Sunday, December 18, 2011

Six Sentence Sunday 12/18 - From "The Fountain of Eden"

He breathed the swamp-gas into his lungs, and it settled onto his skin and was absorbed into his pores to be sweat out, spat out, breathed out, shat out. The miasma seared into his guts like hot steam, branding his innards with its foul sigil. It amalgamated itself to his organs and began devouring, taking over cells like a cancer, becoming his blood, his guts, his heart, his flesh, his bones, his soul. 

Sorrow, hatred, fire, lamentation.

His soul in a nutshell.

Silent amidst a sea of sound, fury, and fire, Team Myth sailed on through the Stygian Marsh, guided by the Ferryman of the Dead.
The scene above takes place as four of my characters make their way across the ancient Greek Underworld to the Palace of Hades in search of a "mythnapped" friend. It is from the POV of Jack Whiskey, the novel's Trickster protagonist. You can probably guess who the Ferryman of the Dead is.

The Stygian Marsh is depicted in Greek and Roman mythology as a hellish amalgamation the Underworld rivers. The Styx, the River of Hatred. The Phlegethon, the River of Fire. The Cocytus, the River of Lamentation. The Acheron, the River of Sorrow. I did my utmost to be true to these olden depictions but at the same time gave them a twist of my own.

And sure, this book is a comical fantasy. But the best of those I've read have a little darkness in them, too.

As a holidaze special, you can purchase the e-book for 99 cents for the rest of the month at Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble. Also, I am doing a Goodreads giveaway for the novel. Enter today! Thanks for reading, and come back for more next Sunday!

 And don't forget to head over to Six Sunday to check out the short, sweet posts from all the great authors.

8 comments:

  1. Great 6, Dan! Absolutely love the swamp-gas opening, especially how it brands him 'with its foul sigil.' And I think Santa is bringing me some form of Nook this Christmas, too. I will definitely be picking up your book. :D

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  2. Dan, you continue to impress--really like this. I love mythology, and your description of Stygian stink was so good it's still permeating my own soul :) Great job!

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  3. Excellent description. Sounds like my kind of book!

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  4. Nobody's idea of the dream vacation--really vivid description, and a lot of information to pack into six sentences.

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  5. Thanks for the nice comments, Carla, Guilie, Karysa, and Pippa. And sorry it took me a while to reply. Over the weekend the fam and I moved into a larger house. Now mostly done, but no Internet or cable until Thursday. So limited to just what online time I can squeeze in during the hours at the day job (not much, usually). The upside is I've gotten a lot of good writing done in the evenings (after the baby's gone to bed, of course) with no social networking distractions.

    Cara, I love Santa--especially when he's bringing e-readers!

    You're right, E.P. And I'll admit I sorta cheated on this one. Sorrow, hatred, and fire all have periods after them in the novel. I hope you guys'll forgive me. Next week I think I'll keep it simple. This Six Sentence Sunday is fun!

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  6. Love it Dan. Good stuff keep it rolling!

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