{"id":1406,"date":"2009-04-28T10:20:59","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T14:20:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2009-04-28T10:14:06","modified_gmt":"2009-04-28T14:14:06","slug":"sister-margaret-by-rhonda-parrish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/?p=1406","title":{"rendered":"Sister Margaret by Rhonda Parrish"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sistermargaret\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a summary of “Sister Margaret”, a Coffee Break selection released by Eternal Press earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Michael has always felt bad about the way he treated his friend Charmaine when they were younger, even going so far as to blame himself for her becoming a prostitute. Now she’s a priestess to Rakkir, the god of secrets and lies, and he is given a chance to make up for mistakes of the past when she calls him to deal with a problem for her. A vampire problem. But the more involved Michael gets, the more he realizes Charmaine may not be telling him the whole story\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and she may have changed even more than he suspected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s a succinct summary that pulls in the reader.\u00c2\u00a0 At just over 4200 words\u00c2\u00a0“Sister Margaret”\u00c2\u00a0is easy to read while on a break at work, set aside for a few days and then re-read it.\u00c2\u00a0 On an initial read the reader is left speechless by the ending.\u00c2\u00a0 With each successive reading, the reader picks up more details and sees how Rhonda Parrish has provided clues to the ending.\u00c2\u00a0 The truly amazing part is that even knowing how it ends, the tone of regret still comes through in Michael’s closing thoughts each time.<\/p>\n

One thing I particularly enjoyed is the descriptive detail.\u00c2\u00a0 The story has a fantasy setting but the descriptions give enough detail that it seems familiar to the reader without being tiresome.\u00c2\u00a0 (In contrast, some fantasy stories I’ve read do such a poor job of describing the characters that it isn’t until nearly the end that I realize the figurative pig snout on a character is literal.)\u00c2\u00a0 One favorite line that jumps out at me is about Bayne – a memorable character who isn’t around the action for very long.\u00c2\u00a0 “He moved the sword as though it were an extension of himself, each movement calculated to destroy as many of his foes as possible.”\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t that sentence bring up the image of a trained athelete or warrior who is more than proficient in his field?\u00c2\u00a0 Reading it is nearly as breathtaking as it would be to see it on the silver screen.<\/p>\n

The only thing lacking in “Sister Margaret” is that it’s not enough!\u00c2\u00a0 I know Rhonda has written more stories and a novel with some of these characters.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been purposefully staying away as a beta reader so I can be surprised like everyone else when they get published.\u00c2\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Hopefully I’ve peeked your interest in “Sister Margaret”.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00c2\u00a0is available through Fictionwise<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and Rhonda is giving away a copy (or two) based on comments left here\u00c2\u00a0on her interview<\/a> and her guest\u00c2\u00a0post.\u00c2\u00a0 Stop by tomorrow to read Rhonda’s guest post about secondary characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a summary of “Sister Margaret”, a Coffee Break selection released by Eternal Press earlier this month. Michael has always felt bad about the way he treated his friend Charmaine when they were younger, even going so far as to blame himself for her becoming a prostitute. Now she’s a priestess to Rakkir, the god… Continue reading Sister Margaret by Rhonda Parrish<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[142,143],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-rhonda-parrish","tag-sister-margaret","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1415,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.amberstults.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}