I've been tagged by the über-cool Elizabeth Kerri Mahon for the following book meme.
Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.
6. Post a comment to the person who tagged you, after you’ve posted your three sentences.
OK. So here goes from Odd Mom Out by Jane Porter...
Allie makes a face at all of them. "I think she looks very nice." But even she is curious.
Makes you want to know where Allie is, what's going on, who she is, and what it is about her that has Allie curious.
Alrighty then. Now to think of random people to tag. This is rather rude to do, but entertaining when it works. Instead of requiring the people I tag to post it on their journal, I suggest that tagees post their three-line excerpt from page 123 in the comment section of this post. And it is strictly optional.
I tag:
1. Anna Campbell
2. Diane Gaston
3. Jo Robertson
4. PJ
6. Donna MacMeans
I'll give it a go, Keira. From MONTANA SKIES by Kay Stockham...
ReplyDelete"You're worried about what you overheard on the phone, and I don't know what they discussed, but I think you're wrong. Skylar took care of her, was kind and compassionate and you can't take that away from them or me," she snapped, unable to suppress her anger any longer. "Not when I've waited a year and gone through hell watching my daughter distance herself from everyone.
This makes me want to know who the two people talking in the scene are, why one of them was listening in on a phone conversation, what they heard, who Skylar was talking to, why that person is causing Skylar to care again and what caused Skylar to go through hell in the first place.
PJ, what a great snippet that is, isn't it? The first thought that popped into my mind was, how long each of these three sentences are as compared with the excerpt in my example, both indicative of the authors' style of writing.
ReplyDeleteI love complicated coversations like these where so much is told on so many different levels. I wondered if this was Skylar's mom talking and why she has gone through hell as she watched Skylar withdraw into herself. Why was it important to the mom that this person who was evasdropping on the phone not make incorrect assumptions about Skylar, and why would those incorrect assumptions taking something away from the mom.
Hey, Keira, what fun! Love this tag game. And what an interesting contrast already between your excerpt and PJ's.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently sitting in my office. There's a bookcase on my left but all those books are equidistant, if you know what I mean. What is close is the handwritten completely first draft copy of the story I'm writing now. The one with the Indian Raj backstory - although no peacocks were harmed in the making of this book!
So here goes. Sentences 6 to 8 from page 123, completely unpolished:
Gideon recognized with a doomed sinking in his gut that Miss Watson promised to prove a beauty.
Damn her.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered.
Oops, forgot to tag anyone. I'm going to instigate a Bandita raid. I tag:
ReplyDeleteAnna Sugden
Jeanne Adams
Tawny Weber
Nancy Northcott
Christine Wells
I love tag. :>
ReplyDeleteLet's see, what's closest book? Oooh, my author copy of my book, Dark and Dangerous. Does that count? I hope so...
Here goes...pg. 123, sentence 6-8
He grinned at her. That flash of humor warmed her all the way to her toes. Carefree, easy and happy, it promised all manner of laughter and fun.
It really IS a romantic suspense. Grins.
So I tag...
Cassondra Murray
Suzanne Welsh
Leah Grant
Sophia Nash
Kathryn Anderson
YOU'RE IT!
Hey, Jeanne, that's just cruel! Amazon haven't delivered my copy of D&D yet and the more I hear about it, the more I want it!!!!
ReplyDeleteFrom My Immortal Protector by Jen Holling. Lucien has locked away most of the villiage's animals to protect himself from you, but there might still be some animals that could give away your presence to him."
ReplyDeleteAs this was from my TBR pile, I'm really confused but intrigued by this passage!
Okay, my turn to tag:
Joan Kayse,
Jo Davis
Tracy Garrett
Caren Crane
Jo Robertson
Suz wouldn't have caught me if I hadn't worked today and was tired
ReplyDelete:-)
Ok from Elizabeth Hoyt's title To Taste Temptation
She marched to a marble bench set against the railing. Rebecca followed her. Both ladies sat down, crossed their arms, and assumed nearly identical expressions of expectation.
You just KNOW, even without reading the book that SOMEONE is in Trouble, LOL.
Now I tag:
1. Lisa Tapp
2. Susan Seyforth
3. Kirsten Scott
4. Sara Reinke
5. Beth Andrews
That's what I forgot. I didn't tag anyone! I tag:
ReplyDeleteAndrea
Kim
Gannon
Marisa
Santa
Yikes, I'm tagged??!! Okay, I'll play:
ReplyDeleteTO TASTE TEMPTATION by Elizabeth Holt.
"'We'll just sit here.'
"She marched to a marble bench set against the railing. Rebecca followed her."
I really like Elizabeth Hoyt, but these lines are particularly evocative. The FIRST line on that page, however, is "Vale opened his mouth again, the fool."
I LOVE that one! So much said in so few words.
Suz, na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na Twilight Zone! We picked the same book.
ReplyDeleteI must REALLY be tired. I meant those three lines are NOT evocative; that's why I picked the first line on page 123.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think, Joan? Sorry I called you Suz -- I'm triple tired.
umm, I don't think I can post from the cloest book. Can I reach just a little bit further?
ReplyDeleteFrom Elizabeth Bevarly's Fast & Loose.
Like attractiveness. And warmness. And keenness.
Yummy, isn't it.
*waves* Hey Anna and Jeanne!
Kim, isn't Elizabeth Bevarly's book Fast and Loose fabulous!
ReplyDeleteIt REALLY captured the spirit of Louisville's Highlands and the festivities surrounding the Derby
LOL, Jo, I'm honored to be called Suz!
ReplyDeleteAnd how freaky that we're both reading the same book at the same time!
What's even freakier is it took me a minute to realize it. I though "Huh. That sounds familiar"
I am tired.
I'm so looking forward to Elizabeth B coming over to the Banditas soon. I really miss her music recommendations on Squawk. Actually, I just really miss Squawk!!!
ReplyDeleteJoan, ditto on FAST & LOOSE. Liz did a wonderful job with the book and the teaser for the next book in the series sounds great too.
ReplyDeleteBtw, Big Brown won the Preakness today without breaking a sweat. Two down - one to go!
I adored TO TASTE TEMPTATION! I know some people haven't been that crazy about the heroine, Emeline, but I liked her and the chemistry between her and Samuel is HAWT! :)
I miss Squawk too, Anna. It was always my first stop of the day and where I first "met" a lot of the authors I now read and chat with at the various blogs.
ReplyDeleteWhen is Liz coming to visit, Anna?
ReplyDeletePJ, I KNOW Liz is coming on. But I can't find her in our calendar. I hope I haven't led you up the garden path!
ReplyDeleteStill waiting to hear from Liz..... :-)
ReplyDeleteHa, JT! I knew at least we'd mentioned her coming. I hope she says yes! Sorry for letting the cat out of the bag when in fact the cat was still wandering the garden completely uncaught. Blushes in sweet Regency way.
ReplyDeleteOmigosh!! WOW! Look-it. 22 comments.
ReplyDeleteI'd typed up a brilliant reply to Foanna's first comment, when our power went out (on the first day the mercury hit 90). So I'm going to go in a read everyone's comments and start replying one by one.
I've been tagged by PJ and will return tomorrow to post! I promise.
ReplyDeleteSo, Liz Bevarly is visiting the Bandits or Anna! Fabulous! I adore Liz and her books! Just finished Fast & Loose and LOVED it!
A domani!
What fun examples everyone's coming up with!
ReplyDeleteI sense a collective tiredness at the Lair. Methinks, given that I know you're all party-hardys, that you've spent your Friday night creating a maritinis like this: drank the vodka first, then the vermouth, then chewed olive, then boogie on the dance floor for a song or two. Swallow, Dance, Repeat.
Oh, Foanna and PJ: Not a day goes by when I don't miss Squawk. The women themselves and the SR community they'd built. My first online-blog home.
PJ: Big Brown is the same horse in the race after which Two Belles had to be put down??
Foanna: No blushes needs (the glowing pink kind or the angry rash kind). PJ and I are thrilled even with the possibility of getting to chat with Liz.
BTW, I don't think the following ladies read my journal. So the taggers will need to let the taggees know they've been tagged.
Leah Grant
Sophia Nash
Kathryn Anderson
Tracy Garrett
Lisa Tapp
Sara Reinke
Andrea
Gannon
Marisa
Santa
Kim: Welcome to my scribblings and thanks for playing tag with us.
ReplyDeleteWhat a marvelous example. Those simple staccato sentences say so much about the character perceiving these emotions and the character's history/life experiences.
((Santa)), a domani, cara. A domani.
OMG! I've been tagged! CAn I post tomorrow, when I have brain cells? After two days working and a busy evening I'm not up to the responsibility of tagging and letting the tagged know they've been tagged.
ReplyDeleteI promise I'll play!
Keira, what a great idea!
Okay I'll post my sentences though--then I'll tag tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHere goes...
From Dear Imposter by Nicole Byrd (I swear, it was the closest work of fiction).
"I have called extra footmen to assist me in expelling him"--the elderly servant looked affronted to have to admit his own physical weakness--"but one is off on an errand, and another in bed with a toothache, leaving only Wilson, who's rather small himself. And the madman is so insistent--"
"Good heavens." Psyche stared, unable to imagine who this man could be. She had expected the problem to be with Percy.
"We'd better not leave him alone, miss. Lord knows he may try to murder the whole household."
So there you go.
I love this book so much I used it in a class I taught. I'm just sayin.
Sorry if this is too much....
as late as it is and as tired as I am, I'm having trouble counting sentences.
Oh, shoot. I went back and re-read the rules--I was supposed to post after the FIFTh sentence--not FIVE sentences.
ReplyDeleteSORRY.
Well, that's what happens when a vampire gets yanked out of her coffin...she's confused.
And...the power had gone out AGAIN. Back up now.
ReplyDeleteFoanna: So back to you and dear Raj and GRaj. No, wait, you didn't mean your feathered friends. You meant the asli British Raj.
The dew on the first tender leaves of your latest story is still there. I'm so honored that you would choose this forum to share gold with us.
And oh, very tit-tit-tit. I meant they needed very little to be perfectly in sync with each other. Being able to understand someone else without the need for words and on not so close an aquaintance (she's Miss Watson after all), is something rare to be treasured and handled very carefully and, er, passionately. :)
Actually, she's apologising for something other than that she promises to be a beauty but that was the rules of the game - you had to do the three sentences. I realised when I read it back that it sounds like she's sorry about that! I think this is such a fun game - I like the sound of Cassondra's imposter!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, thanks Anna for the tag and sending me over to play :-)
ReplyDeleteI grabbed the nearest book, which is out on my desk because we're using it for a unit study of all things LOL. Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone by JK Rowling.
"Thank you!"
He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered.
*g* the fifth line is actually the funnest, since its "And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"
OK, sorry I'm late! Nearest book. Hmm, the nearest book is probably Giraffes Can't Dance, which doesn't have a p123, so I'll go with Mary Balogh's Simply Magic (the large print version)
ReplyDelete"You wanted to try mine. You thought you might have better luck than I had had, but actually I do not believe there were any fish in that lake. I never heard of anyone catching anything there."
Sorry, I'm a little late to tag anyone!
Anna, what great lines from your upcoming opus! Makes me want more;)
Ack! Okay, the closest book is "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography."
ReplyDelete"I couldn't believe it," Cruise recalled. "There were nights when I went home and couldn't help but think that this could be me." He stayed in character for meeting with movie executives and journalists, who were noplussed by the sight of the wild-eyed, wheelchair-bound figure confronting them.
This was, of course, about the movie "Born On the Fourth Of July." If you've ever doubted his acting chops, that's the movie to watch. This book was loaned to me by (TI) Claudia Dain and is fairly fascinating, in a trainwreck sort of way. *g*
acckkk!
ReplyDeleteYou tagged me and I didn't even respond! I don't have a book nearby, except the one that I'm writing, due June 2!!!!
sorry...
The nearest book happens to be the one I finished last night, The Great Swim by Gavin Mortimer (about Gertrude Ederle and the others trying to swim the Engish Channel in 1926). Page 123, sentence 5 plus next 3 lines: "But despite the Standard-Star's self-indulgent pledge of allegiance to [Clarabelle] Barrett, its edition of August 4 still carried [Lillian] Cannon's latest column from Gris-Nez [France's Cape Gray Nose, where many contenders trained]. Unfortunately for the Baltimore woman, she now sounded precious when she whined that 'one of the most distasteful parts of Channel swimming is the greasing . . . you simply are all mucked up."
ReplyDeleteAlong with other fascinating and much more important tidbits, book explains in detail how the greasing, intended as protection from salt water abrasion, actually worked. I've long admired Ederle, who broke the previous (male) record for channel crossings and who was the first woman ever to topple a man's sporting record, according to this book.
My tags are already tagged, alas. Keira, this turned up some interesting bits.
This is from Lisa Kleypas' 'Secrets of a Summer Night'...
ReplyDeleteHis gaze slid over her, slowly coming to rest on her flushed face.
Another moment or two of sufficated silence, and Hunt swallowed hard before speaking in a rusty-sounding voice. "I probably shouldn't ask. But what the hell are you doing?"
My first response would be, "Anything you want, darlin'".
Naturally, the reader would want to know where they are and though her face is flushed - why would his voice be rusty-sounding?
I love this book, the first of the Wallflower series because it features another of Kleypas' delicious unconventional heroes.
Great game, friends. Here is the list of taggees for me:
J Perry Stone
Sara Mangel
Manda
Janga
Lindsey
I was going to tag Diane Gaston but she's on deadline but wouldn't it be cool for a snippet from pg 123 of her current WIP? :)
And YES, Fast and Loose was marvelous. Do let us know when Liz will be on Bandits! Count me in as still missing Squawk Radio and their lovely brand of banter and wit! I love that I can find still find it with so many here.
Keira, I notified my "taggers" of thier being tagged. We'll see if they show, the rascals. :>
ReplyDeletePJ tagged me! What a fun game!
ReplyDeleteThe book closest to me is Blue-Eyed Devil by LK because my sister just returned it to me.
But it was too late now. A lifetime too late. A million wishes too late.
Hmmm, doesn't it make you wonder WHAT was too late and WHY?!?!
*sigh* I love this book.
Thanks for tagging me, PJ! And what a lovely blog you have, Keira!
~Andrea
Kim, Santa and Andrea, thanks for coming over to play! Santa and Andrea, I adore both of those books by LK. She's a master.
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating that page 123 of so many different books have given us such interesting snippets.
Hi Keira!! i've been away all weekend so I just discovered I'd been tagged. Fun idea! :-)
ReplyDeleteThe nearest book to me right now that has 123 pages (I'm surrounded by picture books, because I'm sitting on the couch and this is where I usually read with the kids) is Draining the Sea, by Micheline Aharonian Marcom. It's not a happy book (about Armenian Genocide) and it has the longest sentences known to man. So there IS no sentences 6-8 on this page. Honestly. Here's the sentence in the middle of the page:
"They sit on the walls, circle around in their haphazard unreasoned flight; the patterns so randomly made, it would seem, but no collision in their frenzy, these black birds, smaller than my fingernails -- flying, filling, running up and down my walls, my kidney."
It gets a lot crazier after that.
I'll be honest with you. There's no chance of me reading this book. I'll be lucky if I get to page 20.
Hi Keira -
ReplyDeleteJust learned I was tagged and I'm back on the road again tomorrow. So here goes (for a quickie!)
From WICKED WOMAN by Denise Eagan
"Oh! I'd almost forgotten! I have a gift for you, too!"
This is not as interesting as line five which comes from the same dialogue: "You have vast amounts of stamina."
Now that's a line worth investigating.
A day late--as usual. :D But I'm here. Maybe I can help clean up from the party?!
ReplyDeleteThe nearest book: Lover Eternal by J.R. Ward (my favorite of the BDB books). Now then, let's see...
"Framed Monet poster and a little window with drawn blinds. Desk with pamplets and a computer. Exam table with a piece of white paper stretched over it."
My initial reaction was 'can I pick another book?' But this scene is critical to the story - why Mary can't love Rhage.
Tracy Garrett
www.tracygarrett.com
P.S.>Thanks for the tag, Suz!
Thanks for tagging me, PJ. Sorry I'm a few days late getting in the game. Here goes. This is from THE DUKE OF SHADOWS by Meredith Duran....
ReplyDeleteThe priest clutched the rifle to his chest, but the anxiety in his wide eyes afforded her no comfort.
She felt Julian's hand tugging on her braid. He leaned toward to murmur into her ear, "For your life, trust me."
This is a fabulous debut by this author. Aren't you dying to know what happens next?!