Authority Weighs In: Sixth Tourmaline (part two)

Posted by ractrose on 31 Jul 2019 in Fiction, Novels

Tourmaline Authority Weighs In (part two)               A type of horn the herdsmen used to signal each other could be heard from three directions. The tightly stretched tent cloth vibrated with it, a low melancholy menace. The Utdrife did not feel themselves menaced. Utdrife these visitors must be, and […]

My Blog Week: July 21 to July 27

Posted by ractrose on 28 Jul 2019 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                             A Word on the Week   Taking Up Arms     It’s a good week to talk about trolls. Not only because they’ve been active in social media lately…even, bizarrely, in response to a CNN Twitter […]

Yoharie: Existence (part two)

Posted by ractrose on 26 Jul 2019 in Fiction, Novels

Yoharie Existence (part two)               “But, not.” “Not…you mean…” After a second, Val said, “Nothing. What would I mean?” “What I was wondering. You have an opinion?” “No, I never heard of it. I guess I would’ve thought, nobody does that. Would do. Could do. Someone doesn’t want you […]

La Catastrophe de la Martinique: sixty-six

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (sixty-six)               I heard a woman say that at the time of the two eruptions she had seen devils in the clouds of smoke, and that these devils were given liberty by the Lord to punish the sinners of Martinique. And the […]

Authority Weighs In: Sixth Tourmaline (part one)

Posted by ractrose on 24 Jul 2019 in Fiction, Novels

Tourmaline Authority Weighs In (part one)               They needed to sit here, tented, wrapped in white skins. The skins had landed with a laugh, a bundle susurrating into freshly fallen snow, breaking the ice crust just after, hurled from some unsuspected place overhead. The Hidtha fleered at them for […]

Patter (poem)

Posted by ractrose on 22 Jul 2019 in Art, Poems

      Patter   He tried to suggest without speaking the worst That a friend they’d known from school days “Didn’t make it” That’s okay, I’ll catch him on Facebook Bought the farm, I mean to say From his Grandpa? Sort of reverse mortgage? No, he’s given up the ghost Oh, right. Those games […]

My Blog Week: July 14 to July 20

Posted by ractrose on 21 Jul 2019 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                         A Word on the Week   The Billionaire’s Mite     When the very rich throw their hats in the ring, political parties complain that their aura will tempt away voters. What makes the mythology of the maverick […]

The Totem-Maker: Winter Alone (part nine)

Posted by ractrose on 19 Jul 2019 in Fiction, Novels

The Totem-Maker Chapter Five Winter Alone (part nine)                   On the general’s dining porch, shuttered and hung with fleeces, hot–centered and smoky as would my master’s be… As would be at Cime’s house. I entered the room lonely, being no one’s friend in this place, my servant […]

La Catastrophe de la Martinique: sixty-five

Jean Hess La Catastrophe de la Martinique (sixty-five)                   I have still other letters, other notes, but those above, I believe, suffice to show in what terrors, in what fearfulness, perished Saint-Pierre… And above all, serve for proof that if they had let the people be free […]

Promoted to Exile: Fifth Tourmaline (conclusion)

Posted by ractrose on 17 Jul 2019 in Fiction, Novels

Tourmaline Promoted to Exile (conclusion)                 The G.R.A. did only one thing, really. In imposing its ideology, the alliance severed ties, and severed them all. Pride in the least thing…in a well-tied shoe, one might say…would not be permitted, because you would care for the shoe, and not […]