Make sure you check out all the other great writers over at SciFiFanSat.blogspot.com !!!

          Welcome to another SciFi Fantasy Saturday and my latest snippet contribution from a current WIP of mine.  For the last few weeks, we’ve followed Sam and Mary on a bike ride home and a few mysterious revelations about ghosts, an ominous bike ride over a covered bridge, and last week Sam met up with a human twister sent to him by his thought to be dead father.  Here we’re picking up from last week and the mysterious stranger has left something for Sam before vanishing.  Sam has just finished reading the note from his Dad.  I hope you enjoy this week’s snippet and, as always, if you feel compelled, comments are appreciated.  Please make sure you check out the other writers and their work over at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday.  There’s a lot of talent there and definitely worth your time.  Enjoy.

          Sam wiped the dirt stained tears from his cheeks and stared at the bottom of the note.  Love and Dad were two words he never expected to hear again.  He carefully re-folded the page and slid it between the pages of his science book.  Sam tugged at the strings bound tightly around the package the note was attached to.  He instinctively felt for his trusted folding knife in the front pocket of his jeans before remembering he just left school.  The blade was the last thing his father gave him before he vanished and Sam wasn’t about to chance it winding up inside a desk drawer in Mr. Skinner’s office.  Stuffing the package the best he could inside his book bag, Sam figured it would hold until he made it home and could get it un-wrapped.

          He brushed the dust from his clothes and started pushing his bike down the trail, casting a last look at the bridge as he rounded the bend.

          “I haven’t seen my dad in ten years and he sends a human twister to give me a diary.  I might as well add crazy to my growing list of problems.”

          Thanks for stopping over for another Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday.  It’s cold outside here and the perfect time to catch up on some reading or churn out some writing pages.  I hope you enjoy this week’s snippet.  This one again comes from one of my current works in progress that deals with a young boy, Sam, and his unique family history that he’s only now beginning to learn about.  The snippet picks up after Sam’s harrowed bridge crossing and crash and the mysterious voice at the end of the tunnel, literally.  I appreciate everyone who takes the time to stop and read and if you could leave a comment or two, all the better.  Please make sure you check out all the great snippets over at the main site.  They’re a talented group of writers who make the weekend a little more enjoyable by sharing their work.

          “Who said that?”

           Sam spun around and saw a small earthen tornado swirling behind him with the faint outline of a man trapped inside.

          A dirt covered arm protruded from the vortex.  “I got somethin’ for you.”

          Sam heaved a rock at the mass, aiming for what he figured was the head, and shouted,   “Leave me alone!”

          The stone ricocheted inside the roiling dust storm and erupted back out, embedding into the ground between Sam’s legs.

          “Glad to see ya got some fight in you.”

          Sam pushed his legs along the ground to gain some distance and swore he could make out a cowboy hat on the figure’s head.

          “Who are you?”

          “Your dad sent me, dingus.”

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Science Fiction Fantasy Snippet

          

          Happy Saturday All!  I’m glad to be back putting out another Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Snippet.  I continue to be impressed with the quality of work that shows up on this site on a weekly basis by a growing band of fantastic authors.  This week I decided to use a dialogue heavy snippet as opposed to the mostly narrative piece I posted last week.  Just for a little backstory – the prior two snippets I’ve posted for my current WIP have had Sam’s grandfather in the swamps of Louisiana looking for a cauchemar (dead witch) and last week we found Sam crossing an ominous covered bridge on his bike only to wreck and encounter a stranger with, as yet, unexplained intentions.  I backed up a bit with this week’s snippet right before the covered bridge episode.  I hope you enjoy.  Please make sure you check out all the other great snippets offered up over at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and if you can take a moment to leave a few words – I know it’s appreciated by all the contributors.

          She called over her shoulder, “Are you coming or what?”

          Sam pressed down on his pedals to catch up before answering, “It’s only another two minutes down the path, Mary, and it’s not like you’re going to invite me inside for a snack.” 

          “You know my parents have like a sixth sense about people in the house when they’re not around.”

          Sam jumped over a small branch with his bike and looked over to make sure Mary was watching.  “You know, you wouldn’t be as freaked out about going home if your parents hadn’t bought like the scariest house in the county.”

          “Yeah, conveniently the real estate agent forgot to mention that, not that my parents would have cared since they don’t believe in ghosts.”

          “What about you?”

          “I wish I didn’t.”

          “What’s that supposed to mean, Mary?”

          “Nothing.”

Science Fiction Fantasy Snippet - 01/12/13

          Welcome to another Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday!  I hope everyone had a great holiday season and got in some quality reading.  For this snippet I stayed with the same WIP I worked from for my last contribution.  It focuses on a young boy, Sam, and how his colorful and unexpected family history comes crashing into his life.  The story deals with legends and lore and the power of imagination.  I hope you enjoy.  Lastly, make sure that you check out all of the snippets contributed this round by a truly talented group of writers and leave a few comments along the way.  It’s like tipping your literary waiter.

          Sam locked the brakes on his bike, eyeing the covered bridge in front of him.  A small creek flowed below it, spreading the smell of mountain laurel native to the area.  Supported by decades old railroad planks, Sam had never questioned their ability to support his weight during the timed five seconds it took him to cross.  The sight of the shadowed expanse always drew him back to his favorite ballad of one doomed Ichabod Crane and his fateful encounter with the headless rider.  His foot hovered over the pedal as he listened for the sound of approaching hoofs, glancing behind him before he jolted out over the aged timbers.   The bike’s almost flat rear wheel slowed him down as it thumped across each board, jarring his neck and shoulders with each rotation.  Sam glanced into the dark recesses of the rafters as a swirl of dust darted in from outside, catching him by surprise.  Pain shot through both eyes as he shot out the other end of the bridge.  His front wheel struck a rut in rough cut dirt road and Sam soared over the handle bars, landing head first into a bank of dandelions.

          A hoarse voice called out behind him, “It’s time, Sam.”

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Snippet

It’s another Saturday and a fresh batch of Sci-Fi Fantasy Snippets has just been pulled from the oven.  You can almost smell the creativity.  I’ve decided to leave GreenGrass on the shelf this time around and share a snippet from a current WIP.  The story revolves around family, legends, and some lesser known folklore.  I hope you enjoy my contribution this week.  Be sure to check out all of the great authors who post on Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and leave a comment along the way.  They’re always appreciated.  Have a good weekend.   

          “We gettin’ close, Ray, so stay on your tip tops.”

          The flat bottomed boat glided passed a bramble of broken branches massed atop patches of floating vegetation.  All three men aboard the tiny vessel focused on the glowing green eyes that stared back at them from underneath the tangled trees.

          “I think I’d like my chances wit’ dat ol’ boy than what we’re after tonight,” Jimmy quipped as he kept the reptiles eyes reflecting in his flashlight’s beam until they passed.  He nervously rubbed a carved gris gris held by a rope around his neck and called over his shoulder.

          “Hope you brought a good luck charm of your own, Cap’n.  Me and Ray ain’t never been on no witch hunt ‘fore.”

          Securing a weathered journal into his shoulder satchel, the grizzled man hunched in the rear of the boat stared up into the starless blackened sky.

          “It’s a cauchemar to be exact, my friends.  A dead witch.” 

SciFi Fantasy Saturday Snippet

Hi all!  In this latest snippet from Welcome To GreenGrass, we take a minute to get a

closer look at Talyn, one of Traveller’s closest friends in the city of GreenGrass.  Talyn,

red skinned and fanged, looking much more the part of devil than devout, wears his

religion on his sleeve and finds his current situation a recurring test of his faith.  One of

the few concessions Talyn allows himself is a new found appreciation of art, specifically

creating it, but even there his new world finds a way of filtering in. Thanks for reading

and please be sure to check out all the great writers who share their work here on SciFi

Fantasy Saturday.  You’ll be glad you did. 

          Talyn stabbed the brush into a mix of green and yellow paint, sweeping the

material in broad and careless passes.  Follow the light and the light shall show me

the way.  Foregoing cleaning the bristles, he dunked the already bulging mound of paint

into the jar of red, pushing the handle harder than he intended.  All of life’s strength has

been placed within, we need only look.  By the time he added the last globs of blue,

Talyn’s breathing was heavy and sweat formed on his brow.  Look to the stars to find your    
            way home.  Running his fingers through his course black hair, Talyn hung his head low.  

          “But what happens when someone changes your stars?”

          Using the blunt end of the brush, Talyn carved a crude stick figure into the mass

of colors smeared over the canvass and watched as the paints dripped over his creation.

          “You and I, my washed over friend are both strangers in a world we didn’t ask to

be in."