Lost (Wednesday Words 8.31.16)

Welcome to a piece of Wednesday Word’s flash fiction on Darkling Dreams!

A good friend of mine, P.T. Wyant, is doing a blog post every Wednesday called Wednesday Words with a new prompt for a bit of flash fiction writing, just to get in the habit of writing something, anything. (Even if said flash fiction is complete garbage at the time. Garbage is better than nothing though, right?) If you’re looking for some inspiration yourself or just something to aimlessly write, then go check out her blog for this week’s prompt!

With that being said, I am going to share what I came up with for this week’s flash fiction prompt based off a photo prompt. So here is my very rough around the edges minute of inspiration based off her prompt. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!

(Please excuse any errors you may see, I said it was rough around the edges.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Lost

Standing alone
Among rocky ground
A midnight coat
Glistens with droplets.
Saddened eyes watch
Storm clouds brewing,
And lightning streaking.

Lost at sea.
Lost at heart.

Thunder rolls through
A hollowed heart.
A wistful breeze
Carries memories old,
Begging black strands
Away towards home.

Lost at sea.
Lost at heart.

Nostrils flare at
Sea salt’s taunt, and
Sparse, dry grass
Tickles at hooves
In mockery.
How long can one survive?

Lost at sea.
Lost at heart.

Land too far,
Rescue too slim.
Abandoned and
Forgotten as
Bare land is:
One cannot survive long.

Lost at sea.
Lost at heart.

Once a loving hand groomed,
Now brambles mat instead.
Once a fiery spirit,
Wild and free,
Now wild by nature,
But not free by heart.

Lost at sea.
Lost at heart.

---

Now you can find this flash fiction work and others on my profile on Wattpad! Click here for my profile and go dive into a sea of Shards of Imagination!

Also, as I work to play catch up from my latest computer crash, I will be posting the Shards of a prompt I missed from May and June directly to Wattpad each week. That means two Shards every week! Those old prompts will not be posted to my blog so if you wish to see the old one of the week, you’ll have to hop on over to my profile on Wattpad.

Since I’ve been focusing on a project with a deadline and work, the next oldest Shard has not yet gone up on Wattpad. I know I was supposed to have the final two catch up Shards done and posted to Wattpad already but some things got the front burner in the past couple weeks. I am working to finish the last two lonely catch up Shards.

Goal Crunching

Another weekend has come and gone, and with it comes the end of August. Where has the time gone? Didn’t August just start?

With the end of August also comes the deadline of all the goals I had for August, and, er, well…

*Clears throat, looks off innocently*

Can I skip talking about that? Let’s just say I did horrible.

In truth, not one of my goals was accomplished. *Sigh* I know I still have two days left to August but none of it is going to get done more than likely. I mean, unless I can write 15k in Fated to Darkness, two sets of notes for journaling, and five entries for that journaling in two days time, it ain’t getting done. In fact, it’s more like one day because my Wednesday is shot to hell between work and riding until about 8 o’clock at night.

What fun! Not!

I actually could get the notes done in time, and probably should before I forget any more of them.

I guess it’s not too bad that I didn’t get any of those goals done, though. I mean, I did write an almost 10k word short story, and submitted it for a chance to be published, and I am getting published. I did write it and edit it in the span of 12 days, and then had to putz around editing it once more when I got it back for a look over.

(Which I just finished that yesterday and sent it back so we’ll see what suggestions, if any, come back to me this time.)

So it wasn’t like I wasted the whole month. I was busy. Work drained me a couple weeks, I worked my ass off writing this story and submitting it. I did do about 5k worth of words on Fated to Darkness before I got sidetracked on the submission.

I did write then. I did do something in the world of a writer. It just wasn’t the goals I was supposed to be doing.

Go figure.

Not to mention right now I’m a week behind on blog hops thanks to work and a lot of other stress… Yeah, that’ll be my later today goal, plus some writing and whatever else needs done, like scheduling Sunday Snippet posts for September. My villain and hero of FtD are feeling quite neglected, too. Yet I’m still struggling a bit to get back into them, I’m managing a few hundred words at a time, that’s it.

So now that August is coming to a close, what are my goals going to be for September? Well… Maybe I’ll save that in depth topic for Friday’s post. (Mainly because I’m not quite sure on them just yet.)

Sweet Blackness (Snippet Sunday 8.28.16)

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

For a couple months — August and September I’m thinking — I am switching back to sharing from my adventure novel, Breaking Point. In October I might switch back to Fated to Darkness as I hope to have the first draft finished by then. (Yes, finished. I can hardly believe I’m saying that.) Should that happen, I’ll be posting to celebrate completing my first ever novel manuscript. Until then, enjoy more horses and mysterious bad guys!

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Our main character, who has yet to be named, has taken a ride through the forest on her horse Midnight, and has found herself racing a buck through the foliage. Midnight and his rider have veered off the path somewhere and have now found themselves in a uncharted part of the forest they have never seen before. They have run into a band of armed riders who seem threatening, and are surrounded now.

Picking up right where I left off in last week’s snippet.

(Some sentences may have been creatively edited and punctuated to try to fit the ten sentence limit. I’m over, again. Can we just agree that my snippets will always be a little longer but not too long?)

~*~*~*~

Midnight screamed in fury as he met a wall of riders. His eyes rolled back in his head and he reared, his hooves slashing out at the horses in front of him. But the riders weren’t fazed by his fury; they pushed forward, boxing my horse in.

I felt myself start to sway and the world blurred, my body slowly sliding out of saddle as I tried to hold on. The sounds of Midnight’s screams started to fade and I lost my grip. I fell off Midnight to the side as I watched multiple lassos landing around my horse’s neck, pulling him away from me as I fell. I hit the ground hard, not bothering to try to brace my fall, the effects of the sedative quickly taking over control of my body.

My vision swam in and out like a flickering, fuzzy TV screen as I watched Midnight rear again and again, throwing his head side to side. He tried in vain to break away from the ropes and the captors, but them and their horses held him tight. I tried to talk, tried to yell to Midnight to stop before he got hurt.

But no sound came out.

I laid there on the ground, the screams of my horse sounding farther off with each passing second and the shouts of men barely audible. Darkness started to creep into my vision and my limbs became heavy as I saw the tips of another captor’s boots walk up to me.

I tried to lift my head to see who it was but it felt like lead. The captor kneeled down in front of me, his hand reaching down to tip my chin up. My eyes caught sight of the stranger from the bay horse crouching in front of me, one hand holding a short piece of rope.

“I told you not to try, my dear. I never liked having to do it this way.”

The stranger let my chin fall back towards the ground. Weariness overtook me more, the darkness swimming around me. I tried to hold out against the sedative but I could feel my eyes closing, my body giving up to the sweet blackness of the abyss. The last thing I heard was the fading screams of my horse trying desperately to get free; and the light touch of the stranger pulling my wrists together followed by the coarse touch of the rope.

Then the darkness overtook me, and I fell into its embrace.

~*~*~*~

Oh now this pair is really in trouble.

This story is not yet on Wattpad either as it is another unfinished work and unedited as well. I refuse to put up anything that is unedited. One day I hope to finish this book, but my focus this year is Fated to Darkness.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to  my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,
hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!

Dreams Do Come True

Thunderstorms are amazing. I get to watch one as I fall asleep tonight and the lightning show is pretty damn awesome, so are the bangs coming with you. This might be the best thunderstorm I’ve had all year.

Anyways, now that the energy off of this storm gave me the kick in the rear to have enough coherent thought to write this blog post, let me get onto the right topic. (I would be dead on my feet yet if not for this, it’s been a really long week and I’m so ready to crash. Unfortunately, I needed this before I crashed though cause I won’t have time when I wake up or at all tomorrow, later today. It’s not tomorrow to me till I wake up.)

As I was saying!

I have big news.

Huge news.

Remember me saying on Tuesday’s post I thought it could be a month before I hear back about my submission? Then I learned it could be by the end of next week or sooner?

Yeah, well, it ended up being sooner. A lot sooner. As in a couple hours after I wrote that blog post.

I was just about on my way to work but I happened to want to check my email before I left so I did, not expecting anything yet. I got the surprise of my life though for I saw only a half hour earlier I had gotten an email about my submission. My breath caught, my heart starting pounding, and the world stilled for a moment as I opened up the email and started skim reading. Bracing myself for a blow at the same time I’m trying to keep my heart from pounding out of my chest.

Then my world just stopped as I skim read the email, and I shot upwards. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t form words and I dropped my phone on the bed, staring at it with wide eyes. My heart skipped and I backed away, sinking to the floor and covering my mouth with my hand. A broken laugh spilled from my lips and I just stared at my bed as reality settled in.

With a surge of need to read the email fully, I got back up and snatched my phone, eyes watering as I read through it again. Not once, but twice. Then I sank back to the floor, a joyous grin pulling at my lips, a disbelieving but excited laugh spilling forth. I covered my mouth again and couldn’t make myself breathe correctly as my vision blurred in tears of happiness.

Because there it was, staring at me in the face were the words I had so dearly hoped to read. The words I had daydreamed of seeing but had tried not to hope so much for.

“[So and so] would like to offer you a contract of publication.”

My story was one of the ones chosen to be in the Halloween anthology. Yes, little old me. An aspiring, undiscovered author was chosen among others. Others who are probably already published and have a name for themselves. And yet I was picked right alongside them.

I will see my name in print for the first time. I can truly say I am a published author soon. This is the start of so many hopes and dreams, this is a huge leap forward for me, no matter how small the company publishing me is. This is my stepping stone towards my goal. This is the start of something bigger.

This is… This is surreal.

Dreams do come true.

Prairie Birth (Wednesday Words 8.24.16)

Welcome to a piece of Wednesday Word’s flash fiction on Darkling Dreams!

A good friend of mine, P.T. Wyant, is doing a blog post every Wednesday called Wednesday Words with a new prompt for a bit of flash fiction writing, just to get in the habit of writing something, anything. (Even if said flash fiction is complete garbage at the time. Garbage is better than nothing though, right?) If you’re looking for some inspiration yourself or just something to aimlessly write, then go check out her blog for this week’s prompt!

With that being said, I am going to share what I came up with for this week’s flash fiction prompt based off a three word combination prompt. So here is my very rough around the edges minute of inspiration based off her prompt. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!

(Please excuse any errors you may see, I said it was rough around the edges.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Prairie Birth

The wagon wheels creaked as he halted the two chestnut horses. “Hang on, honey,” he murmured, getting up and hopping off. He hurried around the back of the wagon to her side, taking her hand and gingerly helping his wife down.

Halfway down she winced and hunched over, nearly falling. He caught her and held her against his chest as he started carrying her towards the lone prairie house.

“I got ya.”

Her hand rested over her stomach, breathing deeply as she tried to quell the surging waves of pain and kicking. Once they reached the door of the cabin, he set her down on her feet but kept an arm around her waist, holding her against him.

“Just breathe… Keep breathing,” he tried to instruct as he pounded hard upon the door. “Hello! Is anyone home?!” He pounded again on the door, glancing towards the soft light glowing within the closest window to him. “Please!”

“Jack…” she moaned, faltering.

His grip around her waist tightened a fraction. “Just hang on… Hello!” The door shook with the force of his pounding now.

“Who’s there?!” a male voice from within yelled.

“Please, we need help. My wife, she’s in labor and we had not yet reached the next town when it set in. Please, open the door. She needs a bed and I… I do not know how to deliver a baby!”

He heard a quick exchange of voices within before the door swung open and an older couple faced him. The weathered husband held a rifle in his hand while he stood behind his plump wife. They eyed the pair as light washed over their figures. The wife’s eyes landed upon his expectant wife and widened.

“Goodness gracious! Herald, go clear the extra bed and gather me lots of towels, hot water, and the herbs from the cupboard. Quickly.” She shooed her husband off who set down the rifle and did exactly as she told him to. “Come. Come in.”

“Thank you. Thank you so kindly, ma’am.” Jack breathed in relief as the woman helped them inside and shut the door with her foot, leading them to the bed and settling Colleen down. He stood back awkwardly out of the way, watching worriedly. His wife had a vice grip on his hand.

Herald soon came hurrying back with all the elderly woman had asked for, arms laden with the stuff as he set it to the side of her and looked up at Jack. “This your first?” Jack nodded stiffly and the man smiled reassuringly. “No need to worry. The first is always the hardest. Martha here knows what she is doing, you’re in good hands with your wife.”

He tipped his hat in appreciation. “I’m much obliged.”

Martha dabbed at Colleen’s forehead and hushed her gasps of pains, then rolled up her sleeves as she got ready to work. “Alright, dear, you just follow my instructions, the both of you, and pretty soon you’ll have your firstborn in your arms wailing away. I could do this in my sleep.”

Colleen gave a timid smile laced with pain and glanced at her husband. Oh how she hoped that was true.

---

Now you can find this flash fiction work and others on my profile on Wattpad! Click here for my profile and go dive into a sea of Shards of Imagination!

Also, as I work to play catch up from my latest computer crash, I will be posting the Shards of a prompt I missed from May and June directly to Wattpad each week. That means two Shards every week! Those old prompts will not be posted to my blog so if you wish to see the old one of the week, you’ll have to hop on over to my profile on Wattpad.

Since I’ve been focusing on a project with a deadline and work, the next oldest Shard has not yet gone up on Wattpad yet. I know I was supposed to have the final two catch up Shards done and posted to Wattpad before this but some things got the front burner in the past week. There will be news on that in Friday’s post! *Squee* Hopefully next week I’ll at least have one of the catch up Shards up.

Emotions-5, Daelyn-O

Well I did it.

I took the biggest plunge of my life in my writing so far and submitted the short story to the anthology at about 1am on Saturday. (To me it was still Friday but according to the clocks it was Saturday.)

I am still terrified.

Literally, after setting up the email and attaching the Word doc, I stared at the send button for a good ten minutes unable to breathe before I finally managed to hit that little button. I’ll admit, I had to close my eyes and hold my breath to do it, along with a little kick in the ass from some friends, but I did it finally. I’ve been freaking out off and on ever since then.

Yesterday I had a panic attack over it when I got an email from the coordinator (after I had been asking a few questions so they knew I was submitting one) asking me if I had sent in my submission. For some reason, her email wasn’t showing it at all. It was in my sent mail, it was the right email address it went to and all, yet somehow she didn’t get it. Thankfully, I was allowed to forward the email a second time and she got it after a few hours of panicking on my part.

Of course, that doesn’t change the fact I’m still freaking out.

You know how when you submit to something like this you think it’s going to take maybe a month or so before you hear back about your submission? Seems logical, right? They have how many submissions (I really don’t know how many they have and I don’t want to know unless I’m accepted) to read and their own personal lives and such. So I thought a month would be a reasonable amount of time before hearing back.

Ha, yeah, nope!

Imagine my shock over the email I got back in saying they received my submission and I’d hear back by the end of next week, if not sooner, if I was accepted. End of next week! If not sooner! I was not ready to hear that, I think it only made me more terrified.

I expected I’d have a month of waiting with baited breath and now I kinda just got flipped upside down in shock. (I was at work when I read that email to, soooo…) I’m both excited and nervous as all hell to be checking my email for the next two weeks. Excited and terrified are pretty much my two dominant emotions in this.

Well, there’s also the fact this feels so, so surreal. Yes, I still can’t believe I’ve done this. I’ve been one whack-a-doodle since I hit that send button. One minute I’m terrified and repeating “oh my god” to myself while holding my head, the next I’m laughing and smiling like an idiot with giddiness, then I’m left day dreaming and I feel like I want to squeal, then once more I’m terrified and I can’t seem to breathe right, and then… Yeah, it’s just a repeating cycle of madness and roller coaster emotions right now.

In an attempt to get my mind off it and stop freaking out, I tried to dive back into Fated to Darkness on Saturday. You know, since it was neglected while I wrote this submission. I’m having trouble getting myself back into it. I was so focused on this submission and so panicky over it, that now that it’s actually over I’m thinking “now what?”.

Seriously, now what?

This is the first time I’ve ever put so much focus and work into writing and editing something. Alright, yeah, I’ve put A LOT of writing and focus into Fated to Darkness, but I haven’t done any editing on it yet so this feels…bigger.

Who am I kidding? This IS bigger.

At least, at the moment it is. I’m sure when I get around to editing FtD and then looking to get it published, it’ll be ten times bigger than a simple short story for an anthology being as this series is my absolute dream, but… Until that day comes along, this is bigger.

So now I just kind of feel…stuck. Lost. Grappling for what I’m supposed to be doing. I know what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to be blog hopping and writing and trying to make my goals for August. And instead I’m just…bleh.

It’s been a really funky two days with a lot of unknown reasons for mood switching. As well as a lot of headaches. I don’t know what it is with me right now. Maybe it’s the shock and nervousness and terror of this submission that is screwing with me, but something is screwing with me majorly. I’m getting absolutely nowhere in everything, my emotions and life are winning every round right now, and beating me down into the ground.

Right now I just hope I find my equilibrium again and get writing on FtD, because I had wanted to get 20k added to it this month, and I’ve got about 4.5k instead so far. And because I was supposed to be writing a lot of journal entries for camping and I haven’t done a single one. And I hope I get accepted into this submission, because it would be a dream come true. And… *Sigh*

Why do I always seem to fall apart just when I think I’ve finally got myself on a good path? Am I psyching myself out? Just…why?

Don’t Try It (Snippet Sunday 8.21.16)

Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

For a couple months — August and September I’m thinking — I am switching back to sharing from my adventure novel, Breaking Point. In October I might switch back to Fated to Darkness as I hope to have the first draft finished by then. (Yes, finished. I can hardly believe I’m saying that.) Should that happen, I’ll be posting to celebrate completing my first ever novel manuscript. Until then, enjoy more horses and mysterious bad guys!

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Our main character, who has yet to be named, has taken a ride through the forest on her horse Midnight, and has found herself racing a buck through the foliage. Midnight and his rider have veered off the path somewhere and have now found themselves in a uncharted part of the forest they have never seen before. They have run into a band of armed riders who seem threatening, and are surrounded now.

Skipping ahead just a few paragraphs from last week’s snippet. You aren’t missing anything important. My MC is now contemplating making a bolt for it.

(Some sentences may have been creatively edited and punctuated to try to fit the ten sentence limit. I’m over, again. Can we just agree that my snippets will always be a little longer but not too long?)

~*~*~*~

“Please don’t try it, my dear. You won’t get far at all. A mere few feet is how far they normally get,” the stranger said to me. He must have read my intentions in the way I settled into my seat and looked towards the woods. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t as quick as he claimed to be.

I took one last look at the circle of horses and noticed that the riders that did not have a gun, now had ropes in one hand. They were all ready for me to bolt. I knew my odds of getting out of here were slim to none.

But still I had to try.

My eyes caught the strangers once more before focusing on my escape route. “Don’t try it, my dear.”

I gripped the saddle hard and dug my heels in Midnight’s sides. He lunged forward, making a bolt for it. The stranger didn’t even move, his eyes simply followed my movements. Then again, he didn’t have to make a move; every single rider on the side that I was headed for spurred their horses forward towards me.

I prayed I would somehow break through their ranks but deep down I knew I was doomed.

We had taken no more than a few strides before I heard the sound of a gun going off. I let out a cry of pain as I felt a sharp point pierce my neck. I nearly toppled off my horse, one hand flying to my neck to meet the end of a dart.

I was right when I thought the guns were tranquilizers.

~*~*~*~

Well… That didn’t work. Hopefully these guys aren’t too bad. He did warn her.

This story is not yet on Wattpad either as it is another unfinished work and unedited as well. I refuse to put up anything that is unedited. One day I hope to finish this book, but my focus this year is Fated to Darkness.

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to  my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,
hop on over to Facebook and check out Snippet Sunday!

This Is It

The moment of truth. The big and scary “holy shit” moment. The “I can’t believe I’m actually doing this” moment.

If you’ve paid attention to the past week and a half of my posts, you’ll have noticed I’ve been talking about a submission I’ve been working on for a Halloween anthology. The deadline for that submission is tomorrow.

And I’m actually ready for it.

I’ve spent the last two days working my butt off on editing and writing for this submission. My brain hurts, but now I’m finally reaching the tail end of all I need to do. And let me just say right now this feels unreal.

I don’t even have a guaranteed chance of being chosen and published in the anthology, but I feel like I’m walking in a daze. I cannot honestly believe that I am giving this a shot. I never thought I would actually do something like this, or at the very least follow all the way through with it. I’m probably one of the least known and not even remotely published authors out there submitting to this, and somehow…I feel as if I have a shot.

I’m terrified. I’m nervous. I’m going “oh my God” every five seconds. I’m staring at my screen like my world has slowed to a stop.

If this is how I feel for simply submitting to the anthology, I do not want to see what my reaction is going to be if I get an email back saying I was accepted.

(I’m getting way over my head here, aren’t I?)

Anyways, getting out of the feelings department, I finished editing this afternoon. Well, let me rephrase that: I finished editing a first round paper edit last night, and spent until 1am or so entering the changes into the Word doc before I sent it off to a friend for a second pair of eyes. (That alone was nerve-wracking to me for some reason.) This morning as I got it back I read through again and tweaked the awkward sentences — with lots of growling and swear words on my part at times — clarified things, and even ended up adding a hundred words or so based off suggestions.

I’m happy with how the story turned out. Really happy, actually. I hope that’s not a bad thing.

So after that was done, I started tackling the dreaded blurb. I. Hate. Blurbs. I swear these things are the Achilles’ Heel of every author out there. How do you put 22 pages worth of story into about eight to ten sentences? How? It never works out nicely the first time, or the second time, or the third, or…

Catch my drift?

Finally after some help in that department as well, I managed to come up with a blurb that I could live with and hopefully has the aspect of appealing. At some point within the blurb writing I finally stopped to eat since I had ignored food the entire day while I was editing.

Once those two things were done, I only had the information side of the submission left to complete. An author bio, placing the story in a genre, recording the word count, writing a dedication since I decided on one, gathering the links to my websites.

Now… Now I’m nearly done.

I’ve completed the author bio and all the other necessary information, the editing is done, the blurb is done, I’ve mostly formatted the Word doc now, the dedication is done.

I’m…done.

I can’t believe I’m saying that.

The only thing I have left to do is add the website links to the Word doc and send it in. Ho-ly crap.

That’s a half lie though. I’m not fully, fully done.

One of the links I could include was a Facebook author page. I don’t have one yet. Well, I do now, actually. I had been tossing around the idea of making one for awhile now, but thought I was going to wait for the release of the Dark Heir book. I mean, I’m not published yet so I can’t put any links up to it, no real news. But then again, I do have Wattpad and I do have this blog so I might as well start utilizing a Facebook author page now.

So, in light of this submission, I decided now was a good time to make one. That way on the off chance I am accepted, I have that link out there.

Of course, because I spent the last hour putzing around trying to create my author page, I totally forgot about this blog post. Then again, creating that page is also what reminded me I needed a blog post… Irony is a bitch.

Getting back on topic now… This is really it. By tomorrow afternoon I’ll have sent in my submission and I’ll wait with quiet nervous and a pounding heart to see if I hear back about it at all. I think the story is going to get one last read through and then that’s it.

My heart is pounding just thinking about it now.

(And should any of my followers here be interested in following my author page on Facebook, feel free to come drop me a like. I’m still in the process of setting it up, but the basics are there.)

Seeing Ghosts (Wednesday Words 8.17.16)

Welcome to a piece of Wednesday Word’s flash fiction on Darkling Dreams!

A good friend of mine, P.T. Wyant, is doing a blog post every Wednesday called Wednesday Words with a new prompt for a bit of flash fiction writing, just to get in the habit of writing something, anything. (Even if said flash fiction is complete garbage at the time. Garbage is better than nothing though, right?) If you’re looking for some inspiration yourself or just something to aimlessly write, then go check out her blog for this week’s prompt!

With that being said, I am going to share what I came up with for this week’s flash fiction prompt based off a line to be used within the work. So here is my very rough around the edges minute of inspiration based off her prompt. I’d love to hear what you guys think of it!

(Please excuse any errors you may see, I said it was rough around the edges.)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Seeing Ghosts

A knock on the door made Justin pause with the spoon halfway to his mouth. With a curious frown, he set the silverware down and pushed away from the kitchen table, wandering off towards the front door. Another insistent knock sounded.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” he grumbled. “Interrupting my breakfast.”

One last knock sounded before he grabbed the handle and opened the door, only to stop dead in his tracks at who was standing on his doorstep. He felt all the air whoosh out of his lungs, his heart stop. The blood drained from his face and his knees weakened. His mouth worked around but no sound came out. Shock didn’t even begin to cover what he was feeling.

“Hi, Justin,” the visitor said softly.

He gaped. “Hi? Hi? HI?!” His voice turned squeaky for a second. “You died! I… We… You… We buried you!” He felt ready to faint, swaying on his feet.

“I know…” His face fell and he reached out to steady his old roommate, only for Justin to jump back like he was poison. He tried not to let it hurt so much. “Justin, I am so sorry for all of this. But I had to.”

“Had to what? You’re supposed to be dead!” He put his hand over his heart. “Oh… Oh my God… I’m going to faint. I’m having a heart attack. Where’s the phonebook? I’m seeing ghosts. I need a psychologist. Where’s my straight jacket!?” He turned away from the visitor and started stumbling down the hall, still muttering to himself in utter disbelief.

“Justin,” he called, quickly letting himself in and closing the door. “Justin, please, just hear me out.” Worry tinged his voice and grey eyes.

“Hear out a dead man?” He laughed crazily. “Hear out a dead man? You hear that, universe! I’ve gone loco!” His head pounded and he rubbed at his forehead. “Oh… Oh… Where’s my aspirin?”

“Justin, stop.” He reached out and took his friend’s arm. “I faked my death, I had to. I’m not dead.”

“Faked…” Justin stared at him. “Why the hell would you do that, Jason!?”

He flinched back a little. “I had no choice. Not until the coast was clear.”

“Clear of what? Seagulls?!”

Jason frowned. “No,” he replied softly. “Until I was no longer being stalked.”

For a moment, Justin stilled and just stared at him. Then he started wandering off again. “My best friend, my lover, my heart and soul just fakes his death and disappears without a trace, without so much as an explanation. We buried a casket, a casket with no body. Nothing but photos and trinkets and… And you think it was alright to simply show up at my doorstep with no warning?” His hand went against his head, eyes fluttering closed. “I’m going to faint.”

“You aren’t going to faint.”

Justin shot him a glare, wandering into the bathroom and pulling out the bottle of aspirin. He stared at the directions for how many not to exceed, frowned, then popped one extra into his hand anyways and downed them with a glass of water. There was not enough aspirin in the world for this circumstance.

“You’re angry with me…”

“Angry? You ate all my cereal and faked your death for three years! I have a right to be angry!”

Jason frowned. “You’re still on about the cereal?”

“They were my cocoa puffs. You messed with my morning routine. Like, oh my God, even today!” He motioned wildly back down the hall towards the kitchen where his bowl of cereal was sitting and waiting for him.

Jason sighed, looking up to the ceiling and muttering something.

“How can you just simply upend your life and leave me hanging for three years thinking you were gone and you ripped my heart into pieces and…” He was blubbering now, starting to cry in the overwhelming emotions.

His roommate frowned and stepped up to him, planting his lips softly against his to stop his inconsistent babbling. Justin stilled, going silent at the caress of warm lips he had missed for so long. After a moment Jason pulled back and leaned his forehead against Justin’s, staring into those blue eyes he loved so much.

“I hate you.”

Jason gave a wistful smile. “But you also love me.”

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered.

“I know…” He put his hand against Justin’s cheek. “Please, can we talk this out?”

Justin hesitated, then gave a small nod, letting his partner lead him down the hall to the living room to sit and talk. “You know that kiss doesn’t make up for three years of absence. And you owe me a bowl of non-soggy cocoa puffs now.”

Jason chuckled, stopping to give him a quick kiss, glad he was calming down now. “I know. And I will get you a bowl of non-soggy cocoa puffs after we talk. I promise. By the way,” he reached over to the side table and picked up the phone, handing it to him, “call off work. This is going to take awhile.”

He took a shaky breath to calm himself, then dialed the phone while Jason sat him down on the couch. He could tell if was going to be a long, long emotional day. He better go grab some tissues and unplug the phone after he was done with this call.

---

Now you can find this flash fiction work and others on my profile on Wattpad! Click here for my profile and go dive into a sea of Shards of Imagination!

Also, as I work to play catch up from my latest computer crash, I will be posting the Shards of a prompt I missed from May and June directly to Wattpad each week. That means two Shards every week! Those old prompts will not be posted to my blog so if you wish to see the old one of the week, you’ll have to hop on over to my profile on Wattpad.

Since I’ve been focusing on editing with a deadline, the next oldest Shard has not yet gone up on Wattpad. Next week I’ll have the final two catch up Shards done and posted with links here!

Scarping Versus Scraping

Alright, so I didn’t finish writing my short story submission for the anthology by Saturday like I had wanted. I got close, but I was hitting blocks and I was a real cranky bitch for a couple days so not a lot of writing happened. I did write every day, but I didn’t finish the story like I wanted to.

Sunday I kind of took a day off, even though I know I shouldn’t have. I was trying to make myself write but I was still just so tired from a long work week that I couldn’t get myself moving. I had my laptop out and everything, I just kind of never opened it to start writing.

So yesterday before work was when I finally finished writing this short tale. As usual, I’m a horrible judge of how many more words left I have to write. I thought it’d be around 7k words or so in total, and, nope. I ended up finishing out at 21 pages and 9.5k words.

I’m not complaining about it. I like how it ended and I think it’s befitting. Though I did have a new character decide to waltz their way in at the end of the story. More like clip-clop on in. But I love them so much so it’s all good.

Anywho!

Since I finished writing the story yesterday, that had left me with about four days to edit this and send it in. The deadline is this Saturday. I want to send it on Friday just to be safe. I had really wanted more than four days to edit this, but I think I’ll be okay.

Before I went to work yesterday I printed it out and hole punched it, then put it in my short stories binder for editing. (Which still has Rivers of Black sitting in it staring at me expectedly going “when am I finally going to get my re-edit?”) I hauled my editing bag out yesterday before I left, too, and had sorely wished I could have stayed home from work and started working on it.

Unfortunately the evil day job just does not allow me to do that. I gotta make money some other way until my dad keeps saying I hit big with publishing. (He’s more confident than I am over that fact.)

So I started editing earlier tonight then and I’ve gotten halfway through the story. I’m up to page 12. I would have been editing all day but I had a dreaded bathroom to clean finally, and I still haven’t gotten to my laundry since someone else stole the washer for the day. I swear that happens every time I’m off and need to do my laundry.

I’d still be editing if not for the fact I remembered I needed a blog post before midnight. Whoops.

This editing round is honestly my first try at printing out what I write and editing the old fashioned way with a red pen and a bunch of other office goodies. (You should see what my editing bag holds.) I used to just edit right from my computer screen but after being told printing it out seems to help a little more, I decided it was time to give it a try.

So far I like it. I really like doing it this way. There’s a bunch of papers and colorful pens strewn around me, but it works well doing it this way. I’m going to stick with this.

Part of the problem is this is also sort of my trial and error editing method. Since this is the first time I’m editing on paper, I’m not quite sure how I want to color code things or stay organized so I’m kind of testing the waters as I go. Thankfully this story isn’t a mess so I don’t have a lot of sticky note options or more than one color pen options, but it’s still a bit of trial and error. I think Rivers of Black might be a bit more in depth than this is.

So far so good though. It’s coming along well, even if I’m sitting here muttering to myself and reading aloud. I also discovered that scarping is a word in this process. I apparently meant to write “scraping” and it came out as “scarping”. I had never heard of that word before and since Word didn’t obviously yell at me for it with a red squiggly line, I didn’t notice it till now. And yes, I did go look it up when I realized what I wrote to see if it was even a word. I don’t think I would have caught that if I was staring at my computer screen instead of a piece of paper. So, yay!

My hope is to have finished paper editing it and entering the changes into Word by tomorrow night. Then maybe get another set of eyes on it just to be safe and give it one last read through before I send it off on Friday.

Wish me luck, but I’m sure you’ll hear about that come Friday anyways.