Fiction Fragment Fridays: Witch

**As first mentioned on March 21st**
For the next little while I’m going to be busy building up a new backlog of material to post on Fridays, amidst the other stuff I’m working on, so for the next few weeks I’m going to satisfy myself to simply post a drabble a week. For you writers out there, feel free to use these drabbles as prompts toward writing something bigger and better, and if you care to share what you’ve written, please send me a link so I can check it out. 🙂

———————

Witch

I always wanted to be a witch. Magic – or magik, if you prefer – always fascinated me in a way that nothing else did. I especially enjoyed the religious aspects. The idea of a God and Goddess who are the embodiments of nature and it’s manifestation of life always appealed to me, particularly the stories which describe the Goddess as the being that contains and conceives the universe and the God as her inspiration for life. I felt I had a connection to them…that I could harness their eternal power.

Oh, how gloriously wrong I was…how very, spectacularly wrong.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Prologue

It’s been a while since I participated in any kind of blogging challenge, so I was quite interested when I came across a passing mention to something called the “A to Z Blogging Challenge“. Apparently this is a yearly challenge that has been around for a while now, and there’s a good chance that I probably heard it mentioned before at sometime in the past, but this is the first time that I took the initiative to actually go to the website and see what it’s all about. The idea is that if you blog every day except Sunday (because you have to have a day off, right?) through the month of April, you wind up with 26 posts. For the less observant of you out there, that means one post for every letter of the alphabet. So on day 1 you would blog about something that starts with the letter “A”, on day 2 something that starts with “B”, and so on. You can blog about anything you like; you can be totally random or come up with a theme. The only real rules are 26 days = 26 posts, and to use the alphabet as previous mentioned.

I thought it sounded like fun, so I decided to sign up, and was quite surprised to see that approximately 380 people had already signed up by the time I got to the form (back at the end of February). I thought to myself, “Self…that is a lot of participating blogs!” Imagine my surprise, then, when I checked back to the website a week into March and found that there were now over 1000 participating blogs? And that was with three weeks still left to sign up! Yikes!

All that aside, I’m telling you all this because tomorrow is the first of April, which means the first of my 26 alphabetic posts, and I need to explain a few things ahead of time. First of all, since my accountability posts are an important part of my blog, for the month of April there will be two posts each Wednesday: one accountability post and one challenge post. Second, along the same vein, I’m going to continue posting Fiction Fragment Fridays during April, so there will also be two posts every Friday. Lastly, as previously mentioned in the big “Theme Reveal” post, I decided that I am, in fact, going to use a theme for my challenge, and that theme is “Characters”. Whether they be from my favorite books, comics, TV shows, movies, or video games, during the month of April I am going to blog about 26 different fictional characters whom I love. Doesn’t that sound awesome? 😀 I think it sounds awesome.

And one final little point: since this challenge is a “blog hop” that encourages participants to spend a little bit of time each day visiting each others’ blogs, the people who run the A to Z Challenge suggest that posts be kept short (so we can all visit as many other blogs as possible). For that reason these 26 posts will be a fair bit shorter than my usual posts. Most are in the range of 400 words (as opposed to my usual 1000 words or more). Don’t get used to the brevity, because I’ll probably be ranting like a lunatic again in May. 🙂

The fun starts tomorrow! Good luck fellow challengers, and to my readers, I hope you enjoy!

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Gamer

**As first mentioned on March 21st**
For the next little while I’m going to be busy building up a new backlog of material to post on Fridays, amidst the other stuff I’m working on, so for the next few weeks I’m going to satisfy myself to simply post a drabble a week. For you writers out there, feel free to use these drabbles as prompts toward writing something bigger and better, and if you care to share what you’ve written, please send me a link so I can check it out. 🙂

———————

Gamer

Video games are my life. It’s pretty pathetic, I guess, but it’s true. I own all the consoles available, and even some that aren’t, including a few which failed miserably and only sold a few thousand units. My game collection rivals that of anyone I know, kid or adult, which is a massive point of embarrassment for my parents. But you know what? There’s just…something…something about immersing yourself in the life of another; seeing what they see, experiencing what they experience. It’s the greatest thing, to become someone else, someone cool, someone amazing.

God, I’m such a loser.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Monsters

For the next little while I’m going to be busy building up a new backlog of material to post on Fridays, amidst the other stuff I’m working on, so for the next few weeks I’m going to satisfy myself to simply post a drabble a week. For you writers out there, feel free to use these drabbles as prompts toward writing something bigger and better, and if you care to share what you’ve written, please send me a link so I can check it out. 🙂

———————

Monsters!

Why does Godzilla always attack Japan?

As a young monster growing up I idolized Godzilla. He always seemed like the biggest and baddest of all the monsters. Even when he lost the battle he was still the coolest because he always came back.

But I did always wonder what exactly he had against the Japanese. I mean, with so many other countries just ripe for the picking, some of them even very close by, why constantly torment the same poor nation over and over again?

I’m all grown up now, a fully grown monster, and I’m going to attack Canada.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Chrono Trigger Timeless (The Future)

I still haven’t had time to get back into my Final Fantasy novelization (I really need to get some organization up in this thing I call my life), so for the third week in a row, here’s a clip from my Chrono Trigger novelization. This one is from the scene when Chrono and the girls first discover that they have truly traveled to the future and that it has been destroyed because of the evil creature, Lavos.

Enjoy!

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net

“Lucca…” he whispered, “What year are we in?”

Lucca shook herself back to the moment, her eyes wide and mouth dry. She examined another console for a few moments before finding the answer. “We’re…” she stumbled, “We’re in the year 2300 A.D.”

Chrono could barely stand under the weight of the words. “2300…” he whispered, “That thing screwed up the world so much that the survivors couldn’t drag themselves out of it in 300 years?” He couldn’t help imagining it…that awful creature rampaging through the lands…all the survivors holed up in the domes, hiding and scared…slowly, over time, they would begin to run out of supplies. For a while they probably went out in search of new supplies, but the land wasn’t helpful and people began to die…soon there were only a handful of survivors in each dome, struggling just to keep moving forward.

“No!” Marle cried suddenly, “No way! I refuse to accept it!” She jumped to her feet, tears of anger streaming down her face. “This…this can’t be the way the world ends!”

Lucca looked at her with miserable eyes. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t figure out what to say.

“Marle…” Chrono sighed.

“Chrono!” she shouted back. She stomped up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “There’s only one thing we can do! We must change history! Just like you did when you saved me!” Her eyes were so full of light and hope that Chrono couldn’t look away. “We have to figure out how this happened, and we have to change it!” She ran to Lucca and shook her. “Okay Lucca?!” she cried.

“I…” Lucca stumbled, “I…guess so…” She seemed uncomfortable and unsure of herself.

Marle ran back to Chrono and grabbed him by the face, forcing him to look directly into her eyes. “Chrono…” she said quietly, “Please…”

Lucca was starting to come into the idea. “We can’t just go back to our own world and live comfortably after seeing this…” she spoke to herself, “Especially since it’s going to happen in our time…really, it was a stroke of luck that the Gate sent us here…”

Chrono was still staring into Marle’s eyes. There were so many emotions there…fear, desperation, sorrow…and hope. Slowly, Chrono raised his arms and mirrored Marle’s stance, holding her face in his hands. “Let’s do it,” he whispered with a smile.

“Chrono!” Marle sobbed. She collapsed toward him in a huge hug before stepping back and swiping the tears away from her eyes. “Chrono, Lucca…” she said, “We can do this together…I’m sure of it!”

Lucca nodded, suddenly very sure of everything, and grinned. “There is absolutely no way we will fail!” she insisted, “We know about Gates now, and we have the Gate Key. All we have to do is find an era with answers about where that creature came from.”

Normally it would have sounded like an insane statement, but somehow Chrono knew they could do it. “Then we’d better get going!” he announced.

“Next stop, Proto Dome!” Lucca cried, pumping a fist into the air.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Chrono Trigger Timeless (Trial)

During one National Novel Writing Month I decided to be a “rebel” and write fan fiction. That fan fiction was another novelization like my Final Fantasy piece, but this time based on another super-popular Square game: Chrono Trigger. I barely made it a third of the way through the storyline before NaNoWriMo was over and I moved back on to other things, but I fully intend on returning to this project once I’ve finished the Final Fantasy novels.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a scene from what was always one of my favorite parts of the game: Chrono’s trial. Enjoy!

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net
—–

“Members of the court!” called out the judge with a strong voice, “We present to you the defendant, Chrono, who is charged with abducting Princess Nadia.”

The chancellor barely let the judge finish his sentence before stepping forward and approaching the jury. “What shall we do with him?” he asked casually, as though asking them what they would like to have for lunch, “Fire perhaps? Hang him upside-down for a few years? Or…shall we employ the guillotine?”

Fiction Fragment Friday: Aged Beauty

I had originally thought that, in honor of Valentine’s Day, I would share a love scene of some kind. Subsequently, after scouring every piece of work I’ve got on my computer I realized that that just wasn’t going to happen. As it turns out, the only love scenes I have that aren’t terribly inappropriate to share on a blog are ones that would completely ruin important parts of my stories. And we don’t want that, now do we? No. No we do not.

So instead, here’s a short piece of a different kind of love. This is something I scribbled out one day during a particularly slow day at work. It has since been filed away amongst a group of “possible future ideas” to draw upon. Enjoy!

—–

The vines would have to be removed.

That was the first thought that popped into Ashley’s head as he stared up at the house; his house.

The second thought was, wow, I can’t believe I’m really doing this.

The house was everything he’d expected and more, a surprise gift left to Ashley in the will of a great-grandfather he hadn’t even known was still alive. His friends had urged him to sell the house and the land, to use the cash to jump-start his art career, but Ashley had wanted to see the gift his predecessor had left him in person before he made any decisions.

And now he knew that he could never sell it.

The grounds were nothing special: an acre of land that was covered in untended landscaping and unruly underbrush in every direction. The house itself, however, was gorgeous, at least in Ashley’s eyes. No one had been able to tell him exactly when it had been built, but he was confident that it was no younger than a hundred years, possibly much older. It had two large towers whose roofs ended in sharp points – one in the back left corner that appeared to be five stories high, and one in the front right corner that was three. The main bulk of the house was a sprawling, two-story beauty with huge rectangular windows that spanned almost the entire length of the rooms within. Stone columns to either side of the double front door held aloft a twenty foot long balcony with glass doors leading out to it.

Only the chipping gray paint and the vines growing intrusively up the outer walls detracted from the loveliness of the aging treasure.

The vines would definitely have to be removed.

 

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Nowhere to Hide

Since I’m working very hard right now, carving out little bits of time when I can and trying to finish the last bit of edits (round one, anyway) on my zombie apocalypse manuscript, I thought I’d share a little excerpt here to show you what I’m working with.

And believe me, I can’t wait to finish this up so that I can move on to something else!

Here’s a little clip from chapter two, right after the breakout occurs:

—–

There were more sirens now, of many different pitches. Ambulances, police, firemen, and possibly others as well.

Nancy dragged herself to the bathroom, flicked on a light, and peered at herself in the mirror. She blinked at herself for several long moments. No wonder little Jenny had taken off. Nancy had gone pale, as if her face had been doused with bleach, and her eyes were huge, hollow, and burning. She looked like a woman possessed.

From the bathroom window she saw the flickering of fire. She pulled herself away from the mirror to look and saw that the building across the road and two down was aflame. The firetrucks stopped out front and the firemen rushed to the hydrants. A woman stumbled slowly out the front door, her clothes and hair on fire. One of the firemen tackled her with a blanket, but as the flames began to smother the woman poked her head out and bit down hard on the man’s ear before ripping it clean off of his head. Nancy couldn’t hear his scream amid the rest of the din, but she could see it. At the other end of the road a car crashed into a news stand and the whole thing burst into a brilliant ball of flame.

Nancy turned, leaned over the bathtub, and vomited until she passed out.

—–

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Risky Love and Bloodlust

Well I am very sad to say that for the time being I have completely run out of Final Fantasy: Returning Hope to share with you all. I hope to continue on with the story very soon in the future, but in the meantime I’ll need other things to post on Fiction Fragment Fridays. For today I’m giving you a pair of drabbles that I wrote a while back while experimenting with telling two sides of the same story.

Risky Love

I was completely and utterly in love with her.

I looked into her deep onyx eyes and was totally lost. Her face was pale and flawless against my trembling fingers; her lips were full and red as fresh, wild berries.

“You ready, sweetie?” she smiled seductively, sweeping long strands of violent red hair behind her ears.

I gulped and nodded; she grinned and leaned hungrily toward my neck.

Yes, I was irrevocably, unconditionally in love with her…and I was ready to become a vampire to be with her.

I just hoped she loved me enough to stop drinking in time…

Bloodlust

He smiled at me and I felt an intense surge of love for him. It wasn’t right. I shouldn’t be able to love, being the monster that I am. But when he smiled at me, I could feel the beautiful pain in my chest. Perhaps…perhaps I had a soul after all.

I sunk my fangs into his tensed throat, holding his body tight to mine, and drank. His blood was warm and sweet and…he was better than anything I’d ever tasted, or ever would.

Yes, I definitely loved him, but was that love stronger than my thirst for his blood?

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Returning Hope (Chapter 12 – Part 2)

Continuing on with Final Fantasy: Returning Hope!

Enjoy, and also check out FanFiction.net, where I’ll also be posting this story. 

Reminder: If you’re looking for the previously posted parts of the story, go to the “Categories” drop-down banner on the left banner of the site and choose “Final Fantasy: Returning Hope”.

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net

Locke examined Terra with awe. Surely this could not be the same woman? Her body was bare, every inch of her skin resonating with a pale pink light, and her hair spread around her in wild pink spikes that were twice as long as Locke remembered her hair being.

“She…is she alive?” Celes asked in a hushed voice.

As if in response, Terra’s mouth opened to reveal sharp canine teeth, and she groaned, low and loud.

“Terra?” Locke tried. He hesitantly put his hand on her shoulder. “Terra? Are you okay?”

The voice that replied was not Terra’s. “She’s scared, you know.”