The Realms of a Fantastical Mind

The light sparkled around her, glitter and flashes of every color cascaded around.  The fairy pushed herself past the celebration and echoing music that pounded through the air.  Humans gathered in the streets, shouting and praising the festivities of the cultures new year.  The strange beings were everywhere and no one noticed the small fay that flew above the crowd. Just one more flash of glitter among them.

The dust drifted up from the hole in the ground. Collapsing rock still fell, and as the dust swirled around them, they realized someone was missing.  Mavra had been standing on the earth that had swallowed him into its now gaping mouth.  The companions looked into the darkness and called for him, but no answer was returned. The companions each looked at each other and knew what needed to be done.  Serral had the ability to spider climb naturally and Nimue was given the cloak with similar abilities not too long ago.  Together they made the treacherous decent into the darkness.  Searching around was almost futile as the dust that was kicked up made the low light vision that they both had, useless.  However, both of their hearing was exceptional and with little effort they were able to make out the sounds of dragging from an opening not too far from where they had landed. "It would be unwise to co...

Each story has some type of world building, whether it be just creating a social system in a neighborhood, or creating an entire solar system plucked from your mind, as well as anything in between.  Each writer, or D&D DM needs to create the world in which the characters or players interact and grow.  It all starts with that. In the novels I'm writing, I started with a few websites that I had found some valuable information, I have since, found other sites to tickle the imagination and exploration of worlds. I would like to share those with you. Basilicus   I found this site intersesting for its star system and religion section Building Guides Building a Species Building Stars and Star Systems Scientific Help Building Nations Building Cities Building Organizations Building Religions and Myths Building Technology and Science Main Building Guide Page Some of these are still being worked on. More will be added and upda...

She waited, looking out over the pond between bushes.  She knew it would come again, the dragon always stopped here to take a sip before going off to where ever it was that dragons fly to.  She kept herself still as the whoosh of leathery wings stirred the otherwise calm air. It was there, a small blue dragon with barely any spikes as of yet.  A male from what she could tell, the three horn crowned on his head showed her so. The small beach was wide enough for him to sit on as he lowered his head for the drink. The huntress poised herself for the pounce, waiting for the right moment.  The dragon's musk filled her nostrils, turning her stomach.  She held in her growl as she crept closer.  He moved a bit, perhaps sensing her presence, or just getting a better tongue full of water, either way, time was up. She leaped from her hiding place, aiming true for his shoulders where the spikes had not yet grown in. "What i...

The earth elemental rose up from the platform, towering over the companions.  Mavra had dashed to the opening as an opponent hovered in the archway.  Serral had broken off from his blood-blade to assit the dark elf, only to find Ladarious rushing past to break Mavra's stride with a tackle to the floor.  Now the blood-blade, Nimue` stood alone against the earth itself.  She swung her enchanted long sword and rapier with a dance of blades, chipping off chunks of the element.  She did not know whether her efforts would come to fruition but she needed to try. The foe in the door way dissapeared before Serral could attack it with the swarm of bats he had conjured.  He took a step to assist his fellow adventurers, but Mavra had all well in hand as he pushed up on the lion humanoid and with little effort Ladarious flew across the room. With the shadow-like creature gone, the companions focused on the shambli...

A short story inspired by old times at the YMCA camp and the loss of all those trees. The wind whistled with the scent of her blossoms.  The old oak always admired the colors and scents of the lovely apple tree growing up the hill off the dirt road.   He stood and observed from a distance, for more human generations than he cared to count.   Watching as the people and animals passed his way.  There was a scar of a heart with initials carved on his trunk. The scar came with the memories of childhood sweet hearts who spent their youth climbing his bows. Now the couple was wizened with age and came to him every few years to celebrate their times as children together. The younger generations spent their time under the apple tree.  She would shower them with petals in the mid spring mornings or shelter them in the hot summer sun.  The old oak was still taller than her and held more limbs to climb and linger under, but she was in an ideal place fo...

I am getting married tomorrow and was waiting for the cold feet to kick in. Still a no show.  They say it happens to everyone, I'm starting to wonder why? What exactly is cold feet? A worry of never being able to walk away? A thought of never being able to touch another as you touch your mate? A wonder if you will love that person as you love them now?  Wait, stop, hold the phone.  Okay, none of this makes any sense.  If you love the person enough to say yes when the ring was offered, or in the case of guys, love the girl enough to buy the ring.  What would make you think that you were going to get a chance with anyone else when you asked or said yes.  You pretty much sealed the deal then, now its just to make it public and legal.  So what is the issue?  If you love some one enough to pledge your undying love to them, why would you waiver? So why does 'everyone' get cold feet? Why would they have doubts?  I was told on...

Ok so writing my own vows is crazy simple yet crazy hard.  I know the poet should be able to come up with something smooth and able to tug the heart strings.  Yeah I guess I just don't have it in me sometimes.  So I looked up some links for  Funny Wedding vows   Yeah they were cute, but it didn't fit. Then I looked up the more traditional vows . Still was not quite what I was going for. So I thought about how he makes me feel, how I enjoy our time.  The little things we do for each other.  Then as I slept last night the thoughts brought themselves together. We are the closest of friends, talking of our wants, needs, what bugs us.  I have never had to lie to him, never had to keep a secret.  He knew from day one how I was, who I was, and what I wanted.  I also learned much from him on our first date.  A coffee date.  Our lives have been growing together, it is more then the passion and love for each other.  It is wh...

The tension is building up.  I find that I try to distract myself from what I should be doing.  If I should be writing or editing, I'm reading.  If I should be critiquing, I'm editing my own work.  If I should be looking up vow ideas, I'm playing on FB or checking my e-mail.  If I should be working on wedding things, I'm doing anything but. Yes, I've been putting off everything by doing everything else.  I guess when I really need to do something, my lazybones says no.  Sigh... and so I need to find a way to force myself to get focused.  I know there is much to be done in many aspects of my life.  I want to keep editing my book, so as to be ready to start really writing next month on the sequel.  I want to keep up with the crits, some of my critique partners have addictive stories and I hate leaving a good story left unfinished, either in reading or writing one.  I need to work on my vows, I bare...

Yesterday was quite the stressful experience.  Everyone who has kids, knows the dangers of the two year old.  They are fearless beasts who will do things that will make your heart stop.  They will climb heights that were not meant to be climbed.  They will get into things that were securely put away, and they will go places that will put them in danger.  This is the world of the two-year-old.  To explore and to drive their parents into a frenzy. My children have all passed that stage, thank the goddess.  However, my niece has been in that stage since she could climb, and being so much like my sister, she probably wont be out of that stage until her teens.  She is an adorable peanut who would win the heart of even the hardest heart. Yesterday she pulled off her trademarked dash at my house.  (It was a pet cemetery rerun in the making) I live in a fairly busy city, right on the main road.  She ran straight down...

I've been trying to get my crap together. Organize what I'm doing when and trying to get things running smoothly. And what happens but I find myself snuggled up to my kobo reading series after series of my favorite authors. Nothing I wanted to get done, gets done and my poor book is again neglected like the house plant that hasn't been watered for weeks. It sits with it's pages drooping over the edge of the table, practically begging to get picked up and revised fully into the 5th draft. 'Please' it whispers in the dark of night as I lay sleeping, 'please remember I'm here.' so after 2 weeks of my horrible behavior of reading, in which I've been poking and prodding at other writers work, only because I've done so much to my own book that I can't help but see what the holes are, I opened my critiquing folder and had a crack at a 1st chap of a MS that I should have opened the day I got it. I'm not even saying that out of duty, oh ...

So how busy can one person get that doesn't have a full time job, other then raising kids?  I can tell you, very busy!  I have to take care of the kids, like making sure my 12 yo has everything for school, first and foremost! Then there is the cleaning of the never-ending dishes, the floors need to be swept and mopped. The  bathroom... yeah that stuff that needs to be done, the kids, making sure they are doing their chores and keeping their space clean.  Cooking and then cleaning that never-ending dish pile again.  Sending my son off to kindergarten. Then 2 hours of me time, my youngest having nap-time.  Pick up my son, make sure my eldest has her homework done and making sure my son puts his school things away.  Then there is wedding planning and making sure I have everything done that I wanted to do that day, usually done when its my me time.  So my poor writing plans get pushed off to ...

So today I have decided that my Friday mornings will be focused on critiquing fellow writers in their works (and hopefully continuing on into the weekend).  The problem I have with that is not the ones I critique from AQC but the ones from Critters Writers Workshop .  Perhaps it is because I do not talk or chat with the ones from the workshop.  I do not know them in any way.  I have no problems with the site itself or with the people but some of the work that is offered up for review is so raw it is as if they posted their rough drafts without trying to polish and enhance their work.  Some have written stories with not enough research, so it seems beyond reason of suspended belief and others are just choppy and need to learn how to flow more.  It may be that those were the very reasons for them posting on Critters but some how I would think that they would have done more research on what works better, what flows better and the like before showing their wor...

I have this feeling.  Like I could write so much more, add so much more to the story.  Yet, as soon as I open the document for the story, all I want to do is something else.  A feeling of not wanting to change what is there.  Every story needs it's tweaks and turns.  What once was part of the beginning of the story, getting hacked out or completely changed to another part.  I personally took out 30 pages of writing completely.  I may add bits and pieces later of what once was back story but most of that will remain on the editing floor, as it were. So how do I get focused enough to add or subtract from my creation.  It's hard for all writers, so it's nothing new.  My hesitation causes a form of writers block, so I need to just walk away.  The longer I stay away, the more the information I read in the meantime fills my head with other ideas, more to add or take out.  Not a bad thing, but today it seems that all of the inf...

I had a conversation with my family last night.  One of those after dinner random talks as one of us was on facebook.  We were talking about how no one seems to know how to create even the most simple sentence without adding lol or some thing of the like.  We also discussed the effects things like facebook twitter and texting has on the knowledge of words and grammar.  Even with built in spell check on most computers, the words never seemed spelled correctly and the grammar is always off.  I admit I am one of the afflicted of such mistakes. The new way of speaking through text could be considered similar to Tolkien's elfish language. Just sound out the words and you'll know what I mean. roflmao, lol, adip, urapita, fitb and so on.  I'm sure you could come up with much more then myself, since I am no master of txtng. It all makes me wonder how long it will be before the new words of our language are common place and words suc...

There was a phrase that I saw while looking at my twitter the other day.  It stuck with me, through dreams and waking moments.  I can't remember who said it, but it was so true its scary. 'Characters are not created, they are beings waiting to be discovered.' To anyone who writes, even if it's short stories, or just random thoughts, you find your characters seem to have a mind of their own.  I know this to be true in my own writing.  My MC will have a goal and be headed in that direction when something distracts her and I find myself being dragged along for the ride.  I didn't plan what happens, I don't anticipate the direction change.  It just happens and I find myself caught into my own story as if I am watching it from the outside and not writing it.  The writing itself is scary, with all the grammar mistakes and sloppy sentences.  It is all due to not noticing that the story is being written, its more lik...

Time for some more of my geekness to come out.  One of my friends is holding a contest on who is the biggest geek and so I entered, and now I'm realizing how much I truly am a geek.  I love it!  lol So I dug into the recesses of my mind for all the things that mark me as a geek .  To be honest, there isn't much that doesn't mark me as one.  lol  I guess that should be lame or bad or whatever, but I like it.  Loving anime, manga, Star Trek and Star Wars.  What's not to like.  ok well, I'm sure there is lots not to like if your not into it. But it's totally me. It's all about what is fun for you, and this is what's fun for me.  Yay fun.  lol

Ever imagine that your somewhere else, and that others are with you adding their thoughts to yours to create a different world.  I'm not talking about writing a book, or even reading one.  I'm talking about D&D, yes my geek is showing.  lol Roll some dice and bang, something happens.  Well, it's not quite that simple. First you need a good DM. (dungeon master- the guy or gal that sets up the adventure and leads you through the adventure throwing bad guys in your way). Then you act out what you would say and tell everyone what you are doing, it's not just between you and the DM Each player has a part in the action and role playing.  Taking everyone into another world, the world the DM creates, not just a dungeon as the name implies but forests and towns.  You have to play out the situation, with the limits of what you character can and can not do.  Something you would find in any fantasy book.  Weis and...

A fellow writer I know from AQC has set up a contest for writers to act out a scene from the novel of the winner, I think this is brilliant, now please every one enter, I'd love to see who wins this.  Also other contests that Tracy has found I've placed below.  Proves to be a great fun Friday. :) By:  Tracy N. Jorgensen Belief Suspenders: Friday Freebies 5: In which, I have my own contest... :  What can you win? We'll film a scene from your novel and post in on the blog. Epic Fail  : Win a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice.  3 books  : More for your time investment. Can't beat that, right? Pick Your Prize  : As always, the lovely Rebecca Hamilton has fabulous prizes for you (and free editing). 500 words contest  : Gotta love chance for books or agent feedback! Mini-Synopsis Contest  : Not a pitch, but a short synopsis. Interesting. Very interesting. Will you enter? Can you manage it?

The thing that has been getting to me the most lately is writers who don't do the research.  If you live from the south, and you want to write about winter in the North East, come to me, I grew up here.  I lived in MA for half my life, the other half has been in RI.  So I know the area.  The point is, please find some one who lives there and ask them.  Don't just guess.  The person I'm writing about had a good story going but didn't do the research, it ruined it dramatically for me.  Mass loves their snow plows! My responses were, wait what? The entire time, I could't focus on the plot, or on the characters because I was too baffled by ice storm= pretty white fluffy snow the next day=a snow mobile in Salem MA in December. (Wait, what?) It was a great story, if I could get past the holes.  However, I barely got through the three chapters that were sent to me.  I feel bad about it, cause I was supposed to help critique it ...

The touch of a child's hand against mine, the hug around the waist when I least expect it.  This is only a couple small things of what it is to be a mother.  The completion to my life that my children give has no scope of comparison.  I look into their eyes and see complete trust, love and acceptance. Her blonde curls bounce as she bounds off with her brother.  They chase each other through the rooms.  Their giggles echoing through the house the the joy of the game.  My oldest looks annoyed as her preteen mind finds such things more of an irritation then fun. I can't help but smile as I remember how she was once so full of energy and laughter, and yet I am a little saddened that she has grown away from the joys of childhood.  Her fun is now on the computer or video games, though I can't fault her, her addiction of manga.  I'm the one who got her into anime after all. I hear a scream of frustration in the back ground to see the d...

I saw the oddest thing by the corner of my eye, a flash of fire fly light just a few feet away from me.  The odd part it was broad daylight.  I thought they only came out at night.  So I went to investigate.  A swirl of light told me I was headed for the right direction in the bushes.  However, the light did not stay that luminescent green, it changed colors from pink to purple to red, it was quite astonishing. I picked through the rough branches of the bush, searching slowly and quietly till it flashed again.  The little glow moved so fast I had to refocus my search entirely.  I slowed down, the soft leaves brushing against my arms as I held on to the branches, pushing them away slower and slower. I had thought that perhaps it was gone, for I looked so closely to each branch in turn, searching for an insect but could not find one.  Sighing I let the branches fall back into place as they were, only to see that light, now blue,...

"Close your eyes." He said. I smiled at him, he was always being so random.  His brown eyes twinkled in the sun as his blond hair reflected the golden rays.  I closed my eyes, allowing the image of him hover behind my eyelids. "Now, listen to everything around you."  He said, I went to speak but he placed his warm finger on my lips. "No, just listen." I opened my senses to everything around me, we were outside and the park was full of sound today.  I could hear the strange squawking of the squirrels in the trees.  The birds flapped away as a squeaky wheel sped past us, their screech of protest echoing back from each bird as they flew overhead. There was a low murmur from the couple that sat a few benches over from us.  There was a swishing of the trees before a slight breeze hit my face.  In the distance I could hear the rumble of cars on the main street.  We were far enough away that I never...

So I got a pet this weekend, but my   cats   won’t go near it. Can I help it, if he can breathe fire? It's a cute baby dragon about the size of my hand. He has these shimmery scales that change color almost like a mood ring, which is great because I always know when to warm him up. It's so cute when he turns blue. I just put him on my chest and pull out my marshmallows. He has this tiny flame that roasts them nicely and then he begins to turn an orange-red, warming up from the heat of my chest and his own fire.   I know your wondering where I got him. It was the strangest thing, the kids and I were walking home from the park and out drops an egg the size of my palm. It landed right in front of us, yet there were no cracks on it. I originally thought that the egg was from some nest, my mind refused to believe that it would come from anywhere else. But there were no trees in that part of the street. So I figure it must come from one of the buildings we passed, perhaps someo...