It’s March 27th, 2016! Let’s do that update thing I do.
I had goals for Week Twelve, and this is what they were:
I did pretty good this week, and I had family in town during the latter part of the week, so I’m calling that a pretty big win. Continue reading
Another chapter is here for your viewing pleasure! Part Seven of The Wings Take Shape is coming at you.
If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!
Last week, Captain Renee Mollen and her squad were taken captive by foreign soldiers at the trading town Danver’s Table. Amidst questioning, Renee distracted their guards long enough for her twin sister, Sergeant Marie Mollen, and her adopted Sergeant Regina Hughes to free themselves and mount a rescue of the rest of their Winged Riders.
They free the Wings and take control of Danver’s Table, and in the ensuing discussions, Renee presses all the able-bodied men, women, and teenagers into service under her Winged Riders. If they want to be protected, they can help protect.
They have decided to flee for the home of Sadie Sawyer Paige, Jon’s aunt and wife to Jeffrey Paige, a Winged Rider in Captain Claire Claymonte’s employ. Sadie is a Skinchanger of a different ilk, having absorbed the powers of the cadshee, shifting into any form at will. If she still lives and they can find her, Sadie may prove a capable ally in the coming conflict.
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Part Seven – Shadow of the Cadshee
by Rick Cook Jr.
They fled south and west, taking every backwater trail the twins could muster, trying to avoid the main arteries of the empire’s roads. Twice in their desperate, exhausted flight they had run the horses ragged fleeing foreign patrols and taken sanctuary in the bloody wood. And both times they had slept little or not at all.
Marie certainly hadn’t caught more than an hour’s rest. Between Renee’s worry infecting her and Private Wander trying to cozy up to her despite their desperate circumstances, and a needling feel that eyes watched them in the Red Forest, sleep was an old friend gone a long time.
It was her imagination or it wasn’t for that last worry. Maybe it was Jon? Renee patrolled the border of their encampment, calling to him when she thought no one could hear. Wherever the fool had gone, he wasn’t coming back right now. And even as she thought of Renee she realized something else.
Their twinner bond was weakening. Continue reading
It’s March 20th, 2016, which means it’s time for the Week Eleven update!
My goals for Week Eleven were:
I’m still having trouble completing all my goals for a week, as you can see, but I’m making progress on both writing and editing goals, and those are my most important goals, along with maintaining the blog, so I’m still pretty happy with progress so far.
I wrote for a D&D style romantic fantasy story in the writing game this week, and I had a lot of fun driving a wedge between the two main characters before adding in an overarching conflict for them to struggle against. The writing game, as I’ve mentioned, was one of my favorite things from my year of writing last year, so I’m still psyched to be doing it again.
Writing Game Year 1 will become available once I finish the broad edits and confer with the other writers about how the more particular editing will go. Since one-sixth of the stories are not my writing, it’s a different editing proposition. I will be seeking changes but not actually making the changes myself for the most part. Similar to Editors for short story magazines and anthologies, I will be recommending changes and we’ll settle on what works while keeping in line with the original author’s intent and wishes whenever possible.
I don’t know when it will be “done” but an announcement will be made when it is!
My goals for next week are thus:
Until next week, go out and tell someone something that you’ve been putting off. Doesn’t matter what it is: something they’ve done to annoy you, an impassioned plea to change destructive behavior, a declaration of love, telling someone close to you a thing you’ve been holding in, quitting your job, whatever! Don’t let things go on unsaid, it’s unhealthy.
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As always, follow me on Facebook and Twitter with #breakingauthor. Keep on striving for those goals.
And always remember to write the hell on!
Tuesday has arrived and with it another chapter in the epic tale of The Winged Riders as they struggle against a great force, seeking to take back the empire that was stolen.
If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!
Last week, morale was low in Captain Renee Mollen’s Winged Riders as they searched the countryside for any signs of life capable of joining her on her insane mission to retake the capital. They came upon a village still standing at long last, Danver’s Table, and got their bearings from the leader of the town, Danver Jr.
They bedded down for the night in the town’s common building, only to be taken prisoner once they were asleep. In the scuffle, Jon turned into a cougar, losing control of himself and killing their scout as he fled, disappearing into the Red Forest.
What will the Winged Riders do?
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Part Six – Traitors
by Rick Cook Jr.
Renee spat blood she wasn’t bleeding. The traitors worked over her Sergeants in the small tent they’d set aside special, just for the commanding officers. Every time Marie took a blow to the stomach, or the face, Renee winced at the phantom pain from their bond. Marie was strong. Of course she was, and they’d all had training in how to take a beating, how to survive torture.
But it was too much. Too much for Renee to bear. She cried out, “Enough! You will stop this instant or I will see you hanged for it.”
The townsfolk – bloody bastards – grinned at her over their shoulders. She didn’t know these two men, but it didn’t matter. Traitors were punished and when she got free, Renee would see them all in stocks. Continue reading
It’s March 13th, 2016, which means it’s time for the Week Ten update!
My goals for Week Nine were:
And Tuesday comes, bringing whispers of fiction on the wind…
It’s time for the next part of The Wings Take Shape, the second entry in the serial novella series I run on this here blog.
If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!
In Part Four, the last known Winged Riders scrambled to gain information and plan their next move. Jonathan Sawyer, Skinchanger, grappled with his emotions over the slaying of an enemy while in his wolf form, Swiftstrike. He felt like he might be losing himself.
Captain Renee Mollen and Sergeant Marie Mollen, twins and twinners, sharing an empathic bond, reassured him that he did what was right and necessary. With Sergeant Regina Hughes, they set out to gather an army from the surrounding villages to take back the capital from foreign enemies, only to find each new village and garrison of Kingsguard assaulted and burned down.
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Part Five – Dismay
by Rick Cook Jr.
“This is intolerable,” Renee hissed. She booted her mare into motion after surveying the seventh burned village, the second garrison of Kingsguard slain. Marie marked every body as they passed through. These were innocent men and women. Children. Elders. People that had done no wrong.
“We’ll get the bastards, Renee,” Marie said, riding up beside her sister and giving her a small jostle.
“I’m beginning to doubt it, Marie.” Continue reading
It’s March 6th, 2016 and I have been writing and editing this week! It’s time for the Week Nine update for 2016.
I managed to miss some of the goals this week, but I still accomplished several and feel pretty good despite the hectic days I’ve been having.
Continue reading
Tuesday is here again, my friends! I hope the week passed for you as fast as it did for me, but perhaps not if you were impatiently awaiting the next part of this story, eh?
If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!
In Part Three, Wing Captain Renee Mollen conferred with Sergeant Regina Hughes in the Red Forest while learning what she could of the events inside the capital city. The place has been overrun, and Renee’s old Captain, Claire Claymonte, is presumed dead along with the rest of the Winged Riders and Kingsguard remaining in the city.
Sergeant Hughes is now on a mission to round up every Kingsguard and able-bodied adult around the empire and return in force to retake the capital. Captain Mollen agrees to escort her on her mission and help lead the assault, though the thought of acting as a general terrifies her.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Marie Mollen led three of her Winged Riders down the road, hoping to distract the soldiers and keep them off Sergeant Hughes. They successfully trick the enemy soldiers into chasing them, and dispatch them before they can escape back to the capital. A wolf the size of a horse comes leaping out of the Red Forest to stop an escaping enemy soldier, then disappears back into the woods. Marie suspects it was Jonathan, Changed into the wolf she and Renee know him to be capable of becoming.
Before they rejoin Captain Renee Mollen, they discover evidence of the enemy soldiers possibly serving the Totemic Gods, one of which is a cougar.
On to Part Four!
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Part Four – Madness
by Rick Cook Jr.
Jonathan stalked the bloody wood as Swiftstrike, his throat raw and his stomach empty after what he had done to that soldier. He had deserved it, surely. He was the enemy.
And yet the taste of his blood was sticky in Jonathan’s mouth, coating his muzzle, and he dry-heaved against the forest floor yet again. He had never killed a man before. And it had been so easy.
So very easy.
He was almost back. Just a little farther. But suddenly he felt woozy, dropping to the loamy earth. Continue reading
It’s February 28th, 2016, and that means I have an update thing for you. You know, that thing I do. On a weekly basis. It’s cool. Trust me.
So it’s well known that I’ve been having a rough time of it for pretty much all of this month, but I managed to complete all my goals for the week this week, so that’s a step in the right direction!
Ah, can you smell it? The oaky scent of a fresh installment in The Wings Take Shape.
If you’re new to the story, head to Part One and start from the beginning!
Last week, Sergeant Marie Mollen helped keep order in the Red Forest while her twin sister, Captain Renee Mollen, decided what they should do. Their home had just come under attack from a foreign enemy, and they were barely outside the city when it started.
Private Jonathan Sawyer, a secret Skinchanger, took flight as a hawk to gather intel for Captain Mollen, and they rushed to the gates of the city based on what he had to say. Marie and Renee’s old Sergeant, Regina Hughes, came bursting out of the exploded gate, fleeing the capital, and Renee helped escort her to safety.
They flee to relative safety in the bloody wood while Sergeant Marie Mollen leads the chasing soldiers away with three of her Winged Riders to fight them off.
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Part Three – Reunion
by Rick Cook Jr.
Renee urged silence as they worked. The foreign soldiers had scarcely passed them by, Marie’s presence flitting away on a high of anger and excitement. Regina Hughes was not just injured, she was pinned to her horse, biting on the leather reins as Tanner and Jon removed the crossbow bolt from the thrashing horseflesh and finally through Regina’s backside.
Regina fell from the saddle only to be caught by Tanner, and he set her down against the red bark of the tree, preparing bandages. She sucked in breaths, seething through teeth clenched tight.
“The rutting bastards,” she hissed. “Can’t believe I let them get a shot at me.” Continue reading
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