Quicksand - Part 18

The footsteps didn't belong to Voss. These were not the slow and deliberate steps of a man with time to spare; these were the steps of a fox trying to be silent. Of course, Minty's ears could hear anything.

The door creaked open and a single stripe of yellow light poured in, followed by the furtive silhouette of a man in a hurry. His smell was unmistakable.

“Hello Craven Lorne,” Minty said, her voice hollow and metallic.

The figure stopped in front of her, surprised, then continued his advance.

“Do I die today, Craven Lorne?” Minty asked.

Craven moved toward her rapidly now, with a sharp, whispered shhh!

Minty tipped her head to the side as Craven started to work to release her from the chains. “Will you save me?” She sounded more confused than hopeful.

“Not if you keep talking,” Craven growled. “I've killed some, but there are more of them out there. We have to hurry.”

There was a sound of clinking metal, and somehow, Minty's arms came free. She fell forward, twisted and hit the cement floor hard, crushing her shoulder and breaking her arm off above the elbow. Her scream, though short-lived, was the worst sound Craven had ever heard.

 If you enjoyed reading this, stop by next week for another instalment. You may also like my published novel, Aigaion Girl ... a story of the end of days, available here.

Quicksand - Part 17 (18+ not safe for kids)

Minty stepped over the stream, watching the reflection of the Japanese maples and cherry trees that danced across the surface. The maple leaves and cherry blossoms seemed to fall endlessly from the trees, but the branches were never left naked. Minty loved it there, though she'd always found the cranes a bit disconcerting.

Time had slowed down, as it sometimes did, and Minty was watching the world fall in slow-motion, each flower spinning slightly as it drifted toward the water.

“I thought I might find you here,” said a voice from beside her. Minty started, her ear twitched, but she managed to hold her ground. “What are you doing?”

Minty was annoyed at herself for not having smelled him, but she managed a polite smile as she stepped back to take in his half mask. “Hello, Voss.” She nodded curtly and began to walk across the damp, well-manicured grass of the park.

Voss easily matched her stride. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”

Minty sighed inwardly. “Walking,” she said simply.

“I'll join you.”

“I'll walk alone,” she said, a little bit more briskly than she intended.

It didn't seem to matter where Minty went or what she said, lately, Voss was showing up everywhere. And her polite refusal of his attentions only served to encourage him. 

She had been enjoying Japan; she didn't have the energy for him now. She stepped out of the way as he reached for her arm.

“No, wait—”

Minty stepped around a hedge, out of the lazy afternoon sunlight and into the early morning mist that hung about the river. She nodded in thanks to an otter who handed her a giant yellow umbrella then helped her steady it in the rushing water while she stepped on.

The river carried Minty away quickly, as the rain started to fall. As far as she could see, Voss was no longer behind her, and she almost felt certain that the otter would delay him as long as possible. Otters could always be trusted.

The umbrella whirled and danced on the water, threatening once or twice to buck Minty off as the raindrops made tiny pinging noises against her perfect porcelain skin. Eventually, the rain stopped. The water slowed, the river calmed and narrowed and Minty stepped off the umbrella and into a cornfield. She picked the umbrella up, righted it and blew it, like a dandelion seed, back to its owner.

She walked through among the tall, golden stalks of corn until she came to the edge of the forest. In the forest, it was morning, warm and sunshiny. Beautiful. Perfect. And blissfully emptier than Japan.

“So this is where you come—” His voice was slow and deliberate, only hinting at playful. “—When you want to get away.” Voss chuckled softly.

Minty ran. She didn't think about it, she didn't try to be polite. Her stomach lurched. All she could think about was getting away.

It didn't take long for Voss to catch her. He sprang on her from behind and only a cushion of sharp orange pine needles saved her from being shattered when she fell.

Voss was surprisingly heavy and he forced all of his weight against Minty, so that she could barely breathe, let alone struggle free.

When he entered her it was sharp and sudden, her underwear being pushed to one side. Nothing went through her mind. Everything did. Her brain was empty, exploding, bursting and caving in on itself – while he, his hands pinning her wrists to the ground, thrust faster and deeper. More than once, she tried to scream, but she couldn't. There was no reason not to, but she was physically incapable. No one was coming to help her.

The sound of footsteps on broken twigs was like music – a wonderful symphony or a single, perfect note. Her saviour. She looked into Craven Lorne's eyes and silently begged her to save him. Craven spun on his heel, ready to walk away.

Minty felt a sharp pain as Voss's weight forced her skin on her back to fracture.

Voss grunted, released her wrists and arched backwards and Minty... let go. She let go of everything that had been threatening to make her head explode, she let go of the hate she felt for Voss and of every silent scream. It burst through her skin, white hot, burning her, blinding her instantly. She could feel her eyes, but not use them. She felt them dry, turn to ash and blow away, one tiny flake at a time.

Voss was gone. Wherever he had landed, he was no longer on top of her and she did not waste time before crawling and groping her way to the edge of the forest.

 If you enjoyed reading this, stop by next week for another instalment. You may also like my published novel, Aigaion Girl ... a story of the end of days, available here.

So, So (So-So?)

So.
I didn't finish my NaNovel this year.  I'm still working on it, in between my day job and trying to learn Slovak, but I'm more than a little disappointed in myself.  I think I was padding my word count too much and it was leading to bad writing, which was leading to me not really feeling like putting the effort in.  Plus, suddenly working 9 hours a day after long periods of lazing around the house made me super tired.  Excuses, excuses.  Point is, I didn't finish.

And my real point is, rather than focusing on my unfinished story, to ask you how you found NaNo this year, if you finished, if you got anything out of it, if you'll be doing it next year, etc., etc.

Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Holiday of Your Choosing and a Happy New Year.

In keeping with last year's tradition, some random, creepy holiday art.

50,000!

I thought you might like to know that, between all of the DevCo-writing NaNoWriMo participants, we've passed the 50,000 word mark.  Most of this, I must confess, is down to E.

I'm under par, but pretty much back to where I want to be, IE, needing to write 2,000 words per day to finish on time.  I wrote 7,400 words this weekend to catch up, so I'm feeling pretty good about myself, if a little exhausted.

I have an early morning meeting at my day job tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me, but for those of you back in Canadaland, enjoy the rest of your writing day!

Rain

It started raining last week.  Not heavy but endless.  Cold, constant, November rain. 

There aren't any animals.  If there are any left, they're in hiding, curled up under a tree somewhere, waiting for the rain to stop.  You can see faces, too, in the windows of other houses, staring out at you, watching the rain and wondering the same thing you've been wondering all along: is this it?

Of course it's not it.  You tell yourself that over and over again.  Of course it's not.  But you don't know, not for sure.

The world will end on a Tuesday, there isn't any question.  The only uncertain thing is which Tuesday it will choose - and where all the calenders have gone.

That's my flashy thing for the writing prompt I put up on Monday.  I had the idea for it during heavy rain yesterday, and wrote it just now - the sky is a crisp blue and cloudless, the sun is shining - we definitely are not having apocalyptic type rains here.

So I'm gearing up for NaNo, and working like a nut to finish my All Hallow's Read poster.  I only found out about the contest last week, so creating something worthy of AHR in that time is not going to be easy - that being said, I am at the finishing touches stage, so I should have it in by the end of the weekend, and I'll definitely post a link to it when I have.

I also finally got myself another day job, which is good (yay!) but is also a minimum of 45 hours per week (also yay!) - which means NaNoWriMo is going to be CRAZY this year, especially since I'm also going to Prague for four days at the end of next week (super yay!) - I'm going to have to write at least 2,000 words per day at the end of a 9 hour shift - but I was reading through my (now 16 page) outline a couple of days ago, and I really do think this story is going to be good.

So...um...yeah.

Greetings!

I know I've fallen off the internet for a while...there's an explanation for that. It mostly involves living, but...yeah.

Anyway, everyone knows NaNo's staring in a a week or two, which is exciting...and I have no idea what I'm going to be writing for it. Maybe I'm out of practice, or maybe it's writer's block, but...I really haven't got a clue what to write, and every idea I come up with...doesn't work.

Now, I'm not whining...much. One of the biggest reasons I haven't come up with anything is time. You see, I've gone and acquired myself a husbandboyfriend and a stepson who's 8 now, and this month I've been embroiled in helping him to construct a Halo Spartan costume out of old shin guards, knee pads, etc, spraypaint, duct tape and cardboard. I got promoted in August to HR Manager at the hotel I work for, which is a much more hectic position for not too much more money than I was getting before, and I'm often there later than I would like to be...but the upside (no more night audit for me!) is also something of a downside, because it means I can't write at work.

I've barely even crocheted anything.

Now, I'm not whining because I'm being all growed up and doing my job and being step-mum when one has no real experience being a mum is...different (and not something I'll ever give up), but...I miss writing. NaNoWriMo would be the best time to get back into writing, except for the one, pesky detail that I can't escape:

What The Hell Am I Going To Write?

NaNoWriMo, You Hurt Me

I was going to try really hard to shut up about NaNoWriMo for October.  I was, because we all know that anything I find time to post on here in November is likely going to be NaNo-related graphs or complaints that I have writer's block.

But.

I was reading Chuck Wendig's 25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo (which you should check out) and came across some text off the NaNo website.  I honestly thought Mr. Wendig was using hyperbole, but I went and looked and it turns out that, in fact, the following is a direct quote from the NaNo in a Nutshell page of the site.

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.
Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

This hurts me. I mean, I get that it's supposed to be glib, but really.

... laughably awful yet lengthy... Yes, I agree that NaNoWriMo does not inspire the best writing an author can produce, yes, it forces one to rush things a bit  - but even rushed prose should at least attempt to be decent - otherwise what's the point?  If you're planning to write something awful, your time could probably be better spent.  And no, 50,000 words is not lengthy, not when you're talking about novels.

To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. Translation: To give us an excuse to act like pompous douchebags.

...mock real novelists... My issues with this one are twofold.  One, why would you mock anyone who is making a career out of something they love? - and two, who the f--k told you I'm not a real novelist? NaNoWriMo isn't just a waste of a month for me; I actually plan on doing something with what I write during November.  A lot of us do.*

I really do like NaNoWriMo.  I like the basic idea and I'm in awe of the amount of time and effort that the administrative staff put in every year.  The philanthropic aspects of NaNoWriMo are wonderful and so is the sense of community you get from joining hundreds of thousands of writers, all working toward the same goal.

NaNoWriMo's own description of itself really got to me.  I guess I don't like the idea that the same people who make it possible are encouraging people not to care what kind of writing it produces.

Of course I still plan to participate this year, but I'd be lying if I said that a little of the magic hasn't been lost.

*I don't think there's anything wrong with doing NaNo just for fun, but I don't like the assumption that that's the only reason anyone would want to participate.

A Little Help

So, being mildly obsessed with my NaNo and unable to start writing it, I've been making an uber outline (currenly 13 pages)and (dun, dun, dun-dun) written a synopsis. I've had a lot of trouble with the second part, actually, 'cause I'm not sure how to introduce a fanatasy world without making it sound completely lame (even though it's not).

I was hoping you guys could give me some feedback on the following, ie: is it any good? Would you want to read this book? Is it way too pretentious? Is it confusing? Does it flow ok? Or if you have any other comments you want to throw in there, they'd be more than welcome as well.

Foxes and rabbits don't get along

Someone wants Minty dead and she can't remember why; she can't remember anything. The mysterious event that caused her amnesia has left her horribly disfigured and she finds herself lost and alone during a tumultuous time.

The dreamworld is in chaos. Social media has started people dreaming about places they've never been and there's barely enough space to contain their misconceptions. With nearly seven billion people sleeping through the night, Nod is at full capacity.

Now underground rings of big game hunters are inducing comas to get into Nod – and turn its inhabitants into their prey.

Behind everything is the Dust, the life-force of the soul and the most potent drug in existence. Everyone has some, but many want more – and will stop at nothing to get it.

I'd really appreciate any help you could give me. Thanks!

NaNoWrimo is Eating My Brain

Not in a bad way. It's just that I really want to start writing this story. Now.

I think it's better for this story that I have to wait, because it's uber complex and being forced to think before I write is going to help both the speed and the quality of the writing, come Novembertime. But... I just... wanna.

Since I'm in writing mode and can't write (at least, not what I want to write (how many more times can I say write in this sentence?)), I've been doing a lot of outline-writing and yesterday, I took a couple of hours and did the mock up for the book cover (and by mock-up, I mean that I have to add a synopsis to the back (probably better to wait until I've finished - or at least started the book before writing that) and get the dimensions for the spine).

Today, once I've had my nap (I was on my feet all day at work; don't judge me) I'm going to be doing research. I had a brainwave this afternoon and thought of an extra little back story I can add to explain a bit about the universe and a bit about one of my mains.

The more I think about this story and the more I look at the book cover, the more I think this book is going to kick ass.

*knock wood*

I know it's 2 and half months away yet, but has anyone else caught the NaNo bug or is that just me?

Back to the grindstone...

Now that NaNo's all done with, and I've had a whole seven days to recover, I find myself wanting to write again. I had thought, a few days ago, that even putting a pen to paper would cause my head to explode in nasty ways, but it seems I'm wrong. Maybe it's because I've got time to sit around at work, sometimes, and I need something to occupy myself with, but really, I think it's because I'm something of a masochist. Also, a pleasant side effect of the whole NaNo thing is that I'm actually inspired to write more. Not on The Hollow of White Hazel, which was my NaNo story, but on the one about the princess who goes in search of her abducted prince, which is going to be my attempt at turning an entire genre on its ear.

Now that I've said that, I hope it works.

Anyway, has anyone else noticed the urge to write, inspite of the painful wrenching of brains that happened last month? Or not so painful wrenching of brains - some people here finished early, but I shan't name names. E. >:D But yeah...did you find NaNo has brought you to a whole new level of inspiration, or would you rather there were someway to burn the whole process of writing down like a matchstick factory in a high wind*?

Oh, and this is a discussion question. I'm bringing them back, yo**. Discuss.

*If this made no sense, blame the fact that it's 5am and I still have two hours before I can go home
** See above.

The Last of My NaNo Posts (in theory. For this year, at least)

It's a little amazing to me that I want to be writing anything right now, up to and including this blog post. It feels like I've been writing my whole life. Okay, I have been writing my whole life, but what I mean is, it feels like I've been writing without pause for my whole life. Today was especially brutal and I'm still a little spaced from it - as evidenced by the fact that half-way through reading the newsfeed on my Facebook, I was looking for the Save button, in case the computer crashed. But I finished - 50,057 words - and won NaNoWriMo for the first time ever.

As it did with Rhiannon, the word verification thing completely screwed me, deciding that my word count is somewhere in the low 48,000s. I'm more than a little freaked out about this, but in the end, even if I don't get my purple bar, I did what I set out to do: I wrote a novel in 30 days.

We all did, and as predicted, we Kicked November's Ass!

There's a good possibility I shouldn't be writing this right now, as there's a chance that none of it will make any sense, but I want to gloat and share in the gloating with my fellow DevCo NaNo winners.

A few things made this possible. The people who put NaNoWriMo together, for a start. Not that I couldn't have written a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, but more that it's not terribly likely that it would have occurred to me to try. Knowing people were struggling along with me (even if some of you finished impossibly early and were good enough not to rub it in) was another big thing that kept me going. And, of course, telling everyone at work what I was doing, so that I knew I would seem like a total failure if I didn't finish on time. Working the graveyard shift and having a boss that didn't mind that I kept my story saved on the desktop at work, as long as he could read it. Having an amazing guy, when I still had 14,000 words to go on the 28th simply tell me, "You'll do it." All of these things came together, and in the end, produced the rough draft that is eleven eleven wish.

And now I'm going to cut this short. I have seven hours of work left and no sleep to do them on, and am seriously considering ordering myself a hearty meal as a reward for finish NaNo, and I'm starting to think that the fact that I'm even mentioning my dinner plans means that I've lost sight of what is and isn't relevant on a site like this. Yeah, I should definitely go.

Congratulations, everyone :)

Additional 12.02.2010
I put a picture of our amazingness at the top. Hooray for purple bars!

Yay! Also, not yay.

I'm done! Woot!

Got me 50016 words in 29 days. Most of those are crap, and the story's not anywhere near done, but I still feel accomplished. Even if I basically just wrote a 50016 word outline for what will probably be two books, when I actually get through with it.

But, for the next few days, I'm going to put it aside and ignore it and then start the mammoth task of stripping it of it's awkward phrasing and filling in its plot holes. And then, I might just let people read it. >:D

Bit of a bollocks-y problem, though: Every time I try to get my story verified, so I can have WINNER! enscribed across the progress bar, it takes a moment to think and then tells me that I've only written 48517 words. I've most assuredly done 50016. I can do screencaps, if anyone really cares. The problem is, I can't get my goodies if the verification process isn't working, and if it doesn't start working by this time tomorrow, the past month of mental agony will have been for naught.

So I'm a little stressed. I don't understand why it's not working. It lets me update my word count just fine; it even tracks my stats without complaint. It's just not letting me verify and win.

I just don't get it.