Category Archives: fiction

Miles to Go

“And miles to go before I sleep.” — Robert Frost

either of them had done anything that I could condemn them for.

And yet the glances exchanged over dinner, and chess and now on the dance floor of the ballroom left very little to the imagination. From the moment the two had met, the SS Colonel and my youngest daughter, Jocelyn…Joie-Lynn had established a bond. Long glances, deep conversations and shared laughter punctuated their association from the start.

I bid the last guests goodnight. Jean-Pierre Moreau, the Chateau foreman, had left after he had received word his young daughter was running a fever. Begging my forgiveness, he left the gathering, but I suspected it was more than that. I agreed he should be with his daughter and promised that I would send Amarante to see to her or look to the child myself to make sure that it was nothing too serious. Like all good fathers, and certainly since the death of his wife, he was so very much more attentive to the little dark haired cherub with bright blue eyes. In spite of his obvious affection also for Jocelyn, the love of a father was stronger. In those eyes I saw how Sebastien had been with both of our daughters. Nothing could keep him away from either of them if they were sick or hurt. Continue reading

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Munday – Drabbles

1. Do you go over 100 words, or find your drabbles coming up short more often?

I always tend to write more. The challenge is in the edit so that it fits to that 100 word mark.

2. What do you do to edit when you’re over/under where you should be?

I will be more sketchy with my details, delete unnecesssary dialogue and do a lot of implied metaphor. In other words, I do a hatchet job on it or just provide a snippet or snapshot of something larger.

3. Have you learned anything about word choice and economy of words by writing drabbles?

No. That isn’t something that writing drabbles has taught me. When you write for the media, you have to write tight, concise pieces in the inverse pyramid fashion. That has to come with practice and with the editorial demands of the delivery system you are using. Writing for print isn’t like writing a PR piece or a piece for broadcast media and neither of them is like writing for a documentary or a screenplay. There are standards in each of these arenas and so you have to adapt accordingly to what those are. Writing fiction for this comm and on LJ is what I do to unwind. Some people have a cigarette. I write a few paragraphs.

One thing I have learned is that nothing here on LJ is worth stressing over. Save that kind of anxiety for something that writes you a paycheck.

4. About how long does it take you to write a drabble?

That really depends on a number of factors. If the Muse is in the mood and inspired, it can take me ten minutes. If the Musse is reluctant, or if I have a huge number of things on my plate, it may take me several hours or a half a day to get it to where I want it to be.

5. Do you have any secret drabbling tips / hints to share with your fellow drabblers?

Carry a notebook with you at all times, or barriing that, drop keywords into your smartphone to remind you later. Sometimes inspiration can come from something heard on the radio, in an overheard conversation or at any number of places.

Also, think and write cinematically. The drabble is very similar to a Mise-en-scène. You have a single frame and it is that single frame, that snapshot that is visible. The Mise-en-scène is what we see. Editing is what we do not see. So you do not need to include everything. That is a tough lesson to learn for someone like me who likes to either analyse things to death and /or give lots of details in my writing. You still want to convey what is important, but you have to do it with an “economy of style” so as to hit that magic 100 words.

Bonus question:
If you are participating in 100 Drabbles of Summer, how many have you completed so far?

I have just a couple done so far and will post them later today. Lots of deadlines to meet, and fortunately has a fairly long one on this assignment. 😉

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Obedience Under Duress

Tonight, make a decision and make it fast. No hesitation or indecision allowed!
What’s the situation requiring Instant Action(tm)? What decision do you make? Who else is affected?

“You will provide a written testament of the current status of your project,” he said, waving a writing pad before her.

“And you will take an oath to make regular reports to me on the work done by Herr Chaubert and others of your order working on similar goals. And if you do, you shall be released. I will put you back in your cell to think on this. And I will leave you pencil and paper. Just in case.”

Francoise McKay regarded the masked man looming in front of her. She caught the eyes behind the masque and wondered why he deemed it appropriate to wear one. She could perceive no obvious deformity from this vantage point. Perhaps it was not, she thought, because of vanity. She only stared at him numbly. Captain Mors was obviously running out of patience. What was so pressing, she wondered?

“You have only a short time, Frau McKay,” Captain Mors offered as he placed the pad and pencil before her. “I would not take too much time to decide or to write out what I have asked you for.” Elegantly he then turned toward the door and did not utter another word, nor did he look back at her. Continue reading

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Do you really want to live forever?

Do I have a choice?

But then ‘forever’ for humans it is far different from the Sidhe definition of the same word. I am already centuries old, how many humans can have achieved that? And we do not ‘die’ in the same way that humans might. From my vantage point I have seen the roll of history, the many changes and upheavals. Each generation so-very-certain that the one within which they exist will be the last.

Each one has been wrong.

This time I wonder, however. Never have I seen such destruction for no reason other than the incessant dissatisfaction that only greed can bring. Nature is always been regenerative, even in the face of war, famine and pestilence. Most everyone is walking around poisoned and a disease unto themselves and only we who are one form of Immortal or another can truly see the difference between what it once was, and what it is now. The air is a miasma of smoke and filth, even in places that are called ‘pristine’. The water has less and less life within it so that it no longer nourishes or adeqately sustains. The soil labors constantly with no true rest.It is a wonder to me that anything grows at all anymore.

Do I want to live forever?

What I want is not relevant. The issue is whether or not I will. Fortunately or unfortunately, however, what I am has already decided the answer to that.

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100 Drabbles of Summer

Table under cut

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Munday – Villains

1. What makes a good villain, in your opinion?
There is no 100% bad villain, just as there are no 100% good heroes. Either one would be boring as hell and there can be no suspension of disbelief in either case. I like a villain that you can find glimpses of that person’s past – why they are the way that they are. When that happens, the reader can almost empathise with that character. It doesn’t have to be emo, or overt. Some of the most powerful things can be articulated with a mere glance, a gesture, or just the smallest of nuances. Those kinds of things add to their complexity and makes the villain far more compelling.

2. Do you tend to write more for villains or heroes? I tend to write characters with more villainous qualities than not. In the character’s mind, they know exactly what they are doing and why and as Faelyn is fond of saying, and the icon indicates, All is fair in the pursuit of power. Faelyn spent her life living by that creed because of who and what she is. Other characters, such as sheldonsandscia is a sociopathic little bastard. He does what he does and feels not the slightest bit of remorse, except in the very odd instance and with very few people. nomanselizabth does what she does because she is a queen, and as a monarch, unpleasant tasks that guarantee one’s survival have to be undertaken. I don’t know that any of them really sit around and dream up new and interesting ways to be villainous, however.

3. Who wins more often in your stories, the good guy or the bad guy? It’s a toss up. Sometimes one side wins over the other, but everyone is a villain or a hero, depending on your point of view. My stories tend to be about survival and the character going for what he or she wants. Formulaic who wins and who loses scenario rarely enter into the picture.

4. Have you ever written a redeemable / reformed villain? A good guy turned bad? Yes. I wrote a muse from child to adult who was just sweet and cute and she slowly changed into something else that in no way resembled her former self. That was hard, because I really rather liked the inquisitive little girl that was there before she lost her innocence.

5. Are there any themes among your bad guys – do you tend to write zombie stories, fantasy villains, etc?
Again, it is about the redeeming qualities of each villain that my muses interact with. captainbarbossa, early on, in spite of his dangerous exterior and arrogance has things about him that provide those small moments of creamy delicious story flavour! is a muse where you clearly do have a bit of sympathy for the Devil! There are lots of wonderful villain muses that my muses will itneract with. such as the Giovanni’s from the World of Darkness fandom. It is a natural for Faelyn / Fanny since she is half Unseeliewhich means,
“Unblessed” She even went as far to marry the “bad guy from the Three Musketeers fandom, The Comte de Rochefort as played by all_forme because they understood each other as more “heroic” muses wouldn’t have.

6. Are some of your antagonists non-villains, just at cross purposes from the hero?

I have NPC’s for that purpose and most of them are just ignorant and foolishly try to stand between my muses and their stated goals. Of course each side has varying degrees of success, neither side can win all of the time. Besides, conflict is what drives a story.

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Wednesday: Mood

Today, we challenge you to find and share a picture that visually represents your mood right now.

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OOC: Grrr!!

For the record, The PDF version of “The Memoirs of the Count de Rochefort” by Cortilz de Sandras (English Translation) is a complete disaster! Then again, maybe it is just the version of it for Kindle PC that is completely unreadable. Anyway…what’s with all these codes and HTML and nonsense?! It is so bad on the Kindle ap that it is completely unreadable. I just want to find out who thought it was ok to upload something so wretched to archives.org and ask what they could have been thinking. Thankfully, however, I have an actual physical copy and just have to figure out the difference between the use of “F’s” and “S’s” and you can pretty much get the general gist. I have always thought that a better rendition of the ‘Memoirs’ from the famous D’artagnan romances would be fantastic since, unbeknownst to most, they are based off of real people. Alexandre’ Dumas shamelessly ripped off both Cortilz and his co-writer, Auguste Maquet and yet gets all of the credit for being so bloody brilliant.

Anyway…

It is officially spring break which means a mad flurry of cleaning and fixing up so we can get the house appraised, refinanced and my ex husband off the mortgage, etc. Then there’s the eBook to finish up and the two manuscripts and upload them to Kindle. Then there is the FAFSA to finish, the scholarship application and the business plans for “Backwoods” and “Dragon Legacy”.

All this and I am supposed to get some sleep in there somewhere.

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Frater et Soror Alchemia: Rightful Places (Chapter 2)

“…and we must put aside the aside the conventional image of the alchemist as a threadbare, etiolated individual, filthy and stinking from sulphurous smoke and half-poisoned by mercury, and picture a well-dressed, articulate man surrounded by noble men and women in a vaulted chamber of a castle or palace, lecturing deferentially to people who most certainly well understood what he was talking about and who had examined his equipment to obviate any chances of fraud. Demonstrations by members of the Academie des Sciences in the presence of Louis XIV, or by Fellows of the Royal Society of London before Charles II, provide close parallels, the demonstrators being some of the foremost scientists of the day.” – P.G. Maxwell-Stewart, “The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy”

veryone judges by appearances, and yet they should not. London, for all its history and culture, is just barely more than a filthy industrial town. The scientists and heralds of new hope in the new age of technology have done nothing to usher in the New Aeon into the backstreet squalor that surrounds their hallowed, columned halls. We, the Magus, have kept close to our Highest Ideals and strove very toward them, and we struggle against the Masters that through their production, and technology and promise of work in their gilded age, offer thinly disguised collars of slavery to those who would but hand over both their minds and souls and settle for a pittance for the privilege to wait upon their lords and masters. Those industrial barrons fear that we can look at their brave new world and see the opposite of the dark moonlight that we do not fear to embrace. Continue reading

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Frater et Soror Alchemia: Ascension (Chapter 1)

OOC: This is out of the usual sphere for this particular muse. I am working on a Steampunk bit over on Pan Historia in the novel, “The High Adventure”. Essentially, it is the Steam Barons vs. the Alchemists who want to destabilize the economy and make things more “even” among the common people by literally turning lead into gold. Faelyn and her friend and confidante, Doctor Augustin Chaubert, who heads up the local chapter of the Order of the Golden Dawn, that serves as a front for the Alchemists, are the “bad guys”. We are hoping, however, that people may be able to empathize at least a little with thier alleged “cause”..

“…and we must put aside the aside the conventional image of the alchemist as a threadbare, etiolated individual, filthy and stinking from sulphurous smoke and half-poisoned by mercury, and picture a well-dressed, articulate man surrounded by noble men and women in a vaulted chamber of a castle or palace, lecturing deferentially to people who most certainly well understood what he was talking about and who had examined his equipment to obviate any chances of fraud. Demonstrations by members of the Academie des Sciences in the presence of Louis XIV, or by Fellows of the Royal Society of London before Charles II, provide close parallels, the demonstrators being some of the foremost scientists of the day.” – P.G. Maxwell-Stewart, “The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy”

Upon the dais he had ascended and he had done so magnificently. After the long-awaited passing of, Leiland Worth , Augustin Chaubert was the new blood that the Society of Alchemists had been needing for so long. Continue reading

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