Summer is starting. Vacations are coming. But what is a summer holiday without books, bereft of stories? Nothing! So get a few for yourself and for your loved ones. Enjoy. And please remember to leave a review!
Our only truth is narrative truth, the stories we tell each other and ourselves—the stories we continually recategorize and refine. — Oliver Sacks, The River of Consciousness, page 121 Our memories are not static. Each time we reach for one, we refresh and form new neuron connections, in fact changing the memory itself via our contemplation of it. Like Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle — we can observe a particle’s momentum or its position but not both simultaneously — each time we recall a particular event, we change it due to that recollection. After the mental touch, the memory is no longer the same. And this is true not just in some metaphorical sense, but in a real, tangible, physical way — the act of recall alters the neuron structures forever! And yet we eagerly recollect our favorite memories, and we just as eagerly try to forget the painful ones (and the very act of thinking of those painful memories makes them that much stronger, that much more connected and integrated into our neural memory networks). Social groups have always been aware of this property of memory. Cultures are molded out of stories, songs, epics, ballads, and now memes that bind us…
Have you taken the reading pledge challenge yet? No? I didn’t — seems silly to limit myself to some arbitrary number of books. I read voraciously and across many genres, although sci-fi is my guilty pleasure and a goto place for when I’m feeling blue. Science fiction and fantasy are interesting genres. People have such strong opinions about them: “I only read literary fiction.” or “I consume only non-fiction.” And yet, what is literary fiction but a socially-approved book? A classic? Shakespear had written a lot of fantasy books — Macbeth had witches, A Midsummer Night’s Dream had spells and magic, The Tempest was set on an enchanted isle, Hamlet had ghosts. Go back farther in time and read a few Greek plays — gods, witches, medusas, magical beasts of all kinds… And what’s the Epic of Gilgamesh if not a fantasy novel? Fantasy is a great way of transporting a reader into another realm and showing real emotions and complicated social dilemmas without getting trapped in a politically incorrect or culturally inappropriate minefield. Fantasy allows us to talk about our prejudices and absurdities of some of our beliefs by taking away trigger words and situations. What a powerful genre. Science fiction takes fantasy one level…
For the next seventeen days, all these ebooks are available for a free download by their authors via the BookFunnel: https://books.bookfunnel.com/ya-extravaganza So have some fun and cuddle up with your phone or anther reading device and ride out the Arctic Weather Bomb with a good story! And if you like any of them, please leave a review. Thank you and happy reading!
“The Perfect Gene” — a short story about cultural biases narrated by Mariah Avix, 600 Second Saga Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy, found at http://insani-x.com/ Read along with the audio story.
What if you could live as a rat? Or a raven? Or a whale? What if the only way you could live is in a mind of an animal, would that be enough?
TIME TRAVEL & ALTERNATIVE HISTORY Looking to give a gift of story to your loved ones? Check out these time twisters and alternative histories. Click the link and claim your book(s). 25 Winners will be picked for prizes like Kindle Fire tablets, Amazon Prime subscriptions, free audiobooks, KU subscriptions, cash prizes, gift cards, and more! CLICK HERE to ENTER OUR PRIZE GIVEAWAY *** My story, Twin Time, is part of this collection. It is partly a story of my grandmother, who, as a child, had to run from her home in the middle of the night when the Reds came to kill her family after the Russian Revolution. It is also a story of what it feels like to be unable to communicate and experience time in an alien way. It’s a story of desperation, love, redemption, loss, and the pain of having your child born different. Who is this woman? Find out… *** Like all families, we argue. Sometimes, it’s about mundane stuff — the milk will die if the fridge is left open — sometimes, it’s about what would happen if time travel was possible and you could back and kill Baby Hitler… We didn’t agree on what each of us would…
