Room for one more? :)

[BlindScribe]

Hello all! New author here (first post, too!).

Figured the best place for me to get my feet wet was in the author's hangout forum...I just submitted my first story, so it's not visible yet, and while I'm waiting (with a surprising case of nerves!) for it to get accepted, I figured I'd wander and explore.

~Your Humble Scribe~

 

[patientlee]

Hello all! New author here (first post, too!).

Figured the best place for me to get my feet wet was in the author's hangout forum...I just submitted my first story, so it's not visible yet, and while I'm waiting (with a surprising case of nerves!) for it to get accepted, I figured I'd wander and explore.

~Your Humble Scribe~

Wander and explore, but you might want to wash your hands on the way out.

Nice meeting you.
Patientlee

 

[BlindScribe]

LOL...okay...a fair piece of advice, and thank you! Very nice to meet you as well!

 

[patientlee]

LOL...okay...a fair piece of advice, and thank you! Very nice to meet you as well!

It's kinda like the petting zoo. It's a little wild.

 

[sr71plt]

Welcome, and while we're waiting for your story to post, let us know what genres you are writing or planning to write.

 

[RejectReality]

And don't be surprised if it takes a week for your first one to post. The queue has been large lately, and the wait time rather sporadic. A week seems to be about the outside edge, though.

 

[BlindScribe]

I'll go you one better...I generally write novels, so my first submission is actually a novel that I wrote...kind of an .....erotic thriller, I guess you could say?

I shall post the prologue here as a teaser....enjoy!

The Pandorica​

By Christopher D. Hartpence​

Take this down, my pet.
Every word.
With your pen, set forth the
Chronicle of my
Days and Deeds and you shall be
Rewarded as none other in
Either Heaven or Earth
I give you this, my word as Goddess

~The Words of Pandora
____________________________________​

Prologue​

​

What can you say about the night you met a goddess? What words can you blend together on the page (any page) to put an event like that into its proper context in a mortal life?

It’s not possible, so I’ll simply say this:

I’m a writer. That’s not what I do, it’s what I am.

As such, I spend lots of time drinking deep from the well of life and soaking up everything that humanity has to offer.

Does that make me a bit hedonistic?

It did at one point, almost certainly, but those days are behind me now.

These days, I have purpose.

These days, I have Her.

We met at a party, but that’s putting it in terms almost laughingly simplistic. It’s more accurate that she selected me at some point prior to my seeing her for the first time, and she simply chose the party as the moment to come collect me. Her ‘Pet,’ as she calls me now, and despite the condescension that’s woven into the fabric of that term, I find myself thrilling to it.

It was two a.m., and I was sitting in a plush conversation pit working on my fifth or sixth fishbowl margarita (complete with little gummy fishes swimming around in it), a ravishing, raven haired Latina in a red bikini curled up on my left, and a buxom blonde in a yellow string contraption that was pretending to be a bathing suit curled up next to me on the right.

Someone had broken out cocaine and my brain felt like it was spinning off in six different directions at once, with many of the branches tending toward the lascivious.

I think she chose that particular moment to appear to me on purpose. There is purpose in nearly everything she does.

There was loud music playing in the apartment, and I could feel each beat of the bass against my skin. I remember closing my eyes with a satisfied smile on my face (and one hand cupping a warm, firm breast) and thinking that my life simply could not get any better than it was right at that moment.

And of course, that’s the moment when I was proved magnificently and spectacularly wrong.

The first thing I noted was that the conversation seemed to be fading. No…more than fading. Outright ceasing. Dying out in sections. Room after room, all conversation was cut off abruptly, until only the music remained. It was the kind of response you might expect the sudden appearance of a naked Pagan Goddess to illicit from a roomful of party animals.

Eyes still closed, I heard someone (no idea who) say in a wavering, uncertain voice. “He’s…there…In there.” And in my mind’s eye, I could see a finger pointing in my direction.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I sat forward, opened my eyes, and when I did, the sight of her was branded…seared into my memory forever.

There’s just no other way to describe it.

She was glorious in her nakedness. Absolutely flawless.

Long, strong legs carried her the last few steps to me, sculpted shoulders with her long dirty blonde hair cascading over them, hanging free and in no need of styling (it was perfect just as it was), proudly thrusting breasts, perfectly swelled and swaying hips as she made her way to me, and those eyes. Deep and mysterious and crackling with power, I found my head both clearing and swimming at the same moment as I gazed into their infinite depths.

She stopped mere inches from me, and I found myself at eye level with, and within kissing distance of her lower stomach, and the tattoo that resided there.

As Long as I Breathe, I Hope… It said in flowing script, and my arms rose to encircle her hips instinctively as she framed my face in her hands.

“I have come for you.” She whispered softly.

“Yes.” I murmured in reply, and honestly, she had me at that moment.

Unthinking, my lips kissed each letter in the phrase branded across her, my tongue tracing the contours of each (and, like a good pet, remembering my punctuation), shivering at the taste of her skin, and although her sudden presence had burned away the effects if the drugs and alcohol in my system, I found myself intoxicated by a new thing.

The scent of her.

She laughed at me, though not unkindly, as my lips reached the final period at the end of the tattoo and began to drift lower.

“Not yet, but that day may come.” She said with full throated promise, forcing me to meet her gaze again. Her hands were not necessary, though they remained resting lightly at my temples. She held me with the sheer force of her gaze. “For the moment, I have work for you. With your pen, I desire that you set forth the chronicle of my days and deeds. Do this, you shall be rewarded as none other in either heaven or earth. I give you this, my word as Goddess.”

Without a word, and completely forgetting the women on either side of me, my agent in the other room (the party was ostensibly in celebration of my fifth book making the best seller’s list, but in reality, it was just another excuse to mingle and get ripped), and the people who had come to wish me well, I rose up and walked away with her.

I left with her that very evening, with nothing but the clothing I wore, and I haven’t looked back. Haven’t wanted to, truth be told.

She says I’ll be rewarded, but honestly, I’d be with her regardless.

The reward doesn’t matter.

In many ways, I’ve already gotten it.

I’m living it.

Anyway, that’s how we met, and you needed to know.

The rest is her story.

 

[jezzaz]

So, ripping off Doctor Who Episode titles now??

LOL

Good for you.

I'm especially keen on sex thrillers, since that's my genre too. Good luck!

 

[Beatnic_jazzman]

Good so far

I'll read it when it's pops up.

 

[BlindScribe]

Thank you! Happy coincidence that my title shares space with a Dr. Who episode...I didn't actually discover 'Who' till I was neck deep in the first draft. It's a good word, tho, and apt!

 

[SamScribble]

Welcome to the clubhouse

 

[PennLady]

Hi and welcome. My advice, to add to the pile you already have, is to sit back, write what you like, enjoy the positive feedback, investigate the constructive criticism and ignore the trolls.

Ta da!

Best of luck.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Hello and welcome. Have you tried the biscotti?

 

[BlindScribe]

Sound advice indeed, PennLady...thank you! And TGP...I haven't tried the biscotti...officially on my list though!

I think that starting tomorrow, I'll try my hand at some of the writer's exercises..****! Not unlike the creative jams we have here.

 

[Handley_Page]

Sound advice indeed, PennLady...thank you! And TGP...I haven't tried the biscotti...officially on my list though!

I think that starting tomorrow, I'll try my hand at some of the writer's exercises..****! Not unlike the creative jams we have here.

You might enjoy a glass of your chosen drink in the Naked Lounge.
And welcome to the AH>

 

[TxRad]

There is always room for one more. Although you might be careful whose lap you sit on and when.

Welcome to the AH.

 

[patientlee]

There is always room for one more. Although you might be careful whose lap you sit on and when.

Welcome to the AH.

Hence the hand-washing station near the door.

 

[BlindScribe]

Spontaneous creative jam session, anyone?...read, and expand as the spirit moves you?


The only notes I've got are these: Our main character is Allen Ice. (Al for short), and he's just fallen down the rabbit hole, but not into the Wonderland of old...into a more adult version of the same...
_________

Allen awoke with a start. There had been...something.

He shook his head to clear it.

Thunder? A vivid dream?

Whatever it had been, it was fading now, then gone in another instant as he sat in his bed with his sheets pooled around his legs.

He turned, feet on the cool floor and about to stand when his bedroom light snapped on and he found himself eye to eye with a Satyr, happily munching a biscotti.

"Lunch?" He offered with a smile as a few stray crumbs tumbled into his beard.

"Yes, welcome!" Someone else cried happily, from what should have been his kitchen. "Time for tea, or would you prefer something a wee bit stronger?"

"What the...."

"I know." A woman with kind grey eyes said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. "It can be a little disorienting at first. You get used to it, and it gets easier."

"But where....this place...I..." There were so many questions that he couldn't actually form any one in particular. They all wanted to spill out of his mouth at the same moment. In frustration, and because he wasn't making any actual sense, he closed it to keep the words from leaking out, and simply stared at them.

The woman with the grey eyes helped him to his feet. "There, there, my dear...let's get you a little something to eat, shall we?"

"I...uh...yes." He said with a nod as he let himself be led from his room that was not his room, into the rest of his apartment that was no longer his apartment....

 

[lovecraft68]

Welcome aboard!

I have a character that stars in MY Circle series(not published here) who uses the name Pandora.

I've always thought it was not only a sexy name, but you have to love the woman who unleashed sin upon the world.

 

[BlindScribe]

Thank you! And anybody who takes Lovecraft's name gets a nod in my book (he's actually featured IN the novel I'm waiting to have approved).

It was a fascinating journey...I researched the actual mythology for about three months to fully understand it before wading in and making subtle tweaks, so I could bend the mythology in a new direction...REALLY happy with the final result, and I don't usually like my own stuff!

 

[lovecraft68]

Thank you! And anybody who takes Lovecraft's name gets a nod in my book (he's actually featured IN the novel I'm waiting to have approved).

It was a fascinating journey...I researched the actual mythology for about three months to fully understand it before wading in and making subtle tweaks, so I could bend the mythology in a new direction...REALLY happy with the final result, and I don't usually like my own stuff!

Does he look like Jeffrey Combs? If you're a Lovecraft buff you'll know what I mean.

 

[BlindScribe]

Only in a vague sort of way. Coombs looks more polished and camera ready and his face isn't quite as long.

He lacks that haunted look in his eyes. Whether or not you believe that the things Lovecraft wrote about actually exist in one form or another...a study of the man's life makes it clear that he believed. He saw, and I think was tortured by his many demons. Fascinating man.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't get HP Lovecraft. He's like Rod McKuen or John Updike.

 

[BlindScribe]

Honestly, I think he wrote what he saw...

 

[lovecraft68]

Only in a vague sort of way. Coombs looks more polished and camera ready and his face isn't quite as long.

He lacks that haunted look in his eyes. Whether or not you believe that the things Lovecraft wrote about actually exist in one form or another...a study of the man's life makes it clear that he believed. He saw, and I think was tortured by his many demons. Fascinating man.

Exactly.

Every phobia HP had-and he had many, most of which were instilled in him by the aunts that raised him-appears in his story. Innsmouth is born of his fear of sea food, everything old was evil and let's not get into the racism that was pretty much a way of life back then.

Ahead of his time and the Cthulhu Mythos is one of the most important pieces of horror fiction ever created. Decades later his influence is everywhere.

Yet he died a pauper.