Leap 008 - Squashed picture

You find a squashed piece of paper in your lover's pocket: there's a picture of an angry gargoyle on it, drawn in green crayon.

It could just be a gift from an artistically-challenged nephew.
But it's really...

A note from a fellow spy (Gargoyle), letting him know that they need to meet (green) because he's in danger of being discovered (angry).  To see the rest of the message you need to microwave it for precisely four minutes and eleven seconds (any longer than that and the message will explode, coating your microwave with radioactive slime and alerting the authorities).


Prompt from:  http://itcouldjustbe.livejournal.com/3368.html

Leap 007 - JoCo

I recently had a writers party, which is always fun!  At one point everyone put a place, character, object and situation into a labeled bag then drew one of each and tried to make a story out of it.  I got: on a plane, a comic book, escaping a burning outhouse, and JoCo the jovial homeless musician.

     Joe Moneybags sighed as a boarded the plane.  This was his seventh trip to visit the CEO in as many weeks and quite frankly he couldn't figure out why the man wouldn't interview his own janitorial applicants.  As he sunk into his economy class seat he closed his bag lined eyes.  His mind was beginning to wander when he noticed ... a smell.  His nose twitched then began to threaten to jump off his face.  Cracking open an eye, Joe cautiously looked to his right.  The sight that met his eye caused the other to fly open.  Sitting next to the window was the scruffiest man he had ever seen.  The man's hair was sticking straight up, his face smudged with grey and brown.  Despite his fearsome appearance and appalling smell however, he appeared to be quite calmly reading a comic book while cradling a guitar.
     When Joe had recovered his power of speech he spoke cautiously.
     "Hello."
     His fellow flier smiled up.  "Hello.  The name's JoCo."
     "Joe.  Fly much?"
     "Not really.  Homeless actually.  My most recent flying experience was being propelled out of an exploding outhouse.  That is by far the most unique way anyone has ever asked me to leave."
     Joe's eyes grew wide again as JoCo seemed to drift into memories.  "Some people just don't know how to say 'Scoot', but oh well.  That's what you get for being a musician."

Leap 006 - Tag II

A friend and I are writing a story together, bit by bit, trading view points.  It is set in a slightly AU 1800s Boston where both of our characters have been sent to Miss Marple's School for Girls which is currently have a joint beginning of the school year ball with Watson's School for Young Gentlemen.  My character, Joanna Tempany Capall, has been at MMSFG for three years.  Her character, Leemara Trogsworthy, just arrived, both after being unlady-like naturally.  :)


    I was trying to keep my mind on my table, honestly, but those at my roommate's table kept distracting me.  Most of the girls in our dorm are sensible creatures but Leemara happened to get stuck with what appeared to be the most ninnyish of the half a dozen new girls at our school.  Another first year who needed to learn that there was more to life than herself and boys.  What joys.  Dragging myself back to our table I smiled halfheartedly at the servant who replaced my steak plate with the next course.  Staring back up at me was a red snapper on a bed of lettuce.  As quickly as possible I speared a lettuce leaf and deposited it over
the fish's head.  I love to eat fish but cannot stand to have them balefully reproaching me as I enjoy their muscles.  Sounds indecent either way but food should not stare back.
    I must have been making faces at the fish because several of my table mates were poorly hiding grins and giggles when I glanced up to offer a topic of conversation to the strangely silent table.  I gave a sheepish grin as a light blush crept up my cheeks.  "Does anyone have any exciting news?"
    Various familial events were offered including two marriages, three births and several leaving for the West.  Now this was interesting.  Whole families leaving their homes, likely forever, for places they had never seen.  The thought was frightening and thrilling at the same time.  I had heard the whispered opinion that no truly decent upperclass family would undertake a move to such a shocking place.  Decent people stayed home and let the middle and lower classes venture out.  How quickly they forgot their own family's origins, somewhere across the ocean.  Discussion of the western territories and the dangers likely to be encountered carried us through to dessert, a heavenly custard with freshly sliced strawberries and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.  So much for the first year's waist line I thought wickedly.

Sorry!

I am so sorry about being behind, it's been a crazy couple of days that include an concert, getting rear-ended and a lovely massage.  I owe you guys 4 Leaps.
Onward mush!

Leap 005 - Acrostic

Space
Tribbles
Anomalies
Romulans

Tellarites
Red alert
Enterprise
Klingons

Kind of a filler I know but also a teaser for the next 26 days.  I am going to pretend I am writing a children's book about Star Trek.

Leap 004 - Smiletome

Rayella glared at the screen.  Her entire Smiletome page was covered in game requests, not a single personal message in sight.  There was Croptown, Citytown (now wasn't that just a little redundant?), Wildwesttown, College Gurl, and the list went on.  Some games she enjoyed, some she didn't fancy but all of them drove her nuts with their hijacking of Smiletome pages.  She continued to glare as thoughts began to percolate.  What if?  What if people were forced to post a new status or personal message for every five game posts?  The game world would come to a screeching halt and people would have time to do other things.  The game owners wouldn't be happy but there were ways around that.  She was no hacker but she knew some who were.  And after all, hacking was better than kidnapping the CEOs and using some of Batman's favorite scare tactics on them.  Right?  Right.  With a sharp toothed grin, Rae picked up the phone.

So, Rayella and I share a frustration, the amount of game posts on social networking sites.  They are supposed to be places where you can keep in touch with your friends but anything personal you post is quickly drowned.  I try to limit my game posts and requests and clean up any older than 18-24 hours.  I wish others would practice the same restraint.

Leap 003 - Character Prompt

Name/Species:  Jesana
What is s/he/it?  Jesana and her kind are often called 'Fluffies' or 'Friendlies' though they prefer the term Companion or Muse.  They are only visible to children and the VERY rare adult.  Companions are another life form who enjoy the company of humans and help to develop the creativity of those whom they chose.
Is it from our world or another?  Another.  They travel the stars but like Earth.
How relevant is it to the plot?  In my 2010 NaNoWriMo, Picadilly Lane, the decendants of Mycroft and Sherlock Holmes are able to see Friendlies after adolecence and even have one that has been 'passed down', so to speak, through the generations which is really how Sherlock knew many of the things he knew.  :)  Those in Picadilly will make contact with other Friendlies time to time to find out about child abuse cases or children they think will make good agents someday as is generally true about those who have a Companion as a child.
What is happening in this scene?  Jesana is bidding farewell to her charge.  The child has grown too old to see her clearly anymore so she is moving on though she will return should her former charge/playmate/companion have children of their own.  She will visit with the Holmes' Companion before choosing her next child.

Prompt from: http://characteraday.livejournal.com/462143.html

Leap 002 - Unexpected Showers

 Unexpected Showers

Oh how it rained
That day in June
As the child played.

Streets stood deserted
Silent noon
Oh how it rained

Plans abandoned
For sweeping broom
As the child played

New flowers bloomed
On the drenched dune
Oh how it rained

Imagination expanded
Exploring the moon
As the child played

Family contented
Listens to mother croon
Oh how it rained
As the child played

I discovered villanelles in Creative Writing my sophomore year in high school and have loved them ever since.  The rain prompted the one you see above.

Leap 001 - Place Prompt

What is this Place Called and Where is it?:  The Turret at Sunnyview Inn.  It's on the edge of a meadow and lake off the highway in Oregon.
Genre of Story:  Murder mystery?
Describe the Place in Your Own Words:  Sunnyview Inn is a quaint mom and pop kind of inn off the beaten path.  Charming and homey, the architecture reminds one of a seaside cottage or grandma's house, complete with creaky stairs.
What Happens at this Place in the Story?:  Our main character is looking for a break from the hustle and bustle of life and one of her friends recommends this place.  This is her bedroom and, she discovers later, the scene of a crime.
What's a Day Like Here?  Fairly calm usually.  Tea on the porch at the rising of the mist, a good book with lunch, a walk after dinner to watch the wildlife.  That is until our heroine discovers that a woman was murdered in her room twenty years ago and she sets out to discover the killer.
Who painted the room white?  The owners, after the CSI's cleaned up all the blood.  It used to be a lovely shade of pale yellow.

Prompt from: http://characteraday.livejournal.com/460077.html

Welcome!

It has been my goal for some time to improve my writing by doing so every day but I've had a hard time keeping motivated.  Hopefully sharing what I write with others will keep me going.  :)

Recently ideas for this years NaNoWriMo struck me, as they tend to do in July/August.  It's fascinating to watch the stories evolve and mutate from the first spark to the first words.  This year it all began while watching Mail Order Bride, a Hallmark movie about a con-woman in the 1800s who takes her friend's place as a mail order bride to escape a crime lord who is after her.  I decided I wanted to write a story set in the West but I knew that I wouldn't be able to stretch it for 50k words.  Naturally therefore, someone must be daydreaming this life, or having flashbacks into family history or something like that.  From that idea came a female cabbie in modern day NYC who has aspirations to be an author, which has now mutated into a female cabbie in NYC who likes to move around, dislikes cats, has two parrots named after fictional metals and discovers letters from an ancestor living in the 1800s, shortly before the cabbie witnesses a crime and has to be relocated to another city where she has to work at an aquarium.  Welcome to my brain.