Just a whole lotta nothing

Today is going to be a relaxation day for me. A little laundry to be done, but otherwise hanging with the family.

I’m trying out some of those as-seen-on-tv arthritis gloves. I’ll give them a week or so and then I might leave a review here for those who might be interested. I know how arthritis can affect all of the arts, not to mention everyday life.

A Long, Strange Trip

I joined a new Facebook group, Dark Fiction & Horror, and it promises to be a fun one. The following bit of #flashfiction was inspired by a photo prompt posted to the group. I give to you A Long, Strange Trip.

A Long, Strange Trip

Sarah stumbled through the cemetery, eyes wide and unfocused. She had escaped from the college frat party a few blocks away after realizing all too late that her drink had been dosed, and her dazed wanderings had brought her here.

If she wasn’t so focused on putting one foot in front of the other on the moving sidewalks—who would put moving sidewalks in a cemetery?—she might have appreciated the beauty of the old headstones and mausoleums. As it was, she found it extremely difficult to maintain her balance while trudging through the dry autumn leaves which, oddly enough, glistened in the moonlight as though covered in dew.

Somewhere in the distance behind her, she heard someone giggling. Damnit, she thought, one of those creepy frat boys followed me.

Turning to look behind her and see who it was, Sarah tripped and fell over her own feet, tumbling off the sidewalk and rolling down a small hill. She came to a stop when her back slammed against a large grave marker, driving the breath from her lungs. Gasping for air, she looked up into the leering eyes of a stone angel. She wondered if it had been the angel laughing at her, but this one merely swayed softly in the breeze, dancing in time with the tree branches.

Again someone laughed in the graveyard, this time much closer than before. Sarah scrambled to find her footing, trying to determine which way was up. She decided to grab onto the angel’s skirt to pull herself up, hoping the angel wouldn’t take offense. Despite the angel’s apparent movement, it was solid beneath her fingertips. In some distant part of her brain she realized that it was the drugs making things move, and this knowledge helped to steady her on her feet.

She turned around and saw what appeared to be a college student dressed up as a court jester in a twisted mask, a shiny blade in his hand. A little early for Halloween, but perhaps one of the pledges had been ordered to follow her into the cemetery to scare her. Then again, perhaps the jester wasn’t there at all. Damn those drugs. She vowed to abstain from drinking at parties in the future, given the absolute mess this night had become.

The jester, like the angel, was wavering in the wind, and Sarah decided that he was indeed a hallucination. This gave her a new sense of bravery, and she climbed back up the hill to face the drug-induced harlequin. She marched up to him and raised her hand to wave it through him, figuring this was the closest she would ever come to seeing a ghost.

Her hand made contact with the sleeve of a coat that she now saw was tattered and filthy. She opened her mouth to scream, but it was too late.

The knife sliced through her neck, and everything in the cemetery finally stopped moving.

Breakthrough

After being stuck for a week or so, yesterday I broke the 20,000 word mark on my #WIP. I’m so excited to have gotten this far, but I know I have quite a long way to go yet.

I feel so much better having made such progress in only a few hours. I still wish I could do more, but this has been a great pick-me-up.

Will I reach 30k before the a month is up? Not likely. Will I reach 80 or 90k by the time I’m done with the first draft? I’m hopeful, but realistically I also know that it will probably take a few revisions to get to proper novel length once I’ve gotten the basic story down.

I am determined to see this through. I won’t necessarily see it through in the next year, or even the next two years, but I will finish this. I will have a completed novel to my name. It’s not a matter of ifs or maybes. It’s a matter of will, and I have the will.

Stagnant

It’s frustrating not being able to do most of the #writing or #art that I want to.

The stalled repairs on my apartment and the pending move have halted almost all artistic endeavors. I can’t #sculpt, I can’t #paint, #drawing isn’t giving me the outcomes I want, and I’m stuck on my #novel. I’m so close to being able to create on my own terms, yet so far away. I can see so many things in my mind, with no way to let them out.

I try to tell myself that it’s less than three weeks of waiting, it’s three weeks too long.

I have a feeling I’m going to go on a manic art spree as soon as I have room to spread my wings.

That being said, Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all. 🙂

Nonexistent

Here’s the link for my newest short story on Amazon Kindle.

Unfortunately, I took down the link for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep until I can find or design a better cover. The famous artist’s doubt has crept up of me and I couldn’t leave a bad cover up there. I hope to republish it soon.

Sneaky peek

Even though my first draft is far from finished, I’d like to show y’all just a little sampling of what I’ve got so far. Here’s an excerpt from the first chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 1

Melody

She stumbled through the dark, damp alleyway, oblivious to the broken liquor bottles slicing into her already blistered feet. For nearly two days she had been on the run, and she had lost her hospital-issue slippers somewhere along the way. She couldn’t stop, though.

They were coming for her.

They claimed they were trying to help her. They said that if she took her “medicine” every day the voices would stop. They lied.

She knew they were really trying to poison her. Melody Harrow was no fool. They wouldn’t have strapped her down, force-fed her through a tube, and injected her against her will if they’d been trying to help her.

The poison had been a long-acting one—that much she could tell; it was still working its way out of her system. Even real, untainted food, stolen from a Dumpster behind a reputable restaurant, would not stay in her stomach. “Medicine,” indeed.

“You shouldn’t have run away, Melody,” a soft voice echoed through the alley. “You should have stayed where you were safe. You need to go back.”

“Shut up!” she screamed, looking for her tormentor. Weak from lack of sleep and poor nutrition, her vision blurred. None of the vague shapes in the darkness appeared to be human. “They were trying to kill me! You’re all trying to kill me!”

Another, deeper voice chimed in, though she still appeared to be alone. “Do you really think this is better? Do you think you could be safe anywhere? Nothing you do can save the world from what is coming.”

“Anything is better than that dungeon!” Where were they? She still couldn’t see anyone with her in the alley. The poison must be affecting her vision, she decided. It was the only thing that made any sense.

“It’s a hospital, Melody.” The soft-spoken voice again. “You’re sick. You need their help. If you don’t turn back right now, something horrible will happen. Something that you can never undo.”

These strange invisible people, whoever they might be, made her more agitated than she already was. “I’m not sick! I know what’s really going on! You both tell the ‘doctor’ at that ‘hospital’ that I’m going to the newspapers! The New York Times! I’m going to tell everyone what they did to me. None of you will get away with it!”

The second voice chimed in with a sinister tone. “Who’s going to listen to you? A runaway from the psych ward who’s yelling at no one. Hell, woman, you’re still wearing that filthy paper gown, wandering aimlessly in the middle of the night. You’ve even forgotten to take off your hospital I.D. band. All anyone is going to do is take you straight back there.”

She raised her arm high above her head for the disembodied voices to see. “I didn’t forget to take it off! This is my proof! They can’t deny keeping me prisoner as long as I have this!”

Lightning flashed, illuminating the outline of a tall man standing at the other end of the alley. Was his the second voice?

“You’ve doomed yourself,” the first voice said, “and you’ve doomed us all.”

The second voice laughed. “I told you that you weren’t safe. By the time this night is through, you will be begging for the serenity and hope that the medications would have provided.”

Faded Memories

Even though I have an excerpt from my novel scheduled to post later today, I thought I’d share a poem from Kamikaze Butterflies as well. It fits with my mood as of late.

Faded Memories

Remember back in high school

When we said we’d keep in touch?

Oh, how long ago that was

I’ve forgotten oh, so much

The names and all the faces

Of people that I knew

Are gone from all my memories

When lists I go sifting through

I use the social search engine

To try to find old friends

But when I see that I’ve forgot

The search comes to an end

I look at all the faces

On all of the profiles

And sadly I think to myself

“This will take a while”

The only way it seems for me

To remember names and faces

Is to find my old yearbooks

In their old hiding places

I feel a twinge of sadness

And also a bit of guilt

That it seems that I’ve forsaken

The friendships that I built

If you come to read this

And you were once my friend

Feel free to send a message

So old friendships we can mend

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

My short story is now live on Amazon as a Kindle ebook! Please forgive the horrible cover, I think I’m going to redo it in better detail and with better colors and shading, but if you’re interested, check out the story in the meantime! Here’s the link:

Tomorrow I should have another short story loaded (with a much cleaner cover), so keep an eye out on my Amazon author page for more 🙂

Materialistic

Good news, everyone! I have a new short story pending on Amazon KDP. The cover isn’t perfect, but I’m proud simply because I designed it myself.

In roughly a day or two, my author page on Amazon should have the link for it up. Go to amazon.com/author/ajmullican and check it out. I’ll update this blog when it goes live. Also, remember that Kamikaze Butterflies is still available in Kindle or paperback format through Amazon or the above author link.

I’m going to try to produce more short story material in the next few days, so keep checking this blog for more info. If anyone has a particular topic they’d like me to write about, let me know 🙂 As always, you can comment on WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, or G+