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 Ficton: Corridors of my Mind
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. A corridor opens up before me. Or is it a corridor? It doesn’t seem to have walls, and yet it does. I sense a universe outside, and I glimpse a star field beyond the walls, as if through thick tinted glass. Stars sparkle and galaxies swirl around me. I stare at them as I pass. I feel their power, their pulsing energy, yet they remain apart, beyond the walls. A faint light draws me on and the sound of metal tools working echoes faintly down the corridor. Someone’s down there. I quicken my pace but seem to get no closer. Suddenly, the light is to my right, no longer ahead. I stop and stare through the translucent walls. An endless field of almost transparent corridors surround my corridor. Some run parallel to mine, some at right angles. … [Read more...]
