Weekend Writer: January Prompt Share

Hey all, Sam here.

Wow, what a month it has been. I had fully planned on making a grand return to blogging to start my 2024 off on the right foot…but, of course, January loves to throw curveballs at me.

We had a few extra cold and snowy days in the early part of the year, leading to us actually being stuck at work for almost three whole days—-thankfully, our workplace is a decently sized complex attached to a hotel, and our employers actually comped us some “snow rooms” so we didn’t have to risk the roads. However, we got home to discover that some of the internal workings of our water heater had burst and it was leaking water in our basement…and our heater was basically dying, leaving our house at a very chilly 38 degrees.

The heat got fixed fairly quickly, thankfully. However, plumbers have continued to dodge our calls and texts, and at the point of me typing this up (Jan 23), we are at a week and a half of having working water only in one room of the house, and it’s only cold water. So we haven’t been able to shower, do laundry, or wash dishes, which has been annoying and problematic.

But, I do still intend to get the blog going again. I’ve read 16 books already at the time of typing this, and I need to review all of them, so I have plenty of posts I can prep up. Hopefully February will be better for that.

Anyway, today’s post is to share a snippet of writing I’ve managed this month based on the January prompts I shared a few weeks ago. If you have written something inspired by these prompts this month, or if you want to write something up after this, I would love to read what you’ve written, so please tag me in your post about it.

Prompt: How Does the Party Meet? Option 1 (14)–The characters are old school friends, and meet again at a school reunion OR Option 2 (20)–An anonymous invitation to a masquerade ball led them all to an old manor house.

–I have decided to take on Option 2: An anonymous invitation to a masquerade ball led them all to an old manor house.

Lord Havendash surveyed the lower level of the ballroom from his place on the balcony. Soon the room would be filling, not with the current staff bustling around to place the finishing touches, but with folks from across the realm, and he hoped that at least a few of them would be open to hearing his proposals.

There was too much at stake for this evening to end in failure. For the past few weeks he had paid far too many for gossip and whispers and stories, trying to draw in those he believed would be willing to listen, and more than that, who would be more likely to accept a potentially risky and dangerous task. Even a mere handful of years, he would have found a way to tackle the job himself, but now there were too many eyes following his steps.

There was a shifting in the shadows and a figure stepped out from the back corner of the balcony. “What game are you playing, Havendash? The Guard knows you are up to something.”

“Considering you all trail my movements and monitor all of my meetings and correspondence, Cadrogan, you would know if that were the case. I am merely holding a lavish event that can also facilitate bonds between wealthy benefactors and up and coming adventurers and heroes. It’s nothing more than that.”

Cadrogan said nothing in response, but Lord Havendash knew he was being studied. It was likely that Cadrogan was debating on slaying him now, and the only thing staying the assassin’s hand was the order of those he worked for.

“I know what fate holds for me if I act against the Guard, and I have no desire to end my life just yet. You can slink back to the shadows. I have final party details to manage.” While no words followed his statement, Lord Havendash could feel an openness in the air, a freedom that would not happen if one of the Guard’s assassins or shadows were still nearby.

Letting out a deep sigh, Lord Havendash turned and headed for the stairs. This was all a great risk, but he needed to tread carefully in leading heroes to helping save the city from the clutches of the Guard. And while he hoped he would survive it all, he was prepared to die if it meant saving the city he loved.

Obviously, this is just a small snippet share, but it does make me curious what is going on in this city, and at some point I may write more of this, planning out the details of the masquerade and figuring out more about the Guard, but for now I have other projects to work on.

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I’ll be completely honest, I found myself drawn to a few of the options from this month’s prompts, and I think I’ll eventually end up writing a short story/novella off the prompt I created from the Deck of Worlds, because that just seemed really cool to me…but I also thought about combining it with the second prompt from the Sidequest Decks, because they sort of synergized together rather nicely.

Deck of Worlds Prompt: On a mountain that is only safely traversable once a year lies the Spa of Hibernation, known to be linked to the legend of a frost creature. Something has appeared on the summit of the mountain overnight (your choice if it is a building, a creature, a sculpture, etc).

Sidequest Decks Prompt 2: The Blizzard — The mountains are a dangerous place to live, made worse by a blizzard. A band of ice elves has decided to wipe out the village, who they consider interlopers in their domain.

I’m hoping it doesn’t end up leading to a full-length novel, but if I can manage a novella out of it then who knows? I might decide it’s worthwhile to release it.

Anyway, that’s all from me for today. I’ll be back next Friday for the release of the February Prompts for Weekend Writer…although I might be able to get some of my book reviews up before then. We’ll see.