C.B. Archer's Blog, page 15

Shock

This week for Flash Fiction Writing Slam the word was shock and we had 15 minutes to write something interesting!

Shock

Rumble! Jennifer felt the ground rolling under her feet as the earth shook. Before the seasick land subsided Aftershock jumped up again from the broken pavement and landed into the crowd of people. The waves of earth from his earthquake making boots threw countless citizens up into the air, Jennifer nearly fell over when she landed, but she was quick and steady. Unnaturally quick and stead for her normally awkward self.

Today had been a strange day. First there had been that mysterious job offer from the eccentric billionaire to become his personal dog walker. Then there had been the explosion at the asylum for the criminally insane. Finally there had been that kitten that had escaped from Super City’s pet shop that Aftershock had robbed the place by throwing a radioactive alien gem at. That kitten had flown on literal golden wings into Jennifer’s face this afternoon while walking Mr. Vayne’s prized wiener dog Champ.

Nothing had been right since that kitten bit her. But, it was alright. Aftershock hadn’t knocked her over. He had knocked over the rest of the citizens, but not her. Her kitten bite was glowing. Had she gotten super kitten powers? She jumped into the air and slashed with her new kitten claws, knocking Aftershock over in one blow.

She was a superhero now. A cat superhero. She would be… The Night Bat! Because she really liked bats.

If you only had 15 minutes to write about Shock, what would you have done?

Fan Art for those that have none.

I recently posted in a writer’s group about receiving fan art and I was devastated to learn that some people have NO fan art!

So I have started to make them Fan Art, based on what I am pretty sure is a scene in their book given their book covers and blurbs. Enjoy!

Renee Ward from Kind of Like Life by Christina McMullen discovering that magic exists!

Ashima Nayar from The Toymaker by Melissa A. Jensen as she battles a giant mysterious monster in the mines with only her wits, rag-doll, and a piece of glass.

Mysterious Man at Asteroid Phone Booth from Watching the Watcher by Micah R. Sisk.

Rachel and Roswell steal the Alien’s ship from Rachel, Roswell & The Alien by Dwayne Fry.

The Crimson Mistress from Rehab For Superheroes, by Ann Livi Andrews

A light lady from the cover of Nascent Decay (The Goddess of Decay Book 1) by Charles Hash

Lovonian and the Orc Chieftan take a much needed break from battle in Little Black Stormcloud (Breath of the Titans, #1)  by Riley Westbrook.

Niomi wearing her new fur cloak from Wildlander’s Hope by Jenycka Wolfe.

Either Mishi and Taka, the both sound like badasses, from Blade’s Edge by Virginia McClain.

Book Formatting Fun!

I have never formatted an entire novel before, but I am a graphic designer so I figured it out a lot faster than I will epubs (which is the next challenge). Now that the choices are made, the fonts picked, and the appropriate plugin purchased for Text Boxes it is just a matter of checking over the book to make sure that nothing is amiss.

Thus far there was only one real problem with the location of the random table that is in this book, because I love random tables that don’t belong in regulation fiction. Fortunately, only a single line was needed to be added to even things out and coincidentally Calea’s very first speaking line was just moments before the stubborn table. If you don’t know Calea let me tell you – No one can add yonks of needless long winded dialog to fill space like her! The real problem was getting only ONE line from her! She submitted four entire pages of dialog options, in spreadsheet format, the smallest quote was 467 characters long! Dear Maker! I told her I only needed six words.

Now that everything is just novel formatting, the book layout is going along quickly. I made it to Chapter 14 last night while only being completely distracted by Steven Universe! That is about 1/3 of the book formatted. Then it is right to proof, 10 days of shipping, proof reviewing, changes if needed, figure out epubs, and publish!

Only 6 steps left until this goes live. How terrifyingly exciting!

Ear

This time for the Flash Fiction Writing Slam we had 15 minutes to write about a topic that came up in a conversation about necklaces. That is right, ears!

Ear

Crunch! The ear had a firm texture as he bit into it with gaping maw. Stomach rumbling, the juices trickled down his mouth as they spilled heavily from the gaping wound of the bite. He just couldn’t resist, he licked up a drip of fluid that had trickled down his arm and in his elation tried to lick his own elbow.

Another bite wouldn’t hurt, he half rationalized as he went in. Ripping the flesh from the source, he chewed it slowly, enjoying his time alone. He would not be sated with just two bites, this was fresh, he had waited a long time for it. He was going to enjoy it. Every bite.

He sat down and enjoyed the last moments of the day, ripped off chunks of flesh and laughing a bit when the silken hair got stuck in his teeth. He ate until it was bare, until the hunger was finally gone.

He thought alone for a moment. Should he look for another this night, or was his hunger satisfied. This time only comes along once a year, and he decided he was going to treat himself to another morsel before going to sleep.

He would need to hunt for the perfect one, and he slowly stalked the night. Only one more ear tonight then the long sleep. There it was. Just the right shade of yellow, this would be perfect. The corn was ready to harvest and he would need to start early tomorrow!

If you had just 15 minutes to write about ears, what would you have done?

The Twits Will Be Twitted

The Twitter has been started.

I haven’t tweeted before, but I suspect that Lissa will be doing most of the Tweets for @CB_Archer, because… Lissa!

#Tweettime

Breaker of the Code is getting published!

It is official. Annals of Gentalia is going to get published! #sofuckedup

The interior of the book is getting designed now, then there will be hard proofing and final checking. After that it will be up for grabs. In both physical book and ebook no less!

I believe that I will be going with the 90 day Amazon Kindle exclusive offer deal. This will allow the instant addition of promo days, so that the ebook can be put on discount for certain days. That way all the original trendsetters can get themselves a free copy by watching the days that I post about!

A release date of June – July this year is the long estimate, but it may go sooner if the proofing goes fast. There will be an official announcement soon! I will keep you posted.

Slime

This time for Flash Fiction we had about 15 minutes, but were kicked out early because of bad customer service so we didn’t get to read them. I did not know that I would get an awesome Cross-Over from a friend for their offering. It does explain why they wanted to use the word Slime though as the title.

Slime

It fell from the sky- black, thick, and coarse. It covered the cobblestones, the buildings, the trees, and even the water with its choking filth as it clumped together into vicious charcoal coloured globs. The girl blamed the mountain, it had began to smoke, the ashes must be falling from it. Every few years it smoked, but this time it had been particularly thick.

The other villagers were scared at first as the slow falling debris gathered. Nothing they tried could move the thick slurry. The girl tried harder than most. The black sick snuffed out fire, water caused it to plump up and grow larger, it couldn’t be shoveled away, chopped apart, or even furiously kicked apart. It was here, and it was here to stay. The girl watched it every hour, she did not trust it.

Giving up hope for their crops, houses, land, and buried memories the girl’s family packed up what they could, keeping the falling sludge off as best as they could from the meager possessions. Something stirred in the masses of clumped refuse as the girl started to trudge away, finally defeated. The blobs had reacted to her leaving, and with an unnatural quickness it consumed all of the village and all those trying to escape in a flurry of thick sludge.

The mountain roared fire, it spewed liquid flame from the top as it burst open from the very gates of hell. The fire roared through the village, but was snuffed out quickly as it hit the black sludge. It deflected the heat, absorbed the liquid rock, and grew stronger.

The girl watched in amazement as the liquid fire snuffed by her mysterious savior. The slime gathered itself, tipped its hat, and gave the girl a nod as it said, “Howdy Ma’am.

To read the awesome cross over follow this link!

http://jpmarshman.com/2015/04/23/slime/

Breakers of the Code – Final Cover (for now at least)

Thanks again to the folks at http://www.CoverCritics.com as well as everyone I know who helped make this cover a prime candidate to win ” The Most Poppin’ Elfbutt on a Book Cover Award”!

This is the Final Version, at least for now!

Balloon

My writing group finally decided to do another Writing Slam, or as they actually call it Flash Fiction. We didn’t give ourselves much time this week, because we are bad at time management. Only 10 minutes to write about ‘Balloon’.

Amazingly, mine is by far the brightest and feel goodiest.

Balloon

Up it went, towards the sky, to touch the face of the heavens, and eventually vanish from sight. Where would it go? Where would it end up while leaving a telltale trail of white smoke behind it?

Chuck smiled for the first time in a long while. He loved airplanes and everything about them, but he especially loved their jet streams. Even now on his 81st birthday he stopped what he was doing and watch the plane fly by. No matter what he was doing he would watch, even if once it had caused him to cause a mild accident with a rude hipster woman.

He really should have stuck with his dream so many years ago, but there was a wife and a new child to think about back then, he had to abandon his dream of flying and take the practical job at the lumber mill. He always wondered what his life would have been like if he had just stuck with it, if he had just been stronger.

it wouldn’t be like it was today that is for sure. Stuck in the rest home, bitter after his family put him in here for having that accident with a rude hipster woman some years ago, and with another ‘celebration balloon’ to symbolize his upcoming death. God how he hated balloons, red but black as the grave.

What would you write about balloons if you had just 10 minutes?