Weekend Writing Warriors 12/8/13

Well, I'm down to occasional use of my sister's laptop and the funky useability of my iPad. More about that at the bottom.

I'm going to stick with excerpts from my NaNo story Night Shift for this month because I plan to develop it into a publishable novel. If I'd written those 51k words just for a writing exercise I wouldn't spend more time on it. Thanks to everybody who's left such encouraging comments all year; it does my heart good :D

In the near future I'll gather these excerpts together so you can more easily follow the story, but for now, Night Shift is a current-day supernatural good-vs-evil story centering on Devorah Moore, who's been recruited by Kazimir Barsukov to help restore the balance between the powers of Light and Dark. Kaz is a Crosser--a human who became a demon and now works from the inside, with the help of angels, to weaken the Dark.

Skipping ahead from the last excerpt, Kaz has asked Devorah to join the Crossers, giving some info about what she'd be expected to do as a demon. He's emphasized that being a Crosser means walking a thin line every day. Here, she gives her answer. Her father was the local police chief who was shot and killed.

"You're asking me to do something pretty impossible, but you know what finally decided me? My brother said he's taking the police entrance exam. One of these days he could be shot dead too--our mother would lose her only son, I'd lose my only brother, and his wife would be a widow." 

Kazimir dropped his gaze, adjusted his hoodie, and said, "I can understand that you don't want to leave your family." 

"I don't want to leave them, but this is bigger than me. Joe's willing to take the risk that he might have to sacrifice his life for the greater good. He said I've always inspired him, and now he's inspired me. I'll do it." My mouth felt dry and I closed my fingers around dying October grass.

Hope you guys are liking this story :) Please visit the Weekend Writing Warriors home page for links to more stories!

My laptop's motherboard has gone fooom! so I'm thinking about where to go from here. I'm unemployed and job searching, but it's tough world for that. But--because writers are among the very best people in the world, two of them have offered me older machines that they aren't using, are a little lacking but still work. This would get me through till I can afford something up to date. 

I'm finally lost for words. I'm overcome by the generosity of people who only know me through the 'net. So I will say the only thing I can, and hope that my deeply felt gratitude comes through: Thank You.

Weekend Writing Warriors 11/24/13

Pulling again from my NaNoWriMo story, Night Shift. The previous excerpts are here and here. The male main character, Kazimir, is explaining to the female main character, (and POV character) Devorah, and the angel Adrael what his plan is—to trap the demon Thaumiel. This is still pretty early in the story. When Adrael asks Kazimir why he wants to involve Devorah in something so dangerous, Kazimir replies that Thaumiel was the one who ordered Devorah’s father to be murdered. Kaz is the first speaker.

“Dev’s been pretty active and outspoken herself so if he thinks she’s continuing her father’s efforts, he’ll be itching to get her too.”

Adrael’s eyes narrowed and his whole form wavered faintly, like fog moving on water.

Kazimir set both fists on his hips and glared back; I shivered.

“Are you saying what I think you are?” said a voice that sounded like mine but from far away.

Kazimir’s eyes bounced from the angel to me and back. He rubbed his hands together slowly and approached me one step at a time; I backed up.

“Dear Devorah, if Thaumiel considers you a prize worth having, he’ll come after you. My friends and I will be there to protect you, all you have to do is show up at a certain place and time. You’d be the proverbial carrot on a stick, always out of reach.”

The imaginative participants at Weekend Writing Warriors will show you snippets of romances, breakups, fantasy lands, cities on other planets, lands far back in Earth's history and some far in our future. I'm pretty picky about the stuff I read and I've found lots of stories I can't wait to read more of!

Thanks for visiting my blog today, and for all the continuing wonderful comments. They really make my week :-D

Weekend Writing Warriors 11/17/13

Hi peeps :-D This week I’m continuing with my NaNo story Night Shift. The previous excerpt is here. This scene takes place early in the story. The heroine, Devorah (who is also the POV character) is about to meet an angel for the first time. Kazimir is another main character, kind of an anti-hero type. Kaz has recited a short prayer, after which the air shimmers and a figure appears with flowing hair and wearing a long robe. The angel speaks first. 

"Kazimir, it's good to see you." The voice didn't sound male or female though the face looked more male. "Devorah, I'm often known as Ashavan, though humans in your era seem to prefer the name Adrael; you may call me that if you prefer. What questions may I answer for you?"

What do you ask somebody who appears out of thin air and looks like he fell off a Christmas card?

"Ash, you're too fancy for her, tone yourself down,” Kazimir said.

"Oh, please forgive me, I thought you might be more comfortable with familiar imagery." The air shimmered again and the long robe changed to sweat pants and plain t-shirt, both in sky blue. His hair changed to something shorter; he reminded me a bit of Liam Neeson now.

So much for thinking The Twilight Zone was fiction.

The imaginative participants at Weekend Writing Warriors will show you snippets of romances, breakups, fantasy lands, cities on other planets, lands far back in Earth's history and some far in our future. I'm pretty picky about the stuff I read and I've found lots of stories I can't wait to read more of!

Thanks for visiting my blog today, and for all the continuing wonderful comments. They really make my week :-D

Weekend Writing Warriors 11/10/13

First, I'm so sorry my posting and visiting got messed up last week. iPad apps can be frustrating, the touchscreen can be frustrating, holy crap. I've got a bluetooth keyboard for the iPad now but I still prefer the laptop, I think.

Next, because I'm enjoying the whole discovery thing with my NaNo story, I'm going to post from that this week. I'll get back to Street Glass. In this excerpt from my story Night Shift, the female main character (Devorah) is talking to the angel Adrael; Devorah speaks first. And that's all I'll tell you right now :D :D

“What do you want me to do?”

“The assistance I need is from my peers. You may want to allow us some space.”

“Oh -- oh.” I scurried across the hall to stand by the stairway. Great. I had a half-dead half-demon on my floor, and my entryway was about to be filled with angels trying to save him. I was willing to bet Dan Brown hadn’t done this kind of research.

The imaginative participants at Weekend Writing Warriors will show you snippets of romances, breakups, fantasy lands, cities on other planets, lands far back in Earth's history and some far in our future. I'm pretty picky about the stuff I read and I've found lots of stories I can't wait to read more of!

Thanks for visiting my blog today, and for all the continuing wonderful comments. They really make my week :-D

It's NaNo time! woot!

Chalk up another screw-up to Blogger's iPad app :-( This post seems to have reverted to draft, but I want to publish it even though it's technically out of date.


I’m doing NaNo for the first time! This makes me giddy with possibilities and scared of falling way short of the goal…but I’m going ahead!

This will be something very different from my novel WIP, Street Glass. I’m calling this one Night Shift. It’s a basic good-vs-evil tale, with angelic-like beings and demonic-like beings. I say “like” because I haven’t uncovered their full natures yet. I don’t even care at this point, because NaNo is not about getting all the wrinkles ironed out (unless you go rebel and use the NaNo buzz to edit a previously written story).

I may even go further out on that limb and write this in first person. Using third person for Street Glass has always felt natural so I haven’t tried to change that, but for this story, first person may work better. The tale centers on Devorah Moore, daughter of the local police chief, who loses her job at a non-profit foundation when the funding dries up. She’s put her heart and soul into that job and feels pretty unbalanced without it. Then her father the chief is shot dead; everybody knows which one of the local gangs is responsible, but there’s no physical proof and nobody’s talking.

Devorah isn’t sure where to turn for comfort—her father was Catholic and her mother is Jewish, leaving Devorah without a strong attachment to either faith. When a strange man shows up and can prove he’s not as human as he looks, she wonders if it’s time to get serious about one religion or the other. The man offers her a way to bring the one responsible for her father’s murder to justice, but it doesn’t involve any earthly court.

I’m excited to delve into the lives of totally new characters :-D I’ll probably post about my progress once or twice, and might use the story for an excerpt on Weekend Writing Warriors. If I don’t post for WeWriWa every single Sunday in November, it’s because NaNo has eaten my life. I’m okay with that :-D

Have you done NaNo? How did it go? Did you “win” the first time or did you need to build some NaNo chops? I’m always interested in other people’s experience!

......man, do not have laptop, am trying to use Blogger's iPad app, very frustrating! Bear with me!

NaNo update, 11/5 -- Day 5

Just a short note to say I've written 8500 words in five days, on an iPad using the touch screen. My laptop is not back from fix-it land yet, though if I don't get it in the next day or two, I will well and truly snap. 

I'm loving the feeling of exhilaration and freedom. I have to write 1667 words a day to stay on track -- I have to write every day. NaNo is as close as many of us will get to writing under a hard and fast deadline. People who write for a living do this regularly, and more. This is the life, ain't it? Writing as much as you can before you drop. 

Professional writers also have better things than an iPad to produce all those words on. iPads are okay for some things, but hardcore writing? Not so much! It's doable but not something I care to repeat. 

To everybody else running the NaNo sprint (over 220,000 writers, according to the NaNoWriMo homepage), best of luck! We can do this thing! :D 

No post, no luck :(

Peeps, thank you SO much for all your wonderful comments. My laptop's currently in the shop and I am seriously struggling with Blogger's iPad app. I've seldom been so frustrated. I hope to post again by Nov. 9th. 

And btw, NaNo-ing on an iPad without a separate keyboard is also frustrating. And my hockey team sucks. And it's almost winter. *sigh* 

I need an upside somewhere here!