There can only be one.

I've been so frustrated with my writing lately. Too many projects with not enough focus = not enough writing. Every time I open a word document I just stare at it with this horrible exhausted feeling.

So. I'm going to set aside everything else and just work on Face the Flames. Until it's done. That's right. DONE. All 36 chapters of it. That means no super book for awhile. No Mortal Coils. No Wings of Destiny. No nothing except this, my first and most personal universe.

Bring it!

Subconscious Theater - A Hunter's Fire

The trees were simply too tall, Gabrielle decided, sitting on a rock as she craned her neck back to look up at where the sky ought to have been. She saw only an overarching pattern of leaves and branches woven into a tangled canopy high above her. She'd been in an open space not too long ago - or was it days ago? she could not recall - and the trees all around her had soared up, higher than the skyscrapers she was used to calling home. Even taller than the meandering clouds, caught in the slow streams of summer air.

Was it summer already?

She shivered and made herself get off the rock to keep moving. She'd been in the forest so long she could not remember how she'd come in, nor where she'd been before the trees had pulled her into their grasp. She thought maybe that she had once had companions with her, but if so they were long lost to the mists and branches of this place. Perhaps they'd taken a different fork in the path Gabrielle was following. Or attempting to follow. It kept petering out and sometimes when she thought she glimpsed sunlight and heard the faint sounds of people and civilization the path took a sharp turn into thorns and suddenly she stood on the edge of a sheer cliff.

Subconscious Theater

Somewhere far and beyond the other places passed by in everyday life, there is a distant sea. It is a rolling, dark thing bound above by cloud and fog and below by sorrow and need. It stretches away before the eye, going a long way after the horizon. Too long to comprehend for most of us.

To get to this sea, one must walk through a forest. The forest encompasses all of the forest of the waking world, and none of them. Within it are cool shadows, the bitter smell of rotting leaves, the soft feel of pine needles beneath the feet. The trees soar into blue sky, sometimes crowding it out so completely that walking among them is like walking through the tunnel of a cave, trusting only instinct for the surface world to get out again. The rush and roar of waterfalls echo in the background. Streams babble, talking even when no one is listening. And the narrow deer paths lacing through the trees always lead to a sudden meadow, or the top of a hill overgrown with flowers, perhaps the side of a dusty cliff with red rocks all the way down to the canyon's bottom.

The forest goes a long way too, but not as long as the sea. And when one comes out of the trees, there is a road of hard-packed earth. The road goes many places backward and forward, but the real destination is always the sea. To get there, one has to cross the road and walk beyond a barrier of shale and tumbled stone. On the other side is the shore, a gentle curve of white beach that hugs the water and stretches out into two long arms of rock and seaweed. Gulls wheel and cry overhead. Otters dive unimpeded in the greyness of the water.

At the end of one of those rocky arms is a rowboat. Tied to a long-forgotten stake, it rises and falls with the tide, old and unpainted. The rowboat has one purpose. A few hundred meters out from the bay and the jetties that form it is a lighthouse. Tall and white, its light flashing around and around in a constant unhurried circle, it stands alone. Within, it is a simple building of few rooms. Attached is a house with kitchen, cellar and bedroom. And at all times it is jammed to the gills with individuals all trying in their turn to be the center of attention.

It's amazing the light is lit at all.

Strike That, Reverse It

Strike everything I said about Stormwatch being my superbook project. My real project is going to be.... dun dun dun... Mortal Coils! I've set up a glittery new blog for it and the first post is already up. I figure this is a great way for me to develop the story further AND to get to hear from more of the characters than I had originally planned. Everyone's a winner! Drinks all around!

Blog is HERE.

Superbooks part II

So the other member of TTT (Monsieur Tra La La) jumped on the superbook bandwagon. Hallelujah! Check out his awesome sciencey, magicky, heroey project here: Mighty