NA Randall

NA Randall

About

NA Randall is the author of the unpublished novels 'A Red Sky in Morning' and 'The Communization of Delusion', the short story collection 'Tales of Ordinary Sadness', and a volume of poetry 'The Careless Loves of a Casual Nazi.' He currently has no fixed abode. Despite this he maintains a prodigious literary output.

Along The Watchtower

Along The Watchtower

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<p><strong><em>A tragic warrior lost in two worlds... Which one will he choose?</em></strong></p><p>The war in Iraq ended for Freddie when an IED explosion left his mind and body shattered. Once a skilled gamer as well as a capable soldier, he's now a broken warrior, emerging from a medically induced coma to discover he's inhabiting two separate realities.</p><p>The first is his waking world of pain, family trials, and remorse—and slow rehabilitation through the tender care of Becky, his physical therapist. The second is a dark fantasy realm of quests, demons, and magic, which Freddie enters when he sleeps. The lines soon blur for Freddie, not just caught between two worlds, but lost within himself.</p><p>Is he Lieutenant Freddie Williams, a leader of men, a proud officer in the US Army who has suffered such egregious injury and loss? Or is he Frederick, Prince of Stormwind, who must make sense of his horrific visions in order to save his embattled kingdom from the monstrous Horde, his only solace the beautiful gardener, Rebecca, whose gentle words calm the storms in his soul.</p><p>In the conscious world, the severely wounded vet faces a strangely similar and equally perilous mission to that of the prince—a journey along a dark road, haunted by demons of guilt and memory. Can he let patient, loving Becky into his damaged and shuttered heart? It may be his only way back from Hell.</p>

Story Behind The Book

Reviews

<p style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Title: <strong>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</strong></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Author:<span>  </span>N.A. Randall</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Let’s be realistic.<span>  </span>Not everything in life is rainbows, baby bunnies and fairy tale happy endings.<span>  </span>There is a lot of sadness, cruelty and misfortune in the world, which we all experience to a certain degree at some point in our lives.<span>  </span>In <em>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</em>, N.A. Randall chooses not to fall into the commonality of the happy ending, but instead to have the reader contemplate the sadness that many people experience.<span>  </span>To this end, he shocks and startles us with a collection of fourteen stories in which the main characters strive to find happiness, only to be left with sadness and devastation.<span>  </span>We are thrown into a world of vulnerable characters who must survive the effects of violent rape, humiliation, bitterness, sadness, rejection, physical abuse, bullying, and even murder.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">To write an effective short story, the author must make the main character particularly memorable and must dive straight into a single conflict or a significant emotional milestone in the person’s life.<span>  </span>Some think that to end the story effectively, the author should have a resolution that leaves the reader with a sense of satisfaction.<span>  </span>However, others believe that the writer of short fiction wants to produce some kind of emotional response from the reader, be it anger, shock, surprise or even happiness.<span>  </span>An abrupt ending with no explanation, for instance, does leave the reader startled and intensely curious.<span>  </span>In each of Randall’s stories, we definitely jump very quickly into a traumatic event in the main character’s life, and each tale races along to a climax after which it abruptly falls off the edge of a cliff.<span>  </span>There was never a resolution or conclusion in any of the stories.<span>  </span>Most of the time I was left thinking:<span>  </span>“what the heck just happened?”<span>  </span>In one sense, I would have preferred a conclusion to each story; however, they certainly did produce an immediate response from me.</span></p> <p></p><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"><span>If, immediately after reading these stories, I was asked for my response to them in one word, I would have said “random”.<span>  </span>However, Randall is an intriguing writer who kept me entranced from start to finish.<span>  </span>His writing style is bold, intense, disturbing, thought provoking, and very descriptive, with strong imagery.<span>  </span></span></span> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Although I found many of the stories disturbing and actually quite depressing, they certainly evoked a curiosity in me that left me pondering life after each story was done.<span>  </span>This collection was certainly a different read for me, and I would recommend it if you wish to explore the realities of human nature in our world today.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span class="normal-c1"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">N.A. Randall has taken time out from work to concentrate solely on his writing. Besides the short story collection, <em>Tales of Ordinary Sadness, </em>he is the author of the unpublished novels, <em>A Red Sky in Morning</em> and <em>The Communization of Delusion</em>, and a volume of poetry <em>The Careless Loves of a Casual Nazi</em>.</span></span><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"></span></p> <p></p> <p style="text-indent:36pt;margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"></span></p><br /><p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Reviewer:<span>  </span>Cindy Taylor, Allbooks Review.</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Title:<span>  </span>Tales of Ordinary Sadness</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Author: N.A. Randall</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Publisher:<span>  </span>MA2BOOKS</span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca">Format: ebook<span>    </span></span></p> <p></p> <p style="margin:0cm 0cm 0pt;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;" lang="en-ca" xml:lang="en-ca"><span>                 </span>July, 2010</span></p> <p></p>