A Very Long Short Week

I didn’t get much done this week.  A little on Monday after the dentist and some on Thursday.  My son was home Tuesday and Friday, which negated those days.  I couldn’t find the urge to write on Wednesday due to the chapter.  It involved one of the champions struggling to find hope to carry on or they’ll become massively self-destructive.  Not a good thing in the final hour of a world-saving adventure.  Seeing the emotions I’d need to access get spread over the Internet along with a constant rejection of these emotions being genuine, I couldn’t get my mojo running.

Not much else happened too.  One of the Bedlam stories has to be junked or rewritten because of current events.  I came up with another story to add into the superhero stuff, but it doesn’t make my decisions on those any easier.  More about that on Thursday, but some of it is the same.  Windemere or Earth?  Can I balance two multi-series worlds that world up to a grand finale series/book?  Bedlam doesn’t count in there because that’s one series and the finale doesn’t have to bring in multiple stories and characters.  Just Lloyd and Cassidy doing what they do best.

Feeling bizarrely worn down lately too.  Oh yeah, there was good news from the dentist visit.  You see, I haven’t actually seen one in years because of insurance issues and then just never getting around to it.  One would expect my teeth to be a wreck, especially after the recent debacles.  Apparently, they’re not that bad.  Look, I’ll take ‘the gums didn’t bleed as much as I expected’ as a victory after the extractions.  My son might have to get his extra tooth out before the end of the year though.  We’re not looking forward to that insurance fight.

I’m going to be testing out The Spirit Well blurbs tomorrow, so I hope to get some responses before I delete them Monday morning.  This means reblogs and a lot of the connectivity of the blog will be removed.  Goodkindles and AskDavid.com require personalized, unique blurbs and it’s hard to write 3 of the dang things.  Now, to do the list and lie down with a manga:

  1. Write more of Warlord of the Forgotten Age.
  2. Biking
  3. Sleeping
  4. Yawning way through parts of the day.
  5. Dream about having a hot chocolate dispenser in the house.  Just hit one button and you get a cup.  Somebody really needs to invent those food making machines from Star Trek.  That could really change the world.
  6. Eventually go to Dunkin Donuts to get as close to the dream as possible.
  7. Point at random objects and tell them they’re not the boss of me.
  8. Learn to stop lying on the bed with my ear an inch from the phone.  OWWWWW!
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , | 13 Comments

Smorgasbord Autumn Reading – Revenge by Stevie Turner – FREE 12th – 16th November

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

10 Statements – Jessica Hernandez

Karen's avatarMy train of thoughts on...

jessica-hernandez

Jessica Hernandez was born and raised in the beautiful, sunny state of Florida (USA). She attended the University of Miami, where she spent more time than she cares to admit daydreaming of a faraway land called Acu. Upon graduating with a degree in English and Political Science in 2014, Jessica put pen to paper and brought Acu to life—so was born the Hawk of Stone duology.

Find me…

Blog:  https://jessthestoryteller.wordpress.com/
YouTube: 
http://bit.ly/2fGt7bG
Instagram: 
https://www.instagram.com/jessymarieee77/
Goodreads: 
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14235885.Jessica_Hernandez
Twitter: 
https://twitter.com/jessy_marie77

My personal motto:

“If you try, you might. If you don’t, you won’t.”

10 statements
  1. A typical work day begins with…begging for five more minutes of sleep before carefully crawling out of bed to check my emails. I say carefully because I must make sure that I don’t wake my roommate, Suzy. She shoots the most menacing of glares at me whenever I disrupt her rest. I won’t lie, she’s…

View original post 631 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Forbidden Spell Cafe: The Best of the Banned

Yahoo Image Search

Yahoo Image Search

You’re not a priest, are you?  We have to ask because that would get us in a lot of trouble since we aren’t dealing in regular spells.  There’s a small market for forbidden magic, but it’s still very lucrative.  First, I need you to sign this wavier that says we will not be held responsible for how you use this spell. Any mention of this store, employees, or deal will be met with magical repercussions.  To be very clear, I mean you’ll explode and take out everyone who heard you.  Don’t try to write it down either because that will cause your hands to melt.  Funny how these curses are allowed while these others are sealed for eternity.  At least the gods think they are.  So, what are you looking for?

Forbidden healing spells are rare, but we have a few on the books.  Most of them are banned because they create an environmental imbalance or something.  Take this one that wipes out a disease.  Sounds good on the surface, but there’s a side-effect that something worse appears to replace it.  This puppy was sealed after one of the ancient kingdoms fell to a series of diseases until only a small boy survived.  Rumors have it that he’s still in the ruins because the sickness refuses to let him die.  Yeah, I wouldn’t want to touch anything like this either.

It would help to know what you need this for and why a normal spell won’t work.  War injuries on a massive scale?  That’s tough and I can guess why regular healing spells aren’t enough.  People will die because you run out of energy or you wait too long.  I should tell you that you have to accept such a fate, but you wouldn’t believe it since your’e here.  To be honest, I don’t know of much that will help you.  Your heart’s in the right place, which is why I’ll help you.  Give me a minute.

This is a forbidden spell that will allow you to heal an entire army at once.  Covers bruises, broken bones, lost limbs, open wounds, and whatever else is earned on the battlefield.  It ignores anything that happened outside of battle, but it sounds like you don’t need to worry about that.  Yeah, it’s hard to understand why this one is banned.  Well, there’s a side-effect that the gods don’t like.  It’s a strange one too.  Whoever is healed by this spell will be healed without any lasting pain or effect from the injury.  In return for another chance at life, they will become wandering spirits upon death.  There is no path to the afterlife for them and even worse for the caster.  You will lose your life as a man and become something else.  No idea what that is.  Guess you’ll have to find out the hard way if you’re still interested.

Okay then sign here and pay at the front desk.  Nice doing business with you and I hope it all works out.  Shame to see a goodhearted kid go down a road like this.  On the plus side, we’ll get to figure out what the side-effect is.  Hey, I didn’t say it was good for you.

Posted in Olde Shoppe Stories | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 39 Comments

Smorgasbord Short Story – A Soldier Waits – Sally Cronin

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Fate of the World in Your Words

Yahoo Image Search

Yahoo Image Search

I came up with an interesting scenario and question last week, but didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle.  To be totally fair, I’m setting this post up on October 30th and will probably do a test run of this on my Facebook that tends to go ignored.  Anyway, here we go:

Aliens have brought you onto their orbiting, cloaked spaceship and have made one request. Briefly describe humanity as a whole to help them decide on their next course of action. They are prepared for peace, war, and everything in-between, so what do you say?  (NO POLITICS!  I SCHEDULED THIS DURING A MORE INNOCENT TIME!)

*

So, I did this on Facebook like I said and every answer was to tell the aliens to wipe humanity out.  No description of the species, but a simple ‘kill us all’ message.  Others seemed to include the entire planet in there, which means all plants and animals would be obliterated too.  Guess if humans can’t survive then we’re taking everything down with us.  A rather interesting, yet believable, reaction to the scenario.  I’m only writing this part, so I don’t have to do it multiple times in the comments.

*

Here’s my answer:

Humans are a flawed species that can do great good and great evil.  We can be smart individuals, but stupid when in a group.  Most are good who want only to survive.  You have members of humanity that wish to improve the world and set out to do so.  These don’t usually gravitate toward power and leadership, which tends to be held by those with narrower agendas.  Humans can be easily divided amongst themselves through fear and anger too.  Sadly, this tends to be directed at each other because we focus more on our differences than our similarities.  Most importantly, I don’t think you can judge our entire species as a whole.  Individuality must be taken into account when deciding the fate of humanity.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

A Thousand Rooms, on Lisa Burton Radio

coldhandboyack's avatarEntertaining Stories

Don’t touch that dial, you’ve discovered Lisa Burton Radio. The only show out there where the characters from the books you love get to tell their stories. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and we’re waiting for my guest to call in. What am I, competing with The View or something? Where is this guy?

<Squeeeeeerrrrrooooooo>

Wait a minute, I’m getting some feedback that I’ve heard before on the show. Let me add another gallon of psychode to the ectomometer and turn the planchette up to seven. Maybe we can get someone else on the show.

<Squeeeeeerrrrrooooooo>

<Kick, thump>

“Hello? Er, where the hell am I?”

“You’re on the air with Lisa Burton Radio. Ah there you are, I’m starting to get a visual. Nice red shoes – very Dorothy of you. Love the outfit too – black’s a favourite colour of mine…

View original post 1,068 more words

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A Day of Thinking

I didn’t get much work done today.  Food shopping and a failed trip for holiday presents, but mostly talking to friends on Facebook.  Most were civil conversations and a few were trying to put some humor into our day.  I only had 2 hours of broken sleep, so my brain wasn’t functioning well.  No writing, especially since the scene deals with a broken hero trying to find the will to continue.  I’ll try again tomorrow after a full night of sleep, but the kid is home Friday.

People probably know why I’m feeling off because at least half the nation and many around the world are feeling this way.  I don’t want to get into the details because politics only bring fighting.  Honestly, I’ve seen people from all corners of the spectrum do battle today.  Toxic winners, enraged losers, I told you sos, mocking laughter, threats, insults, and so many things that make me feel like this ended it all.  I hope people are only getting it out of their system before they realize that this place will take everyone down if it sinks and not just one group.

I’m writing this to get things off my chest in some fashion.  As you can see it isn’t going beyond WordPress because I found all the other social media sites messy.  The sad thing is that I’m sickened more by how people are reacting than what a certain winningest winner will do.  A switch was flipped and we’re tearing at each other like a pack of starving cats battling over the last mouse on Earth.  Relationships are ending out there, which just makes me feel helpless.  That’s the big emotion here.  Not fear or anger or sadness or desperation, but helplessness.  More so than ever because all of the power is on one side of the scale.  One agenda gets everything it wants.  What happens to the citizens who disagree and probably outnumber the ones who support what’s coming?  What will they do when their worlds are truly threatened?

I might be over-dramatic here.  You know what?  I’ll actually say the name for one reason.  The only thing I hope and pray Trump realizes in the next 2 months is this:  That his words and actions hold more weight and influence than any other time in his life.  It feels like a tall order after the election.  Not only for him, but everyone with a social media account from celebrities to average citizens.  We really underestimate the power of words these days.  That should stop because it’s hard to take them back once they leave your mouth or you hit the send button.

So, fingers crossed that I’ll get to writing tomorrow.  Was staring at my outline tonight, but I just don’t have it in me.  Wish me luck for tomorrow.  I’ll keep the comments open, so keep it polite if you say anything.  The world is toxic enough as it is.

Posted in Uncategorized | 33 Comments

The Spell of Destruction

Yahoo Image Search

Yahoo Image Search

It should have stayed in the shadows
Beyond all mortals’ touch
A horror unleashed
By hatred and fury
And tempered by dark curiosity

Bodies left in this monster’s wake
As it is summoned again
And again
In the name of victory and desperation
Ignoring the humanity lost

The blood-filled tides turn
When the enemies use the nightmare
Delivering vengeance
In the name of the fallen
Adding more corpses to the global pile

The conflict gone too far
Both sides wittled down to scraps
Gods step from behind the veil
To seal the creation away
For eternity and beyond

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Teaser Tuesday: I’m Sorry . . . Again

A brief clip of The Spirit Well.  I’m realizing how hard a book this is to take teasers from.  I think the last few Windemere books will have high spoiler risks.  This one has a lot of mystery and twists while the next one touches on the twist that happens at the end of this book.  It also doesn’t help that nearly everything about Dariana is a spoiler, but I might make on reveal next month around the book release time.  I’ll try to clear out as many spoilers as I can find:

Dariana by Kayla Matt

Dariana by Kayla Matt

Continue reading →

Posted in Legends of Windemere, Teaser Tuesday, The Spirit Well | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments