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| The Twisted Climb Book 1 of the award-winning series |
I'm well into the manuscript for Book 3 of my Twisted Climb series, but every now and then I take a break from writing a young adult book and switch to.... sci-fi horror. Yeah, I have a fascination for science fiction thanks to Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. And I have a lurid fascination for horror, thanks to Stephen King's Carrie, The Shining, and The Stand. Many of the adventures in The Twisted Climb's dream world have paranormal and horrific features - features that I love to wrap my twisted mind around. Mmmm, delicious.
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| Lead characters in Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock |
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| The 1978 original cover of Stephen King's The Stand |
So when I have an opportunity to write something other than YA (young adult), I wholeheartedly accept. I belong to a writers' group called 'The Wordsmiths,' a very talented group of local authors and poets. To stir the creative pot, our group leader frequently provides story prompts. Last week's storyline choices were:
1. Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual - what is it?
2. Your character has just checked her lottery ticket numbers and finds that she has all the numbers and is a big winner. What goes through her mind the first hour and what does she decide to do.
Sooo... my twisted mind went to work and came up with this...
by J.C. Kavanagh
“I know it’s there!”
“It’s not
there – I’ve inspected the entire quadrant.”
Ellie drummed her fingertips against the cold, metal
desktop. “Well, I saw it yesterday and the day before, so, it’s got to be
there. Dying stars don’t disappear in a day.”
Her new colleague, Freizen, shook his head. “I know that – you forget my specialty is
in galactic death.”
Ellie deliberately turned her head to one side and
rolled her eyes, preventing Friezen from witnessing her sarcastic response. Galactic death is his specialty – ahaha! She
held back a laugh, turning it into a quick cough.
Friezen leaned toward her, his one eye seeming to
grow larger with each passing second as the single pupil replicated over and
over until it appeared as multi-faceted as the arachnid species found on earth.
Only this wasn’t earth. This was a galaxy far away where humans were called ‘alien.’
On this planet, there were only spider-like beings – creatures with a single
eye and eight hairy limbs. Ellie waved a hand in front of her face. “You don’t
scare me with your alien eyeball,” she said softly. “We came in peace,
remember?”
Friezen shifted his body back, allowing his single
eye to roam over her human body. Slowly, the pupils merged to one and Ellie
knew he had overcome his fight-and-kill mentality. It was always this way with
him. Actually, it was this way with his entire species.
Ellie tapped a set of coordinates on the wall-sized
computer screen, enhancing the quadrant ten-fold. “This is where you’re pointing
the telescope, right?” An image of the starry sector appeared on the wall
before them. Bracing hands on hips, she said, “I want to look for myself.”
In response, Friezen waved four of his limbs at the
eyepiece of the enormous telescope. “You can take a look – but you only get one
look.”
Ellie stepped toward the eyepiece, sidling past
Friezen. She was confused at his comment. If
that was a dying star I saw and if that really was part of the Milky Way
galaxy, then I might have witnessed my own planet self-destructing. But why
would Friezen hide that from me?
“Just one look?” she asked. He nodded and pointed
once more toward the telescope.
Ellie leaned into the eyepiece, focusing on the spiral-shaped
sector. There! It’s there! The dying
star was glowing brightly in its final death dance. She turned toward Friezen just as he spewed a massive gob of
gossamer web on her face.
“Humans are so stupid,” he said. “But their brains
are quite tasty.”
* * *
I'm not sure which genre reflects this short story, sci-fi or horror. What do you think?
If you're looking for great books to read during the March break - check out my award-winning Twisted Climb series. Action, adventure, suspense, drama and paranormal activities abound!
Stay safe everyone!
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