Let the Real Work Begin

It's been six months since I've looked at Revena's Revenge: not a pretty love story. That should be enough time to let it look fresh to me so I can do one more edit/rewrite.

There are a few areas I want to tweak and expand, things I didn't have time to do while I was preparing it for my Pitch Week in Vermont.

I will take the opportunity to review the story and characters for the eventual movement into book two of the Storm Sword Trilogy, The Bastards' Battle.

My deadline for finishing will be March 31, 2018.

I am also working on my synopsis for Revena's Revenge. This is hard work. My deadline for the second first draft (the first one was ok but too short) is Sunday, January 7, 2018. This deadline is so short because I've been putting it off for way too long.

Finally, I am writing a short, short PDF book in the What Would Revena Do? (WWRD?) series that will be a give-a-way to build my email list. It will be about the basic tools of magic that Revena would use and how to duplicate them in your own home. The deadline for this is January 31, 2018. 

Thank you to my friend, Mike Keren, author of FOUR FUNERALS, NO MARRIAGE, a funny memoir of love, care taking, and loss for the WWRD? idea.

Time to go write those deadlines on my calendar and then actually do some work.

don't look at a gift horse

~ click image to make biggerer ~

Huddled in the corner, Joshua Sweet burst out with a wild string of expletives.

“Don’t touch it,” he said between gasps. “I saw things.”

Simon Thunder shook his head. Joshua didn’t scare easy. In their three months together and the one month previous, he had never seen Joshua lose control, not even when they were alone together in the bedroom.

The kettle, old, dented, rusted, lay across the room. Simon felt an urge to pick it up each time he looked at it. He forced himself to check the wrapping instead. Purposely ignoring Joshua and the kettle, he read the labels on the brown paper that had covered the box the kettle came in.

Joshua’s name. That’s why he opened it. But Simon’s address and the post mark for the town of Sea Shore Side. Simon’s hometown, the place he was born, the place he had spent his first thirteen years. The place he hadn’t been to in more than fifteen years. No return address, though. He shook out the paper. He tipped over the box. Nothing. No notes or cards or any clues as to who had sent the package or why.

He’d consider it some stupid and pointless practical joke if it weren’t for Joshua still trembling on the floor. Simon noted that he only felt compelled to pick up the kettle when he looked at it. When he forced his gaze away from the pot, the craving to possess it faded and left him. He grabbed his dark sunglasses. They were UV 400 rated with a special coating that minimized color distortion and helped pick up on magical signatures.

“Danger, Will Robinson!” Simon laughed. The Robot from Lost In Space flashed through his mind. While the warning was comical, it was also deadly serious. The kettle’s aura pulsed in sharp, spiky reds. Not good. No wonder Joshua continued to hyperventilate. Simon pulled on his leather gloves that were lined with a para-aramid synthetic fiber. He hoped they’d be enough to protect him from whatever magic had infected Joshua.

He felt a tug as he bent to pick up the kettle. He wanted to pull off his glasses and gloves. He was just able to resist the urge long enough to put the pot back in its box and close it up. As soon as it was contained in the cardboard, the magically induced longing to physically possess it disappeared. Simon suspected some sort of Earth-based magic since the natural material of the box dampened the magic more than the synthetic materials of his sunglasses and gloves.

Now that the magic was contained, Joshua was calming down. His breathing was more regular and he was able to stand, with the help of the wall behind him.

“I saw my own death.” Joshua gulped. “It wasn’t pretty.”

I put my arms around him. We sat on the couch in silence until the sun’s rays hit the balcony’s windows. Evening was upon them. Joshua’s stomach grumbled. He put his hand on his belly.

“I’ll be dead within the month.”

Tender-Hearted Fool

Bacon and brewing rich dark coffee fill the late night diner with the sounds and smells of comfort that every insomniac and crack addict recognizes. Heavy white porcelain chimes in the background. Only a gum-cracking, pink haired waitress could make the scene more cliche.

The suit cries out, clutches his chest and falls to the floor. A brief vacuum of sensory perception is followed by the piercing scream of a skeletal woman who jettisons from a dark back booth out into the snowstorm. She will be found frozen to death by the dumpster in the alley in the morning. I know because I can see other people’s futures. Or more accurately, when they no longer have a future.

The waitress rushes over to the man on the floor. He’s dead but she loosens his tie and slaps his creek. He doesn’t respond. The cook comes out of the kitchen, stands over the pair, grease dripping from his spatula. The dishwasher peeks through a crack in the double doors, only one eye and water-logged fingertips visible.

“No cell reception.”

A couple of starving art students OD-ing on caffeine and ketchup packs so they can afford a single pay-as-you-go phone between them add to the manic energy in the room.

“I told you, the blizzard is blocking the satellites.”

“Yeah, yeah. You know everything. So, tell us...what do we do?”

No response from the five live people in the restaurant. Technically, I’m alive too but I am extra long lived so I don’t consider myself among the regularly living. I pull the edges of the hood of my sweatshirt around my face and hunch down further in my seat.

My movement draws the attention of the waitress. Tears roll down her face. Her lower lip trembles. Her eyes lock onto mine. She doesn’t flinch or look away. She sighs.

“You can get his heart pumping again.”

I shake my head.

“He promised to set up a trust for our child but he didn’t sign the papers yet.”

“No.”

“Our son is ill. I need the money to take care of him.”

I lose the staring contest.

I promised myself I would never do it again but I feel myself weakening under the pressure of her need. Bringing back the dead never went well for anyone. Once a soul leaves its shell, it doesn’t want to go back to the old. It only wants something new. It gets royally pissed off when you try to force it into a used skin.  

I close my eyes and cover my face with my hands.

“Please.”

She wasn’t begging. She was tugging on my empathy. I see a small, young boy laying in a white bed, his skin blending with the sheets.

I push my life force towards the dead man. A voice in my head tries to remind me of the danger. I tell it to shut up. I turn cold as the corpse gets warm. He sits up, sucking air.

The waitress cackles and claps her hands. Her skin splits and falls to the floor. The demon fills the room, shattering all of the glass in the building. Shards pierce my skin before I make it under the table.

Shit.

elf

I found you hiding out in the open,

peeking around petals,

ducking bees and butterflies.

Your ancient magic flutters,

misting through the bricks,

protecting hearth and home.

Shoes all tidy.

Clothes clean and folded.

Nuts cracked and shelled.

Dishes a-sparkle.

Done for the day.

Dusk brings completion.

Downtime for dwarfs.

I imagine you smoking a long pipe

when you aren't toiling 

at my care.

Red cap tilted at a rakish angle,

kerchief loosened,

buttons popped,

frothy ale to hand,

decorating your mustache,

coaxing a satisfied sigh.

Thursday 13 – Magical Creatures

 

More Thursday 13’s

   1] Tiamat (f - the Babylonian sea Goddess) green dragon for passion


   2] Aeronwen (f – Welsh “white berry”) white owl for visions


   3] Mac Dara - (m – Irish “oak tree”) a druid priest hiding as an incense burner


   4] Andraste - (f – Celtic “invincible”) the Goddess of Victory


   5] Endymion - (m – Greek “to enter”) sleeping fox – eternal life through eternal sleep


   6] Hraban - (m – Ancient Germanic “raven”) change and transformation


   7] Dylan [blue, 2nd born] & LLeu [green, 1st born] (m – Welsh “great flow” & “light”) twin brothers, dark & light – influence & commerce and craftsmanship


   8] Re’im (m – Hebrew “unicorn” mentioned 9 times in the Bible) strength 


   9] Euterpe (f – Greek “delight”) the muse of joy [pink girl]


10] Audo (m – Ancient Germanic “fortune”) opportunity [frog]


11] Ermenrich (m – Ancient Germanic “universal power”) magic and mystery [black cat]


12] Moirae (f – Greek Mythology”apportioners”) the three fates, destiny [the three women under the fox]


13] Iolana, Kalea, Malie (f – Hawaiian) soar,  joy, calm [the three dolphins under the crystal ball]