Category: Fiction

The Ocean Between Them

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Ocean Between Them 5x5Cindy Fletcher rocked back and forth with the rhythm of the boat. She kept telling herself she knew where she was, but her inner voice wouldn’t listen; it knew she was lost. She pulled her hoodie around her and peered into the thick, white fog. It had consumed the row boat within minutes, erasing the shoreline and casting Cindy and her childhood friend, Michelle Purdy, into a cloud-like world.

The fog had devoured every sound save the oars striking the water. Michelle rowed in the direction both believed would take them to the wharf where they had rented the boat. In thirty minutes, it would be Cindy’s turn to row again. It would also be 7:00 pm, marking the fourth hour in the fog.

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Destiny Governed their Lives

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Destiny Governed thier LivesDestiny Governed their Lives is a short story starring Catriona Wheatcroft, the sorceress in Shadows in the Stone fantasy novel. When the novel begins, she’s twenty-eight years old, but in the short story, she’s only seventeen.

Catriona is young, impulsive and believes she knows everything. Mmm, sounds a little like me when I was seventeen. I wasn’t, however, an apprentice studying with a sorceress who practised powerful spells. I also didn’t live in Maskil with the constant threat of an evil wizard creating terror on the streets. If I had, I might have done the unthinkable, too.

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Outside the Silence

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Diane Lynn McGyverJulianne lay still, fearful any noise she’d make while adjusting her weight would be heard by others in the building. A single movement of her hand or foot sounded as if a band of bagpipers passed through on their way to battle. Each breath remained even, each inhale and exhale controlled so as not to arouse suspicion that she did not yet sleep.

She supposed as a child, sleeping in a soft, pillowed bed felt normal. Although the sounds of her childhood room went unremembered, she imagined they had comforted her on her way to dreamland. But those sounds had not touched Julianne’s ears for more than a decade.

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Rambling Dreams or a Science Fiction Story in the Making?

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Diane Lynn McGyver - Science FictionAn earth-shaking crash and shrieks of terror behind Delia shattered the beautiful day. She whirled to find a ten-foot, silver robot blasting buildings with the weapon attached to his arm. For a moment she stood frozen in shock. Where had this mad man come from, and what was he doing on a busy street in Halifax?

The sleek machine appeared to have no specific target; it fired at buildings, vehicles and anyone who came within it’s sights. Smoke, fire, debris and bodies quickly littered the street.

A firm tug on Delia’s hand snapped her back to her senses. She looked down at her nine-year-old son Jack who stared at her with big eyes. The movement of the robot shook the ground and propelled her into motion. She tightly gripped Jack’s hand as they raced along the sidewalk.

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The Land of Ath-o’Lea Map

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Diane Lynn McGyverThe map of Ath-o’Lea has been in the making for years. It’s changed many times since its conception, but the one thing that remains the same is my idea of what makes the land where my Shadows in the Stone characters live special to me.

After all that time spent creating the map, I still don’t feel it’s finished. I want it to look better. As an overall map for The Castle Keepers series, it’s useful because it shows Maskil in relationship to the sea and places mentioned in the first novel (Midway Keep, Ellswire, Pogwa Mountains, Petra), as well as places introduced in the second book, Scattered Stones (Tigh Na Mare, Glentosh, Titterton, Wardlow).

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Mutated Blood Lines Excerpt

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Mutated Blood Lines - Diane Lynn McGyverExcerpt from the short story, Mutated Blood Lines…

Autumn watched the dust swirl into the air. The narrow drive to her cottage was drier than usual. Rain was expected, but hesitated to fall. As the Jeep sped toward her dwelling, she released a calming breath. She heard a thump behind her and footsteps fade into stone. Alone, she organised her thoughts and prepared her defence for when her younger sibling arrived.

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Pockets of Wildflowers Bloom

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Pockets of WildflowersThe first few paragraphs of my romance novel, Pockets of Wildflowers, scheduled for a fall 2012 release…

The temperature dropped suddenly, and I felt an urgency to escape the approaching storm. Dark, swirling clouds descended and became increasingly closer to my perch on the small hill behind the farmhouse. I glanced at the barn. All the animals were secure.

The wind whipped around my legs, and I felt the first spots of rain beat against my tanned skin. The breeze lifted my dress, shaping it like an open umbrella. I held it in place, fearing the increasing wind would lift it over my head and blind me to the path to safety. I could watch the storm no longer; I had to go!

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The Man Who Reads Obituaries Free for Three Days

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Diane Lynn McGyverExert from The Man Who Reads Obituaries by Diane Lynn McGyer

The drone from the machinery sealed my eyelids, enticing me to linger in the weightlessness of sleep. Time passed peacefully there, with dreams that confirmed I still breathed…still lived. Urges existed in dreamland; urges to eat, urges to copulate, urges to explore…things I no longer possessed while conscious.

I missed my body’s impulse to urinate; the nurses had even denied me of that primitive need. I imagined the clear tube stretching from my limp penis to the rubber bag dangling beside the bed, and I wondered about the nurse’s reaction if I removed it to feel the urge to pee one last time.

Footsteps disrupted my thoughts, and clicking shoes entered the room. Without opening my eyes, I knew it to be young Maggie Mac…something, a young woman gifted with beauty but not tolerance for the dying. She stopped near the bed. A whiff of her perfume permeated the air as she leant forward, checking to see if the devil had claimed me yet.

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Deleted Scene: Shadows in the Stone Beginning

by Diane, posted in Fiction

StonesMy fantasy novel, Shadows in the Stone, originally opened with the scene below. I wanted readers to know the stones within the necklace were important to the overall story, and I wanted to introduce an important character.

As the story progressed, I realised Catriona wasn’t a major player overall, and that the story was more than just about stones. I also wanted to start in the middle of the action; I wanted to get readers into the story without delay.

After much consideration, I decided to remove this scene. Maybe in a few years, when I release the series in a set, I will return it to the beginning, but for now, it will remain a deleted scene.

 

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Deleted Scene: First Kiss

by Diane, posted in Fiction

Diane Lynn McGyverWhen writing a novel, I sometimes envision a scene many chapters ahead of where I am. If I feel the scene is good and I’m afraid I might later lose the feel for writing it, I stop and write a quick draft for it.

Sometimes after returning to the novel and writing several thousand more words, I discover the scene in which I thought was so great no longer has a place. This is what happened with the short scene below. Perhaps I can fit it into another book in the series.

Setting the Scene: It’s raining—according to my daughter, all good kisses occur in the rain, particularly first ones (wink). Bronwyn was ambushed by three men and some sort of beast earlier in the scene, and when his strength failed, a stranger arrived and helped him to defeat the enemy. He surveyed the scene as he caught his breath…

The stranger stood strong in the midst of the battlefield. With the smoke blowing across their path and the rain obscuring Bronwyn’s view, it was impossible to identify the woman who had helped reduce the enemy to rubble. Whoever she was, he felt a tug in his gut to run to her, thank her for helping him when he needed it most.

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