Serpent of Smoke (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

Nothing like trying to write romance to remind me how bad I am at writing romance. Anyway, this was supposed to be a sword & sorcery/bodice ripper mashup (original challenge here courtesy of Mr. Chuck Wendig). It leans way more heavily on the former than the latter, and for that I apologize. As it is, it’s around 100 words longer than the 1500 mark, but I’m okay with that. This story does take place in the same ‘verse as the Liam the Black stories, but features all new characters. I’m interested to know what you think, so comment away!

Welcome to the Neighborhood (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s challenge: going against authority. Man this story could be another two thousand words longer, couldn’t it? Anyway, highly appropriate that Tom gets to come out and play on this one. and yeah, Sunny’s there, in the background, even if she doesn’t get screen time. Alas.

As always, comments are appreciated.

Forsaken (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s challenge: To Behold the Divine. I took the opportunity to get Liam the Black back out there, even for a non-canon story, to explain a little bit more where he comes from and why has little patience for gods, spirits and other such hoodoo. Maybe not quite what the challenge was calling for, but given my current state of mind it was good to write something, maybe even especially because a Liam the Black story was just rejected. Comments and such are welcome, as always.

Clearing the Castle (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s challenge: the random flickr challenge. Get a picture, use it as inspiration.

I ended up with mmcclair‘s image of Eilean Donan‘s castle in Scotland. Reasonably happy with how it turned out, and it gave me an excuse to take Heinrik and Viona back out for a spin. If you enjoy they’re anctics, you’ll be happy to know a story featuring them was accepted by New Realm magazine. Also- in which I am reminded that writing “quick” sword and sorcery is in some ways harder than writing the long stuff.

As always, comments, likes, and shares are much appreciated.

Wolves of Sorrow (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s Chuck Wendig challenge: Take one of ten titles and work a story around it. I went with Wolves of Sorrow, and decided I’d use it as an excuse to bring Hiram Sand and his behemoth back out for a spin. Because giant mechs and killer robots and giant mushroom forests. It is a smidge over the given limit, but you won’t hold that against me, will you?

Silence in the Night (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s challenge: 1000 words on the thing that scares you the most. It’s strange, but maybe I was braver when I was younger, or maybe not smart enough to be afraid. As I get older, I find myself fearing things more. Afraid of not being able to pay the bills. Afraid of my children getting hurt. Afraid of something happening to my parents. Afraid of my own aging body. Afraid of my government. So yeah, the trick isn’t to not be afraid, but to let the fear be the emotion that solely drives you. Because a healthy sense of fear is a good thing. It keeps you alive. It keeps you from doing really stupid shit.

But fear that paralyzes? Fear that makes you hurt someone else simply because your fear turns to anger? That’s the dangerous stuff we all need to be on the look out for.

As always, comments are welcome and appreciated. (And yes, this is quite a bit under the 1k limit, but I like how it came out regardless)

A Final Demonstration of the Principles of Dimensionality (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

The challenge: to write an apocalypse, preferentially one that hasn’t been written before. Eh, not sure about that last part, but I had fun with it.

Black Dog Part III (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

So this is part three to a scary story and where the rubber meets the road so to speak.

Part I is here: http://jemimapett.com/blog/2016/10/07/fridayflash-fiction-spooky-tales-1-black-dog/

Part II is there: https://kim153.wordpress.com/2016/10/19/scary-story-part-two-of-jemima-petts-story-black-dog/

Many thanks to Jemima Pett and Kim Blades for the setup.

What Lurks in Shadows (Part I)

This week’s challenge, write part 1 (of 3) of a spooky story. So this is all atmosphere and set-up for what’s to come. Not too scary, yet, but hopefully enough meat on the bones for someone to come along and flesh it out.

A Small Price to Pay (A Chuck Wendig Challenge)

This week’s challenge is to use the always entertaining Who the Fuck is MY D&D Character? My result:

ANXIOUS TIEFLING FIGHTER FROM A LOCAL STREET GANG WHO BRIBED A NOBLEMAN TO HELP THEM SMUGGLE SLAVES OUT OF A TYRANNICAL KINGDOM

So yeah, that got me this short (which I know feels like it could be something a lot bigger, but damn, I had just about 1000 words to work with here). As always, comments are welcome and appreciated (as is sharing, liking, following on twitter or liking on facebook.

Yes, yes, you came for story time, not self-promotion time. I GET IT.