R.M. Archer's Blog, page 49

Blogging Questions Answered

I’ve seen a lot of people ask how to start a blog and get it running and stuff, so I thought I’d put together a post where all of the common questions I see are answered in one place. I hope this helps, and if you have additional questions I’d love to answer them in the comments. :)

1. What Platform Should I Use?

Okay, I actually don’t feel super qualified to answer this one since I haven’t done any research or anything on different platforms. I use WordPress.org (which is different from WordPress.com, which is free) and I always have, so I’m not even familiar with the free version. I personally love WordPress.org, but the best advice I have for you here is to do the research and ask some people who have more experience with multiple platforms. I know a lot of people who use Blogger, Wix, or… I think SquareSpace is fairly common? But yeah, there are several options and I only know about one of them. XP

2. What Should I Write About?

Whatever you’re passionate about. Pick a broad topic (for example fiction writing, or pop music), and if it’s something you’re passionate about then you should be able to keep coming up with post ideas. Don’t write about something just because you feel like you should (don’t start a blog just because you feel like you should, either) or it won’t come out well and you’ll quickly run out of ideas. Try to stick to your topic as much as possible, though, so that followers know this is what they’re getting and aren’t put off by frequent posts on some totally unrelated topic.

3. How Often Should I Post?

Post as frequently or as infrequently as works for you. You will want a set schedule so that readers know when to expect a post from you and you don’t want to just post every three months or people will likely forget you exist, but probably anywhere from once a month to five times a week is safe, so just pick whatever works for you and whatever you can keep up with without burning out.

4. How Do I Get Traffic?

Pinterest. I actually have plans for writing a whole post on how to use Pinterest to increase blog traffic, but the basics are these:

Make a Pinterest account if you don’t already have one and set up boards for your writing (I have storyboards, character boards, setting boards, inspiration boards, etc.) and a board for your blog (mine is just called My Blog: Scribes & Archers). Then start pinning. Consistent pinning is best and gives your pins a better chance of being seen, but the important thing is to pin to all of your boards and not just your blogging board.

Make sure your blog posts have pinnable images. Taller pins are better for Pinterest, but square works okay. Set up a template for all of your images, so that they look like a cohesive whole when they’re all together. Include the post title in a readable font and your blog name smaller somewhere so that people easily know where the pin came from. Then, obviously, pin the images to your blog board.

Other than that, ask friends you know would be interested in your content or who you know would want to support you by following (people who are following just because you asked them to aren’t going to interact with your content as much and might not read your posts at all), and share your posts on other social media that you’re active on.

Higher traffic doesn’t necessarily mean more subscribers, unfortunately, but your content will be read and enjoyed/learned from.

5. How Do I Stay Consistent?

Step 1: Make a running list of blog post ideas. This way you’re less likely to run out, and you almost always have a list to draw from. I like to schedule mine in advance on Google Calendar and then shuffle them around as necessary depending on how capable I feel of writing that post at the time, but you can just keep a list if that works better, or do something else entirely.

Step 2: Know your posting schedule. Know how often your posting and one what day(s) so that you can have your posts ready in advance.

Step 3: Schedule a writing day. For me this is Saturday. Ideally I spend Saturday writing my posts for the next week so that they’re out of the way and I’m not scrambling to write them last minute or getting images made. (I usually do my images at the beginning of a month so that they’re all ready to go.)

6. What Do I Name It?

Um… there are kind of a lot of ways to name a blog. It should probably relate to what you’ll be posting about, but it should also be fairly personalized and unique. Scribes & Archers got its name from writing (Scribes) and my pen name (Archer from R.M. Archer), plus it has kind of a fantasy feel to it in my opinion, like it could be descriptive of a clan of wood elves or something. I have friends whose blog names were drawn from their favorite poem, or favorite quotes. There’s a really broad range of ways you can choose a blog name.

Have you considered starting a blog? Was I able to answer some of your questions? Again, if you have any additional questions let me know in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them! If you already have a blog, feel free to share it in the comments; I’d love to follow you!

Character Interview: Wisterin Larn

Wisterin is a character from The King’s Paladin, and she grew up with Coraline and Toril (she’s also featured in The Paladins, so if you decide she’s interesting you should consider checking that out in my Short Story Collection Vol. 1). She’s a spy, and you probably don’t want to get on the wrong side of her because she could kill you while you sleep, though her flirtatious exterior might indicate otherwise. Enjoy her interview. :)

Wisterin: *comes in and takes a seat across from the interviewer, wearing lavender like she knows she’s not supposed to. Again*

Interviewer: Hello. *sees the purple* I thought I heard that purple was a color reserved for royalty. Are you royalty and I don’t know about it? I know I did my research. *chuckles a bit*

Wisterin: *smirks* Maybe I am.

Interviewer: You’re going to be fun to work with. Can I start with your name?

Wisterin: Wisterin. *her lavender eyes will be perpetually twinkling throughout this interview*

Interviewer: I don’t get anything more than that?

Wisterin: *shakes her head, smirking*

Interviewer: Okay then. How old are you?

Wisterin: Nineteen.

Interviewer: Do you have any siblings?

Wisterin: No.

Interviewer: Do you have a job?

Wisterin: I’m the palace spy.

Interviewer: *arches an eyebrow* And you’re okay with just telling me this? But you won’t tell me even your last name?

Wisterin: *rolls eyes, smirking* Fine, it’s Larn.

Interviewer: *laughs* You know that’s not what I meant.

Wisterin: It worked for you anyway. *shrugs, still smirking*

Interviewer: Okay then, what is your favorite food?

Wisterin: Chocolate. Preferably the dark kind.

Interviewer: Favorite color?

Wisterin: Any shade of purple, since I’m not allowed to wear it. *grins* But especially lavender. Or, as the shade may be called, wisteria.

Interviewer: Is that why you like it, then? Because it’s similar to your name?

Wisterin: Oh no. I just like subtly asserting dominance. *grins*

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite book?

Wisterin: Prince of Shadows.

Interviewer: Does anyone on Themar read anything other than the Kersir novellas? (Hey there, buddy, that’s a breaking of the fourth wall…)

Wisterin: *laughs* Yes. I guess you’ve just talked to all the wrong people to hear about anything else.

Interviewer: Do you have a favorite animal?

Wisterin: Hm… Griffins. I’ve only seen one once, but I’ve heard a number of stories. They’re really majestic, strong, powerful, beautiful, and free. *smiles* If I could become any animal I’d be a griffin.

Interviewer: What are your hobbies, besides spying?

Wisterin: Playing chess – that’s something I’ve been trained to play since I was little – doing acrobatics around the castle, flirting… That’s about it.

Interviewer: You consider flirting a hobby? *laughs*

Wisterin: It’s fun and it takes up a significant portion of my time, so yes. *grins*

Interviewer: Which of these is most important to you: Kindness, intelligence, or bravery?

Wisterin: Intelligence. Life’s no fun with stupid people.

Interviewer: *stifles a laugh and disguises it by clearing his throat* And honesty or selflessness?

Wisterin: *frowns* Neither. Honesty means no secrets, but I like keeping secrets. Selflessness is boring, not to mention exhausting. Can you imagine how much energy it would take to do things for other people all the time? No thank you. I’ll keep my secrets and my energy both, please.

Interviewer: *his excitement kind of fades* What’s something you can’t leave home without?

Wisterin: My knives.

Interviewer: How many of those do you have?

Wisterin: Have? Quite a few. Wear regularly? About a dozen. I always like to be prepared. *grins*

Interviewer: Prepared for what?

Wisterin: *grins and stands up, kissing her fingers and waving at him as she leaves without so much as a ‘goodbye’*

Farewell to April

April’s Writing

My Camp goal was to edit every chapter of The Heart of the Baenor that I’d already written and then write the remainder of it, while keeping up with my Alphabet Blogging Challenges on here and on Our Mind Palace. I did get all of the chapters edited, I finished on Sunday, and I did keep up with my blogging challenges for a long time. With blogging I fell off the rails roughly when my laptop lost the ability to connect to the internet and thus I could no longer work at night (my productivity on everything went downhill), so I tried to keep up with it and then in the last week I just decided I was going to pick and choose then which ones to keep planned and which to just not do. (Apologies that you didn’t get a V, X, Y, or Z. I didn’t have the brainpower.) But since that was planned on the last week I decided to count that goal complete.

In the last week I also formulated an idea for a new resource that I’m working on for the resource library. It’s gonna be huge, that’s all I’m going to say about it. I’d like to make it as helpful for you as possible, so if you’d let me know down in the comments what your specific writing struggles are I’d appreciate it. And if you’d like to get access to that as soon as it goes live, you can sign up to my newsletter right now in the form on the sidebar and you’ll see it first.

Altogether I wrote 41,674 this month, which is an improvement over recent months. It was almost entirely blogging, but I’m pretty proud of what I blogged this month so I don’t feel too bad about that.

April’s Reading

Hahahaha haha ha ha. Yeah no. I have been doing so little reading lately. XP I finally read one more chapter of The Hobbit and I started rereading The Secret of the Desert Stone (book 5 of The Cooper Kids series by Frank Peretti) for the billionth time, but I’ve made no significant progress on my reading goals. I’m hoping to at least finish The Hobbit this month.

How was your April? Did you participate in Camp NaNoWriMo? What have you been reading? And don’t forget to let me know what you’re biggest writing struggle is! I’d love to tackle it in my new resource. Have a great month!

W: Wizards’ Keep Opening Scene

I’m sorry I didn’t get a post up yesterday. I’ve been struggling to find motivation and focus lately and excerpts are proving much easier than articles.

Today’s excerpt is from a high fantasy novel I started on a whim and wrote about 4k of before stopping to focus on something else. I think I got it off to a pretty interesting start, but I’d need to formally plot it and further develop the characters before I could do a full novel justice, and this story – like The Elementals – has a case of “I mentioned something important and now I have no idea where I was going with it.” Anyway, I hope you enjoy this first scene. :)

Safira crept through the old underbrush, careful to keep from snapping stray branches underfoot. She could sense her two companions a few feet away on either side, but her attention was focused on one thing, a fascinating find from their last scavenging trip. After a moment she stopped, peered through the overgrowth, and smiled. There it was. The legendary wizards’ keep.

She gestured to her companions and they nodded, approaching her. They stepped out of the forest and walked up to the wall of the keep, watching for animals. Safira rested a hand against the chilly gray stone, still smooth after so many years.

Safira glanced at the other girl, who was brushing copper curls out of her face. “See anything?”

“Nothing aside from that.” She pointed to a heap of weeds and flowers with the ends of wooden somethings poking out of it in all directions.

The two of them walked over to the heap while their male companion admired the architecture of the keep. Safira pulled away some of the weeds and took a soft breath. The plants were entwined with at least a hundred staffs. “It’s real,” she muttered.

The red-haired girl nodded.

Safira pulled a white staff from the pile and admired it, the feel of the smooth wood pleasant in her hand.

“Edmund,” the redhead called, “come here. We found something.”

Edmund came over, brushing a hand through his tousled brown hair, and his eyes widened upon sight of the staffs. He rushed over and grabbed a brown staff, looking it over before swinging it around a few times.

Ferara gave in and grabbed a dark red staff, only looking at it a moment before swinging it around. It cracked into Edmund’s and in a moment they were engaged in a sparring match.

Safira ignored them and walked over to the keep’s gate. The portcullis was closed, but it would provide excellent hand- and foot-holds, she thought. She tucked her staff into her quiver strap and started climbing. In moments she was on the ramparts, walking over to one of the towers. The old door opened easily and soundlessly and she stepped into the dark room. There was a window across the room, covered over by heavy curtains.

She crossed the room carefully and pulled the curtains aside. Golden sunlight spilled in and showed that she stood in an armory. Swords and bows hung on the walls and sat in stands, untouched by decay or even dust. She stepped over to a bow and ran her hand along it. It was masterfully engraved and shaped, no doubt by her people.

Brushing a hair behind her pointed ear, she headed to the steps in the corner of the room and started down. The next floor had a small hallway of sorts and a door to what was likely a bedroom. She opened the door and stepped inside. Like in the armory, everything was in pristine condition, giving no hint to the fact that the keep had been abandoned for centuries.

Her hand brushed against the bedclothes as she reached for a small leatherbound volume on the nightstand. It was the only thing that seemed to have been touched by age, and she brushed the dust off it reverently. A page fell out as she opened it, and she stooped down to pick it up and tuck it back inside.

Safira smiled upon reading the first page, finding it was a wizard’s journal. She took a seat on the bed and started reading the elegant handwriting.

Grevan 12th, 3145

Here begins the first entry of Alabaster Graves’ journal.

Today was quite a day. My first day of Academy, and I’m almost certain that I’m a teacher favorite. Cedar Elderwood gave almost every question to me and seemed immensely pleased when I answered every one correctly. I suppose that being born into the Keepers does give me an advantage over the transfers.

Safira skipped ahead.

Tellemor 17th, 3153

Edana accepted my marriage proposal. My anticipation cannot be contained. I’ve been awaiting this day since that first day of Academy. Our wedding is scheduled for the 22nd of Serdan.

She skipped about sixty more entries, until her eye finally caught on something interesting.

Serdan 22nd, 3153

Today was supposed to be my wedding day. Instead it was something entirely different. I hesitate to speak of the matter, but future generations of Keepers will need to know what has happened, and I don’t trust spoken accounts.

The Grinders have arrived.

U: Unstoppable Rain Scene

Today’s excerpt is a short one from Unstoppable, the first of a four-part sci-fi series Allegra and I are writing together. This scene is the first from my character’s point-of-view and for some reason it always stands out in my memory of this story, along with the prologue and a few scenes from Raina/Dagmar’s point-of-view (Allegra’s POV character). I hope you enjoy the scene. :)

After the encounter with the guards Nyssa had been put back up to guard and the rest of us had gone to sleep. Only two hours later I felt someone shake me awake. I rolled over and opened my eyes to see Trey.

“What is it?” I asked. “Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s just time to move.”

“Right.” I moved my quilt aside and collected my things, wrapping them in the blanket.

In less than five minutes, everyone was ready.

Raina made sure we were all set before declaring it time to move out.

We headed down the iron warehouse steps to ground level, our feet reverberating on the metal, and stepped out into the cold city air. Street lights glowed through a drizzling rain and fog and I pulled my hood up over my head.

“Any plan as to where we’re headed?” I asked.

“Nope,” Trey replied. “Just somewhere we haven’t been yet.”

Arenda took off and flew several feet above us as we traveled the surprisingly empty streets. My guess was everyone was scared of the military. I didn’t blame them.

We walked slowly and quietly, even Kreel remaining at a walk instead of his supernatural sprint. Gaden’s witty remarks were strangely absent. I was probably nearly invisible, given my power.

There was no sign of military in the streets; just an eerie silence, the soft pitter patter of the rain, and the sound of a car kicking up water now and then.

We walked to the edge of the city, never once encountering another human being, and headed off at a slant away from the highway and into the countryside.

Fanfiction vs. Original Fiction

Two weeks ago I talked about the benefits of fanfiction, and this week I’m going to talk about how it compares with original fiction.

​Pre-Established World vs. Creative Freedom

With fanfiction (classic fanfiction, in which you write in the existing world) you don’t have to develop a whole new world with functioning societies, cultures, wildlife, history, religions, etc. All you need is already developed to one degree or another. You may find as you’re writing that something needs shoring up or further development, which allows you a bit of space to work with, but in general you don’t have to do a lot of development because the world has already been written. Of course this also means you don’t have a lot of flexibility, which can feel constraining, depending.

With original fiction, you create everything yourself, which means you get to totally unleash your imagination and make something totally knew but it also means that you have the responsibility of creating a deep, layered, engaging world, which is kind of a tall order. With great power comes great responsibility.

There’s always going to be a trade-off either way, so you have to decide what’s more important to you of the options.

​Pre-Established Characters vs. Creative Freedom

Basically identical to above. You can work with the existing characters in a fandom (which I personally would find incredibly stressful because I’d feel like they have to be just right and I would just be terrified I’d get it wrong) and already know what they’re like or you can create your own characters from scratch and develop their quirks and make them real and deep and flawed. Again, with great power comes great responsibility.

​Learn From the Greats or Learn From Your Own Mistakes

When you write fanfiction, you can learn what works by basically copying well-written worlds and characters, and likewise what doesn’t. When you write original fiction, the only person you have to learn from (in your own actual writing) is yourself. Obviously you learn from what you read and watch and whatnot, but when it comes to actually writing your own stories you learn from yourself through trial and error and learning from your mistakes. This applies to all parts of the writing process, from outlining to marketing.

My advice is to work with both and practice in all areas, using fanfiction as a learning tool and then turning your focus to original fiction or working on original fiction at the same time and applying lessons from each to the other. But obviously it’s ultimately up to you what you want to try and what you think will work for you.

Have you written fanfiction? How does it compare to original fiction, for you?

T: Timeline Uses in Fiction

Timelines are handy little tools. You often have to develop them in school (at least I have) with all the different birthdays of famous people and special events marked out and whatnot (I hate putting together school timelines). But what use do they have in fiction? Well, quite a few. (And I’m not counting historical fiction in this post.)

​Accurate Character Ages

Have you ever watched a TV show or read a book in which a character is either too old for their parent(s) to have had them at a normal age, or they say that a character was x many years old when a certain event happens and that was x many years ago, but that makes them the wrong age? Avoid being that book with a timeline and a calculator. Easily keep track of when characters were born and when special events happened and just add or subtract as appropriate when necessary.

​Keeping Multiple Storylines Straight

If you have multiple storylines it helps immensely to have the events of each on a timeline so you can see what happens in comparison to what. I like the basic idea of the POV tracker in Ink and Quills’ story binder printouts, and it probably works well for people who plan out their stories down to the detail. Since I’m looser with my outlining I converted it into an Excel spreadsheet so I can insert rows, have an easier time color-coding things, etc. This helps you know what other characters are up to at an integral point of the plot and helps you appropriately line up things that need to be lined up. For instance, this character needs to be trying to assassinate a king in the next few days? Well then we’ll have to figure out how that still works now that she’s gone and gotten herself severely injured. And that other character can’t still be in Kaloris if she has to be in Mandoria in two days. She’s not that fast. It helps you easily see what problems you have and sort out ways to fix it. It’s a really handy-dandy little tool.

So this has been a really short post (I don’t outline my posts most of the time and by the time I realized I didn’t have any more points it was too late to change the topic… Learn from my mistakes. Outline.), but I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you use timelines for? Do they span across whole universes and worlds or just one story? Do you have a simple linear timeline, two side-by-side, or something else?

S: Studded Sisters Scene

Studded began with an open-ended short story I wrote a few months ago, which quickly ballooned into a novel. It takes place in the universe I’m rebuilding, the Aleruus Star System, and I think the relational and political dynamics are going to be really cool once I figure them out fully. This scene is from the perspective of my second main character (it follows two storylines), Onyx Andromeda, and introduces a bit of the beginning conflict for her. (Those of you who have read the Studded short story, just a quick note: The King Daumier in that story is now named Julen instead; the short story isn’t changed, but Daumier is now the name of a different character.)

“We’re almost there,” Onyx signed, fingers flying.

“I still don’t think this is a good idea.” Diamond spoke aloud, frowning. Her voice had a beautiful, melodic quality to it, but it was nothing compared to Onyx’s when she spoke. But Onyx never spoke.

“You keep saying that. What’s wrong with trying to overthrow a tyrant?”

Diamond sighed. “Nothing, I just don’t think this is the right way to do it.”

Onyx scowled. “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to help us. Why don’t you want me to try?”

“I don’t know what it will do to you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Killing him? He may be a tyrant, but he’s our father. What will happen to you if you kill him?”

“I won’t get caught.” Onyx pointed to her unpierced eyebrow.

“That’s not what I mean.” Diamond slid to sit next to her younger sister on the floor. “I mean what will it do to you? What will happen to your mind if you take his life?”

Onyx paused, frowning, before starting to sign again. “I don’t have to be the one to do it.”

Diamond sighed and slid her bracelets up and down her arm. “I don’t like this idea, Onyx. I never have. You know this. Get your… friends? to find another way.”

Onyx sighed. “Fine. I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you.” Diamond wrapped her arms around Onyx. After a moment she drew back and brushed a piece of ebony hair behind Onyx’s ear. “I love you. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.”

“I know.” Onyx rose from the carpet and left, wondering yet again why Diamond wouldn’t just let her make life better for both of them.

R: Rebellion Ever After

I thought the original of this scene was really good, I remembered it as really good, and then I looked at it and was disappointed that my memory had lied. But I do like this scene as a whole, even if it’s not great even after the rewrite. Enjoy. :)

“You have an admirer.” Hazel nodded toward a young man in the corner booth.

Ellie laughed, causing the piles of dishes she held to clank. “Alex Kane? You’ve got to be joking.”

“I’m not. He’s been throwing you glances ever since he came in.” Hazel scrubbed the counter.

Ellie shook her head and set the dishes in the sink. “He’s dating Lucy Bougardner.”

“They broke up last week. You know that; you were there.”

“Right. Poor girl. Why do people feel the need to break up in public?”

The conversation paused as Ellie collected more dishes. When she got back behind the counter she passed them to a passing SRV-Droid. “Thanks, Sera.”

“Of course.” The android hovered into the kitchen, engine humming.

“He’s looking at you again.”

Ellie sighed and she glanced at him. Sure enough, he was looking her way. She smiled and she looked away, blushing.

“I knew you liked him!”

“Shh! He’ll hear you.” She risked another glance at him. A SRV-Droid was taking his order. “What girl in the district doesn’t?” Ellie muttered.

Hazel laughed, setting her rag down. “I bet he’ll ask you to the dance tonight.”

“He will not! He’s already asked someone.” Ellie watched as one SRV-Droid passed an order to another.

“Who asked you?”

“No one.” Ellie was muttering again.

“Liar. Every guy in the school would love to be your date. So come on, who asked you?”

“Zander.”

“I take it you declined.”

“And Peter, and Mike, and Sebastian, and Vince.” Ellie moved toward the register as she saw customers approaching to pay.

“Ha! Who did you decide to go with?” Hazel followed.

“None of them. I turned them all down.”

Hazel’s jaw dropped. “All of them? You turned down all of them?”

Ellie rang up the first customer’s meal. “Yes I did. That’ll be thirty-five seventy-one, please.”

“But Ellie…”

The customer scanned the wrist in her chip on the front of the register, looking at Hazel. “I’m sorry, do you work here?”

Hazel barely spared the customer a glance. “No, I’m her best friend. Ell, you’ve got to go with someone!”

A light on the scanner blinked ‘approved.’

“Thank you,” Ellie said. “Come again.” As the customer left, Ellie turned toward Hazel. “I do not have to go with someone. I can go all by myself if I want to.”

The next customer came up.

“But if so many guys want to go with you, why not accept one of them?”

“Because the right one hasn’t asked yet.” Ellie rang up the order. “Seventy-five oh one.”

Another chip scan.

“You don’t mean Alex,” Hazel said.

Approved.

“Thank you, come again.” Ellie smiled briefly as the customer left. “No, I mean the right one. I don’t know who that is yet.”

The next customer.

“I bet it’s Alex.”

“It’s not. Twenty-eight fifty-five.”

Chip scan.

“How do you know?” Hazel brushed a stray hair behind her ear.

Approved.

“Thank you, have a nice day.” Ellie sighed. “I just do. It’s not something I can describe. Has anyone asked you yet?” She rang up the next order. “Fifteen ninety-nine.”

Chip scan.

“Yeah, Zander asked me. Then Vince. I’m going with Vince, obviously.”

Approved.

“Thank you, have a nice day.” Ellie shrugged. “He’s a nice guy.”

“Yeah.” Hazel’s voice said she wasn’t excited about her date. “Do you have a dress picked?”

“The blue one. Ten fifty.”

“Are you girls talking about the dance?”

Ellie looked up to see Alex. “Oh hi.” She smiled. “We were, actually. How are you?”

“I’m doing all right.” He scanned his chip. “How are you?”

“Busy, as always. Other than that, not too bad.”

Approved.

“That’s good.” He glanced at the line behind him, then back at her, flashing a broad smile. “Well, have a good day. I’ll see you at the dance.”

“You too.”

As soon as he was out the door Hazel grinned at Ellie. “You were red as my mom’s tomatoes!”

“Hush!”

“You so like him.”

“Seriously, hush.” Ellie rang up the next customer. “Eighty seventeen.” Her brow furrowed slightly at how high the number was and glanced briefly at the customer as he swiped his chip. He was an elderly man in a ratty sock cap and tattered coat. His chip rang denied. He looked up at her with wide eyes, trembling.

“Your breakfast is on the house,” Ellie said, without thinking.

His eyes widened even further and his jaw dropped. “Th-thank you, miss! You have no idea how grateful I am! Thank you!” He grinned and headed out, a to-go box under his arm.

“You just cost yourself eighty dollars,” Hazel said. “Ellie, you don’t have eighty dollars to spare.”

Ellie shushed her and rang up the next customer.

“You barely have enough to-”

Ellie wheeled toward Hazel, jaw set. “We can talk about this later.” She turned back to the register, smiled at the customer, and continued with her job.

Two customers later she looked up, realizing there was no one else. The whole diner was empty.

“Where did everyone go?” Hazel asked, coming out from the kitchen. “You’re never completely empty like this.”

“I don’t know.” Both of them came out from behind the counter and glanced out the glass doors. The streets were busy as always. “This doesn’t make sense. Sphene!” The SC-Droid didn’t appear.

Ellie walked into the kitchen to see that all the droids were disabled. She pressed the power button on one of them. Nothing. The SRV-Droid stayed dark.

“Computer,” Ellie said, “pull up the newsfeed. Seventeenth district, Lorsa.”

A video appeared on the screen over the counter. It was Kristina Humphreys, the district news reporter, standing in city square.

“…Been informed that Lower Downtown has gone dark. The electricians in the area are checking for the problem. In the meantime, all androids, machinery, and most datascreens will be offline…”

“Computer, turn off newsfeed.”

The image blinked off.

“Why is the computer system working, then?” Hazel asked.

“My dad connected it to its own generator rather than the main power grid.”

“Smart thinking.”

“Let’s go see what’s running at the apartment.” Ellie grabbed her navy blue coat from a kitchen coatrack.

“The power outage doesn’t explain why all your customers just vanished.”

“They probably saw the building displays go dark and went to see what happened.” She slipped on her coat and headed for the door, Hazel following with her olive green hoodie.

The advertisements that usually lit up the skyscrapers were dark across the street and down toward the north, but next door and to the south everything was lit up like the fourth of July, thanks to the border between the Upper and Lower Downtown power grids.

Ellie headed down the sidewalk northward, holding her coat closed tight against a heavy autumn breeze.

Q: Quest for Thienid Opening Scene

No, this is not going to remain the title. Actually this was originally “Quest for Taravina,” and it was one of the short fantasy stories I wrote when I was seven or eight, so it was really bad. But then I further developed the world and started over, and then I overhauled the world and now I have to start over again, but it should be pretty fun. It’s going to be deeper now, knowing what I know about the redeveloped world, so I’m excited to see how it goes. Unfortunately I’m not super happy with how this opening scene turned out, but hopefully you still enjoy it. :)

Jair strode up the palace steps and was immediately escorted inside, to the throne room. He bowed low. “You wished to see me, Your Majesty.”

“Yes. Rise.”

Jair straightened, looking at the king. King Julen’s bright blue gaze still managed to startle him, despite all their past meetings.

“I’d like you to go on a scouting mission for me. You know Thienid, I presume. I have plans to invade, but I’d like to know the lay of the land first. This is to be a scouting mission only, and I’d like to have a dozen of the royal guard accompany you.” He emphasized the word ‘only’ and Jair smirked. He had been known to make messes of things, as his eyebrow piercings and ruby-studded ring attested.

“Thank you, Your Majesty, but I think my team can handle it. We don’t need supervision.”

“Oh I have no doubt you can handle it, but nevertheless I’d be more comfortable if the guard went with you.” Julen’s expression said the matter was settled.

Jair bowed slightly. “Of course, Your Majesty. We’ll leave first thing in the morning.”

“Thank you. You are dismissed.”

Jair turned on his heel and left the palace, taking his horse back from the stables and riding off toward home.

“Home” was a tiny village – if it could even be called that – just outside the worst part of the capital. It was a collection of about a dozen ramshackle buildings, most of them inns and taverns and not one of them a private home. Drunks staggered through the trash-filled streets and porch roofs sagged, but to Jair it was perfect.

He stopped at one of the inns, tethered his horse to a rotting pillar out front, and stepped inside.

He spotted his group immediately, mostly thanks to Crystal; a tall, slender elf in the midst of brown-clad miner humans was bound to stand out. He crossed the room to their table and sat down, hailing the waitress and ordering an ale.

“So,” Malachi’s dwarven voice was low, “what’s the job?”

Jair’s chair creaked as he leaned over the table and replied in an equally hushed tone. “A scouting mission. To Thienid.”

Eyes widened and eyebrows raised all around the table.

Jair nodded. “You heard me right. Thienid.”

“What information are we gathering?” Elem asked, absorbed in a map he was studying.

“He didn’t specify, so I assume anything we can.”

“We don’t have any specifics?” Crystal asked.

Jair shook his head. “None other than that he wants us to take a dozen of the royal guard to go with us, but I think he already knows that’s not going to happen.” He grinned.

“What’s the pay?” Malachi asked.

Jair paused. “He… didn’t mention it.” He immediately recognized why. “That bastard. He’s going to make us take the guard.”

“Smooth going,” Averil said, scoffing as he glanced at Elem’s map.

“I could convince him we don’t need them.” Malachi ran a hand over the blade of his battleaxe.

“It’s not brawn he’s worried about,” Crystal said. “He wants them to keep an eye on us.” She turned to Jair. “And not without cause.”

“Sure it’s not without cause, but we always get the job done, don’t we? When have we ever failed?”

Crystal gestured to his golden eyebrow ring.

“That was one time.”

Crystal rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying that maybe we should play along, take the guard, and get rid of them later on if we have to.”

“Sounds like a good plan to me,” Elem said.

“If Jair had kept his eyes open this wouldn’t have been an issue…” Averil looked pointedly at their leader, “But I suppose this works.”

“Perfect,” Jair said. “We’ll leave at daybreak. Malachi and Elem, get the ship stocked. Averil, what can you tell me about Thienid?”