The Raven--Halloween Flash Fiction--And Offer

Happy Halloween everyone! This is my favorite holiday, and the reason why I wrote, Deadly Kisses. So, I thought I'd write a flash fiction piece to give you a little tease about my upcoming book. I hope you enjoy it, and may you get much candy this Halloween night (cue the spooky music).

  (source)

The Raven

The raven caws from a bare tree. Its sound echoes, sending eerie vibes into the wind, and through the forest. It then takes to the air, seeing movement below. Death creeps into its nostrils, and its belly rumbles.

Its black wings stretch, circling, soaring in the air, in the shimmery silver light of the full moon. It gets lower and lower. Finding its target, the voice of the raven gets louder, screeching with vocals of that of a cat in heat.

Its keen eye follows the movement, and the Grim Reaper runs faster towards a cemetery with scattered gravestones and a crypt.

Its wings flap until it picks up another current of air, lifting the bird higher into the sky again.

The Grim Reaper stops, looking up. He pulls down his hood off his head. Moonlight gleams over him. A wicked grin spreads across his face as he puckers his lips and blows.

The frigid air emitted by the Grim Reaper clashes with the cooler air, sending the raven off of his course, and making him off balance.

The Grim Reaper screams, “Tell your master I won’t be taken, and I’m certainly not your meal.”

The moonlight shines off his scythe, blinding the raven. 

By the time the raven can see again, it’s alone in the lonely forest with only the rustle of leaves, and a craving for meat. 

Because I love Halloween so much, and I'm so grateful for the support of other bloggers and my wonderful publisher, WiDo publishing, I'd like to send you a bookmark if you want one for, Deadly Kisses. This offer will expire at midnight, October 31, 2012.

Just email me your mailing address with bookmark in the subject please. kerricuev(at)gmail(dot)com

"looking at you" writer challenge!

Tag, I'm it! The "look" challenge was sent to me by Jadie Jones. Thanks Jadie! This was eye opening.

The rules: find out how many times the word "look" appears in your manuscript or work-in-progress. Then, post your favorite three paragraphs with the word "look" in it. Tag 5 other writers and let them know they were tagged.

I'm going to do a search on my work-in-progress, Kiss from the Grave, to see how often I use the word "look." I have a feeling the number will be staggering and every character will be looking somewhere. Yikes! This should be interesting, so here it goes.

My WIP is currently 30,000 words, and in those words some form of "look" is used 100 times. Ok, not as bad as I thought it would be for a first draft. But if you figure an average young adult story is 60,000 words, my "look" count could be as high as 200. Yikes!

Here are some passages (and keep in mind this is a really rough WIP--meaning not edited)

1.      Ivar snapped his head around, looking at her. Bee’s black hair was held in a low ponytail and her hood was draped over her head. She clasped onto our scythe as it was her lifeline, staring back at Ivar.

2.    “I looked forward to destroying Ivar, but first I would tear him with my scythe and make sure he had a bigger gash than me, and then I would slam him on his face.” Anger boiled within me. Darkness swirled and Bee was slamming her soul into my mind trying to suppress it down. The ice that pierced into my chest spread through my veins. It spread as waves covered a beach taking the sand with it. Ivar controlled me and I wanted it to end. End it I would.

3. Above ground the first nor’easter of the season was barreling down over the state.   Wind whipped the snow around into white out conditions. The only cars on the road were that of Grim Reapers. Even the cemetery looked to be a white wasteland except for Bee who stuck out like a black dot on a white paper.

Hmm, after assessing my "looks" I had a talk with my characters. I told them to stop looking around, and just get rid of the bad ancient grim reapers who is bothering everyone, and get on with the happy ever after! Yeah, I told them. *grins*

Now, I'm tagging some of you to "look"

Crystal Collier

Claire Hennessy

Ben Spendlove

Jess

Cheree Smith