The Friday Review: “No Rest For The Wicked” by Rebecca Knight

I will never read Snow White the same way ever again.

Wednesday night, I was traveling the Realms of Twitter, and stumbled upon the account of one Rebecca Knight. She writes fantasy. I write fantasy. Of course I looked at her blog. She had two free short stories about a fairy tale assassin. Ten minutes I downloaded them from Amazon and got blown away. They’re fast-paced, entertaining, and definitely NOT for everyone.

Victoria Grim is the last person I’d want to cross. Even before she faces an armed man, and kicks his throat with her steel-tipped boots, you know she’s not to be messed with. Ripley from Alien has nothing on this bad girl.

She works cases for an unnamed agency. “Blood Don’t Lie” watches her assassinate a very modern and very nasty Bluebeard. “Heartless” covers her attempt to bring Snow White (a runway and a porn star) back to her stepmother.

You did not misread that. This fairy tale casts Snow White as a porn star.

Knight pulls it off- and with style. I wish she had added a little bit more detail with settings, just a few words here and there. No such problems with the dialogue. It is harsh, it is snappy, and it is alive. Victoria is a hard-edged heroine, and one who is convincingly brought to life.

The plot is swift and exciting. With her modernized, seedy new fairy tale world, Knight lends intensity and urgency to fairy tales. “Heartless” in particular has a passage that left me breathless with terror.

Speaking of which, these stories are R-rated. If you’re queasy, keep a wide berth. Victoria lays some vicious punishment on her enemies. Her enemies lay some vicious punishment on her. There’s swearing, booze, naked people and groping.

Knight does a good job at handling all that. She doesn’t pound you over the head with it. Her most gripping scenes don’t tell much, but what they do tell made me cringe. I did find the climax of “Heartless” to be too drawn-out. There’s a fight that goes on for a while. It’s well-told, but it’s too long.

Which is ironic, because my biggest complaint is that the stories aren’t long enough. I wanted to see Victoria do some more detective work, and some more dialogue. “Heartless”, in particular, could be a great novella. The plot goes by like a whirlwind. There’s enough of that plot to allow more time for it to unfold, and have some breathing room. It’s a pity Knight didn’t let that happen.

I won’t complain too much, though. Clearly, this is meant to be an introduction to Victoria Grim. And what an introduction it is. It is no masterpiece; don’t read it for deep thoughts. Read it for a dark, bone-crunching action caper. And join me in demanding a full-length novel. Nay, a series of novels. I want more Victoria Grim!

Read Rebecca Knight’s blog here. Get “No Rest For The Wicked” at Amazon for free. Or at Smashwords for free.

Jason McKinney: Werewolf Hunter

Remember that mysterious person who won The Monday Muse contest?

Here he is.

Image courtesy of http://images.allmoviephoto.com/2007_300/2007_300_063.jpg

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Jason McKinney.

Jason McKinney is a man’s man. He’s a writer’s writer. He’s Chuck Norris’ right hand man. I took this picture after the Battle of Thermopylae. Jason and I jumped into the movie 300. That’s right. We physically jumped into a movie. Like Mary Poppins, but more manly. Anyway, after Leonidas went down, Jason pretty much went berserk. Multiply all those corpses behind him by a gazillion and you have an idea of what kind of hurt he lay on the Persian army.

Fortunately for Xerxes, Jason reserves the fullness of his wrath for one thing, and one thing only: werewolves.

When he’s not updating his blog, he’s teleporting around the world and having lycan smackdowns in the Ukraine, and canine battle royales in Albertia. With his silver knuckles, he can take out any werewolf with just one punch. That’s why he waits until there’s about a hundred of them. He is a man of honor, and likes to fight fairly.

When he is neither updating his blog nor slaughtering werewolves, he’s writing to spread his wisdom. In his genius, he came up with the title “Monday Meditations” for my weekly feature. Primarily, though, he writes stories. He’s already published the first one. It’s called Dog World. Soldiers in Iraq taken on werewolves. I would ask him if it was autobiographical, but to be honest I’m too scared to ask. He did drop a hint that a sequel’s coming soon.

You can get the first Dog World on Amazon, or Kindle, or Smashwords. If you’re brave enough, you might survive Jason’s official website.

By the way, there’s one werewolf in particular that’s on Jason’s hit list. If you could help Jason find him, he would much appreciate it.

Image from http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Taylor_Lautner_3.jpg

Welcome to the Blogfest

I have a happy interlude for you. Might it be unusual? Perhaps. I am about to post a childhood memory of the one and only Martin King. What on earth does this have to do with The Kingdom Trilogy? My weekly features are dissimilar enough.

Well, I was thinking about that too. And I got to thinking. I don’t post only Kingdom stuff up here; I’ll throw up anything that might connect to storytelling. This is a story. It’s not a half0bad story. I invite you to check it out.

By the end of August, Martin’s going to have NINETY-NINE OTHER STORIES LIKE THIS ONE. I suggest you check it out. It’s the #100blogfest, and there is no escaping it.

“Are you sitting comfortably? Are you laid back into your recliner? Then let’s start at the beginning. That first memory… no, not the one where you had your head flushed down the toilet, or putting stink bombs through your neighbour’s letterbox.

We are going way, way back to when you were five or maybe four. Can you go back to that first memory when you were three? Talking of being three, it reminds me of a childhood joke about the criminal breaking out of prison and shouting, “I’m free, I’m free,” only for a nearby kid to reply; “Well, I’m four.”

Anyway, back to this. My very first memory isn’t even when I was two; I was only eighteen months. Yes, it is true… eighteen months!

So you are reading this thinking ‘do you know what, this blog thing is actually quite good.’ Well stop right there. As with most things for the first time; like riding your bike, only to fly over the handle bars and knock your front teeth out, this isn’t that good either.

But still, it is my first memory and to me, it is pretty special. I think what helped kept the moment alive in the innermost sanctum of my brain is the fact that my mum had a picture of me and my baby sister as well. So growing up, I would see the picture hanging on the wall and that in turn would subconsciously keep the tiny first memory flame burning.

Me and my little baby sister were sat in a double pram facing each other outside a laundrette. And that’s it! I know, it’s pretty pathetic really, but it is still real to me and that is what counts.

So this got me thinking, we all must have a precious moment locked away in the deepest, darkest recess of our mind which just needs tugging out. So what is yours? Please feel free to share that happy moment.

These blogs are all about fun and sharing. Thank you for reading a ‘#100blogfest’ blog. Please follow this link to find the next blog in the series: http://martinkingauthor.com/blog/7094550076“

Monday Meditations (Contest Winner!)

This shall be the last post that will be titled “The Monday Muse”.

Congratulations to all who dared enter the greatest contest in the world.

Starting next week, The Monday Muse becomes Monday Meditations. You’ll meet the winner in a few days. In all likelihood, it will be an experience you will never forget. Why? Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t quite as much of an experience, now would it?

In the meantime, let me rant about my new title. Monday Meditations took some time to grow on me. But then I got it. This feature posts songs and quotes to fire up creativity. You slow down to do that, ideally. Odds are, you think. Think = meditation. Bam!

Let’s give this a try.

SONG OF THE WEEK…

“Concerto for Mandolin in C Major RV245” by Antonio Vivaldi

While the word meditation is in your head, and the connotations of peace that go with it… chill to the Red Priest. There’s something about those plucking strings that soothe my troubled mind. This is the go-to song if you ever need to get relaxed and wise so you can solve the meaning of life.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK…

“A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.”
Robert Frost

“By three methods we may learn wisdom. First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
Confucius