Six-sentence Sunday: The Bones of the Earth

Photo by Karsten Würth (@karsten.wuerth) on Unsplash

Once upon a time, when blogging was still young and the World Wide Web was comparatively innocent, there was a thing called Six Sentence Sunday. During this epoch, authors would publish six-sentence samples of their books, either published or works-in-progress, onto their blogs on Sunday morning, along with a link to a central site called Six Sentence Sunday.

Then they could log into the Six Sentence Sunday page and add a link to their sample post on their blog.

Then the writers and, hopefully, some readers would follow the various links on the central site each Sunday and read the various samples. Ideally, they would like the sample so much, they would buy the respective book.

Six Sentence Sunday eventually closed up shop, but I always thought it was an interesting idea.

So I’m bringing it back, at least in this blog, starting with re-posting the original Six Sentence Sunday posts I published seven years ago.

Since this Sunday is the last in a warm July in Ottawa, I’m starting with a six-sentence segment from Part 2 of The Bones of the Earth. Here is the context: the protagonist, the high-functioning autistic Javor the Sklavene is following his mentor, the wandering Roman philosopher-warrior, Photius toward the Roman Empire’s capital of Constantinople. As they travel along a deserted Roman highway, they find a young woman crucified, naked. Javor cuts her free, and gives her his extra cloak. Then they continue south toward the limes, the border of the Roman Empire. Descending from the Carpathian Mountains, they seek shelter from a summer storm.

A sudden summer storm came that evening. Photius found his own shelter, leaving the two young people in each other’s arms under a huge fallen tree. The thunder startled Danisa and the rain chilled them both. They cuddled closer together and as suddenly as the lightning they were kissing. As the rain ran down over their skin, they were making love, softly yet intensely. And as the rain lightened and stopped, they held each other’s naked bodies close and fell asleep.

Like it? Hate it? Let me know.

The reason I’m starting with The Bones of the Earth is that I am finally making good progress with the sequel, The Triumph of the Sky. So keep following, as eventually I will start publishing samples from it.

The Bones of the Earth

The Dark Age, eastern Europe: the earth has decided to rid itself of humanity with earthquakes, volcanoes and new plagues. Civilizations, even the mighty Roman Empire, crumble under the pressure of barbarian waves that are fleeing worse terrors.

Rejected by his own people, pursued by a dragon, young Javor heads for Constantinople, the centre of civilization, looking for answers to the puzzle of his great-grandfather’s dagger and the murder of his family.

On the ancient, crumbling Roman highway across haunted, deserted Dacia, Javor rescues the beautiful Danisa from a human sacrifice. He cannot help falling in love with her. But Danisa has her own plans, and when she is kidnapped again, Javor has to wonder: what is the connection between his dagger, his lover and his enemies?

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