21 Days and Counting...

Hello Bloggers and fans.  Just three weeks away from learning if THE SAVANNAH SYNDROME (TSS) makes it through the initial round of Amazon's Breakthrough Novel Award contest and begins to gain more exposure.  No other news for the novel other than that.  Before I share page three of the book, and another picture of Savannah, I will use this blog to promote Fox's new show, The Following.  This is a new drama filling Fox's Monday night 9 pm slot.  I must say that the production value on this show is top notch.  Great acting, great cinematography, great sound, everything, but most importantly, great writing.  The pilot episode was gripping, and while somewhat predictable, I was left wanting so much more.  I will say that I do believe it is a little too violent for a network show in the 9 pm spot.  I was surprised Fox aired it with all the discussion about how television has become too violent and we are desensitizing our kids.  Of course, again, this is a show that parents need to be carefully monitoring their kids for, and keeping them away from watching it. A great show created to entertain adults.  Television has seen a surge in quality shows and writing, it was explored in great detail in the book The Revolution Was Televised.  Of course, with the soaring price of going to a movie and the high cost of cable, being able to sit at home and watch an entertaining show instead of shelling out extra money is the alluring draw to these better sitcoms and dramas.  So I highly recommend following The Following.  I am pretty sure I'll be referring to the show more to help make this blog a little more entertaining.  I guess I should confess the other shows that I regularly watch right now:  New Girl, The Mindy Project (only at the request of my girlfriend, but it is an okay show), Glee, Workaholics, South Park, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.  I know when I originally created the two blogs, this one and my personal blog, jzimmerman324.weebly.com, I said I would dedicate this one to only news surrounding the book and reviews of other books I read, but for now I'll share any forms of entertainment since they all involve great writers before can have great acting, great sets, great production, etc.  So now that we have that clarified, here is page three of TSS, page two can be found yesterday, and page one can be found a few days before.  Want to read all the pages together?  Well, then, just click here and purchase your copy of TSS today!  Until then, this is all you get....

"bastion.  She stopped just short of the southern door to grab a clean set of clothes.  Today she picked a pair of olive cargo pants from her stack of pants and a brown shirt from the stack of shirts.  She had cleaned her clothes last week so she still had a substantial set of pants and shirts.  There were no bright colors in either pile, mostly browns and greens.  With her set of clothes in hand she slipped her slender arm through the iron bars of the door.  Black paint, which had once been shiny and sleek, now sat chipped and scratched.  She easily unlocked her security measure and quickly unwrapped the heavy chain that lay twisted around the door and the corresponding wall as she did every morning.  She left the door open and the lock hanging in place.

She stepped from underneath the red bricked arches of the lower quarters and onto the warm tall grass of the parade ground.  It was indeed a beautiful day.  She could not see a cloud in the deep blue sky around her.  The wind was blowing at a sustained pace strong enough to bring her auburn hair to life and dance in the sunshine.  She ran her right hand through her shoulder length hair.  She kept it just long enough to wrap into a bun, less to brush and maintain.  She had to brush it at least twice a day to keep the salt, from the brackish waters she bathed in, from causing her hair to be matted and coarse.  The mouth of the Savannah River was not exactly her friend, unlike the three friends in front of her. 

     Two tall pecan trees stretched high above the upper tier of the fort.  Around their bases more pecans than she could ever eat sat on the shaded soil.  She had named those two Ruth and Beth.  The cool finger tips of fall rustled their leaves and they sang a sweet song toward her.  Those deep green leaves sang triumphantly, ready to enter the final stages of their short lives, ready to splash the canvas with a bold brown, before they fell heroically and heralded the coming winter.  She loved her tall pecan trees, but she absolutely adored their nearby neighbor.  Just south of them was her favorite staple:  figs.  The fruit from the fig bush did not have a great flavor, but they were enjoyable and, especially this summer, provided her"

Another shot of River Street, before the fall of the
free world, as depicted in TSS.