Amelia's Blog

One of the most valuable things you can do as a writer is to write down scenes that come to mind. Even if they don't seem to connect to anything else you're working on. For instance: I wrote a quick horror-esque scene about... maybe a year ago. Nothing huge, but a boy cowering in an alley as a horrible creature bore down on him. Here, take a look. The boy ran. He stumbled over a trash can and looked behind him, breathing heavily, eyes wide with terror. The thing chasing him looked vaugely like a dog, but instead of fur, it was covered in scaley chiton. Its tail was long and whip-like, ending in a serrated boney spike. The boy choked on a scream and started running again. The creature paused briefly to savagely swat the garbage can out of the alley before picking up speed after the boy. The boy took a corner and was horrified to be face to face with a dead end. As he spun around looking for another way out, the creature padded around the corner. Barely able to draw breath, the...

        I think anyone that does any kind of writing struggles with fear. Fear that no one will like what you wrote. Fear that your teacher won’t give you a good grade. Fear that what you write won’t make any sense.                  Now, I’m not gonna go on about writer’s block, because I think in most cases, all writer’s block is, is an excuse to dismiss the fear you feel. Put a tangible name to it. It probably helps to give writers something to fight. No one wants to deal with fear. That’s the whole point, in a way.         One think that I have noticed about my self these last several months, is that fear is insidious. Most times, you do not notice that it has crept up on you. You make excuses. “Oh, I’m too tired,” or “It’s hard to write AND work on my school work.” For me at least, I think these boil down to simple fear. Aft...

By the time Larry came back to fix the door, Rob had could absorb and extrude a variety of objects. The larger the object, the more difficult the process and the more painful it was to extrude it. The process wore him out, and his hand felt like it was covered pin pricks. Larry knocked and pushed the door open. “Hey, Rob. I’m going to reseat the door. It shouldn’t take all that long. Hey, what’s with all the fruit?” “Trying to see if I could absorb it.” “Any luck?” “Well, it goes in okay but nothing comes out.” “New way to eat?” “Ha. Good to know it doesn’t work, in case my life depends on having an apple at a moments notice.” Larry shook his head and dropped his tool box by the door. “How the luck otherwise?” “Not bad. There’s a trick to it, but once you have that.” He shrugged. “Not going to say it’s easy, but less difficult.” He paused, “Not surprised I’m trying to learn to control it?” Larry turned to face his friend from where he was getting his tools ready. “Rob, I would be surpr...

Once Larry left, Rob started pacing back and forth. Deb watched, slightly bemused. She took a sip of her coffee, and arched an eyebrow. “Okay, Larry leaves and you start pacing. Want to let me in on the story?” He waved a hand, “I’m afraid he’s going to end up being right. That we will have to break in.” She mulled that over, “Maybe,” she said, slowly. “What then? How do we deal with that?” She shrugged, “I guess we should just cross that bridge when we come to it.” She grinned wryly. “It’s not like I’d ever admit it to him, but I think Larry might have the right attitude.” “You called him an idiot.” “Well, he is.” He sighed, “No, he’s not. He’s just trying to impress you. You’ve got to start being nicer to him.” She glared at him. If only he would open his fool eyes, she thought. “Then tell him to stop being stupid about it. Anyway, it’s still a bad idea.” She shrugged helplessly, “What else can we do?” He stopped. “I don’t know.” She stood and went over to him, “Like you said earlie...

“You want to what?” Deb’s voice went up an octave. “Larry, we’re not some sort of action heroes here. Up until yesterday, we were normal office drones.” “Oh come on. How hard can it be?” “You idiot. A government lab. With guards outside, probably more on this inside. Right, we’ll just sneak in!” “Easy Deb,” Rob placed a placating hand on her shoulder. She blushed, but he missed it. “She’s right. This is crazy talk. None of us have even so much as picked a lock before. We can’t break into a secure government facility. We’d get ourselves killed. Isn’t that something you were pretty adamant against us doing yesterday?” Larry’s face fell, “Oh geeze. I’m sorry, you two. I wasn’t thinking.” “Obviously,” Deb muttered, but they ignored her. “You just got caught up in things. It’s okay. I guess we could at least try the straightforward route. I mean, it’s not like we’ve got much to lose.” “Aside from our lives you mean? Robbie, this is insane. What if they lock you up and start testing on you? ...

“Damn door.” Rob grunted, putting his shoulder into it. He fed the hungry washing machines, in another hour he’d have to feed the equally hungry dryers. He hated doing laundry. His coinage was always noticeably lighter. He tossed the basket into the bedroom door as he leaned back, letting his weight shove the door closed. “Deb?” He went into the living room and saw her huddled in one corner of the couch, wrapped in a blanket and shivering. He hurried over and knelt, “Are you okay? I’ll turn up the temperature.” She shook her head, “I already looked. I think it’s me, Robbie. What ever is happening to you is happening to me.” He looked into her fear widened eyes, and saw his own worries mirrored there. “Okay. Okay, let’s start figuring this out, then. If we can find out who did this and why, maybe they can tell us how to reverse it.” “What if they can’t? What if this is permanent?” Tears began streaking her face, “What then?” “Then we deal with that, Deb. The worst thing we can do is giv...

        Hello, hello! It’s story time again. This week, it will be all Chapter 5 of Fast & Loose. Next week... I’m not sure yet. There will be a story, but if it’s F&L or the start of Book 2 for Adventure Inc depends on how things flow. What I would like to do, is split my writing time between the two, so I can alternate to have a little variety. Who knows, right?         Okay, then. Enough babble, on with the show!                                                                                   ...

        Hello, hello! I hope you enjoyed Adventure Inc! While that was the last part of “The Fall of the Fourth Reich” rest assured, you haven’t seen the last of Hitomi, CJ and everyone else. Well... mostly. This week is going to be a bit of a break though, as I consider if I want to dive straight into Book 2 “Stranger Than Fiction” or go back to one of the other projects I’ve started.         Don’t worry, though. I’ll be posting twice more this week with updates and other thoughts, so keep checking! I’m not going anywhere! Until then, thanks for reading. You ain’t seen nothing yet!         

“Hey, CJ.” Mitchell looked up from his notes, which seemed dusty despite being in a four star hotel. “You eat yet?” She looked at him with amusement. “Uh, I think I had a bagel.” He blinked owlishly at her. “Right. Come on.” “But I’m not done translating this scroll.” “You can finish later.” She huffed an irritated breath. “Did you ever eat before we met?” He shuffled uncomfortably, “General Douglas had a petty officer assigned to bring me food three times a day.” “Mitchell,” she walked over to his desk and placed a hand on his cheek. “I’m worried. You get so caught up that you forget things. Like food,” she wrinkled her nose, “and hygiene.” He sniffed his shirt and made a face. “I didn’t notice that before.” She glared at him, but she knew he saw the real worry there. “Okay, I’m sorry. Let me take a shower. Then we can go down to a restaurant and eat.” She nodded firmly. He took his time, but she didn’t mind. She looked over the piles of books and scrolls with a fond smile. There was ...

“Hey, was that the mayor? Damn, he looks pissed.” “Hmm? Oh, yeah.” “You okay, partner? You look distracted?” “Sorry, Hitomi. Yeah. I think I might be part of the reason that Mayor Todd is annoyed.” “Ah. It doesn’t take much to set him off when it comes to Buck, though.” CJ looked over, and slightly up, at Hitomi. “True. Still, can’t help feeling a bit guilty.” “Nah.” Hitomi waved a hand. “I’m pretty sure Buck would be the first person to tell you to stop. Now. You see Jerry bail out earlier?” CJ nodded, her expression darkening. “I asked him why, but he told me to mind my own business. In fact, he was quite rude about it.” Hitomi made an indelicate sound, “Sounds like he was nicer to you than to me.” She stopped and looked down, “He hurt Alana deeply with what he said to her back at the sheriff's office. I almost wish I had interrupted just so I could slug him.” “It’s his choice, Hitomi. We may not agree with him. And the way he did it was,” she paused, “questionable, but it is his...

“Your Honor, despite our differences, you should know I would never deliberately endanger the public.” Buck was having trouble keeping his voice even. “And yet your ‘Institute’ is close to the city. Why is that? You’re just trying to make me look bad!” “Dammit Lewis! That’s not it. That’s never been it, regardless of what your paranoid delusions might say!” “That’s Mayor Todd to you. You lost first name privileges decades ago.” Buck slowly stood up. While he didn’t quite tower over the mayor, he was much better at being intimidating. The other man had let himself go to seed and wore a perpetual scowl. “You are being foolish. But,” he looked away briefly, “you are the mayor, and I’ll comply. Now, if you don’t mind I have extra planning to do. Your Honor.” Buck made the honorific sound like an insult. Todd drew himself up, his face reddened. “You do not get to dismiss me, you pompous, self-serving,” “Stop!” The shout made both men turn. Doctor Conner stood in the doorway, “You both are b...

(Author’s Note: Yeah, I know this is a long one. I just couldn’t find a good way to break this in half. Anyway, after this, all that’s left is the epilogue! We’ll talk more after that! Read on, MacDuff!) “Master!” Jackal lumbered into Anubis’ audience chamber. His master had already started to crawl out from the rubble. He hurried over and helped Anubis up with a gentleness that belied his size. Anubis looked up at his last loyal subject and patted his arm. How could he have been so foolish? He had seen this, and yet he still permitted himself to fall into madness. A madness that cemented his fall. He suddenly felt very old. His sandaled foot sank down into a pool of water. The explosion had cracked the floor and the cold water had began to seep in. He allowed Jackal to help him keep his footing on the now slick floor. When the soft clapping began, they almost mistook it for more debris raining from the ceiling. They both turned and looked at the person standing in the doorway. She was...

The explosion, while mostly contained within the generator room, did greatly damage the underground complex. Several hallways collapsed, as did many rooms. CJ, Buck and the others detonated the explosives after they were safely outside, but didn’t see anyone else besides the jackal man inside. Jackal was woken by the explosion, the electric shock making his thoughts fuzzy for a moment before their situation fully dawned upon him. Shaking his head, he carefully stood up and steadied himself against the wall. A deep-throated growl of rage bubbled up as he started down the hall to find his beloved Lord Anubis.                                                 < ——— >         The dungeon was in ruins. One of i...

As quiet as she tried to be, the creature stopped in its tracks and slowly turned around. Its eyes lit up with inhuman pleasure as it saw CJ. “My master foresaw your arrival and sent me here to watch for you. He knew you would attempt to disrupt our power.” CJ swallowed and cleared her throat, “Well, of course he foresaw. He attacked our home.” “Because you stand in the way of our Grand Cause. No one must be allowed to stop us.” “Yeah, we’ve heard that often enough.” Its ears twitched. “Enough talk. I will give you one chance to join us. The rewards would be great.” “No thanks. I prefer my world un-dominated.” The beast snarled, then threw its head back in a chilling howl before charging for CJ. “Cynthia! Down!” Without looking back, CJ dropped to the floor as her companions opened fire on the beast. Most of the bullets bounced off the armored chest plate the beast was wearing. As bullets neared his head, a glowing hemisphere sparked as the shots bounced. This registered in CJ’s mind a...

“This place isn’t very big.” Hitomi said, looking down with the others at the map of the facility. “The biggest chamber seems to be that generator room.” CJ nodded, tracing the hallways and committing them to memory. “Even that isn’t all that big. Here,” she pointed at a central area marked ‘audience chamber’ on the level below them, “I think we might find our quarry there.” “I don’t know, this whole thing feels too easy. No guards, no defenses, nothing. Even considering the brazenness of the attack, it feels like they want us to come here.” “Perhaps they do, Alana,” Buck said thoughtfully. “Andy told you the Reich was falling apart. All of the robots were in less than perfect condition. I wonder if the soldiers that attacked us weren’t the final loyalists left to this Anubis person. If that’s the case,” he trailed off. The implications in his thought were troublesome. He straightened, pointing at the map on the screen. “Look Cynthia, I know you want to face our attacker, but consideri...

They parked the truck a block down, behind some dumpsters. The location the soldier gave was an abandoned warehouse that was half collapsed. The city had made several attempts to condemn it, but it always seemed to be saved at the last minute. Nothing suspicious about that , CJ thought. Peering around the nearest dumpster, she slipped her binoculars from one of her jumpsuit’s many pockets. No obvious guards or security. Odd, that. “Do we care if they know we’re coming?” “They’d have to be daft not to know we’d hit back, wouldn’t they?” CJ turned to look at Alana. “Not really. They could be over confident.” Buck looked through his own set. “I hate to sound cliched, but,” he glanced at the three women, “I think it’s almost too quiet.” “Unless everything is automated topside. All the men are downstairs,” Hitomi shrugged. “It’s how I’d do it.” “Either way, I know I don’t care.” CJ put the binoculars away and started forward. “Cynthia!” Buck called after her. “Dammit, girl.” He motioned fo...

“Buck!” Doctor Conner waved from what was the front entrance as they piled out of the cab. They joined her, noticed the soot smudges on her face. She had obviously been working ahead to salvage what she could. “Julianne. Able to salvage anything yet?” She nodded, “More than I would have thought. Some of the older children are grabbing what they can. Not everything, of course,” she shrugged helplessly. Buck nodded and put a comforting hand on the woman’s shoulder. She was an elegant woman, her shoulder length hair a striking silver. “I know, Jules. Just save what we can, then rebuild.” She smiled up at him, a tinge of unmistakable fondness in her eyes, “Always the optimist.” “I try. Now, I’m going to leave you to coordinate the salvage. Hitomi, CJ and I are going to pay a visit to the person who perpetrated this.” “I’d like to come too.” They all looked at Alana, who blushed slightly. “I need to do something more than sift through memories.” She looked uncomfortable. Thankfully, Buck di...

“Young lady, do you know what you’ve done?” “I got the information we needed.” CJ matched the older man’s gaze without flinching. He held her eyes for a long moment, then pursed his lips and shook his head. “So much like your parents.” He smiled fondly at the startled CJ. “You sure do remind me of them.” He sighed, “I can only cover so much, like I told Buck. Mayer Todd is going to be out for blood on this. Now git. Tell Buck I’ll call later. On the old number.” He turned and walked away before she could even process what he told her. A moment later she was distracted anyway, when Hitomi and Alana came walking up. She knew something was wrong right away. Alana looked like she had been crying, and Hitomi had a protective arm around her. At CJ’s look, Hitomi mouthed “Jeremy.” CJ inwardly sighed. Yeah, he was going to be a problem. It would have to wait, however. “Come on, we need to find Buck and get out of here.” “Why? What’s up?” “I managed to scare the location of the base from that s...

“The magazines here are worse than my dentist’s office.” Hitomi grumped. She felt a bit like she was in shock. Her second, and in many ways only, home gone. Oh, she knew they’d rebuild. It wasn’t really gone. The feeling persisted however. She opted to let Buck and CJ handle interrogating the scum bag soldiers. She knew she didn’t have anything near the self control the two of them had. She tossed the magazine back down on the table and got up. Glancing around the station once, she headed outside. Her long skirt swished and leather high-heel boots clicked on the tile as she reached the door. Through the door, she saw Jeremy and Alana arguing. “What now,” she muttered. “You don’t look me in the eyes, Jeremy! Unless ordered to, you rarely even acknowledge my existence! We’re friends, we can still work together.” Hitomi hovered with the door half open, reluctant to interrupt. Jeremy was silent for a while, “You don’t understand. I’ve never been good with confrontations or relationships, a...

By the time the authorities has arrived, all the soldiers had been secured. They had to move them outside after the thermite charges in the robots went off, which in turn set off some nearby rubble. While moving the soldiers, Buck sent Jeremy to make sure the kids and teachers got out through the underground exit. CJ stood a bit apart from where everyone was gathered and watched her home burn. The only outward sign of her anger was her tightly clenched fists. Buck convinced her to let the police do the questioning, leaving her feeling like she was helpless. It was not a feeling she liked. Buck finished talking to the police and fire chiefs and walked over. “They’re going to let us watch the questioning. I told them we’re grateful, and asked if we could ask a few if they couldn’t get anywhere.” “And?” “They’ll think about it. In the mean time, we should make arraignments for tonight.” He paused. “Are you alright? Aside from the obvious?” He raised an eyebrow at her glare. She held it fo...