Something woke him. A noise or a breeze -- something had pulled him from his dreams.
Tom blinked in the darkness. Breathed hard, tried to clear his mind. The bats weren't simply a figment of his imagination. Nothing was. His name was Tom Hunter. He'd fallen on a rock and lost his memory, and he'd just escaped the black forest. Barely. Now he had passed out and was dreaming.
Dreaming that he was Tom Hunter, being chased by loan sharks he'd stiffed for a hundred thousand dollars four years ago in New York.
Problem was, this dream of Denver felt as real as the black forest had. There had to be a way to tell if he really was, at this very moment, physically lying on a bed of green grass or staring at the ceiling of an apartment in Denver, Colorado.
This passage is the beginning of the fifth chapter in Ted Dekker's "Black". First, I love Ted Dekker's stories, some more than others. I've often considered -- as I'm sure many others have -- writing about a character who switches between worlds. You know, in reality, if someone had to deal with dreams like this, they'd go crazy. Not being able to tell what is real is unnerving.
Of course, Dekker's confused protagonist decides to live each "dream" as if it were real, staying completely sane in the process. I haven't actually finished this book, but so far its been quite entertaining. I really enjoy Dekker's characters, plot twists, and writing style in general. I like how he does a series of short sentences, and then a long compound-complex sentence or two. I think its a pretty cool technique, and have even attempted multiple times to put it into my own writing.
PS: The green are the prepositional phrase and the participial phrase, in that order.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
House
...The Tin Man chambered another round slowly, as if needing time to contemplate what he'd just done.
Jack heard a faint crackling sound. His eyes went to Susan's blood on the floor. But it wasn't the kind of red blood he expected to see. Red, yes, but laced with a crackling white light, as if it carried a charge.
'Look to the light.'
...White stared at the girl.
...Stephanie rushed past Jack and dropped to her knees beside Susan's prone body. She reached out and began to whisper urgently past streaming tears.
..."Son of Man, have mercy on me, a sinner!" She drew a long, loud, gasping breath and wailed again.
...The truth struck Jack full in the face. Susan had taken their death as the guiltless one. She was the light in the darkness, but the wages of sin really was death. The guilty really had to die, just as White insisted. That was the game.
But Susan was the Christ, who had died instead. And Tin Man seemed to know his mistake.
...The light came into the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it, but that no longer mattered because the light was now obliterating the darkness.
This passage was taken from Frank Peretti's and Ted Dekker's "House". This was an incredible book, a suspenseful supernatural thriller, like the other books which these authors are known for. I thought after reading the first half, that it might just be another horror story about a haunted house and a demon possessed serial killer, but I should have known better. After reading many of Peretti's and Dekker's other books, I should have known from the beginning that it would end with a powerful point; not just a nightmare.
Like many of their other stories, there is a deeper idea. An analogy: the house. Everyone is trapped in a "house", and this house (or life) reflects each individual person's lives, their sin, their fears, and the consequences of their actions. Just like in the book, there is also a murderer trying to kill us all, Satan, who takes on various disguises, and whose only goal is to kill, steal, and destroy. That said, the only way out is to call on the name of Jesus, confess your sins, and pray to Him to save you. The wages of sin is death, but the innocent lamb (the light) came down to earth (into the darkness), and sacrificed himself for us, thus defeating death (the dark).
Horray! Christ wins! I like it when that happens.
Jack heard a faint crackling sound. His eyes went to Susan's blood on the floor. But it wasn't the kind of red blood he expected to see. Red, yes, but laced with a crackling white light, as if it carried a charge.
'Look to the light.'
...White stared at the girl.
...Stephanie rushed past Jack and dropped to her knees beside Susan's prone body. She reached out and began to whisper urgently past streaming tears.
..."Son of Man, have mercy on me, a sinner!" She drew a long, loud, gasping breath and wailed again.
...The truth struck Jack full in the face. Susan had taken their death as the guiltless one. She was the light in the darkness, but the wages of sin really was death. The guilty really had to die, just as White insisted. That was the game.
But Susan was the Christ, who had died instead. And Tin Man seemed to know his mistake.
...The light came into the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it, but that no longer mattered because the light was now obliterating the darkness.
This passage was taken from Frank Peretti's and Ted Dekker's "House". This was an incredible book, a suspenseful supernatural thriller, like the other books which these authors are known for. I thought after reading the first half, that it might just be another horror story about a haunted house and a demon possessed serial killer, but I should have known better. After reading many of Peretti's and Dekker's other books, I should have known from the beginning that it would end with a powerful point; not just a nightmare.
Like many of their other stories, there is a deeper idea. An analogy: the house. Everyone is trapped in a "house", and this house (or life) reflects each individual person's lives, their sin, their fears, and the consequences of their actions. Just like in the book, there is also a murderer trying to kill us all, Satan, who takes on various disguises, and whose only goal is to kill, steal, and destroy. That said, the only way out is to call on the name of Jesus, confess your sins, and pray to Him to save you. The wages of sin is death, but the innocent lamb (the light) came down to earth (into the darkness), and sacrificed himself for us, thus defeating death (the dark).
Horray! Christ wins! I like it when that happens.
Monday, June 4, 2012
Bridge to Terabithia
"Watcha doing Jess?" May Belle had followed him down again as he had guessed she might.
"It's a secret, May Belle."
... "I swear on the Bible I won't tell nobody. Not Billy Jean, not Joyce Ann, not Momma--" She was jerking her head back and forth in solemn emphasis.
"Oh, I don't know about Joyce Ann. You might want to tell Joyce Ann sometime."
"Tell Joyce Ann something that's a secret between you and me?" The idea seemed to horrify her.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about it... She wouldn't likely be a queen first off. You'd have to train her and stuff."
"Queen? Who gets to be queen?"
"I'll explain it when I finish, OK?"
And when he finished, he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge -- the great bridge into Terabithia -- which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully.
"Shh," he said. "Look... Can't you see 'um?" he whispered. "All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you."
"Me?"
"Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they've been waiting for."
I loved this ending passage from the last chapter of Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia". This book almost made me cry, and I probably would have if I hadn't known beforehand how it ended. But it's a beautifully upsetting story of transformation. I mean, you have this girl, Leslie, who comes from out of the blew and totally changes Jess' life. Before her, Jess' family was completely detached from each other and he didn't want anything to do with any of them, especially his sisters. However, his sweet relationship with Leslie changes all that, and reveals to him the importance of having such close friends. This closing is the first time he has ever considered allowing Joyce Ann (his youngest sister) to have anything to do with him. His final statement is so sweet (opposite of what he's said in the past about his sister) that it makes the rest of the somewhat-depressing book worth it. Even though it is a sad story, Paterson tells it in such a way, and ends it so well, that I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has some "magic" in them.
"It's a secret, May Belle."
... "I swear on the Bible I won't tell nobody. Not Billy Jean, not Joyce Ann, not Momma--" She was jerking her head back and forth in solemn emphasis.
"Oh, I don't know about Joyce Ann. You might want to tell Joyce Ann sometime."
"Tell Joyce Ann something that's a secret between you and me?" The idea seemed to horrify her.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about it... She wouldn't likely be a queen first off. You'd have to train her and stuff."
"Queen? Who gets to be queen?"
"I'll explain it when I finish, OK?"
And when he finished, he put flowers in her hair and led her across the bridge -- the great bridge into Terabithia -- which might look to someone with no magic in him like a few planks across a nearly dry gully.
"Shh," he said. "Look... Can't you see 'um?" he whispered. "All the Terabithians standing on tiptoe to see you."
"Me?"
"Shh, yes. There's a rumor going around that the beautiful girl arriving today might be the queen they've been waiting for."
I loved this ending passage from the last chapter of Katherine Paterson's "Bridge to Terabithia". This book almost made me cry, and I probably would have if I hadn't known beforehand how it ended. But it's a beautifully upsetting story of transformation. I mean, you have this girl, Leslie, who comes from out of the blew and totally changes Jess' life. Before her, Jess' family was completely detached from each other and he didn't want anything to do with any of them, especially his sisters. However, his sweet relationship with Leslie changes all that, and reveals to him the importance of having such close friends. This closing is the first time he has ever considered allowing Joyce Ann (his youngest sister) to have anything to do with him. His final statement is so sweet (opposite of what he's said in the past about his sister) that it makes the rest of the somewhat-depressing book worth it. Even though it is a sad story, Paterson tells it in such a way, and ends it so well, that I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who has some "magic" in them.
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