This book is taking soooo long.
It's bad when readers say that, but I feel it's worse when the author says that. Brain: I have other things to write ya know. Me: Yeah, totally, but like, I only have an hour to write everyday. Brain:That's bullsh*t! Me: Yes. Bills are bullshit. Brain: Throw everything in the fire. Let's write! Me: Want some food? Brain: Squirrel... So, what's going on? Why is it taking me so long? I've created worlds before, but this one is very interwoven. The things I've learned are meeting my wild imagination and like a morning glory against a brick wall, the world story is unfolding with every sentence. It's massive. I write things down. I have to make sure I'm not contradicting the original story, I'm finding ways to connect the dots all while thinking, what does the read need to know? Or, in other words, I'm having too much fun with this story. It happens. Authors get enamored with their stories. I've been writing PYROMAGE (working title) off and on for a while now. I wrote HANDLE WITH CARE and THE SILENT ROAD between it. Every time I see the end, I think of something wrong with a situation. I like for my stories to be able to suspend readers belief and the only way I can do that is with science. Even magic has to have rules. So, I work on it everyday, but it's a slow process. One that is worth it for me. I've got another excerpt for ya... As usual mistakes are my own. This isn't edited. Everyone's a critic and going to email me why I'm a horrible this that and the other. I don't care. Blah, Blah, Blah... Just know this. It's still copyright.
Excerpt from WIP title: Pyromage
© S.N.McKibben
No part of this story may be reproduced or transmitted without written prior permission from the publisher. This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, events, incidents and places are of the author’s imagination and not to be confused with fact. Any resemblance to living persons or events is merely coincidence.
This is a totally unedited chapter. It may or may not stay the same after final edits and it may or may not remain in the story. If you find any grammar, spelling or punctuation errors, please let know via the comments!! I may not get to them right away, but I will get to them. Thank you! If you are totally lost & would like to start at the beginning of (working title) PYROMAGE, click the button below.
WARNING! PYROMAGE IS PART OF THE DARK HEART HEROES LINE AND CONTAINS NON-CONVENTIONAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MEN.
Confusion spun my head into muddled thoughts and throwing emotion in the mix that summed up this whole situation in one-word. “Idiot.”
The lug of a Chintan bodyguard didn’t give me answers. But he was the perfect companion among the sheep. Even after saving everyone from drowning, my herd watching shift wasn’t over. We kept vigil at the grotto’s entrance, dangling our feet over the opening’s ledge, watching the waves, searching for a miffed Hydragon. He was out there, probably plotting our demise. The Chintan didn’t seem to wonder how long he’d been out there. Or why Aleenia hadn’t told anyone about the other dragon. “She didn’t seem to think he was the one Elddyn was talking about,” I said out loud but didn’t expect an answer. I dared not speak my concern. That maybe Aleenia kept us away from the one Elddyn foretold. The dragon that would, successfully, lead the drake’s home. Maybe she didn’t want to be alone. Perhaps she knew he wasn’t the one. Or maybe she had another reason to reject him. My Chintan laid his metal fingers on the back of my hand. I jerked out of my thoughts, scanning the sea. “Do you see him?” The Chintan cupped my face, turning my head towards him. He then placed the palm of his right hand over the back of his left digits, making the sign for Terragon. “What about her?” I looked to Aleenia. She slept. Her breaths deep and slow sending a waxing and waning breeze through the grotto like an ocean tide. He put both hands over his heart then brought them over to me as if holding water in his hands. Love. “Aleenia loves us.” I nodded. “But what if…” I whispered. The Chintan brought both hands up as a whole, inverting his palms down. Hoard. Love and hoard were the same gesture, only backwards. “Yes.” I glanced nervous at her long neck form. “And it’s rude to talk about it.” He huffed. Thinking and speaking were not the same no matter what he insinuated. “I wasn’t talking about it.” He shook his head. The metal mask looking less angry and more desperately gloomy these past three days. The cloak on his back played with the breeze. It’s red luster soaked in the sun giving the fabric a velvet appearance. I scooted closer and leaned into him. “She said Elddyn didn’t choose him.” “What if he isn’t? It doesn’t make his argument less true.” Vanfald walked up from the connecting cavern. “Shouldn’t we send word to Elddyn?” She stepped over to Aleenia and brushed a hand over the grand one’s jowl. “How logical of you.” I twisted around and stood. “As the servant of Air, one might assume you’d already thought of it.” She skated around the walls as the Earth Chintan stalked over to his brother. Vanfald liked to dress suggestively female. Blond hair spilled out from a cowl shielding her face. The princess cut of her dress exposed her legs at the thigh. Water curled around her waist like a tail, whipping back and forth as if I were a bothersome fly. Her power over the element was indeed impressive, but she waved her rule over Water too often to make me believed she had any more skill than parlor tricks. Elddyn hadn’t needed to prove his mastery over his element. “As soon as his ship arrives, I’ll send word.”
Thank you for reading!
If you'd like to find out more about Pyromage join my Very Important Readers group for my DARK HEART HEROES line.(NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MY TABOO FICTION GROUP) Fill you your name and best email below! This MASSIVE book grab has a lot of interesting books. Lots of dragon stories, thrillers, some kids books─which seems a bit off and strays from the heavy paranormal theme, but this isn't a specific genre type of reading hamper. Who am I to tell anyone what books to like. If it were me, okay, it is me... I totally entered! You should enter too!! Tell me what books look interesting to you? Here's my list: The Dragon Collector! (Like a menagerie or something? Is it a circus?) The Prince's Man (...hot, that's gotta be M/M, I'm totally into it) The McDougal Pack Alpha (Paranormal, yes please!) Parham's Mill (That looks spooky) So About the Money (This is going to be hilarious) Fate's Call (Looks along the lines of Moon Blood) Legend (Let's see if the book lives up to the titles' hype) Dracones (Badass angel, yes please!) Of course I'll be the good little reader and do what the author wants the giveaway to do─which is to BUY the books. Knowing I have a snowball's chance of being 1 of 3 winners, that's probably going to be the only way I read them is if I buy them. I can dream though! Plus I'll be helping out an author and that always feels good. We only have till the very end of July to enter so get your web browser over to: https://wn.nr/rZQUPp. But what if you aren't interested in the whole mess of books? Yeah, I get ya. How the hell am I going to read all that? For me if you don't have my attention by the first page… good luck getting me to read more. So I'd leave many books as a DNF pile. BUT… if you want to look at the books individually… if you're only interested in one or two and want to buy them OR enter for a chance to WIN them, click the button below! I used to have a category on my blog for Giveaways but they fly by so fast that the info just ins't relevant past the month. So if you want to find out about SWEEPSTAKES, GIVEAWAYS and FREEBIES sooner, consider joining my readers group by entering my own sweepstakes! You get a FREE book along with the chance to WIN cool prizes. For those who have entered MY sweepstakes, you can go there (click the button above), scroll to the bottom of the page for the countdown timer and check out when prizes will be awarded! Until next time...
Good luck and happy reading! ~ Stephy Corran Antilles is having a bad life. Schlepping cargo for the Federation doesn't pay. Even worse, the corporate hauler assigned to him malfunctions inside Trevithick Station. Before Corran's ship-trouble costs him his life, he's able to land, but at the price of his job. Down on his luck, with no money and no way to get home, Corran thinks he’s hit the jackpot when a stranger approaches and offers him the chance of a lifetime. But of course, nothing in the Federation is free, and there's always a catch. If your new here, you're in for a treat! This maybe the last of the FREE published stories that I've won an award for so pay attention! Below is CHAPTER 2 of "Dangerous Gamble". If you'd like to tip me for this story, I invite you to purchase another story of mine on any retailer. Check out my books on these fine retailers: Also, because this is a free story it will be doled out in parts. All the parts will be connected so you can follow the completed story. Last we saw our hero, he was crashing a space bucket of a ship that should have been retired and managed NOT to kill anyone. Still he was fired and left as the scapegoat for the wreckage he left behind trying to deal with a broken, un-maintenance craft. Dangerous Gamble A Dangerous Elite Fanfic S.N.McKibben © S.N.McKibben 2015 My Last PaycheckAfter I dropped off the suit and picked up my check, I had enough money to sit and drink two shots at the Star and Garter. No ship. No money. No one here to trust and I smelled like week-old trash. Felt that way, too. I took a shot of the potts-dim liquor—the cheapest crap you could buy that didn’t have the consistency of used oil. It would burn the nose hairs, though, which helped to keep from smelling myself. “If it isn’t the pilot himself.” That would be me. Apparently no one else who ever sailed into Trevithick had ever made a mistake. I pulled up my shoulders to my ears and lowered my head, as if hiding my face would hide my shame. An older gentleman with small, round, black-framed glasses sidled up to me. He wore a pilot suit under a deep red velvet robe with an Imperial insignia clasp at his collar bone. “Yep.” I swallowed the last of my paycheck down my gullet and climbed off my stool. “If you’re looking for compensation then all I have is a sorry and the skin off my hand.” “I was actually looking for a drinking partner.” He sat on the stool next to me and flagged the bartender. Dalton, the barkeep, stepped up to the man, eager to take his order. “Yes, sir?” “Bast snake gin?” the old Imperial asked hopefully. The bartender frowned and shook his head in disappointment. “Still not here.” The old Imperial sighed. “Then two rounds of what my friend here is having.” He smiled at me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. I raised my hands. “I don’t have a way to pay for more.” “It’s on me,” he said, and thrust a greeting hand forward. “The name is Felix Wulfhart.” I shook his hand. “Corran Antilles.” Dalton placed two shots of amber liquid in front of us and Felix downed his. Unsure of the situation, I did the same. I didn’t want to piss off anyone else in this place. “So why the long face?” he asked. My eyebrows rose. “Have you seen pad thirty-eight?” He laughed deep and hearty. “Yes, son. In fact, I was watching you from the Peterson building when you came in.” “Great, so you got a front-and-center view of my humiliation.” “Better than being shot to molecules by Trevithick guns.” “Maybe,” I said. There wasn’t a place on this station that would put me up for free. Mom and dad didn’t have the money to get me back home. I’d have to find a way to get planet-side by myself. “So, Corran, what’s next?” Seriously? “Yeah, I thought I’d jet over to Fairbairn Station. See how well a half-baked hauler bounces around in their docks. Hell, maybe they have rubber walls.” “Well, I suppose that’s your choice.” Felix assessed me. My impression was that he was taking my measure. “Choice?” I said. “None of us has a choice.” I waved my hand at the other patrons. “It’s starve with a job or starve on welfare. Look around.” He glanced at the people in the bar and returned his attention to me. “So you give up?” “No,” I pouted. “But there’s only so much to go around.” “Well, with that mentality there sure is.” Felix waved a goodbye to Dalton, turned around and left me looking at his long drape of a robe. Pompous prick. Just because you have money… Now it was a matter of pride. I chased after him down the metal hall of the station. When I caught up, I demanded, “What do you mean by that?” The biggest grin seemed to crack his face in two. “I mean, Corran Antilles, you reap what you sow.” “So you do think it was my fault the ship broke down. Do you know how hard it is to steady a hauler with a stuck thruster with only rudders for steering?” Felix stopped. “I thought it was only the control stick that malfunctioned.” “Che, well, if you ask me, everything on that ship malfunctioned except for the cargo ramp.” Felix wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me next to him like a mother bird would her chicks. “Ah, my dear boy, you are better than I expected.” He led me down a corridor going to the landing pads. “Better than you expected?” “How would you like to fly for yourself?” Felix asked. “Wait, are you offering me a job?” Was he crazy? What did he want me to haul? Probably something illegal. “I’m offering you the break you always wanted.” “Hey, um… I can’t ship illegal cargo. I have family.” Felix laughed. “You can decide what you carry.” We entered the port toward an orange Sidewinder with a racing stripe on the left side. “Okay,” I said. “But I don’t have a ship.” He gestured at the Sidewinder. “Yes you do.” I stared at the box of a vessel. “That’s not mine.” “It is now.” He stepped up to the cargo ramp and waved me inside. The maneuverable wing of a ship looked like a tent, but if she was mine I didn’t give a flying flag. I raced up the ramp. “What do you mean it’s mine?” Mine as in mine? “Corran, I’d like to be your benefactor.” “Whoa, benefactor?” What the hell was a benefactor? “Wait,” I waved my hands and stepped back. “I’m not into guys.” “No, Corran.” Felix took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The ship—I’m giving it to you. Your pilot’s dues are paid. All you have to do is find cargo and get it to the destination.” I still wasn’t convinced. “And what do you get?” He put his thick bottle-caps back on. “Bragging rights and a pilot I can depend on every so often.” “Nothing illegal?” “I wouldn’t recommend it, and you should check the system you’re going into if you’re concerned about such things.” Standing there bewildered, I tried to wrap my head around everything. My own ship? I could go anywhere? “You’ll need a pilot’s suit, but the vessel is fully fueled.” Felix added more confusion to the mix. Why was he giving me this? What was the catch? “You’ll find credits in your account,” he said. “I suggest you take a shower first.” I looked inside the cockpit in awe. “Shower first. Got it.” Any moment now I’d wake up on the floor of the Star and Garter. “Good luck, Corran.” Felix left me there standing inside the Sidewinder, trying to slap myself awake. Part 2 End Want a full length story for FREE? |
MUNELoveable misfit. In a description, Mune is described as a fawn. I personally, don't see it. I also prefer to see these animorphs as unique and not comparable to animals on earth. But Mune is special in that he can curb dreams into whatever form he wants. He can change nightmares to pleasant sleep and even has the power to calm things when awake. He is in essence the moon itself. |
GLIMThe girl made of wax. Glim is basically, a candle. She believes in magic and the stars, the moon and the forest. While she has a sweet side, she's determined to help when the moon is in need. She's also mischievous and cunning in getting what she wants. Good thing she's on Mune's side or else she'd be a formidable opponent. However her sacrifice for the greater good of her world places her firmly in the heroine category. |
SOHONERepresenting a lion which is very appropriate since he's the guardian of the sun. Typical jock attitude. He trains every day in the event that the sun ever snaps the harpoons and gets away from the traveling temple that carries the sun around the world. While good at being admired, he has a hard time seeing Mune as an acceptable counterpart especially when things with the Temple of the Moon go awry. |
Supporting Characters
LeeyoonThe original understudy of the Moon guardian. Leeyoon expected to supersede his predecessor. The "lamb" that chooses the guardian had other ideas. Leeyoon is reasonably upset that he studied hard, dedicated himself to becoming the guardian then right as he was about to achieve his goal, it was snatched away at the last moment. |
Temple of the MoonTo explain this guy you have to know that the temples are moving creatures controlled by the guardians but independently stay on course. The temples are fascinating creatures that add to the lore of the world. The moon and sun are "chained" to these huge walking temples thus each satellite is pulled around the world in a methodical pace. The two temples hardly ever meet. But when they do, the effect is a division between light and darkness. |
Antagonist
Antagonist Minions
Review
The voices were perfect. I enjoyed each and every scene. I can't say enough about the imagination that went into this story. While it took me a while to realize Mune was a faun, I noticed the resemblance Sohone had to a lion straight away. Temples pulling the sun and moon were a new and fascinating concept for me.
What threw me off further was the inanimate objects being sentient such as Glimer (Glim), who was made of candle wax, but she seemed to be the oddball. Most other creatures were representatives of real animals. But they were drawn more like people.
Each new scene brought with it a whimsical, fantastical world I will enjoy again and again. It felt new while also being the typical hero's journey. I fell into the world, the characters and the second time around I might be able to see more than just wondering what Glim was supposed to be. It took me a bit of watching until I finally "got" that she was a candle despite the obvious implications at the beginning of the movie. It was both a ahhh... duh... moment. Thankfully the awesome overshadowed my perplexity.
In the end it gave a happy ending kiss that didn't seem all that necessary but sweet. After searching the internet for images, I know fujoshi fan's went in their own direction despite the implication of Glim and Mune coming together at the end. (No pun inteded) :) Boys love forever! Sohone ♥ Mune.
I Would Recommend to Fans of:
(even though it has myths unto itself and not related to any culture that I can tell)
Animation
Animorph Stories
Unique Worlds
The Enclave
Thanks for taking a look at my little hodgepodge of a blog.
The format and subjects of my blog has changed through the years as it's my log of S.N.McKibben's writing journey.
You've now been sufficiently forewarned, happy reading!
Categories
All
Age Difference Stories
Anime
Blood Money
Book Review
Book Trailer
Conferences
Dark Heart Heroes
FREE Stories
Giveaway
Inside A Writer's World
Jack The Bodice Ripper
New Book Release
Notice Me Senpai
Pyromage
Review
Seducing Sensei
Snow Blood Comic
Taboo Fiction
The Desperate Measures
The King's Thief
The Silent Road
What I'm Watching
Writers Block Solutions
Writing Life
Archives
January 2025
December 2024
November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
June 2024
May 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
May 2022
April 2022
January 2022
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
May 2021
April 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
June 2015
May 2015
November 2014
October 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
December 2012
November 2012
Proudly powered by Weebly
|