The Friday Muse - The Wounded Crow

Today's muse piece is another contest entry that I did for the Writing.com October NaNo Prep Challenge. This one asked for a short back story to my antagonist, who in this story happens to a be Ryn - a familiar character to those of you who have read the second half of my Black Earth series. This short snippet sees Ryn as a child when he first starts to fall in love with crows...

The Wounded Crow - 
“You know, you’re not allowed to have animals here,” Jameson said as he shook his finger at Ryn.

Ryn ignored the young boy and set the wounded crow on the dresser. “Can you fetch me some bandages?”

Jameson crossed his arms and sighed. “Really? You’re not going to listen to me, even after the last time you got in trouble? I warned you then too. It took you three weeks to finish cleaning the kitchen area.”

Ryn slammed his fist on the top of the dresser, and then immediately cooed the crow to calm down. Once the crow steadied, Ryn turned and scowled at his friend. “Get me some bandages or get out. I have to help him.”

Jameson opened the top drawer of the dresser and pointed in the bottom left corner. “Right there.”
By the weakening candlelight, Ryn could make out a cream-colored roll of bandages wedged next to his some men’s undergarments. He took the bandages and began dressing the crow’s broken wing.

“You know, it’s not a him,” Jameson said. “It’s a crow. An animal. A Filth.”

“I know what everyone else thinks he is. But he’s a crow, and I have to help him. I couldn’t just let him die out there in the darkness.”

“Crow’s love the dark.”

Ryn finished dressing the crow’s wounds and set the bandages back in the dresser drawer before shutting it. He stroked the bird’s beak. “I have to name him.”

“Name him?”

“Yes. Shadow.”

“That’s appropriate. You know, if the counsel leaders find out you have ‘him’, they’ll boot you and it out of the kingdom. They’ll even boot me out if they find out I helped you.”

Ryn waved his friend away. “Then get lost. I don’t need this grief. Everyone here talks so much about mercy and honor, and yet they’d stone us if they found out we helped a suffering animal?”

“It’s Filth. Filth isn’t allowed in the kingdom for obvious reasons, Ryn. I don’t even want to be around that thing. I’m here because you’re my friend. And if you get in trouble again, you’re going to need my communication skills to get you out of it.”

“Yes, I suppose you do come in handy.”

A loud bell rang out, the sound rushing through the glassless window on the other side of the room.

Jameson gasped. “The king’s making an announcement!”

Ryn took the bird into his hands. “Go. I’ll catch up with you. I have to find a place to hide him.”

Jameson huffed. “Okay, but hurry. If the king doesn’t see you in the plaza, he’ll ask me what’s up. I can’t keep lying for you.”

“Just go,” Ryn snapped.

Jameson hurried out of the room.

Alone with the crow, Ryn let a grin steal his face.

A Change of Season

Phew! It's been a crazy couple of months. We (as in The Crossover Alliance) just published our very first anthology of edgy Christian speculative fiction. I'm about to (finally) finish work on the multi-book digital packs of my Black Earth series. And, I redid all of the covers for the books in my Expired Reality series - a fact that I am very proud of. I mean, just look at the new cover to Lost Birth! 

Anyway, now that all of that is behind me, I have finally found some time to settle down a bit and start sketching out my project list for the next year. Fall, I think, is the perfect time to do so. The leaves are changing, the air is cooling, and you can just smell change. Or is that pumpkin spiced latte?

Either way, change is definitely in the air. There are a slew of changes I am about to make to my online presence, and there is a beautiful batch of new projects (and some old) that I am going to be working on over the course of the next year.

Let's take a look at some of them, shall we?

Goodbye Facebook Page - 

Yep, I'm going to delete my Facebook Page. Not my personal profile, but my author Page. Facebook has changed drastically since the first day I set up my Page, and now, even though I have 486 people liking the page, the most FB has allowed to see a single post in the last month or so is 37. That's 37 people out of 486 that were 'allowed' to even see a post that I put on my Page. It's challenging enough trying to get people to like a post or interact with it in some way, now I have to pay FB in order for people who have already proclaimed they like my Page to see the contents of my Page?

No thanks. I don't have the time or energy to fight with FB, and my time and energy could be better spent investing in Twitter - which I will be doing more of. My plan is to get rid of my FB Page in the next few weeks, so this is your heads up.

Goodbye Flash Fiction Fridays - 

Don't worry, I'm just saying goodbye to the title. I'm still going to write something each week and post it on Fridays. It just may not be flash fiction. By definition, flash fiction needs to be a complete story, and some of what I have been writing for Flash Fiction Fridays are not complete stories but character sketches, themes, world building, etc.

Flash Fiction Fridays will now be known as The Friday Muse, and will continue this coming Friday.

Hello Blog - 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this blog has been lacking in content. I've really just been using it to mention new episodes of The LZR Project, Flash Fiction Fridays, or...well, that's been about it. From now on, a new post will go up every Monday, and the topics will range from my experiences with self-publishing, the challenges of writing/publishing my unique genre, or I'll just muse about how great the life of a writer is - I do get to kill off characters who don't agree with me. I love being a writer.

NaNoWriMo 2014 - 

It's that time of year again! With National Novel Writing Month right around the corner (November 1st), I have started the Writing.com October NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge. Each day in the month of October, I sketch out the setting, characters, and themes to my upcoming NaNoWriMo novel to get ready for the frantic November month of writing.

This year, my NaNoWriMo project is something I am especially excited for, because the story itself benefits both of my fictional series. I decided to write out the back story to Legion, the vile alien species responsible for the destruction of multitudes of planets in both of my series. Legion is one of the prime villains in my Black Earth series, and is an almost viler villain in my Expired Reality series, especially in the later novels to come. This will truly be an exciting novel to write, and my plan is to publish it Spring/Summer 2015.

Other Projects This Next Year -

The third novel in my Expired Reality series (written/published)

Audio dramas

Black Earth short stories

Desperate Betrayal (Expired Reality series short story)

The Crossover Alliance Anthology - Volume 2

Two special top-secret projects (one a novel, the other a mini-series)

Look for more from me in the coming weeks, especially on Twitter, my blog, and my email newsletter. Speaking of which, if you haven't signed up for it yet, you can at this link. Until next time! I have some projects to work on...