TwiTricksandTreats6 Submission

 The TwiTricksandTreats6 Contest just concluded and I did manage to submit a story for it, though it was an extremely tough write for me.

The story I submitted was Frat Party for One

It is now available on my ffn account and on ADifferentForest. 

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Halloween Edition Submissions and Winner

 As usual, I did submit the max of two allowed entries for the most recent A Picture contest. One of my two stories did win a special award while the other didn't win anything. 

My first submission was A Regular Salem Witch Trial and while it didn't win anything, I was quite happy with how it turned out.

My second submission was The Soldier and the Fairy, which won the Invisible Man award for a non ExB story. 

These stories are now available on my account on ffn and on ADifferentForest 

Rebirth and Affliction Sneak Peek

A brief teaser of Chapter 20 - Compromise:

We ran side by side for several minutes before Edythe spoke, “Can I ask you something and get a completely honest answer?”

Her words caught me off guard, but I answered immediately, “Of course.”

“Why did you back out after asking me to marry you?”

The question caught me off guard, and I pulled my hand from hers. “I didn't really back out.”

“Oh? You could have fooled me.”

“You do realize I was only seventeen when I d... was turned, right? Maybe in the teens of the nineteen hundreds getting married at seventeen was commonplace, but it's pretty much unheard of in today's age.” I took a deep breath. “When I sort of asked you –” I honestly still didn't think I'd truly asked her. “– it was with this assumption that we'd do it someday. We live forever, after all, but suddenly it was being pushed on me by Archie and you. Before I met you, I'd never thought of being with someone for a lifetime – never even really thought about sex, at least not any more than in an obscure health class sort of way. And I didn't have anyone to talk to about anything; no father to tell me I was making the right choice or give me a pep talk, no best friends to ask about past experiences, and no clue what I was doing. The truth is, if I hadn't met you, I doubt I ever would have married. So with the pushing, I simply... wasn't ready.”

She came to a stop, so I did as well.

“Are you saying that, what? You were worried you wouldn't know how to have sex with me?”

I was sort of surprised she'd actually understood what I was getting at with my rambling, but I scowled and looked away. “I know there's a hell of a lot more to it than the insert tab a into slot b that is taught in health class. Who was I supposed to talk to about my concerns? Certainly not Royal, and completely forget about Archie – even imagining the conversation if I went to Archie is terrifying. That leaves Earnest, and I simply... can't”

“There is Carine.” Edythe pointed out.

“You're right, she is a doctor so I suppose for a very clinical explanation I could have gone to her, but that wasn't really what I wanted.”

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: Summer Blowout (Mini) Edition Submissions and Winner

Back in mid February the Summer Blowout (Mini) Edition of A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words was announced, and I wrote my two submissions way back then. 

The first story I submitted was Dance of the Flames, sort of an inspired elf based story that happened to be the judge's 2Brown-eyes pick for her favorite.

And my other submission was a Life and Death Alternate Universe inspired fic, Summer Blue Moon.

PerfectDateContest Submissions and Winner

I've been struggling to write lately, in fact I only just barely managed to get these two stories done. They, unfortunately, proved to be extremely difficult for me to write. 

Frankly, writing at all, has been difficult. I hope that will change soon, but I'm not certain, because I'm not even sure why I'm having such a hard time writing at the moment. 

But with all that being said, I did manage to submit two stories to the PerfectDateContest, one of which won an award.

My first story that I submitted was A Date of a Strange Variety. No one knew this, but it is a spin-off one-shot for my story Necromancy in the Fifth. 

The second one I submitted was Lost My Mind. It won the Bumble Award for best non-canon.

As always, you can click the banner images to be taken to the stories on ffn. The stories are also available on ADF. 

The News

Unless you're living under a rock by now you've heard the news. For the one or two that haven't, at approximately nine ante meridian eastern time, Stephenie Meyer officially announce Midnight Sun will be released on August 4, 2020.

Cheers, yippee, yahoo, and all of that.

You may notice the sarcasm that manages to express itself, even in that short seven word sentence. I want to be excited for this book. But, the truth is, I'm not... not even a little bit.

The longer I think about it. The less enthused I am by the fact that it's finally coming out. And before anyone asks the magic three letter word, the truth is,  I don't know. I want to be excited. But perhaps it's about the fact that it's been almost twelve years since the release of the partial draft and somewhere along the line, I've just stopped caring.

Or perhaps it's because of the numerous, very well written, Midnight Sun continuations that are on FFN. Part of me truly believes that several of those authors are better than Meyer herself. 

Or perhaps it's that I was hoping, maybe foolishly, for something else Twilight related. Meyer always said that there was a possibility of a future story featuring Jake and Renesmee... and part of me hoped. Also, after writing Life and Death, she did say she was considering writing other retellings, so I thought this release might be an "insert new characters" Bella/Jake story. Or, as was implied with The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, there were characters, plural, that stuck out to her, so maybe it was going to be another character's novella.

Maybe, I was secretly hoping for the sequel to The Host...

Instead, we get the long awaited Midnight Sun.

And I should be excited.

But, as I read the summary, I feel like it's setting me up for a let down. It promises darkness, and though I have seen Meyer write really good fantasy, really good romance, really sci-fi... I have never seen her write dark. In fact, one could say, her previous works suggest she deliberately avoids it. And unless she's gotten a lot more brazen since she wrote Life and Death The Chemist, I'm just not seeing it.

And that's the problem.

I think if the summary was marketing it as the young adult romance I'm almost a hundred percent certain it's going to end up being, I might be more exited

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Quarantine Edition Submissions

I submitted two different stories to A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words: Quarantine Edition. Neither of them were winners of anything, but one I am planning to turn into a full length story in the future. 

I submitted Life in a Bubble, which is a completed one-shot. It is available on both ffn and adf. 

And I submitted Letters and Barkeeps, which will be turned into a full length story in the future, but currently the one-shot is available on both ffn and adf. 

Life and Death Characters - Casting Call

For the most part, I have avoided trying to put face to names. In large part, this because many of the characters from Life and Death. A few days ago though, I got into a conversation with a which led to us talking about some of the Cullen household and what they might look like. Since then I've worked to put faces to names. I'd already matched faces for Beau, Edythe, and Julie, but the rest of the Cullens I hadn't.

I sort of doubt I'll do it for other characters, below are Beau, Julie, and the whole Cullen Clan

Beau was described when he was human as being tall, broad-shouldered, and blue-eyed. After too many hours looking through far too many actors to mention, I finally found Luke Bilyk. I admit, he's a little too old, but I do believe he is a good match.

We never got an official description of Julie after she because a shifter, but my assumption is the females are similar to the males from the original saga, both shooting up in height, and losing they're baby fat, etc. As such, Devery Jacobs felt like a very good fit. 

Edythe was described with the same copper hair as Edward had. And no matter who the movies selected, to me 'copper hair' is more red than brown. Also, based on her general description, I belie Katherine McNamara is the best match

It was harder for me to find genderswapped characters for the rest of the Cullens. But I finally decided on Brooklyn Decker for Carine and Armie Hammer for Earnest.

Kenton Duty as Royal and Kalia Prescott as Eleanor

Cameron Ocasio as Archie and McKenna Knipe as Jessamine

Necromancy in the Fifth - Chapter 5 Sneak Peek

It's been quite awhile since I've updated this story, but I'm trying to make my muse play nice with me while the world is going to hell. Hopefully, this will allow me to start getting updates out for my stories again.

So, without further ado, a brief teaser of Chapter 5:

I wasn't sure how long I was unconscious before the sound of knocking on my door woke me. Groaning, I slowly got up off the floor.

“I'm coming,” I shouted, or at least tried to, as my voice came out more like a hoarse croak.

It took me close to a minute to make it the few feet that it was to my door. I fussed with the lock as my fingers didn't seem to want to work, before finally managing to successfully open it.

I opened my mouth upon seeing Rosalie on the other side, but she gasped.

“Bella, what the hell happened to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“There's dried blood on your face.”

I frowned before spinning around and heading to my bathroom. My reflection in the mirror looked nothing like me. Instead, the wide eyes that stared at the stained splotches of brownish-red splattered across my cheeks, lips, chin, and down my neck were horrified. The reflection also showed skin that was at least two shades too white, rings under the eyes, and unnatural sallowness to the cheeks.

For a moment, I couldn't make sense of what I was looking at. Then I grabbed a rag, turned the sink on, and soaked it. The instant it was solidly drenched, I started scrubbing on my face, forcing a redness into my skin even as I washed off the stains of blood.

Forever Protector Final Teaser - A Rebirth and Affliction Alternate Reality

Back a while ago, I started working on this particular Alternate Reality, but things happened (my flash drive broke) and the end result was that I lost almost all of it, except for the two teasers I'd posted on this blog a while ago (you can use the tag, Teaser, or the tag, Alternate Reality, if you want to view those). I've finally started reworking it, and while I'm not sure it's identical to what it was originally, I'm happy with what I've written.

For now, I'm offering one final Teaser to this Alternate Reality.

"Anyway, I need to go talk to the Cullens in person. I owe it to them to explain my decision in person.”

“You owe them nothing.” Jules' scowl was pronounced. “They were the ones who screwed you over.”

“Yes, I do. They gave up a lot for what they thought of me to be to Edythe. The fact that it turned out to be untrue is unimportant. Don't worry, I'll be back.”

I got up from where I was sitting in the sand next to her and sped off.

The run through the forest was one I'd made many times before, back when the Cullens had abandoned me. However, I couldn't help but wonder if this would be my last time making the trip.

Edythe met me outside of the house, her voice solemn. “Archie's told me your future is solidly black – that nothing I can say or do, as far as he can see, will change that.”

“They need me here, and it turns out that when I put my mind into being a protector with them that I'm quite good at it. Besides, we both know your family doesn't need me.”

“That's not true. I need you. I'll always need you.”

I smiled, wondering if she heard the rough edge in her voice which read as untrue to me. “Maybe some part of you still needs the human boy you started to fall for before I was turned, but I think it's past time we both accept that I'm not him. I've changed in a lot more ways than just going from having a beating heart to not.”

“When you left, you promised you'd someday come back, Beau.”

“I did.” I walked away from her, looking out into the forest. “It wasn't a lie. I had every intention of coming back to you. But I think we both know why I can't. When we were with the Denalis, you and Taavi were a thousands times more comfortable – more natural – together than you and I ever were. Honestly, there was more familiarity with you and Ivan, and you and Kirill, than ever with me. And most recently, I saw you briefly with a redhead here.”

“I've known all of the Denalis for more than seventy years, Beau. Of course, there's a familiarity with them. Even Magnus, I've known for more than sixty.”

It put a name with the man I'd seen. I ignored the implication that was being insecure and foolish. I knew what I'd seen, and I'd had plenty of time to think it over.

“I want you to be happy, Edythe, and I don't think I'm ever going to be what gives that to you.”

“You're wrong!”

It would be beyond easy to believe her, but I could see the dangerous loop that would lead to. I knew now, no matter how much I loved her, she clearly didn't feel the same. “I've got to get back to La Push.”

“Beau... if you change your mind, please come back to me.”

In spite of myself, I muttered, “Who knows, maybe someday.”

Then I ran away.