What kind of writer would I be if I didn't post any spoilers from time to time? I haven't completed a new chapter this week, but I have been working on other things that are out of order--this being one of them. Enjoy, this won't stay up for very long.
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The noise that splits the air is deafening; easily the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life. It’s so loud, in fact, that the vibration against the floor buckles my knees and sends me straight to my knees. Despite my ears ringing, I can hear Jirel make a strange noise behind me—like he tried to yell and physically couldn’t. I flip over and try to figure out what the fuck is going on. And I realize what is making Jirel gasp for air.
It’s one of those moments when life gets so weird you’re pretty damn sure you have to be dreaming or you’re seriously fucked in the head.
Yep, definitely one of those moments. And I don’t know which it is.
It takes me a moment to realize that the shrill sound that I think is a fire alarm going off is actually me. The horrified sound is me, screaming like I had no idea I could scream. I think I might be trying to form some kind of incredulous obscenity, but honestly, I’ve lost the capability for most coherent thought. This is all due to the thing in front of me.
I don’t know what the hell it is—but I know it’s big and black and it’s definitely some kind of cat, like a panther, but even bigger. It takes up the entire corner of the room, engulfing the man with the gun I had just been staring at. A panther would be all right—strange as hell, but all right. But I have never seen a panther with six legs and tentacles whipping out from its shoulders.
Dear self: if you are dreaming, I would sure as hell appreciate if it you would wake up right now.
I feel Jirel grab the back of my coat roughly and yank me backwards. I don’t quite get back to my feet, but I roll into my gun and pick it up. As soon as I sit up again and level the pistol toward the thing, I hear the distinct pop of gunfire, and it’s not coming from me.
I get off two shots before I realize that the cat is gone. I don’t think I saw it disappear mostly because I am suddenly lying on my side, reeling from the sudden feeling of having been decked by someone’s fist, hard. I realize I’m being pressed to the ground by Jirel who is leaning over me and—what?—has my gun in his hand, and the agent that disappeared momentarily behind the giant cat is now slumped against the far wall, a splatter of blood coating the wall behind him. My ears are ringing and I feel weirdly disconnected from my body.
I note all of these things before I note the blood all over the floor under me. My heart starts fluttering wildly, panicking. I go to move my arm to lean back and figure out where all the blood is coming from, but I can’t.
And then the pain hits.
This must have taken only a few seconds, all this realization, because suddenly Jirel rolls me onto my back and kneels down next to me. He is gray in the face and his hands are shaking as he fumbles to peel my coat off.
Jesus Christ that hurt. My arm feels like it is on fire. Suddenly it all connects--the sound of gunfire, feeling like someone punched me, the disconnection.
“Fucker shot me!”
“I know,” Jirel says lowly as he tosses my coat to the side. He picks up my arm at the elbow, and the pain that shoots up my shoulder and into my neck is unbelievable. I squirm involuntarily, reaching over with my other arm to grab his hand.
“That fucking hurts!”
He leans down to look closer. “It went all the way through,” I hear him whisper.
I roll my head to the side to look. Under the blood that is slick and pooling over my upper arm, I can see a distinct bullet hole. I have to look away again, suddenly feeling like I’m going to puke.
“Please don’t throw up,” Jirel says to me in a harried tone. I’m not sure if I can honor that request at the moment. He presses down on my arm, ostensibly to stem the blood.
I feel a chill and I wish he hadn't taken my coat off, because now I'm freezing. “Fuck…”
When I turn my head the other way, I see Mara, backed into the corner. I almost forgot she was there. There is a distinct look of fear on her face.
Jirel looks up at her. “Get me a towel or something.” She stands there like she’s fucking mute. “Hey! Get me a goddamn towel!”
She jerks away from the wall, disappearing down the hallway.
Jirel leaves one hand on my arm and wipes the other on his pants, then reaches into his back pocket to retrieve his cell.
“Hang on, babe.”
Oh for fuck’s sake, I’m not dying. It just hurts like hell. I roll my head and look across the room at the dead agent. My head is still reeling from having just witnessed what I did—what the hell was that cat thing? Was it the agent? Couldn’t have been.
“Where’d the other one go?”
“I don’t know.” His voice is terse and I can hear his worry: now the other one is out there. He flips open his phone and I hear him dial three numbers.
Mara returns as he props the phone in the crook of his neck. He looks up at her and reaches out for the towel; she stops short of me and tosses it to him, as if afraid to get closer to me. She backs away quickly. Jirel multitasks, wrapping the towel around my arm as he listens for the operator to pick up. I can hear the cell ringing.
Someone picks up.
“There’s been a shooting. One injury and one fatality.”
I close my eyes. The pain in my arm is like a hot iron being twisted against my bone. I hear Jirel giving the address to the apartment. My heart is still fluttering madly, and for a second I can just imagine its frantic pulsing, pumping out all of my blood onto the floor through the holes in my arm. The thought turns my stomach and makes me gag. Jirel jumps. I turn my head to the other side, fighting the urge to be sick. I can feel the bile right at the back of my throat.
Jesus I feel horrible.
When the nausea passes I open my eyes again and pull in a few deep breaths.
Jirel has hung up the phone with 911 and has paused in the middle of dialing another number, looking down at me with concern.
“Gonna be okay?”
I know he’s only asking because he doesn’t want me to puke on him. He’s more calm about a bullet hole in my arm than the possibility of me throwing up. I nod my head and look up at him. He drags in a deep breath and resumes dialing the phone.
“Who’re you calling now?”
“Xander.”
He props the phone against his shoulder again, and looks across the room toward Mara.
“Are you okay?”
I glance over; she nods. Jirel readjusts his position next to me, still holding onto my arm. The towel is already almost soaked.
“Answer the phone…”
I vaguely remember that it’s after two in the morning.
Finally, the ringing ceases and I hear Xander’s snappish voice on the other end. Jirel shakes his head.
“I know what goddamn time it is, shut up. You have to get over here, Vira’s been shot.” I can practically hear Xander’s stunned response on the other end. “Mara’s apartment. There were two guys here waiting for us. We killed one of them and the other’s gone. I’ve already called paramedics and I’m going to get Mara to the safe house, but I need you to do some damage control before this gets out.” He pauses. “I don’t know where the other one went, it was a little chaotic in here for a few seconds.”
That’s putting it lightly.
24 January 2010
19 January 2010
Music!
The playlist I have for the project...not necessarily a listening playlist, but what I would ideally put in the movie should one ever be made. I know, I know, lofty goal, but I always think of the project when I play these songs. They're more or less in order of the story. The Imogen Heap song would be used for the movie trailer. ;)
17 January 2010
A little about the project.
Thought I would write a little bit about the project and the novel in particular for those who might be interested in what the story is about.
So first off, the novel is called Bloodlines. And contrary to the title, it has nothing at all to do with vampires, even though I have nothing against them. In fact, I might even try to use the title to my advantage, because I know that there will be some out there who might see the title, think that it might have something to do with vampires because of the word "blood" in the title, buy it, and get through the entire thing and go "there's no vampires in this!" By which point, of course, I have already gotten their money. Hah. Or not, you never know. Worth a shot anyway.
The story came about a LONG time ago, when I was probably 14 or 15, and it was a very short story. Bloodlines, as it is right now, is very loosely based on that, and I mean very loosely. A few concepts and plot points survived, and only one of the characters' names came with it, and that was (at one point) the protagonist, Jirel. About 2 years ago it went through a major re-haul after which the setting was changed and the secondary protagonist Aviira came along. I started writing it and ended up having to take a break from it because I got hired to write a screenplay over the summer. After that I went back to another project I had in the works, which I had been working on up till a few weeks ago. Over Christmas I read a book that made me start thinking about Bloodlines again, and I decided to start RE-RE-writing it, this time changing the tense into first person progressive, from the point of view of Aviira, who turned into the primary protagonist. (Most first person novels, Twilight coming to mind, take place in the perfect tense, i.e. "I said this, I did this, I saw this." Progressive means it is hypothetically happening at the time the reader is reading it: "I say, he says, I go," etc.) And that basically took off, and I decided to really commit to it (I guess as a writer I have commitment issues, because I have so many ideas!) and work it through till the finish. So that's where we are today.
And so, for those who are still reading up to this point (congrats and thank you) I give you the synopsis of the story, or perhaps what might end up being on the back cover or inside flap. (Naturally, this will be subjected to someone a bit better at summarizing than me!)
"Fairy tales are a part of every person's childhood. Every child grows up with the stories of magical realms and fantastical creatures, of elves and fairies and knights in shining armor. But what they don't know is that those stories are real, and those so-called fairy tales actually live among us. People called Ancients, with the blood of those same fantastical creatures thought of as fairy tales, walk in our circles and live next door to us, silently and peacefully--or mostly peacefully. Pseudo-secret agents Aviira and Jirel are members of a global organization dedicated to keeping the peace between humans and Ancients, and they have never run into a problem they couldn't handle--until now. When an unassuming young woman with the blood of a demon crosses their path, they are forced to use extreme measures to keep her existence utterly silent, which may require more than they ever thought--including putting their own lives at risk to keep her unique and dangerous secret a secret."
So, for those who are on board with keeping up with me throughout this project, thank you, and welcome. Hopefully this will be a productive and successful year for me.
So first off, the novel is called Bloodlines. And contrary to the title, it has nothing at all to do with vampires, even though I have nothing against them. In fact, I might even try to use the title to my advantage, because I know that there will be some out there who might see the title, think that it might have something to do with vampires because of the word "blood" in the title, buy it, and get through the entire thing and go "there's no vampires in this!" By which point, of course, I have already gotten their money. Hah. Or not, you never know. Worth a shot anyway.
The story came about a LONG time ago, when I was probably 14 or 15, and it was a very short story. Bloodlines, as it is right now, is very loosely based on that, and I mean very loosely. A few concepts and plot points survived, and only one of the characters' names came with it, and that was (at one point) the protagonist, Jirel. About 2 years ago it went through a major re-haul after which the setting was changed and the secondary protagonist Aviira came along. I started writing it and ended up having to take a break from it because I got hired to write a screenplay over the summer. After that I went back to another project I had in the works, which I had been working on up till a few weeks ago. Over Christmas I read a book that made me start thinking about Bloodlines again, and I decided to start RE-RE-writing it, this time changing the tense into first person progressive, from the point of view of Aviira, who turned into the primary protagonist. (Most first person novels, Twilight coming to mind, take place in the perfect tense, i.e. "I said this, I did this, I saw this." Progressive means it is hypothetically happening at the time the reader is reading it: "I say, he says, I go," etc.) And that basically took off, and I decided to really commit to it (I guess as a writer I have commitment issues, because I have so many ideas!) and work it through till the finish. So that's where we are today.
And so, for those who are still reading up to this point (congrats and thank you) I give you the synopsis of the story, or perhaps what might end up being on the back cover or inside flap. (Naturally, this will be subjected to someone a bit better at summarizing than me!)
"Fairy tales are a part of every person's childhood. Every child grows up with the stories of magical realms and fantastical creatures, of elves and fairies and knights in shining armor. But what they don't know is that those stories are real, and those so-called fairy tales actually live among us. People called Ancients, with the blood of those same fantastical creatures thought of as fairy tales, walk in our circles and live next door to us, silently and peacefully--or mostly peacefully. Pseudo-secret agents Aviira and Jirel are members of a global organization dedicated to keeping the peace between humans and Ancients, and they have never run into a problem they couldn't handle--until now. When an unassuming young woman with the blood of a demon crosses their path, they are forced to use extreme measures to keep her existence utterly silent, which may require more than they ever thought--including putting their own lives at risk to keep her unique and dangerous secret a secret."
So, for those who are on board with keeping up with me throughout this project, thank you, and welcome. Hopefully this will be a productive and successful year for me.
Progress Update 1/17
The progress:
17 January 2010
Chapters completed: 2
Pages written: 19
Words written: 11,855
Days remaining: 134
(Note that these numbers don't include the random, out-of-sequence writing that I do whenever the inspiration strikes.)
17 January 2010
Chapters completed: 2
Pages written: 19
Words written: 11,855
Days remaining: 134
(Note that these numbers don't include the random, out-of-sequence writing that I do whenever the inspiration strikes.)
10 January 2010
The Goal / Progress
The goal: Finish my novel by 1 June and have manuscripts sent to publishers by Christmas 2010.
The progress:
10 Jan 2010
Chapters completed: 1
Pages written: 8
Words written: 5,441
Days remaining: 141
The progress:
10 Jan 2010
Chapters completed: 1
Pages written: 8
Words written: 5,441
Days remaining: 141
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