Last Week’s Story

Last week’s story clocked in at about 3,000 but I confess I cheated on this one a bit. I had about 1,000 words already written on a story from over a year ago, a story that never went anywhere, so I went ahead and started with that. Go ahead and report me to the Story Police if you must, I feel no shame for what I did.

From a craft perspective, this one is another disaster. It starts fine enough, with a killer opening line, and moves along slowly until it gets to slightly over the midpoint, whereupon it stops being fine and ends up… meandering. And the battle scene at the end gets a single paragraph. But I got all the plot elements from the Story Deck cards that I drew, which doesn’t always quite happen in the right way. I wasn’t even aware I was going to end up at the place demanded by the Conflict card until I got there. Go me!

Another aspect of “The Dragon Under Tower Bridge” that may be problematic is the main character. She is a young transwoman who is being chased by her abusive boyfriend, who catches her and nearly kills her at the beginning. I wouldn’t even dream of publishing a revised version of this story without running it past a sensitivity reader. I know a few trans womean, and I would not want to do anything at all to harm them or the trans community when they are under such appalling attack already by an evil regime. You know who I mean.

This Week’s Prompt

Anyway, here’s this week’s prompt:

A poisoned mage wants to find the path home and their only lead is an aerie, but they will burn out the last of their power.

As you can undoubtedly see from the teeny tiny image of the four-sided die, I rolled a 2 this week, which means I drew from the Fantasy deck. I already have ideas for this one, which is good. I plan on writing this one from scratch instead of starting with an existing fragment. And I plan on starting this one early. I always do, but I usually don’t have time to start until later in the week, and I totally won’t do that this week.

This Week’s Recommendation:

This week I want to introduce you to a fantasy trilogy that I read and enjoyed last week: The Mystic Trilogy by Jason Denzel. I’ve met Jason a few times, and enjoyed his company. I wouldn’t call him a friend, but you know what I mean.

Anyway…

Have a safe week, all. As Kurt Vonnegut, an author who was very influential to me, said: “Goddammit, babies, you’ve got to be kind.”