Stephen King has been one of my favorite authors for a good number of years. It’s in my blood, when I was growing up my mom always had a Stephen King book on her nightstand so when I became a reader on my own I was naturally drawn to his work and engulfed in his Dark Tower universe. Once he finished The Dark Tower however I felt that his work was a little lost, he didn’t really seem to know what to do with himself. However, with Under the Dome King has returned to form what a massive tome filled with human drama and the supernatural that King does so amazingly well (Full disclosure however, I haven’t read Duma Key yet, I hear it’s good too).

The story opens on ‘Dome Day’ when the little Maine town of Chester’s Mill is sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible dome. We meet Dale Barbara as he hike out of town after a violent run in with the son of the towns behind-the-scenes dictator ‘Big Jim’ Rennie. From there the story twists and turn as the townspeople learn the secrets of the dome, Big Jim tries to gain control of the town while keeping his own dark secrets, and his son goes mad. Everything culminates in a few epic chapters that will grab on to you and not allow you to set the book down until it’s all said and done.  Hang on though because you’ll lose people you came to care about, but if you’ve read any Stephen King you know this is par for the course. While the novel leaves you guessing early on about the nature of the dome there’s really no ‘big reveal’, the characters come to it naturally and it fits in well with the novel. There’s no big twist, King lays everything out there and lets your own imagination flesh everything out.

This is easily the best book Stephen King has written since he finished The Dark Tower — Cell is a close second — it may come in at over 1000 pages (paperback) but it really doesn’t feel that long. Both myself and my wife roared though it in record time and when it was done it felt like just the right length. As with all of Kings work the characters are extremely well developed and the setting is rich and colorful. You feel for these people by the end of the book and there were many points where I found myself holding my breath hoping they’d make it out okay. Under the Dome is a powerhouse of a novel by one of the greatest writers of the 20th/21st century, go buy it.

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Under the Dome

I have recently become aware, through twitter and Madison Woods’ blog, of a new way for a writer to show off their work to other writers, to get opinions, criticizms and suggestions to make their work better.  The idea is to post an excerpt of your work on your blog, then create a post on twitter with the hash tag #TeaserTuesday, and a link to your excerpt.   Anyone participating can then come and view your work.   I think it’s a brilliant idea, and since I’ve been posting excerpts of my work anyway, it’d be a no brainer not to participate.

So, here you go.  When we last left Julia, she was about to get married to the man of her dreams, but something was a bit off…now it’s time for the reception.  (The first post of For Love of Brian can be found in the ‘Excerpts’ category).

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“Darling,” she whispered in his ear, as she reached out to clasp his hand under the table.  It was cold and still clammy and she had to resist the urge to let it go and pull back from it.  “How are you feeling?”

“That obvious, is it?”  He asked, sounding slightly drunk.  Then he sighed and pulling his hand from hers, reached back to smooth his black hair from his face.   “Oh, I’ll live,” he answered.

“Was it that rough of a night?”  she asked, as the plate of duck, gently drizzled in a white wine reduction, was placed before her, complete with delicate carrots and roasted potatoes.

Brian’s plate, veal in a red wine sauce with green vegetables and rice pilaf was placed before him, and it seemed he went even paler at the sight of the food, and with what appeared to be a monumental effort he sliced a small piece off of the veal and chewed it thoughtfully.  “You know,” he answered around the tender piece of perfectly cooked meat, “I honestly can’t remember.  I didn’t think I had drank that much, but the next thing I know,” he shuddered, “ugh, never mind you don’t need to know, you can see the results.”

“Well, I don’t mean to say I told you so, darling…” Julia responded.

“Then don’t,” was Brian’s brusque reply.

“Okay, okay, I’m just saying.”  Julia took a delicate bite of carrot and saliva flooded  her mouth at the buttery sweet taste.  She was starving, but she had to steel herself to only eat half of her food and to do it slowly.  A slim waist did not come without cost.

“I know, which is why you don’t need to say anything,” Brian responded, savagely attacking his rare meat.

Julia smiled, aware that there must be at least one guest, if not a handful, who were watching their camaraderie at that moment, and maybe even taking pictures of them while they dined together, a happy couple blissful in the first hours of marriage.

“Of course, you’re right, darling”, she responded, before abandoning herself to her own delicious meal.  It was ridiculous to expect to get decent conversation out of someone who had effectively been drinking for the last twenty four hours, but she had hoped that on her wedding day, it might be a little more romantic…more loving, more about just the two of them and their happiness.   It was almost hurtful that her new husband could be more concerned about himself and his troubling stomach than about her.  He hadn’t even told her that she looked beautiful today, which she obviously did.  Normally that would be a nearly unforgivable oversight.  He was lucky it was their wedding or she might have been more upset.

Maybe, once they got away from the crowd and on their own then he’d feel better. He could sleep on the plane, and everything would be better once they got to relax for a while.  They had their whole life together to be happy and for him to pay her compliments.   She was looking forward to every single moment of it.

She smiled and looked over at her new husband, reminding herself of why she had fallen in love with him, and why she knew, without a doubt that this marriage would succeed.   He was her soul mate.  Nothing else mattered.

Everyone finished their dinners, and while some guests had seconds and others refilled their drinks at the now open bar, the speeches began.   Her mother gave a speech, in her father’s place, as he had died of cancer a few years earlier, just before Julia and Brian had announced their engagement.  Then Brian’s best man spoke followed by Julia’s maid of honor who was also her eldest sister and mother to the little flower girl, Rachelle.    Thankfully no one brought up any embarrassing stories, but there were a few laughs and a few tears, just as it should be.

The cutting of the cake, a three layered white chiffon cake covered in piped lace and candy jewels, mirroring her dress bodice, was a dignified affair, there would be no cake squished in anyone’s face at her wedding – that was so white trash.  Then it was time for the dancing

Everyone hushed as the DJ announced it was time for the first dance.  Brian led Julia on to the dance floor, wading through a virtual sea of fog from the DJs fog machines.   She floated behind him, and he twirled her around, just as practiced, before they began their first dance as a married couple.  He held her close, and she rested her head on his shoulder, and tried not to wrinkle her nose as the slightly musty smell that came from him.  Either he had neglected to shower the night before, or the tuxedo rental place was going to get an earful for not cleaning the tuxedo well enough.  It was almost rank!

“Uhg!” she thought to herself as she had to raise her head.   He is definitely having a shower before any bedroom activities tonight.   She looked up intending to gaze into his eyes, only to find them bloodshot and glazed.   “Darling?”  she asked, worried now about how he was feeling.   Maybe it wasn’t a hangover he was suffering from.  Maybe he had swine flu!  Ew!  She kissed him, god I better not get sick.  “Darling?” she asked again, a little more urgently.  She prodded him on the shoulder to get his attention.   He looked down at her, confusion clearly evident in his eyes, then he threw up, all down her front, before he collapsed.

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Welcome to a new feature!   I’ve had it in mind for a while now to have a feature on books turned into movies, because, lets face it, everyone wants to see their favorite novel, when turned into a movie, represented in the best light; very rarely does that happen.   How often do you hear, “the book is much better”, compared to “the movie was better than the book”?  To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard the latter before.

So, to begin this feature, I’m going to tackle the very controversial ‘Twilight Saga’, seeing as how the third, ‘Eclipse’ opens in theaters tomorrow.   The first issue to delve into is, why is it controversial?  Well, it starts with the fact that for every novel discussion forum there is either one of two topics:  Twilight Lovers or Twilight Haters.     Basically, you either love the books oryou hate them, it seem that there is no in between.   So, why is that?

The haters have said such things as “Stephanie Meyers is a hack”.  They  point out that the writing is horrible, the characters shallow, vampires horribly misrepresented, and that the message sent to teen girls is dangerous.

The lovers on the other hand, of which I am one, I have to admit, love it because the shallowness of the characters allows the reader (girls, mostly) to assume the roll of heroine.    The criticizm made by the haters that the author created a blank slate of a character that could fit any average teenager, is exactly the point, and it’s what helps to sell the book.  Every girl can imagine herself as Bella, an awkward, average, girl with low self esteem who  is loved by a beautiful mystical creature.    Once the reader becomes that girl, having all these new experiences and feelings, it’s like experiencing a first love all over again.

The action and suspense in the novels are as intense as the romance and conflicts between characters, and the culmination of everything that happens is intensely satisfying and left me wishing there was more to read.  I found the writing to be compelling and completely absorbing, each page leading me on and needing to see what happened next.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t translate to movie form.    I loved the novels and have read the saga at least three times, devouring the novels in quick succession.  I’ve watched the movies because I love seeing my favorite novels in movie form.  I love seeing the characters come alive in front of my eyes, and play out what I imagined.  These movies, however, are horrible, horrible movies.   The acting is completely lacking in any emotion, except for a constant brooding.  There is absolutely no chemistry between the characters, and the story plods along.   The most exciting parts of the novel just hit the screen with a dull thud that makes it obvious that the director is both male and didn’t read the books for himself.

The director seems to  feel that what brings the girls in are images of Jacob and Edward without their shirts on.   While this is undeniably hot, guys without their shirts on do not a movie make.   If anything, all it does is point out that vampires sparkle, which just outrages vampire fans, without giving any context as to how or why.  Never mind the fact that vampires are a fantasy creature and open to interpretation; just because Dracula was written one way, doesn’t mean they all have to fit the mold.

Anyway, so I am planning on going to see ‘Eclipse’ in the next couple days, and I expect it to be just as horrible as the other two.   I can’t stay away however, because I want to relive the story, and even as it’s hacked to bits on screen, at least I can imagine it as how it should be.

If you want to read the books, which I do recommend, because they’re awsome (quiet, you haters!), you can find them here:

Twilight Saga

If you insist on watching the movies, as I do, you can find those here:

Twilight, New Moon

Taking a completely different direction from the last Sunday favorites post, a novel which had been my favorite for over a decade, this next novel is the newest  to be added to my favorites list.   Mirroring, “Wicked”, however, I also discovered this novel in university, and read it on the train on my way home.   No one tried to pick me up with cheesy lines about what I was reading, though.  I guess that’s one of the biggest differences between 18 and 32, for me.

Novel concepts which draw me in are those with completely different concepts than what I had read before; this goes for science fiction romance (with aliens!), to a retelling of history with dragons.  That’s why when I saw that “Gods Behaving Badly” was the story of Greek Gods living in modern day London, I was hooked.  I’ve been a fan of Greek mythology since I was in elementary school and religious history has always been a passion of mine.  Therefore, being able to see how an ancient god would react in modern society was intriguing.

The novel begins with the god Apollo turning a woman into a tree for rejecting him.  This first scene is what makes the novel feel authentic.   Nevermind that it’s the modern world, the gods behave as they always have, making as little concessions to the world as necessary.  This is evident in how they live, in squallor in a run down vermin infested house, and how they interact with others.  Any contact with humans is only on an as necessary basis, and they are never allowed into the house.  With each other, they have established roles, which is demonstrated in Apollo’s bored sex with his aunt Aphrodite and Athena’s constant family meetings to discover how to get their powers back.

Without their powers, each has to contributes to the household doing what they do best.  For example, Athena is a dog walker, Aphrodite is a phone sex operator, Apollo a television psychic and Dionysus is a d.j. who owns a night club.  This existence has become very boring for them all, however, and may have been what lead to Zeus going crazy and being locked in the attic.

A lot of the novel’s humor is found in how the characters behave in their lives and with each other.  I was always laughing out loud at their actions and reactions.  My favorite character has to be Aphrodite, because of her completely relaxed attitude towards sex.   She is constantly on call for phone sex and has sex with other members of the household when she gets bored.   She’s also the only character who has a nice trendy bedroom, because her husband Hephaistos fixes anything to please her.

The back story of this novel, less amusing than the story of the gods, is the romance between a mortal, Alice,  another mortal, Neil.   Their love goes beyond the mortal realm and he follows her to the underworld, from which she is eventually liberated by the gods, in repayment for Apollos bad behavior towards her.   It’s a sweet story, and while it was intricately wrapped up in the story of the bored deities, I would have preferred if it wasn’t necessary.

I thought that the entire concept of this novel was brilliant, though, and laughed  all the way through it.  When I suggested my husband read it, however, he didn’t get very far before giving up.  I’m not sure if it’s because it’s more of a girl’s book, or if, as he said, it’s not very well written.   This novel could be an example of how I’m not a very discriminating reader.   If I love a story and a concept, it’s easy for me to look past lack luster prose to the story behind it.

It is true that this novel doesn’t waste words on excessive discription or sophisticated prose.  I feel that it would be very easy to convert the novel into a screen play, because there’s not a lot of extra material to work around.   The novel is very bare bones; what you see is what you get.   The story carries it, however, and I don’t think that that’s such a bad thing.

If this novel has a lesson to teach, it would be deeper than you expect to get from a satire.  I think, if you look hard enough, it teaches that faith in the people around you can move mountains.

You can find this novel here:

Gods Behaving Badly

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While driving to get groceries today, (yes my life is so glamorous), I was struck by wonderful novel idea…that I’m not gonna tell you about.

I will tell you, however, that it would fit in PERFECTLY with this contest by BravaAuthors.com, if it was a completed manuscript of at least 80,000 words. Just the idea of this contest makes me giddy!  Could I write that many words by July 1st?   Hmmmm…

The Writing With the Stars Contest has launched the writing careers of several authors, and you could be next.   If you have a manuscript that is different from the ordinary, romance that is hotter and sexier, urban fantasy that is original and goes beyond established limits, then this contest is for you.

The contest starts July 1st, and only ten authors will be chosen to work with Brava Authors in order to try to win a publishing contract.  Here’s the catch: only the first 500 entries will be accepted.   For full contest rules see the link above.

Good luck!

I said in a previous post that went the site was working I’d give YourNextRead.com a proper review. Well the massive influx of traffic that killed it has subsided and the site is finally working fully again so here goes…

Unlike the other sites I reviewed earlier YourNextRead.com is visually very well polished. It has a fully graphical interface that allows you to click on books to find their recommendations and has a nicely laid out design. It works pretty simply. You enter in the name of the book you like in the big box at the top and it searches for that book. If it finds books with a similar name it presents you with a list (with covers) of books that it could possibly be. You click the correct book and it brings up the recommendation matrix (see screenshot to the right).

The matrix is a click-able array of book s that come recommended based on the book you choose (located in the center of the matrix). On the left hand side it’ll display the Amazon description in a top pane and the Amazon review in a bottom pane (but come here and see if we’ve reviewed it too!).  You can customize the matrix a little by turning on or off the ‘Same Author Recommendations’ – I’d recommend turning it off as you’ll often end up with several different editions of the same book on a result. It also has a check box to pull recommendation data from GoodReads.com, a social network for book lovers.

When I first used the site my initial impression was: “Really? What’s the big deal here?”. The recommendations were okay but looked suspisously like the normal Amazon recommendations and the GoodReads button didn’t seem to alter that much. As I played with it however it started to become a better and better tool for finding new and interesting stuff. Unlike the other sites I reviewed, with this you really only ever have to put in one book title then you can use the result matrix to just spin though authors and books forever until you find something that looks like fun to read. The recommendations also seemed to get better along the way. As you can see I entered in Neuromancer as my base book. That took me to one of my other favorites, Cryptonomicon, which lead me to Tad Williams Otherland series, then on to…well , the point is all these books are ones I enjoyed and that I came to based on my love of Neuromancer and William Gibson in general so I can safely say the recommendation system is accurate, and that’s probably the most important feature of a site like this one.

The big drawback of this site however is that it’s fairly prone to failure.  If the book you like is unpopular, or reletivly unknown, you’re not going to get many recommendations and I found when searching though Neil Stephenson stuff it ran out of recommendations quickly. However, starting with some Stephen King (Under The Dome) garnered me almost endless recommendation links. The site can also be slow to build the matrix view so you can be left sitting and watching spinning arrows for a while.  All it’s base data comes from Amazon (which I confirmed by finding my own novel, Zombies!: Stories From My Life As An Undead Exterminator, that is only sold on Amazon) and I suspect the recommendations do as well. All the book links are affiliate Amazon links as well, not that that’s a problem in fact if you find a book you like here I’d suggest you buy it from their link to help support the site (same goes for this site!).

For the most part this is a very usable and fun site to lose yourself in for a while, it can expose you to things you’ve never heard of and gives you tons of information right at your fingertips. Compared to the other sites I reviewed (and generally liked) this is the best of the bunch, despite my initial feelings.

I take back anything I ever said about the usefulness of Twitter; the number of amazing articles I’ve read lately, on the suggestion of writers, agents, editors, publishers, etc., has been phenomenal.

Take this one, for example, passed on by @WolfsOnLiterary: When Anyone Can Be a Published Author, by Laura Miller at Salon.com.  This is an article about the new popularity of self publishing in the literary market and how it is affecting the industry.

I have to admit that I am quite the traditionalist and don’t quite know how to feel about self publishing.  The snob in me wants to turn my nose up at it and declare that self publishing is for hacks who aren’t good enough to get published at real publishing houses.   However, I’ve read enough self published works to know that this isn’t true; quality is subjective, and what is turned down by one publisher may be loved by others.

After reading this article, what side of the fence do you sit on?

One of the reasons I felt that a review blog was perfect for me, besides the fact that I love to talk about what I’m reading, was the speed at which I go through books.   While I am fast, unfortunately I’m not superhuman (yet), so I’ve had to come up with other ideas and keep the posts coming daily, so you’re  not missing out.

One of the inconveniences of the ereader is that I have no idea how long a novel is.   Yes, it tells me that there are 845 pages, but what is that compared to a paper book, and how does font size figure into that?   Because of this, I feel like I’m moving through my current novel really slowly; I’ve been reading it for five days and I’m only 150 pages into it.   The point being that I can’t review my book yet and can’t expect my husband to do all the work, so I have to come up with something new.  Lets look at other blogs.

The first one that comes to mind, I stumbled on through a Twitter post.   It’s called Slush Pile Hell and is written by an anonymous,  grumpy literary agent.   He (or she) posts excerpts from real queries he receives and posts his reaction to it.   For example, here’s today’s post:

“This is neither a Christian, racist, sexist, ageist, homophobic, or pornographic essay even if many pictures of nude people are included in the essay.

I’m just going to sit here and drink until I forget I ever got your query.” (link)

Until recently, I wasn’t really interested in publishing any of my work, mostly because I’d never come close to finishing anything before.  Because of this, I had no idea what a query was or what was involved in finding an agent or publishing.  Now that I’ve been looking into it, however, and researching the process, I find this site particularly enjoyable;  not only is it a lesson of what NOT to do, but it’s humorous as well.  It hasn’t failed to get a chuckle out of me yet, either from the query excerpt or the image of the agent banging his head on his desk, that the replies inevitably leave me with.  I’m not sure, however, if the site will be as funny to anyone who isn’t involved in the writing/publishing process.

The second blog I’ve been reading lately is is called Luv Ya, and is the blog of a YA (young adult, for those not ‘in the know’), author named Bria Quinlan.    It seems a little busy, but that’s just because it is packed full of useful information for writers.   On the front page today is an “Unrealistic Goals” contest that you can join through twitter, as well as a post on goals and time management.  The most useful part of the site, apart from the blog posts (usually coming every second day) is the ‘Tools’ section, which includes links to tools and articles for writers.

I think my favorite part about this blog is the helpful nature of it, and the challenges and contests meant to inspire the writer to keep on writing.   Combine that with the authors prolific presence on Twitter, and you alway have your own personal cheerleader giving you inspiration and kicking your butt to get back to work.   Maybe someday I’ll find myself organized enough to do something like that.

Tony Chu is a cop with a secret. A weird secret. Today we depart a little from standard book reviews and delve into the world of comic books. As I mentioned in my review of the iPad, it’s a brilliant device for reading comics on and one of the comics I discovered was Chew published by Image Comics and written by John Layman and drawn by Rob Guillroy.

Chew is set in an alternate time line where the bird flu actually became the pandemic some thought it would. As a result chicken has been banned and the FDA (yes, the US Food and Drug Administration) is now one of the most powerful police forces on the planet with the mandate of enforcing the chicken ban. Then main character Tony Chu, Tony is a Cibopath. A what? A Cibopath is someone who, when they consume food, will get images and feelings about everything that happened to that food from it’s growth to it’s preparation. What does that mean? Not much if you eat a banana, you’ll see the plantation, the workers that cut it down and the trucks or boats it rode on to get to you. If you eat a burger? Well you get to see how the cow died in an industrial slaughterhouse. Needless to say, Tony is a vegetarian.

His unique talent also allows Tony to be a great murder investigator, you see if he takes a bite of a corpse he can see how the person died. This leads to many great sequences in the books where Tony has to consume something quite unpleasant.

The writing in Chew is top notch. There is a brilliant mix of humor — food puns abound — and suspense that keeps you wanting more. Since it was originally slated to be a 5 issue mini-series they’ve stuck with that style of story telling. Now on issue #11 we’re into our 3rd distinct story line. While the characters and their experiences carry over from the previous serise there is a clear deliniation of story-lines that you don’t get in a lot of comics giving this book a nice tidy feeling.

In addition Rob Guillory has a very unique artistic style. His character drawing is almost abstract, Tony is a skinny rod of a man with stringy muscles while his partner at hte FDA, the massive Savoy (another Cibopath, one of only 3 known) is a hulking gorilla of a man with a massive chest and skinny legs. The environments are richly detailed with lots of little ‘easter eggs’ tossed in here and there (Rob and/or John are clearly LOST fans).

Overall Chew is one of the best comics I’ve ever read. After a long hiatus from reading comics Chew and the iPad comic experience really sucked me back in. Sadly they’re only doing a 60 issue run so we’ve only got about 4 years of Chew goodness left, but oh well, I’ll enjoy it while I can. Pick Chew up in your favorite comic shop, grab the awesome Comics iPad/iPhone app and buy it on there, or pick up the volume 1 & 2 anthology issues at Amazon below.

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Chew Volume 1: Tasters Choice

Chew Volume 2: International Flavor

I’m currently on page 71 of an 850+ page book, so a new review won’t be coming from me for a little while.   I knew I wanted to post an excerpt, but I want to let “In the Blood” rest for a little bit.   Part two needs more work than the first part did, and I’m not sure if I want to even get into it here.   I have other novels laying around however, so I decided I might as well get another one started on here.   Unfortunately, the one that I wanted to post, a post apocalyptic fantasy, I can’t find.  It had better be on my other computer or I’m going to get upset.   So, we’re going to have to go with zombies instead.   Enjoy.

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One

The Wedding

She nearly didn’t recognize the figure staring back at her from the full length mirror.   She was a vision enwrapped in pearlescent cream silk.   The bodice sparkled delicately as she moved, the waist, tightly cinched, showed off her slim figure.   The layered skirt artfully showcased her hips and the slit up the side gave intriguing glances of leg, dressed in creamy white silk stockings and topped with a baby blue garter as her representation of ‘something blue’.   The back of the dress was tightly tied with thin silk laces and her skin peeked through, shimmering softly from lotion and powder.    Her hair, pale blond falling in soft ringlets down her back and framing her face, was highlighted by the veil, which subtly sparkled in imitation of the bodice of the gown.   Her ears glimmered with falling tear drop diamonds, and her neck was encircled by a simple silver chain with a single diamond, flanked with ovals of amethyst, resting at the base of her throat.   In her left hand with large diamond shining in the brightness of the florescent overhead lights, was an intricate bouquet of white lilies, red roses, and shockingly purple irises.

Her heart fluttered in her throat as she starred at herself and for a moment, as her eyes, blue as the waters of the Caribbean, misted with tears, she feared that she would cry and the hours spent on her make up would be wasted before the cameras could capture the moment.   She took a deep shaky breath and, rapidly blinking the tears away, mentally stilled herself.   She smiled radiantly, whole heartedly approving of the image presented to her, before lifting the  hem of her dress away from her feet, encased in white silk, high heeled shoes, with subtle crystal accents, and turned away from the mirror.

Her mother stood behind her, sniffing delicately into a handkerchief.   “You look beautiful, darling,” she said, smiling with pride.   She reached up to adjust the veil, unnecessarily.   “Of course you do,” she added, “there was never any doubt.”

Julia smiled in response, “Thanks, mom.”

“Here, I brought something for you.”   Her mother held out a small copper coin, weathered slightly green with age.   “Something old, and “a six pence in your shoe”, she explained.

Julia’s brow wrinkled in consternation.  “I’m not putting that it my shoe, mom, it’ll be uncomfortable and I’ll never be able to dance like that.”

“Oh posh,” her mother tutted, kneeling down to remove the shoe from her foot, as if she were a reverse Cinderella,  “you can take it out before the dancing starts.   It’s for good luck.”

“Mom, no.” Julia nearly whined, moving her foot and stepping back to the mirror, leaving her mother crouched behind her on the floor.   “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll hold it in my bouquet, for my something old.”

“Well, alright then,” her mother replied, somewhat stiffly as she rose herself from the floor and handed over the small coin.   “I should go and make sure the caterer knows where to put the cake.”

Julia took the coin and placed it among the leaves of her flower arrangement, but paid no more attention to her mother, than to watch her leave over the soft curve of her bare shoulder in the mirror’s reflection.   She took another deep breath, then adopted an appropriate look if serenity on her face, and turned once again, ready to face her future.

\

She stood in the hallway before a large pair of closed wooden doors, intricately carved with vines of flowers and leaves.   The light wood was polished so brightly she could nearly make out the reflections of those who were fluttering around her, arranging the fall of her train and veil, fussing over her flowers.   The buzz of voices coming from behind the door assured her that all the guests had arrived and the interior of the church was filled with friends, family and complete strangers come to see her.

Her mother, richly dressed in a pantsuit of violet silk, with a corsage of lilies and roses delicately pinned to the lapel, unobtrusively opened the door to the chapel and  slipped inside.   That was her cue.

Julia took a big breath as her bridesmaids, six of her closest friends and her two oldest sisters, took their places in line before her.  They were all dressed in matching purple sheath dresses, with bare shoulders, and a band of shimmering silk wrapped just below the breasts in an a-line style.   Each dress also had a slit up the leg, through which peeked a layer of sparkly chiffon, echoing her wedding dress.   Her darling four year old niece, dressed in a white poofy princess dress with purple lace was placed before her with a basket full of deep red rose petals, which she swung before herself as if it were a pot full of burning incense and she were a priest.

The wedding coordinator opened the door slightly and signaled to her assistant at the front of the church.   The soft swell of the wedding march flowed through the church and her bridesmaids began their slow procession down the isle, their bouquets of lilies and irises clutched tightly in their hands, as they smiled at the guests as they passed.

Step by step, Julia approached the wide open doors, until her niece skipped out, swinging her basket and throwing petals enthusiastically.  She had only a glimpse at the amused faces of her guests as the watched the precocious child flounce down the length of the chapel isle before the doors closed in her face, to set the scene for her imminent arrival.  After what seemed like an enternity to her racing heart, but was really only about thirty seconds, exactly as  planned in rehersal, she briefly thought in satisfaction, the introductory sounds of the wedding march swelled through the church, and the large wooden doors were thrown wide and revealed her standing in her serene and radiant glory, fairly glowing with pride.

She imagined she could hear a hush of awe fall over the assembled guests, as she made her way gracefully down the isle towards her prince charming, standing nervously at the altar.  He was obviously happy to see her, but he also looked a little sick.  Well, nerves will do that, she thought to herself.  She had barely been able to eat anything herself, that morning, for that very reason.

She took a brief moment in her stately procession to quickly assess the church and ensure it was up to her standards.   The antique building was designed to hold five hundred people and the church was nearly at capacity, meaning that nearly everyone who was  invited had indeed shown up.  The rows of pews were wrapped in white and purple tulle, with bunches of lilies, roses and irises placed in large white vases at the end of each row.  The front of the church, around the altar, was awash in candle light from huge candelabras, each holding twenty candles.   Julia fought the urge to frown as she noticed the slight sheen of sweat on the priest’s forehead, due to the heat put off by the hundred or so flames flickering behind him.   Well, I guess you can’t control everything, Julia thought, and then wondered if it possible to hand the man a handkerchief to dry himself off before any professional pictures of him were taken.

Before she knew it, she was at the head of the isle, and there was Brian.  Her prince charming, her one and only true love forever and ever…till death…. Wow, he looks like crap, she thought, interrupting her own train of thought.

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