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The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King

I’ve learned many things from the writing of Stephen King (both reading his novels and his great book On Writing). Among those lessons, he’s taught me that fantasy and science fiction need not be segregated, but can be present in the same fictional world at the same time. It can be done. It can work. It can work well.

Aside from the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, I’ve come across this idea elsewhere too–from Anne McAffrey and Terry Brooks, to name a couple. I also found the idea fascinating in the 80’s cartoon movie Wizards.

Go then, there are other worlds than these. ~ Jake Chambers

This has been one of the cornerstones of my fantasy world for a long time. One of my first tries at writing a novel (in middle and high school) included a human from Earth ending up in my fantasy world of Dadreon. Over the course of the story, she learns the horrible truth, that Earth was destroyed and this alien fantasy world eventually sprung from its ashes. The horror of it struck me enough to think of it as a good enough segway.

Then, I grew up and I noticed the glaring holes in my worldbuilding. I’ve spent the past few years stitching up many of them, but I had started to think I would drop the “far-future Earth” idea because I wasn’t sure how I could make it work. I feared it had become my “darling” and one that needed killing. (More advice from Mr. King.)

Kill your darlings… ~ Stephen King

I had my pantheon of gods. I had the protectors that served those gods. I had mortal races that had “normal” day to day lives, like real life, but in a fantastic world. These characters all make up the side of “order,” and on other side of that balance coin, the forces of “chaos.” But I still hadn’t figured out how to make the fantasy and science fiction elements blend. I didn’t want some blah reason for Earth to die. I didn’t want to make some statement of how awful we are as a human race and have us blow ourselves up in a nuclear war (which was my original thought, but never satisfying).

Then everything (finally, after almost 30 years) started to come together.

When I started my blog, I used it as an outlet for the fan fiction stories building in my head. Stories for my World of Warcraft characters. They were set in a known world, so I had that part done for me, very safe, but it’s such a wide world it gave me the latitude to get creative. Eventually, realizing I would never (realistically) be able to publish fan fiction (except on my own tiny corner of the internet), I shifted back to working on fiction for my own fantasy world of Dadreon again.

About 30 years after creating it and about 10 years since I’d even looked at it.

I filled in lots of worldbuilding holes. I made great progress.

But I missed those great fan fiction stories I had started.

So I began to wonder if there were a way to translate those stories from the Warcraft world to my own.

What I came up with was sparked by Effraeti’s “Descending Twilight” series. So I brainstormed and I wrote a teaser:

Earth, the Near Future.

Humans have been advancing their technology and learning the science of time travel, but not in time to save themselves. Dark old gods have emerged. They and their demonic minions lay waste to Earth.

In one last effort to save humanity, scientists flee through time both backward (to prevent) and forward (to escape), trying to find their salvation and discover what might stop these awesome, destructive beings.

But something goes wrong. Dr. Gabi Graf is caught in a temporal vortex and nearly killed. Somehow she is split in two and ends up in two times and places, each half aware something is missing…

Can she survive in the distant future? What will Earth have become at the hands of these dark old gods? And will she find what she’s looking for?

Gabi has become her own alternate timeline.

Okay, okay, so the blurb probably doesn’t need the last line, but I really like it.

Now, instead of working on my four book series Jadeflare (specifically Book 2) for NaNoWriMo, like I had originally intended, now I want to work on this. I have so many ideas in my head.I’m currently working to straighten them out in my head and on paper with the help with

I’m currently working to straighten these ideas out in my head and on paper with the help with Kristen Kieffer’s awesome Pre-Writing Story Bible. (Kristen also runs a great Facebook group called Your Write Dream with a great writer community if you’re interested in something like that.) Once I get every question answered in the Story Bible, I’ll do a chapter outline. Then I’ll enter those chapters into Scrivener. Then, I should be ready to start writing.

I love the idea of NaNoWriMo, but I doubt I’ll aim for 1667 per day (for a total of 50,000 between November 1st and November 30th). I’m thinking of doing something more lowkey and attainable, like 500 words per day, which was suggested by Shaunta Grimes who runs another awesome Facebook group called Ninja Writers, which is also a great writing community.

The Facebook groups are great support, but also a huge distraction sometimes (like when I’m unconsciously trying to avoid writing).

500 words are still more than my average, so it’ll still be quite a stretch.

But I can do this.

And I’ll work on this new novel idea (which I’m affectionately naming Split Personality until I come up with something better) until I get stuck like I did with Jadeflare. Then, I’ll switch and keep going with that.

I’m trying to tell myself that multiple projects are okay. It might slow me down, but if it keeps me writing reguarly, it’s worth it.

Wish me luck in November! If I’m not stressing too much over word counts, I’ll try to post updates. Otherwise, I might not pipe up here again until December 1st.

~ Effy

Author Up Challenge – Day 13

Welcome to Day 13 of the Author Up Challenge!

Today’s prompt was:

Day 13: Write Science Fiction.

I’ve written science fiction pieces before, but this prompt was really tough. And it’s still not “true” science fiction–there’s no explanations of techie things in it. But I found some prompts on writepop.com that sparked some ideas. So I choose one. It is at the end of this post, because I wanted to at least tempt to not spoil the story. Too bad I can’t make it expanding text–so that you have to click on it to see/read it. Oh well.

This certainly isn’t my favorite of pieces I’ve written recently, it needs more work, but I think it turned out okay.

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

~ Effy

Online Dating

After three weeks of engaging conversation and so much in common, Erika wondered if it was too quick to ask to meet Ryan. He hadn’t brought up the subject yet. In fact, she didn’t even know where he lived, just that he was local. He knew many of the same stores and restaurants in her small town, even the comic book shop, and she realized maybe she’d run across him at some point.

How weird would that be?

After all the ways they could have met, and maybe they had but didn’t know it, Erika had started talking to Ryan after a chance meeting in World of Warcraft. She’d been herbing on her worgen druid, and he’d snagged a Felweed she’d been about to pick. She got annoyed, but then the offender turned around and came back. A human hunter named Velius opened trade with her and gave her the herb, along with a smile emote.

Erika didn’t know how to reply, except, “Thanks.”

That simple interaction had led to a conversation, somehow. Erika couldn’t even remember how. The guy just started whispering her, and suddenly it was three in the morning and Erika had to peel herself away from the game and the conversation to log off and go to bed.

Then, she’d dragged her tired ass around at work the next day. Ugh. The only thing that got her through was the hope that Velius would be on again.

He was.

They talked until the wee hours again, and Erika learned his name was Ryan. She’d never known many Ryan’s, but it had always been a favorite name of hers. She tried to sneak it into short stories when she could.

Then, to find out he lived near–or perhaps in–her small town.

Ryan admitted he didn’t get out as much as he wanted, between work and other commitments. That made Erika nervous and her stomach queasy. Oh, God, he’s married! But he assured her he wasn’t.

Not that she had much room to say anything. She never got out either. Between working full time and going to school part time, the hours of her day were usually full. If she wasn’t at work or school, she had homework. And on the rare occasion she caught up on that, she stole away the tiny chunks of time to relax, either reading or writing.

Ryan had been thrilled when she’d introduced him to her blog. He seemed to absorb the entirety of it in a few days, and had shared his thoughts on several pieces–both positive and negative, but all constructive and even some insightful things she hadn’t thought of.

They also enjoyed the same music. Which never happened. Usually guys barely tolerated her techno and quickly got tired of it. He knew many of her favorite musicians–Moby and Morcheeba, Bjork and Royksopp, Zero 7 and Massive Attack, Above and Beyond and Armin Van Buuren.

The list of things they shared in common seemed almost impossible, but Erika didn’t complain. She enjoyed it every minute she could. Don’t say it, she thought more than once. Don’t you dare say too perfect.

As she sat at her desk, waiting for Ryan to log on, she mentally worked up the courage to ask him to coffee. Coffee was safe. Coffee was in public, in case by some chance he was some crazy nutjob in real life. Coffee was also short, and meant either one of them could decide on more, beyond coffee, or ending their–date?–there. No, not a date, just coffee. Keep it simple.

Then again, Erika began to ponder, they hadn’t even spoken on Skype or the phone. She started to wonder what Ryan looked like. Maybe that was a better next step. Maybe coffee was too quick, but a phone call, that made sense.

Velius logged on. He was still standing next to Erika’s Druid in the Dwarven District of Stormwind, where they’d last chatted until way too late. She had been too distracted since logging on to move from the spot.

“Evening,” came the whisper text. “I was thinking maybe we could talk on Skype tonight? What do you think?”

Erika blinked. Whoa, did he read my mind or what? She fumbled to untangle her headset and plug it in while she clicked around until Skype opened and logged her in. As soon as she connected, the line began to ring and she picked up.

“Hi!” Ryan said, his smile reaching his sea green eyes and making them sparkle.

Erika had to forced her mouth closed. He was gorgeous. She couldn’t have dreamed him better. Wavy brown hair that hung almost to his ears, but not too messy or too tidy, and a goatee that perfectly outlined his smile.

“Is your audio working?” he asked playfully.

“Oh, yes, sorry,” she sputtered. “Hi.” It sounded lame and flat as it came out of her mouth.

Ryan chuckled. “Oh good. I can hear you.”

“One sec, let me close WoW.” Erika tabbed through the open windows and Stormwind came back into view.

“You can close it later. Let’s just talk for now,” Ryan was saying in the background, but Erika barely heard him. Her screen did not open as she expected. She wasn’t looking through her druid’s point of view, she was looking at her druid–from the view of Ryan’s hunter, Velius.

Ryan had trailed off and become quiet.

“What the hell?” Erika said, her confusion coming out annoyed and verging on angry. “Are you some hacker? How the hell are you logged in on my computer?”

“Well,” he began but stopped.

Erika closed WoW, and Ryan’s face filled her screen again.

“Explain. How are you on my computer?” she asked again.

“Actually, I am your computer,” he admitted with a shrug and an embarrassed grin.

“Oh bugger.” Too perfect, she thought once more.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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/.

Author Up Challenge – Day 12

Saurok Fight, from the War Chief’s Command Board

Welcome to Day 12!

First let me note that the image above was basically the only good saurok fan art I could find, and happens to be from one of the few WoW blogs I still read–The Warchief’s Command Board. So I am happy to give Garrosh his due credit here. 🙂

Today’s prompt was:

Day 12: Write a Romance.

Simple enough and one of the genres I enjoy dabbling in. These days my writing isn’t completely suffused with romance, but it’s still pretty common. The prompt expanded to mention using body language and facial expressions to convey the feelings going on. So I made that a goal with this piece.

When I started thinking about the prompt, my mind immediately went to a piece I started a while back but never finished or posted. So now seems as good a time as any! So fittingly, I have WoW fan art in the form of a comic above, and WoW fan fiction below. This is a follow-up piece to Broken (if you need a quick catch-up), and features my Monk, Ireenia. She is a young orphaned blue dragon whom my main, Effraeti, saved as an egg and raised. So Ireenia’s preferred humanoid form is a Draenei.

~ Effy

Redemption

And sorry, you get an old model Ireenia, because my account isn’t active.

 

What started as an altercation between Ireenia and two saurok had blossomed to a dozen.

There had been no reason for Iree to be here other than her own need for an outlet to her anger. The saurok seemed a good target, being the unnatural and invasive creatures they were. Perhaps the Mantid would reward her for their hides later. However, the woman began to question the intelligence of her decision as another Saurok heard the commotion and hurried to join in.

Iree punched one in the throat as it lunged toward her from the right. Another’s face met her hoof as it tried to take advantage of the other Saurok’s attack. But their target was a Monk, and she did not get distracted. She did not lose focus.

Eventually, though, she would tire.

Despite the handful of creatures already on the ground or attempting to slither away from her, the mob continued to grow.

There were now twelve against her one.

No, make that thirteen. No, back to twelve.

They seemed to replenish their numbers–and grow even–for every one she defeated. Iree realized she had underestimated the size of this Saurok camp.

She also realized they were pushing her slowly towards the base of the great wall dividing the Dread Wastes from the rest of Pandaria.

A saurok felt her fist meet with the side of its skull as it clumsily pitched forward. She kicked the air from the lungs of another. One caught her leg with its sharp talons and she cried out and quickly spun the opposite way, driving an elbow down into its neck. As it hit the ground, Iree twisted without putting her weight on the injured leg and kicked another Saurok in the face.

Red blood ran down the blue skin of her calf, but there was no time to bandage it or speak the words of a healing spell.

Blood and teeth sprayed, and Iree kept kicking, kept punching, kept spinning out of reach.

But their numbers continued to grow. Iree began to tire, her leg throbbing in the spot the Saurok had grabbed her, and she realized the wall loomed even closer than before.

A saurok snapped a mouthful of sharp teeth very close to her face and Iree punched it away. She had let it get closer than any of the others so far. She could not let that happen again.

Iree spun, her injured leg sweeping through the mass of lizardmen bodies. Several were knocked away, but several more avoided the kick and leapt in at her from behind it. A great press of scaly bodies came in on her, a wall of hot, rank breath and sharp talons. Ireenia punched out at one Saurok, but another grabbed her arm. A third dug its nails into her opposite shoulder.

With a pained shout, Ireenia swung backwards and caught the third Saurok in the chin with her elbow, causing a crunching noise and violently snapping the creature’s head back. But another lizardman greedily grabbed her arm just as it came free of the other’s face.

Ireenia knew there was no breaking out now, but she swore she would go down swinging. Somehow, it was refreshing to think it would end this way–that she would die fighting, instead of old and alone.

As she had the thought, the shriek of a bird of prey pierced the air. The giant raptor’s claws dug into Iree’s shoulders and she screamed an epithet as the storm crow lifted her into the air among the flutter of blue-feathered wings.

The saurok cursed and clawed at her, tearing up her legs as she rose.

Ireenia rose as brilliant points of light descended into the dense clump of lizardmen. She watched as those falling stars were met by the screams of a dozen or more of the lizardmen.

The saurok finally scattered.

“Your timing is impeccable,” Ireenia said, not sure if she meant it as grateful or sarcastic.

“I do enjoy making an entrance,” Skeiron replied. Were a beak capable, Iree knew there would have been a wide smile there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Once both were back on the ground, an uncomfortable silence settled between them.

Skeiron spoke first. “Getting yourself into trouble again I see.”

Ireenia did not know how to respond to that. They were not the words she had expected to hear. Though, truth be told, she had not expected his appearance or his words at all. “We do what we’re good at, right?” She swallowed and paused. “Well… I didn’t figure on having to explain myself.” She crossed her arms before her, scowling.

“So you went into that fight not planning to walk away from it?”

“Perhaps.” Iree shifted uncomfortably from one hoof to the other, and not entirely because she hurt all over, though her clawed and bleeding legs throbbed. Not only did she not want to explain herself, she did not know–or want to know–where this conversation was going.

Nowhere good, certainly. Probably to an I told you so and a quick goodbye.

She glanced around for an easy escape, but Skeiron had chosen his landing well–the top of the Pandaren wall, between the Dread Wastes and the Valley of the Four Winds. She considered diving off, but doubted the speed with which she could transform into her dragon-self.

She did not look him in the face, especially with him back in his true form as a Night Elf. Despite her gaze being on the bricks below her hooves, Iree felt his eyes upon her.

“That would have been quite a shame,” Skeiron said softly.

“Hmm,” Iree responded. “Then, I guess it is good you came by when you did.”

“Well, that was no accident,” he admitted. “I was looking for you.”

Iree tensed, unsure how to reply. “I still had some tricks left…” she sputtered uncertainly.

She felt him come closer, but still could not look up. Then, he was standing in front of her. Before she could think of how to respond, Skeiron set his hands on her shoulders.

She flinched at his touch, but at the same time savored it.

“You don’t have to be the strong one all the time, you know,” he chided, his voice a soft whisper. He touched her cheek lightly with his fingers.

Iree’s eyes flickered to the violet skin as it brushed against hers.

“I’m not so strong,” Iree admitted. “I’m just good at hiding the hurt. Stubbornness–that’s what I’m told I’m best at.” As she spoke, moisture began to form in her eyes. It made her angry and she made a face, blinking and wishing them away.

“I know, I just needed you to finally admit it.” The elf pulled her towards him, and wrapped his arms around her trembling shoulders.

She could not hold back the wave of emotion that hit her. A sob wrenched her throat.

“Don’t cry, dragon,” Skeiron whispered as he held Ireenia tighter. As happy as she was at that moment, the comment made her cry harder. His fingers stroked her hair and both stood silent for several moments, only the sound of her sobs causing any noise between them.

Finally Ireenia pulled back slightly, so she could look into Skeiron’s eyes. “I was afraid…” she began, the rest caught in her throat. The Night Elf studied her, seemingly for the first time so intent was his gaze, as she collected herself. It intimidated her, those luminescent eyes that seemed to see inside of her, but they were gentle and reassuring. He touched her face, and with a deep breath and the presence of his fingers, Ireenia made herself continue. “I was afraid I would never be here again.”

“I was afraid you did not want to be,” Skeiron whispered.

A breeze ruffled the feathers of his headdress and cloak, and it reminded Ireenia of flying with him. She pictured him once more as the blue-feathered storm crow, wings spread and gliding along beside her in her dragon-form.

“When I heard the roar that shook the Vale, I knew it was you and I knew I had to find you,” he continued. “There was no mistaking the source of that.”

Ireenia nuzzled her face into his neck, content to be touching him, and not wanting to let go. She did not interrupt as he continued.

“Because that roar echoed the ache of my own heart.”

That tore another sob from her. “I’m so sorry,” Iree said, her voice tremulous. “I don’t know if I can ever make it right again, but I want to try.”

Skeiron hugged her tighter and nodded into her hair. “So do I.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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/.

Presentation – Lovecraft Meets Warcraft

New and exciting things! This weekend I finished my presentation for my Horror and Science Fiction class. I created it on Lovecraft and Warcraft, and how the former has influenced the latter. I discovered how to create a video directly from PowerPoint. I also uploaded this as my first ever YouTube video.

The only downside, I had to cut the videos I was planning to use. I couldn’t figure out how to get them to play in my PP to video (I’ll probably research that later), and my video was too long to record it on Screenr, which is the one screen capture website I’m familiar with.

Anyways, here’s my video! After it, I will include the videos I watched while creating it.

Enjoy!

~ Effy

Lovecraft Meets Warcraft, By: Effy

WoW Lore: Old God Secrets, By: MrRhexx

The Lore of Titans and Old Gods, By: Nobbel87 (Parts 1/2/3)

My Favorite Story Lines

One of our assignments for creative writing was to go through all of our past writing and find some of our favorite lines. So I went back to the older pieces on my blog, previous to this class, and picked more than I needed. I figured it would be fun to share them here as well. Most of them are from my older, WoW fan fiction, because I reread through all the short stories that have made it to their own pages on the blog. This exercise made me realize how behind I am with making my short stories into their own pages.

I might have to go through again at some point, and pull lines from some of my newer pieces.

Along with lines from our own work, our next task was to share our favorite first lines from other books or stories. I chose my three favorite books, which all happen to be part of a series, but they were introductions to my favorite series.

Enjoy!

~ Effy

Favorite Lines From My Stories

Ancestors:

The night creatures awoke and made their noises, forming a symphony that surrounded her like the arms of the forest itself.

The Firebird and the Sunwalker:

He felt the warmth of the Firebird inside his breast and from there forward, even during the storm and the dead of night, Heraqawa always felt the sun upon his face.

Love and Sacrifice:

The elements cried today. They cried for the return to the Earth of their companion and voice.

The Harvest Witch:

This was when she most felt alive, with the ebb and flow of life and death all around her, it speaking to her in ways other than with words.

Savoir-Faire:

The evil that emanated from the place was palpable and hit one not unlike a stale wind from deep underground, one that reeks of death and rot.

A Picaresque Apologue:

Lupine features once more formed a savage grin, his fangs glistening in the poor light of the empty street, most of the gaslights shattered or burnt out.

First Sight:

The enemy of my enemy is my friend… or at least a tolerated employer.

Deciphering Chimera:

The morning sun was shining gloriously somewhere.

Tiny Dreamer (this story was updated about a year ago from its original version):

The light was new and signified somewhere unknown, and that made it both fascinating and frightening.

Favorite First Lines

The Crystal Shard, by R.A. Salvatore:

The demon sat back on the seat it had carved in the stem of a giant mushroom. Sludge slurped and rolled around the rock island, the eternal oozing and shifting that marked this layer of the Abyss.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card:

“I’ve watched through his eyes, I’ve listened through his ears, and I tell you he’s the one. Or at least as close as we’re going to get.”

The Gunslinger, by Stephen King:

The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the Gunslinger followed.”

Last Night at the Dark Portal

Effy

I’m not sure if the GREEN Dark Portal is really going away for ever and ever.  But in case it is, here are some last shots with Effy, Iree, and Laz.  And it is the last time I will see them looking like this.

Tomorrow, the Dark Portal goes red and my toons will look different!

Cya on the flip-side!

~ Effy

Being a Wrath-baby, I have never see so many people gathered at the Dark Portal!

Effy

Iree

Effy and Iree

Laz and Effy

…and baby Marti!

The Fall of Shattrath

Shattrath, City of Light

This is a short piece that I started working on quite some time ago, but it finally felt appropriate to touch it up and post it in response to another of Nethaera’s writing prompts (this time about focusing on dialogue), since this piece is more of a dialogue interaction between Effy and Laz.  It also seems appropriate considering the upcoming expansion.

“No!  Unthinkable!  How could Velen even think this course of action acceptable!?” Lazheward hollered.  He cringed at venting his frustrations so loudly to Effraeti, but the weight the idea put in his stomach proved too much.  It made him sick to his heart.  As a Paladin and defender of the Light, it grated against every fabric of his being.

Her steady hand lightly touching his arm caused him to finally meet her gaze, albeit reluctantly.  Effy nodded, understanding as well as caution present in her luminescent eyes as she responded in a soft but firm voice, “Velen does what he feels he must for our survival, love.  As he always has.  Sometimes, those decisions are difficult, and I know he lives with the consequences of those decisions everyday.”

Lazheward sighed heavily.  “I know you are right, but there has to be another way…”  His voice trailed off as tried to think of one.  “Especially… the children…”  The thought made him grit his teeth.  “No!  I will stay myself!”  His voice nearly broke forming the words.

Effy fiercely embraced him.  “We would both stand in their places, and we would fight to our last breath – side by side.”  She paused.  “But that is not what has been asked of us.  We must help lead our people forward, and live to fight another day.  The others… they stay behind to guarantee our escape and to feed the hope that the orcs will think they have destroyed us completely.”

Snarling through his teeth before he could stop himself, Laz lightly extricated himself from Effy and stomped out of the room.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story is based on worlds and characters in World of Warcraft.
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 Huntress

I finally noticed on Twitter that Nethaera has been posting in the WoW forums looking for stories of different types.  This week, she is looking for Druid stories!  So I felt this to be a good opportunity to flex my writing muscles some (don’t want them to atrophy).

I don’t believe my Druid, Solaes, ever gets any story love, so here she is.  Enjoy!

~ Effy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Through huntress eyes, she spotted her prey.  It did not even try and hide.  Instead it flaunted itself as if it had nothing to fear in the dark forest.

Her prey was wrong.

The huntress pounced, her strong rear legs launching her quickly to her prey.  Claws shredded silky fabric of magenta and violet and met with the soft skin beneath.  Blood darkened the garments as they snapped wildly while the two forms fell through the air.  Her prey’s body hit the ground with a muffled thump in the soft undergrowth.

Her prey could not even cry out, the air blasted from its lungs.  It laying heaving for breath as the huntress growled deep within her throat.  She tore her prey’s throat out before it could muster a scream.

Her taste for blood sated, the huntress dropped heavily to her rear haunches and looked upon the dead human in front of her.  She absently licked the blood from her lips as her thoughts slowly became more clear, less animalistic.

Solaes shifted back to her Night Elf form.  She continued to sit and stare blankly at the lifeless form of the Twilight Cultist.  She wrapped her arms around her legs and squeezed them to her chest, still staring over the tops of her knees at the cooling corpse.

No longer did killing the heretics fill her with accomplishment.  Now, it only added to the emptiness that consumed her.

The Twilight Cult had awakened Deathwing, and the Destroyer had caused the Cataclysm.  When the world shattered, so had Solaes’ whole life.  The destruction of Darkshore and Auberdine had taken her love and her child.

Solaes dropped her head into her hands.  A tear squeezed past the lashes of one eye and fell down the curve of her cheek.

She had vowed to return it upon the Twilight Cult one hundred fold.

But no longer did even her need for vengeance fill the void in her soul.  Instead, here she sat, more empty, more alone.

Only while lost in the bloodlust of the huntress did Solaes feel free of her pain.  Afterward, she was left once more with the hole where her heart had once been.

Perhaps therein lay the answer.

Solaes ran her fingers absently through her silvery hair as she thought.  She had heard stories of druids who lost themselves in the animals they took the forms of – most notoriously, the Druids of the Scythe.

It was a tempting thought.

But the panther had always been her prefered form – sleek, stealthy, deadly.

Solaes made a noise akin to a purr.  She let herself slip back into the skin of the huntress – her teeth elongated, her hands and feet became large soft paws, fur covered her body, and a long tail began to twitch back and forth anxiously.

Her only focus became the smells traveling on the wind and the sounds echoing in her ears.  And like a shadow at dusk, she melted away into the trees and fully gave herself to the instincts of the huntress.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This story is based on worlds and characters in World of Warcraft.

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/.

#NBI2014: The Single Biggest Reason You Should Create a Blog

™“Don’t forget – no one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell.”

~ Charles de Lint

This quote gave me a lot of inspiration in writing the original speech that led to this post, so I thought it an appropriate opening.  A blog gives you the best and “safest” place to find an outlet for your stories.  It gives you a simple, quick forum for writing, publishing, and sharing, all from the comfort of home and with the mask of whatever name/avatar you show to the world.

Why tell your story?  Because no one else can.  Make it about telling your story.

I have been blogging for three years now – first on Effy’s RP and now here.  While I have blogged mainly about World of Warcraft for all of that time, I created my blog because I wrote a short story that was not happy with just getting onto paper.  It insisted upon being shared.

I took the plunge and I posted it on the internet.

And I have never regretted that moment.

It led to many more stories – both fan fiction and my own brands of fiction – and it has led to many, many posts.

The idea of starting a blog can be a daunting one, but unless you just get out there and do it, you will never know what might come of it.

We are all walking around with stories to tell.  Sometimes, we express them to friends.  Sometimes, we write – either in stories or in journals, which we may or may not share.  Sometimes, we keep all of our thoughts inside.

Why share?

I spent years writing but never sharing my stories.  Even when I did share my writing, I shared with friends or family who read to be supportive of me.  I never knew whether they really liked it, or were just being “nice.”  I never received any real, helpful feedback.  But beyond these people who would only tell me how great my writing was, I feared what criticism I might receive from others.

But a story untold is just flat words on paper, or worse yet, an unshared idea that never leaves your head.  That is a true tragedy.

Maybe you think a blog is difficult to create or too much work or that no one will read it.  Blogs are not only easy to create – WordPress will walk you through the simple steps of starting one – but there is also a vast community of support once you get started.  The blogging community is one of the friendliest and most helpful I have ever come across – especially the Warcraft blogging community.

Collaboration happens often and in many forms and there are a number people to encourage you.

NBI

 

The Newbie Blogging Initiative is both a website and an event for helping new bloggers get started.  The provide support and resources, as well as stirring the rest of the community to action.  It is mostly geared towards gaming bloggers, but the information shared can be helpful to all.

Blog Azeroth

Blog Azeroth is a forum where bloggers can come together.  The most interesting part of the interaction on Blog Azeroth is the Shared Topics.  Anyone can suggest a topic and anyone can participate in writing a shared topic post.  Shared topics are a great way to get involved with the community.

Bloggers Who Have Inspired Me

Navimie, of the Daily Frostwolf, is one of the most amazing bloggers I know, and the nicest too.  Long before the NBI came about, Navi became a powerful voice of encouragement to me in particular.

Navimie’s advice?  If you want to write, just write!  Don’t write for others, write for yourself first.  You will be more genuine and more motivated.

Truer words have never been spoken (or written).

Akabeko, of Red Cow Rise, has been another voice of encouragement to myself and others.  She has participated in the NBI and other events to drive collaboration in the blogging community.

Akabeko’s advice?  She has a great list!

• Write about what you know and what interests you
• Remember that a blog can be about anything – from business to poetry
• Cites your sources!  (Other bloggers and content creators LOVE link-backs, and it is a great way to get noticed.)
• Give your opinions
• Find your voice
• Include pictures wherever possible

Other Resources and Tips

This is definitely not the limit of great resources or bloggers out there.  It just takes some time to get the momentum going.  The best thing you can do is participate in all of the great community events going on all the time, and comment on the blogs of others!  Both ways will get you seen in ways other than just those who find you through web searches.  Being active part of the community is the best way to become a part of it.

Twitter helps too.  Even if you do not use it much, you can connect other bloggers, other WoW personalities, and other players.  And you can tweet your blog posts.

Remember: every view is one more person touched by what you have to say.

Now What?

Now that you know some of the support available out there once you get started… how do you start?

Create a free blog and go from there!

Once you have a blog and content on that blog, even if only five people see what you have posted, that is five more than would have seen it otherwise!  Picture what that could mean – having viewers for all of these ideas, stories, thoughts, and opinions that never would have made it out of your head otherwise.

Creating a blog has the ultimate purpose of getting your writing seen.  A blog gives you a place of lower stress and pressure than trying to get published, but still has the same end result of people getting exposed to your thoughts and ideas.

Without a blog you have no outlet for your ideas.  Without a blog you may never know what would happen if you share your ideas.  These can all be easily solved by just sharing.

The one downside to sharing?  Negative comments.

An article called “7 Tips to Deal with Negative Comments on Social Media” gives some good advice.  The best points were the following:

• Identify the issue – Your critic more than likely has an issue with your product or message, and not you personally.
• Decide if and how to react – Not all criticism deserves attention.
• Be specific and direct – Focus on the issue, not the person.
• Be real – Take ownership of mistakes.
• Create a dialogue – Keep cool, stay on topic, and treat the critic with respect.

The positive possibilities far outweigh the negative.  By creating a blog and sharing all the ideas and thoughts and opinions you have within you, you can succeed at the following:

• Get viewed
• Receive recognition for your work
• Possible publication
• Get paid to blog (with paid ads)

So what are you waiting for?  Get out there and go create your blog!  (And if you have one already – post, post, post!)  Go express yourself, make yourself known, and share your ideas, stories, and points of view.  Because that is the biggest reason anyone should create a blog!

~ Effy

If I have inspired you, but you would still like to know more, please feel free to contact me!  I would love to chat!

#WoW30 Challenge: Day Ten – Favorite Class

Thrall

Meat-Vendor’s prompt for Day 10 of the 30 Day Challenge is:

Favorite Class

A Draenei Shaman

My “first” and favorite class is the Shaman.  I have always loved my Shaman, Effy, especially healing on her.  Throughout Wrath and Cata, she was my main raider.  It was not until the second tier of Mists that I started raiding on my Monk.  Ireenia is definitely a good, positive second favorite.

Effy and I have been through a lot in WoW, and now so have Ireenia and I.

I know there are big changes coming to healing in Warlords of Draenor, especially to Mistweaver Monks.  So I am not entirely sure whether Shaman or Monk will be my main there.  But either way, Effy will always be max level and will always been the toon closest to my heart.  ❤

~ Effy

Chen Stormstout