We’re all a little clueless (So read a few stories in the meantime!)
Fun story: my car engine block had a crack in it, so now I have to get a whole new engine for my car. It is expensive and I spent a better part of that first day crying, but now it’s not so bad. Well, it still isn’t my favorite thing ever, but I’m resigned to it, and looking back there are actually a few kind of amazing things about the whole tale. Continue reading “Engine Trouble”
I finally saw the new Aladdin, and I thought it was lovely. My favorite part, though, hands down, was the opening and this song.
(I started writing this a month ago and completely forgot about it. Oops. Well, it saves a little time now.)
Recently (well, it was recent when I started writing this) re-read an old favorite of mine: The Chronicles of Narnia series. C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors, and this series has a special place in my heart as one of the first things to trigger an interest in fantasy for me. So here’s a few things I like about the series. Continue reading “Good Old Classics: The Chronicles of Narnia”
In honor of the breakfast burrito I ate a few days ago, have this song. No further comment.
According to the cycle I have my blog on, today’s topic is worldbuilding. In this case, I’m using this questionnaire (minus one question). The place I’ve picked to develop a little is the city of Trenough Falls, found in my WIP Respawned: Double Oops (it’s a working title, I promise). Continue reading “World Building: Trenough Falls”
This guy is very funny. I might not be a parent (yet) but as a babysitter his tweets still feel…familiar. Here’s one I found really funny.
Quick explanation: A few Christmases back I was given a “Writer Emergency Pack” deck of cards. This included a set of prompts. So I’m going to go through and follow them, to the best of my ability. Some of these will end up being parts of my works in progress, others will be standalone stories, depending entirely on my mood.
Let me know what you think of it!
This is Prompt #2.
Your hero will have to face his adversary at some point. Why not right now?
(This started as a bit of an alternate universe to my story, since I’m almost done with the book and there’s not a lot of room for early confrontation. But then I just changed the focus to a major side plot, and now this might actually show up in my book.)
(Also, reading these cards, I’m reminded of the fact that they’re not so much for generating short stories as helping a writer get through a block in a full-length novel. So if the prompt seems a little different than what I come up with for a story, that’s why.)
Nigel was a man of plans and bravado. Give him even a few seconds to prepare, and he’d be able to deal with just about anything. Unfortunately, his father was right in front of him and Nigel was already in handcuffs with a black eye from trying to resist the soldiers.
Taelak Mallus gazed down at him, impassive. “Now that I have your attention, do you care to tell me if you’re coming quietly, or if I’ll need to employ stronger methods.”
“Oh, you know me. I can’t do anything quietly.” Nigel grinned.
Emira charged in, taking down three men at one sweep of her ax. Nigel rolled clear and worked a spell at the handcuffs, feeling his way through picking the mechanism. Sometimes you didn’t need a plan. You just needed a friend.
Within a minute, Nigel was free and all of his father’s soldiers were down. Which left only the man himself. Emira circled him warily. She wasn’t foolish enough to think the man would go down as easily as the rest.
Taelak gave her a hard look. “Aren’t you dead, Lieutenant?”
Nigel almost made a quip about wondering who that might be, but working out who it actually was froze the words in his throat. Emira had been something in Taelak’s army. The rest of them had wondered who she might have been before she joined their little band, but they’d never actually found out what rank Emira might have been.
“I was saved, by someone who didn’t want to do anything more than save someone who needed help. Which is more than I can say for you and yours, sir. Especially since you apparently didn’t even know I was still alive out there.” Emira adjusted her grip. That wasn’t a good sign. She was nervous, and nervous people did dumb things.
“I see my son convinced you of the unrighteousness of our cause. Pity. Nigel always did play the fool so well.”
A slight flick of the wrist was all the warning they had before a wave of fire blasted out. Nigel pulled up a shield wall for himself in the nick of time, but Emira flew back and slammed into a rock. She staggered to her feet, and just barely raised her ax in time to block a sword strike.
“Run, Nigel!”
Taelak had her arm, but she managed to wrestle free. That was all Nigel saw before he did exactly what she asked and ran for it. He could hear her shout of defiance, the clash of weapons. The sound of his own crashing footsteps.
Nigel stopped, nearly tripping over his own feet. What was he doing? How could he ever hope to impress Emira if he just ran away on her now that she was in trouble? More importantly, how could he live with himself if he let something happen to her?
With those heroic ideals in mind, he slipped back to the clearing. It was too late, though.
Well, drat. That made things complicated.
(Okay, so I didn’t exactly end it. That’s because I’m not entirely sure what I want “complicated” to mean just yet. It’s definitely drastic, though!)
