children's fiction

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 10

Edward Picot — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 12:19:01 -0500

"Urizen is trapped by his own laws. He no longer truly believes in anything outside himself. His only way of relating to the outside world is either to fear it or to steal something from it. He has turned the infinite possibilities of the human heart into a little machine of self-interest. And because of that, his life is a life without hope.” In search of Dora's box, the children find their way right to the heart of Urizen's headquarters, and discover something entirely different from what they were expecting.

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 9

Edward Picot — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 09:56:35 -0400

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 8 (and other items of interest)

Edward Picot — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 09:54:45 -0400

“The wind was blowing harder now, and the snow was coming down in thick flurries, which quickly turned the fronts of their clothes white and made it difficult either to see or hear; but Dora thought she heard a snatch of music. Then one of the little boys started jumping up and down and pointing. 'Look! Look! They're dancing! They're dancing!' Everyone looked where the little boy was pointing. On the far side of the snow-field, next to the fir trees, the snowmen and snow-women were moving.”

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 7

Edward Picot — Sat, 9 Aug 2008 10:39:54 -0400

“They landed in a huge circle of white dust, with a rim of sharp-looking rocks all the way round the outside. Everything was bathed in harsh colourless light, like moonlight but ten times as powerful. In the middle of the circle of rock was a massive square stone slab, and on the slab, flat on his back, lay a giant with his eyes closed.” The children fly with some owls to the moon, where they meet the Queen of the Night and hear the story of Pandora and Prometheus. The seventh chapter of twelve.

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 6 (and other items of interest)

Edward Picot — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 12:07:29 -0400

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 5

Edward Picot — Mon, 9 Jun 2008 08:55:15 -0400

"The mouse did seem to be waiting: instead of scampering into the darkness it held itself almost completely still, except for small attentive movements of its ears and the constant trembling of its whiskers." On the run from Urizen's henchmen, the children undertake a hazardous underground journey. At the bottom of a frozen cavern, they find out more about one of the clue cards.

The Puzzle Box, Chapter 4

Edward Picot — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:14:02 -0400

"Urizen separated out a region from the rest of eternity, shrank it into solid matter, weighed it in his scales, measured it with his rods and plumblines, circumscribed it with his compasses, and wrote laws for it in his great brass-bound books. This sorry region, the region over which Urizen rules, is the universe in which we live..."