M.R. Graham's Blog, page 7
April 12, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #15
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
We Shall Not Sleep
Sad to relate, self-destruction has fearfully increased since the Great War, but it may perhaps be mitigatingly advanced that the reason of the world tottered almost to eternal delirium during the chaos and welter of blood, and the balance is not recovered yet.
Montague Summers, The Vampire, His Kith and Kin
April 5, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #14
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
We Shall Not Sleep
There is no supernatural horror so terrible as the things we human beings do to one another.
April 3, 2016
Last Day of AggieCon!
An excellent weekend, my friends, and the first opportunity I’ve had to sell The Mora and The Siren at a convention. 
There was a mad Tom Baker, the requisite Deadpool, two magnificent villainesses, and… some Hammer guy. I hear he’s a real jerk.
One last day! Here goes.
March 29, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #13
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
No Cage for a Crow
The inside of the carriage was thick and dark after the light of a clear day. Blue and green streaks painted my vision, but through them, I could see a pair of glittering eyes like black beetles fixed on me through the gloom.
I shifted uneasily, aware that my every movement left a grimy smirch on the plush seat, aware that, though we had started moving, I might still throw myself out the door without hurting myself too badly, aware that a third gleam I could see in the dark was likely the metal knob of a cane, which would do a lot of damage if it came toward my skull with enough force.
A monstrous shape heaved in the shadows across from me like a dragon stirring in the depths of its cavern, and it leaned closer. I could smell pomade and cigar smoke. I blinked faster, willing my eyes to adjust, and the shape had almost resolved into the form of a gigantic man when a voice rumbled out of it like thunder. A voice I knew.
‘Ah, Morrigan, I thought that might be you, but I couldn’t be certain from a distance. I can’t say I much like what you’ve done with your hair.’
My brother Mycroft loomed at me, expressionless. He held out his left hand, and a few more blinks showed me a crinkled paper envelope full of licorice. I took a piece, not sure what shocked me more: that I was discovered, or that I was so changed that Mycroft, the cleverest of us all, had taken more than an instant to recognize me.
He sat back with a wheezing, growling noise, rearranging his bulk across the seat, and laced his fingers over the immaculate expanse of his waistcoat. ‘This,’ he said, exaggerated patience failing to conceal a dangerous edge, ‘is the part where you explain yourself, my sister.’
March 22, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #12
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
We Shall Not Sleep
It was generally supposed that all suicides might after death become vampires; and this was easily extended to those who met with any violent or sudden death.
-Montague Summers, The Vampire, His Kith and Kin
March 21, 2016
Left brain – a poem
I am a case study in creation,
deconstructing souls even as my larynx forms songs.
What is happening up there where the intellect resides,
between synapse and stardust?
And where does it go when the sparks die?
March 15, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #11
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
The Mage
They had been in San Antonio about two weeks when the next-door neighbor got back to town. Kim was helping unload groceries from the trunk when a dark green Lincoln Continental coasted up into the next driveway. Its driver climbed out and ducked into the back seat to retrieve a battered brown suitcase. Then he straightened, shooting upward like a stalk of bamboo, tall and thin and wiry.
Kim gaped. He had to be six and a half feet tall, with his brown fedora pushing him toward seven. The afternoon light fragmented against the sharp angles of his narrow face, almost startlingly white beneath dark hair majestically winged with gray. Piercing, frost-pale eyes regarded her and her scrutiny with mild affront from behind wire-rimmed spectacles. A muscle twitched in his jaw, like a failed attempt at a smile.
He was spectacular. Spectacularly frightening. Sort of like her grandfather, Kim reflected.
“Good afternoon,” he said crisply, raising incredibly long, white fingertips to the brim of his hat. “Ma’am, Miss.”
English, Kim thought, or something like it. The ‘r’ was missing from ‘afternoon’, and ‘ma’am’ lengthened into ‘maahm’.
“Afternoon,” said Kim’s mom. Her fingers dug painfully into Kim’s upper arm and squeezed, pushing her toward the house.
Kim stumbled a step away and stopped. Her mother nudged her again, and she pushed back in irritation.
“Hi,” Kim said brightly. “I’m Kim, and this is my mom, Cindy. We just moved in while you were away.”
“Cynthia Reed,” her mom clarified. She gave Kim another discreet prod.
The man nodded, staring hard at Cynthia. “Daniel Leland,” he replied. “It’s a pleasure.” His sharp gaze traveled to Kim. “I think your mother wants you to go inside, Miss. It is usually best to do as your mother wants.”
Kim felt Cynthia stiffen beside her.
Daniel Leland’s thin lips twitched into an expression a little too sardonic to be called a smile. He locked his car and strode up the sidewalk to his front door, disappearing inside.
Cynthia seized the last remaining grocery bags, shut the trunk, herded her daughter inside, and locked the door.
“Holy beans, Mom,” Kim griped. “What the heck was that? I’m supposed to be polite, but you get to be a complete jerk to that man?”
Cynthia pressed her flat palm to the door and whispered a single word. Kim could feel the power that surged through the house’s walls, its windows, its roof, down into the foundation and the surrounding soil. It felt like caulk, something that was meant to stop up holes.
“That’s not a man,” Cynthia muttered. “Our neighbor is a vampire.”
March 8, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #10
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
No Cage for a Crow
My eyes slid from the pitcher to the mirror above, and the ghastly apparition staring back stole the breath I had gathered for a scream.
March 1, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #9
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
No Cage for a Crow
The albatross represents a tremendous burden or curse. However, it is also an omen of good luck.
February 23, 2016
Tuesday Teaser #8
Every Tuesday, I post a teaser for one of my current works in progress. I invite all of my writer buddies to join in!
The rules:
Post a link, image, quote, or excerpt related to or taken from your current WIP.
State the name of the WIP.
Do NOT explain yourself! Resist the urge to wax poetic. This is a hint, not an outline.
We Shall Not Sleep
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
