You might have read the first chapters of Drowning Karma. You might have liked them. If you are so inclined, I’ve posted the rest of the story. The novel won’t be there forever, but you’re welcome to it.
I want to say that the story is a bit… a bit… hmmm… I’ll keep it to myself. You’re welcome to draw your own conclusions.
As always, thanks for stopping by.
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 
Thanks for the link. 🙂
You’re welcome, especially since you haven’t read it yet! ha-ha
HA on you, I have too!
Actually, I had to copy and paste the chapters into individual text documents so I could read it offline since our connection is so bad right now. I’ve been enjoying it. 🙂 But I have them all here and have been going through them.
Right now we’re computer sharing, so I don’t get to read in the big chunks.
Awesome! Love it!
Don’t be flinging that awesome word around yet! You might poke someone’s eye out.
I love the way you write Marta. It makes me want to “live in a box of paints.”
Thank you, Sarah. Now if I could only write a query letter…
Okay, I finished Drowning Karma. I was totally hooked, loved Deva, Becker and Linne, and I thought it was great in a lot of respects. A few thoughts/comments (which people should NOT read if they haven’t read the book yet):
1) Pi’s fate? Why? If she walked back out of the woods, I think she could have served as a more interesting foil for Sylvia. Plus, there would have been value in her not fulfilling her parents’ fears/expectations. As it stands, this feels like some sort of episode in a picaresque novel — another gratuitous dark episode.
2) Loose ends: the grandparents? I wanted more of them. The paintbrush and Liam? The earring? Claire’s visit to Becker?
3) Daniel Montrose? Why? He is too ho-hum to be a good villain, not around long enough to be dislikeable, and then the whole thing with Sylvia feels perfuctory and tossed in to satisfy the prophesy. In that vein, I’m not convinced it even needs satisfying. Could it be more like the book of Matthew where prophesy is satisfied, but in ways no one would have anticipated? Why would Maryl (hard-boiled, self-centered Maryl) get hung up on a prophesy anyway? She would surely think she could control the fates…
4) Claire. She has such potential to be a multivalent character, but she’s reduced to Maryl, Jr. It’s hard to buy Claire as precocious, evil sis and simultaneously buy that Deva remains clueless about her, protective of her, etc. Heck, even Becker gets it.
5) Maryl’s paranoia that Becker wants to sleep with Deva. The whole novel is sexually charged, and he’s the only guy in it who’s not interested in sex. Is he a eunuch? I was hoping that there was something to Maryl’s paranoia, some waiting game that Becker was playing until Deva was old enough. I think one of Linnie’s comments suggests something, but there could be more.
6) The ending. Huh? The two most likeable characters in the book just act in a totally unmotivated and uncharacteristic way? Dark ending to a dark novel, and it left me feeling like I’d gone on this long journey only to be left… nowhere.