1000 Words a Day

     Today starts a new project for me and I'm going to see how it goes. I'm going to write 1,000 words a day. I'm going to wake up and just write 1,000 words. No matter how I feel or what I am going to do otherwise. I was reading this article about how it inspired another author and how it helped with blog posts and what not. I'm hoping to find some of the same magic. I also hope that this will get me some more ideas for these posts as well as my novels. So here's to hoping.

A Message in a Bottle

     The salt water rushed against my feet. Pulling my arm back I hurled the amber colored bottle into the salty spray. The soft plunk of it hitting the water echoed back to my ears. It reassured me that I didn’t throw like a girl, or so the saying goes. I stood there until the sun set. Every day after I returned, and waited.

     Such a small bottle it was, but it drifted for days. The tides of the world pulled it out to sea only to push it towards another chunk of land. The tiny object was at Poseidon’s mercy. However, it wasn’t the only thing adrift on the tide. “All hands on deck, we sail towards port!” The captain roared over the waves that crashed against the hull of a ship. She was different. Her boots clopped against the deck and she walked across the wooden timbers. Her eyes scanned the open water looking for any hint of land.

     “Aye Cap’n.” Loki growled as he pitched the wheel towards the now visible land mass. The rest of the crew scattered and tended their posts. The ship groaned and creaked as it pitched. The ship was tired and so was the crew. A good rest and a payday was just a few knots a head. “Hey Cap’en,” He roared over the boat to get her attention. “what’s that just off starboard?” The hulking cat took one hand off the wheel and pointed at something that was shimmering off the waters surface.

     Bella turned to see whatever he hand pointed at. She watched it flicker in the sunlight for a few moments before she could make out the shape to him. She huffed and turned back to her first mate. “That be trash Loki.” A scowl crossed her face and she walked away from the side of the ship.

     One of the younger crew members heaved himself over the ship. “There’s a paper in it Captain.” He called out.

     Bella snarled at the comment but she was too tired to care. The ocean took a toll on you while you were out and this group of men did nothing to ease it for her. “Fine, grab it, but I’ll not be sending anyone after ya if ye fall in the foam.” She meant every word. The lad would have to swim himself to shore if he lost his footing.

     The lad that spotted it took no time to shimmy himself down the side of this ship. With nimble fingers he snatched up the bottle and the message inside and hauled himself back up topside. As much as he wanted to open it, he kept the cork stuff in and handed the entire bottle over to the Captain.

     Bella took the bottle and instead of just pulling out the cork, she smashed the neck of it against the ships rail. The glass shattered and she dug out the slip of paper. It was odd. The writing was too nice to be a child’s, and the paper had such weight and texture. A heavy scent of earth and flowers, accented with a musk wafted up towards her nose. Something was odd about this. She unrolled the scrap and her eyes fell upon the short message and she smiled.

     I want to have an adventure. ~S

Silver Mane Part 11

Oh dear gods it's been over a month sense I've posted on of these. I am so sorry everyone! If you need to start over, all chapters are linked and shouldn't take long to read through. 
Start Here


     Ana glanced at her travel companion as she walked out, food in her hand. It was such a small glance, no more than if she was looking over to see what was on his plate. There of course would be a time gap from when she left and Kavos decided to leave as well, but again, it was safer that way. The girl took this opportunity to explore the town a bit more. They would be living here now and it wouldn’t hurt to get to know it a bit better. She wandered from one stall to the next looking at what each had to offer. One was filled to the brim with dried flowers. Some had been pressed into glass, others just hung in bunches. Her hand traced the one that was in the glass. It was smooth and perfectly preserved. Ana’s nimble fingers picked it up and brought it closer to her face to get a better look.

The stand keeper was less than kind. The man was massive and built like an ox. His muscles arm muscles bulged as did the veins around his neck. There was a look of anger on his face. He reached over the small wooden stand without even having to get up from his seat. His sausage like fingers wrapped around her arm, all the way around. His hand made her arm look like a twig. He pulled her into the tent and his foul breath assaulted her, even through the heavy scent of flowers. “Ye weren’t try’n ter pilfer ‘dat were ye?” His words were garbled with his heavy accent.

Ana’s blue eyes widened as she realized what this man was. He was no normal merchant, he had to have been a pirate. His face was covered with stubble and scars, his hands were well worn and his skin was as tan as Tucker’s fur was. Fear flooded her and she pulled away from him. It was no use his grip was too strong. “Let me go! I was only looking.” She tried to pull away again and it still was of no use.

“Ya look w’th yer eyes naught yer han’s.” He snarled and started to stand up.

“She’s with me.” There was a cool voice that while low, seemed to dance right around the crowd. “I would let go of her, if you know what’s good for you.” A woman walked up to the small booth. Each step was graceful and she seemed to have a power behind her.

The pirate looked up from Ana, ready to challenge whoever threatened him but as his eyes met this woman they widened and his grip relaxed at once. “Sorry Miss, didn’t know she was yer’s.”

Ana looked back at her savior and her jaw hit the floor. The woman who had defended her was beautiful. Her hair was long and jet black and her skin was flawless. It took her only a few moments though to remember what was going on around her. She went right back into slave mode. She bowed low and kissed the woman’s hand. “I’m sorry Mistress, I just thought these would look lovely in the drawing room but I wanted to make sure they were real and not some cheep fake.”

“Fake!” The man behind the stand started to rage again and when he stood his head smacked against the top of the small stand. He seemed to have more to say but it was interrupted by the pain.

Again the strange woman took control of the situation. “And she did right to me by that.” Her eyes narrowed at the pirate. She wasn’t just beautiful, she was dangerous. Again he took on a calming demeanor and sat down. “She was also correct that they would look nice in my drawing room, however, you sir have left a bitter taste in my mouth. Come girl.” She commanded and just started walking back towards the center of town. Ana could only follow her.

The vendor seemed to have calmed himself and called out to her as the women started to move. “Wait miss! I’ll ha’ve the price. What’dya say?”

The elegant woman froze and smiled. She turned on her heel and walked back to the small table and picked up the small glass plated flower. She too turned it over in her hand and looked intently at it. “Deal.” Her tone was still unamused, but at least the man had made the sale. She tossed a few coppers down onto the wood and walked away without another word. 

Kong T.V. Series?

     While I was at my day job I stumbled across some interesting news. For any of you who follow Godzilla and its franchise you’ll know that the recent Kong: Skull Island is part of a 6+ movie series. I personally was overjoyed when I found out. I’m even more excited for the next one, Godzilla: King of Monsters. But that’s not the point of this. Anyway, I was reading that there is talk about a TV series that takes place after Kong: Skull Island that will bridge it to the next movie. That for sure is something to look forward to this fall. Much better than the Unicorn Frap from Starbucks.

A bit more about "Werewolf Wednesday"

I’ve recently had an idea, and we all know that never means anything good for my scheduling, but as always, I’m going to do it anyway. #werewolfwednesday happened to be trending on my twitter feed the other day and put two and two together. “Silver Mane is werewolves, and people like those. Why not move the release date of a werewolf series, to werewolf Wednesday? This won’t change much really, just moving it to Wednesday. This also gives me a bit more time to work on the newest post for “Silver Mane” and perhaps I can even squeeze in some editing on the project.

What Will You Try to be More Patient About? -Writing Prompt-

 Leora:
     She ponders the question for a moment and shifts her weight, making her armor rub against its own steel plates. “I feel like I need to work on understanding where others are coming from. Like Poppy will sometimes do something that’s wrong, but she believes she’s doing it for the right reason. I don’t understand, and I feel like that’s something I need to work on.”

Araxie:

     She pushes her glasses up. “Sometimes my brain works too fast?” It was more of a question than an answer. “I need to once in a while slow myself down.” She shrugs at her final statement and goes quiet.

Poppy:

     She looks around, with a gleam in her eye. “Poppy is just fine the way she is.” There’s a massive smile on her face and her hair bounces while she readjusts herself on the chair.

Kenna:

      With a jab of her thumb towards herself with a grin on her face. Her tongue flipped the match in her mouth to the other side and her teeth pressed down on it. “Perhaps I shouldn’t blow up everything as a first resort.” She throws her head back and let out a laugh.

Valdis:

     Her hallow eyes scans the surrounding area. “Patient? I’ve walked this world longer than most of you have, I believe I have that I need. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have things to be done.” She get’s up, her body looking weak, but it doesn’t hinder her gait. She walks off with a massive book in one hand and a scrawling pen in the other.  

Werewolf Wednesday

Well I kinda liked yesterday. I've been thinking and while yes there is a chapter ready for Sunday, I'm going to move "Silver Mane" posts to Wednesday. Makes it a bit more fun.

Working on Silver Mane

You've read that right! I've been hard at work over the past week getting new storyline done and I've had time to focus on getting more of "Silver Mane" done. That means that finally this Sunday it looks like there will be a new post. I'm very excited to see this come back to life.

I hope that you are all still enjoying it (even with lack of updates) and if you are, please let me know! Those little comments will help drive me to write more and have more frequent updates.

Reading List

Okay, we all know that I have a problem when it comes to books and how I have a ton that I haven’t read, and I still keep buying them. My goal earlier this year was to read more. I believe I aimed for 5 books read this year. I have one down and I have been working on reading another 3. Yes at once.

Normally I try to keep at least two books out at a time. Normally one is fiction, one nonfiction. This time, I’m not sure how it happened, but I have 3 fiction books in progress right now. One doesn’t really count because it’s a collection of Grim Brother’s tales. So it’s a compilation of a bunch of shorts. Still, I really don’t know how I do this to myself.

The other downside is that it’s getting nice outside and I don’t like walking with books in the city, however, my transit ride to work is very long, so I’ll more than likely break down and just start taking a book with me to work. Especially now that I have all of mine at home.  

Small Steps

Recently (aka over the past week) I’ve still been working towards getting myself back into the habit of writing. So far so good. I’ve even been able to make some slow progress on “Silver Mane”. Not nearly as much as I would like to, but something is better than nothing.

I also am not sure what else to be posting for these between posts. I want to work on other shorts as well and start cranking out new novels, but focusing on this defiantly takes a good chunk of time away from it. I also don’t want to lose interest in writing this blog and sharing things with you all. I just need more hours in a day it seems. Or at least more focus for those hours.

I’m also wondering if anyone would like to read small one time shorts (under 500 words) here. Not just the ongoing series, but perhaps small tidbits that will tie into novels that I am working on? Perhaps even chapter bits?

5 Simple Ways to Read More

     We all know that reading itself is pretty important, but with how busy some days can be, it's hard to get even a few pages read. It's even more annoying when you've been sucked into a book that you don't want to put down. So here's just a few little things that could help you get that book finished a week sooner.

     1. Transit.  While not everyone has public transit in their area, but it doesn't mean that you can't use that time to your advantage. While it's fairly easy to read while you're on a bus or train, you can't drive a car and read. (At least not in a safe way.) However, with audio books being fairly easy to get a hold of, use those to your advantage.

     2. Cooking. Well, with how busy we are, we normally try to make meals as simple as we can. Even something as simple as a microwave dinner. Even in those 5 minutes of cooking and cooling time, can get you in a few more pages over a week.

     3. T.V. time. How often do you find yourself flipping through channels? At least once a week, for those 20 minutes, shut it off and get a chapter in. On the next hour or half past (when most shows start) go find something to watch. If nothing is on, go back to your book.

     4. Eating. Again sometimes this isn't as easy as it could be for others, but even with a family. Get a book and while you are eating dinner have everyone read a page. It's a great way to slow down the meal (that's great for digestion!) and a way to get everyone involved and at least talking.

     5. Bedtime. Take those extra few moments before you go to bed and get some reading in. When you're last TV show goes off, go read for a bit until you feel tired, then do your normal bed time ritual.


     There you go, it's short and sweet and maybe you can get an extra little bit of reading done.

Slowly getting back on track.

     I broke my habit, and as some of my oldest followers know, I need those habits. After being sick I couldn't focus on anything. Now I'm slowly trying to get back into said habits of writing on a regular basis. I did sign up for Camp NaNoWriMo to help refocus me writing "Silver Mane".

     On the upside, I do have word that I have a few shorts coming back from my editor. So perhaps there will be some new things coming soon from me. That's a bit inspiring.


     Again sadly though I don't have another installment of "Silver Mane" this week, at least not at this past moment, but soon I'll be back on track.

Squee

     Alright, so while I can't promise much at this point, I can say this. I'm finally starting to feel better. I can actually focus and breath and not die when I walk. So maybe now I can get back to focusing on writing and working on Silver Mane, I miss it way too much.

     Until then, have a treat. Done by the amazing Cheesigator Arts