A Writing Prompt Post - Introduction to the Concept

This is the first of what I hope to be many writing prompt exercises. I will post a writing prompt and if it's not my own I will post a link to it. This will be way more fun and informative if others join and post their own responses, but it isn't necessary. At worst its a chance for me to put some small bits of material out there. Keep in mind these prompts will mostly be very short pieces. Exploring an idea generated by the prompt. It can be just a single scene or even just a couple sentences that explore the prompt's concepts. If something longer ends up coming out of it, save it. You never know what might turn into a marketable work. Anything of in-depth substance is best kept off the public consumption unless you just want to give it away, which is ok too.

The first prompt I have is this:

"Overwhelming anger leads to serious consequences"

That's it. That simple prompt lead me to the scene below: Critiques are welcome so long as they are constructive and keep in mind these are created fast with the emphasis on the exploration of creativity rather than mechanics.

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     Her bloodied corpse lay twisted and lifeless in the dirt at his feet, and her killer stood not more than a swords length away.

 “There’s your bitch Din. I done’er up nice for ya. Delivered her in one piece as I promised “ Jek said with sneer. 

 He spat near her body and emphasized his disregard for her life. 

Din didn't respond at first, but not out of fear, but from anger. By the gods he was angry. A heated rage filled his mind. The heat came first to his face, and then pulsed behind his eyes. He started to tremble, and Jek took a nervous step back away from Din and the body. Din gritted his teeth with a growl that crawled up his throat, and then it bubbled out and burst forth into a hate filled scream. It was an animal scream. born of pain, of guilt, and of pure rage.

 He leaped forward with sword in hand and was upon Jek before the bigger man could do anything, knocking him to the ground. Jek through up his hands in a feeble attempt to stave off Din's attack. It was a futile effort as Din began to bash at Jek's forehead with the pommel of his sword in fitful flurry of strikes. Again, and again, and again Din pounded while he still screamed. The stunned crowd just gaped in response, not sure if they should flee or watch. The steady thumps of Din's hilt took on a wet tone. The blood flecked across Din's face as he continued his onslaught onto Jek's misshapen skull.

 Din's manic pounding slowed. The wet smacks stopped, and Jek's twitching body stilled. The crowd was silent, and for a few moments only Din's heavy breathing was heard. Someone screamed, and the silence was shattered. The crowd fled shouting about a monster, about a killer, about Din.

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Back to Blogging, Toddler Facts, and Writing Tools

     I'm firing up the post engine again, stop laughing. I am trying to get back into the habit of regular writing. I have aspirations of doing this on a more professional basis, but if history is any indicator I could fail. Many things have happen since my last round of posts, mostly poverty. There has however been other things, and they're good things too.
 
 
My daughter is approaching 3 years old and provides me endless entertainment in the form of what I call Toddler Facts.What are Toddler Facts? Well they are tidbits of information provided to you by a toddler. They can sometimes be legit factual information, such as "Princesses live in castles" or "Poop smells yucky.". These gems of information are usually delivered at unexpected moments such as bed time, or while your on the phone. There are special times when Toddler Facts are actually Toddler Lies. Since their tiny brains are still working on developing the sections that gauge human emotions like murder, it renders them quite capable of some very respectable yarns. As an example, my daughter toddled into the kitchen while I was eating cereal and calmly advised me to not to enter the bedroom. Now, as a parent several unpleasant things occurred to me at that moment. Mental panic set in and horrible thoughts of property damage entered my mind. I quelled this first response and then squashed the images of broken electronic devices and of unsolicited poo art from my mind. I then asked her calmly, "Why should I not go into the bedroom?". She said "because there is a T-Rex in there", and then sort of  waved a dismissive hand in the general direction of the bedroom. I was relieved. Imaginary T-Rex's are easy to handle, and inexpensive to deal with...poo art is not.

     Now back to me being serious about writing again. It would be super cool to not do IT work anymore and spend my days in a quiet room sharing fantastic tales to my adoring fans for truck loads of cash. Cause we all know aspiring writers always make truck loads of cash. Planning on how to handle my fortune and fame is only part of some of things I've done lately to try and get a little more serious about writing. I've found some helpful online tools to organize my thoughts and work. I use Evernote to quickly jot down any ideas that come to mind, or to take note of things that might inspire me later.

     I've also grown fond of Draft. I was a heavy Google Docs user until I was no longer able to access it from work. This forced me to find some other method of text editing in my free time. Google Docs is not very secure for a company that doesn't like the idea of employees being able to upload files from a workstation. Draft doesn't have the same goals as Google Docs and is designed to be a writer's site. The interface is simple and clean, and you can get to the business of writing very quickly. Edits are tracked in revisions, and things are easily organized by folder. Draft also has a lot of collaborative features that I have yet to use. Draft is priced at the reasonable rate of free, but it so good that I feel guilty not donating. I have moved almost all of my work over to draft and once I get it all over there I will gladly donate as it will be permanent home for writing.

     I discovered how helpful writing prompts are. Reddit.com /r/writingprompts has provided me with some great ideas to exercise my brain with. It's also led me to challenge myself with creating my own prompts. As a part of my new push to add to the blog I will share some of the things I come up with based on various prompts. There is a high probably that anything I scratch out from a prompt will be quirky, incomplete, and not very good. However, I'll have had fun writing it. I encourage you to write your own piece based off the prompt. You can share here in the comments, keep it to yourself or send it me at geeksonfireblog (*at*) gmail . If you give permission I may even share it in a future post.

     One more thing before I go. I've been getting back into the loop on the Fantasy Fiction and Fantasy Gaming world. I will be attending Gencon Indy again this year and plan to give any readers of Geeksonfire a few fun tidbits of news, and maybe a contest or two. That's all the news for now.

A new post based off a writing prompt will be up in a day or two.

A walk in the woods.

This little guy was demonstrating he was not taking any crap from my camera. 

Took  a stroll through some local woods this morning, and thought I'd share what I found.

A cool looking mushroom. No clue what kind it is.

Some more cool mushrooms. Also no clue what kind it is.

And then what we came looking for......

Panax Ginseng

Good Ol' Fashioned American Ginseng. Worth several hundred dollars a pound. The season started yesterday. I expect to be spending quite a bit of time find more.

25 year old root. i kinda felt bad once I dug it up. This sucker sprouted for the first time in 1988.

Book Review: Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

Red Country is technically a stand-alone novel, but like Joe Abercrombie‘s other stand-alones (Best Served Cold and The Heroes), it draws heavily from events that transpired in his FIRST LAW series. Reading Red Country before FIRST LAW will spoil things for you and you will lose out on a lot of the fun surprises and mystery characters that Abercrombie has set up for fans of the previous books.

The events in Red Country take place in a location west of the setting of the other books. The story draws heavily from Old West themes that are prevalent in American Western movies and folklore. The mud, dust, cattle, wagons, and scruffy adventurers are all here. Abercrombie unapologetically paints the scene with the brush of an old Clint Eastwood movie. I was even expecting those ominous whistled notes followed by a tumbleweed rolling through a dusty ghost town. Firearms do not really exist in this world yet, so everyone is still carrying swords. You can picture it like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly with swords. There was a very specific feel Abercrombie was going for, and he nailed it.

Fans of medieval fantasy that are unwilling to accept departures from that mold may find themselves feeling a little out of sorts with Red Country. My response to them is “too bad.” You can’t have your cake and eat it too. You loved Abercrombie for spitting in the eye of modern fantasy tropes only up until the point he decides to mess with your own particular beloved trope. There is nothing wrong with the setting Abercrombie created for Red Country, and it meshes perfectly well with the world he already established in previous stories. I thought the Western elements were brilliantly executed, and it provided yet another refreshing angle from Joe Abercrombie.

The story itself is fairly straightforward in its premise. A plains farming family already familiar with tragedy is victimized by bandits, and their children are stolen. The remaining adult sister named Shy, and their stepfather called Lamb are determined to get them back. The journey to save the children gets increasingly difficult, complicated, and violent as the story progresses. Everyone has a past that seems to hang over them. The decisions they made years ago suddenly have significant ramifications in the present. As with any Abercrombie tale, it is often hard to tell who the good guys are, but the characters are easy to sympathize with even if they’re rotten bastards.

The gore and violence is ever-present, and the main cast is in constant peril. It’s a given from the start that a lot of the cast will not make it to the end of the book. Every Abercrombie novel I’ve read so far has had certain moments that really made me react strongly, usually to some terrible plot event. In Best Served Cold there was a moment where a character was tortured to the point of breaking. It was so real, and visceral — it stuck with me, maybe even disturbed me a bit. The Heroes had one or two of those moments as well — moments I will never forget. Moments that changed how I perceive fantasy fiction and its place in literature.
Red Country did not have those moments for me. There were plenty of great moments, but at no point did I feel like I got sucker punched. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Justin, why on earth would I want to be punched… unexpectedly even?” Well, because good writing should make you feel something, and great writing will make you feel something more. Brilliant writing will make you cry yourself to sleep that night. In some of my favorite Abercrombie books there are moments of brilliant writing. Red Country was very good; it just seemed to be missing a hard hitting moment.

I know that seems like a pretty hollow complaint. Sorry Joe, but your book didn't “change me” so I won’t give it 5 stars. As unfair as it is, it’s my reason for a half-star deduction. Abercrombie has set the bar so high that not keeping me awake at night becomes a half-point deduction. Red Country is fun, nail baiting, and brutal. All the gritty elements I have come to expect from an Abercrombie story are there. It challenged me in philosophical and moral ways, and it continues to push the boundaries on what we expect to see in the fantasy genre. Any fantasy fan that loves to see the genre bent and tested in creative ways should read Red Country.

Originally posted over at FanLit as a 4.5 star review

Been Awhile and Then Some- My State of the Blog Address 2013

More poor blog. I neglect it so. I will be the attentive blogger for a few weeks, teasing a faithful relationship....then wooosh! I'm gone. I don't mean to be that way, but unfortunately my fluctuating desire to share coupled with a lack of content I deem worthy seem to arrive simultaneously, but that doesn't matter now, I'm back baby!....again!. Maybe for a long time...possibly for a few weeks. I'm not sure. I do have some things to share, so I see potential for a lot of content. I'll even have a couple book reviews up here soon.

The content I provide will shift a bit. I've dialed back some hobbies, like reading Fantasy and have replaced them with others, such as fatherhood and work. I've started a new business of growing Elm Oyster mushrooms, and I'll be sharing my trials an tribulations of that as it teases me with impending financial Armageddon. The mushroom thing is my hail Mary for a truly independent life. It's my shot at doing a thing I love to do and making a living at it. I'll go into further detail in a future post, and will try to provide some insight for those that may be thinking of getting into the fungus business.

I am also going to Gencon again this year, and will be providing some kind of report for the lovely people over at FantasyLiterature.com, whom I've not forgotten. I'll be spending three days and two nights there this year and I hope to catch wind of some cool new stuff to share here on the blog and at Fanlit if they'd like. I will still be playing Warmachine, but considering it's been since last Gencon when I played....I'll essentially be starting over.

Last but not least, I've slipped back into watching professional wrestling. I know it's not often a hobby one admits to partaking in. However, I think that should change. I'm enjoying my current run at wrestling fandom more than I ever have, even as a child. My work as a writer, and reviewer of stories has added a new layer of interest to me in how the stories unfold on a weekly basis. I'm watching from a different perspective now, but  I am still getting the same level of enjoyment. I plan to add a wrestling feature to the blog, it'll be a semi-regular article that is going to be part analysis and part trying to sell the muscle bound ballet to the non-initiated.

That's it for now. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days. I'll leave you with a picture of me, in my ninja breathing mask. I bought it for keeping out mushroom spore, and for looking like a bad ass ninja. Unfortunately it caused near ninja suffocation while still looking so bad ass. I had to buy a real respirator that isn't nearly as awesome. So in it's memory I'll immortalize it here.

Ninja Beard-Zero squints at you like a badass.