Horen Sie! Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter OST plus Devil May Cry desktop background equals this

The specific tracks being Childhood Tragedy, Mary Todd and Late to the Theater. And yes it is meant to be Dante. I love having slow days at work and writing inspiration~!

~

Staring out the window, hands resting on the keys of the keyboard once again I couldn’t help but let my mind wander. And of course it went to where it had been going for the past year, to the world of those strange dreams that had dominated my nights. The dreams that had stopped two months ago. The dreams I had written down in the journal I kept in my nightstand. The dreams, that like the days from then, were fading into abstract memories with every passing sunrise. But that life was so much more fantastic, fighting monsters and saving people and the beautiful tiles that covered the streets and buildings and brought tears to my eyes just thinking about that city because of how beautiful it was. And the people I had come to know, who felt closer than the family and friends of my waking life. Several birds flew by in the small patch of blue that peeked in between the buildings. It had gotten easier to keep my face from showing anything I felt. How I longed to visit that world again. How I wished to feel his hand on my shoulder or see him smiling and cracking an admittedly lame joke. I missed the whole world and I missed him most of all.

“Hey, Boss, I think there is someone here for you.”

I looked away from the window, blinking back the memories of what never really was, a bit confused. “You think?”

The student worker nodded. “Yeah, long hair, bright make-up and frilly dresses. Glasses. Sounds just like you.”

Standing up I walked around my desk, joining her. “Didn’t ask for me by name?”

She shook her head. “Said he wasn’t sure what the person he was looking for would be going by these days.”

“Did he mention why he wants to see me?” I ask as we walk from my office to the circulation desk.

“Forgot to ask.” She said sheepishly.

I shook my head in the brief moments before we entered the area behind circulation. “Try to remember next time.” And then I forced the work smile I had gotten so used to onto my face. And the hurt I had been feeling everyday got crushed by it and the smile became a little more genuine since I didn’t quite feel like I’d burst into tears at any moment. I’d finally gotten the upper hand on the sadness that overcame me whenever I thought of how long it had been since I had set foot in Fortuna. I guess I had finally come to terms with the fact I’d never see it again. It was only a string of dreams that had felt too real just like they all did.

No matter how much I told myself that I still hoped I would be wrong. But I’m a grownup and dreams are just dreams. Nothing more. Just something the brain concocts to work through things my waking self hasn’t bothered to deal with yet. And apparently I dealt with whatever it was that had spurred those dreams.

Exiting the shelves from the room behind Circ, I smiled, eyes shut to lessen the chance I might start crying and said, “my student worker says you’re looking for someone who looks like me.”

And then I opened my eyes and I could feel the tears blossom in them. It was him. I opened my mouth to ask how I could help him but my voice cracked. I had to be going crazy. It couldn’t be him.

But it was. White hair, red leather coat and those steel grey eyes. It was him. Noone of this world, this waking world of mine, looked like that.

And  then he was behind the desk and his arms were around me and his lips were on mine. The tears couldn’t be held back any more and I clutched his coat to make sure he couldn’t disappear from right in front of me like morning mist burning away at sunrise. But the way his hands wove into my hair and the rough feel of his stubble brushing against my face, it was all so very real. And after a few moments our lips parted and he rested his forehead against mine and his hands ran through my hair so that his arms could slip down around me to hold me securely.

“I didn’t think you were real.” I whispered. “I thought it was all a dream. But goddamn if all this is some hallucination, if I’ve gone crazy I don’t want to be sane.”

He laughed, it was almost breathy and that was when I noticed tears running down his face too. “I was getting worried I wouldn’t be able to find you, Babe.”

And I buried my face in the warm leather of his shirt, not wanting to display my sobs for all the library to see. But unlike all the tears I had shed the last two months, these were very much happy tears.

Sea of Stars

Haha, of Weather Channel app why must you have such an inviting picture of a road in the middle of nowhere at night? I want to be there. It'd be like when I interned in Death Valley again (omg the night skies there). I don't know where this fits in with anything or why Engie and unnamed lady are out in the middle of nowhere. It just struck me.

~

She smiled, not at him but at the brilliant stars spattering the sky. The moon was full enough you could see fairly well. And no one else was around for miles, not even a house or a car on the road. The night was beautiful and it was just theirs.

“I just want to swim in that sky.” She said, twirling around on the still warm tarmac.

Engineer couldn’t help but smile, amused.

“It feels like if I just run down this road once I get to where the horizon is I’d be able to jump right into that sea of stars.” She said as she stopped spinning. When she saw Engineer smiling and watching her she blushed. “I’m sorry, I’m being all silly aren’t I?”

“Nah.” He said. But she knew he tended to think her silly most of the time.

The two stood in the middle of the road for a bit longer, enjoying the heat rising out of the ground that had been scorched when the sun was up. She fiddled with her hands for a moment. “We should head back in shouldn’t we?”

“I’ll race you.”

She turned to him. “Yea?”

“To the sea of stars. The horizon doesn’t seem too far off.”

She laughed. “Last one in is a rotten egg!” She cheered before starting off down the road, the Engineer hot on her heels and both laughing as they ran down the cracked and faded pavement.

The Night Shift Is Now Available!

That's right, The Night Shift is now online!

You can buy it here.

And in celebration of both Comic Con and this my newest book, In a Time of Zombies will be free July 12-15th.

San Diego Comic Con Promotions!

Howdy everyone! With getting The Night Shift ready for publication I've been pretty busy, you should see the flurry of notecards I have to make sure I keep everything in this series straight! I will be updating this blog with some writing snippets soon and maybe even a sneak or two of The Night Shift!

But for those of you who are going to be at Comic Con International I have some extra special treats! There will be special limited edition promotional cards just like the playing cards from the cover of the book! And if you spot me and ask about my books I'll have a very special treat for you. But it is a secret only those who get it will know.

And for those not able to make the convention, for the entire run of Comic Con In a Time of Zombies will be free! Because Comic Con is SO a time of zombies.

And if all goes according to plan you should be able to download The Night Shift starting on July 11th.

Do they even have champagne in airport bars?

Originally the designated escape point in In a Time of Zombies was Manchester airport. That eventually changed to the hospital (better location, especially being so close to MediaCityUK) and it just didn't feel believable that a hospital would have a bar. Though the few times I have visited hospitals would have definitely liked a cocktail. I liked the idea behind the scene though so it did get translated though I really did like this version the best.

~

She loved champagne.

Well. Not champagne itself, the sparkling wine from a specific region of France, but sparkling wine. If given her choice she really preferred one of the Spanish ones. I’m not sure why that was the case, she explained it to me once, something about how differences in soil and air and all that made a difference in taste and feel but that had been a lifetime ago. I never really was much for wine.

But staring at the liquers on the shelf at the town bar had brought Isa back to the front of my mind. Before the flight to England we’d had some time to kill so we had decided to toast our departure at the airport’s bar. I’d gotten my usual vodka and cranberry juice and she’d decided to switch things up from a champagne cocktail to a Chambord and champagne. Staring at the bottle of Chambord on the bar’s shelf, it perfectly at my eye level, I couldn’t help but think of her. And thus Isa’s tattered ghost had returned to me, this time sitting at the bar, head hung low and gazing emptily at a Chambord and champagne.

Any fear I once felt about the ghastly spirit of my dead friend was now gone. Now I just missed the comradery we’d shared in life.

I went around the bar, pulling out a glass and pouring in a bit of vodka and a bit of cranberry juice before returning to the other side of the bar, sitting on the stool next to Isa.

“I feel like this is some otherworldly hole in the wall. The bar at the end of the universe as it were.” I said. They weren’t the words which needed to be said. I knew what those were now but I didn’t quite want to let go of the last shred of my best friend I had left. “When I get on the other side of this all, not that I know what that will be, what the marker is, I want to toast to it. I can’t do it now. This isn’t a time of ‘cheers’ but I’m glad you haven’t completely abandoned me.

Horen Sie: Remnant of Perfection

Remnant does rule my mind sometimes so it shouldn't surprise anyone that it pops up in Horen Sie stuff occassionally. Some of these scenes make it in to later chapters but most never do whether because they have nowhere to be or because they are horrendously cheesy.

One Man’s Dream - Yanni

She exhaled, the night was cool and a welcome change from the heat the day was lousy with. Sitting on the dusty ground she couldn’t help but look at the stars that were thickly poured across the desolate desert’s sky. “Is that what space looks like?” She asked the Corvette next to her.

“No.”

She had expected him to tell her what space was like but he remained quiet and she turned her attentions back to the pitch black roadway in the valley below and the occasional faint streak across the light smattered sky.

“In space its like being in a completely empty world with no up nor down nor any other orientation. The stars and planets are so far they seem like mere visual sensor malfunctions.”

Messina pulled her jacket tighter around herself, colder from the warmly lit imaginings of space from science fiction novels being shown to be nothing more than a veneer thinner than the paper they had been printed on. The car showed no emotions. He simply continued to sit in his earthly disguise, pointed toward the valley and the old highway as if looking out through his dimmed headlights.

“But once you get close to something and feel the light that was once a pinprick... Its like gravity is beckoning you in, embracing you in colour so blindingly different from the immeasurable emptiness once you start planetfall. Even after hundreds and thousands of landings there is no happiness, no relief like final approach and the first scrapings of an atmosphere.”

“Is it disappointing when you land?”

“No. You have to enjoy every second because it is so fleeting and in a moment’s notice you’ll be in space once more.”

Button Up - Camphor

Messina was floating on her back in the cool water of the pool. She was smiling, it was absolutely perfect out here in the desert. She began to wonder if maybe she should move out this way when she finally retired. It would be worth it if she got to see such a beautiful corona again. “Hey Tracks, does the moon ever get a corona where you’re from?”

He had been dosing she realised and kind of felt bad. He stirred back to waking. “Hmm? No, but Cybertron doesn’t have a “moon” as your planet does, not one that is lit from behind by a star.”

“Really?”

“Mmhmm. You really have a lot of beautiful things here we didn’t.”

More Than This - Charlie Hunter Quartet

She smiled and took his hand, he gently tugged her out of the chair she was sitting in and pulled her closer, hoping he didn’t mess up too badly, but he’d studied several videos from the internet, this dancing business couldn’t be all that hard. It was just a matter of minor movements flowing together and she easily let him take the lead. It was actually rather pleasant, it gave him a good yet subtle opportunity to study her more minute details. She had three freckles under her right eye and a small scar under her left ear which he barely noticed through the wafty scent of the jasmine stained air and her chilled and reedy perfume.

Hang in There Charlie - Sleep Station

We briefly leave Messina and Tracks to join Alexis and Starscream

“Hey Star?”

“What?”

“I got this feeling we ain’t going to come back.”

“We aren’t.”

“Well damn. You’re a gas tank half empty kind of guy.”

“Since when have I ever seemed the least bit optimistic and idiotic?”

“When we shot off into the night sky, you seemed optimistic then.”

“I was.”

Purify - Balligomingo

She sighed as she peeked over the edge of the deck from the top of the ladder. Noone. Perfect. Moving as stealthly as she could she slipped over to her plane, her partner in crime tonight. “Star, it’s a new moon, we’re going to touch the Milky Way tonight!” She pulled herself up fluidly and settled into the cockpit switching on the systems and turning them to night settings before using as little gas as possible to taxi her fighter to a more isolated tarmac before quickly taking off straight for the stars.

Seperated - Yoko Kanno

We rejoin Messina and Tracks.

She looked out the living room window to the garage which only had one Corvette residing in it at the moment. She couldn’t think of what it would be like when he really would be gone and not merely at the Autobot’s base. But she had to tell him, she knew she did. She just didn’t want to. But when she saw the lights flood the driveway and heard the low rumble of his engine she steeled herself, gripping her mug of tea tightly in the dark room. Taking a deep breath she watched as his headlights went out. She knew if she was going to do it she had to do it now or she would never find the courage to. And she doubted they would remain friends if she withheld this any longer.

Sycorax Encounter

The city complex stretched before them in the brilliantly shining waters. The moonlight bounced around on the surrounding ocean as they slowly began their descent.



Horen Sie: Battlefield

There is a writing challenge where you put your music player of choice on random and write whatever is inspired by the music that comes on. I have several running files for that, all of them named Horen Sie. I'm not sure why I went with German I just did. Maybe one of these days I'll do all those stories auf Deutsch! But I've gathered together the tidbits that are related to one another in single posts because they do build upon one another. But often they are interspersed with other stories and are just about never written in the order they get put in later.

A Final Prayer 1 (Sleep Station)

It was another hot night in Kaon, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the season or if it was due to the fact that it was being decimated by an uprising of Gladiators. All he could think of as he hid among the buildings was that he hadn’t messaged his bonded lately. She had always wanted to visit Kaon.

The Tarmac at Munich

He looked around, it had gotten quiet. Silent. A battle field should never be silent. Where was the enemy? Where were they hiding? He looked around frantically.

Nothing.

He saw many of his comrades, fallen, and began to wonder if they all had fallen. If he was the only one left... then maybe the enemy had left thinking victory. Maybe if he crept off the field slowly, he could escape.

“Found you little rabbit.”

Highwind Takes to the Skies

She loved the rush of her first time out in a new world, using a brand new alt mode. She loved the feeling of the wind rushing over her in strange new ways in this form, and the “radio” offered such an array of different sounds and informational bits that she was sure she might overload trying to emulate the other vehicles around her and process all the data flowing over the shortwave frequencies. It was heaven though, this caressing atmosphere, this abundance of data waiting to be analysed, the hope that maybe she might find things here, find things to bring order to her heavily disjointed world. And if not, she at least had these beautiful feelings, these beautiful sounds.

My Darling (Sleep Station)

He did not have much energy left to him, he could feel himself fading as the they drained his life from him. He sent out an encoded message into the heavens and hoped she would find it somehow.

....

She cried. After all these orns, thousands upon millions of vorns, he had sent her a message. She cried as she listened. She cried because its timestamp was almost the same announcing his capture. She cried because he sounded so hopeless. She cried because she realized there was nothing left to her. Everything she had been searching for had just been shattered and confirmed dead.

The Impossible Planet (Dr Who)

After watching beautiful Kaon be destroyed, they were aware that the time to beat the Decepticons to the punch line had long since passed. The Decepticons were gaining power quickly while the Autobots were losing it. They vowed to do what they had to in order to stop this fatal power shift, but they still wished that it had never come to this point. Friends had joined the Decepticons, once comrades had abandoned them, many had been killed as well. Now Kaon lay in ruin and they could only fear that Iacon or some other city would be next. It was a horrible but likely next step, to break apart the system the larger and more influential cities would need to go first.