The Ridiculous Job Offer

“You will become the Assistant Chief of Security Department of Makumba.,” said Clive.  “We’ll give you a welcome ceremony tomorrow.”

“I cannot do that.  I’m only 16…”  Whoops!  I’m supposed to not remember anything.  “I know nothing about this planet!”

“Oh yes, you can.  I will show you.  I am the Chief of Security Department.  Relax in the other room and wait for the next instruction.”  He left the room.

He ignored that I remembered how old I am!  Why?

…I thought about the ridiculous job offer from Clive.  On second thought, it was better than hostility.  Perhaps I might be able to use the high post for my plan to go back to Earth.  Home!  Earth!  I remembered a lot more as the moment passed.  After all, the memory-erasing machine didn’t work on me, or so I thought.

(–from THE SPACE HERMITS)

Literary Originality

You are no longer omnipresent as
Worshipers garnered you from ancient time
You became jewels hidden in a deep mountain

With great adoration, everyone search for you
While you shine in excellent literature
You are no longer jewels hidden but

Invisible beauty, untouchable, only
Skillful ones take on the unoriginal you and
Make you seem original

Crumbling Ultimate Goal

Someone was attaching the cords to me when I began to regain consciousness.  “Idiot, idiot!”  The voice sounded as if from a far distance.  “I warned you not to remove the cords, didn’t I?”

My heart started beating steadily.  Had he come a little later, I might had a heart attack!

“Next time,” said Clive, “I won’t be able to save you because I won’t be near you.  Got that?”   He glared at me before leaving the room.

“Condescending son of a bitch!”  I said.

The door flung open and Clive poked his head in the room.  “Watch it, fool! I read minds.”

That sounded like a trouble for my ultimate goal.            –From The SPACE HERMITS

The Outrageous Treatment

“By tomorrow you will lose your memory completely.  Then you will be on the next step of the treatment.”  He left the room.

At the moment, my hope that I would return to Earth someday began to crumble.  I must remember who I am!  I tugged at the cord at my temple.  I felt fine.  I pulled another off and waited.  Still nothing happened.  I took a deep breath before pulling the last cord from my head.  I felt fine.  I sat up in the glass case.

The walls began to wobble, a little at first then more intensely.  I felt nauseous and weak, my heart racing.  I thought I was having a heart attack.  Then I blacked out.

–from the book, THE SPACE HERMITS.

 

The Boy in the Coffin

…”We are ,” Clive said with a grin, “programing you and your friends to forget who you are and be our loyal servants.  We need your ability of seeing our invisible enemy from the planet, Rakutan.”

“Heck!  I don’t think I can see any invisible thing.”

“Yes, you all do.  We tested on you and your friends for that.”

I reached over the rim of the glass case, grabbed him by his coat front and pulled him close to my face.  “You crazy puppet of Makumban!  Let me out of here now!”

He jerked back and straightened himself.  “Don’t act like that for your life.”

“So, when do I get to leave this stupid coffin?”

–from the book, THE SPACE HERMITS

A Psychic’s Reading of a Distraught Immigrant’s Mind (#2)

For some reason, she’s unhappy with the status quo in the world around her.  Poor woman.  If she knew that Hagmire read her mind and made a mockery out of it, she’d be even more disgusted.  She once mentioned that reading her mind without her permission is like raping her head.

–Excerpted from the book, SECRETS OF THE NEW BREED

Chamomile

A few years ago, I planted a little seedling of chamomile in the back of my house.  Now, they are everywhere in the back yard.  All I did was occasionally running the sprinkler.

There are two kinds of this plant.  German chamomile that is an annual, Roman chamomile that is a perennial.  The German chamomile is the one usually used in tea and herbal medicines.  A tea made from fresh chamomile flower tastes much better than commercial one that you can buy in stores.

Unfortunately, mine is Roman chamomile, the perennial one, so I can’t make tea out of the plants.  But the little daisy-like flowers are spectacular from June to July and the bloom lasts for weeks.

The Abducted Boy

I woke to find myself lying in a glass case on a table.  A small machine-like thing was on the table near me from which several cords were extended to be attached to my head and arms.  I glanced around the room with nothing else but white walls.  What is this freaking place?  I tried to sit up but the cords kept me down.  As I began to pull them off from me, a young man in a purple gown came in the room.

“Good morning!” he said.

“Where am I?”  I asked, studying his pale, emotionless face.

“You are on our planet, Makumba.  Welcome.”

“Where are my friends?”

“They are in the other room.”

“I need to see them.”  I pulled the cords from my head and arm.

“Stop that!”  He grabbed my hand.  “It’ll kill you.”

Sudden dizziness knocked me down.  As he reconnected the cords to me the dizziness stopped.  “What the hell are you doing to me?”

–From THE SPACE HERMITS

Mediocre Poet

Your words may be dry as an old man’s danders
But they resonate like water drops in a deep cavern,
For they are expressed with passion
Unlike a hypocrite’s words in flash fashion

Your mediocre words are ripples
On a calm lake, for they speak truly
Superior than greedy, dishonest tongue
Of a hoity-poity critic who calls you idiot

Don’t shrink in embarrassment by the
Self-inviting reviewer’s mordacious tongue
Write more ordinary poems
Till the vocabulary blooms

(Note:  Poems and blooms don’t rhyme.  I’d call it false-rhyme because they sound somewhat similar. 🙂  )

 

Thoughts on Critiques and Tense

About book critiques:  I would not trust critiques written on book covers.  There are several types of critiques:  self-opnionated ones; dishonest ones; sweet ones; trustworthy ones; plain laughable ones.  So, I usually ignore them, and just dive into reading the book.

Which one is better, books written in present tense or past tense?  Of course, regardless a book’s quality, it really depends on writers’ choice for his or her book.  If a writer thinks that present tense is a better fit for his or her book, it should be written in present tense, or vice versa.

Usually I like books written in past tense.  Books written in present tense, however, give you a sense of immediateness of the story, which is why some writers choose the method for her or his book.  When I want present tense for my book I would only use it for the first paragraph or first chapter, and then switch to the past tense for the rest of the story.