Short Story

So I'm wanting to enter this short story competition from Writer's Digest. Here's one of the short stories I'm planning on entering, so far it's my only one ready. I am hoping to write and submit 3 total but we'll see. Tell me what you think!

According to the dictionary, a risk-taker is someone who risks loss or injury for excitement, and Jack was the epitome of a risk-taker. But, as he leapt from the plane at 20,000 feet, he wondered if that simple definition were enough. He didn’t really like to think of himself as a risk-taker. He much preferred to think of himself as an experience-taker. He didn’t take risks. He just grabbed life and ran, or jumped, as the case may be. He’d never once thought about the danger associated with rock climbing, sky diving, or base-jumping. All he thought about was the rush of adrenaline and the thrilling ecstasy that filled his soul.

He pulled the ripcord on his primary chute. It didn’t open. Hum Jack thought, that’s not supposed to happen. He would have shrugged his shoulders if the wind weren’t pressing against him so obnoxiously tight. He struggled to push his arms and legs out spread eagle in an effort to slow his fall as much as possible. Instead of panicking like a normal person, he instead wondered if he looked anything like Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” with his arms and legs splayed out as they were. He figured he only needed to be naked to be the perfect image of it—especially with his limbs moving at super speed up and down and side to side to keep himself horizontal. He wanted to chuckle at the absurdity of the thought, but he didn’t have enough air in his lungs.

Hum Jack thought again. If I were naked, I think I’d have a horrible case of wind burn from this. Better be glad I’m wearing clothes. It was odd though. Jack didn’t feel the thrill he so prized from this free fall. Instead, he felt something quite different; something he couldn’t name. The rush of adrenaline was there to be sure, but he wasn’t actually thrilled to be falling.

He pulled the ripcord on his secondary chute. It didn’t open either. Well, that’s not good. Jack was shit out of luck now. He watched the ground hurtle itself towards him and wondered if he’d actually feel himself go “splat” or not. He didn’t think he’d be able to feel it. He couldn’t really feel anything right now, and it was just wind and air pressing against him. Surely the ground wouldn’t actually hurt. He inwardly smiled. the “Vitruvian Man” was drawn in 2-D, I bet I really will look like him once I hit the ground. Hum, better turn over so it’s done correctly then.

Jack maneuvered his body, twisting and turning in the air to flip over, so that when he hit the ground he would be face up. Looking at the bright yellow sun, Jack named the curious feeling that sat uncomfortably in his stomach pretending to be a thrill. He was afraid. Actually, he was terrified that he wouldn’t get up and walk away from this like every other time he fell off of something. He didn’t want to pancake on the ground. He didn’t want to die, there were so many more life experiences left for him to take!

"You were falling, and now you’re flying. Well, I’m flying, you are being carried, Jack.”

Jack panicked more fiercely this time. He heard the sighing sound again and tried to crane his neck around to get a good look at whatever creature had a hold of him.

"Honestly” the thing said, “I don’t know why you humans put up such a fight. Would you kindly stop pummeling me? It’s really very annoying. You can’t imagine how hard it is to fly straight up while being kicked and elbowed practically to death.”

The thing snickered at its own private joke, and Jack frowned.

“I am not a thing,” the thing said, sounding annoyed. “I am an angel, obviously.”

And he was, Jack noted. He twisted his body around as much as he could in an effort to take a good look at it. The angel had his arms wrapped tightly around Jack’s torso, using Jack’s armpits for support. His wings were huge and suitably impressive for an angel. They were covered in feathers the pale blue and gray colors of an overcast sky. Jack felt the terror in his belly ebb just a little to be replaced with an equal amount of awe.

“Where’s your halo?” Jack said stupidly to the angel.

The angel scoffed. “If I drop you then you go straight to Hell. But, instead, here I am flying you up to Heaven’s gate, and you have the gall to ask me about an archaic piece of metal that was painted above heads during the Renaissance?” He huffed indignantly. “I’d think you’d ask me something a little more pertinent.”

Jack thought about this for a moment. He’d never been one to believe in Heaven or Hell, but perhaps this was God’s way of choosing who goes where instead of all the Biblical mumbo-jumbo he was taught in Sunday School as a child. It made sense, really—send an irritable angel to pick you up from the dead, and, if you annoy him too much, then you’re dropped into Hell. Hum, does that mean I’m dead?

“Of course you are Jack. You jumped out of an airplane without a working parachute. What did you expect? If you ask me, you’ve been knocking on Death’s door for years what with all this silly risk-taking business you’ve been about. I had bets with the other angels two years ago when you fell off that mountain. I lost.”

There was that term again, “risk-taking”. Well, now that he was dead, he supposed that the dictionary was right, and he really had been risking his life all these years. The angel halted abruptly in mid-air, and Jack was set down none too gently on top of a fluffy cumulus cloud. He looked about and the strangest image of furry little bears with symbols painted on their stomachs floated across his memory. He shook his head free of the thoughts.

Before him stood a tall but narrow gate carved out of one giant pearl. He couldn’t see anything behind or to the sides of the gate. Aside from the shiny, incandescent nature of the thing, it was rather boring looking. Jack had seen more ornate gates in front of people’s houses. A man was floating a few feet above the clouds directly in front of the gate. Jack thought he looked like Buddha.

“Ah, here we are,” said the angel. “My job’s done, and I’m off to find the next soul to be judged. Peter here will do the judging.” The angel gestured to the floating, Buddha-shaped man and then flew off into the sky.

“Well,” Peter peered at Jack, looking so deeply into his soul that Jack almost felt violated. “You’ll probably do. Look down over the edge for one last peek at your body, and tell me what you think.”

Jack did as he was told and stuck his head out over the edge of the cloud. With surprising clarity, he could see his broken and bloody body. It was as if he were only ten feet above ground instead of…where is Heaven anyway? He shrugged and thought for a moment as he watched a small crowd of people gather around his body hysterically crying and pointing. He scrambled back towards Peter after the moment was over and nodded.

“Well, I was right about one thing and wrong about the other,” Jack volunteered.

“Oh?” Peter raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“Yes. It seems I was wrong. I look nothing like the “Vitruvian Mman.” But, I was right that I didn’t feel a thing when I went ‘splat.’”

Peter chuckled softly, it sounded like a breeze. “Yes, you’ll do. You’re able to tell the difference between right and wrong. In you go Jack.”

He thumbed behind him as the Gate swung open far less dramatically than Jack thought it should. The terror in his stomach vanished completely and was replaced with the thrill that should have been there from the beginning. The wonderful feeling ran forcefully through his body, he shuddered in delight. He grinned happily as he stood and walked through the gate, disappearing into a warm, engulfing white light.

A couple things

So I wanted to share some news with everyone reading!

First of all my favorite (and only) sister, Kellee, became engaged to her boyfriend Brett on Saturday. It's great news and we're all very happy for her. No official date has been set yet, although they're thinking of sometime in July or August. I'm pretty sure the wedding will be down in Orlando as they both live there which means I'll get to take a few vacations down there to "help" yay! :) I'm such a good sister aren't I? I'm excited about the wedding, I'm sure it'll be fantastic and I'm really happy for Kellee.

Second of all my cousin Nikki got married unexpectedly this weekend. She's still planning a Catholic wedding and reception for next summer but I guess she and Tom just didn't want to wait any longer. I don't blame her really, she's feeling pretty good right now even with the Chemo treatment she's on and she's feeling her mortality. I think she didn't want to wait another 9 months until their Catholic wedding date given her health. She and Tom got married in a little chapel with just their immediate family present. I think it's good for both of them, and as far as I can tell it's really helping Nikki's spirits. Which reminds me that I need to give her a call.

That's all i have to report, I haven't done any writing or much planning really but I intend to do one or both of those things this week. I hope everyone is having a good week!

You have chosen...wisely? Poorly?

So the network my studies are on has been taken offline for the next 30 minutes or so and therefore I can't work and have time to post something. The past couple months has given me little time to do much outside of work. Additionally, since work has been extra soul-sucking I haven't had any creative mojo to write, post or really do anything except veg and watch some TV while trying to stuff my soul back in. I'm pretty sure that my office has Dementors floating down the cube rows during our most stressful times just so we are that much more depressed.

Enough about that, I've not written too much lately due to the above but I have decided much to the chagrin of those who have voted in the poll to go with Option 3. I've decided to definitely not work on BoR during November. I need to think about something else completely. I also really want to write something that i can finish within November, something shorter and much much less complex. I have zero desire to write an epic, high fantasy novel during November-even one that's half way through. The truth is, I'm not even sure if I can finish BoR during November, everytime i think about the thing it just gets even bigger in my mind.

I thought for a long time about going with Option 1 but there are complications there. First of all a 10k word short story is very long and 5 of them together in a series are unlikely to be published in the type of magazine I want. But in order to reach the Nano goal I'd have to write each one that long which is a bad idea. Plus, I'd also have to come up with 5 unique plots and weave them together-a daunting task, even for short stories.

So we're going with Option 3, which has changed quite a bit in my thinking since I first wrote about it. It's not going to be a 3 part YA novel. I'm kind of excited about it actually, I'm pretty sure that it's going to be something akin to the love child of JJ Abrams and Neil Gaiman-if they could infuse their thoughts and ideas into my head. I'm hoping to spend the next 6 weeks planning it carefully so that it doesn't run away with me. We'll see what happens, it should be fun though. I'm looking forward to thinking and writing about something else for a change.

Even the best and most successful authors can take years to write a BFF, and I am certainly neither of those. I imagine that even when I finish BoR, it'll take years to edit and revise and rewrite. In the meantime, I really don't want to squeeze my brain so narrowly that I only think of the BoR world and nothing else. Writing this novel in November should (in theory) be short and easy when compared to my epic BFF. It's certainly a lot simpler and since it's going to be set in modern times it'll be a million times easier to figure out things (like distance, location etc) that you constantly have to think about in fantasy. There's a danger with that because you have to be sure of your facts, but with the google and wiki machines that's fairly easy to do.

But since it's me, I can't stray completely away from Fantasy so my main characters will have special powers. But it's going to be like government agency type of thing and it'll be very cool I think.

Sorry to disappoint any of you fans out there but don't worry, it isn't like I'm stopping writing BoR. I'll also continue to work on it up until November, planning won't take up all of my creative time-although again, work might suck my soul out some more. That beast [Blood of Renatus]will be finished eventually and it should be awesome when it is. But in the meantime I'm going to take a break from the BFF world and work on something else.

Also, if anyone reading this is interested in Nanowrimo please don't hesitate to ask me any questions. It really is a great way to get started writing or to jump start your creative juices. I'd certainly recommend doing it, not only is it fun but it does give you a huge sense of accomplishment.

Group Meme 3

So in order to follow along with Sarah, here is my mosaic...

If you want to create your own, then follow these simple instructions (stolen from Sarah's blog):

The Concept

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.


2. Using only the first page of results, and pick one image.


3. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into Big Huge Lab’s Mosaic Maker to create a mosaic of the picture answers.

The Questions

1. What is your first name?


2. What is your favorite food? right now?


3. What high school did you go to?


4. What is your favorite color?


5. Who is your celebrity crush?


6. What is your favorite drink?


7. What is your dream vacation?


8. What is your favorite dessert?


9. What do you want to be when you grow up?


10. What do you love most in life?


11. What is one word that describes you?


12. What is your flickr name?

1. Old chapel in Brittany, 2. lasagna photo shoot, 3. IMG_1527, 4. Green Womble House, 5. City Walk - Universal Studios Orlando, 6. Offering to the Gods (who must be crazy!), 7. A witness of time, 8. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 9. Writer, 10. Autumn walk, 11. ...it´s time to be a bit lazy..., 12. Bursting Aurora

Inspiration

For some reason I'm feverishly writing tonight. You'll have noticed a nice big jump in the word count meters. Huzzah!

I finished one chapter and am two paragraphs into the next (which was, coincidentally unplanned but needs to happen now).

Just a quick note for those of you voting for me to finish BoR for November (and shame on you for voting more than once!). If I progress too much more in BoR before November I won't have enough material to finish 50k words and so I won't write it. What I do is still up to my discretion but if I hit even 80k then that doesn't leave me enough. And I doubt anyone wants me to stop working on my book completely until november just because.

So don't vote more than once, and sincerely think about what you'd like to see from me.

If you're lucky I'll have an even bigger word count before the end of the night. We'll see what happens!

Nanowrimo preperations

I know we're quite a ways away from Nanowrimo but it's been on my mind.

For those of you who don't know what Nanowrimo is, I'll enlighten you briefly. It stands for "National Novel Writing Month" and during the month of November, the goal is to write a minimum of 50k words of a novel. There are a bunch of rules and other information that you can peruse on the website if you want more details.

Last year I began The Blood of Renatus during Nano, although I didn't come up with the (current) title until chapter 13. I spent a painstaking amount of time in October planning for the novel only to have a majority of it change and go in an entirely different direction. I blame Rafe. He was too moody.

Anyway I'm having a bit of a conundrum here because I don't know what to do for Nano. You're supposed to write something brand new, and not continue on a current project. Meaning that if I want to play by the rules I won't write a word on BoR during November even though I'm sure more than 50k words left to write. Sarah, of course, would tell me to just finish BoR before November so that it isn't an issue. I could do it, i mean i wrote 50k words in one month last November but it's increasingly hard to find time especially when I am admittedly disenchanted with BoR.

So here's what I'm going to do, I have several ideas that I could start in November. I'm really not ever short of ideas and there are a few that consistently stick out in my head. So I'm going to give you a very brief synopsis of my ideas and let you choose what I work on come November.

Jack of all Trades and the Masters of One:
A series of 5 short stories that all connect together. It's an Earth-based fantasy in which a human (or several, i haven't decided) must go on a quest in each realm (sea, sky, underworld, land) in order to prevent the Apocalypse. An interesting premise, and it could be fun to write.

Flare
Another fantasy novel but not NEARLY as epic as BoR (I couldn't handle another epic fantasy right now). It begins with a feisty teenage girl named Flare trying to wake up her drunk father who has passed out in an alley. She mistakenly gets accused of being a thief and trying to steal from him and is thrown in jail with her accuser for starting a fight. While in jail mysterious assailants try to kill the man who accused her of being a thief and they escape together. The rest of the story ensues.

Open and Shut
A 3 part YA novel about people who have the power to either "open" or to "shut". They work in pairs known as Partners and there are very few in the world. A pair of Partners have known each other since childhood but do not get along and so choose to not work together. They are called in to figure out a way to open Sealed room that has been shut for hundreds of years. However, opening the room proves to be a huge mistake and dormant, evil forces are let loose to pray upon the unsuspecting population.

Something entirely different (no working title yet)
Not a fantasy! A coming of age story about a young woman just out of college working as a barista at a local coffee shop. She battles life lessons in learning how to deal with her two older sisters and through the deaths of several family members. Also includes girly romance.

Finish Blood of Renatus
If I focus like I did last November on BoR I'll be able to finish at least the first draft for sure. It would, however, be going against the rules of nanowrimo.

Part of the problem with starting something new is that I'm going to need to take several dedicated weeks to plan out whatever it is I write. It might be fun to start something new however taking on a full novel (which is generally much longer than the obligatory 50k of nano) might be more than what I want to take on. So what are your opinions on the matter? Please vote in the poll and I encourage you to comment!

Alas, the end of summer vacation is upon us

Well I'm back from the beach. I was planning on waiting until I uploaded some pictures to post but seeing as I'm at work and trying to not work I figure I'll post now.

My vacation was great, too long and not long enough at the same time oddly enough. It was hot, I got stung by a jellyfish, twisted my ankle and got to lay on the beach, pick up seashells, and go swimming nearly every day. Well i didn't get stung by a jellyfish everyday, that was just once sadly. I also scribbled away in my new Moleskine 3 new ideas that will demand fleshing out at a (much) later date. Sadly I didn't do too much writing on BoR but that's okay. In fact I was hardly on my laptop at all during the whole week, it just didn't seem right to focus on my laptop when I could be outside in the sun. Everything about the beach, especially the area I was in feels like home. The smells, sun, sand and salt remind me of happy times and a wonderful childhood. Plus I just love being lazy and laying out soaking up sun (except when stupid jellyfish attack me).

I had a bittersweet moment on Thursday when I drove from Myrtle Beach to Southport and Oak Island meeting my childhood friend Lauren for lunch. My family owned a beach house on Oak Island for almost the first 20 years of my life. Some of my very best childhood memories take place in that house so visiting it was both painful and jubilant for me. I loved seeing the Brambles, they lived (still do actually) across the street and their daughter Lauren became a second sister. She's now married with a 1 year old son, but we picked up like we always do and it was almost like we hadn't seen each other in 5 years. It was quite painful for me to walk up the stairs to MY beach house and peek in the screened-in porch to see our deck furniture that was sold with the house. It's emotional just to write about it in remembrance, especially because of my grandfather's passing less than a year ago. It was our special place, my grandparents and the rest of my family and it was a huge part of my life. Some day, I vow that I'll have another special place. If I'm lucky then my family will be able to enjoy the love and peace a place like that can bring, even if it isn't my beach house anymore.

The ironic and sad part is that this marks, as it did in many years past, the end of summer vacation. Most schools start back up in a week or two and this would be about the time I would return home from the beach after spending several weeks or months there to start school back up always thinking I'd be able to return the following summer. It was a sad parting the last time I was there and it wasn't any happier of a parting this time. However, at least now I'm old enough to return to the area whenever I have the time or money even if it isn't the way I'd like.

My grandmother has vowed to never again go to that beach, it's too painful for her. She hated selling the beach house and I think it's even worse now with my grandfather gone. Days like Thursday make me see her point of view on the matter a little bit more clearly. I can completely empathize with her decisions and don't fault her for it at all, it is painful and we can't go back to those lazy summers no matter how much we want to. That being said, I think the happiness that place brings me is far stronger than the pain and I'm pretty sure my grandfather would want me to spend as much time at our beach as possible. If he could, he'd be swimming out there with me. Maybe he was, in spirit at least. I miss it every summer and I'll definitely be going back.

It was a good vacation.