A Little Friendly Competition

Competition is always a good thing. It forces us to do our best. A monopoly renders people complacent and satisfied with mediocrity.
— Nancy Pearcy

It was never wise to challenge fate to a Hold my beer contest.
― Yasmine Galenorn

It is the contest that delights us, and not the victory.
— Blaise Pascal

Have you ever entered a writing contest? They can be a lot of fun, and the prizes can be a lot more than you’d ever make just publishing your short fiction or poetry.

When I first started writing seriously, I wrote science fiction and fantasy, I used to enter the quarterly Writers of the Future contest, that was started by L. Ron Hubbard. Not only were there decent cash prizes, winners and runners-up were also published in their yearly anthology. A couple of times they sent feed back on my stories, and once I made it as a finalist but was too far down the list to be included in the anthology.

I’ve also entered the annual Toronto Star Short Story Contest several times. In the early days prize was a word processor or computer with word processing software, which I coveted more than the prestige of winning the contest. These days first prize is $5,000.00 and tuition for the Humber School For Writers’ online course.

There are a lot of benefits of entering writing contests, the main one being the prize money. While some contests offer little, other than bragging rights, for all your effort, many of them offer substantial rewards. The drawback is that many of them have an entry fee so you can actually lose money entering them. Myself, I never enter a contest that requires an entry fee, but I think that could change for the right story.

A lot of contests are themed, looking for a specific kind of story, which encourages you to try something you might not have considered before. There are also a variety of lengths (everything from six words to sixty thousand), genres, and styles. This is your opportunity to stretch as a writer.

Contests have specific deadlines, which is great motivation to overcome that pesky procrastination and get it done. You’ll need to finish your story, polish it up, and get it submitted on a schedule. And if you’ve done it once, you can do it again, even without a deadline.

It will improve your writing as you polish up your work before sending it. And sometimes, if you’re lucky, you’ll get feedback on your story.

Entering contests will help you develop perseverance. It’s unlikely you’ll win the first time out, but if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And even if you don’t win, you have a polished story that you can submit elsewhere.

There are plenty of contests out there, do yourself a favor and find one.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

WORDAGE REPORT

You know, it might be easier to do the Wordage Report if I actually kept track of the words I wrote. I worked on a couple of stories, but didn’t think to keep track of the word counts. I guess I should just be happy I got things done.

I think I’m going to stop worrying about the Wednesday post. I’m just getting back into a writing routine and the Wednesday posts tend to be time consuming. Even when I’m recycling from old posts I need to update them.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1,198+550+942=2,690

Three minute words – 108+119+116+127+128+128+130=856
Total words: 2,690 words

EDITING:
I did some bona fide editing last week. Specifically, Story 1 from NaNo received a title and an overhaul. I think all in all it was reduced by about six words in total.

I also edited two poems and printed out a story to edit the old fashioned way. Next week I’ll try and keep track of the time I spent doing so.

MARKETING MONDAY:
Every year I remember the Toronto Star Short Story Contest, only after the deadline has passed. This year I remembered with a whole week to spare. LOL While there’s no fee for the contest, I did spend $17 on postage to ensure it arrived before the March 1 deadline (they only accept submissions through the mail). I also submitted a couple of poems to themed anthologies.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
I had another Zoom meeting with my stitchery group and I kind of liked it. It makes me wonder why I was resisting for so long. Unfortunately it took up half my Tuesday, and the final polishing and a trip to the post office with my contest story took up the rest of it. So that was pretty much it, technically speaking.

CRAFTING:
I got a little more work done on my current afghan. The moderator for the Zoom meeting gave us another challenge, putting me three projects behind. This inspired me to get working on one of them. I’d forgotten how hard cross stitch is on the eyes.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Carnal Innocence, by Nora Roberts and then read Divine Evil, and so far I’ve resisted picking up another of her books. I don’t know how much longer I can hold off though.

And easing back on the Noras meant I spent more time with the Kindle. I finished A Mate For the Christmas Dragon, by Zoe Chant, and then Holiday Heat Boxed Set (five books in one), by Vanessa Vale. Now I’ve started Her Cowboy Prince, by Trish Milburn. Looks like I’ve turned from the shifters to the cowboys.

GOALS:
1. Continue working on my Christmas Story.
2. Complete one of my stitchery projects.
3. Check out more contests.
4. Continue the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.

Have a happy writing week.

The Cave – Part Seven

To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.

Having little choice, they go further inside, hoping to find another exit. They come to a chamber with crystals embedded in the walls that have a hypnotic affect on Eve, then follow a ledge alongside a chasm. They’re almost out of food and water when they find crystals, like the ones in the mosaic. Eve wants to gather up the crystals, but Sara finds another ledge and is sure they’re close to a way out. At this point, a crazed Eve shoves her over the side.

With no sign of remorse, Eve turned and went back to the stones scattered over the floor. Crouching down, she focused her attention on the stones and began sorting through them.

“Only the best,” she muttered. “Only the most worthy.”

When her pack was full, she raised her head and looked around. A frown creased her forehead.

“I should have kept her pack,” she said.

Shaking her head at her lack of foresight, she stood up and shouldered her pack. Oblivious to the weight of it on her back, she started back the way they’d come.

Eve moved slowly, retracing the path she and Sara had taken just a short time before. She couldn’t shake the feeling she was forgetting something, something important. At least, it had been important to her once. But now . . .

Now she wasn’t sure of anything except for the need to keep moving. On her back, the stones she was carrying glowed softly.

Eve reached the natural cave that had multiple exits and stood in the center, considering her options. How had she decided before? She couldn’t remember. All she knew was that she had to get back to the chamber with the mosaic, even if it meant retracing every step she’d taken thus far.

“Which way, which way,” she muttered. She really didn’t want to follow that narrow ledge again, especially not with a pack of rocks strapped to her back, but she would if she had to. “There has to be another way.”

There was a whisper in the air. Eve dipped her head to one side to listen. “A short cut, really? That would be most helpful.”

She looked carefully at the choices before her, checking for something specific. Her eyes lit up as she found what she was looking for, and she entered the new passage without hesitation.

This passage seemed to be one of the natural ones, the walls were rough and the path uneven. Eve moved with careful precision. It wouldn’t do to stumble or fall, hurting herself. There’d be no rescue if she did.

Her step faltered. No one else. She was alone. Why was she alone? She knew better than to go spelunking without a partner. But wait. She hadn’t been spelunking, she’d been rock climbing. Rock climbing with someone, but who?

Eve shook her head. Her breath came out in a gust. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that she get back to the mosaic with her stones. It was calling to her. She never should have left it. But if she hadn’t, she wouldn’t have found the stones.

After an hour or two, Eve’s energy began to flag. She came to a split in the passage and paused. Which way should she go?

She listened, and at first could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing, her own heartbeat. But then she heard something else. Was that…yes it was! She could hear water dripping.

Eve followed the sound into a passage which ended in a cul-de-sac. There was a niche in the rock that was dripping water into a naturally formed bowl. There was no question that the water would be safe to drink. The science of it eluded her, but she remembered reading something about water filtered through limestone being pure.

Eve shrugged off her pack and removed the empty plastic bottles she’d stuck in the mesh on the side of it. She filled the first bottle and then drank the whole thing down, letting out a sigh of relief. “That tasted better than a cold brew on a hot day.”

Refilling the bottle, she it aside to carry with her, then filled the other two, tucking them back in the mesh.

Part of her just wanted to sit and rest for a while, but there was another part of her that needed to keep moving. With a sigh, she got to her feet again, shouldering the pack with the softly glowing stones.

Making her way back to the split, Eve continued on her way. One step in front of the other, each step taking her closer to her goal. Whenever her utter aloneness started to make her nervous, or the darkness and the walls started to press in on her, then the stones she was carrying would pulse, their energy soothing her, blanking her mind to everything but moving forward.

Twice she came to forks in the tunnel, and each time she hesitated only momentarily before making her selection and moving forward. Eve had no way of knowing how long she’d been following the tunnel, but in less time than she expected it spat her out in the back of the chamber housing the mosaic.


Missed an installment? Catch up here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six

Facing Facts

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
— Mark Twain

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
— Soren Kierkegaard

People will generally accept facts as truth only if the facts agree with what they already believe.
— Andy Rooney

It’s a funny thing. When I first came up with the title for this post, I was facing the fact that I was in a writing slump. However, since then I kinda pulled myself out of it. Go figure, eh?

It wasn’t that I was lacking in ideas, I was just lacking in the motivation to do anything with them. One of the reasons for that was that I was in another of my reading binges. While a writer should do a certain amount of reading, I was doing an excessive amount. Not quite as bad as last year where I spent the first couple of months doing nothing but read, but bad enough.

And once again I put the blame squarely at the feet of Nora Roberts. I don’t know what it is about her books, but there are about a dozen of them that I have read and reread and I still can’t seem to put them down once I pick them up. But I’ve been trying to force myself to slow the reading down. The books aren’t going anywhere and I have all the time in the world to read them.

I actually made it three whole days without picking up a Nora Roberts book. Of course I made up for it by spending a little more time with my Kindle, but it was easier to pull myself away from. One thing for sure, I will be staying away from the Nora Roberts trilogies for now. My binging resistance is pretty low as it is, I’d never be able to resist binging on the trilogies.

The other reason for the writing slump is that I was fighting off some kind of bug that was making me super tired and head-achy. It was really hard to focus. It didn’t matter if I was writing long hand or on the computer, I just couldn’t seem to concentrate on what I was doing.

So, thinking the tiredness might be a blood sugar thing, I paid better attention to what I was eating (ie, controlling the snacking). I also cut out coffee, not that I take sugar in my coffee, but I’ve had issues with it in the past.

I don’t know if it was that or the bug just ran its course, but whatever it was, I’m finally feeling a little more alert – less tired and better able to focus. So while the first half of the week was a write-off (no pun intended), I did much better for the last half of the week.

Of course maybe it was all just mind over matter. :-)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

I probably still did more reading than anything else, but the good news is that I did get other things accomplished. And this included a time-consuming family obligation and dealing with a sick cat.

I got Monday’s post done, but still nothing on Wednesday yet. To be honest, I didn’t even give Wednesday a passing thought. And if you look at the word counts on my three minute words you’ll notice one of them is more like a ten minute word. I really wanted to end Friday’s post on a cliff hanger so I just kept going.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 878+506+1024=2,408

Three minute words – 121+106+100+262+101+119+118=927
Total words: 2,408 words

EDITING:
Be still my heart. I actually took a long look at An Elemental Spirit, and I was surprised to see that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. I guess I must have done a bit of editing on it after it was done. And I included lots of notes in the folder as well. The only downside is that I forgot this is one of the books where I was going to start each chapter with a journal entry. Or maybe I didn’t forget, maybe I just blocked it out.

At any rate, that’s where I’m going to start, with the journal entries. Both An Elemental Fire and An Elemental Water start each chapter with journal entries, and I remember spending as much time on them as I was on the actual chapters, just so they’d fit. But these will be a little different because they’re not journal entries per se, but excerpts from historical documents.

MARKETING MONDAY:
I received numerous links through my email from groups I belong to or newsletters I’ve signed up for and I checked out several only to find that for one reason or another, my work does not suit their publications. I might be able to tweek one or two of them to fit, but that’s still no guarantee.

In any case, one of the markets was a call for stories about monsters. I recalled one of my NaNo stories was about a were-alligator, but unfortunately I had no idea which one. My stories all had titles like: Story 1, Story 2, Story 3, etc. So I spent considerable time making a list of what these stories were about, which will be helpful going forward.

TECHNO TUESDAY:
Tuesday I checked out some online courses. Does that count? That was also the day I had to deal with the sick cat. Hopefully, next Tuesday will be more technically successful.

WHAT I’M READING:
I read Sacred Sins and Brazen Virtue, by Nora Roberts, and just started Carnal Innocence, also by Nora Roberts. See? Slowing down.

On the Kindle I finished Wings of Stone, by J.D. Monroe, and started A Mate For the Christmas Dragon, by Zoe Chant.

GOALS
Last Week’s Results:
For crafting I got about a foot done on my afghan, and I’m ready to start the second set of stripes. I actually did take a look at my Christmas story and moved a few things around so I can start expanding, but that’s as far as I got. Still no Wednesday post. While I didn’t get any of the edits/rewrites done on Elemental Spirit, I did get things organized so I can dive right in.

Goals For the Week Ahead:
1. Spend time crafting every day.
2. Work on the Christmas story
3. Come up with a Wednesday post
4. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit

Have a happy writing week.

The Cave – Part Six

To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.

Having little choice, they go further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They come to another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls, and then find themselves following a ledge alongside a chasm. With little food and water remaining, things aren’t looking good for the pair.

Sara hadn’t felt thirsty before, but now that she knew their water supply was almost gone, she felt a raging thirst.

The two women were exhausted, and stretched out as best they could to try and get some sleep. This time, however, they left the light on, but turned it down as low as they could make it without turning it off.

Sara slept fitfully, awareness of their lack of water, the desperateness of their situation, keeping her from relaxing fully. But at some point she must have dropped off for a bit because she woke with a start to find herself alone in the chamber.

“Eve?” she called, scrambling to her feet. “Eve? Where are you?”

Her heart was pounding, and she took deep breaths to keep from panicking. The situation was enough without adding panic to it.

“Eve?” she called again. Where could she have gone? It didn’t seem likely she’d have gone back, but why would she go forward alone?

“Eve, where are you?”

Sara turned up the brightness of her light and played it over the arched opening they’d entered through, and then in the opposite direction to the opening beyond.

“Eve? Talk to me?”

What if she’d gone forward and gotten hurt? Or worse, gone back and fallen off the ledge?

“Eve!” Sara called out, a little more sharply than she intended.

“Oh, stop your caterwauling,” Eve said, emerging from the dark tunnel ahead. “I’m right here.”

Sara wanted to chide her for her thoughtlessness, but bit back the angry words. “You had me worried,” she said instead.

“For crying out loud, I was only gone a minute or two. I was checking ahead a bit.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Not really,” Eve said with a shrug. “If you’re done with your hissy fit, we should get going.”

She turned and led the way into the passage. Sara stared at her back, filled with misgivings. Something was happening to Eve and it wasn’t anything good. It had started in the cave with the mosaics. Something more than just being mesmerized by the mural. What Sara couldn’t figure out was why she wasn’t affected.

No, that wasn’t true. It had affected her too. She’d felt the pull of it but instead of filling her with awe, it had filled her with fear. Deep down in her bones she felt it was evil. She thought Eve would get better the further she was from it, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. And now she had a new concern.

“Hey, Eve. Can we stop for a minute? My sock has slid right down into my boot.”

“No,” Eve said, not even pausing.

“C’mon Eve, I don’t want to get a blister.”

“Not my problem. You wanna stop, you stop. I’m not waiting.”

Cursing under her breath, Sara stopped and switched on her own light so she could see. She couldn’t risk a blister, especially if it became infected.

“You couldn’t pick something mundane, like a walk in the park, could you?” she muttered as she unlaced her boot. “No, you had to go hiking at Spirit Rock.”

She fixed her sock and retied her boot as quickly as possible, then half-jogged down the passage to catch up with Eve.

It took her several minutes, fear rising in her with every step, before she caught up with Eve, who was standing in a more natural looking cave that had several exits.

“Great,” Sara said, slightly out of breath. “More choices.”

“Life is full of choices,” Eve murmured.

Sara felt a shiver go up her spine. “Tell me, Eve,” she said.

Eve looked at her without interest.

“If I hadn’t caught up with you before you decided which way to go, would you have waited for me?”

“I guess we’ll never know,” Eve said with a thin smile. “You seem to like making decisions, which way should we go?”

Ignoring her misgivings, Sara stepped closer to the openings. She was positive she could feel a faint current of air from one of them.

“This one,” she said.

The current of air became stronger as they continued on, but Sara didn’t say anything about it. She didn’t want to get her hopes up, nor did she want to set Eve off. She stumbled, the footing becoming rougher. “Look,” she said, casting her light downwards. “The floor is littered with crystals like the ones in the mosaic.”

Eve was already on her knees, gathering up as many as she could, stuffing them in her pack. “Mine,” she muttered. “All mine.”

“You’re just going to weigh yourself down,” Sara said. The stones made her feel uneasy though she couldn’t have said why.

Eve looked up at her, a strange light in her eyes. “Mine.”

“Fine,” Sara said, backing away a bit. “Look, there’s an opening just ahead. I’m going to check it out.”

Eve made no reply. Shaking her head, Sara stepped through the opening and found herself on another ledge. But this time she didn’t get the same sense of space, and there was definitely a cool breeze.

“Hey, Eve. I think we’re close to a way out. Why don’t you leave those rocks – we can always come back for them.”

Suddenly, there was a tremendous shove from behind her. Sara didn’t even have a chance to scream as she fell.

“Oops. What a shame,” Eve said with a snicker.

Done!

Finishing something will give you satisfaction. Finishing something important to you will give you meaning. A meaningful life is a good life.
— Maxime Lagace

Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
— Theodore Isaac Rubin

To find a form that accommodates the mess, that is the task of the artist now.
— Samuel Beckett

Apparently, having a new chair was all the impetus I needed to get that final push on to finish my office. My office is finally cleaned and organized. Woot! I guess there was just something about that brand new chair behind that messy desk, sitting on a floor covered in paper shreds and junk.

So, just to jog your memory, here’s what my desk looked like before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

I thinned out the keepsakes on the back of the desk, and dealt with all the papers, etc. on the desk. There’s only one of the cloth baskets on top of the printer, but once I get it emptied again it should look a little neater.

And here’s the view from the other side of the desk before:

And here’s what it looks like now:

Quite the difference, eh? You can actually see the floor now. LOL

And finally, we have my reading area before:

And after:

So much more appealing!

I’d like to say now that my office is livable again I’ve been going to town on the writing, but that would be a lie. While I have been spending more time in there, I haven’t been doing a lot of writing, at least not the creative kind. I’ve been doing letters and emails and catching up on my journals, and a lot of puttering around.

I’ve been fighting off a bug that’s making me super tired and head-achy, which makes it really hard to focus.

Hopefully, this week I’ll do better.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

Once again I did more crocheting and reading than writing, but like I said above, I’ve been tired and head-achy. I don’t know if it’s the weather, a bad sinus cold, or heck, maybe it’s COVID. But whatever it is, I’m getting tired of it.

I got Monday’s post done, but nothing on Wednesday so far. I’ve had a couple of ideas, but nothing I want to commit myself to yet.

I had an epiphany regarding a series I started many years ago and then kind of got stuck and abandoned. It’s science fiction romance and bodes to span multiple volumes. In fact, my elemental series is an offshoot from it, as is one of my NaNo novels. So at least my mind is headed in the right direction.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1043+492+962=2,497

Three minute words – 121+140+131+137+109+114+117=869
Total words: 2,497 words

EDITING:
*sigh*

Once again the only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post. I have been thinking about Elemental Spirit though, as in considering ways to start it and who the main focus is going to be.

WHAT I’M READING:
I finished Shelter in Place, by Nora Roberts, and then picked up Growl (Feral Passions #1), by Eve Langlais, Kate Douglas, and A.C. Arthur. I love me some alpha shifters! Then I read the Liar, also by Nora Roberts.

On the Kindle I finished The Dragon Prince of Alaska by Elva Birch and started Wings of Stone, by J.D. Monroe, which is also about dragon shifters.

GOALS
Last Week’s Results:
Well, I think the three-minute-words are a given, considering I’m serializing them on my blog. And for crafting I started a new afghan. And that’s pretty much it, but the upside of the crocheting is that it keeps me from wasting my time gaming.

New Ones For the Week Ahead:
The whole “hour a day” thing I mentioned at the beginning of the year sounded good in theory, but it’s just not happening. Instead, I’m going to create Marketing Mondays, where I spend part of the day, probably the afternoon, investigating markets and/or submitting my work.

And I admitted to my best bud Jamie the number of electronic devices I have that are just sitting around collecting dust, and she advised me to suck it up and learn how to use them. LOL Realizing she has a point, I’m also going to initiate Techno Tuesdays, where I learn a new skill or how something works. Last week it was Zoom – I met online with my stitchery group and not only was it easier than I expected, it was kind of fun.

1. Crochet in moderation.
2. Expand Christmas story
3. Come up with a Wednesday post
4. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit

Wish me luck.

The Cave – Part Five

To quickly recap: Friends Eve and Sara were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. They checked inside and discovered a large cave with primitive drawings on its walls. As they venture deeper inside there’s a tremor, causing a cave in that traps them inside.

Having little choice, they go further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They come to another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls, and then find themselves following a ledge alongside a chasm. But something has stopped Sara in her tracks.

“What is it now?” Eve asked, voice filled with resignation.

“I’m not sure. There’s a … gap.”

“A gap? How big a gap?”

“I—I’m not sure.” Sara played her light over the ledge-like path they were on, and then followed along to the gap, trying to see beyond. “It looks like it’s only a couple of feet. I think we can step across, but it might be easier if we were facing the wall.”

“I’d feel a lot better if we know why there’s a gap,” Eve said as they cautiously turned around. “It’s unique to the path, at least I hope it is. But did the stone just crumble away, or did someone break it deliberately?”

“I kind of hope someone broke it deliberately.”

“I was being facetious,” Eve said. “Why would someone break a chunk out of the path?”

“I don’t know, maybe they were being chased and were trying to slow their pursuer down.”

“I think it doesn’t really matter. The real concern is, are we going to talk it to death or are we going to suck it up and cross over?”

Sara didn’t make a sound, but taking a deep breath stepped across the gap. To her great relief, the ledge was solid under her feet on the other side.

She moved a little further along and then shone her light back to guide Eve.

“Is it just my imagination or is the ledge wider on this side?” Eve asked, joining Sara.

“I think you’re right,” Sara said.

After another few minutes, the ledge was wide enough they no longer had to sidle along, and shortly after that it became wide enough that they were no longer hugging the edge of the chasm.

“How many miles do you think we’ve walked so far?” Sara asked suddenly.

“I can’t begin to imagine.”

There was a whisper of movement and Sara stopped so suddenly that Eve almost ran into her.

“Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Eve asked, irritably. She was getting a little sick of Sara hearing things and feeling things and deciding which way to go. She still felt the pull of the mosaic and regretted not turning back when they had the chance.

“There! You can’t deny feeling that. It’s a breeze, a cool breeze. It must mean we’re close to a way out!” Sara said excitedly.

“It could just be the air being stirred up by a really big bat,” Eve said waspishly.

“What’s going on? Why are you being like this? Don’t you want to get out of here?”

“Let’s keep going,” Eve said, ignoring her questions.

Sara didn’t know what was going on with Eve, but considering the chasm edge they were following, she figured it was best not to argue with her or upset her. But she also couldn’t understand why she wasn’t more excited about the possibility they were getting close to an exit.

To her great disappointment, she didn’t feel the breeze again and she worried that the exit was on the other side of the chasm. They continued on in silence. The ledge began to widen and at the same time gently slope downwards.

Twice they paused for a protein bar, washed down by sips of water, but they didn’t dare rest with the abyss so close.

Their feet were dragging when the ledge ended abruptly in a large, arched opening.

“Okay, this arch definitely isn’t natural,” Sara said.

“No shit, Sherlock.”

Sara rounded on Eve. “What is your problem?”

Eve scrubbed a hand over her face. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what it is – being trapped in this place, the oppressive darkness. Maybe I’m just tired.”

Sara played her light around the chamber beyond the arch. It was more like an alcove than a cave, but it was big enough for the two of them to stretch out in.

“We’re both tired. Why don’t we rest here? We can have a bite to eat and maybe get some sleep.”

“Sounds good.”

Eve shrugged off her pack and sat on the ground, Sara joining her. A moment later, Sara made a sound of frustration.

“What is it?”

“I can’t get my pack open. This clasp won’t co-operate.”

“Here, let me try,” Eve said.

Sara passed the pack over and after fiddling with it for a moment Eve was able to get it open.

“Thanks.”

Sara rooted inside it until she found the jerky. They made themselves as comfortable as possible on the ground, passing the bag back and forth until it was gone.

“We probably shouldn’t have done that,” Sara said with a sigh. “We should have saved some for later.”

“It wouldn’t have done us much good without water to wash it down,” Eve said. “We can last a lot longer without food than we can without water.”

Filled with misgivings, Sara checked her water bottles. One was empty, and the other only had a teeny amount in the bottom. They really needed to find a way out of here!

Trusting

Trust is built with consistency.
— Lincoln Chafee

Trust dies but mistrust blossoms.
— Sophocles

Trusting our intuition often saves us from disaster.
— Anne Wilson Schaef

So . . . I finally figured out why I’ve developed an aversion to working at my desk. I cannot trust my chair.

When I set up the larger room across the hall for my office, I had a big L-shaped desk with a hutch on it. And a big desk deserved a big chair, so I had a really comfortable executive office chair. But no matter how often I rearranged the room, it just wasn’t comfortable to work in. So eventually I moved back across the hall where the feng shui was better.

It was a smaller room, and I got a smaller desk for it, and unfortunately it was too small for my spiffy big chair. However, the hubby had a couple of office chairs that he didn’t really have room for, so he offered me one of them.

It wasn’t the prettiest of chairs, but it was comfy, and it fit behind my desk. Everything was fine until one day one of the wheels fell off and my world tilted. The hubby fixed it and assured me everything would be fine. And it was – until the wheel fell off again.

At this point I suggested maybe I should get a new chair, but though the hubby was a little puzzled as to why this was happening, he assured me he could fix it. When it happened again I got fed up and switched the chair with it’s twin, which we still had. It worked out fine . . . until it didn’t and the wheel fell off.

I found if I sat carefully, the chair would be fine. But every once in awhile I’d forget and I’d sit down and find myself listing to one side. It got to the point where I was almost afraid to sit in my chair. I certainly didn’t trust it when I did.

I finally had enough, and this week I went to Staples to buy a new one. And I tell you, that in itself is a story. They have a whole office furniture section with a large display of office chairs. I tried out a few while I waited for a salesperson to notice me, and wouldn’t you know, the chairs I liked best were the ones without a price on them.

So I went looking for a salesperson. The first one I found told me it wasn’t her department but she’d send the correct person to help me. Twenty minutes later a different salesperson asked me if I was being looked after and I told her I was looking to buy a chair but half of them didn’t have prices on them. This wasn’t her department either, but she’d ask one of the managers to help me.

Five minutes later, she was back to tell me that the manager for this area was with another customer, but he’d be with me as soon as he was finished. Fifteen minutes later, after testing pretty much every chair in the department, I’d settled on the one I wanted, and about 10 minutes after that the store manager came to help me.

I told her which chair I wanted, and even though she didn’t usually handle the stock, she got the forklift from the stock room to get one of the chairs down for me – they were all in boxes piled on really high racks.

So, she’s manoeuvring this forklift along the rack, looking for the right box. The first salesperson that I spoke with comes out of the stockroom to help and directs her to the wrong box. There is one stack of boxes that have the illustration of what’s inside – looks like the chair I wanted to me – but they both ignored them.

Finally, the department manager finished with his customer and took over and I finally got my chair. Honestly, if I hadn’t had such a bad experience with the file cart I would have just written the information down and ordered it online, but I no longer trust their online service.

I got my chair home and put it together all by myself. It’s pretty and comfy, and I envision spending much time in it going forward.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

Wordage Report

I freely admit that the whole chair thing was not the only reason I didn’t get any writing other than my three-minute words done last week. I got a bad case of the winter blues and I just didn’t wanna. What I wanted to do was read – and I did. *sigh* I’m hoping to do better this week to justify getting my new chair.

I skipped Monday’s post on the other blog, but honestly, I didn’t have anything to say. And I still haven’t given any thought to resuming my Wednesday posts.

NEW WORDS:
Blog Posts – 1074+935=2,009

Three minute words – 13+116+125+123+125+108+96=816
Total words: 2,009 words

EDITING:
*sigh*

Once again the only editing I did was the story for Friday’s post.

WHAT I’M READING:
Like I said, I was in the mood to read last week. I read Under Currents, by Nora Roberts and I’m about halfway through Shelter in Place, also by Nora Roberts.

On the Kindle I read Holly Jolly Lycan Christmas by Alicia Montgomery, and I’ve just started The Dragon Prince of Alaska by Elva Birch.

LAST WEEK’S GOALS
I’m starting to see a pattern with these goals of mine. And I’m not altogether sure I like calling them goals. I did okay on the three-minute words, and I finished my mother-in-law’s afghan, but that’s as good as it got. *sigh*

THIS WEEK’S GOALS
1. Continue with the three minute word, and continue the cave story.
2. Finish my mother-in-law’s afghan.
3. Start the edits/rewrites on Elemental Spirit.
4. Look into online courses.
5. Work on expanding my Christmas story.

Happy writing.

The Cave – Part Four

To quickly recap: Two friends, Eve and Sara, were rock climbing and stumbled across a fissure in the rocks. Upon further exploration, they discover a cave with primitive drawings in it. They venture in further and there’s an earth tremor that seals them inside.

Having little choice, the delve further into the cave, hoping to find another way out. They stumble across another chamber, this one with mosaics embedded in the walls. Eve seems oddly mesmerized by one of them and Sara gets a bad feeling about it and drags her from the chamber. Just when Eve is herself again, they hear a noise.

“I don’t—” Eve paused, and cocked her head. “It’s some kind of clicking noise, or tapping maybe.”

Sara shuddered. “It sounds like the clicking of a beetle. I had a close encounter with a swarm of them once – it’s not a noise you forget.”

“I think it’s stopped now,” Eve said. “Do you want to go back and take the other passage?”

Sara thought about it for a moment. Which was worse, the other passage which reeked of evil to her, or continuing on with the possibility of running into a swarm of beetles?

“Let’s keep going,” she said finally. “As you said, the noise has stopped now.”

“And if it starts up again?”

Sara shuddered. “Then I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

As they continued on their way, Sara slowly relaxed as the noise wasn’t repeated.

“I’m kind of sorry you heard the noise too,” she said.

“Why? It proved you weren’t hearing things.”

“Exactly. If I was the only one who heard it, then I could believe it was just my over-active imagination.”

“Maybe my imagination was just spurred on my yours,” Eve said. “This place is enough to make anyone start hearing things.”

“At least we’re not seeing things.”

“Not yet,” Eve muttered. “But I have noticed something odd.”

Sara paused to take a drink of water and waited while Eve did the same. “What’s odd?”

“The space in this passage is uniform.”

“I don’t follow.”

“If this was a naturally made tunnel, it would vary in shape and size, but this passage is more or less uniform.”

“So you think it’s man-made?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“That’s a good thing though, isn’t it?” Sara ventured. “There must be some purpose to it, it must lead to somewhere.”

“I hope so,” Eve said. “Oh, great. What now?” she asked, coming to a dead stop. She held the light up but it wasn’t powerful enough to penetrate the darkness of the chasm in front of them.

“I can’t even begin to figure out how to measure this,” Eve said. “We have no points of reference to tell how big it is.”

The darkness of the void pressed in on her, making her shiver. Sara came up to stand beside her. They both stared at the abyss in front of them. Eve swept her light downwards but it didn’t even begin to touch the darkness. “I guess we don’t have a choice,” she said, with kind of a grim satisfaction. “We’ll have to go back and take the other passage.”

Just then, the clicking noise started up again, this time coming from behind them.

“No way,” Sara said, and switched her own light on. She pointed it downwards, hoping to see hand and footholds that would allow them to climb down, but there was nothing. Then she played the light over the walls on either side of the opening they’d just come through.

“Look,” she said. “There’s a path along the edge.”

“That’s a pretty narrow path.”

“But it’s still a path, and it’s better than having to deal with whatever’s clicking.”

Eve was shaking her head. “You can’t expect us to just sashay along a path we can barely see. What if the rock isn’t as solid as it looks? Or worse, what if it peters out?”

“Then we back track and you get your way about the other tunnel,” Sara said. “I can’t explain why, but I just have the feeling we need to go this way.”

“Fine,” Eve grumbled. “But if I fall to my death I’m coming back to haunt you.”

Since the narrow ledge/path was on Sara’s side, she took the lead. It might not have been the brightest idea she’d ever had, but facing the dark unknown was preferable to facing whatever was making the clicking noise. The thought of running into a swarm of beetles terrified her.

“You know,” Eve said as they slowly edged their way along. “It’s too bad neither of us thought to bring a flask. I could really go for a stiff drink about now.”

“Make mine a double,” Sara said.

“At least the clicking has stopped again.”

“Small comfort.” Sara wished they’d been able to take a break before starting along this ledge. Her feet were sore and her calf muscles were starting to cramp.

The ledge that had started out so comfortably wide in the beginning began to narrow. Sara no longer needed to keep a hand on the rock wall beside them, now they were forced to turn so the wall was at their backs.

This slowed them down even further, forcing them to sidle along, facing into the void of the chasm. Sara thought of how far they’d come and quailed at the thought of having to backtrack.

“You know who would have loved this?” Eve asked suddenly.

“Who?” Sara asked, grateful for the distraction for the downward turn her thoughts were starting to take.

“My father. He loved adventures like this.”

“That must be where you—uh, oh,” Sara said.