M.C. Frank's Blog, page 457
August 24, 2017
As a writer and a reader, I always enjoy the sweet torture of an...
As a writer and a reader, I always enjoy the sweet torture of an overwhelming influx of ideas. A postapocalyptic Robin Hood, a Regency Beauty and the Beast, a scifi Persephone, a fantasy Iliad. Every idea gets written down carefully, and then sits on a lovely shelf, waiting its turn to join my other stories. I know more ideas will follow, more than I can possibly fit into a single lifetime. But hey, it’s what I love. Making up stories. Some of them, hopefully will get told. If I’m very lucky, I will get to tell at least one of them well.
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#writer #writing #ruinedmcfrank #janeausten #books #islaandthehappilyeverafter #romance #writerproblems
"Beyond my anxiety, beyond this writing,
the universe waits, inexhaustible, inviting."
the universe waits, inexhaustible, inviting.””
- Jorge Luis Borges (via thebookishdragon)
Repost @readcommendations
Repost @readcommendations
N O O R D I N A R Y S T A R aesthetics by Rebecca Raven...
N O O R D I N A R Y S T A R aesthetics
by Rebecca Raven ig:@i.sold.my.soul.to.books
Excerpt from No Ordinary Star (you can read the first 3 chapters for FREE at my website mcfrankauthor.com)
tin soldier
Felix clambers to the hole, crawling on his stomach across the ice, pushing himself forward with all he’s got. He’s panting a little, but his heart is beating normally -which is hardly at all- so he’s fine. He’s been trained to do these little mental checks on his body’s condition while he’s in a fight, or in extreme survival mode, although he’s forgotten to do them until now.
Then the hand appears once more, waving about in the black water, and he flings himself towards it, grabbing it.The ice beneath his chest gives a loud crack, and he stays absolutely still until it stops. It doesn’t break, and Felix leans forward, plunging his arm up to the elbow in the water, holding fast to the hand.
He pulls with all his strength, which is considerable, but the ice is thick and he has to lean down very low, until all the blood rushes to his face and he sees black spots dancing in front of his eyes. His hair flops downward, further obscuring his vision, and it’s damp with sweat, clinging to his brow. He curses himself for not having taken one of the last Discs he has in his suit, but all that takes place in the back of his mind.
The front is busy pulling a girl out of the freezing water.
The dark curls at the top of her head, heavy with water, drip on his sleeve, as her chin just barely breaks the surface. She coughs out a wet, gurgling scream and lifts her white face to his. He only has time to see how huge her eyes are and how blue her lips have turned before she loses her grip on his glove, which has been made sleek with water, and slips soundlessly under once more. A curse escapes his lips.
“No!” he yells.
Without thinking twice about it, he brings his hand to his mouth and grips the glove between his front teeth, tearing it from its strap around his wrist. Then he spits it away from him, not caring where it lands, and leans down once more, his other hand braced on the ground.
The little girl flounders to the surface once more, her mouth opening in a silent gasp, filling with water, and he manages to grab her hair.
“Grab my hand, take it!” he shouts, but the girl doesn’t hear him, or if she does, she can’t move.
Gasping, Felix takes off his other glove in the same way, and sticks both hands in the water, leaning so far down that one false move will land him in the water, right beside her. He finds purchase with his boots on the ice, and leans in, moving his arm carefully in the water, until it meets something solid. He pulls again, this time with a firmer grasp on her sleeve, and feels her weight shift.
He swears and tugs harder.
“Come on, hold on to me,” he says, but nobody is listening.
It takes forever to lift her face clear out of the water, and when he does he notices that she isn’t fighting any longer. Her weight feels dead in his arms, and he drags her upwards once more, absently noticing that his arms are beginning to shake with panic.
The cold is stinging at his fingers, and he practically can’t feel his hands now that he’s taken the gloves off; he doesn’t even know where he threw them. A few days ago, these things would have been all he could think about.
Right now, all he cares more about is how to get a good grip under the girl’s armpits, so that she won’t slide back in as he lifts her to him. He leans her down on the ice, her legs still dangling in the water. The ice below him doesn’t seem to have a mind to start breaking again, so, without taking the time to carry her all the way onto solid land, he leans down to place his palms flat on her chest and starts pumping.
He’s almost sure that she’s dead, but then, just as he’s bending over her face to push her lips apart with his fingers, as he was taught in Health Tech, she jerks upwards and spits out a small trickle of water, hacking and struggling to breathe. She turns those huge eyes towards him and notices his hand still on her chest, his fingers reaching towards her lips.
Then two things happen simultaneously.
One is that she lifts her bleeding arm and slaps him roundly on the left cheek.
The other is that he realizes she’s not a child: she’s a young woman.
Find them and many more on pinterest at the No Ordinary Star board
Lose Me + that time I dragged my little nephew all over the hot...
Lose Me + that time I dragged my little nephew all over the hot sand to where the surfers were camping, hippie-style, so we could steal one or two LM related photos
