Lucky Seven

I’ve been tagged for the Lucky 7 meme by the lovely ladies Claudia Schiffer and Rebecca Clare Smith—both ages ago. I’ve been rather inactive with my blog lately, thanks to exams and a programming course, which will luckily end soon. In two weeks’ time I’m going to Menorca, Spain for a week's holiday. Looking forward to that :)

Anyway, here's the seven lines from page 77 of my WIP, starting from line seven. Looks like we landed in the middle of a conversation:

“The boys ran off terrified, but I recognized something in Lheyr. It was the spark of magic—I was drawn to it like a gossip bird to a blabbermouth.”

“We all know the story of Mount Noir. Humans say it shows how evil we shapeshifters are. Shapeshifters say it shows how evil humans can be. I was spared from the worst, but my younger brother was raised as a mutt because he refused to take any other form. He was kicked around, chained to the wall and if I hadn’t fed him half of my meals, he would have died.”

Some of the people I meant to tag have already been tagged, so I'm just pointing you to their Lucky 7 entries:

1. Lena Corazon

2. David A. Ludwig

3. Meg McNulty

And here are the ones I'm actually tagging:

4. Timony Souler

5. Lissa Bilyk

6. Stevie McCoy

7. Sonia Lal

P.S.
Please take part in Rebecca Clare Smith’s SatSunTails blog challenge. Challenges begin every Saturday and end Monday 1 pm GMT.

Also take a look at Timony Souler's new DiceGames challenge. It was a lot of fun last time!

Extending Vret's Story

I recently took part in Timony Souler's MarchMadness blog challenge. I've written a lot of short flash fiction, and sometimes I feel there's more to the story than can be told within the limits of the word count. I guess my problem is that I'm trying to stuff too much story into too few words.

For this challenge I came up with a character called Vret, whose story I couldn't really fit into those 4 x 200 words. After the challenge I began writing a longer version of Vret's story. It's currently around 4000 words, and the end is not in sight. I'll be posting the story in parts, starting next week.

BTW. Myth the purple (occasionally red) banner dragon got lost while migrating, which is why it's still snowing in the banner. Meanwhile in Helsinki, it seems like spring is finally coming: weather forecast promises 15°C (59°F) for tomorrow! Oh, and it smells like cows, a sure sign of spring.

Fourth Writers' Platform-Building Campaign

Again it's time for the Writers' Platform-Building Campaign, “a way to link those of us in the writing community together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms.”

Read more about the campaign on Rachael Harrie's blog. You can join until February 15th.

Nightgale Blog Challenge: The Unfinished Tale

Fourth and last entry to Nightgale blog challenge. Thank you Glitterlady and other participants for the great stories. David A. Ludwig has written a summary of the challenge, read it here.

Emma sought the words her father would have chosen. Did the dragon’s scales glint or gleam as it shifted atop its mound of treasure? No, he would have first described the gold, rubies, and magical relics strewn into a pile and then revealed the dragon lying atop the fortune.

The words were right, now she had to write them down. She held up one of her father’s pages, studied the form of the letters. How the top of t’s curved, how the i’s were a little slanted and how the ink stains became more frequent when the pace of the story grew faster.

Like a muse, the memory of her father guided her hand. She worked throughout the night, studying the pages her father had written before death had claimed him. When her work was done she snuck back into her father’s study and hid the papers below a cupboard. As if they’d fallen there.

Come morning, she pretended to find them. She held her breath for a moment; she would have to sound surprised and elated at the “discovery”, otherwise they would see through her ruse.

“Mama! Lil’ brother!” Emma held one of the papers in her hand. “Come see what I found!”

“I’m not little!”

“I found some papers. The letters look like dad’s handwriting. ” She swallowed; mother had furrowed her brow. “And they pick up where father’s story left off.”

“Mama, read it to me!” Her brother bounced up and down, brown locks mimicking the movement. He’d believed the lie. Not much else mattered. “I want to know what happens next!”

“You’ll have to sit down and listen.” Mother had a knowing smile on her face as she walked in to the den holding the papers and began reading her daughter’s words.

Emma smiled; father hadn’t told her the ending of the story, but it had been clear to her. The beggar boy would outwit the dragon, not slay it, and return to his family a rich young man. Her little brother liked simple, happy endings. They made him smile when nothing else could.

Why I write fantasy

Morning was leaving and the world began to wake from its grogginess. Birds crisscrossed the sky, their chirruping interrupted by a passing dragon. The sun’s rays danced upon its black skin, reflecting in a rainbow of colours.

Above is an excerpt from the story I am currently focusing on. Like most of the stories I’m writing, this one contains magical beings; dragons, shapeshifters, monsters and some of my own creations. The presence of creatures and magic is what sets fantasy apart from other genres. That is one reason why I chose fantasy.

When I was little I listened to my mother read stories with talking foxes and rabbits with clothes, who lead very human lives. I loved animals, in the stories and in the real world; henceforth I wanted to write stories with human-like animals and creatures. There are few genres which allow me non-human characters: horror, children’s stories and fantasy. I haven’t entirely forsaken the other two, but the themes of my stories often require the character to go through hardships and emotional turmoil that has no place in a small child’s story. As for horror, I’m too squeamish.

The other aspect of fantasy that drew me in is magic, the power to shape reality. Magic allows dragons to breathe fire, shapeshifters to alter their appearance and some humans to wield the elements to a degree. It also allows for magical mishaps such as pink, polka dot shrew with butterfly antennas. It also raises the obstacles the protagonist must face; demons, evil gods, monsters and other dark things that exist only in the depths of our nightmares. As a writer I long to wield these elements into something awe inspiring, opening the reader a door into a new world.

Which brings me to the third reason, the worlds. I have much more freedom in creating the stage of my story. With the aid of magic the inhabitants can build huge castles and other constructions that defy the laws of nature. There can be places where to reach to the sprits with a word, and old dark halls guarded by creatures whose stare or bite will turn the unwary traveller to stone. The imagination is the only limit.

As well as writing, I draw. I love drawing strange and exotic places such as ice causeways, fiery pits and dark tunnels infested with demons. I also love describing those places, never mind a picture says more than a thousand words, I can instil the feel of the place in the readers mind, describe the deep, raspy breaths of a monster lurking in the shadow and how the cold seeps beneath the skin. Or the sun’s rays, warmly caressing the face of the character standing in the picture, his elation at the prospect of returning home.

I feel like home when I enter a bookstore or library, surrounded by friends. When I pick up a book I sometimes hold my breath as I read the back of the book to learn some of its secrets and decide whether to carry it home with me. When I read, I travel to another realm of reality and learn of human nature.

Emilia Quill