It Is Here: Second Challenge

A golden warmth reflected from her face.
She closed her eyes.

It is here.
The last great light is here.

She leaned back in the mound of trash
imagining downy cloud instead.

It is here.
Is it really here?

She opened her eyes,
reaching up to curving shapes.
Wind blew bags and paper beside her
and she sighed out all the hunger.

It is here
and beautiful.

The heat grew,
the light orange.
The wind blew,
her voice hoarse.

“It is here!”

She closed her stinging eyes
with litter on her face.
Hands clasped at nothing.
No air.

It is here.




Please share any suggestions or criticism you may have. This is an early draft and could easily be improved.
The prompts and guidelines of this challenge are found on Rach Writes.

I chose to write a poem with a twist using the prompts:

and

Oh Dear, I Caught the Virus

There's something going around - and it's spreading faster than any virus I've seen.This tagging game has hit EVERYONE almost. At first when I saw the posts going around I thought, oh no, I'll have to do this too and be like everyone else. Then, when it had been a couple weeks and I still hadn't been tagged I thought, what the heck? What about me?
But now that I am tagged (twice) I realize just how much work it all is.
Yes, the grass is always greener on the other side. Haha.

My answers to many of the questions are so long winded (with pictures) they could make up their own post. That's what gave me the idea to spread them across a few days. I know nobody reads an anthology in one sitting. So I'll start with the easy ones. These first few questions are from Melanie at Daydreamer to Writer.
1. What’s your favorite book genre?

Can I just say speculative fiction? If I try to be more specific then I think … low fantasy with a strong love story.

2. Are there any beloved books that you don’t really enjoy?

I tried reading Lord of the Rings but it was torture. Maybe if I made myself suffer through the first bit it would get better? I’ll never know. At least I can cheat by watching the movies.

3. What was your favorite class in school?
Sorry Melanie but I hated history classes and social studies. Even though I found learning about past/different cultures so interesting my grades were horrible because my brain doesn’t remember dates and names at all. My favourite class was drama. I’ve always been a drama geek. The best was in university when I took a directing class and got to boss people around. My second favourite class was script writing (of course).

4. You’re stranded on an island that has plenty of food and water, but no electricity or way to contact the outside world. But you have one object of your choice with you. What is it?

Am I allowed to say my husband? He’d be the most handy thing to have. He can start a fire, cook, fish, and build an awesome shelter (I would help him of course). AND he's nice to look at.
Now what would he want on the island . . . a machete?

5. If you could be any animal in the world, what would you be? Why?

Mmmmmm... I would be an eagle. I think it would be amazing to fly everywhere you go. Plus, eagles are predators and I don't want to be anyone's prey. If such a thing were real then I would be a huge golden eagle like from rescuers down under.

6. If you were the main character of a book, what genre would it be?

If someone were to read about my life they might be more interested in my new adult life, between the ages of 17-22. That's when most of the drama, funny, life learning events happened (unless they want a book about my kids) so then I would just call it "LDS Contemporary" (maybe young adult?)


I think I'll save the other answers from this list until later, along with the answers to Carrie-Anne's questions.

What are your answers to some of these questions?
I haven't tagged anyone yet but I'm interested to see what you think in the comments.

What did he say? A Challenge.

This week we have our first challenge for the Campaign.
Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “Shadows crept across the wall”. These five words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), do one or more of these:

• end the story with the words: "everything faded." (also included in the word count)
• include the word "orange" in the story
• write in the same genre you normally write
• make your story 200 words exactly!

I managed to do everything on the list. It was fun. To make sure the scene was in my genre I wrote a memory to do with my WIP. The main character has a form of amnesia and often "relives" the memories of his past life.

      Shadows crept across the wall as a woman entered the hallway. She wore a cream robe and her dark hair was shorter this time, more professional.
      Suddenly he pulled her through the wall opening. His mind jolted with shock and fear as his body pressed her against the wall. She jerked her arm free and he kissed her passionately.
      His body’s heart rate sped up. It felt so real. Frantic, he tried to stop, or at least get out of this memory. His past self tore open her robe. Don’t do this! His mind begged his body, which was only getting more aroused.
      The woman jumped and wrapped her legs around his waist. She pulled at his long hair and kissed his neck. Ex stopped fighting. He had long hair?
      “You did it!” She squeezed him. “Now you’re all mine.” She twirled a finger in his hair as his hands pulled at the blood orange blouse beneath her robe.
      He was out of breath. “Of course I’m yours, I’m your husband.”
      What did he say?
      She smiled. “Forever.” She lifted the blouse over her head.
      He stopped. “Oh, about that.”
      “Tell me later.” She pulled him closer and everything faded.

P.S. Maybe I wrote this scene because I was jealous of all the great scenes in the blogfests at valentines day.

Mancandy of the Month: James McAvoy

The other day I watched X-Men: First Class and was reminded of just how much I love
James McAvoy
And so, my first ever Mancandy of the Month is dedicated to these beautiful eyes:

I first noticed noticed him after watching his amazing performances in Atonement and The Last King of Scotland. These movies have been stuck in my head for years probably because of how disturbing they are but I blame it on the sexy James (especially in Atonement).


















The McAvoy enjoyment factor went way up when Becoming Jane came out. This is more my kind of movie.
*sigh*

It wasn't until recently that I found out that it was him in Children of Dune. I can't believe I didn't put that together!








I tried to narrow down the pictures (there are so many good ones)
Enjoy

What's your favourite McAvoy movie?

Hello Campaigners, Check out this Pitch Contest

Melodie Wright, on Forever Rewriting is hosting a pitch contest with EMLA agent Tricia Lawrence.
Even though my MS is nowhere NEAR ready to enter into any contests. I love to read the entries and try to convince everyone I know to enter.
She will read the query/250-word submissions between Feb. 13-17. Since her agency does not accept unsolicited queries - here's your chance!

Read the interview here to find out more about what she's looking for.


This announcement is going to more than my usual (few|) readers because...  DunnnnDunuDA!
The Fourth Campaign has begun! Rachel Harrie has decided to host an extra mini-campaign and I'm thankful she has. It's great to find new friends. For those of you who didn't know about this campaign, there's still plenty of time to join.

Thanks for stopping by campaign buddies. As a way to get to know you I'll ask a question at the end of each post. It might be relevant to the post some of the time, but I'm sure the questions will be mostly random. Everyone's welcome to answer (campaign or not).

Very Random Question:

Where were you when you had your first kiss?

Momentum

These last few months have been a complete brain drought. I think it starts when you choose to take a break from anything that involves thinking. And then the next week you think, maaaayybe I'll try writing again . . . but I wasn't into it. And pretty soon it became a distant thing, like I might get a hernia if I try to write. Anything. So the result is no blogging and an MS frozen in time and forgotten. It's like that, I start down the path and there's no turning back.

Thinking about it now it's surprising what ended up saving me from this vicious cycle. My sis-in-law finished her new book and sent it for me to critique. I try to resist doing too many line edits and instead leave my thoughts in the comments. This time though I broke the rules. I really dove into it and probably crossed a line or two. I think what pushed me over the edge was the song near the end. I couldn't help but play with it for fun (my original passion has always been workshopping poetry).

That got me thinking about some old poems and songs I'd written years ago. I had to fiddle with them too of course and ideas for new ones popped into my head. Then suddenly I was writing again. Something happened in me. Somehow I was tricked into writing. And once I started writing, I had to keep going.

So I pulled out my MS and actually wrote a page! I was so proud of myself (haha) that I told my husband who said, "so what?". I responded by mocking his slow one-finger typing, just to feel good about myself. Then the next day I wrote another page. And on the third day I wrote two pages - and this blog post!

I'm realizing now the most important element, for me, when it comes to writing a book - momentum. I suppose that would also help with working out and cleaning the house. Once you get going, start making it a pattern, then the next time it becomes easier, until it's a habit. Now of course I'm thinking, duh, I already knew that.

I just thought I'd share my realization with others, in case anyone else was feeling blocked, or brain dead. Whenever you think it's some impossible far away task -
what helps you get going again?