MYSTERY: DERRICK
Surrounded, framed, locked away.
To murder or not to murder, that was his memory. Did Derrick kill his best friend or not? This is why his family has locked him away – for his safety? Or theirs?
Were the ape team sent to release him or something else? And who is this new doctor?
Derrick wakes in a hospital secured to his bed. His last memory, finding his best friend dead on the cabin floor. The dripping knife held in his hand.
Yet, no one believes him. Why should they when his best friend keeps visiting and insisting on being alive and well.
DARK FICTION: SISTER KATIE
Tagline: Redemption, not for the faint of heart
This story started as a short for a themed collection…along the lines of “Midnight Find” just involving a tour group to Drac’s old haunting place.
Sister Katie developed as a nun…never did explain her religion, so that’s up for tweaking…who ends up battling the devil for her soul.
Today’s story is set in the same general area and that’s about where anything similar ends with the original concept. Sister Katie is still being drawn to some entity, but so are there powers calling to her traveling companion, Elsie.
The story started writing itself with me playing catch up as I had no idea where I was being taken. Am I headed toward a battle with the devil, a devil…will it be a vampire, given the general location? I don’t know, yet.
There is the feel of protection, redemption, battle of minds with the outcome a price no one wants to pay.
Hmmm…tagline: Redemption at a price no one wants to pay.
Yup, this is one story I’m still struggling to comprehend.
DARK FICTION; KEEPER OF THE SHADOWS
Tagline: Dare the nightmares, but do not test, The Keeper.
The idea for this story came with Pieces of Jules, but took a different turn. Instead of fighting a family legacy Cleo, our MC, has to embrace her new role as The Keeper of the Shadows.
Those who live in nightmares, are nightmares, want their stories told. They need humans and each other to be afraid…to feed, to terrorize, to survive, and for their own egos. For eons there have been tales told of the light, of the good, and how it triumphs over evil.
Evil demands its tales told. Good does not always win. Without darkness, lightness would die…something the dark acknowledges, but something light never does.
Not sure if this will stay first person or YA. Maybe short story collections or full length. I don’t want to have Cleo solve or save anyone. That defeats the purpose of letting nightmares have their way…but you never know.
DARK FICTION: PREY
Well, this will work as today’s session on writing PREY as I organize my thoughts on this dream inspired story. Yup, was one of those dreams that came on so real, the one you keep falling back into as you’re trying to wake up. Couldn’t shake the feel of it.
The tagline is still a work in progress:
Prey, capture, love
One preys, one captures, one loves
Predator, captor, lover
3 to 1, the odds were against her.
I’m writing a supernatural, horror, romance <?> I know we’ve all read stories of vampires, ______, and the human all vying for the leads attention (whether male or female) and no, I don’t know the middle character. Well, I know the middle character, I just don’t know what he is or why.
The vampire isn’t normalized. He’s a predator. The lead female interests him so he plays…torments? It’s the why…why her. Something to do with because he can, because others are interested. Because she’s not interested?
But, who is more dangerous…vamp or other. Human male? Nope, not sure it’ll be the human male, we could even end up feeling sorry for him which is something I didn’t expect when I started rough lining who he was…not someone I would normally feel like writing.
There is a deal struck. A daily deal that reminds female MC she lives on the edge of falling. She is prey and can fall. She is in a living cage that can be locked. And with only one of the three does she get to choose…is free to choose, no strings attached, well I guess I could write – except her life/free will. Hmmm, does that mean the human guy is really no better than the other two? Nope, that’s going against the feel of the characters, she is in love with the human, their conflict is how do you stay together with the other two’s demands.
Yup, there’s romance…maybe sex or just sexual energy…but it is dark fiction, too.
DARK FICTION: PIECES OF JULES
What if you’re the real thing in a long line of charlatans?
Jules Draman had separated herself from her family for the same reasons she searched out the worse of the impossible heritage renos – she knows evil.
This isn’t to say Jules’ family is evil. They’re different, well, their profession is different. Who was it that said there’s a fool born every second? Hey, those same fools would be taken advantage of anyway, so why not from the Draman women?
Jules’ mom tried to change. She would only give good readings. Made a point of closing the spirit door for her fools.
Until the evening when Jules learned evil fed off her family – their souls. With each false reading, each lie, each ripping of another’s hope and dreams, evil was fed. Her mom could not be allowed to change the family’s curse. Could not be allowed to show Jules a new path.
And, like the other saying – Mother Nature abhors a vacuum. Or was it the ying and yang thing? Whichever, Jules’ life did change.
Jules learned of evil. Learned her family’s curse and the eternity those before her suffered; what her mother was suffering. This knowledge broke her bloodline’s deal opening the possibility of redemption.
Evil cannot not enter where it is not invited, but it can wait. It can live with and around those souls it craves.
To these diseased buildings Jules travels, rebuilding, bringing light to darkened corners, cleansing more than stale dead air.
Leaving pieces of herself behind.
ROMANCE COLLECTION: OLIVE’S STORIES
You’re worth the risk.
NOTE: we first met Olive as a secondary character in MIDNIGHT FIND. The older woman who told Tina – you’re worth the risk.
Age brings wisdom or so they say. What it really brings is the realization that your life is short, too short not to take a risk, a chance on yourself.
Olive learned this after the death of her first husband, her second, the leaving of her third, and now living in love with her fourth. She’s determined to bring everyone she meets to their own moment of chance. The moment they learn – they’re worth the risk.
SHERMAN DUDLEY; VAMPIRE ACCOUNTANT
Excellent accountant; vampire failure
Opening: When you live for centuries, it’s hard to keep up with all the changing tax laws. Mind-trapping a new bookkeeper ever decade or so gets cumbersome and boring. Turning the accountant Sherman Dudley was the easiest solution. Who knew he faints at the sight of blood.
Crazy dialogue line to be used: “Good grief, who are these people? You can’t claim thralls as dependants.”