Extinction: Friday Fictioneers 100 Word Story Challenge

May 29, 2015July 14, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / 10 Comments

I knew it was pointless, that I would be too late. But I had to see it for myself.

The door popped open and my nostrils were assaulted with the foul stench of decay.

I gingerly stepped outside, my eyes taking in nothing but burnt land and smoldering Furly-Pon skeletons.

They had been a peaceful race and never stood a chance against us.

If my engines hadn’t failed I would have got here sooner and been able to save at least a few of them.

Another world conquered. Another race wiped out.

Well done humans, when will it be enough?

Friday Fictioneers is a weekly challenge set by Rochelle Fields where writers around the world create 100 word stories inspired by the one image.

This week’s PHOTO PROMPT © Douglas M. MacIlroy pleisiosaur_

For more information CLICK HERE to see Rochelle’s website

Or CLICK HERE to view the other Friday Fictioneers stories for this week.

Classic Poems and Tales of Camelot

May 22, 2015July 14, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / Leave a comment

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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Lady of Shallot, the Lady of the Fountain, and Other Classic Poems and Tales of Camelot by Alfred Tennyson and more.

Paperback, 94 pages.

Published March 14th 2011 by Limitless Press LLC.

Stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have been told and retold for centuries with each generation adding to the tale and adapting them to fit their times. The Arthurian tales of chivalry, romance, and tragedy have left a lasting impact on English literature. This collection contains Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (trans. 1898), The Lady of Shallot (1833), The Founding of the Round Table (trans. 1914), The Passing of Arthur (trans. 1914), The Morte D’arthur (1914), The Lady of the Fountain (trans. 1877), Arthurian Songs: 1. Avalon (1894), and Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery (1858).

I purchased this book because I wanted to read about Sir Gawain after falling in love with him on the BBC TV series Merlin (2008-2012). There are so many publications with Gawain in it I picked this one because it also had the Lady of Shallot in it and I could remember Anne reading it in Anne of Green Gables (a childhood favourite of mine) so that was me sold.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Even though the language was a little hard to understand in parts, the underlying story always came through. A Stranger, a seemingly evil Knight sets upon Camelot and challenges the knights. Arthur steps forward to take the challenge, but Gawain quickly takes his place. There is lots of descriptive text about the landscapes and changing seasons as Gawain rides out on his quest. Gawain is offered immense valuables from a beautiful queen but turns her down. Later his life is saved because he was so humble and honourable etc. It is a really lovely, descriptive, enjoyable piece of text. I can see myself coming back to read it time and time again. As I was reading it I realised that I had heard the story before, with a piece so old this is not surprising. Where I heard it I’m not sure, I think perhaps in a retelling in a children’s fable.

The Lady of Shallot: Anne Shirley recites;

“There she weaves by night and day

A magic web with colours gay.

She has heard a whisper say,

A curse is on her if she stay

To look down to Camelot.”

This is actually the start of Part Two (The poem has Four parts).

It’s quite a sad poem, beautifully woven and delightful to recite, yes, but essentially The Lady of Shallot was a cursed woman, be it with a beautiful body and beautiful signing voice.

She freezes to death while floating down the river to Camelot, singing to her final breath. I’ll come back and read it again, probably after every time I read Gawain and the Green Knight.

The Founding of the Round Table: A yule-tide ball that turns into an all-out brawl with people killing each other. I found it a little bizarre; they bury the dead, then pretty much everyone kisses and makes up because Arthur says so. I think the whole point of the poem was how Arthur brought everyone together and always fought for peace.

The Passing of Arthur: It starts with Arthur having a dream, which leads to an epic battle between Arthur and Modred. Of course Modred flees and Arthur chases. There is a section in which Wenhavere (I always thought it was Gwenhavere) goes into a convent to hide and never return – at least I think that’s what happened, it was a little confusing. The whole piece swaps between 1^st and 3^rd persons, it mucks up the flow a bit until you get used to it.

Modred is killed in the final battle on the banks of the Tamar River, but hundreds of thousands of others are killed also, leaving Arthur mortally wounded and only two of his knights standing. A boat carrying two beautiful fay women comes to take Arthur away to Avalon. Merlin was only mentioned three times and that was close to the end – he wasn’t even at the fight – this upset me somewhat.

“But the British folk, they say

That Arthur, he lives alway,

That held by a fairy spell,

In Avalon both he dwell;

And each Briton’s hope is strong

That he cometh again ere long!”

The Morte D’arthur: Seems to just be a short verse of Wilfrid reflecting on all the tales gone before.

The Lady of the Fountain: She’s Gwenhwyvar this time, so it must come down to artistic licence.

The story really kicks off when Owain sets off on a quest to battle the Knight who guards the fountain. He wins the duel and falls in love with the Countess of the Fountain at first sight “the wife of him whom thou didst slay yesterday”. She agrees to marry him so she’ll have someone to protect her dominions, yeah real romantic. It takes Arthur three years to decide to take his men looking for Owain. Owain then abandons the Countess and goes back with Arthur – this is considered a Welsh Romance? What!

Anyway, another three years pass and Owain starts to feel bad so he becomes somewhat of a drifter helping out people he meets along his way. Helping out a king here, saving a damsel there and picking up a pet Lion – yes a Lion.

In the end he does return to the Countess of the Fountain. He then takes her with him back to Arthur’s Court, and she stayed there with him for the rest of her life. Hmmm while I enjoyed reading this it wasn’t what I’d call romantic.

Arthurian Songs: 1. Avalon: Short and sweet, the lyrics flow easily with images of Arthur laying in wait in Avalon.

Sir Galahad, a Christmas Mystery: Galahad is weary and takes refuge in a church, he’s in a half daze and Santa Claus (possibly it was Jesus in a red and white suit) shows up. Two angels and four women materialise from nowhere bringing Galahad a bed to sleep in. He sleeps, then they help him dress and send him off to find his father? Launcelot on a boat? Then I have no idea, someone’s found dead or something. Very confusing! I re-read the last four stanzas twice trying to figure the ending out and I don’t care to read the whole poem again to try and figure it out – so for now the Christmas mystery will remain just that, a mystery.

All up I’m giving this book Four Stars and this mainly based on my enjoyment of the two largest tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Lady of the Fountain, which take the majority of the book.

Family Inheritance: Rosacea I hate you

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / 2 Comments

So My Grandmother, My Mother and I all suffer from Rosacea. Rosacea is a painful and ugly. “Rosacea (pronounced “roh-ZAY-sha”) is a chronic and potentially life-disruptive disorder primarily of the facial skin, often characterized by flare-ups and remissions.”- http://www.rosacea.org normally treated with a cream, either SigmaCort or Rozex (prescription medicine). While being cranky during my last flare up I started looking into using oil to fight the Rosacea Demon. I put in an YLEO order but while I was waiting I purchased some Pure Jojoba Oil from the chemist and crossed between using it and an old tube of Rozex I nicked from my mum (because I couldn’t be bothered going to the doctor to get a script) – Anyway it did the trick and I found the Jojoba Oil instantly soothing.

I started of researching Rosacea and its causes, then natural essential oil remedy’s and that turned into looking at acne remedies as well. I found that generally speaking Rosacea occurs mainly in women over thirty (hmmm I got my first attack at 16). And apparently it gets worse with age (that’ll piss my mum off when I tell her). There are topical antibiotic medications and even oral treatments for really bad cases. I think my mum has a flare up about once a year and I generally only tend to get it when I’m stressed out and emotionally spent. Apparently mild Rosacea is actually really common, but most people confuse it with ache or eczema. I think for the most part (non-doctor opinion) that eczema medicated creams won’t do any harm. I have a cousin who had bad eczema when she was younger, she was given SigmaCort to treat it, my son was given SigmaCort to treat his skin when he was a newborn and I’ve been given SigmaCort for Rosacea, so same/same. But when I got my first attack at 16 I thought it was ache and put a Clean & Clear tonic on it and burned the f**k out of my face making it ten times worse. Moral of the story; you don’t want to treat Rosacea as Ache and you’ll bloody well know it if you do, but if you think it’s eczema and treat it so you’ll probably be fine :-P.

My plan for my next flare up:

Rosacea: I’ll try a two part pure Geranium Essential Oil, ten part pure Jojoba Essential Oil mix applied to area regularly /as necessary. And also swap out my morning and night moisturiser for Pure Rosehip Essential Oil during the flare up.

Ache: I’ll try a two part Tea Tree oil, ten part Jojoba Oil mix applied to area regularly /as necessary (and if it is Rosacea not Ache the Tea Tree oil won’t cause super burn problems).

I gave some of the oils to my mum to try as well, but obviously I can’t give you any results /thoughts until my mum or a have a flare up.

My reasoning behind the oils I picked >>

Geranium Oil: The anti-bacterial properties of the oil! And the aroma of the oil has a calming effect (like I said stress tends to bring it on in me, so the calming effect would be welcome) Apparently Geranium oil helps to stimulate the lymphatic system (I don’t really know much about this), but it boosts the skins natural ability to fight inflammatory skin conditions (that part sounds good eh).

Rosehip Oil: It is Liquid Magic! It’s packed full of nutrients, it’s naturally an anti-inflammatory and has some “retinol” thing in it that promotes the growth of healthy skin cells (Woop Woop). Rosehip oil is fantastical for treating numerous skin problems.

Jojoba Oil: Also Liquid Magic! So apparently skin suffering from rosacea can’t produce enough sebum (had to look up what that was). Sebum helps to hydrate the skin and act as a natural barrier to nastiness. Jojoba oil with its magical sebum-like properties of will help to counteract that. AND the anti-inflammatory properties of the oil will help to reduce the swelling of the skin (can I get a ‘Hell Yeah’).

Tea Tree Oil: Tea tree oil is a powerful antimicrobial agent, BAM! it Naturally Kills Bacteria! Kill them greasy puss ball pimples.

I hope that made sense and maybe some one finds it helpful, or at least maybe interesting LOL :-).

Bloglovin

May 20, 2015May 20, 2015 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / Leave a comment

Trying to link WordPress Blog up to Bloglovin and It wants me to do a post with this link, So here goes, fingers crossed.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Top Ten Tuesdays: 1st Attempt

May 19, 2015May 16, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / 9 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by

May 19th’s Top Ten Tuesday is Freebie YOUR CHOICE OF TOPIC and because this is my first Top Ten Tuesday, I was like ummmmmmmm. So I read back though the recent list and went for April 7th’s Top Ten Characters You’d Like To Check In With.

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1) Percy Jackson – Is he as adorable in his late thirty’s? Did he marry Annabeth and live happily ever after in New Rome? (Percy Jackson and the Olympians series & The Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan).

2 & 3-ish) Mr Darcy and all those Bennett sisters – Did Mary and Kitty ever find a man? Did Lydia ever grow up? Did Lizzy and Jane live happily ever after with their wealthy men? (Pride and Prejudiced by Jane Austen).

4) Albert – Did he find the promise land, old Australia? Did he find where his heart and soul belonged? What happened to that wonderful platypus!!!! (Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson).

5) TJ – What adventures and mischief did he get into once he parted ways with Albert? (Albert of Adelaide by Howard L. Anderson).

6 & 7) Wanda and Melanie – What became of their lives and loves? How did the earth hold up? Did the humans take over again? (The Host by Stephenie Meyer) on closer look at this it seem that Meyer was going to turn it into a trilogy, but back when it came out and I read it in 2008 it was a one off as far as I know??

8) Seth – I loved that little wolf boy, what ever happened to him and his sister? (The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer).

9) All the Characters in We all looked up – Did the meteor kill them all? Did some of the earth survive? (We All Looked Up by Tommy Wallach).

10) Luna Lovegood – What ever happened to her? Did she get happily ever after with kids? Did she continue the Quibbler for her father or did she get herself some other magical profession (The Harry Potter phenomenon by J.K. Rowling).

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

May 17, 2015July 14, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / 2 Comments

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Published April 14th 2011 by Dutton Adult

“Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . “

Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder know that somebody is monitoring their work e-mail. (Everybody in the newsroom knows. It’s company policy.) But they can’t quite bring themselves to take it seriously. They go on sending each other endless and endlessly hilarious e-mails, discussing every aspect of their personal lives.

Meanwhile, Lincoln O’Neill can’t believe this is his job now- reading other people’s e-mail. When he applied to be “internet security officer,” he pictured himself building firewalls and crushing hackers- not writing up a report every time a sports reporter forwards a dirty joke.

When Lincoln comes across Beth’s and Jennifer’s messages, he knows he should turn them in. But he can’t help being entertained-and captivated-by their stories.

By the time Lincoln realizes he’s falling for Beth, it’s way too late to introduce himself.

What would he say . . . ?

I am seriously fan girl-ing right now, I just went and followed all Rowell’s social medias so I could stalk her, umm I mean see what book she has coming out next.

I was in love with this book by the first few pages. I think this is the fastest I’ve ever devoured a book. I got the book that morning and read it all that day. That’s a new record for me. (i’m writing this review two days later). I came up for air, once, to put up a Goodreads update – Page 48: Loving this book and thinking “why have I not read any Rainbow Rowell until now”.

I finished the book late-ish Friday night – Page 322: Love Love Loved this book. I’m jumping up and down and smiling, LOVED IT – review to come 🙂. I only open it it intending to have a look and reading it later when I was on holidays. Just the first few pages had me hooked and I didn’t go to bed until I’d finished it. I loved Rowell’s writing, her humour, snappy dialogue and devour-able prose.

The Main Characters: Lincoln O’Neill, Beth Fremont and Jennifer Scribner-Snyder; I love them all and they are now my imaginary best friends 😛 what I wouldn’t give to have a working friendship like Beth and Jennifer’s. The characters are all 28 (my age) and it’s nice to see other people not having there s**t together. It’s a funny, heart-warming story that feels real. My favorite books usually involve magic, mythological or paranormal creatures, but Rowell’s left me feeling happier than any book has in a long time. I was smiling like I’d just won the lotto when I finished the last page.

The story swaps between Lincoln “page shots” of Beth and Jennifer’s emails and Lincoln in the 3^rd person. The story is set back in 1999/2000, the whole point being that people didn’t have iPhones etc. back then so we see the two female leads converse using inter office email. Then there is the poor smuck Lincoln that has to monitor those inter office emails. At this time 1999/2000 I was in high school and they did monitor your computer use, I know this because I got in trouble off the librarian once for some “inappropriate” story I was writing.

The girls are immediately like-able. But for me Lincoln became the star of the show. He was lonely and stuck in a rut. He hated his dead end job that made him feel like a perverse nut job. Now I can see why some people mightn’t like this, they might write Lincoln off as a creepy loser. But I love how we get to watch him grow, watch him try to be a better person and succeed. He gets out of his rut, he gets his s**t together and he gets the girl, the right girl! Go Lincoln Go!

I love Lincoln, yeah so what if he fell for Beth while reading her emails –Ah hello, he gave Jennifer his MacDonald’s while he changed her flat tyre in a storm, super hero! – Beth did some Lincoln stalking as well, so meh, all’s fair in love and war. I did some house drive by stalking when I was younger LOL and he married me, my husband the silly man.

So Five Stars. I’m going to leave it at that because if I try to tell you anymore about the story I’ll give it all away.

Rainbow Rowell writes books.

Sometimes she writes about adults (Attachments and Landline).

Sometimes she writes about teenagers (Eleanor & Park, Fangirl and Carry On.).

But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they’re screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.

Website – http://www.rainbowrowell.com

Twitter – https://twitter.com/rainbowrowell

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/rainbow.rowell.author

Instagram – https://instagram.com/rainbowrowellbooks/

Tumblr – http://rainbowrowell.tumblr.com/

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4208569.Rainbow_Rowell

GRONK by Katie Cook

May 10, 2015July 14, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / Leave a comment

Gronk: A monster’s tale is an all-ages weekly comic that follows Gronk, a little green monster that has shunned monster life. she finds a home with Dale, a young nerd-lady who teaches Gronk the ways of her world.

Now the Internet’s favorite little green monster is a lovely, full color book! A book that will look great hanging from a magazine rack in your bathroom or as a nice glossy coaster for your favorite frosty beverage.

“Gronk is a young monster who has turned her back on the ways of monster-dom (mostly because she was just too darn adorable to be scary). She finds the human world fascinating and is curious about everything…”

Adorable characters, beautiful bright illustrations, a cute and funny story with some fandom references thrown in for good measure. I really enjoyed reading Gronk; it is a quick fun read that I can see myself reading again. I’ve even gone and subscribed to Katie’s website so I can keep up with Gronk’s activities as she tries to make a home with her human, cat and extremely over weight dog.

I won my copy in a bundle (that I am making my way through) from Diamond Comics :-).

Katie cook is a comic book artist and illustrator. She’s worked on licenses ranging from star wars to marvel comics to lord of the rings to fraggle rock and more. cartooning is all she’s ever wanted to do with her life (besides her ambition to be a muppet or a robot as a child). Katie’s art as well as a lengthy history of her work can be found at www.katiecandraw.com Katie’s Twitter – https://twitter.com/katiecandraw

I saw these two pictures on Katie’s website and just had to share them: Harry Potter, Cute Cartoon Cats AND DR WHO!!! I love this woman!!!

The Field Trip by R.A. Andrade

May 5, 2015July 14, 2019 / Riot @ Absidity Art - Sarah Fairbairn / Leave a comment

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The Field Trip by R.A. Andrade

Published: May 1st 2015 by Selladore Press, 272 Pages

Thank you to the Author, Publisher and Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

An adventure mixed with a touch of fantasy. Add a twist of love.

Although clumsy with women, botany professor Ross Barton possesses the quality of fearlessness when confronting danger. Relieved to be escaping routine school work and a bad relationship for a field research trip, a strange woman and danger are the last of his expectations.

Jay, an awkward young woman unwilling to disclose her past, begins a solitary hike into the forest with a pet concealed in a box. She claims the pet is a cat.

Rumors are spreading about odd lights in the night skies of New England.

A flight instructor reports that the government quarantined an area of Vermont woods.

All trails intersect on The Field Trip.

I’ve struggled writing this review, while there were some good qualities in this book; I just didn’t connect with it.

Ross: Professor of Botany Ross Barton is 35, terrified of woman and single. He is sweet, naive, gullible and later on in the story bizarrely develops into an action hero.

The story starts off alternating between following Ross and a group of unnamed men in white lab coats at an unnamed facility. Ross is easily likable and the mysterious white coats are interesting, driving the story forward.

We meet Jay via a run-in Ross has with her while getting supplies for his trip. It’s not long after Ross starts his trip that the two story lines meet up and we are just following Ross through.

Jay: I guessed Jay Jay and Oswald’s secret earlier on and at first I really liked Jay’s character, she was aloof, aggressive and mysteries. The emotional turn around she does just felt too fast and rushed. I would have liked to see Ross and Jay’s relationship build more before blooming.

Oswald: Funny, twisted, sarcastic, but far too intelligent to be believable as a pet on any planet.

I could never tell where the story was going and that unpredictability was at times frustrating, but also one of the books better qualities, as more often than not you can guess what’s going to happen in a story.

The ending was a little hard to swallow. I liked that Jay was back. I was over the moon that Oswald was back. But no one asked Marsha what she wanted – It felt like body snatching and didn’t sit well with me.

I feel bad giving it only Two (It was ok) Stars, but I can’t bring myself to give it Three (I Liked It) Stars. I would be willing to read more work by R.A. Andrade, as the story wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t for me.

Ron writes from a small community in Michigan, sometimes at three in the morning when ideas wake him from sleep. He was born and raised in New England, sometimes drawing on those childhood and teen experiences for his novels. Driven to write, his goal is simply to entertain by bringing you the unexpected.

Website – http://www.raandrade.com/

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10531683.R_A_Andrade