SnipsAndSnails#9

         Saturday – it rhymes with…well, I’m sure something.  But even more entertaining than my lack of skills of alliteration is the fact that another round of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturdays is here again.  Okay, down in the front row.  And with that I give you the final installment to the short story I’ve been sharing here, Snips And Snails.  After multiple failed attempts at scaring the young boy the creature has been forced into sharing a bedroom / closet with for the past several weeks, we come down to this.  I hope you enjoy it and please make sure you go over to the main site, scififansat.blogspot.com and check out all the contributions there from a great group of authors/writers and leave a few comments in your wake.  They are always appreciated and enjoyed.

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          “Why can I not frighten you, bloodling?”

          “You don’t have anything I haven’t already seen, Booger.  You’re an outdated concept in a well-educated world, the analog to my digital.”

          They stood facing one another as the creature towered over the boy.  After all these centuries, the creature had never encountered a child like him.  What if this is what his future held and his time on that plane frightening the small humans of the world had come to a close?

          The boy raised both hands over his head and screamed, “Say something, you big dummy!” 

          In one swift motion, the creature grabbed the boy’s waist with both hands and thrust him into his now gaping jaws, swallowing hard.  Turning towards the closet, a content grin on his face, the creature burped.

          “How bad can purgatory really be?”  

          What?!  Did you really think I was going to give it a happy ending after all that?  It was fun to see the support the creature was getting over the last few weeks, being tortured with bear traps, toilet paper wraps, and of course, the dutch oven incident.  Moral of the story – when faced with real danger, maybe we shouldn’t rely on movies and the internet to guide us.  Facing fear is one thing, shooting paintballs at it is another. 

          Now, I have to figure out what to share next.  The short story from, mostly, front to back was fun but I enjoy sharing excerpts from WIPs also.  Down the road, I’ll share more from my upcoming novel, Welcome To GreenGrass, coming from Bedlam Press and Necro Publications in December (shameless plug) but for now I guess I need to dig into the archives.  Until theh, have a great weekend!

Snips And Snails #8

Saturday salutations all! I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  It’s been a good last few weeks for me, having found a publisher for my novel – Welcome To GreenGrass via Bedlam Press, an imprint for Necro Publications.  We’re shooting for a December release date and I’ll definitely be sharing more as we move forward with the process. Check out my previous post for more details, if you like. Back to the action with this week’s snippet from my short story, Snips And Snails. Last week, we watched the creature get terrorized by the small child whose room he is trapped in and a little background how he ended up there.  This week, tensions mount as the creature’s frustrations get the better of him and we have a little “scare down”. Hope you enjoy and please leave a comment (or two – they’re low on calories). Make sure you go over to the main site at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com and check out all the great writing happening over there. Enjoy!______________________________________________________________________________ 

          Too focused on his re-avowing his mission, the creature barely noticed the boy sneak up behind him until he felt the five thousand volts of electrical current course through his neck.

          Reeling away from the jolt, the creature spun around to face the boy, who still held the tazer, the current flaring between the two prongs.

          Smirking, the boy said, “That’ll teach you not to pay attention.”

         The creature snarled and grabbed a toy from the desk as a green mist seeped from his nostrils, flowing down over his hand and melting the victimized space ranger into a puddle of plastic. 

          “I already saw that on Space Terrors 2 and that was a limited edition by the way.”

          Turning away from the child, the creature rammed two fingers into its eyes, turning back to display an eyeball on each pointer finger, the right one winked at the child.

          “Peepers – The Return but they did it better.”

          Flinging his eyes to the floor, the creature grabbed the horns on either side of his head and roared in pain as he ripped his head from his shoulder and hissed, “Your eternal soul is mine.”

          The boy sighed, “My Dearly Beheaded but yours has less blood.”

          Bending down to retrieve the remnants of his melted toy, the boy glanced up as the monster re-adjusted his head and added, “You owe me like two hundred buck for this.”

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And then there's this

Exciting news on the book front.  Welcome To GreenGrass - my sci/fi/fantasy adventure based around the adventures of misplaced terran police officer, John Traveller, and his friends in the strange and exciting city of GreenGrass has been picked up by the awesomely creative and talented David G. Barnett and Bedlam Press, an imprint of Necro Publications.

Necro Publications, a well known leader in publishing dark modern fiction, has been around for years and the Bedlam Press imprint for the publisher handles the modern urban fantasy, humor, sci-fi, and more side of their catalogue.  They recently added a new imprint, Weird West Books, for horror, fantasy & sci-fi on the western side of things.  Check out their website over at www.necropublications.com.

I've been hoping to find a home for this novel and I couldn't be happier to have partnered with Necro / Bedlam.  We're looking at a December 2013 release date and I'll be sure to add updates as the time grows near.  Thanks for the support and I hope you follow along the ride until the release.

Welcome to GreenGrass

A city filled with amazing and strange creatures living on the brink of a civil war.  Rising tensions between the enchanters and technologists threaten to disrupt the city’s delicate balance when a high profile murder shocks its citizenry. 

Enter John Traveller, terran police officer, and his band of unorthodox housemates consisting of a pacifist demon, a cast out demi-god, and a telepathic female, who find themselves at the center of a mystery that can alter the lives of every being trapped within the city’s domed walls.

SnipsAndSnails#7

 

An original thumbnail sketch when I was
plotting out one of the below scenes
Yeah, I know, stick with writing.

Did you know that the early Romans considered Saturday or “sun’s day” the first day of the week?  Neither did I until I looked it up on wiki, but that’s not the point.  What I’m getting at is what better way to start your week (okay weekend) than a fresh batch of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets (say that five times fast) provided by the talented pool of authors and writers over at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com.  Oh yeah, I submitted one too.  For the past several weeks, I’ve been sharing pieces from Snips and Snails, a short story about a boy and his closet monster and the strange relationship they’ve formed.  I left off last week with the creature trying to sneak attack the boy in bed only to find a pillow stuffed under the covers before being pelted by something in the head. We pick up from there.  Enjoy and leave a comment or two if you’d like.  They are always appreciated!

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          Covered in a veritable rainbow of colors, the creature spun to face the wide eyed boy still pointing the paint ball gun at him from behind the cover of a wooden toy chest.

          “Are you the Booger-man?”

          That was the first of many nights, as images flooded back to the creature longingly watching a batch of clouds wash across the star scattered sky. 

          His eyes were still recovering from the laser pointer incident and he had trouble focusing on the puncture marks on his hands from the bear trap under the bed fiasco.

          He swore he’d never leave a child behind that hadn’t been taught the principles of fear, the very core of his existence.

          Brushing his hand over his scalp, a small scrap of paper flaked onto his nose, a leftover from the toilet tissue and shaving cream dousing from last week.

          Learning how to fear was intrinsic to a human’s survival and he remained bound to that duty.

          He sighed and took in a deep breath, the smell of burned hair and lighter fluid still lingered, mixed with the remnants of something the bloodling referred to as an oven made by the Dutch.

          One mistake and he would be exiled to purgatory forever.

          Running his claws down the glass, the creature formed a fist against the pane and re-asserted under his breath, “Failure is not an option.” ______________________________________________________________________________

          Thanks again!  Have a great weekend and don’t forget to check out all the great writing snippets over at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com.

Snips And Snails #6

 

Hello.  I’m not just a Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday endorser but I’m also a client.  Nothing else on the market keeps those ideas brisker and scrubs away those nasty moments of writer’s block.  Now, new and improved with a fresh midnight epiphany smell.  Act now and you’ll get to read a second snippet of equal or lesser value just for commenting in only a week’s time (Hopefully).  Seriously, thanks for stopping over.  I know I’ve been WMIA (writer missing in action) for the last couple weeks but I’m glad to be back with another snippet from my short story Snips and Snails.  Over the last few snippets, we’ve been introduced to the creature in the young boy’s room and their unique relationship and the boy’s poor choice in video downloads leading to the creature’s near up-chuck.  We pick up directly after that.

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          The creature stumbled over to the window and forced down the bile growing in his throat as he watched the darkened street running through the quiet residential neighborhood below.  The anguish in his face distorted in the glass as he turned his attention to the cloud covered moon, regarding the dead star as one would a long lost friend. 

          “There’s an extended un-edited cut and I’m so downloading it.”  The young boy called out behind him.

          Sighing, the creature rested his hand against the window pane as images from the prior weeks flooded his memories.

          The setup was the same as the countless thousands before, a darkened bedroom, a slowly opening closet door with just a hint of un-oiled hinges, and the ominous cast of a shadow stretching towards a young child’s bed.  Perfected by the screams of generations, it was the stage for his aria of terror.  Looming over top the huddled mass of blankets, his fangs shimmered in the glow of his hungry eyes.  Tearing away the façade of protection, the creature howled directly into the grinning face of a certain geometrically shaped cartoon character printed atop the empty pillow.

          That’s when he felt the first impact pinging against the side of his face.

           Thanks for reading and before you go on with the weekend, make sure you go on over to SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com and check out all of the fantastic writing and writers who have contributed their own snippets over there.  You’ll be glad you did.  Hurry – this is a limited time offer (not really).