Saturday stuff...

I got a package in the mail yesterday from Insane Evil Ethel. She was sending it to The Help Set Lucy Free Foundation. What am I talking about? It’s a long story but I am Lucy to my best mate Ethel. We do have normal names but we rarely use them when we talk to each other. This confuses a lot of people but I feel everyone needs a hobby. The Lucy-Ethel thing came about because we have been through many, many Lucy and Ethel situations together.

So what was in the package? It was a 2008 year ahead book for Scorpios. One of us always sends that other the book. Ethel is a Taurus. I took a squiz at the first page and it says…

To say you are a little complicated and somewhat difficult to understand is an understatement.








Excellent. I like being complicated and difficult. I read on. It listed all the negative things about Scorpios. There are lots. I skipped those as I believe I am really a sweet little, passive thing. I looked for the good things about Scorpios. There’s not much. So I believe the book is flawed and they have Scorpios mixed up with another star sign. I have put it aside as I don’t want to deal with negative things as I know I am fabulous.

So what is it with star signs? How seriously do you take them? If you are like me you only believe the good things like…you and a desperate friend will win the lotto tonight or you are the most majestic and attractive person on the planet…you know, the things that you want to believe or know are true. I get my horoscope sent to me everyday and I pick out the bits I want to believe. None of it’s rational but I believe rationality is overrated because how you explain all the irrational people on the planet?

So Saturday
– did laundry - boring
– washed up three days worth of plates, cutlery etc – resolved to eat over the sink more often.
– contemplated mowing the lawn – ten seconds later decided it was too hot
– wrote part of the next book – quite pleased with me
– finally let go of something personal today that cut me deeply yesterday - I have decided on suitable revenge for a certain person.
– answered numerous phone calls about nothing - Seinfeld had it right.
– Contemplated folding clean laundry – ten seconds later decided it was too boring and I could quite easily live out of a washing basket.
– Ate stir fry out of the wok - saved on washing up.
– Contemplated accepting dinner invitation – decided against it as watching Shaun of The Dead on television seemed a better proposition

So there you go another exciting Saturday over and done with. What excitement will Sunday bring?

No doubt you have read the blog serial on www.annycook.blogspot.com. I used to think Anny was the more relatively sane between the three of us. But apparently not. I am the most sane. Scary. Check out www.kkirch.blogspot.com to see what’s happening in Kelly’s corner of the world. And, as always the blogs to the left are excellent reading as well.


Cherished Destinies by Anny Cook coming November 9th from Ellora’s Cave – a whole week to wait???? Click on the cover and check out other Anny Cook books…

In the forest behind the pale blue dome where the Browns lived on the edge of Lost Market, Arano slouched against the trunk with his long legs stretched out on a broad limb high in a malzhal tree. Some of his dark braids caught on the rough bark when he shifted, scratching his bare back on the trunk. He cocked his knees and his gray sharda slithered along his legs, bunching in a soft pile of fabric at his crotch. He idly picked at the iron-hard glittering black wood with his flicknife while he mulled over all that he knew about the disrupting changes coming to the peaceful valley. It was barely spring but he foresaw a turbulent summer and fall. His recent series of visions were nothing like the others he’d had since he was a small child. Those were mostly minor disturbances. Simple non-life-threatening things. Llyon falling out of a tree and breaking his arm. Eppie getting lost in the woods. Wrenna twisting her ankle.

His last few visions were dreadful and destructive. If there was real truth in them, then Arturo was in terrible danger. They had argued violently for the first time since their birth over twenty years ago when Arano tried to convince Arturo not to go hunting at the Far Woods. Then Turo had angrily stalked off, determined to prove that Arano was wrong. In his soul, Arano knew he wasn’t wrong and he grieved for the ordeal he was helpless to prevent. Violence, danger and change were coming to the valley and there was nothing he could do except share his visions and hope someone would listen.

Without warning, a terrifying shriek screamed along the mental link he shared with his twin. Before he even realized it was happening, Arano had dropped from his perch and was drumming through the woods to Lost Market, intent on reaching Arturo.

Arano! Arturo pleaded. Help me!

I’m coming! Fight, Arturo! I’m coming!

Arano hit the river bridge at a dead run, pounding across the wooden span in half a dozen strides. By the time he reached the far edge of the training field, Llyon and Tyger had caught up with him. Far behind them, their father and Dai trotted as fast as they could, knowing that they had no hope of keeping up with the younger men.

I’m coming, I’m coming, I’m coming… Arano mindlessly repeated his assurance, a desperate mantra against the terrifying fear that Arturo wouldn’t survive long enough for them to reach him.

As Arturo’s shrieks for help grew fainter and weaker and finally degenerated into mindless chaos, Arano poured on more speed, all the while adjuring his twin to hold on, to fight, to stay with him.

At the edge of the Far Wood, several men silently waited. Arano and his brothers recognized the guardian warriors and halted long enough for him to demand, “Where is he?”

Shadrach Bell, the towering powerful son of the Bell’s Corner clan chief, didn’t try to detain him but merely picked a man to escort them into the heavy forest. Time enough for intervention when they saw exactly what had been done to their sibling.

Not far into the woods a circle of men stood guarding a blood covered bundle sprawled on the forest floor. Arano’s heart stopped. Then he moved to the “thing” that was his twin and dropped to his knees next to his head. When Llyon would have touched Arturo, he stopped him.

“Don’t touch him yet,” he ordered sharply. “He’s not stable enough to tolerate anyone’s touch.”

“What would you have us do, Arano?” Llyon’s frustration and rage were clear. “Let him die?”

“No! But if you touch him before I link with him, he will die! There is nothing but chaos inside his mind,” Arano whispered desolately. “Nothing but chaos.”

Tyger jerked Llyon away from Arturo restraining him by wrapping his strong arms around him and nodded to Arano. “Do whatever you need to do.” Then he buried his face in his twin’s fiery braids and held him close, knowing they were feeling the same ferocious fury.

Yanking his sharda off, Arano spread it on the ground near Arturo’s head. He knelt as close to Arturo as possible and gently, oh so gently, moved Arturo’s head to his lap, knowing that of all the senses, the sense of smell was the most primitive. And the deep, musky scent of skin was the earliest scent imprinted on a child. Let Arturo be surrounded by his twin’s scent. The reassurance of their shared scent would reach him on the deepest level.

When Arturo’s head was cradled in his lap, Arano placed his palms on each side of his brother’s face, fiercely blocking out the terrible bruises and bloody damage and dived into his mind. It was far worse than he had feared. Pain and terror swirled in a chaotic whirlpool of despair and longing.

Sternly suppressing the urge to scream from the anguish, Arano linked with his twin and began to create order from the chaos. I am here, he whispered. Arturo, I am here. Nothing will touch you now. I will let no one hurt you. I am here.

He pushed deeper into true rapport, the mind sharing usually reserved for bond mates because of its naked intimacy. Rapport, where there were no secrets. No hidden longings. No private dreams. I am here, he whispered. I will always be here.

With startling abruptness, Arturo whimpered and went limp.

“Now,” Arano urged softly. “Heal him now.”

www.freewebs.com/amarindajones/
Go ahead: Live with abandon. Be outrageous at any age. What are you saving your best self for?