Standoff (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

This week, even though it was a shorter one, was exhausting. I’m training a new person at work and still trying to get all of my regular responsibilities taken care of. Friday was Ender’s birthday. She turned 16 and it will be the last time I get to celebrate it with her. And next week is my brother’s wedding. I’m tired and stressed out. And to add to all of it, I had a less than stellar check-up at the doctor’s recently. I’m getting old and my body seems to be in revolt. So now I’m going to be on a few medications. Bummer. Maybe it’s why I feel so crappy lately.

BUT I’m making sure I try I stay creatively engaged. I’m currently working on some character profiles for my main characters and some of my major point of view characters. I’m writing their histories up to when their stories start and their flaws. Then I want to add some information about what they want and what’s preventing them.

I think this and some drabbles is the best I can do until after the wedding and getting our new person up to speed and taking care of Ender…

This week’s drabble is part of a larger piece and the first sentence is actually from a writing prompt shared on Facebook. Enjoy!

~ Effy

Two thousand warriors drew their swords for a war they would not win. No one would win this war.

On one side stood the elves, keepers of the land, tenders of the ancient trees. On the other, the humans waited, strangers in a strange land and fighting for their independence.

Dark forces pulled the strings. A jealous god plotted as his puppets played out a bloody drama. Ancient monsters teemed below, awaiting their opportunity.

Warriors shifted on restless legs. Magi fingered magical components. Horses paced as griffons and pegasi stood stoic. The Sunstone warbled mournfully.

The world held its breath.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Happily Ever After (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

I haven’t been writing much. Instead, I have been transferring notes from old notebooks into digital files. Some of these notebooks are back from 2003. Heh. Luckily, it’s sparking some ideas. Unfortunately, I’m spread between five or more different ideas. But on the plus side, it’s also sparking more drabble ideas. But I’m without a solid writing project at the moment. Of course with how exhausted I am after work lately, it might be for the best until things settle down again.

Phew.

I thought about trying to get organized for Camp NaNoWriMo this month, but I imagine it will be another few weeks before I’m settled enough to be very productive. I’m determined to start writing regularly again, and I think I need a new first draft to do so.

Until then, I’ll attempt to keep publishing drabbles (or longer pieces) each week.

Enjoy.

~ Effy

Sir Dane galloped up to the dreaded dragon’s lair. He had conquered many heroic tasks atop his steed and bedecked in his finest armor.

A stale breeze wafted forth as if the mouth breathed the beast’s own rank breath. Sir Dansk drew his sword and screwed his courage. When his eyes adjusted to the dim interior, he saw not the dragon but the fair Princess Stephanie. Her look was not appreciative.

“Did you ever think perhaps I don’t want to be ‘saved’?”

He had not.

“Get along before Melusine cooks you in your armor.” Yellow eyes glared.

And he did.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Dreary (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

This was a rough week. I’ve been working some extra hours at work and I’ve been pretty wiped out by the time I get home. It’s short term, I know, but it’s making me wonder if I can keep up this 1000 Day MFA thing. I hate feeling like I’m always playing catch up. I’m still reading some and writing some, but I think it’s too much on top of a full-time job.

Somehow I still managed to get two drabbles together, though. Here’s the first one. I’ll post the next one next week and hope that I have myself enough back together to get another short story finished the following week.

~ Effy

Ping sighed and brushed away a wayward tear as it trickled down his reddened cheek. He watched the rain drizzle down with its dreary melancholy, reflecting his mood. The village below was dark and silent. It had been quiet most of the day, since the rain had begun. Puddles gathered, growing bigger as the day progressed, fusing together into ever larger puddles.

A knock came to the door. Ping frowned. A streak of lightning flashed white, followed by a thunderous boom.

Miehiu peeked around the door. “Hi, Ping. I came to check on you before you flood the village again.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

A Case of the Mondays (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

I don’t by any means consider this one of my best pieces, but it made me giggle. Hopefully you catch the reference and giggle too.

~ Effy

Marty checked himself in the mirror, shouldering his bag. Another too short weekend. As the door closed behind him, the quiet lawn and street beyond lay distended before him.

Two blocks into his walk, he heard rummaging in an alleyway. A can clattered. Marty reached into the dark depths of his bag.

A groan proceeded the zombie’s appearance. It turned, shuffling forward.

Out came a machete. It sunk into the soft skull. A spray of gore fanned Marty’s face and front.

Three blocks later, Kate greeted him. “Looks like someone’s got…”

“Please don’t,” Marty groaned. He needed a new commute.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Wild, Wild West (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

Since finishing the first draft of First Knight, I’ve been kind of all over the place on my writing. I’ve been brainstorming, plotting, and I’ve started a handle of short stories. None of those are near completion. So I put one of my random ideas to paper and it turned into this.

This is a drabble that might be worthy of a longer piece. 🙂

~ Effy

“Okay, pardners,” Sheriff Bingham drawled, “This here town ain’t big enough for all of us. So either you move along or we’ll have a problem.” The sheriff and his men stood in a line, guns drawn, serious and silent.

The sun baked the dusty road and a wayward wind kicked a tumbleweed across the space between.

Sheriff Bingham clicked the hammer back. “What’ll it be?”

A growl echoed off the splintered building faces. Wide-eyed faces peered from within.

“Keep your women and children close, sheriff,” the alpha werewolf said. Then the pack turned and disappeared into the swirling yellow dust.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

#WriterProblems (Drabble)

Image from Pixabay.

Yes, I know I already posted.

This is my second short story for this week, to try and make up for the week I missed. This piece has actually been sitting in my notebook for a few weeks. I didn’t like the original ending and I couldn’t make it work. This ending came to me in the car earlier this week and I feel it works much better.

~ Effy

The day Richard turned thirty, he decided to stop trying to meet the perfect woman. Instead, he wrote her into his story. No more blind dates. No more doubling with friends. No more third wheel. No more lonely nights of Netflix with his dog, Sam.

No more disappointment.

Richard sat down with his laptop, in Starbucks of all places. He typed a new scene, a fight scene, with a woman strong both physically and mentally. She destroyed her enemies and then went to the king’s ball.

As she stepped off the page, she whispered, “You’re not quite what I imagined.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

The Long Road Too Short (Drabble)

I’m late. I know. I almost completely missed this week, but this came to me in my melancholy yesterday. It’s just a short piece this week. I’m a little scattered and stressed and exhausted this week.

~ Effy

I know someday you’ll leave me, not by choice but by the ravages of time. Everyday I watch you get up a little bit slower, take a little longer to greet me. Slowly, though crystal clear to me after all these years, I see your vision cloud, your hearing fade. Sometimes I catch you in a stare and wonder what far off thought you’re having. I call to you and have to repeat myself several times before you return to me. I wonder how many times you’ll come back. For now, I’m content with stroking your fur as you sleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

In Search of Sunrise (Drabble)

I’m still plugging away at a dragon piece I’ve been working on in between other things, but Friday night on my way home from work, this idea came to me. The title is actually a series of albums by Tiesto, and somehow Pandora played a string of them. It got me thinking of different things the title could mean.

By the time I got through traffic and home, I’d written about half of this in my head.

~ Effy

There is no sunrise in space. No atmosphere. No clouds catching fire in various shades of pink and orange and yellow as brilliance crowns the horizon.

That is how I remember the sunrises of my youth on Earth. Blazing fire.

Now there is only the cold black of space dotted with points of cold light. The hum of human machines and the flicker of man-made lights hold the cold at bay but it intrudes.

Now I drink the same recycled water. I eat the same climate-control grown food.

Space is dark and lonely as I continue in search of sunrise.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Rescue (Drabble)

I struggled with a story I really wanted to publish this week. Then I woke up Saturday morning with the spark of an idea. It turned into this short piece.

~ Effy

Rescue

After months of chores and proving myself, Mom finally agreed to take me to Moonlight Rescue to pick out a pet of my own.

The enclosures seemed to go on and on.

“Mom, they all look so sad.”

“That’s because this is no place to live. They need real homes and families.”

I knelt down and came to face level with one fuzzy face. Dark eyes glistened and a whine came up from a muzzle tucked between two large paws.

The sign on the enclosure said “Luna.” Beneath that read: “Every year, thousands of werewolves are euthanized. Adopt don’t shop.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.

Big Bad (Drabble)

1000 Day MFA — Week 3

I had a rough week. A total lack of energy, ambition, and muse. It’s probably the weather–a week or two of spring followed by cold weather that screwed with my sinuses all over again. I got four sentences over four days and found myself waxing poetic about it in our 1000 Day MFA group. Our advisor replied to me and suggested aiming for just 100 words and gave me permission for it to really suck.

Getting something down on paper, yes, that was what I needed. But 100 words of what?

On my way to work the following day, I heard a song called “Big Bad” by Borgore, and the title stuck in my brain. I wrote (and revised) half of this piece in my head in the car, rushing through the drive thru so fast I didn’t realize I had the wrong size coffee until I got to work and started typing.

So here’s my first drabble. Per Wikipedia:

A drabble is a short work of fiction of around one hundred words in length. The purpose of the drabble is brevity, testing the author’s ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in a confined space.

I edited it to exactly 100 words, which made me pretty proud. This is the shortest piece I’ve ever written.

I hope you enjoy it. (I spent more works talking about it than writing it!) And wish me luck with a longer piece next week.

~ Effy

No one knew his given name. He only answered to Big Bad, and the name fit him.

He looked at me from across the obscenely large oak desk and smiled a smile that made me shiver. It showed his whole sharp set of teeth, complete with overly large canines, bright white from many whitening pastes and strips. It curled his face into a wolf-like semblance that made me second guess all my reasons for being here.

“So, little one,” Big Bad said with a voice like honey, honey lined with razor blades. “What can you do for me in return?”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story and all related material are the original works of Awaiting the Muse and Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti. All rights reserved.

Awaiting the Muse by Effy J. Roan AKA Effraeti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at https://awaitingthemuse.wordpress.com/.