Review: The Witchwood Crown

The Witchwood Crown, by Tad Williams
from the series, The Last King of Osten Ard

This story is woven closely – almost seamlessy – with the previous Osten Ard series (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn), turning a generational saga into an intergenerational epic. This world bears analogous resemblances to our religious and political entities, with richly flavored populations of magical beings and items. Williams’ style of interwoven storytelling is evenly paced and suspenseful, full of sentiment and personality.

Award: Poem, Stars Framed in Adobe Clay

My poem, “Stars Framed in Adobe Clay”, took a Second Prize in the San Juan County Fair 2018. Yes, the county fair was in August, but I guess I had to wait for the check to arrive. Three Big Ones for a 12-line poem makes me think that at 25-cents a line, I could be equivalent with Walt Whitman’s rate once upon a time, maybe even Wilde or the Brownings! I may fly this to a friendly publication.

With my novelist line Eva L. Elasigue being pronounced “eva el-el-a-SEE-geh” and my poet line e.l.elasigue reading “ee-el-el-aSEEgeh”, you have permission to try calling me L.L.

Review: Always Coming Home

Shedding a beautiful light on life’s possibilities, this book reforms post-cataclysmic human society on earth – in ways that feel as though they could be and have been before. Changed coastlines, changed people, but still people on the coast. The format of one main tale surrounded by cultural articles gives the etic and emic ethnographic perspective of a time that feels quite real, and familiar. Portions of this book speak through time and imagination of experience that transcends both. Nature is nature, people are people, and home is home.

The poems can be read by themselves and appreciated by other audiences. I enjoyed the created world so thoroughly that… okay, confession time… I read aloud every word listed in the glossary. In my life of reading books with invented glossaries, only J. R. R. Tolkien’s had me as engrossed. Words crafted with sound and culture by someone who understands language! I read the entire glossary in a Game of Thrones book, but not aloud in entirety.