Villainy!

So . . . last week was super busy for me, and quite honestly the prompts were the last thing on my mind. But I did, however, get a piece written for the villain challenge from a couple of weeks ago.

Surprisingly enough, my villain chose to speak for himself. Probably because if I had done it I would have tried to garner some sympathy for him – poor, misunderstood islander seduced by the dark side. But apparently Anakaron, my evil wizard from the Moonstone Chronicles, was having none of that. He’s bad, and makes no bones about it.

Anakaron Speaks:

I come from an island in the Mythric Ocean, so small it does not even have a name. My people were savage, but not savages; powerful and superstitious. I was born under a blood moon – it was known from the beginning I would be a blood mage. My mother was my first victim.

The lesson I learned while bathing in her blood is that only one thing in life matters – power. Those fools at the academy never suspected what they welcomed into their midst. My plan had been to rise in rank and rule them all, the city of fools, and I would have succeeded if not for HIM.

HIM, who had more power bubbling under his skin than he knew what to do with, while mine was hard won. HIM, whose path of veracity was sickening to me. HIM, who claimed to be my friend while scorning the dark paths.

He took everything from me. He basked in the admiration of the other students, not that I cared for their insipid company. He won the esteem of the instructors and the Wizard Council, who were never quite as impressed with my cunning and ability. And he captured the heart of the only woman I have ever loved. I will not rest until he is destroyed.

You say he did none of these things deliberately? Well consider this. I. Don’t. Care.

Times They Are A Changin’

I’m going to be upfront with you here. I hate the time change. It serves no purpose, other than to mess with our circadian rhythms and I promise to vote for the first Politian who swears to abolish it.

The New England Journal of Medicine published an article linking the shift to Daylight Savings Time (DST)to a rise in incidents of myocardial infarction (heart attacks). Different studies have shown there is an increased risk of stroke in the days following a time switch. There is an increased number of traffic accidents and more on the job accidents in the days following the time change.

Danish researchers uncovered a link between time change and an increase of hospital admissions for depression. Another study shows a link between time change and an increase in suicides. This begs the question, why do we still do it?

Supposedly, the switch to DST saves us money on energy. Moving that extra hour of daylight from the morning to the evening means we can work longer, play longer, and have a longer exposure to vitamin D. But studies have shown this isn’t really the case. Just because it’s still light outside doesn’t mean we’re out there enjoying it. And the decrease in energy used in the evening is offset by the needed increase of use in the mornings.

Forbes Magazine published an interesting article showing that the top 5 reasons for keeping DST have no science to back them up. You can read it HERE.

So back to my question, why do we still do it? The only answer I can come up with is that we do it because we’re told to by the government. And that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to me.



Prompt of the Week

You may have noticed I forgot to post my take on last week’s prompt. Yeah, well, you didn’t send me anything either, so there! LOL

On the weekend I spent some time with the prompt jar actually going through the prompts which I had mostly copied from the Writer’s Digest site, not realizing that a lot of them you had to click on to get the whole prompt. And prompts from other sources that I again mostly just cut and pasted from proved to be . . . lame.

But the jar is refilled now and my friend and I both chose a prompt for the week, so you get to have your choice:

Prompt 1:
To get the story straight. Dave, we think, has become a chicken. Just the worst of luck with that guy. Tom is claiming he married the futon that’s now covered in yogurt, Carl is on the chandelier with the dog and you just walked in after getting groceries. What the heck is going on?

Prompt 2:
You take a sip from your drink and feel different. That may be because your torso has an extra arm protruding from it. Another sip, another arm. Then a wing. What happens if you finish the drink?

Bonus

My friend has extended a challenge: Everyone has had a villain in their life. Challenge. Write a paragraph or two about a villain’s point of view. What makes them tick.

Remember, these prompts are just to flex your writing muscle, so have fun with them!

Prompt Me - the Masked Figure

Here we are again, the first Friday of the month. And here's your picture prompt for the month:

A cloaked figure in a mask crossing a barren field - if that doesn't inspire you to write a poem, story, or article I don't know what will. :-D

As usual, you have until the end of the month and I'd love to see what you come up with so feel free to email it to me at crward(dot)author(at)gmail(dot)com. With your permission, I can even post it here so others can enjoy it too.

And don't forget to stop by tomorrow to check out my first week's worth of poems!