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 I know it's been a few days. I have still been writing, the stories just haven't gotten beyond an extended drabble yet, and it feels weird to post something that isn't finished. Today's is a little odd, as well. I'd mentioned that I had a story not so much take a left turn as a pirouette and then fall down the stairs, and I decided to write down the discussion I may as well have had with the character who led the way on that particular journey. So enjoy day 12 - Character Field Day I flip through the notes on the page in front of me, then address the blank screen on my computer. I have a rough idea of what kind of characters I want to write, and how they may play out. The first character type has wings, some sort of musical ability, maybe a bard or troubadour type in a fantasy setting - let's put them over here and see how- -*poof* Nope! I don't sing, I don't tell stories, and I'm not in a standard fantasy setting. In fact, I show up as the anchor f...

Today's story is a little different. Earlier today, we learned of the death of a member of our community, Jeffrey Cook. Eric (my husband) knew Jeff better than I did, having met him many years ago and gaming with him for several years. They hadn't been close in a while - life moved them in different directions physically, and scheduling became less feasible for everyone - but Eric always considered Jeff a friend. I knew Jeff primarily as a writer, as that was where I had met him. Jeff was an author for Clockwork Dragon , where he wrote several books and stories for their Writerpunk anthologies. I saw him at nearly every convention I went to, as he would man the booth in the dealer's room for Clockwork Dragon, and he always made a point of chatting with me, asking how I was doing and how my writing was going. His presence will be missed in our communities, and I hope my small tribute will be read with the love and respect with which it was written. (And for those interested ...

This one got away from me a little bit, and so while I'm at a good stopping point, I think there's going to be at least a part 2, if not more. enjoy day 10 - God of Something. I stumbled into the atrium of a building that didn't look familiar at all, though to be honest, nothing looked familiar yet. I didn't look familiar to myself. Up until a breath ago, I hadn't existed in any form, and suddenly, there I was, standing in a room surrounded by pillars, trying not to fall over, and really wishing I had some idea of what the hell was going on. And what the hell "hell" was. And who was talking when I was hearing all of these things. "Hello?" I called out, and jumped. My voice was...unexpected. It was high, and there was some kind of accent, but I couldn't place it. (I didn't even know how I knew it was an accent, to be honest...) My voice echoed around the room, and somehow seemed to get louder as it echoed. I didn't think that was how e...

I've always loved seeing how movies interpret books, and how they change things/get them "wrong" in the interpretation. Naturally, I needed to play with that. Enjoy day 9 - Next Big Thing. The conference room was in the process of getting set up when all hell broke loose. Again. This was my first time getting to actually be involved with the movie tie-ins, and I was extremely excited to get to meet everyone and see how things would go. We all knew that a new movie was coming out shortly, and with each new preview, a little more about the movie was being made public. The series had been around for decades, encompassing five core books written by the original creators and at least a dozen more books that were part of an expanded world, written after the original series and focusing on different parts of the lore that hadn't been explored in the original books. The Powers that Be that owned the rights to all of the series had decided that those expanded world books were ...

This is what happens when I spend too much time thinking about biographies and historical fiction, I think - I start wondering what happens when new information about a person comes to light, and someone takes another stab at writing their biography. This was fun. Enjoy day 8 - The Many Faces of August France. The room was starting to fill up, but there were still a few empty chairs closer to the front of the room where the dais stood. The audience was made up of people who looked roughly the same, if you glanced quickly - it would take at least a second look to notice that some people had longer hair, or darker hair; some wore clothes that were a bit more tailored or more tattered; some had skin that was a shade or two lighter, or had notable scars on slightly different parts of their faces. Overall, there was a strong resemblance between everyone, but not enough to say exactly how they were related. Cousins, perhaps, or aunts and uncles. The audience was fairly quiet - that, at least...

(I'm still going with day numbers, even though that obviously no longer matches the dates of the month. Consistency! Or something.) Ever since I thought of this story title, I've had the song stuck in my head. Specifically, I've had a version done by Rockapella stuck in my head, and it's a version I have yet to be able to find. It used to live on my now long-dead iPod lo, these many moons ago, but I haven't been able to find it since. Alas! At any rate, please enjoy day 7 - Zombie Jamboree. The ballroom of the Library was one of the few large places that could host hundreds of people (or creatures, as it were) without causing a big log jam. Sheila still wasn't sure why there was a ballroom in a library, or why it needed to be used at least once a month or so (at least, she figured it was about once a month - time ran strangely in the Library), but so long as there were events in the ballroom and she worked for the food service sector of the Library staff, she wo...

So now I'm two days behind, and this one was a struggle. Well, it's better than no words, even if I'm not hugely happy with it personally, and with luck I'll be able to come back to something I enjoy more tomorrow. Here's day 6 - Butlers and Housekeepers #502 She wasn't sure how she'd managed to fall into a role of leadership in the union, but here she was. She'd only joined the union, originally the Scullery Maids United, back when she first started in her first job of service, because her mother had always told her to join a union if one was offered. It helped with her pay, since staff were guaranteed a basic minimum, even if there were some households that refused to hire union labor. She'd heard stories from some of her friends who'd ended up working in those households about how they treated their servants, and she was grateful that she had help from the union to find jobs that followed union rules. She doubted she would have made it through...

Still playing catch up from missing a day last week, but I'm getting there. We watched the new Suicide Squad movie earlier tonight, which may have sparked an idea or two. Enjoy day 5 - Superhero Dispatch. People think the superhero gig is all sunshine and roses, saving the day and fighting the bad guys. Everything's black and white, no body is every unsure of themselves or concerned about whether or not they're doing the "right" thing or doing it the "right" way or for the "right" reasons. Anybody who doesn't see things as clearly one way or another is obviously a villain, because nothing can be a gray area if the only thing you see is the light of truth, right? What a crock. Nine times out of ten, we're not saving "the world," we're saving the ass of the person who's willing to pay the most. And yeah, a lot of times, those people are the ones trying to make the world a little less awful, but most of the time it's ...

As you can see, I'm currently a story behind. Yesterday was extremely slow going, so I didn't manage to finish the story until today. I'm hoping to get caught up this weekend, but we'll see! In the meantime, for something completely different, enjoy day 4 - By the Sea I managed to make my way to the surface just ahead of Alea, which was one of the few times I'd managed it. "Ha!" I cheered, spinning in a circle when I saw her head pop up from under the water. "I beat you, I beat you, I beat you!" My tail countered my upper body as I did my happy dance around her in the sea. "Are you quite finished?" Her tone was mild, but I could see the glimmer of a smile on the edge of her face. She didn't let me win - she would never do that, her pride would never let her - but she could appreciate the effort and joy that I had put into beating her, and it warmed my heart to see her notice the work I'd put in. I had been training more recently...

Today took a little longer to get the words out, and I'm not as happy with it as I would like. I guess that early rush of enthusiasm may be starting to wane a little, which may be a problem, considering it's all of day 3. So, erm, enjoy (with the usual caveats) day 3 - Confessions of a Real-Life Barista Even though time in the Library didn't follow the same rules as they did out in the "real" world, even the cafe closed after a while. Grant was on the closing shift this time, which was one of his favorite times to work. There was something satisfying about clearing the clientele out and locking the door behind them, then taking a minute to breathe before cleaning up and getting ready for the next day. It wasn't the kind of gig he'd expected when he'd answered the ad in the paper, but then, he'd been desperate. He'd been laid off from his last job at one of the mega-chain shops, and it had been long enough between jobs that he was getting to be ...

 So, I've been fortunate enough to be able to spend a little (lot) more time working on writing-related stuff, and I came across this challenge  to write 31 stories in 31 days. I spent some time with some of the members of the Lady Astronaut Club, Mary Robinette Kowal's marvelous online community, brainstorming ideas, and I figured I'd go for it. I managed day 1, yay! The overall theme tying these together is the Infinite Library - essentially, all of fiction lives in one library, which is kinda/sorta Ygdrassil the World-Tree. I had started by asking people for ideas of genres that I could play with, because I was getting stuck, and that led to some entertaining story ideas that started right away. There are prompts that The Writing Network (the folks running the 31 Stories challenge) are providing, and as needed or as I want, I'll use them. In the meantime? Well, enjoy* day 1 - Noir Rehab. *Caveat for today and all other days - these are literally draft zero, fresh fro...