Howdy!

I’ve got quite a few tags to catch up on. My official posting day is Thursday, but don’t be surprised if you see posts pop up on other days of the week. I have a lot of catching up to do.

I’ve been nominated for the Freestyle Writing Challenge TWICE, so here you will find my responses as well as my prompt for anyone who would like to take it up.

Rules:

1. Open a blank document.
2. Set a stop watch or mobile phone timer to 5 or 10 minutes.
3. Your topic is at the foot of this post. DO NOT SCROLL DOWN TO SEE IT UNTIL YOU ARE READY WITH YOUR TIMER!
4. Once you start writing, do not stop until the alarm sounds!
5. Do not cheat by going back and correcting spelling and grammar using spell check. (The challenge is only meant for you to reflect on your own control of sensible thought-flow and for you to reflect on your ability to write with correct spelling and grammar.)
6. You may or may not pay attention to punctuation or capitals.
7. At the end of your post, write down “No. of words = ____” to give an idea of how much you can write within the timeframe.
8. Copy and paste the entire passage on your blog post with a new topic for your nominees, and copy / paste these rules along with your nomination (at least 5 bloggers).

On both of these, I did so some correcting here and there, but I really tried not to, as evidenced by the many mistakes you will find. My computer auto-corrected some words too, but that’s beyond my control. I promise I actually know how to spell.

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Prompt 1 from E. Rawls.

You are going to live under the sea now. You have left your “land dwelling” life and world behind. Where are you? What is your underwater dwelling like? Are there other humanoid races, such as mermaids or something else, in this undersea realm?

Underwater. I don’t rally like the ocean. Sharks scare me. But no choice now. I wade into the ocean and try not to get knocked over by the waves. Please don’t let there be charks. Please don’t let there be sharks! I plunge underwater and take off swimming. I gradually get deeper and deepr, still breather fine apparently. There’s a reef nto too far ahead with shapes swimming lazily around. At first I think its scuba divers but their long green tails teel me otherwise. Mermaids. I’ve always found mermaids fascinating. One waves to me and I swim a little closer. Noticing I’m haiving a little trouble swimming among the coral, she puts fingers to lips and gives a watery whistle. A seahorse darts out. Not just a regular sized one that can fit in my hand, but a big one! One fore me to ride apparently. All my dreams are coming true. Giant seahorses are even cuter than their tiny counterparts. He gallantly swims me deeper into the coral fortress and comes to a bubbly halt in front of a particular tangle of seaweed. He nudges me into the growth and I find that I can walk, so I intrepidly set forth through the seaweed. I eventually come to a ragged break in the coral with a clam shell stuck beside it. This clam shell bears my name. this is to be my home apparently. I wander insde, some hermit crabs doing some last minute tidying before they scurry away. The coral is artfully trimmed in a way that provides me with a tbale and coutnerspace for all my seaweed chopping needs. A hammock of kelp has been braided and swys gently with the current in the corner. More openings dot the walls and through them I can see schools of fish shepherded by the mermaids. In he distance I see a dark shape swaying slowly through th water, dorsal fin dangerously pointed. A shark. Panic wells in my throat but to armored mermen hop on seahorse steeds and charge off to do battle. I relax a little. Looks like I’ll be perfectly safe down here.

10:01 and 357 words.

While I appreciate the mermen for driving off the shark, I’m now not sure how they hopped onto the seahorses since they have tails…

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Prompt 2 from Lauren

Your two main characters from two different WIPs happen to meet. What are the circumstances? What happens? Which setting do they land in?

David glanced around him in surprise. A second ago, he had been standing on the deck of the Saltador ready to get her underway and the next he was tandiding in a wide green field set next to a lake. He didn’t remember the Saltador making a jump to this place. If this was one of Enda’s tricks, he’d kick that Anbae’s tail if he still had one. David took stock of his surroundings again. He still has his Tezla and his cutlass so that was a bonus if these green fields turned out to be more dangerous than they looked. As he turned around he suddenly noticed another boy about the same age as his sixteen years. The kid looked about as lost as he did. Making sure the safety was off on the Tezla he decided to approach.

“excuse me!’ he called. The other kid turned around and frowned at David.

“where am I? is this some sort of new trick by the sorcerer?”

“do what now?” David stammered.

“One moment ago, I was still a wolf and now I’m human again. And definitely not in Calvyrn.”

“well, this is confusing. What solar system is Calvyrn in?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about. What kingdom do you hail from?” the boy asked.

“Texas, originally. I’ve been a Worldjumper for about a year now,” David replied. They both lapsed into confused silnce. David decided to change the conversation since obviously it wasn’t going anywerhe.

“David Standish,” he stuck out his hand.

“Prince Killian,” the handshake was returned a bit warily.

“You said you’re a wolf?” David asked.

“Yes, in my land a sorcerer took advantage of a centuries old curse and changed me into a wolf.”

“That’s kinda cool.”

“In what way is that “cool”?”

“Well, I mean, not so great for you, but come on, you’re a wolf!”

“No, not so great. The sorcerer is hunting me down in order to sacrifice me and use my blood for a powerful spell.”

“oh.”

“Well, any change he’s going to follow you here?” David asked.

“I don’t know, since I don’t know how I came to be here in,” here kIllian squinted, “the green fields of the mind.”

David turned and saw the signpost that Killian had been reading from.

“I think I know what happened.”

“Do explain.”

“Our writer decided this would be funy.”

“I’m not quite seeing the humor. She could at least have finished my story before dumping me here and sparating me from Lars and Rose.”

“True. She’s actually supposed to be studying right now I think, something about human development. I guess I shouldn’t complain as much. My story is finished, just STUCK IN EDITING RIGHT NOW!”

*at this point, 10:06 minutes have elapsed and said author returns the boys to their respective worlds after writing 453 words and getting complaints about unfinished work thrown at her*. Teenage boys…

Characters: David is from Worldjumpers (which he so helpfully pointed out is waiting for me to finish transcribing into the computer and edit). Killian is from The Wolf Prince (which I am working on again as part of my personal word count challenge).

The test in question was this morning and went quite excellently. (I did Lauren’s prompt on a study break last night once I decided which characters should be meeting.)

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I’m not tagging anyone for this, but I’ve included a prompt if you would like to take up the challenge yourself!

You hear a knock on your front door. When you open it, you see nothing but a giant box. Inside this box is a green suitcase and a piece of paper with a note containing only a date from the future and your signature. What’s in the suitcase and why did your future self drop it off at the front door?