Here's some free fiction, a possible piece for another Prunella Smith Book. Personally I don't beleieve in demons, not the tangible kind, but I get what my character Prunella Smith is saying here. This is Prunella's memory of a time before the events in Worlds Within Worlds. I didn’t believe in demons, until I met one. I didn’t recognise it at first, because it hid from me, and even when I did finally manage to look right at it, it didn’t look the way I expected a demon would look. It looked surprisingly like me. Only its eyes were red from crying, and its hair stuck up at all sorts of crazy angles except where it was flat on one side where I lay on it because I couldn’t manage to drag myself out of bed. It had purple shadows beneath its eyes from lack of sleep and a face that was little more than a skull with skin stretched over it because I’d lost so much weight. I stared into the mirror and didn’t recognise myself. I saw something else in my body, something dark and … [Read more...]
Free Web Fiction: Ephemeral City – Doors
Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, The Lock Smith's Secret. I’m in the ephemeral city again. Celestial bodies sparkle around me, seen clearly through the transparent luminous walls and floors. I’ve arrived at last at the floor where the Locksmith has his room, and I walk down the corridor towards his light. Below me lies countless floors with countless corridors and doorless rooms, and more rise above me, but the man in the end room hunched over his work is the only soul in the entire city—or at least that I can see. I suspect that people inhabit these rooms in some way, but I can’t see them. Or maybe there really only two people in the whole universe—me and the locksmith. My feet make no sound on the floor made of light—surprisingly solid for something that looks so baseless. I stop outside the room. A wall with no … [Read more...]
Friday Free Fiction: Steampunk Workshop.
Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, Past Worlds, The Lock Smith's Secret. This follows on from previous posts on Steampunk Nell. The Workshop Nell parked her steam powered car at the back of Beth’s house, walked through the kitchen garden, down the well-worn steps to the cellar and knocked on the door. ‘Just a minute,’ came a muffled voice from inside. Nell turned from the door with its peeling green paint and scanned the Lawton’s garden while she waited in the sunshine. Hollyhocks, marigolds and daisies grew among lettuces, silver beet and beans, and a neatly pruned box hedge separated the kitchen garden from the driveway and lawn beyond. The two-story house’s sandstone walls held the heat of the day and felt warm at her back, and Nell couldn’t help wondering at the stupidity of whoever had been … [Read more...]
Free web fiction: A Building Without Doors.
Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, Past Worlds, The Lock Smith's Secret. Once again I’m in the ephemeral city that floats in outer space. Through the luminous outlines of the buildings, I see planets floating, suns sparkling and constellations swirling in the darkness. I walk down a corridor in a transparent building with no doors, looking upwards at my goal—a room high above me. Someone is up there, working at a desk in a pool of light—a beacon in this otherwise empty city. I’m pretty sure they’re making keys and think they might know where the doors are. I stop and look around me at the doorless walls. How did I even get inside? With a shrug, I walk on. The corridor seems to go on for ever. Shouldn’t I have reached the outer wall of the building by now? Strangely, with that thought, the end of the corridor comes … [Read more...]
Friday Free Web Fiction: Ephemeral city
Every week in Friday Free Web Fiction I post a first draft scene from my work in progress (WIP), or a short story, or an excerpt from one of my books. Today’s offering is from my Prunella Smith WIP, Past Worlds, The Lock Smith's Secret. I’m in outer space, walking down in the middle of a road in an unlit transparent city. Skyscrapers tower over me on both sides of the road, but the city is empty, not a soul in sight. No furniture fills the rooms and no lights shine to reveal the emptiness. Deep space surrounds this city which stretches on and on around me, perhaps to infinity. And I can see it all, like an artist’s drawing showing only the outlines faintly white against the darkness. A drawing with perfect perspective, lines converging into vanishing points everywhere I look. Through the walls and roadways galaxies swirls and stars twinkle. This cannot be a real place, and yet it is. It exists somewhere, if only in a dream. Is it a dream? I expect so, but the thought does not eject … [Read more...]
Friday Free fiction: Ella and the Beast.
This is the first of my weekly free fiction series. Sometimes it will be a short story and sometimes it'll be an excerpt. This weeks offering is an excerpt from Prunella Smith:Worlds Within Worlds, but like quite a few of the scenes in that book, it's also a short story. Normally, the Friday Fiction will be available for one week only, but I'm going on holiday next week for a couple of weeks, so you'll have longer to read it before I delete it and replace it with something else. My feet pounded the hard earth, jarring my bones, but I couldn’t stop. The monster closed in behind me, his breath coming in hard, loud pants. I tripped and stumbled over a fallen branch, only just saving myself from a fall. An evil chuckle reverberated through the darkening forest. ‘I’m going to get you, bitch.’ The chill in the beast’s voice sent shivers down my spine. I ran faster, my legs burning with the effort, and looked desperately for somewhere to hide, somewhere to escape this monster set on … [Read more...]
