Scene by scene

So, today I finally got back to writing. This is a good example of sitting down and just writing whatever comes to you. You never have to write scenes in order, only write whatever you feel comfortable with at the moment. What you’re in the mood for. It’ll always turn out better than if you force it. Now, I don’t know if this is better. Or even good. It’s probably not good. But this is a start. It’s a scene between the main character, June, and a lesser character, Lynx. This scene is trivial in the scheme of things, but it in the story Lynx is always so relaxed and unaffected. This scene shows how much he really cares for June and how painful it is that it will never be. So here it is.

PS- This is unedited, unjudged. It’s just what I wrote. Later it can be cleaned up and critiqued, but this is an example of just plain ol’ writing for writing’s sake.
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June lounged in the overstuffed corner armchair, chin plopped in her hand as she stared out the bay window. Her expression was sullen at first glance, but at closer inspection her eyes were nearly crossed. They focused and unfocused on the motes of dust that played in the pooling late afternoon light.
She was just that bored.
Kailen was working, Kat was teaching, Juliet was doing Elder stuff, and Kass was on a date.
So they’d left her to stare at dust; dust that she was too lazy to vacuum.
June huffed a sigh and looked through the streaked glass. All she saw was flowers and stuff. Not exactly as compelling as looking out her old bedroom window. At least then someone was likely to be out on the street making a drug deal or claiming it was the end of the world via cardboard sign.
And she only smelled flowers and dust around here. Did all of England smell like flowers and dust? She missed Chicago. She even missed that on bad days the streets smelled like rotting trash from the river and on good days it smelled like the chocolate factory by the train station.
A tiny smile pulled at the corners of her mouth as she reminisced over something she’d been a part of only some months ago.
She didn’t hear the sound of Lynx slinking into the room on black leather army boots. Then again, no one ever did. That must be one of the many perks of being able to shift into a cat –extra elusiveness.
“J…” Her name caught on his lips as he took in her form through the heightened vision of a feline. His amber eyes sharpened and his fingers tightened on the doorframe he was leaning on.
Goddess, she was breath-taking.
June was admittedly good-looking by most standards, but at this moment Lynx could not recall human nor fairy that ever looked so lovely. He hungrily took in the mass of flaxen hair that was piled on top of her head. The dimming light shot through the strands and sparked like white fire as it moved minutely from her breathing. Her eyes were hooded by short, spiky lashes that he knew hid turbulent blue-grey color.
And then there were those lips. Lynx had to control his purr as he looked at that cupid-bow mouth, curved up in a secret smile.
His own mouth frowned as he realized that he wished he knew what that secret was. He never wanted to know all that much about the girls he dated. Lynx enjoyed beauty and an outgoing personality –they made good dates. But they all know he wasn’t a one-woman man. That’s how it had been since high school.
Lynx’s frown deepened as he felt a haunting feeling pass over him. He felt that if he had June, he wouldn’t need anyone else. But he’d thought that before when he’d had mass cases of lust. At least, he thought so.
But June could care less. The thought slashed through him with unexpected ruthlessness. When he made advances on her that would cause any other woman to swoon, she took it as a joke or blatantly brushed him off.
June was all for Kailen; this was clear. That Scottish bastard.
His mind began to travel onto much more unsavory things as Kailen came to mind. 

Neither could be sure how long they were in that room, frozen in their positions, lost in their memories; finally June did notice Lynx.
“Jesus!” she yelped with a jerk in her chair. “You scared the crap out of me, Lynx!” she breathed raggedly and settled a hand over her heart.
“Sorry, kitten.” Lynx grinned unabashedly, showing no sign of actually being sorry.
“You seriously need to lay off the slinking, buddy. It’s way creepy; about as creepy as turning into a cat and sneaking into my rooms unannounced.” She grumbled as she reminded him of the first time they’d met.
“Maybe you’re just not very perceptive of what’s around you.” Lynx shot back easily.
June didn’t get up, only eyed him wearily. Thus far, their relationship consisted of humor, annoyance, and fending off his advances. It was very flattering –and he was ridiculously gorgeous- but June just wasn’t interested. Not while Kailen was around. She didn’t care a stitch that they couldn’t be together by law of the bodyguard and the protected. All June could see was him.
“So…” Lynx’s smooth, culture voice interrupted her flitting thoughts. “You looked kind of, well, really bored. Anything I can do to alleviate that?”
June threw him a droll stare and twirled a stray strand of hair around her finger.
It was Lynx’s curse as part feline that his nose caught her sent of sharp lemon and soft musk that wafted over from her shifting hair.
“No, I was just missing my friends back home.” She shrugged, “I e-mail them and stuff, but it’s just not the same, I guess.” Her eyes darkened with still raw anger. “And since my father isn’t around…”
“But you’ve got us, kitten!” Lynx quickly interjected before her temper was released. He’d seen first hand what an untapped and pissed of June could do, and it was not pretty. Lynx preferred to keep all his appendages.
“All of you, meaning like five people. No offense, but I had a hell of a lot more friends back in Chicago. I’m fairly confined here to just study dusty old magic books and wait for people to do what they want with me.”
“Oh, Miss Popular.” Lynx whined in a snotty tone. “Were you all Mean Girls with the ridiculously short skirts and very high-heels walking down the hallway like you owned the place?”
“No.”
“Oh, a shame, that.”
June snorted a laugh and shook her head. “You are a twisted man…cat…thing.”
Lynx waved a dismissive hand, “Don’t even attempt to rationalize that.”
”I try not to. It’s still creepy.”
“You have some obsession with creepy.” He pointed out as he finally slunk into the room and place himself lightly on the arm of her chair. June scowled as she was forced to look up at him.
“I don’t have any obsession with creepy. Everyone here is all creepy and magical and shit. I just point out what everyone else is too insane to notice.”
Lynx rolled his eyes and ruffled her hair lightly. June had no idea what amount of control the gesture cost him.
“You, my dear, are the most creepy and magical of us all, aren’t you?” He asked pointedly, noting her wiggling anxiously at being put on the spotlight. “Who else can wield The Amulet but you?”
June scowled at the mention of the necklace she wore even as her hand clenched around it protectively.  She still didn’t have any idea what she was supposed to do with it, and that made her anxious more than half the time she was awake and most of the time she was asleep.
“Don’t say ‘wield’.” She wrinkled her nose with distaste. “It makes me sound like one of the X-Men or something. These are your powers, wield them only for good.”
Lynx laughed smoothly, showing off his elongated canines.
“Alright, when you start imagining yourself as an X-Man, then you know it’s high time to get out.”
June rolled her eyes and flopped back into the chair, her eyes closed.
“Don’t I know it.” She murmured, sounding exhausted with the direction her life had taken her.
Kiss her.
The thought shot through Lynx’s mind as he considered her serene face. He leaned down fractionally, watching his dark shadow play across her pale face. He could nearly feel the warmth from her lips on his. He was a man of action; no one could deny him that.
Praise the Goddess for his sensitive hearing or he would not have heard or smelled Kailen approaching. Lynx gracefully shot out of his spot and went to the window to look nonchalant. “Hmm?” June stirred and opened her eyes to inspect Lynx. It wasn’t like him to move so quickly, he was fairly lazy most of the time. She, of course, was oblivious to what had just nearly occurred.
Lynx, meanwhile, was silently cursing himself. It Kailen had even glimpsed something like that, it would be his job and pleasure to skin him and turn him into a fluffy cat hat.  On cue, Kailen opened the door in the kitchen and called out.
“June, are ye ’round?” Of course, if she wasn’t around he’d likely have a conniption fit.
“I’m coming!” June called, her face lighting up beautifully as she shot out of the chair to meet him half way.
“Lucky arse.” Lynx muttered, his eyes darkening to a dangerous gold. One day it would be his moment.

Cat’s Eye

So, I’ve decided that because I’m so in love with my characters from my old story and I have nothing better to write at the moment, I’ll work on my old story.

But before I get started, I want to concentrate on how my story came to be and what gave me that driving force to write it all down with a vengence. It actually was a dream of mine. I have a lot (more than a lot) of insanely colorful, plot-line worthy dreams. It’s just that I don’t remember them in the morning ’cause I’m an idiot and forget to write them down when I wake up. But this one stuck with me and wouldn’t let go until I attempted to create a story around it.

So, if I recall correctly (and I do, because the dream is still clear in my head although I had it something around five years ago) the first thing was that I was watching the dream. I wasn’t in it. There was a girl, she was pale and on the tall side, with very very long blonde hair. Her eyes were the color of storm clouds. You know the color I’m talking about? Right before it rains the clouds bunch together in mashes of swirling dark blue and grey. Like that.

And she was running through dimly lit streets. She didn’t know where she was going, only that she had to run. She had to protect something, something that was apparently very dear to her. Around her neck hung a heavy locket. It was a round locket, but not flat like the kind you put pictures in. It was spherical and heavy, made of gold. I never saw her open it, but I just know that when she did there was a stone inside -it looked like amber but it wasn’t that cheap, and was pure as a diamond. And it would glow in her hands. Literally, it would shoot rays of the sun out in all directions. But it only did that with her, no one else. Anyway, back to the dream.

The streets look like old England, or some town that hasn’t quite gotten with the times because they want to preserve their ancient qualities. She keeps running, her breath catching in her throat. She doesn’t know where she is; she is clearly not from here.

She finds herself at a darkened dead end. Just a brick wall. Shit. What can she do? She looked behind her, wondered if her assailants are on her trail. Surely they are, because whatever she carries around her neck is seemingly very important. Important enough to kill her for. She standing there, nerves jangingly her body, desperately trying to figure out what the next step is. Suddenly, the wall behind her begins to glow lightly. She thinks “Oh, what the fuck is going on now?” She is very sarcastic and moody in my dreams. The wall begins to vibrate, humming very softly. Before she can scream, a hand comes through the wall, grabs her wrist, and pulls her through.

She comes through the other side and is faced with a handsome man. Well, not a man. A teenager really. She’s a teenager as well, I forgot to mention this. He’s one of those boys that is handsome, but in a nondescript way. He only has plain brown hair and brown eyes, but was clearly one of those people who expected to be thought of as good-looking, and was very confident with it.

Of course, this girl was not that stupid. She’d just been chased through my dream and dragged through a brick wall. He’s looking at her with a softly charming smile and she’s a bit comforted, but not anywhere near soothed. He tells her that she’s safe here, they can’t get through the wall to this place. She asks what this place is and he points behind her from where she’d come and says “Cat’s Eye.”

She turns and realizes there is no wall! Where there was a wall are two massive (truly massive, I’d say about 20 feet tall, 5ish feet across) stone cat statues. They each stand about ten feet apart, leaving open air between them. The only way she could figure it, was that they’d come through there. Not that it made any sense. Not that any of this made any sense.

But she was tired, it was night, and the lamp posts on this cobble stone street were soothing her. And the boy was looking at her so kindly, she could hardly resist just falling asleep. He took her hand gently and started down the street with her. She follow dumbly, because hey, it’s a dream and people don’t always do the most normal thing in them. They walk over a small stone bridge and at the end of it he pulls her into a small, but clean alley.

She didn’t expect him to take both of her hands so sincerely. He’s holding them, looking into her eyes with a kind expression. She can feel how much he wants her and she can’t help but want someone as good-looking as him right back. He’s telling her about The Amulet. That’s what he’s been calling it. The Amulet. He’s telling her how important it is to “their people.” How powerful it is when she wields it. He could take her away and they could just be together and she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone ever coming to search for her. They could keep The Amulet safe.

She’s so caught up in this, caught up in everything that’s happened to her that she nearly gives in. But for a split second, she looks into his eyes and she sees hunger alight in them. But then hunger is not for her.

He’s staring directly at the necklace.

And then she knows. She realizes she can’t trust anyone. He fancies himself in love with her -maybe he doesn’t even fancy that, it might be all a lie to get the necklace. She frowns and pushes away from him slowly. He’s confused by the action -no one ever turns him down. Not even the carrier of The Amulet would dare to do so. But she’s fairly perceptive and has seen right through him -and has turned him down. As she runs away from him, her heart breaking from this revelation that she can never love while holding The Amulet, he snarls at her. “You’ll never be safe, Witch.”

She can feel that this amulet isn’t evil, not even a bit. She’s nearly a part of it. And she knows that in anyone elses hands it is deemed useless. So why does she know that so many people in this life and the next will be murdered for it? Not only that, why does she now have the sinking feeling that she’ll never be able to trust someone without wondering what they’re really after?

Ponderful…

So I’m thinking about writing. Naturally. But specifically, I’m wondering if I should start a story from scratch or work on a story that already has a beginning, middle, and end, but needs a shitload of work.

My story reads like young adult fiction -probably because I still consider myself as young adult. I really like the story, and even though it’s actually a piece of shit, a lot of people liked it back in the days when I had post it on Quizilla.

So either make my already written story rock…or start from the beginning.

I must think.

Right then, lets get this show on the road

Well, this blog is originally intended for my writing. Or more specifically, being a part of a writing challenge that Denise thought up and I’m sweeping myself along for the ride. Basically, we’re attempting to kick our asses into gear and get to actually writing shit down. On paper. Err…Microsoft.

No more saying, “Oh, this would be a good plot! I’ll just put it away for the next five years…then I’ll be ready to write it.” No more finding dusty half done stories under your matress and going, “Oh I remember when I was so driven to write that…too bad!”

 We’re actually gonna do it. And blog along our progress as well!

But I assure you, I like to talk. A lot. More than a lot. So I assure you more than half the shit in this blog will be my complaints on the universe and all the things wrong with it. All of my old blogs were crammed with sarcasm, rants, and bitchyness. So I doubt I’ll be changing any time soon.

Anywho. That’s it for now. But I’ll be back.