Writing Prompt 55

“Oh, for the love of Holy Morhan, will you please stop thinking that there’s always something wrong?”
Jonas stuck his hands in his pockets, kicked a pebble, and lowered his head. “Something is wrong, though,” he muttered under his breath.
Pela rolled her eyes, sighed, and slapped her hands on her thighs. “You’re impossible. You know for once, just once, I’d like to hear something positive from you.”
They reached the edge of the forest at the top of the hill. Jonas stopped.
“Were your parents really cruel?” Pela asked and carried on walking on her own down the path. “Was it a hex one of the enchanters put on you, huh?”
“Pela?”
“Did you pee on one as an infant?” Pela continued without paying attention to her surroundings.
“Pela?” Jonas insisted, still frozen in place.
“Did you accidentally fall into one of their cauldrons perhaps?”
“Pela!”
“What?” She stopped and looked around her for Jonas. “What are you doing back there?”
Jonas jerked his chin at the hanging-upside-down citadel. “Is that wrong enough for you?”

Published in an upcoming anthology

I’m between migrating from one computer to another. I could write a small horror story of how a certain operating system manufacturer found a way to piss off every user who wants to choose what operating system (OS) they install in their PCs. Believe me, I could. But, thanks to a friend who is by far more knowledgeable than I am, we managed to get around said OS’s locks, and I now have set up my PC with the operating system I wanted it to have in the first place.

But that’s not what this post is about.

About a year ago, I joined reddit. While there, I found and followed a community of writers known as RedditWriters. They all were at various stages in their careers, some with a readership of their own, some just starting out. At some point, one of the writers had an idea: create an anthology with our work, and put it out there. Everyone loved the idea, and almost everyone submitted pieces to the editors. I submitted one of my vignettes. A couple of months ago, the editors informed me that my piece was accepted.

The editor in charge of the project informed us yesterday that the collection will be available on 30 March 2018 from Amazon, as an e-book, as well as from CreateSpace as a hard copy. The e-book will cost £1.99 (about $2.77 at the time of writing this). Obviously the hard copy will cost more. The title will be TL;DR, which stands for Too Long; Didn’t Read, a typical internet acronym, often seen on Reddit and other message boards.

All proceeds from the anthology will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

If you want to know more about the project and those who made it possible, visit Joe Butler’s site. I will get back to you with download links as soon as I have them.

Finally, if you’re looking for free books (sci-fi, fantasy, or horror), have a look at this giveaway I’m part of.

Sixty writers, veterans and newcomers, have joined forces for this. The giveaway ends on 26 March 2018.

Writing prompt 53

I figured I had a go with a funny prompt this Sunday. Not my usual style, but why not? I think it’s suitable for fantasy and humour writers alike. I hope it helps you create some nice stories.

“Ouch! Ow! You punched me in the nose! That hurts, you know.”
“Get back!”
“What is the matter with you, human? I’m a friendly orc. Do you see me squashing your meaty parts ’til your eyes pop out? You wouldn’t like that, would you?”
“Die, demon!”
“Hey, I have feelings too, okay? Just ’cause I’m an orc, doesn’t mean your words don’t hurt me. Or my nose. Look how swollen it is now.”

Writing Prompt 52

Everyone around me panicked and ran and trampled each other to get out, go someplace safe. Fools. What difference would it make?
I noticed a woman at the other end of the bar eyeing me, calm as a meditating monk. I threaded my way to her. “Not running for your life?” I asked.
“Nope,” she replied.
“How come?”
“You know how.”
Could she be…? My surprise must have shown, ’cause she hid a chuckle behind a sip from her drink.
“Still,” I said, “the end of the world and all. This is my fifth end of the world and I’m still enjoying it.”
“Oh, you’re a child. How sweet.” Another sip of her drink. “I got bored after the twentieth. That was millions of years ago. These primates are no longer entertaining. However, this end comes too early. Your doing?”

 

Writing Prompt 48

“No, I told you. You only pay once,” the dark-skinned, white-haired, pointy-eared creature said. “You pay once upfront, and you get access to magic. Simple as that.” She snapped his fingers to drive the point.

George scratched his chin. “Yeah, but two litres of blood? That’s like all of it.”

The pointy-eared creature sighed. “You have more than that in you and you’ll replenish it in a couple of hours or so.” The creature flashed a row of white teeth and put a slender arm around George’s shoulders. “Besides, it’s not like it’s going to kill you or anything. I wouldn’t allow that, would I? We’re partners.”

“I don’t know…”

“OK, listen. Do you want to learn to use magic yes or no?”