Author Journey: January 6, 2023 - It's a Brand New Year

 Welcome back writers and readers! It's a brand new year and I'm doing all I can to stay hopeful that we'll have a good one this time. Last year was pretty rough for our family, but we made it through. I don't do resolutions, but I can share some goals with you. 

Author Journey: Writing Goals for 2023

I don't have a long list of goals. That never works well for me. Rather, I'm going to keep it as simple as possible. 

• Just Keep Writing posts: I plan to continue these as long as possible. 
• Blogging in General: I plan to keep putting out book reviews and give the Friday updates as usual. 
• Author Journey: I know I won't write every day, but I'm going to make a great effort to write at least something, or edit something, on as many days as I'm able.

Writer's Life: Life Goals for 2023

Simple is best when it comes to my life. There are so many curve balls that seem to come out of nowhere, that creating an exhaustive list of goals, even reachable ones, is a futile exercise for me. So here's a short, sweet list of life goals I'd like to aim for this year. 

• My Writer's Life: I'm working on daily growing closer to my Savior and Lord. If I have to set aside writing to do that, He comes first. I'm sometimes slow to catch on to things and I think that happened in this area of my life for far too long. 
• I write to glorify God. At least, that's my goal and has been my goal from the beginning. I'll keep working at that. 

Just Keep Writing: Friday Fascicles

If this is your first time participating in this kind of writing exercise, you're in for a treat. If you've done this with me before, just keep scrolling for the prompt.

Rules:

1. You can use any/all of the words and/or the photo in the prompt below to create a unique written work. Fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose, even lyrics are acceptable.  
2. Please keep the material you write clean (ie. nothing R-rated or worse) if you wish to share the link to your work here, as well as if you link back to my site. I strive to keep my site free of such things. My readers know and expect this. I respect your right to write whatever you feel you need to write. And you're free to use my prompts. But if your material is graphic, I'd rather not view it, and most of my readers will not wish to. 
3. Have fun! This type of exercise is perfect for growing in the writing craft, or for helping through a rough patch in your current WIP. If you're looking to push your author limits and you normally write in nonfiction prose, try a whimsical collection of lyrics. If you normally write poems about real life events, try your hand at a fanfic. Give yourself some room to explore.

Don't forget to leave a link to your creation (unless you're writing graphic material) so my readers and I can check out your work. I'd appreciate a link back to this post to help me reach more readers, but it's not required. 

Photo by Eugene Golovesov

Please do stop by Eugene's pexels.com gallery and check out the beautiful photos there. You won't be sorry!

Just Keep Writing: The Right Thing

This is another of the snapshot stories I wrote during Nano 2022. I hope you enjoy it. It is open-ended. I may actually fill this one out some more. I think it could be a good base for a longer story. As were the others, this one has been very lightly edited. 

Things to note:

• Ankir stone - (AHN keer) - a heavy stone used to mark something which must stay marked for an excessively long time; a stone used to anchor something like a ship
• Fractur[i] - (FRAHK toor; pl. frahk TOOR ee) - a gemstone refiner, usually facets and sets precious stones
• Tsimik[in] - (TSEE meek; pl. TSEE mee keen) - a Y'Dahnndryan year
• Lyra Turrma - (LEE rah TOOR mah)
• Lif - (LEEF)
• Siar - (SHEeahr) 
• Genzetti - (ghehn ZEHT tee) - of the clan Genzet
• Dez Zoisi - (DEZ zoh EE see)

The Right Thing

 How could she? Lyra had been friends with Siar for so long. How could her best friend not tell her of the coming lifemating with the one person Lyra had always expressed interest in herself? And now Siar had asked Lyra to stand beside her as her right hand during the joining ceremony. How could she endure it? How could Andurdrao have allowed such a thing to occur?

*****Five Tsimikin Pass*****

Memories assailed Lyra as she walked the streets of her underground home town. She’d left when Siar and Lif had been joined, before they even did. Goodbyes were difficult even in the best of times. That particular time had definitely been far from best. She’d grown a lot since then, learned a lot about herself and her selfishness. Her iteik’I had convinced her that there was hope for reconciliation only while her friend was alive. And since she was a devout follower of Andurdrao, reconciliation was necessary to be able to fulfill the role she’d been created for. Lyra would never find true contentment if there was always this ankir stone hanging around her neck. 

Lyra had been a fraktur all this time and she’d become quite adept over the tsimikin, not having a lifemate or younglings to divide her time between. Everything she was went into all she worked on. Her name was well-known now because of the excellence of her work in refining the most precious of stones for setting into exquisite jewelry and decorations. Thinking that may be the best way to find out where her friend now lived, she stepped into the village shop where people could find the smythi and frakturi. They often worked together. Sometimes, a smythi worked alone, but a frakturi was most appreciated. 

The door to the shop bore a beautifully embossed plaque denoting a talented smythi worked in the shop. The hinges of curled metal scrolling and the closing mechanism told her the smythi was exceptionally gifted. Twisting the filigree ring pulled the inner bar back with a sharp click, allowing the door to swing free. She pushed through into a dimly lit front room. Squinting through the gloom, she made out an orange-red glow flickering in a back room. Since no one was in the entry, she made her way to the back. 

“Greetings, Smythi!” she called out, uncertain. The dimness of the room was unsettling. Why wasn’t the shop brightly lit, showing clearly the work of those who ran the shop? Lyra lifted up a quick prayer for Andurdrao’s guidance along her path. 

As soon as she stepped through the back opening, she gasped. Recognition slammed into her. This man had joined in the fun times of long ago. Lif had asked him to stand with him. She’d learned his looks well, since she had a hard time looking at the happy couple on the dawning they made their announcement. She’d forgotten his name, though. 

“Pardon, good smythi, but could I beg your assistance?” she asked loud enough to be heard over the pounding of his hammer on metal. 

He spun as if he hadn’t heard her entrance and she gasped. A scar now marred his face, a raised line showed where a vicious gash had split him from his right eyebrow all the way down to his left cheek. 

He squinted at her in the gloom. And she understood it well for she was a solid black and well-hidden in any shadowy space. Her coloring had always bothered her. “Lyra? Lyra Turrma?”

She nodded, not knowing what else to say to that. How had he remembered her name after only meeting her once and only then for such a short time? “Yes. I’ve come hoping to speak to Siar. Do you know where I could find her?”

He rose to his full and quite impressive height, even for a Genzetti. He was a rich, reddish-brown and his long, thick hair had been twisted and folded into a large ball tied with a hide string. His shoulders, which were bare underneath his protective apron in the heat of the forge, showed his dedication to his work in the strength and roundness of them.  He was clenching his jaw now and his fingers twitched. Understanding struck like a blinding flash. 

“I know. I should’ve come back long ago. And I shouldn’t have left the way I did.” She bowed her head, duly reprimanded without him having to say a word. She truly did understand. “It hurt so much. I could barely function that dawning. Please try to see where I was in that moment.” She offered up her plea, even while fearing it would do no good. This man had judged her and found her wanting. And he was right. 

“If I could go back and change it, I’d like to think I’d have acted better, set my selfishness aside and embraced joy for my friend. The truth is, things had to happen this way for my eyes to be opened to my imperfections. I was so haughty and so certain I was the one who’d caught his eye. Siar and I were always together. He never spoke to one of us more than the other when we were all together, but he was always looking our way. I was just too self-centered to think it was my friend who’d caught his eye. And in my hurt at her hiding the fact from me that they would be life-mates, anger and betrayal fed the hideous mix.” 

Clasping her hands together tightly, she felt her nails dig in and ignored the pain. “I was so stupid. Five long tsimikin have passed with no one besides my iteik’I to share them with. All this time, I could have had my friend to share joys and triumphs with, to comfort and pray with me through hardships. I could have been there for hers. And I ruined it all.” She looked up then to surprise a look of compassion in his glittering eyes. 

Silence fell in the shop, the only sound the hissing and crackling of the fire in the forge. Wasn’t he going to say anything? 

Finally, she said, “I understand. I’ll be leaving now.” 

She got five steps and heard a gravelly baritone murmur, “Wait.” Lyra stopped, but didn’t turn around. Heavy steps stopped right behind her. “They still reside in his home.” She looked over her shoulder. He opened his mouth as if to say more, then resolutely clamped his lips together, nodded once, then turned back to his labor. 

“My thanks to you, Good Smythi. And my apologies for not remembering your name. I was truly a horrible person.” She face the door, grabbed the ring and twisted. When the mechanism clicked free of the frame, she pulled, then thought better of it. Turning back, she hurried to the back room. “Please,” she breathed, surprising him. “What is your name? I need to remember it.”

He glared at her for a long time, looking down his nose at her. Then one corner of his lips lifted in a smirk. “Dez Zoisi.” The smirk disappeared and he cocked his head to one side. “Why the need to remember now? Will you be staying?”

Lyra shrugged. “I had no plan to do so, but,” she lowered her head, then raised it once more to meet his intense gaze, “no one knows the future. Only Andurdrao.”

He smiled fully then, showing his fangs. One of them was chipped. “Truth. I hope you are well received. Will you return and tell me of your visit? I haven’t seen either of them in a long while.”

Lyra spoke her acceptance of his request, then waved a farewell before leaving the shop. The time had come to face the consequences of her past actions. Whether her friend received her well or not, she had to do the right thing. 

It was up to her to walk well the path which lay before her.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to stop by today. I hope you enjoyed your visit. 

What did you think of the story? Is it something you'd like to see built on and refined into a larger piece? Please leave your comments below. I'd love to know what you think.

I hope you'll return Monday for a three-word prompt to boost your creativity. 

Until next time,

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