Nostalgic For A Place I've Never Been

Yesterday I went to the Alaska State Fair. My son is seven and his cousin, who is nine, is up visiting. It was crowded, sunny and windy, and the curly fries tasted the same as they ever had.

I remembered going as a child, crowded against my siblings, all grasping some part of my mother or each other, shuffle-stepping along like part of a super illegal kiddie chain gang. Early September in Alaska can be brutal. Hats and gloves were mandatory, as were winter coats. If the rain was particularly insistent, we’d wear garbage bags over those. (This was the eighties and winter coats were uber puffy. If you tried to fit a raincoat over those we’d look like child sausages for a bare instant before physics took over and the buttons exploded off)

There are other places I’m struck with sudden nostalgia for – usually they’re warmer and more exciting, and don’t include the frozen swingset-hands smell of old carnival rides.

They are places like Robin McKinley’s Damar, in the cool blue and searing red of Aerin’s time and the burning heat wave sands of Harry’s. I remember Sarah Connor warmly asking the Big Boy to watch over her scooter, completely oblivious to the metal monster stalking her from the future.

I ran into the German word fernweh not too long ago, with the definition of “homesickness for a place you’ve never been.” I think this perfectly describes these memories – full of sight and taste and feeling – that originate in words on a page but stay with us for a lifetime.

What are the places and faces that have stuck with you? The characters you've never met but know as well as you know yourself?

About the Author

Regan Summers lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband and alien-monkey hybrid of a child. She is a huge fan of the low profile. She likes books, bad action movies, and small plate dining.

If you’d like to support her ongoing dental work, her Night Runner series, including Don’t Bite the Messenger, Running in the Dark, and Falling from the Light is available wherever e-books are sold. The Lady is a Killer, an urban fantasy short story set in the 1920s, throwing a WWI veteran and lethal ingénue together in a feud between vampires and bootleggers, is currently free on Wattpad, HERE.

Website  -  Twitter  -  Facebook  -  Amazon  -  Barnes & Noble  -  Carina Press

ROBOT OVERLORDS, UNICORNS, AND THE SPINELESS KINGDOM

I've been doing a lot of research lately into certain science fictional concepts*. Amazingly, many of them have tipped the innovation teeter totter and now are closer to reality than fiction.  I won't bore you with all the papers and discussions, but will share a few of my favorite links**.

SKYNET: JUST HOW CLOSE ARE WE???
This compilation of robots walking and performing commanded movements proves that we're just minutes away from total annihila... Sorry, I got carried away. We're safe from robot overlords for the moment, seeing as how they're apparently all slow toddlers. Or really drunk and trying to appear sober.

ROBOT TO ROBOT CHAT
What happens when two robots programmed to mimic human speech have a conversation? Unicorns, that's what. Have a listen at NPR.

And, in case you thought that all I do is watch and listen to robots, here is a gallery of pictures of THE SPINELESS KINGDOM (also known as pictures of cute octopi and fugly critters from the deep by Susan Middleton).

*Also a lot of gaming and reading, but I'm filing that under research.

**Later, if you're good, I might write a sweet essay or two on these. Because nothing says TOTALLY NOT BORING like an essay, amirite?

***

Regan Summers is the author of the romantic urban fantasy Night Runner series. As a native Alaskan, she’s used to long, cold nights but thinks they’re better with a helping of sexy vampires. Don’t Bite the Messenger, the first in the series, was a finalist for the 2013 EPIC eBook Awards in the paranormal category.

Find her here:

Website: http://regansummers.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Regan_Summers

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5350866.Regan_Summers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ReganSummersAuthor

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/6nFaH

LOVE IN A TIME OF PERIL

Fair warning, I'm going to be getting a little sappy on the blog today. My favorite love story comes from a James Cameron movie.

Hey, where are you going? Come back! I’m not talking about Titanic.

I’m talking about The Abyss. The 1989 science fiction movie is best known for the water effects and for how parts of it were filmed in a 7,000,000 (that’s right, seven meeeeellion) gallon tank at an unfinished nuclear power plant. And that is remarkable.

But the heart of the story is Virgil “Bud” Brigman, played by he-of-the-piercing-blue-eyes, Ed Harris. He’s a gruff foreman running an experimental deep sea oil rig. And Virgil’s heart, in turn, is in the hands of the abrasive Dr. Lindsay Brigman, played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. Do you see where I’m going with this?

They come from disparate backgrounds. He’s a roughneck and she has a PhD. He gets all greasy fixing the machines on the rig. She designed the rig. They married for convenience, truly fell in love, but then combusted and separated. Fate, aliens and the U.S. military throw them together thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean in a veritable pressure cooker, and they fall in love again. They’re both competent, intelligent, passionate people who will do anything for the other person. And I do mean anything.

Twenty-three years is long enough, right? I’m not going to spoil this for anyone? Okay, if you haven’t seen this movie, skip the remainder of this, and the next two paragraphs. Otherwise…the big sacrifice, the one that influences the aliens to spare humankind, is delivered softly. It’s Bud, relaying a poorly-typed message saying that, when he went out to try to defuse a bomb, he knew it was a one-way trip. He reassured Lindsay and the crew when he left, but he understood he wasn’t coming back. It’s a great moment, really, but the two scenes that made my heart grow three sizes were these:

One: When Bud hears that Lindsay’s coming down to his ship after months (or years) apart, he pulls off his wedding band and throws it into the toilet. Then he realizes that, no matter how much she frustrates and angers him, he loves her. He retrieves the ring and, since the toilets are specialized, they’re full of neon blue water. His hand is stained blue, a larger, more noticeable exhibit of his love than the ring. Awwww.

Two: Bud and Lindsay are trapped in a failing mini-sub, which is rapidly filling with frigid water, far from the rig. They’ve only got one survival suit. Lindsay calculates the oxygen, water temperature and their relative strength, and determines that one of two things will happen. Either they’ll both die, or she has to die so that Bud – the stronger swimmer – can drag her back to the rig. It’s the only chance for at least one of them to survive, and it’s an intense scene. The sub’s tiny, so Bud’s right there, holding her as she drowns, not knowing if he can bring her back.

*blows whistle* Okay, all you people who’ve been meaning to watch a movie for TWENTY-THREE years but haven’t gotten around to it, come on back. This is the love story that made me believe in love stories. It’s probably why I’m addicted to paranormal romance and urban fantasy. Situations are highest possible stakes intense. Differences between love interests can be vast. We’re talking different species or millenium-old enemies. It’s fantastic.

Love has to find a way through massive odds, threats of violence and magically-induced divisions. When it’s tested, it’s put way past the red line. In the Night Runner series, Sydney Kildare and Malcolm Kelly are, for everything going on around them, taking things slowly. As a vampire, Mal has all the time in the world. As a human in a vampire world, Sydney's every breath could be her last. And, in Falling from the Light, a single moment will change everything.

About the Author

Regan Summers lives in Anchorage, Alaska with her husband and alien-monkey hybrid of a child. She is a huge fan of the low profile. She likes books, ottomans with concealed storage, small plate dining, libraries, Corporal Hicks, some aspects of pre-revolutionary France, most aspects of current Italy, and books.

Her Night Runner series, including Don’t Bite the Messenger, Running in the Dark, and Falling from the Light is available wherever e-books are sold.

Website  -  Twitter  -  Facebook  -  Amazon  -  Barnes & Noble  -  Carina Press

My TBR Pile

Just for fun, I thought I would share my TBR pile. (TBR = To Be Read) Mine is partly a physical pile on a table and partly a queue on my ereader.

At the top of the TBR pile is, of course, my current read. Or, as frequently happens, my current reads plural. At the time I am writing this post my current read is Falling From the Light by Regan Summers, third (and I believe final) book in her Night Runners series. Based on how quickly I read the previous two books about Sydney Kildare, courier to vampires, I may well be done it by the time this is actually posted on Friday.

Next up are two YA books. I will probably not read these in a row, but rather pick one and postpone the other one.

1. Killer Instinct, by Dawn Dalton and Judith Graves. I love the cover and the tagline for this YA monster-hunter novel. Where there’s no life, there’s Hope. (Hope, of course, being the name of the main character.)

2. Night Sky, by Melanie and Suzanne Brockmann. I love Suzanne’s adult romantic suspense novels, which often feature Navy SEALs. This is her first YA and takes place in the same world as her sole paranormal romance Born to Darkness.

I like to alternate genres, so after that I may go on to a romance.

3. Blind Faith by Rebecca Zanetti. Despite the generic male torso cover and the contemporary setting, this one is actually a science fiction romance in that it features four brothers, genetically-designed as supersoldiers, who are trying to keep free from their makers. This is book three in the series.

4. Raven’s Wing by Shawna Reppert. I read the first book in this urban fantasy series a few weeks ago and am eager to read more. A dark mage is trying to turn over a new leaf, but is often faced with very dark choices.

5. Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. This one is often described as Jane Austen only with dragons (the author herself describes it as Anthony Trollope with dragons, but since I’ve never read any Trollope that’s not helpful to me). My husband recommended this one and it sounds right up my alley… unfortunately I mired down in the first chapter. I still intend to read it, but somehow it always falls to the bottom of my TBR pile. Someday.

What books are in your TBR pile?