Happy Easter

My apologies for this being posted so late.  It has been a busy weekend for me trying to prepare for the hardest thing to do in this economy; finding a job.  Rather than picking out an excerpt to post, I decided to grace you with a short, short, story about Easter Sunday.

Dawn had passed.  The sun’s rising brought on a day that started cloudy with rain threatening to ruin the special occasion.  The bountiful colors were missed, but as the rays of light pierced the morning gloom, they awoke a small child from her sleep.

With a yawn and a stretch, she rubbed at her sleep crusted eyed and pushed back her long ears.  Fur and hair were mussed, but her bright blue eyes were wide open and gazing at wide wonder out her window at the beauty the night’s rain had given to her yard.  She squealed in delight then scrambled out of bed and into the living room where she found a huge basket filled with colored eggs, candy, a chocolate rabbit, a rag doll that looked just like her hanging onto the handle of the basket.  Her laughter said it all, she was pleased with her new gifts.

From out of the kitchen, her mother’s voice called for her to come and eat before digging into her basket full of goodies.  The older rabbit smiled as she peeked around the corner to watch her child grab the doll then skip on over to the table to wait patiently for the morning meal.

Eggs and ham, fresh toast and a bowl of fresh fruit were devoured quickly by the excited little girl.  She chatted happily with her mother while she ate, telling her about her dreams from the night before.  All was pleasant and fun until she was finally shooed off to get a bath and get dressed in her new clothes.

In the course of an hour, both mother and child were ready.  Hand in hand, they left together to go with the others to listen to the morning sermon.  Other children were there, sitting with their parents.  She, our little bunny girl, only had her mother but she saw nothing wrong at all with the picture.  Looking up at her mother, she saw a single tear fall and leave a trail through the gray and white fur of her cheek.

After seeing the tear, she snuggled up against her mother’s side and held her close while she listened to the story their pastor gave.

He spoke of a man long ago who left his home to tell others about  the one and only God and how loving and powerful he was.  The old ram’s voice was strong and clear though his wool was thinning and his head balding with age while he told about the Last Meal this man had with his disciples, how he broke bread with them and called it his body, then drank wine with them, calling it his blood.  His voice wavered as he told of the man’s humiliation as he carried his cross through town and how one of his own disciples denied knowing him.

Then, his tone changed, turning sad but so loving as he spoke of how the man was lifted up onto the cross and the spectators screamed and threw things at him.  Two others were also crucified with him, thieves who had gone too far in their deeds.  One spat mean words at him and the other only asked him to forgive him before they died.  All the special man did was accept the forgiveness then called out, asking his glorious father to forgive them all, for they did not know what they were doing.

Soon, the man and the thieves died and the earth began to shake.  In the temple, the curtain fell, revealing the most holy of holy places in the church.  In the morning, all three were taken to be buried.  The special man was placed in a tomb meant for a rich man, wrapped in linen, then a heavy rock placed over the opening so nothing could enter.

It seemed the ram’s voice soften when he paused, smiling at his awe struck congregation.  That fateful day had happened only a few days before.  Three days after the burial, three women went to end to the body and found the rock was moved and two brilliant white beings waiting for them.  They listened in awe as they told them their special man had risen to be with his father.  He had left to help everyone find their way into Heaven to be among their families that had gone before them.

The little girl blinked, enjoying the story.  She hugged her mother again and saw more tears had fallen.  As the congregation was asked to pray, the old ram asked them all to include the girl and her mother in their prayers.  The girl’s father had been buried just the week before.  He had followed the special man but losing him was still so fresh and new to their small family.

Easter, even to them, was a special time for hope and new beginnings.  But it was also a time to remember those who had gone on before to wait for them in Heaven.  As the sermon came to a close, the little girl looked up at the carved cross above the ram and smiled; seeing a warm glow coming from the center where the pieces crossed.  It was the glow of hope and promise to her and the rest of the congregation.

With a bright smile, she skipped along side her mothers as they left to go back to their home and enjoy a simple dinner together and a day that became a warm and wondrous time spent in sunshine and new spring grass.

The End

What a Day...

It has been a long day.  A good day to say the least, but a long one.  I had every intention of working on SoNL tonight when I got home.  But, it just wasn't meant to be.

I have the ideas to improve and raise the current word count.  Quite a few good ones to be exact.  But, after spending nearly an hour and half over at work, I am just a bit too tired to focus.  All I can really see in my head instead of the story are the many things I had put back on the shelf and the clean up I tried to do.

Being a sales floor associate, even temporary, isn't easy on a good day.  The morning return buggy is usually heaping so it has to be worked down before attempting to move it.  Plus, there's freight to work when it comes in.  To add to the normal stuff, I'm the only health and beauty aid (HBA) associate during the day until they get more people hired.  There is another, but she and the department manager are almost connected at the hip and they work together on resetting the modulars (displays and shelves), take breaks and lunches together, so there's no real teamwork except between them.

Thankfully, I don't mind working on my own, but I can only handle so much at a time.  Add onto this, I can be called up to the front line (registers) and made to run a register until the lines go down, or it's time for break/lunch/go home.

I could have stayed even longer tonight.  As I was taking everything to the back to be placed in the bins, I was asked if I could help out.  They didn't blame me for politely refusing since I was, by then, an hour over and needed to run.  More money, but they have a few rules which prevent us from getting too much overtime.  As it stands now, my one hour wiggle room is gone for the week.  I can still gather more over time, but I'll have to be careful.

When I got home, I watched a movie, Ella Enchanted, and had a few good laughs while I paid attention to the plot itself and the characters.  I do love this movie.  It plays upon the fantasy clichés in such a way, they fit beautifully and work very well.  I do need to find the book that goes with this movie.

I hope everyone has enjoyed your day.  While our jobs may be hectic, they are still worth keeping.  (Most of the time.  ;) )

Sunday Excerpts #fiction #fantasy #amwriting

After many long weeks, I am finally posting an excerpt.  I know I made an excerpt post a couple of weeks ago, but that, doesn’t count.  Still, it must have good.  A few of you liked it enough to hit the like button.  =^.^=

This week’s excerpt is coming out of my next novel, Society of Night and Lies.  This comes from the end of chapter eight when Jason finds out why Sabrina has him trapped in the bedroom of the apartment she and her associate Mindy areusing as a safe house.

“Who would guess that I would love growing things and seeing what they could do together or on their own.  My studies showed me how to mix teas and powders to make people well or sick.  I learned which plants could harm, and which could kill.  He encouraged me to learn everything I could and experiment.  He went so far as to make a rooftop garden for me and set aside one of the unused rooms so I could experiment with the different plants.”  A long sigh escaped her as she slowly turned to face him, her eyes sad and filled with unshed tears.  “Little did I know that he would use what I learned to get rid of a few people.”

Jason’s ears stood straight up, straining toward the feline while she spoke.  He could hear the excitement still in her voice when she first started her tail.  He could hear how much she loved studying plants and their properties.  But, he wasn’t prepared for the sense of betrayal he saw in her eyes and the tears resonating in her voice.  His heart went out to her in that moment when she looked at him.  “Who is this man you’re talking about, Ree?  What did he do to you?”  Other than give her an easy life where she could spend time doing what she loved.

Blinking several times, Sabrina stared at him.  Though it never showed, she hated the very person she mentioned.  However much she regretted her decision to follow him into the lap of luxury and learning, she couldn’t deny that she did have a few moments when the silver lining could be seen clearly through the training.  Still, the tight control in her voice could not be hidden when she spoke.  “The man who ordered me to kill you, Gerin van Houne.”

To say he was stunned would have been an understatement.  His jaw hung open and his eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets as he leaned forward in his chair.  The grip he had on the arms of the chair had his knuckles as white as his teeth.  Little more than stuttered gibberish was uttered in his astoundment.    “No fucking way!  THE Gerin van Houne took you in and taught you all you know?”  He just managed to speak around the sputtering and spit.

She watched his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he worked his jaw and went into a tizzy over what she just told him.  In fact, she was strangely calm while she watched him pace the few steps between the bed and the window.  All she did was watch him, waiting for him to make a wrong move toward her and wondering if she could hurt a friend.

“That would be him.”  She narrowed her eyes slightly when he came a little too close with his wildly flailing hands.  “The philanthropist everyone fawns over when he decides to step out of the shadows.  The public doesn’t see the darker side his students get to see.  He’s… to put it simply, not what he makes himself out to be.”

He stopped the moment she spoke and stared at her.  All he knew about Gerin van Houne he heard in the news and from the few dealings his parents had with him before they died.  “I can’t believe that.  There’s no way.”  He looked at her, seeing the grim determination written in the tilt of her ears and the slow swish of her tail, even the creases of her expression held same seriousness.  “And yet, you were taught by him?”

With a slow shake of her head, she relaxed and motioned for him to sit again.  “He didn’t teach me, per sé.  He paid to have me taught.  Gerin has in his employment several high ranking teachers to show his ‘children’ how to fight, kill, and dig up any kind of information on anyone.  If there was anything we needed, we had the contacts to get it and as quickly as we wanted it all because of him.”

Where's the Excerpt?

Sorry, no excerpts today.  I found myself suffering a nasty allergy attack today.  Without proper amounts of oxygen getting to my brain, I couldn’t think or focus enough to write anything or pick out a story to feature for the excerpt.  Maybe next week.

This could be a cold trying to sneak up on me and smack me in the head.  It won’t be around for long.  I have chicken for soup and chili to chase it away.  I do feel better now than I did earlier.  The meds kicked in.  As long as my symptoms respond to the Claritin, I’ll be fine.  I’m crossing my fingers for this one.  I can’t afford to be sick right now.

Now, I did manage to do some work today on my A to Z challenge posts.  Only five of them have been scheduled.  There would have been more, but I do need to do some research on each subject.  Unlike last year, none of these will be mostly opinion.  I have plenty of facts for each one, not to mention the extras which will be in the posts, too.

If I can get at least of the challenge posts scheduled, I’ll be good.  The rest I can finish through the month of April if it comes down to it.  As it is now, I’ll be working hard on getting them done before the 31st.  Along with those 26 posts, I do plan on getting some work done on SoNL andBlack Friday 2.  That’s a lot of writing to get done at one time.  Thankfully, getting one chapter written for Black Friday 2 is a if/when goal.  I need to get those chapters revised for SoNL first.  My goal of submitting SoNL had to be moved a couple of months due to the lack of work through December, January and February.  Pre-writing the April posts is also one I don’t have to get done, but I’m working on it anyway.

Have you got your April posts scheduled?  How many are complete?

Revisions... Finally!

Finally, after several months, I’m working on the revisions for SONL.  I should have been done with all of them by now and working on my query letter and synopsis to send off to agents and publishers.  This is one story I just know is going to be well received by practically anyone.  For one thing, the story line is far better than Black Friday and more than just the furry community will like it.

There’s action , humor, and suspense, and a tiny smidgen of romance (not with the leading characters), and sadly, death.  This book has two of the secondary chars biting the bullet, literally.

Basically, what I’m doing is putting to use some of what I’ve learned from the books on writing I’ve received.  I’m working on Chapter seven, it needed some work and padding for the scenes to make better sense.  Then!  Then I’ll go through chapter eight and make it so Sabrina isn’t giving away her past too easily.  Jason doesn’t need to know everything, just a few things.

Keeping this one short.  It’s 11:30 and I need some beauty (yeah right) sleep to get through work tomorrow.

Monday Post #writemotivation

Uhg!  When did the past week end?  Last I knew, it was Wednesday and I was trying to write my post for the week.  Either way, it got away from me.  You can guess the reasons; kid, work, life, you know what I mean.

I’m back to a more normal work shift which has Colin very happy.  I’m home for dinner, we get to have some play time together, and time to dance together for our exercise.  After a few weeks of coming home with barely enough time to eat before he’s in bed, I needed the catch up time with him.

As far as my writing goes, I’ve barely touched anything, but I do have a firm visual in mind for the cover of Black Friday 2 and a couple of name ideas for it, too.  Imagine a pair of eyes staring back at you with the outline of a human, or feline, face set against a very shadowy background.  Reflected in the eyes, or as a part of the background, two wolves, a fox, and a large cat are staring out toward a street, forest, or maybe some mountains they have to travel through.  I can see the eyes so clearly in my mind, it’s driving me nuts, but the background is still too vague to really start a sketch.

That cover idea does give me some ideas on what to do next in the story as they settle into their new winter home.  It is something, though not the progress I’m wanting.  No actual writing has been done, yet, on the book.

Speaking of writing, I have done more than just open the file onSONL during this last week.  I’ve reread the chapter and figured out what is going to be internalized and what will be spoken.  I’ve also jotted down an idea or two on what Jason’s reaction will be.  He’ll definitely have a few choice words to say once she fesses up.  Well, not completely, the need to keep secrets is strong in this one.

There’s also plenty of places that will need some more work, too, to see more of her thought process.  Even Mindy will get a bit more camera time with her reactions to Jason’s resentment toward her for her part in capturing him.  He is being an ass (pardon the language), so she needs to be more than a sweet and gentle lady with the training and background she has.  Things might get a bit rough to help him fall back to sleep after taking his medicine.  *cue evil grin*

Writemotivation Goal Check!

1) Finally do the edits and revisions to chapters 8 through 15 onSoNL.

No writing yet, but now I have a better idea on how to organize the thoughts in chapter 8 and noted down some ideas for previous chapters.

2) Try to come up with a good name for the book itself while I edit.

A good name is still elusive for SONL.  No progress here, yet.

3) Try to write at least one more chapter to Black Friday 2.

No writing here, either, but I have a better idea on what is going to happen during the winter besides Karina’s parents arriving with more therians.  I’ve got my main foci selected, but a couple of secondary foci may pop up in the ones yet to come.  How much time they’ll have at this old resort remains to be seen.  I need figure out what Karina needs to do other than gain the knowledge she needs then start plotting a way to First Home.  A new path will have to be made before anyone can get to or come from their sacred birth place.

4) Brain willing, come up with names for Black Friday 2.

A couple of ideas have come to mind.  I’ll post them ones I can refine them a bit further.

5) Revise the beginning to Test of Ascension

This one is a true maybe.  The others need to be accomplished before I can do this one.

6) Schedule posts for the A to Z Blog tour (last minute addition after the originals were added)

Progress here!  Until today, all I had was B wrote down.  I now have up to letter I as well as a few others such as L, M, R, and Z.  This one is tip, top, secret, but I can assure you, you’ll love it.  It is definitely all one theme, too.