Playing for Keeps

It's monday again! This is my entry for Menage Monday over at Cara Michael's blog. I had a lot of fun with it! The prompts this week were a picture of a female archer on a horse (beautiful, btw) and the phrase "play[ing] for keeps" along with the idea of finding ones fate. I emailed the photographer, and I've been told I can post the photo here with a link to the page here. I've been kind of MIA from writing since the Olympics started (I haven't even been online or on my computer since then...), so it was nice to let the kids watch a show (again, they haven't watched anything since the Olympics...I've been hogging the tv!) while I wrote this. I hope you like it...I really did. :)

I had it in my sights before it slipped into the woods at the edge of the clearing. That was unfortunate. I nudged Athenia toward the spot. I had to get down to see the tracks. The little beast was good…it took me several moments before I could find it – a partial print beside some moss.

I almost started to follow. Something wasn’t right. That little sneak! I turned a large circle before I finally glanced up into the canopy.

There!

I let loose my arrow and hit the bugger in the arm. Killing him would be really bad, but wounding him would give me everything I’ve always wanted.

“You shot me!” whined the squeaky voice from an upper branch.

“I play for keeps, you little sneak, now give me the fate I choose.”

His head peeked out, puzzled, “How do you know Arianna?”

“She’s my mother.”

A large, almost feral, smile spread across his face, “Ah, that explains much. How is her fate working out?”

“Like she always wanted.”

“Really? Fascinating.” He climbed down, ripped the arrow from his arm, and handed it to me. I took it, confused, “But she shot me in the leg, my dear.”

The sign read,"No Howling."

I wrote this piece for Motivation Monday. I posted it just before the deadline Tuesday morning because I was driving home from vacation all day on Monday... When I say all day... Yeah, it took about 14 hours. It's been a hard transition this week. I haven't had much writing time. (And I may not get much for the next several weeks, as I am an Olympic FANATIC!) Anyway, this was a fun distraction to plan during my long trip. It kept my brain awake and active during otherwise quiet moments. I thought through this one and one for Menage Monday which I didn't get home in time to write (although I've started it) as well as planned some things out for my book. The prompt was "The sign read, "No Howling."" and must be used as the first line with a 500 word limit. I wrote about dragons for my friend Rebekah Postupak!

The sign read, “No Howling.”

Typical. She never did like much noise, but using the same word that was used for those tiny, yipping creatures… Well, that was just rude.

I bellowed, “Adarra!” and smiled, flashing my teeth in the waning light of the sun. That was nothing like a howl. Those stupid dogs couldn’t get that much echo if they all yipped in unison.

A growl came from the entrance to my right. I started to turn that direction before recalling her architectural prowess and her paranoia. She could very easily rig some sort of tunnel or something to project her voice to a different area of her lair. I stayed where I could see all the entrances – those that I knew of, anyway.

Her voice echoed from within, “What do you want?”

“To talk with you, you old hermit, so come out where I can see you!”

“Tridan?” her snout peaked out from the entrance a little ahead and to my left.

“Who else would come all this way to try to talk some sense into you?”

She inched out of the cave. I didn’t know if she was nervous or flirting. The way her scales shimmered in the setting sun gave me the shivers and I had to flap my wings and take a few sidesteps to calm down. She really should reproduce. It would be a shame to lose her coloring – the way her scales had that iridescent shimmer over that deep scarlet. She was breathtaking. The fire in my belly started to boil. Focus! I wasn’t here to court her!

“Why did they send you?” She was definitely frightened. I’d never seen a dragon try to hide in the open, but she was doing her best – head down, neck folded double against her chest, tail curled around the front of her – It was a pathetic picture.

“I’m not going to hurt you, force you, or even reprimand you. Please. We used to be friends.”

“That was a long time ago. Things change.”

“You know why I’m here.”

“The same as all the others?”

“Yes.”

“What makes them think I’ll give you a different answer?”

“I don’t know, but I told them I’d try.”

“What if I just say ‘no’ right now? Will you leave?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” I paused trying to decide if I would leave. I didn’t want to. I’d forgotten how spectacular she was. How radiant! Imagine if she were to stretch that neck toward me! I put my head down so I could clear the image from my mind. It was as hard to think as ever with her around. “I don’t want to.”

I dared not look up. How would she respond? Would she ask me to leave? “What if I say ‘no’ and invite you inside?”

My head snapped up and I looked into her swirling, multi-facetted eyes. The rainbow of truth swirled around a very bright red spark. Perhaps my trip wouldn’t be completely in vain.

Old Faithful

This is a flash fiction piece for Emmie Mears' End Of The World contest. Here's the deal:

It's the day before the end of the world.
The twist? It’s an unexpected apocalypse.
The catch? You must use the phrase “end of the world” somewhere in your story.
One Rule: Don’t show the end of the world. Your characters don’t know it is their last day on earth.

So, basically, I had 500 words to write a story about the day before the end of the world, where no one knows it's the end of the world, and I can't show the end of the world...but I have to use the phrase 'end of the world'. Tricky, huh? It's a story about anything, but I chose to intimate the end of the world with my choice of location. I actually cried at the end thinking about what would happen to this precious family tomorrow... Yeah, I'm that pathetic! I hope you enjoy it as well! :)


Old Faithful Geyser; Upper Geyser Basin; William S Keller; 1966

“Ugh! It stinks here! Why did we have to come here for vacation? It stinks.” Adrianne had a whine in her voice that could shatter the teeth in my head. Plus she was dragging her feet.

“Please hurry up. We’re going to miss Old Faithful!” I had planned too much. I somehow overestimated the endurance of a five year old…or, perhaps, hoped for too much. We should’ve left her with Grandma.

“Doesn’t the fountain spray all the time?” Adrianne continued to shuffle her feet.

“It’s called a geyser, and it will be at least another hour before it erupts again, maybe two.” Timothy turned around and got right in her face, “so hurry up.”

“Erupts like a volcano?” she whispered.

“No. And Yes. It’s just water and steam, not ash, dust, gas, and molten rock, but it will spray it over 100 feet into the air, close to 200 if we’re lucky!”

“That sounds hot. I don’t want to be any hotter. It’s too hot here. Can we go home?”

Timothy turned to me with that look in his eyes, “Mom! We’re gonna miss it!”

I sighed and handed over the camera, “Here, take this and catch up with your Dad.” Timothy snatched the camera and took off after Brian and Michael. I hadn’t even realized they were so far ahead.

I picked up Adrianne. That set off a screaming tantrum that shook the earth, literally. Tremors are normal here, I had to remind myself.  I suppose blaming the tremor on my daughter was a little excessive, but she was acting like it was the end of the world. We’d seen the Grand Prismatic Spring this morning, and we were booked for a Wagon Train tour this evening. This was our window for Old Faithful.

As I carried a screaming five year old toward Old Faithful, I couldn’t help but notice the stares. I just wanted to die of shame, but I wanted to see Old Faithful more.

We didn’t miss it. They had saved us a seat. Brian leaned over and took Adrianne from me, “Hey Sweet Pea, do you want a lollipop?” He had pulled out our bribe bag. We tried to limit their sugar intake, but this was an emergency. She stopped crying immediately, so I wasn’t going to worry over it right now. One lollipop wouldn’t kill her.

Just then, Old Faithful erupted. Wow! I allowed myself several moments of awe before I turned to see that my family was also enjoying the moment. I reached for the camera from Timothy and snapped pictures.

Old Faithful sputtered out way too soon and the ground began to shake. This was a full-on earthquake! Also, not unusual here, I had to tell myself. But when the shaking only got worse, I felt Timothy pulling on my shirt. I looked at him with wide eyes and he was pointing. I followed his finger and saw a cloud of black. I turned back to Timothy, “That’s not normal, is it?”

Mischief Makers

Hehehehe! The Friday Picture Show is today over at Jen DeSantis' blog. It's a 100 word flash fiction contest with a picture prompt. I'm not going to copy the picture to my blog today, because I just read a really scary blog post about someone getting sued for have a picture on their blog HERE. I don't know how to check if the picture is public domain or not, so I'm just going to link to the friday picture show above and call it good. Check out the picture there.

That said, the picture is this creepy masked guy in black robes and such... If you follow me on Twitter (@lissajean7) you may have seen a conversation this morning between myself and Rebekah Postupak (@postupak) and Jen DeSantis (@JenD_Author) about the creepy picture and how a lot of our flash fiction friends write more of the dark fantasy/paranormal romance type stuff, while Rebekah and I prefer dragons over demons. :) We decided that we needed to introduce dragons to our flash friends. I didn't think it would be possible with this picture, but seeing as my dragons are shapeshifters... These dragons are similar to the dragons found in one of my favorite books of all-time The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey. This series heavily influenced my take on dragons in general. I hope you enjoy!

Mischief Makers

Thogan giggled, “Just walk really slowly and don’t forget to look down – you don’t want anyone spotting the red sparkle in your eye.”

“I know,” Mardis replied, “I have done this before. Wouldn’t the red eyes be more menacing?”

“No, it’s a dead giveaway you’re a dragon, then they won’t believe you’re death.”

“Is this really what they think death looks like? I mean, it’s papier-mâché! How convincing am I really going to be?”

“Humans are gullible. They’ll believe anything!”

“Just keep my eyes down?”

“Death apparently has vacant eyes, just make sure they’re in shadow and they’ll run screaming!”

Knowledge is Power

I'm revisiting the world of A Curse or a Blessing, the post from a couple weeks ago. Here I tell another classroom moment for Krisilloc. This is my first entry for Thursday Threads at Siobhan Muir's blog. I've never repeated worlds or characters in my flash fiction before, but this just seemed to work for me. Perhaps I will get enough information on these characters to write a longer story. We'll see. For now, here's my 250 (max allowed) word story containing the promp phrase: "I'll tell you whatever you wish to hear."

Maritax raised her hand, “I’ll tell you whatever you wish to hear.”

“No, no, no! That’s not it at all! Anyone else?” Professor Utleg scanned the room as Maritax put out the fire on her upper right elbow.

“Will you tell me what you desire…?” piped Brieont.

“Very close. Good job. Anyone else want to try?” Brieont was his favorite. He beamed. I just wanted to wipe that smirk off his face.

I raised my upper left arm. Utleg nodded at me. “Could you tell me what you need?” He looked angry. I supposed I got it right. Again.

“Yes.” He said grudgingly and turned away from me to continue the lecture. Why couldn’t he say ‘good job’ just once to me? My left leg ignited just above the ankle. I sprayed a burst from my extinguisher. Why did I let him make me so frustrated? Why couldn’t I just get over it?

When the lecture was finally over, we all headed to Community Service. Colaxil scrambled next to me, “How did you know that was ‘need’? We haven’t gone over that one in class before.”

“The root looked more like the one for require than desire. I just guessed right.” Actually, I’d been studying. Knowledge was power, and I needed all I could get if I was going to get out of here.

 “Oh. Yeah. Huh. So what do you think we’re going to do for CS today?”

“We hauled the rocks yesterday, maybe they’ll have us start construction?”

Review of Foreign Identity

Foreign Identity is a novel by Becca J. Campbell. I read it a couple days ago. I enjoyed it. I picked it up partly because I like sci-fi, but mostly because I have gotten to know the author a bit (she lives less than 5 minutes from me - yet we've only met online!) and I think she's pretty cool. I purchased the book on sale for my Kindle and finished it in a day. That is not necessarily unusual for me, but I would assume most people would want to finish it quickly to find out what happens. :)

The book starts with a man and a woman who wake up in a room, chained to the walls, with no memory at all. By working together, they uncover a puzzle that frees them from the room, but only releases them into a maze with more puzzles. Throughout the story they seek to escape and to find help with a desire to find home - even though they don't know where that is. They have to, somehow, work together and trust each other in order to be free.

The Breakdown:

I loved how she worked the amnesia. I've seen it used several times as a way to drive the plot, and that really bugs me. Becca, however, totally wiped their personal memories and left them that way. There's never a 'Oh! I remember that!' moment at a critical time to push the plot forward. That said, she has her characters have feelings or instincts for certain things - which they cleverly don't know if they should trust - which add depth to the character, both in what they remember and what they don't as well as how they react to it. Very fun!

The characters. I really liked them. They were believable and consistent. I enjoyed getting to know them even as they got to know themselves. And after the little bit of the past we learn about their lives, they are even more relatable and understandable.

The Sci-Fi aspect. (I love sci-fi, fantasy, etc in case you didn't know) The aliens (I hope that's not a spoiler) are fun and different. I would have liked them to be a little more prevalent and explained a little more in-depth, but they were an interesting puzzle. This is definitely LIGHT sci-fi. It's much more of a mystery/adventure/romance-ish with a sci-fi twist. I have so many questions about her aliens and how they interact and why the problem occurred... It just wasn't that book. They were fun though. I liked Zap. :)

The puzzles. I found them to be fairly simple. That doesn't mean they're not interesting for the characters to figure out, but they weren't fascinating and intricate for ME to figure out. (just fyi, I LOVE puzzles and I'm fairly good at them, and I read a lot of sci-fi, so the twists that may seem shocking to someone else, were fairly expected to me). That doesn't diminish from her writing, it just made it a really light read for me. Like I said, it was fun to see them figure some of the things out. (Although, sometimes one of them seemed a little too dense...the squares? Really? Didn't get that one? So the balance between the characters was a lot slanted most of the time.)

The plot. Was it completely shocking? No. Did I know exactly what would happen? No. I had several guesses, some of which were fairly close to the mark, while others not so much. It was fun to guess, and just because I got close didn't mean it wasn't fun to find out what was happening. It was both fun and interesting.

My Favorite Bit: The idea of a new beginning. That at any point, no matter what has happened, no matter how hard life has been, you can start over. You can choose to do things differently, better. Life is not stuck in some rut that you can't get out of - if you just have the perspective to see the rut, you can climb out and start over.

The end was very satisfying. I really enjoyed it. The themes of trust and faithfulness were beautifully done. I recommend it.

The Flood

So, here's another one I haven't tried before. It's called the 55 word challenge over at Jezri's Nighmares. I don't know if a story can really be told in 55 words...even after writing one, but I thought I'd enter anyway. Here's the picture prompt I used:


55 words exactly. Aren't you proud? :)

They say the water is starting to recede. The rush of the water makes that hard to believe, but I suppose it has to be rushing somewhere. Rushing, and taking with it everything I’ve ever known, ever cared about - even Marian. I think I’ll find a different road. Start over somewhere else, without the memories.