Friday 13 April 2018

#WEP #flashfiction, my story, LOVE SUCKS. Vamps in Paris.

Hello all!

How's your April going? I hope those participating in the A-Z Challenge are having a ball. I've enjoyed reading many of your stories, but this coming week it's all about WEP (Write...Edit...Publish) for me. The prompt is Road Less Traveled and it's a mixture of prose and some sort of poetry.

Maybe it's because I'm working furiously on my paranormal romance trilogy at the mo', but my mind flew straight to a funky little flash I wrote for Romantic Friday Writers (400 words) in 2015. The characters have haunted me, LOL, so I dragged them out of their coffins, dusted them off, and let them tell a little more of their story. They will probably find themselves on a page or two in a flash fiction book I intend to write one day!

I'm early with my post, but a few have begun to post so I'm anxious to get my little ole story on the page. Hope you enjoy...



CAST OF CHARACTERS

Top left: Drac-Kulah, Top right: Dracula
Bottom left: Ruby Black, aka Snow White, Bottom right: Doc Marten.


 When you’ve lived for as long as moi, you crave change. Sometimes, you’ve just gotta find another way, another road. I’m done with sleeping all day in a room with velvet drapes drawn, hiding from you-know-what, microwaving blood when the street food lets me down. 

What’s a vamp to do all century? 

I know what you’re thinking:

Go haunt the streets, you sicko,
Suck the tourists dry.
Drink a few homeless. 
Who’s gonna miss ‘em?
Who's gonna cry?

Been there, done that. I need to shake things up a bit. I need another path. One less traveled.


As the sun dropped down from that oh-so-sicko-blue sky, I exited the hotel and sashayed down Montmartre’s glitter strip, feeling ever-so-hipster-ish.

Black cap sideways,
Baggy black trousers,
Black T-shirt under my
black shiny coat.
Hiding my black heart.
You get that I dig black, right?

Love Montmartre. My current Parisian area of interest. Well, current, doh. It’s been my favorite for a coupla hundred years. Is about the only suburb not razed by that sicko Baron Haussman. I like old things. Love Montmartre.

Tourists gawking,
Homeless hawking,
Blackboard artist chalking:
"ETERNITY".

We’re on the same page, honey-childe.

Then suddenly, next door to that garish pretending-to-be-old reinvented mill, Moulin Rouge,


I see it: ‘A VENDRE’ – (‘FOR SALE’) if you haven’t mastered the fourteenth-most-popular language in the world. 

But I digress. What happened next? Hang with me. Or not. 

My synapses zapped.
My planets aligned.
A contract to sign.

Oh, happy day! Time for a moonwalk! Slip. Slide. Slap.

I’ve accumulated a tidy sum over the centuries, you know, so I can easily afford Parisian real estate. Compound interest compounds I read somewhere. No business degrees 400 years ago.

So before you could say,

‘More blood.
I’ll take it to go.
Make it quick, you know?’

The business belonged to moi. If you don’t know what moi means, pfft. Work on your language skills or get outta here.

The little bar was perfect -- vamp chic –

Blood-red carpet,
Black walls, (or they will be)
Red bar counter,
Black halls.

Suited my little black er, heart. 


The pictures clinched the deal –

Horror-movie posters
Murder and mayhem
on every wall.
Go me.

Buying this joint means I’ll no longer have to prowl the mean streets. The gendarmes can move on. Fight real crime. But now I got me my own gloomy little hidey-hole. 

Let ‘em come to me.
Bar flies are tasteee
Full of good ole whiskee
au go go.

‘Ya not going to run this place by yaself, are ya?’

I jumped from dreaming of bar flies and admiring my Dracula poster which was so like looking in the mirror – Just kidding!


Black cloak,
Super handsome face,
Super handsome long locks
I’m ace!
Not that dude.

But like, wow! This chicka! Will you look at her! Just promenaded down my 15th Century wonkedy-wonkedy stairs! Right into my Venus fly trap.

Flowing black tresses,
Lush curves poured
into little black dress,
Black fishnet stockings. 
Oh so shocking!

‘You offering your services, er, miss?’ I licked my lips. Tried not to look too obvious.
 “Ya, moi, who else? Ya blind or somethin’? I thought those black glasses ya wearin’ were, ya know, to hide ya red eyes.’
 This chicka was something else. If only she knew. Something more serious than the old chanvre (look it up!) going on here. 
‘You look, like, twelve years of old. Shoot me some ID.’ I sunk into my oversized red leather chair.
 She whipped out the plastic.  ‘Looks can be deceivin’, busta. Ya look, like, nineteen, but ya might have baggy eyes behind those shades.’ 
 She winked at me, cheeky minx. I took them off so she could admire my handsomeness.
 I flipped the ID back at her, watched it twirl in its arc and land in her white little dewdrop hand. Fake as, who cared? 
 I licked my lips, again. Gotta stop that. I ran my tongue around my teeth, getting ready for the big suck. I want this girl-child. She’s def on the menu tonight.
 ‘What d’ya think, Monsieur Slim Shady? I bin workin’ bars for many a yaah. Know sum tricks, I do.’
 ‘It’s not that kind of bar. It’ll be a clean operation. And speak English or French or something. You’re a cross between American Western and Eliza Dolittle.’
 ‘Forgit the pop culture, Pop. A clean operation?’
 ‘Drinks, tapas, music…’
 ‘Rap? Classical? Country? What do French people like?’
 ‘Never mind. Too long a story for now. What’s your name?’ I clasped her black-gloved hand. ‘I’m Drac Kulah.’
 ‘Really? A dark character.’ 
 ‘Really.’ I hope she digged the deep, dark tone.
 ‘Well I’m Ruby Black, but I go by—’
 ‘Let me think. Snow White?’
 ‘Right on Drac. Hilaarrious. Aren’t we a pair!’
 ‘You’re hired. No funny business or you’ll be out on your pretty butt.’
 ‘My butt’s pretty? I don't think ya s'posed ta say that anymore.’ She twirled.

Black lacy dress flowing
like waves
around her thighs.
A tantalizing glimpse of
shapely snow-white leg and
a flash of lacy black knickers.
But her Doc Marten’s are kickers.

‘That’s not all I got.’ She sidled up and grabbed me around the neck, her gloved fingers tugging my black 'do.
 Who needs to go hunting? This tasty morsel’s mine. Right here. Right now. A gift from er, the gods. An entrée before the main.

Woo hoo to me.
Boo hoo for her.

Taking her in my steely arms, I aimed my sharp little popping-down fangs at her jugular, then…wow! Where’s her throbbing pulse! Where’s my drink?
‘Ha, I knew ya were the Real Slim Shady, you dark, evil, blood-suckin’ sicko.’
 I knew the minute she walked in, but you probably think I’m lying. As if a vamp would lie. I’ve learned a thing or two in 400 years. I know everything. I’ve read all the literature on the planet. Just wanted to see how this new road played out. Like that Robert Frost guy said in a poem I read on the internet, "two roads diverged". Then whammo!

WORDS: 994
FCA


Hope you had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. This is a WEP (Write...Edit...Publish) post for the April WEP challenge, Road Less Traveled. After leaving a comment please click on other participants in my right-hand sidebar with a DL (Direct Link) after the name. This means they've published. Or travel over to WEP and sign up there.

WEP CHALLENGE FOR APRIL....ROAD LESS TRAVELED



Saturday 7 April 2018

#A-ZChallenge post from the WEP team. #Flashfiction for G is for GENRE!

Hello all!


J Lenni Dorner, who often participates in the WEP challenges, offered WEP (Write…Edit…Publish) April 7, “G” day, for a post of 500 words. The WEP team currently consists of four writers – Denise Covey, Yolanda Renée, Olga Godim and Nilanjana Bose  - who all write in different genres. For inspiration for today’s collaborative post, we used an amazing picture of a sign. Thanks Celia Reaves for permission to use the image.




Each of the team wrote 100-ish words in their preferred GENRE:
Olga, MAGIC,
Nilanjana, POETRY, 
Renee, HORROR, 
Denise, PARANORMAL ROMANCE.



If you like the sound of WEP and would like to write for us, whether #flashfiction, #poetry, #non-fiction, #essays, #photography or #artwork, there's time. Our current prompt, ROAD LESS TRAVELED, goes live on April 18th, and we're happy to receive early or moderately late submissions. If you're participating in the #AtoAChallenge you can double the fun by using the day's letter.
Go HERE for ideas...
You can sign up in my sidebar or on the WEP site, or anywhere you see the sign up.




Denise, Nila, Olga & Renée

Enjoy the rest of crazy April!


Tuesday 3 April 2018

#IWSG post - TICK TOCK, A STITCH IN TIME. C LEE MCKENZIE. WEP.

Hi friends!

Hope your Easter was awesome!

This month, it's all happening. Of course, we have the A - Z Challenge, but two things are close to my heart. First, is the IWSG. I'm a bit early, but I want to squeeze so much in, you might need a day to read it, LOL. 

I was so busy writing last month, I forgot all about the IWSG for the FIRST TIME EVER, so I hope Alex will forgive me ((tugs forelock)). Which helps me answer the IWSG question of the month:

When your writing life is a bit cloudy or filled with rain, what do you do to dig down and keep on writing?

I'm so upbeat about my writing, I don't have cloudy days or days filled with rain, except in my settings sometimes. Lucky me. I read a lot, so am inspired by awesome writers then I just wallow in the process myself. Selling a book or six will be a bonus one day soon.

If you have time in crazy April, please visit Alex J Cavanaugh and his awesome co-hosts this month - Olga Godim, Chemist Ken, Renee Scattergood, and Tamara Narayan!

And




Moving on from the IWSG, today, I suspect you're going to hear more about the anthology, Tick Tock, a Stitch in Crime, compiled by the IWSG. I offered to read/review the anthology, so some of my post today is to publicize Tick Tock and show you my review. 




PRE-ORDER NOW!

MY REVIEW:

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of thought-provoking crime stories, eleven in all. The differing writing styles and story lines makes this a diverse collection, all linked together under the common theme of time.  Each contains some aspect of thriller, crime or mystery, but all are up against the clock. There's a time travel story (always a winner!), a paranormal whodunit (that got my attention!), and a multi-point of view revenge tale. The anthology had me flipping pages. Hooked. Some stories didn’t surprise me with their endings, while others did, always a bonus. As a whole, the stories drew me in and left me wanting to know more about the authors who were chosen for inclusion in the anthology. I did have favorites, but I don’t want to name them here or single anyone out, or leave anyone out. All of the authors created thoroughly engaging stories, writing to a high standard. Kudos to the editorial team.


I requested a pdf copy so I could prepare this review ahead of release day.


NOW I HAVE A GUEST POST FROM C LEE MCKENZIE...

Hi Denise. thanks so much for sharing news about Tick Tock: A Stitch in Crime on your blog today. This is the fourth time I’ll be included in a group of short stories written to a theme. Each time I’m blown away by how all of the stories have a connection and yet are distinct.


Since I’ve been associated with several collections, I finally became curious about the word "anthology", so I looked it up. It seems the word entered our language in the 1600s. We borrowed it from the Greek word, "anthologia", which means The Garland. The story behind this odd association belongs to a Greek named, Meleager who collected lyric poets’ work, put them into a single collection and compared each poet to a flower or plant, forming, in a metaphorical way, a garland. I’m a word nut, so this was an interesting bit of information to tuck away.

In this anthology, there are eleven unique stories that have some aspect of thriller, crime or mystery all up against the clock. Among them is a futuristic time travel story, a paranormal whodunit, and a multi-point of view revenge tale.

Here’s the blurb to give you a better idea about the collection: Can a dead child’s cross-stitch pendant find a missing nun? Is revenge possible in just 48 minutes? Can a killer be stopped before the rescuers are engulfed by a city ablaze? Who killed what the tide brought in? Can a soliloquizing gumshoe stay out of jail?

Exploring the facets of time, eleven authors delve into mysteries and crimes that linger in both dark corners and plain sight. 


Hand-picked by a panel of agents and authors, these tales will take you on a thrilling ride into jeopardy and secrecy. Trail along, find the clues, and stay out of danger. Time is wasting.

I hope everyone will stop by our new website for excerpts and stories behind the stories. 

Like our Facebook page.

Our Twitter link.Hashtag #TickTockMystery.

Thanks again, Denise. 

Lee
  

BUY LINKS COURTESY OF C LEE MCKENZIE:








WEP (Write...Edit...Publish)

Now I did say there were two things happening that were important to me. After you read my review and C Lee's post, I hope you don't have reader fatigue cuz I want to tell you that WEP (Write...Edit...Publish), that persistent online writing community full of adorable people, has posted their new challenge today for entries on April 18th or earlier. 

The theme is ROAD LESS TRAVELED. If you have something that would suit the theme, or you can make it work for the A - Z, please link it and go right ahead and submit your name to the list in my sidebar or at the WEP website. There's a $10 Amazon Gift Card for the outright winner!


Thanks for visiting! Enjoy the crazy month of April!