."  Yeah, not so much.  Anyway, when it comes to books and maintaining our shelves, I have to ask when is it time to breakup with a once beloved author?  “Breakup” as in "sacrifice" to make room to create some control on our messy-ass bookshelves.

She’ll probably slice my tires for this, after having read her books for eight years; but I’ve grown out of Sandra Brown’s romantic suspense thrillers.  Her writing formula has gotten stale to me, I guess.  Her whole misunderstood and framed-for-murder male lead (who is always thirsty for the bumbling female lead) got old after 2013’s Flat–excuse me–Deadline.  With my current infatuation with Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon series) and Susan Wittig Albert’s (China Bayles) infesting this area of my shelf, somebody’s gotta go in the name of control.

While I’ll forever hold on to Brown’s Rainwater masterpiece, I think we gotta break up.  I see one of those cardboard boxes coming in to shuttle books into a summer donation pile, as my interest in certain authors change.

So how do we breakup with an author?  Especially one you've enjoyed, and has carried you through certain periods of our life?  Do you just throw their stuff in a box and, well, push?

How to Get Away With Grinding | 4 Realizations About Hustling & Life

Like any individual, I’ve been spending my time bumping up and sending out my resume.  (Disdain ever so present to get back into someone else’s career wheel but my own.)  And yet, regardless of the change, I’ve hardened my endeavors here.  When I stepped out to share my passions over three years ago, it was to create a better future.  A future that didn't involve punching another 15 years' worth of time clocks.

But there are things that come with such positions.  Money, ambition, and your personal life turns into a juggling act.  (Though my personal life qualifies as coffee and books, thank you Jesus.)  And it's an act performed between looking for another job and your personal grind.  It’s a sticky position.  It's also a position I’m almost privy to believe not few can relate to, as I feel unaccompanied within mine.  No one I know has attempted to start a blog, YouTube channel, Zazzle store, etc.  So there’s no one I can turn to when my endeavors feel… well… insignificant to my cause.  There's no one to bounce real ideas off of.  To soak in genuine, experience-based encouragement.  As opposed to those water-downed affirming cliches and platitudes the unawares always seem to give.  And give they do, until you realize you've had enough and draw inward for your strength to keep moving.  

So alone you continue to throw the soil, plant the seeds, walk in faith.  And you have to do so in the isolation of believing in yourself.  And that’s where this post leads me to.

These are four things I’ve discovered in the position I’ve just described.  Though it applies to anyone who find resonance with the struggle of grinding out your own path in life.  So, see if you can relate...

CASE #1: DRAMA VS. BUSINESS

Do  not waste my time with drama!

You don’t have the energy to listen to other people’s problems anymore–nor do you want to.  Unless it’s in the spirit of entrepreneurship, ideas, or action-taking plans, you don’t want to hear it.  If it’s not about risks, creativity, fueling ambitions, or personal transformation, you zone out of the conversation.  If it’s not about marketing, blogs, YouTube, web stores, writing, you’ll pass.   

The one caveat is family and friends’ real life issues that is easily discern as in need of your support.  As for routine gossip about people you don’t know or care about (or no longer go to battle for), you’re good where you are.  And you avoid conversations with people who are all talk and no action.  That, in itself, is sucking away your own valuable gusto to continue your fight.  Basically, the people around you better build a real case to draw your attention away from the grind.

Putting the Public Library to Use this Weekend

The book/series collector in me says, “no, no, no.”  The hungry reader says, “yes, yes, yes.”

A.     My ordered copy of Liberty Falling is slated for a June 14th delivery, instead of the May 27th that was originally tracked and posted.  This, effectively, cut me out of ever ordering books from this particular marketplace seller.  May 23: SHIPPED.  June 14: DELIVERED.  Do the math.  Or maybe I’m just tripping.  But I mean, really?  I have to wait until June 14 to get my hands on Pigeon #7?  Hell, no!  

Waiter!  I want my check!  PLEASE!  

Backstory stuck in the middle. Going about my Saturday morning (after a post office and Dollar General trip), a light bulb lit up in my brain.  Why not go to the public library and check out a copy of Liberty Falling until your personal one comes in.  Bing.  Bing.  Bing.  And take your laptop along to also get some blog post drafts together, Mr. Lazy. 

B.      As for Susan Wittig Albert’s Rueful Death, I tittered around until I decided to take it.  It’s book #5 in Albert’s China Bayles series.  I’m currently less than 90 pages away from the end of book #4, Rosemary Remembered.  And, just in case I get impatient and don’t want to order and wait for a personal copy, I grouchily took Rueful Death.  Will catch up on ordering a personal copy later.  In the meantime, China Bayles is too charming to not take home.

Oh, check it out!  I also found out I have a $3 outstanding balance at the public library.  Now where did that come from?  And when did I last use my card?  Oh…wait….  I didn’t use my card for myself last time.  I let...

NICHOLE DID THIS!

LOL.  HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND, FOLKS!

Using Canva to Create the Perfect Spreadshirt Banner Size

Okay.  So to save someone the trouble, I present to you how to create the perfect size Spreadshirt banner.  And it's all done via the online creation tool, Canva.  This is for those who want a nice banner that stretches properly over their web shop.  And not so much sitting above the fold as a box surrounded by negative space.  (Anyone else hates that?)

First.  Get into your Canva account.  Duh, right? Anyway, in the top right-hand corner is the option of creating your own dimensions.  You want that, as opposed to using the templates Canva has already prepared.  Naturally, you’ll need to input the right width and height.  Go for 1280 x 343 in pixel size.

WDEA 1370 AM Interview with Nevada Barr on New Book, Boar Island

The Anna Pigeon Beat Goes ON!

Just finished the amazing Blind Descent and must gathered Anna Pigeon #7, Liberty Falling.  After all that used bookstore issues, this was an immediate choice.

Need to know what happens in the next book!

This Ever Happen to You? | Used Book Struggles

NOTE: Because of some technical issues around the image folder, I lost all the "proof" and "evidence" spoken about in this post.  And, since I returned the book, I have no way of getting it back on track.  Sorry!

Had me a good cup of coffee.  Caught up on all my TV shows (can we talk Empire and Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D?).  And was ready to take down the last 125 pages of Nevada Barr’s Blind Descent (Anna Pigeon #6).  I was getting into the reading when I reminded myself how I didn’t have the following book, Liberty Falling, in my possession.  As of late, I haven't been into reading anything but Barr's park ranger sleuthing adventures.  My momentum was going just too damn good to break; I needed to exhaust myself of Barr's shit-stirring and pessimistic Anna Pigeon character.  Besides, Barr had an overarching sub-narrative of Anna's story begging for resolution.  It's a "Damn!  What's gonna happen?  I need the next book!" situation.

Y'all know how it is! 

So what to do other than dash through upcoming rain to the used bookstore to find a copy?  Partially tattered or not, I needed Anna's next adventure.  And with an easy $5 bill tucked in my struggling wallet, I was ready to rectify my situation.

I saw this moderately decent and only available copy of Liberty Falling.  And as always in used bookstores, I flipped through it a couple of times.  I do this mostly to feel a book's handling–particularly with mass markets.  I think we all know some people can get out of control with mass markets.  Bending and breaking spines.  Dog-eared pages.  A little too much yellowing for an individual's taste.  Torn pages.  Burnt pages.  The occasion buried bookmark.  Sometimes strands of hair and food residue.  Or mysterious residue.

None.  With the exception of its age and a temperately blitzed spine, all seemed acceptable.  Workable.  Manageable, if you will.  I would grabbing a matching colored marker to "paint" over the spine's creases later.  You know, bookshelf whip appeal.  

We have a deal.  My Saturday and Sunday was set.  

$3.85 broken out of $5.

I got home to sanitize the book.  Yes, I use sanitizing wipes on used books.  Followed by a sage smudging.  And yes, I believe in spirit attachments.  I have this niggling superstition that for every used book I buy, some dead person’s relative brought his or her stack in to unload a house going up for sale.  I'm from the South.  Blame parts of my folkloric upbringing.

Anyway, I took an anxious, closer look before putting the book on my shelf as my next reading.  This is what halted me…!  And no, for whatever blind and desperately-seeking-Anna reason, I didn't notice this before buying it.

Kdrama Factor: Incomplete Life

Now the second Kdrama I’m watching is Incomplete Life.  The Korean word, per its Korean title, is misaeng.  Apparently the drama is based off a web comic by a Korean cartoonist named Yoo Tae-Ho.  The comic ran from January 2012 to October 2013.  As for Incomplete Life, it aired from October to December of 2014.  Twenty episodes even.

So what’s it about?  Twenty-something Jang Geu-Rae was once a thriving and prolific baduk player.  From his childhood forward he dedicated himself to the game.  So as an adult he stood on the threshold of becoming a professional.  He even forfeited completing high school and earning his GED to continue his passion, by sliding up in rank.  

Now this next part of his story I think I understood correctly.  Anyway, somewhere in the mix Geu-Rae's father dies, leaving just him and his mother.  Now the man of the house, Geu-Rae gives up baduk and starts working odd jobs to keep the house running.  He works as a delivery boy, bathhouse cleaner, and a convenience store clerk simultaneously.  His dad is gone, and now baduk and his education is sailing by him.  With what remains as a stream of dead end jobs, Geu-Rae is left disappointed and hurt by life. 

Then a secret–and unconfirmed as far as I’ve gotten–consociate recommends Geu-Rae into an internship with One International trading firm.  Pushed by his mother, Geu-Rae walks into the offer.

But with absolutely no education or credentials to back him up, Geu-Rae faces bullying taunts once his background is found out.  And the more he insist on pushing forward with his internship, the more he suffers navigating his way through what’s deemed the “real world.”  Yet, he has a little help along the way in the form of warmer friendships with other peers.  And when situations get too tight, he employs his strategic thinking skills developed from excelling at baduk.  This allows him to chess piece his way in and out of trouble, as he finds acceptance in the office.  As well as in himself.

Crime Fiction Writer Tess Gerristen NWS Event

Tales of the Slayer | Buffy Goodness

As one of those debut episode, long-living passionate Buffy, the Vampire Slayer fans, it goes without saying I watch the series year round.  Episode after episode (except season three’s obnoxious Xander-driven "Zeppo" episode).  Season after season.  I’m there.  I used to run through the DVD boxsets, then indulged in the convenience of watching the damn show on Netflix.  Bandwidth be damned.

I’m currently on the last four episodes of my favorite season–which would be season three.  And we all know the theme of this season: good slayer versus dark slayer.  And sure, I would love to dive into all the complexities, context, and other conversations (ha, 3 c’s) about the topic.  But it’s been done time and time again.  Nevertheless, my longing interest on the topic reverted back to the whole slayer mythology.  I’ve always, always been interested in slayers past–particularly Nikki Wood.  First, she’s a black slayer.  Second, every single thing about her was ripped out of Pam Grier's rampaging performances in 70's Blaxploitation films.  Seriously, it’s a sub-genre of film sworn to Queen Grier, and certainly an immediate source to fulfil my thirst in the black female action hero.  As opposed to her many counterparts.

But I digress.

My point is, while pondering about slayers, I realized I had the Tales of the Slayer books to go back to re-familiarize myself with many of their stories.  However, some stories I remember perfectly.  Even after years of finishing her story in one of the volumes, imprints remained.  So with a little dusting, it would be nice to dive back into the slayer fray for a tale or two.  

No, for real.  These books have been shamefully in a tote for over ten years.  Sick.  I know.

Nonetheless, let me see if I can flip through and recall some of my favorite slayer stories.  Or at least the ones better written.  Because some of the writers… well… suffered to tell a decent slayer story.  And yes, somewhere after volumes three my interest faded over the years; I never went back to get volume four.  Pitifully.  But now’s the chance to reconnect and order that SOB.  Especially because that’s the volume featuring slayers facing the Cruciamentum (those who know understand what the hell that ridiculous test is).

So.  Anybody got a favorite Slayer out there?  Comment below.