Goggles, Steam and Superstitions A to Z Theme and more!

I’m excited about this year’s Blogging from A to Z Challenge. It’s going to be a blast, but also challenging. I’m doing a theme this year, Goggles, Steam and Superstitions A to Z.

Each day I’m hoping to write a flash fiction about a superstition in the steampunk or dieselpunk genre. There might even be a touch of atompunk tossed in we’ll just have to see. J

It’s going to be a challenge to keep with the theme, but I have always loved superstition stories. They can be creepy, scary or just good food for thought. So I’ve got a lot of research to do on different superstitions.

To add to the daily chaos of story writing I’ve also signed up for Camp NaNoWriMo. Yes, I am crazy but Camp NaNo is a NaNoWriMo lite. You can choose your word count from 10k to 1 million words. You can choose to do short stories, novel revision, poetry or even a script!

this will work rather well.

 

An extra awesome feature this year is the ability to create a private cabin so your writing circle can be added to that one cabin instead of randomly assigned to a cabin.

Challenges like Blogging from A to Z and  NaNo can really push your limits but they also make a writer accountable and help us build or rebuild our daily writing habits. They keep us encouraged and even if we’re behind on counts or letters they make us want to keep going.

Other challenges like Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) does the same but in a different way. We’re accountable for our weekly goals. Reporting in makes us take a look and focus on what’s important to our writing lives. Sometimes real life goals added in.

The write life isn’t always an easy one, we’re struggling artists in our craft and sometimes we just need that kick in the arse to keep us motivated. Challenges and blog hops help us do that in a fun way where we get to cheer on fellow writers in the fray.

ROW 80 Goals

Last week’s goals:

Write 1k daily  Check, on various things, was able to write 1k daily

Get 3 teacup hats completed I was able to complete half of one. lol It just wasn’t a week to be crafty I guess J

Get blog back on track with at least 3 posts per week   Check! Had 3 posts last week yay!

Start working on Blogging from A to Z Challenge posts  Nope but there’s a legit reason for that one. NaNo rules state that you can’t start on projects until 12am April 1^st. So I will be slinging out that first post for A to Z as soon as the clock strikes 12.

This week’s goals:

1. Write 2k daily to keep up the short story pace *gulp I think I can I think I can I think I can!

2. Three posts on blog this week.

3. Get those 3 dang hats done!

Teacup Hat! 

Are you taking one of the above challenges? What do you do to make yourself accountable to your goals? 

Want to visit more blogs revealing their A to Z theme (Most will be up on the 23rd I'm a day early :) click HERE or check out the awesome goal making wizards of ROW80? Click HERE Have fun reading and maybe finding an awesome challenge for yourself! 

Tentacle

His eyes snapped open, darted about the darkened bedroom. The room was too quiet, too still. His breath panted. They were almost here. No, not again.

A soft whirring sound made his muscles tense and jump. Then he felt the warmed air on his feet from the vent just below his bed. It was just the heat, he let out a breath.

There was a sound a claw scratching on the wall. The breath turned into a gasp as a dark blur shifted in the corner of his vision. His body stiffened and stilled, his heart raced until all he could hear was his pulse pound in his ears.

“Please.” His voice squeaked as his hands gripped the bed sheet.

The room fell into utter silence, until it began to quake. Mild tremors that caused nick knacks to clank on shelves, then stronger until the bed moved side to side. His hands tightened onto the mattress. “Please, please.”

The quake stopped as he begged into the still silence of the room. He began to pant, his fists balled around the sheet and pulled it up to his face. The clack of claw against the tiled floor became louder.

He tried to hold his breath, if he was still enough they may not see him. Sudden pain coursed through him as electricity lit every nerve ending on fire. The blaze faded enough for him to catch a breath.

It was difficult to take that desperate breath as though a weight sat upon his chest. He couldn’t sit up, couldn’t move any part of him.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see a blur, it reached out to press something by his head. He attempted to struggle against his paralysis as he felt his body being lifted then lowered. Cool thick liquid oozed over his skin until he was submerged.

He tried to hold his breath but it was too long and his lungs gulped in the gel. It burned as it filled his lungs. Then he felt them, their tentacles crept across his skin. Some of the creatures latched on. He screamed wordlessly as the tentacles bore into his flesh.

They crawled over his face reaching into his ears and mouth. He felt first one then another push its way down his throat. His screams were choked off by the creatures. Sensations of the arms inside him probing made him were sickening.

Worse, as the paralysis wore off. He screamed and pleaded for mercy from the things. After minutes that seemed like hours of hell he felt the shock of pain down his spine once more.

The electricity jolted his body forcing the tentacles to flee their host.  He cried out in pure agony until….

He sat up, screamed wildly, his hands pulled at his face, hair and clothing. His breath came in hard gasps. He could see his reflection in his dresser mirror. The realization made him look around the room.

It was morning… He pulled off his shirt and tossed it aside as he searched his chest and arms for any evidence. Nothing. “It was a dream… just another nightmare.”

He didn’t know why they had begun, but hoped they would end soon as he swung his feet to the floor.

His foot stepped on something soft… wet…  His pulse in his throat, he looked down to what it was. A tentacle.

Wanted: TARDIS, Time Machine, or the remote from Click.

Time can be a writer’s worst enemy sometimes. There are days we have plenty of it and others we need to cram about 80 minutes into each hour instead of 60. One thing many of us are very guilty of is over tasking ourselves. We try to cram tasks and projects into smaller time slots than they really need.

That makes our time wibbly and wobbly and we lose control of our schedule. Which is a big stress when you have a ton of appointments to make, personal work, professional work, and then there is that eating and sleeping thing we need to make time for. Yeah, that remote from Adam Sadler’s movie Click would be really handy some days.

We could just push the pause button on the rest of the world while we catch up at our own pace. HG Wells time machine might be a neat trick too. Go back in time to adjust what we need to without worry of deadlines or oh no we’re going to be late!

I’m not sure traveling in the TARDIS with the Doctor would be beneficial to catching up or going back and

fourth to complete those consuming tasks. But it would definitely be fun! Just look out for Weeping Angels or Cybermen.

Since time has kind of gotten away from me a great deal as of late I’m throwing out the schedule. Just concentrating on doing, not worrying about do I have time to do this before I go here or start on this?

It’s okay if projects overlap or take a little longer to complete. There’s no need to rush, there really is plenty of time to get it done. Though that time remote from Click would still come in pretty handy, so would an 80 minute hour. *wink

Goals

Write 1k daily

Get 3 hats completed (making teacup hats)

Get blog back on track with at least 3 posts per week

Start working on Blogging from A to Z Challenge posts (see why I need time under control? Lol) 

This post is part of the awesome Round of Words in 80 Days weekly hop. It's a writing challenge that realizes life interferes and making goals can make a difference. Check out other Rower's blogs on the linky below :) 

Beware the Ides of March

It was dark in the alley, the perfect cover to watch for him. The club across the street was alive with music, lights and people. Maybe she should go in… no,  he will come out. She just had to wait.

It was damp and cold after the evening rains, but, nothing she couldn’t withstand. There had been too much planning done already to waste the moment. It had to be done tonight. Suffering a bit of cold would be worth it in the end.

Loud music flooded the street when the club’s doors were flung open. There he was, that was him. Walking out alone, no tramp hanging off of him like so many others who had left before him.

He walked into the parking lot next to the club, not paying any attention to the rest of the world around him. 

When he paused to light a cigarette and she grinned. It was him, he was perfect. She walked over to the lot and smiled at him.

He smiled back. “Good evening.”

She didn’t reply, mustn’t seem so anxious. She walked over to her car then let go of a frustrated sigh looking at her rear tire. “Damn it, not now…”

Setting her purse on the roof before she moved to the back of the car and opened the trunk.  She leaned inside and pulled out the jack and walked around to the flat tire.

He glanced over as he flicked the cigarette to the ground. The perfect one walked over and grinned. “Can I give you a hand? No sense in a beautiful woman getting all greasy.”

She laughed and smiled back. “Thanks, I really appreciate it. I’m a serious girl with this stuff.”

He grinned and nodded as he slid the jack under the edge of the car. “I’ll say, you forgot a part. Do you mind if I look in your trunk for the tire iron?”

“No, go ahead. See I told you I have no idea what I’m doing.”  She grinned, shifting to accentuate her ample form for him.

He smiled and walked around to the trunk. He pulled his eyes from hers and looked in. The iron was way in the back. He had to bend half into the trunk to reach it.

She watched and waited until both his hands were inside the trunk and he was leaning way inside. Quickly, she moved to him sinking a needle into the back of his neck. Her thumb pushed the plunger as she looked around, to make sure there were no other eyes on them.

In a few seconds, he slumped, collapsing half into the trunk. She grinned as she tossed the needle inside then hefted the rest of him. 

For just a moment, she paused and looked down at her victim. The rest of the night would be spent in blood as she has done since the betrayal. None leave her now. He will be hers tonight and in the morning she will bury him near the others. “Beware the Ides of March.”