Category Archives: Line By Line

Poetry by myself and others.

Excerpt from Project Burning Bush (a work in progress) for #LineByLineTime : “Morning Scene”

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The smell of burning wood and the rustle of movement snapped the four teens into wakefulness. Nita and Harper were on their feet before their eyes were completely open.

Luthor stretched and yawned. “Morning already?” He rubbed his face. “Guess breakfast is up to me and you again, Nita.”

Minji rolled to her back and groaned. “It was not a dream, then? Ow, my back! This ground is far too hard. Perhaps next time I will try the hammock you suggested, Luthor.”

Nita collapsed crosslegged on her silver emergency blanket and grabbed her shoes. “Phew,” she muttered. “Need to do some laundry, but how?”

Harper heaved a sign and reached for his shoes as well. “Laundry, sure. I want a cup of coffee and a breakfast taco, myself. Mom was all ‘that’s unhealthy!’, but Dad always got some for both of us when he took me to school. School, huh. Wonder what Mr. and Mrs. Williams are doing right now?”

Project Burning Bush (WIP) for #LineByLineTime: “Dusk”

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“The sun is close to setting,” Nita pointed out. “We need to find someplace to spend the night. We don’t need to be walking around in the dark, even with flashlights. If anyone is searching for us, we’ll see their lights.”

Minji pointed at a rock wall close by. “That looks like it will make an adequate shelter. If it gets chilly after dark, the rock will radiate heat. We will have our backs protected.”

“Not a good idea,” Luthor disagreed. “That rock will radiate heat all right and all the wildlife, including snakes, will be snuggling up to it.”

The other three teens stared at him. “So what are you suggesting?” Harper demanded. “Build a fort out in a clearing? I don’t think we can do that before dark.”

Luthor rolled his eyes. “Very funny. We need to get up to the top of Enchanted Rock. Fewer snakes, less wildlife, especially predators. Plenty of big boulders to put our backs to and they’ll radiate heat, too. Not to mention we’ll get a better view of the area.”

Nita wrinkled her nose. “I really hate to admit this, but Superman might actually be right.”

Harper groaned, loudly. “You want us to climb a mountain after we’ve been hiking all around it? I’m tired, I’m hungry, and more than a little freaked out! Why can’t we stay down here?”

“Snakes!” Minji snapped and pulled on his arm.

Despite Harper’s grumbling and groaning, the quartet made it to the top of the dome and found a large flat top rock with a lack of snakes. As the light of the sun slowly faded, Luthor pulled a firestarter kit out of one of his many pockets and started a fire with the sticks and branches he had collected during the climb.

Nita curled her lip at the snake Luthor was skewering and found a way to the top of the boulder. “You three can eat that nasty thing,” she told them from above. “I’ll be up here looking for signs of life and eating my sandwich.”

With the coming of true dark a breeze picked up and the teens pulled out their jackets and Luthor dug out several emergency blankets. “I always carry some of these. Habit.”

He was stretching up to offer one to Nita when her hand snapped down and clutched his. “Superman! I see something! It looks like firelight!”

WIP Excerpt: Tales of the Lunatics: Book 1, Skyshaker and Moonsinger

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For #LineByLineTime – A long hard day…

“Whoa! Whoa! Stop! Stop, now! We need to rest!”

The male in front slowed his steady lope and looked at the other two males. “Stop? Already? Why?” He shook his head and the muzzle around his snout rattled. “We’ve barely begun!”

“Barely begun?” The younger of the three males stopped to wheeze. “We’ve been running for hours! We need to catch our breath, have some water! Rest! How can you keep going like that? You’ve been in a prison mine for years!”

The oldest male collapsed, his breath whistling in and out. “Loper,” he gasped. The youngest male staggered to his side and groped for his water canteen. He fumbled the cap off and trickled its contents unsteadily in his commander’s mouth. After a few moments, the old male managed to swallow without choking. Loper gave him a little more, then took a couple of gulps himself.

The male in front rattled his muzzle again as he shook his head. “No stamina,” he muttered. “What have you been doing all this time, lying around the fire grooming yourselves?”

Loper gave his commander Shadowstalker another drink and took one himself. Then he looked at the unnamed male, and his skin rippled with shame. “You need water, too. How can you – I mean, the muzzle…”

The third male snorted. “Never mind the muzzle. I can’t even hold the canteen with these coverings over my limbs and tail. All I can do is run.”

Loper hissed and bounced over to him. “Hold your mouth up, I’ll pour some water in.” He did so, and the male swallowed without difficulty. Loper shook his head. “You’re not even breathing hard! I can’t believe it!” He recapped the canteen. “Neither of us have been lying around anywhere. We’ve been on a hard march to reach the mine, after we received orders. I just don’t understand how you can be in such better shape when you haven’t been able to run in years!”

The male shrugged and his web of shackles rattled all over him. “In the mine it’s work or die, and I’m too stubborn to let them kill me.”

His head jerked up and his ears pricked toward the ravine they had been running above. “Something’s being chased! Maybe our next meal!” He bounded off to the edge, looked down, and hissed loudly before leaping into space.

Excerpt from Project Burning Bush

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A Work in Progress

For #LineByLineTime – Killer Chapter Endings

“We should compare notes on training. That’s some impressive wetwork on your part.”
“What a professional phrase. You, too, are an expert in black ops?”
“You sound pretty professional yourself, Dragonlady.”
Luthor stared at all of them. “What are you talking about? What’s wetwork? And black ops? Doesn’t that mean something bad?”
“I think we should have a long conversation soon,” Harper murmured. He looked around them. “But not right now. And not here.”

Excerpt: Project Burning Bush

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(A Work in Progress)

For #LineByLineTime: The Good Guys Win

Everybody swung around as one old woman cried out.  People screamed, pots were dropped, and everybody ran, except the pregnant girl, still sitting by the fire, and the old man, who gripped his staff in shaking hands and stepped in front of the teens. 

Four horsemen stared back at them.  One pointed toward the deer carcass as he chattered excitedly in Spanish to his companions. They nodded, their mouths open and their eyes wide as they looked at the four teenagers.

Nita didn’t take her eyes off them as her hands slid to her knives still hidden in her jeans. “Apparently they’re upset we caught a deer.  Sounds like we did a big no-no.  They also think we look way too much like their bosses.  I’d assume that means they’re the bad guys.”

“Not to mention the way the locals ran off screaming.  Wonder if these are some of the guys who were here before?”  Harper scratched his chin. “Maybe we should go hide somewhere, too?”

Minji stood straight, then marched, shoulders back, to stand beside the old man.  “I will not leave Dark Moon Rising and Singing Water to them. They are brave, but helpless.”

“Maybe I can scare them,” Luthor growled, and flexed his arms, waving the bloody knife in his hand.

Harper shuffled backward.  “I’ll just stand behind the tree, shall I? I wouldn’t want any of you to trip over me…” He trailed off as he reached the tree and darted around to crouch behind it.

“All of you shut up and let me talk to them and stay out of my way.  I just killed a deer and four rabbits.  These guys are no challenge.” Nita’s hands were in her pockets now.

Minji sniffed. “There is a large difference between hunting animals for food and killing a human,” she began.

Suddenly all four horsemen drew sabers and charged, screaming and waving their weapons.  Before the others could move to escape or defend themselves, there was a knife in the throat of the foremost. He toppled sideways off his confused horse, who stopped charging and turned in circles, dragging its rider. 

Another knife appeared in the middle of the second rider’s torso.  He dropped his saber and clutched at the knife, his mouth open and his eyes wide.  His horse also stopped charging to step nervously side to side as the rider swayed and fell back across the horse’s rump before the horse’s movements made him slide to the ground, his feet slipping out of the stirrups.

Before Nita could aim at the other two riders, Minji snatched the staff from the old man and screamed at the one coming at them. She swung her staff at the man’s sword arm.  There was a loud crack and the blade dropped to the ground beside her.  Her attacker yelled and clutched his arm as it flopped loosely, the bones in it moving in different directions halfway between the elbow and wrist. Minji spun on one foot as the horse and rider moved past her.

Her momentum slid the staff through her hands until she held the end of it. She swung it like a bat at the back of the man’s head.  There was a sound like a melon dropping on pavement, and the rider flipped forward, falling past the horse’s shoulder.  The horse shied, kicking at the fallen rider as his body landed at the horse’s feet. 

The fourth rider spun his horse and started to race away out of the clearing. Before he made it to the trees, the old woman their host had called Burning Wind ran out in front of them. She waved a blanket and shouted as the horse almost reached her. The horse squealed and reared.  Its rider fought to bring him back down, sawing at the reins and shouting. But the horse reared up again as the old lady snapped the blanket at its nose and screamed.  

Unbalanced, the rider yanked at the reins again trying to pull himself up, and the horse rolled backward and landed on the rider.  The rider’s legs spasmed, then went limp.  The horse rolled back and forth a few times before he got his feet under him and stood up, leaving the man on the ground.  The man did not move.

Excerpt from Tales of the Lunatics: Skyshaker and Moonsinger

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Author’s note: This is a work in progress about an alien world and alien creatures.

How to show surprise and shock for #LineByLineTime

The one-eyed guard stared through the bars at the big male. He had never in his life seen an alpha feed lesser members of the pack, but he remembered the tales from his grandsire. He turned and strode away. His movements were careful, normal. They kept an ALPHA male in their prison?

As he passed other guards, he kept his face frozen in its usual surly expression. When the others tried to speak to him, he snarled to avoid speaking back. He was already known for a foul temper, so nobody was surprised. They finally left him alone.

He kept walking, all the way past the guards’ rooms and past the storerooms buried deep within the underground complex. He walked faster, then finally ran, deep into the tunnels he had discovered there. He staggered to a stop in a small cave, his breath whistling out of his snout, partly from exertion, but mostly from pent up emotions finally allowed to escape.

He threw his head back and screamed.

Excerpt: Project Burning Bush

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(A work in progress)

Right in the middle of another funny face, Harper grabbed his head and dropped to his knees with a high-pitched scream.

Nita fumbled her phone back into her pocket and scowled. “Knock it off, Chico, that’s not funny. People gon’ start callin’ 911!” She cursed briefly in Tex-Mex when he thrashed on the ground, making more high-pitched noises.

Luthor and Minji ran back to them. Luthor tried to pick Harper up but couldn’t hold onto him. He finally pinned the smaller boy to the ground with his own body. “Call Mrs. Williams!” he shouted. “Harper’s having a seizure!”  He managed to get a hand to Harper’s mouth to check if Harper had bitten his tongue. Harper’s teeth were grinding together, but there was no sign of blood.

Minji shook her phone. “I’m only getting static! What about yours, Nita?”

Nita yanked hers back out of her pocket. “You serious? He’s not putting it on?” She tapped her phone and shook her head. “Same here. Nothing but static! What’s going on?”

Luthor did his best to brace Harper’s head where the boy was whipping it side to side on the gravel. “Never mind the phones! One of you run as fast as you can to find the teachers! If he doesn’t stop seizing soon, he might get some serious damage! Go, already!”

“I’ll go!” Nita jammed her phone back in her pocket and hitched her backpack up. But as she spun on one foot back toward the start of the trail, she found herself falling sideways across Luthor and Harper. “What the!” she started, then lost her breath as Minji piled on top of her. “Hey, get off!” She tried to push the other girl away but discovered neither of them could get their balance.

Excerpt from Project Burning Bush

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(A work in progress) for #LineByLineTime on Twitter.com for “The Switch”

Both boys glanced at the girls, startled. Observing Nita’s tense posture, Luthor followed the direction she was looking and stepped in front of Harper. 

“What do you think?” Nita mused. “Perv alert? Maybe you’re about to earn your pay, big boy. He’s been giving Harper the eye since we’ve been standing here.”

“How do you know he’s been looking at Harper?” Minji demanded. “Maybe he’s been watching all of us.”

Nita shook her head. “Nah, you can tell by where his eyes go, especially when Harper was standing away from the rest of us.”

“Maybe I should go convince him to move along,” Luthor growled.

Harper grabbed his belt. “Ignore him. If he’s who I think he is, he could take you without breaking a sweat. He’s just doing his job.”

The other three stared at him. “Doing his job?  What do you mean?” Minji snapped.

“You really think parents who didn’t let me out of the house practically my whole life would suddenly think it was okay to send me off to the middle of nowhere? My dad knows lots of guys who owe him favors for computer stuff.”

He stepped clear of Luthor and waved and whistled at the man, who reared back, eyes wide. Harper yelled, “Tell my dad I’m having a great time! But don’t stare! People think you’re a pervert!”

His voice rang clearly along the trail. Other hikers turned around, some with camera phones ready. The stranger glared and vanished into the brush surrounding the trail.  “Yeah, that looks like one of my dad’s friends – if you can call them that. They all kind of scowl like that.” Harper blew out his breath. “Now I’ll probably hear it from my dad when I get home.”

He shook his finger and scowled at an invisible smaller figure as if a parent scolded a child. “‘You know better than to expose someone working undercover.’” Then he took a step forward, turned and faced where he had been standing. He clasped his hands under his raised chin and looked innocently up, eyes wide and batting his eyelashes. “But daddy, I don’t know anything about undercover operations,” he said in a baby voice.  “I’m just a wittle boy!”

Tension: Excerpt from Project Burning Bush (a work in progress)

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Excerpt 1:

“Who might you be?” he called to them. 

They ignored his question.  “Get down here, right now!”

“Why? Who are you people?”

“Get down here now! We’re not going to wait forever!”

“Why? Are you the law? Where’s your ID?  I’m on public property, I know, because this is a rest area, so I’m not trespassing.  Who are you, and what do you want with me?”

The door on the Jeep opened and a man in a suit climbed slowly out. He looked around, his expression blank.  Finally, he raised his head and stared silently up at Tom.  Tom stared back.  He had been a Marine for a long time, and recognized danger when he saw it.

Excerpt 2:

Minji started to snap back at her but Harper stepped between the girls holding up a hand. His voice was high and strained.  “Never mind adventures in Oz.  Maybe we wound up in a Tolkien story.  Those guys definitely look like orcs to me!” His raised hand pointed to the side of the clearing.  

Everybody swung around as one old woman cried out.  People screamed and everybody ran, except the pregnant girl still sitting by the fire, and the old man, who gripped his staff in shaking hands and stepped in front of the girl. 

Four horsemen stared back at them.  One pointed toward the deer carcass as he chattered excitedly in Spanish to his companions. They nodded, their mouths open and their eyes wide as they looked at the four teenagers.

Nita didn’t take her eyes off them as her hands slid to her knives still hidden in her jeans. “Apparently they’re upset we caught a deer.  Sounds like we did a big no-no.  They also think we look way too much like their bosses.  I’d assume that means they’re the bad guys.”

“Not to mention the way the locals ran off screaming.  Wonder if these are some of the guys who were here before?”  Harper scratched his chin. “Maybe we should go hide somewhere, too?”

Minji stood straight, then marched, shoulders back to stand beside the old man.  “I will not leave Dark Moon Rising and Singing Water to them. They are brave, but helpless.”

“Maybe I can scare them,” Luthor growled, and flexed his arms, waving the bloody knife in his hand.

Harper shuffled backward.  “I’ll just stand behind the tree, okay? I wouldn’t want any of you to trip over me…” He trailed off as he reached the tree and darted around to crouch behind it.

“All of you shut up and let me talk to them and stay out of my way.  I just killed a deer and four rabbits.  These guys are no challenge.” Nita’s hands were in her pockets now.

Minji sniffed. “There is a large difference between hunting animals for food and killing a human,” she began, but suddenly all four horsemen drew sabers and charged, screaming and waving their weapons.

Foreshadowing: An excerpt from Project Burning Bush (a work in progress)

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TWO WEEKS POST-EVENT

“Now for anybody who’s been sealed up in a cave or a locked room in a government lab for the past week, let me bring you up to date. First, I’m situated just outside of Enchanted Rock State Park in sunny South Texas, west of Austin and north of San Antonio. There was a big – 6.0 on the scale – earthquake here last week. Folks said Enchanted Rock, which is a big old hunk of pink – yes, I said pink – granite sticking up out of the ground, vibrated like a tuning fork.”

“So, first off, what caught everybody’s attention was the fact that even though two big ol’ cities were right nearby, they didn’t catch any of it. Totally unnatural!  Scientists headed here, and so did first responders as soon as all the 9-1-1 calls started about people getting injured because they got shook off the mountain when the quake hit. Then word about missing folk started coming in. Some busload of school kids on a field trip couldn’t find everybody that got off there.”

He peered at the screen. “Hey, is that somebody rooting around in the brush wearing a hazmat suit? Let’s see if I can give you a closer look!”  He directed the drone higher and closer to the activity. He decided to continue the monologue. “Other folk disappeared for a little bit, then showed up all changed. Changed as in clothes – some looked like they just walked out of the wild West frontier, and changed as in insisting they were somebody else and acting real confused about what was going on. As if they were time travelers!”

He zoomed the camera on the drone to get a close-up of the people on the ground.  “Looky here, those are hazmat suits. What are they waving around down there? There’s a metal detector for sure, there, and I do believe that’s a bomb-sniffing dog.  Poor thing, I hope they’re giving it plenty of water and rest. South Texas in the spring is a hot summer elsewhere!” 

His eyes gleamed. “See these guys here? They belong to one of those agencies that don’t go by the alphabet. FBI, CIA, DHS, them and all those other agencies – and the military – they’re insisting they don’t have anything to do with these guys. These shady fellows showed up soon as the stories started hitting the Internet from the witnesses. Kicked out the locals, then the Texas Rangers when those lawmen showed up to find out why the locals were pushed out, and then the FBI when the Rangers complained. Somebody pulled some serious strings, folks. They got rid of the press, the law, then set up a perimeter – which I’m outside of, thank you. Then the witnesses started disappearing. Especially the folks who came back different. Those school kids? They got to go home, but the teachers didn’t. My sources tell me the parents of those kids they can’t find have disappeared, too.”

Tom raised his eyebrows. “Looks like they noticed my drone, folks. Just look how excited they are! I do believe they’re trying to hide some equipment there – what do you figure that is, for sampling air and water, maybe? Dirt, too, of course. Definitely something shady going on! Oops, looks like one of them got some orders to shoot me down!” He worked the controls, but the man with the rifle had good aim, and the video from the drone went blank after it sank to the earth.