snippet

Kin Slayer

Posted by

0

Whew! The work week hasn’t wanted me to get a nugget of writing updates in. I’ve been squeezing in a few words here and there, but I think tonight’s been the first in a few where I’ve gotten some time to really spend writing. It’s a bit later than I normally like to close up shop, but that’s the price you pay for your writing. I’ll get up like a zombie in the morning to do my regular run and then crash at the end of the day. Really hoping the weekend hurries up and gets here.

In other news I’m planning my Pathfinder campaign this weekend. We’re doing kind of a round robin DMing where everybody gets a turn to run their own mini-campaign within the constrains of the world. So far it’s pretty fun! I’m planning this one to be a longer one (ie. 3 weekends in length) so I’ve been having to squeeze in time to plan that in addition to my regular writing time. I love working on both, but unfortunately can’t do them at the same time. Every time I work on one I feel guilty about the other, and vice versa. They’ll both get done, but in their own time apparently.

Enough of my sleepy ramblings though. On to word metrics!

Project: Ghosts of Pikes Peak

Summary: The old, abandoned Davis Farm just outside the bustling city of Pikes Peak is riddled with malicious spirits. Werewolf detective Colton Fen has been assigned to a half-vampire partner, Rennick Dalton, to handle the troublesome ghosts, but even their combined strength may not be enough to dissuade the poltergeists from plucking victims from the outskirts of town. Is this a simple case of ghost infestation or is there something far more malicious going on in the farmhouse?

Current total words: 32,383
New words written: 2,708

Progress in Story: A new character rears her head and adds in a refreshing bit of contrast to our regular guys. She arrives just in the nick of time as well.

Total Words for 2012: 41,964

Snippet: Colton is just not having the best of days.

His face collided with the dirt, and he sputtered against it while he fought the dizziness. A weight was brought down on his back and his arms pulled up behind him, bringing his head unwillingly up. A man crouched down in front of him and held his chin up to face him.

“You will be our message to the agency. This city belongs to us, kin slayer! Your head will stand as a warning to others like you.” The man pulled something from his belt and held it against his neck. Colton tried to struggle away from it, but a second weight came down on his legs to hold him still. He felt a stab of pain as the blade dug into his throat.

They’ll never recognize you now

Posted by

3

So last night I went with family and ended up meeting some friends too to go see The Avengers. I admit I didn’t have really high hopes for this film, just because putting together so many big egos into a single sitting couldn’t possibly work out, right? I was wrong. That film was incredible, and I can already tell you that I plan to have a copy of it as soon as it’s out on Blu-Ray for a few incredibly amusing scenes that I won’t be spoiling for you right now. This coming from a gal who’s a major DC & Batman fan.

Earlier today while I was waiting on getting my car serviced, I spent a good bit of time writing on Ghosts of Pikes Peak and ended up taking them in a direction I hadn’t anticipated. I thought this was going to be a much shorter piece, honest, but I realized that my characters were reaching their limits. Both physically and mentally, so I had to make a decision. So the plot got turned upside down and they found their way back to the city itself, which is unfortunate for them. Now they’re having to do some low-budget disguise work to try and find the essentials. It’s a good thing Rennick is so good at putting together costumes.

In other news, next month is Camp NaNo! *Gulp* I have no idea what I’ll be writing on. I’m hoping to be done with this piece by then so I can devote more time to Secrets of Leekston but who knows. I’ve always got new projects wanting to crowd out my current ones, you know like this story did. 😉 I can’t complain really, but dang I like to go in knowing mostly what I’ll be writing on. It’ll either be Ghosts of Pikes Peak, Secrets of Leekston, or my brother illusionists trying to stop each other tale. Here’s the general synopsis for it:

Two royal brothers are born with extraordinary powers (haven’t quite decided if this is normal or not in this world). The elder of the two imprisons the other for fear that he’ll try to challenge his right to the throne. Years later the imprisoned brother, Daniel, is freed by rebels looking for a way to topple his tyrant brother. Daniel has to decide if he wants to join them in their cause and lead a revolution, or spurn them and go his own route. As he learns about the people behind the scenes controlling his brother’s actions, he begins to question his anger toward his brother, and must eventually decide whether he can kill the last remaining member of his family.

Suggestions are always welcome. I’ve only got a month to decide after all.

Anyway, on to word metrics!

Project: Ghosts of Pikes Peak

Summary: The old, abandoned Davis Farm just outside the bustling city of Pikes Peak is riddled with malicious spirits. Werewolf detective Colton Fen has been assigned to a half-vampire partner, Rennick Dalton, to handle the troublesome ghosts, but even their combined strength may not be enough to dissuade the poltergeists from plucking victims from the outskirts of town. Is this a simple case of ghost infestation or is there something far more malicious going on in the farmhouse?

Current total words: 29,675
New words written: 2,017

Progress in Story: Rennick and Colton realize that this ghost situation is far worse than they expected, and now they’re scrambling to find a way to get much-needed supplies before facing the thing again.

Total Words for 2012: 39,256

Snippet: Rennick tries to help him put together a disguise, much to Colton’s regret.

“Please,” he gagged. “I don’t want to smell that thing any more than I have to.”

“You’ll want it,” he assured him. “That hood is going to help you not be seen. You’re a stranger to this town at least, but that doesn’t mean they won’t recognize you if they see you. I was with you quite a bit when we were going around town, so they’ll know you know me. The final key is going to be this.” He made his way over to a corner of the room, moving slowly as though he might collapse at any moment. He moved his boot around along the floor before reaching down and rubbing his hands in the mess.

“What is that?”

Rennick made his way back, raising one hand up. “Dirt,” then he raised the other, “Ash.” Then he proceeded to rub both of them all over Colton’s face before he could raise any protest. The man was hardly minimal with applying it either and Colton sputtered at the grime that made its way onto his lips.

“What the hell?”

“They’ll never recognize you now.”

“No kidding!” He spat on the dirt. “I don’t even think I would recognize me right now.”

Time is no good either, for they can never age

Posted by

0

I meant to post up my word metrics last night, but I was way too tired. Looked up in the midst of jamming out words to find out it was almost 11:00. And I get up for work at 5 AM. /sigh

So I got a fair amount in last night, but I came to a realization. I hate writing poetry. Even if it’s something simple and needs only to meet the barest parameters in order to fit the category of poem, I still can’t stand it. When I froze in my work last night, realizing that some kind of nursery rhyme would be perfect for what I wanted to say, that of course meant I had to come up with something. Four lines at the most just to get the point across. In the end I would have rather written 5,000 words rather than write another poem, haha!

This got me reflecting on why I hated writing them so much. I do enjoy reading them after all. Then I recalled being in a number of poetry workshops when I was a kid. One was a poetry recital, and not just something simple where you get in front of the class and read the lines. The poem had to have movement with it, hand motions, and after it went over well at my school I was asked to go to a regional poetry recital. A big stage, a large audience, much different from the small, familiar classroom. Before I could go though to represent the school, I had to be given speech lessons. My R’s sounded very British (though to this day I’m not quite certain why) and I was repeating words like Rose and Runaway over and over again to try to help get rid of it and train my mouth to say it correctly. I think I’ve always had a fair bit of compassion for anyone who comes outside of the US and tries to speak English for the first time because of that experience. I was reciting “The Runaway” by Robert Frost if you’re curious. I didn’t win, or even come close, but darn it my R’s were perfect! 🙂

On top of that, one of my SAGE classes in school had us writing poems. Some we did in a group, but most of them had to be individual ones. I think we had a quota to fill, and after a while I was sick of trying to figure out what words rhymed and getting the rhythm down. As you can imagine, since I was in fifth grade at the time, most of the poems came out as pure nonsense. I blame both incidents on my loathing of poetry writing as an adult, at least that’s my excuse.

Regardless though, the story needed it, and well, you know how that is. You’ll jump through any number of hoops to get a story just right. Even fiery ones spouting poetry.

Here are some slightly belated word metrics

Project: Ghosts of Pikes Peak – Working sequel for Night Feeders.

Summary: The old, abandoned Davis Farm just outside the bustling city of Pikes Peak is riddled with malicious spirits. Werewolf detective Colton Fen has been assigned to a half-vampire partner, Rennick Dalton, to handle the troublesome ghosts, but even their combined strength may not be enough to dissuade the poltergeists from plucking victims from the outskirts of town. Is this a simple case of ghost infestation or is there something far more malicious going on in the farmhouse?

Current total words: 27,658
New words written: 2,315

Progress in Story: We meet the villain of the tale, though he was rather slow to show his face. Even now Colton isn’t quite sure what he looks like. He does know what he smells like though, and sounds like, and feels like unfortunately.

Total Words for 2012: 37,239

Snippet: I told tex_maam that I would include a quote this time, just for her. So here’s a bit that includes the poem that was so darn hard to write.

The creature leaned forward to draw fingers along his scalp and down a few strands of hair. The labored breathing was almost directly in his face, and Colton held his breath for fear of retching in the thing’s face. “Soon enough, you will join it, lovely beast. Now that you are here, it is merely a matter of time.”

It stepped back finally and Colton gulped down a breath of air. “A matter of time before what? Before you finally put me out of my misery?”

“Oh, I don’t think you would be able to be killed off quite so easily. What is it they say?

Fire is one choice, but they come back enraged
Time is no good either, for they can never age
A fool will turn to water, but they refuse to drown.
Death only greets a werewolf in her finest silver gown.”

The creature gave another deep laugh that only put Colton more on edge. “No, you’ll last longer than any of the others. Certainly longer than this pathetic man at least,” he gestured to Rennick who stood motionless behind the sluggish creature.

Six Sentence Sunday – Judge & Executioner

Posted by

12

I haven’t done a Six Sentence Sunday post in quite a while it seems! I looked over my previous entries and realized I hadn’t done one yet this year. So I thought I ought to remedy that. This bit is from Night Feeders, a western horror novelette now available on most eBook platforms.

Setup: Motley wandered into the wrong town, and Sheriff Ritters wants to make an example out of him. Of course, Ritters is always looking for an excuse to do that.

Ritters sought to handle legal matters his own way: criminals were tried in the open street, and the speed of his pistols served as both judge and executioner.

Above them, the giant town clock ticked the seconds by with little remorse. Once, it had been the symbol of the adventurous frontier spirit in this small, dusty town, and now the fact that it even worked at all against the dirt and wind which tore through town year by year was a tiny miracle. It hammered the seconds out like a horse being driven by a cruel master, until finally at the strike of noon it released its out-of-tune chimes.

No sooner had the first chime rung than Ritters let loose a series of gunshots. The first bullet lodged in Motley’s shooting arm—he’d barely gotten his gun out of the holster before he was struck.

The full story is now available as an eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. Be sure to drop by Six Sentence Sunday to see what other action-packed teasers have been posted!

Six Sentence Sunday – Turning on the Theatrics

Posted by

3

Here’s a snippet from a short story that was released just last week, “Against Our Better Judgment.” It’s a humorous horror story with a vampire and werewolf being forced to work together against an unexpected enemy.

Setup: Terry is going to have turn on the theatrics in order to throw off these Hunters. His vampire friend is now out for the count, so he’ll have to make this show look good.

Terry flicked his hand into a set of claws, and grimaced as he dragged the edges over his chest, face, and arms. They’d bleed just enough to make them look fresh, and even if the main wounds healed up, the blood would still look authentic. He ruffled his hair out once more before flinging himself out of the cave entrance and onto the ground.

“Oh god,” he moaned, coughing into the dirt.

“Oh my, one of their victims – we must be close!”

This story is now available as part of a collection in the horror anthology, Under the Stairs. If you would like to see another snippet from this piece, check out this older post.

Be sure to drop by Six Sentence Sunday to see what other fun teasers have been posted!