What rose that night?
What spell called to them from the water, charmed them out of their beds, sipped slowly at their joy until only wraiths remained, gliding across a blue lake of tears?
I tried to stop it, didn’t I? I left, Carving myself from this place, left a trail of blood and lakewater behind me and walked away step by bloody step. Turned a blind eye to the catfish that swam in and out of my dreams, the fish scales littering the hotel sheets while I slept. Ignored the hunger that gnawed and keened in a plaintive wail that neither coffee or cake could soothe. Braced myself against the whispers, whittled myself down wishbone thin, the lilt in my voice sharpenin’ itself like a dagger. I held off, kept myself barricaded away until the voice slid in beside me one last time, “what if you didn’t have to be alone?”
My final “yes” scraped the last tired green chips paint from the peeling wall, set a few people down the way to weeping though they weren’t altogether certain why. Lakewater poured from the faucet as I stepped toward the door.
What happened to those girls? What happened to me?
Perhaps, perhaps if you should bespell me, cajole, tempt, perhaps them I will tell you.Come to shallows, let the mud suck at your toes, let the hoot owl sing like a woman in mourning’. Come down to the shadows and look for me in the deep.I will tell you my story, but I warn you…
The truth has a thousand faces and only one of them is mine.
~part of my #writing today for #writerstarotchallenge Tower Draw.#Backstory for my #villain.
I am going to cross post some reflections/excerpts as I work through Nanowrimo and my writer’s tarot challenge. I like the camp nanowrimo setup more than the regular one, I think, because it lets you form the cabins and interact with each other. The writing buddy feature on the site Nanowrimo is not the same, because it is not interactive. Well, that’s why we created this blog, right? Anyway, this week I am focusing on a short (~5,000) word ‘prequel’ of my novel, focusing on the villains story, so I have a fully formed person in my head as I go through my novel. I think as I create characters, I will make a file for them and do like 500-700 short narratives from their perspectives so each of them is more fully formed and note a cardboard cutout in my mind lol. So, what are you guys working on? I would love to see a short excerpt from your musical, Denise, or your outline, Kate
The Bard's Lament 
After several nights of insomnia, I’m finally rested enough to begin, so I’m going to be doing some back-tracking with the tarot challenge. Will post about the results of my outline work as it happens. Thanks again for posting the challenge, Larissa! I can hardly wait! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love these, Ladies! Write On!
LikeLike