Archive | March 2019

Read Me Elsewhere

Mar9

There’s always fiction of mine scattered all over the web!

On Ko-Fi, free for anyone to read:
After the End – the gods gather to discuss the results
The Place at the End of the Mists – Tilda walked into the mists.  Eventually, she walked out
Friday Thing – He showed up on Friday.

On Patreon – those that are free are marked with a * – This month is Research Month; Last month was Friends 
Secret Lairs – a Trunk Story– They need a new Lair, to do their “Research” in
Recipe Blog: Baked Brie
Recipe Blog: Success and Failure – Really Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies; Avocado rice. 
The Expectant Wood – Nimbus’ Journey continues with Chapter 35: The Wilds of the Tame Lands
*Ugly Jewelry – a story of the Aunt Family*- Rosaria was fairly certain that one of her nieces had given it to her last.
Somewhat Hereditary-The world shook when she was born. 
*In The End…* A story of Addergoole, Hell Night, and friendship. 
Beyond Rules – a moment for Aud and Sage
Time Passes – a story of Whitney (open for non-Patrons after 90 days)
Map: A Tír na Cali Baronial Estate

On Archive of Our Own – free to read and ongoing.
Exchange Students – Harry is going to Addergoole. Porter is coming to Hogwarts. Nothing could possibly go wrong!
Reconstruction – The war is over, and yet Harry, Hermione, and Ron, Neville, Luna, and Ginny find they have another war on their hands. What’s more, Harry appears to have an enslaved Draco on his hands.

On Mastodon – free to read and fun to join; super short fics
Bird Brains
Tootplanet and Explorer Log 
Natha/en

And I can’t believe I didn’t mention this in the last two:

http://www.edallyacademy.com/ 

Haunted House 40: Wants and Desires

Mar8

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
Previous:  Honest

🌳

Jasper was still laughing. Mélanie was staring at him with something between horror and worry.  Had she broken him?  Was he going a little mad?  Was this what happened right before he finally got angry with her?  

“Easy, easy,” Jasper managed through a chuckle.  “Oh, my dear, easy. Telling me that you think I’m doing something wrong.  Being a little difficult? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have laughed at you.” He draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him.  “I do apologize. I know you were serious. And I take it seriously — I do!  — that you feel strongly enough about this that you’d tell me you thought I was doing something wrong.  I know that’s hard for you.” He squeezed her a little more firmly. “It’s just that if that’s what it takes to get you to give me your opinions more often, it’s tempting to go find the nicest little old couple I can find and bilk them out of their life savings.”

“Don’t do that!”  Mélanie twisted in his hold to stare at him.  “No, don’t — please, I mean —” Continue reading →

Running in the Bear Empire 37: Halorans

Mar8

First: Running in the Bear Empire
Previous: Guests
Next: 38: Loyalty

🐻

Deline froze.  The voice in the cabin didn’t sound like the Talon, but she couldn’t be sure.  They were both female voices, that was certain, and how, otherwise, had she gotten past the wards.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Fine.  Settle in, here, have a drink, and we can wait for whatever you’re waiting for.  But you can move that knife any time now.”

“What, so you can attack me?”

The accent was different.  It was probably – probably – not the Talon.  

“I’m not going to attack you. You attacked me first, remember?  And we’re both Halorans.”

“Yeah, so what are you doing way out here in the middle of the Bear-Empire Mountains?”

“I could ask you the same thing.  We’re in the same cabin together, after all.” Continue reading →

The Seventh Estate

Mar7

In Seldith stood seven estates.

There were many houses, of course, some of them large enough to be considered manors, many buildings and homes and a great number of farms and plantations – but there were seven Estates.

From East to West, the first was the home of the Leader and thus whoever lived there had the First Vote, which was most powerful.  The second home was for the Head of Priests, who held the second vote. Continue reading →

 Zen and the Art of… art?

Mar7

I discovered probably a year ago that drawing maps, when there’s no stress and no requirement, is a very soothing activity for me.  I have some doodled maps that chart spaces that don’t yet exist in fiction and may never see paper, but they were still very fun to make.  I even plotted a journey of an unknown adventuring crew over one map!

(This may also be why I have more unfinished maps than finished ones…)

Yesterday, I discovered, or rather, perhaps, solidified, that folding-paper things also does this for me.

This is interesting, because I am a) not great at following diagrammed instructions (for a fox I made to stick in a piece of mail, T. figured it out from the directions and then showed me), and b) not great at precision at all.   Like, even the amount required to cut a perfect square is really pushing it for me.

But it’s fun.

I’ve been making scrap-paper envelopes, which are sort of barely folding-paper stuff, so I bought 3 calendars for 30 cents each at the Dollar General to play with.

And for Christmas, my friends got me The Art of the Fold, by Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol ( https://www.artofthefold.com/ ), so I’ve started working through these.

This led to me making a teeny accordion book (an inch and a half by just under three inches finished size) from one calendar page and putting little 1/3 index cards into each of the pockets, on which I wrote a rather short letter.  Since, you know, I’m still writing back replies from Month of letters. 😀

What will come next?  Stay tuned to find out!

Funerary Rites 42: Eat a Candy Bar

Mar6

🔑

The tension in the van was slowly receding.  Ezer looked pleased with himself.

“Chitter, good job as always on getting into their systems, and your little bugs are the shit,” he kept on.   “Love ‘em. Allayne – you patched Erramun up so fast, I didn’t even get a chance to see the hole. Thanks. And Senga and Erramun, you guys definitely held their attention and kept to your roles the whole time.” He looked back in the mirror at them.  “Try not to get so bloody next time, all right? It makes me techy.”

Without a word, Chitter passed him a candy bar.  Ezer snorted. “Fine, fine, it makes me bitchy.  I don’t know, Chitter, anything out of that security guard?”

“Allayne triggered something, not an alarm, some sort of tertiary back-up.  Yes, I know I should have caught it, yes, I feel like an idiot for not catching it, but it was really well hidden.  It was – look, here, see?”

“You know it doesn’t mean anything to me,” Ezer complained. Continue reading →

Feast of Sterha

Mar5

New setting or one-shot, just an idea that came to mind, slightly inspired by The Exiles Trilogy and slightly by my inability to stop singing Good King Wenceslas.  

🎖️

“So let today hereby be named the Day of the Martyr Baloran, with all due pomp and ceremony, and let us remember this day by, hrm, bu picking up rocks from our neighbors’ fields and using them to help build the walls between fields, on my authority and honor as the leader of this colony-”

“Ah, honored one?”  Gerilip did not like interrupting the Leader, but her job lead her to need to quite often.  “Today is the day of the Blessed Epolitie.”

“Ah.  What about Baloran’s birthday?”

“The day of the Blood-Consecrated Delfikin.”

“Ah, hrm. The day Baloran joined the Service?”

“That’s the feast of the Holy One Relian.  Honored One,” Gerilip cut in, before this could get quite silly, “there is only one day left open on the calendar.” Continue reading →

Hidden Mall 59: Nice Abby. Good Abby.

Mar4

Abby took ‘Via’s hand and put it on her hip, curling the fingers around her belt loop, and squeezed until ‘Via  held on of her own volition. She took Olly’s hand with her left hand and held on to Liv’s arm with her right hand.  

“Close your eyes,” she told all three of them.  “Keep them closed. We’re going to walk forward now, everyone all set?  There we go, forward, forward.”

She shut up as she came nose to nose with the first ghost, closed her own eyes and took two steps forward.

It felt like a ghost of fire touching her skin – like the memory of sensation without the pain or the heat, just a strange flickering touch.  She moved forward as one of the three – Had to be Olly, the sound was coming from her left – yelped. Continue reading →

Haunted House 39: Honest

Mar2

First: A story featuring a male keeper and a female Kept.
Previous:  Upset

🌳

Once again, Mélanie was in the wagon, this time back in the front. Once again, she was leaving the House behind. She waved as they left; two of the shutters on the second floor clacked back at her in what she was going to assume was a wave.

The horses seemed to like the trip to town. Their ears were pointed forward and their clip-clopping hooves seemed happy, like they were going someplace they knew and liked.

Jasper caught Mélanie looking more than once.  “You can still talk to them if you want,” he encouraged her, the third time he’d smiled at her as she’d turned away blushing.  “They like the apples the carter in town feeds them, I think, but I don’t really talk well to them.”

“I can?”  She leaned forward happily and muttered a Working, slipping into their contented minds. They liked going this way.  This way came with happy places. They was way easy, and the Human was happy when he left here.

She chuckled. “Aw.  They like you, I think.  They like you being happy.”

Continue reading →