NYC Midnight Short Story Competition 2015

My entry for the first round of the NYC Midnight Short Story Competition. I was in heat 16 where my given genre was Ghost Story, Subject was a lifeboat and Character was a bride. After my initial panic of 'how the hell am I going to make a lifeboat an integral part of a ghost story' I calmed down and it was quite fun. It seems I actually quite like being given something to work with :) Here's the finished piece, I'll find out on March 10th ifit's good enough for round two!

  

Going Coastal

‘Oh come on, it’ll be fun!’ Ella teased her new husband as she ran off down the beach, glittery sandals clasped tightly in one hand, dress hoisted off the damp sand with the other.

            ‘But Ella, we’re not supposed to come down here. The coastguard warned us about the high tides, it comes in really fast in this bay.’ He cast a furtive glance back the way they’d come. Worried the lifeboat crew could see them in the distance, not heeding the advice they were given. They’d made jokes about having to rescue the newlyweds before they’d even been married twenty-four hours. ‘And the… the… you know, that other thing he warned us about.’

            Ella turned to face Tom with an eyebrow raised and head tilted to one side, mockingly. ‘You’re not seriously scared about that are you? The Branok Bay witch. All superstitious nonsense. No doubt Morveren was a local woman that someone had a grudge against, and they burnt her for that rather than witchcraft.’

            ‘It’s creepy though, burnt alive in her own little stone cottage.’ His eyes flicked to the ragged remains of a stone building up ahead. Sat upon a rocky outcrop jutting defiantly out of the sand like a solitary tooth amidst the gaping mouth of Branok Bay.

            Ella smiled one of her most dazzling smiles that she knew would win him over. ‘Come on, don’t be such a spoil sport, it’ll be fun. Looking around the ruins together, just us and the sea for company.’ She fluttered her lashes for extra effect.

‘Still though, I really don’t think we should be wandering this far out when the tide is coming in.’

            ‘We won’t be long, and look at it! Just take in that glorious view.’ She swept her arm theatrically to emphasise the stunning sunset in front of them. The sea looked as though it were on fire, oranges and reds dancing across its flickering surface, basking in the evening warmth of the summer evening.

            Tom relented, and took his wife in his arms. ‘It’s against my better judgement, but how can I deny my beautiful bride?’ He pushed a stray strand of honey coloured hair from Ella’s face, and lost himself in her hazel brown eyes.

            ‘You can’t!’ She kissed him slowly on the lips, tasting the salty tang of the sea, and darted off towards the ruin, which was silhouetted against the sun. A large black blot of an otherwise idyllic view.

            Tom caught up with her as they arrived at the foot of the huge, forbidding rock. ‘How are we supposed to get up there then?’

            Ella checked every crack and curvature of its surface, looking for a sturdy foothold. ‘There’s meant to be some sort of steps worked into the stone.’

            ‘Looks like the sea has long since worn those away, it’s been here for centuries. We’d best head back, you’re not exactly dressed for rock climbing are you?’ He pointed to her glittery sandals which she then tucked onto a rocky ledge.

            ‘Here they are!’ She called out triumphantly, as Tom sighed, hope of returning to the hotel before sunset swiftly disappearing. Ella cautiously clambered over the rusty chain denying them access and made her way up the steps, worn smooth by years of the elements and feet beating down on them. It was slick with tidal leftovers lower down the rock. Little rock pools and slimy walls of green, seaweed stuck fast to the stone.

            ‘Watch your step, you could break your neck on this stuff!’ Tom grasped the walls for reassurance, and noticed the graffiti scrawled there, the calling card of a bored teenager wanting to leave their mark on an infamous landmark. The sea breeze whispered through the holes and crevices in the rock like siren songs pulling them in. Tom shuddered. ‘You know that coastguard said there have been loads of sightings and weird stuff going on round here. I’m really not sure it’s safe at all to be climbing up there. What if we get stuck? I don’t think I’ve got any reception on my phone here, I’ll never be able to call the lifeboat out to rescue us.’

            ‘Oh Tom, don’t be such a scaredy cat. Where’s your sense of adventure? Live a little.’

            They wound their way around the edge of the rock face, and through a tunnel that emerged onto the topmost point where a little stone cottage stood broken and open to the elements.

            A sudden gust of wind chilled them to the core, sending shivers through their bones and goose bumps rising across their skin. Ella wrapped her arms around herself to stave off the cold creeping into her flesh. ‘Let’s go and take a look inside.’ Her brown eyes flashed with excitement as she crept forwards.

            ‘I think we should get back to the hotel now. Just look how fast the tide is coming in, we’ll be stranded up here if we don’t move…’

            SQUAWK! A seagull dive-bombed Tom, startling him. He crashed to the floor with his hands over his ears.

            ‘Are you okay?’ Ella found it hard to keep the giggle from her voice, and tried to stifle it with a hand pressed to her lips.

‘I told you it wasn’t safe up here!’ He struggled to his feet. ‘Bloody seagull. They’re a right menace! I’m going back down. I’m not staying up here another minute!’ He struggled back towards the steps.

‘Oh Tom, you’ve no sense of adventure. I’m just going to take a quick look inside, then I’ll be right behind you.’

‘Make sure you are, that tide is getting dangerously close now. As it is I think we’ll have to get our feet wet just to get back to dry land.

‘I’ll be quick. No point struggling up here and not taking a proper look around.’ She said as Tom’s head disappeared from view, back down through the tunnel at the heart of the rock.

Ella felt as though someone was watching her, and turned to see another gull sitting on a corner of the stone wall, watching her every move with its beady yellow eyes. ‘Shoo away with you!’ She flapped her arms to scare him away but he just kept on staring, his glassy eyes looked threatening and cruel. As she drew closer he let out an indignant squawk. He flew away, leaving her alone with the wind howling about her, whipping at her dress and making her shiver with its icy bite. Maybe Tom was right, this was foolish, but I just have to take a look now I’m here, she thought.

***

Daylight was fading fast as Tom reached the bottom of the Witch rock of Branok Bay. He misjudged his footing and slipped, cracking his head against the cold stone on his way down. He felt the hot, coppery blood trickle down his face as he slumped to the floor, the sea eagerly lapped around him, the tide rising with each and every ebb and flow.

            Tom awoke with a start. Freezing and soaked to the skin, and choking on salty water. He could barely see as the sun had almost set, and one eye was caked in blood. The strong current had pushed his body forward enough that he was now cut off from the rock. Cut off from Ella. Ella, the thought startled him into full consciousness.

            ‘ELLA?’ He shouted, with no response, and no sign save the squawking of gulls overhead, their call eerie in the twilight. He splashed towards the beach and on to the lifeboat station to raise the alarm.

***

The smell of fish and decay hit her as soon as she passed through the doorway into the remains of the cottage. Her gag reflex kicked in and she fought back the urge to vomit. She saw rotting fish over to one side and guessed these were leftover scraps from seagulls and other seabirds that stopped by.

            She moved slowly through what was left of the building. Peering through what was once a window, she could see the tide greedily making its way up the rock and decided that maybe she ought to make this a short visit after all. Ella looked around, she could just make out what was left of a fireplace and what looked like a big, stone bowl. Dirty water had pooled inside. She looked into the murky water, her own face looked back at her, framed by the dying embers of the sunset sky above. Her eyes looked odd, distorted in the water, they looked glazed, almost white, nothing like her usual brown. Something clattered to the ground behind her, she snapped round but could see nothing out of place. Her heart hammered to escape the prison of a ribcage. Must have been another seagull or something, she thought as she tried to slow her breathing to a normal pace. She leant one hand on the stone bowl to steady herself. A movement from the corner of her eye drew her attention back to the water. Ripples? There can’t possibly be ripples, there’s nothing in…

            A hand burst up from the water, clasping an icy grip around Ella’s wrist. She screamed and hoped that Tom would hear her. ‘TOM!’ She bellowed but was answered only by the crash of waves and the screech of gulls. Long, gnarled nails dug into her skin leaving deep welts that stung like fire. She pulled back, the hand was strong and it took all her strength to escape it. She fell backwards and grazed her arms across the cold floor. Ella clawed her way back towards the doorway but a pressure around her ankles dragged her back towards the water. ‘Noooooooooooo!’ She screamed, blinding terror now eclipsing her senses as she grabbed at anything she could to escape, as the full horror hit her. The legend of Morveren, the Branok Bay witch was not superstitious nonsense after all.

            She winced in pain as she was flipped onto her back. Ella looked into the eyes of a woman ravaged by fire, her skin a twisted mess interwoven with seaweed and barnacles. White, misty eyes stared down at Ella as a small crab scuttled from the abyss of a mouth that hung limp, a black hole of despair.

            Ella opened her mouth to scream as the ghastly apparition of the Witch of Branok Bay flew at her, and buried itself deep within her. The smell of fish and rot intensified as her whole body shook as though ice had replaced the blood in her veins. Darkness claimed her.

***

‘Ella? ELLA? Oh Ella you’re alright, you’re here.’ Tom cradled her in his arms as she sobbed. ‘I’ve got you now. You’re safe.’

            ‘Come on Miss, we’ve got the lifeboat waiting for you.’

            Ella looked past Tom to the rescue team assembled behind him.

            She barely made a movement or sound as she was lifted onto the lifeboat and sailed to safety.

            ‘It’s a dangerous place that rock. Tide comes in quick there, easy to get yourself cut off. If you don’t mind me saying though Miss, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.’

            ‘The Witch of Branok Bay,’ another of the crew laughed.

            Ella stared out across the ocean, she wore a blank expression as a small crab scuttled down her arm. Tom watched in horror as her brown eyes turned white and misty.

THE END

Facebook Author Profile!

I wasn't going to set up a Facebook author page just yet but I've been encouraged by some lovely writer friends who run their own pages.

So for anyone who is on Facebook and would like a look, here's my new page which will have regular updates on...

https://www.facebook.com/FeatherNightingale

Writing Resolutions!

I don't do New Year's resolutions anymore, I always end up disappointing myself. So I don't set myself any, then I can't be stuck in that neverending circle of beating myself up about things!

I do however set myself writing resolutions, because I know these are achievable and something I actually want to do. I suppose they are more goals than resolutions, but both have the same outcome anyway.

I've had a lot of ups and downs during 2014, deaths in the family, and mini dramas throughout the year. But 2014 also was the year I managed to achieve something I have dreamt of for many long years. I finally got an agent! I still get that giddy rush of excitement when I say it out loud. It's taken a lot of hard work and perserverance, but I got there in the end.

That's what brings me round to my first writing resolution, and the reason I came to the attention of my agent...

1, Enter more writing competitions. *Cliche alert* You've got to be in it to win it. If I learnt one thing from 2014, it was that putting my self or rather, my writing out there more gets results. Even when those results aren't necessarily what you were hoping, it still means you're writing is out there and being read by others, the ultimate goal!

2, Write more. Sounds so simple, but it's not always that straightforward. Day to day boring stuff like washing up and putting clothes away gets in the way of the interesting stuff like writing. I need to set aside a certain amount of time every day and stick to it. Or if I can't do that, set a small writing target each day. Even if it's only as small as 100 words, that's still 3000 words on an average month, and you can guarantee there will be days that you do double, if not triple or more than that.

3, Read more. I achieved this in 2014, but I'd still like to read more often. Like writing more, little and often goes a long way.

4, Finish editing my novel. I'm on the fourth round of editing now, after the initial proof read and note making, then an edit to tidy it up and fill plot holes, then trying to make it better. Now I'm trying to make it much, much better! My agent read it after my last effort and gave me some pointers, so I'm working through those. I initially had my usual 'Oh god I can't do this!' panic moment, and this still creeps up on me at times but I have to try and push those fears away. Fear is good, it makes us want to work harder and better, but it isn't a very nice feeling, you just need to remind yourself that you are good at what you do, and most importantly you enjoy what you do. Even those writers who have already achieved huge success have doubts! It's just our instincts for self-preservation kicking in.

Set yourself achievable goals/writing resolutions and be realistic. No doubt there are some that could write a novel in a week, but it's not likely to be easy for most of us. Start small and build yourself up. Doing the same thing for 30 days in a row sets it up as habit, so keep that in mind when you organise time to write.

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope that 2015 brings you all your writerly dreams, happiness and health! :)

9 days, 3 books, 3 films

People have been telling me for years that I'd love The Hunger Games, well, they were right! So much so that after watching the first film I downloaded the first booked to my Kindle the same night and read the book over the next couple of days. 9 days later I have read the complete trilogy, watched the first two films on DVD and went to the cinema with a fellow fan to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.

It's rare that such a good book or series comes along that takes my interest in this way. I can count on my fingers over the years how many have. I love getting such a buzz from reading, it really feeds into my own writing and since finishing reading The Hunger Games I have gone back to editing my own book with renewed vigour! Good readers make good writers, reading informs and inspires.

So in your post-Christmas phase where life can sometimes feel a little flat, I thoroughly recommend reading! Escape to another world, country, planet. Live a whole other life and go on adventures you could never dream of by opening a book and jumping between it's pages :)

And if you fancy The Hunger Games, I give it a doubel thumbs up. The Hunger Games is a science fiction novel by Suzanne Collins. It's written in first person from the view of 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in the dystopian, post-apocalyptic nation of Panem in North America. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, exercises political control over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games is an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12–18 from each of the twelve districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle to the death. The Hunger Games is punishment for an uprising many years prior to the novel, and the subsequent novels deal with the reaction to Katniss' outcome during the first book and the revolution that is brewing within the 12 districts of Panem.

I can't really say much more without giving away too many spoilers from the first book. I personally enjoyed the up close encounter of each event through Katniss' eyes. I'm not usually a big fan of first person as I like to be able to get an overview of what is happening elsewhere, but it's handled so well by Suzanne Collins that it only adds to the tension within the plot. But it also gives you that closeness to Katniss, a very strong yet flawed female protaganist who unwittingly inspires others by her actions. There is also an element of romance in the series, with a typical love triangle, but this really does take a back seat to the action throughout. I'm not one for romance usually (though I am a self confessed Twilight fan!) but it does add a subtle extra dimension to the characters problems and long term outcomes, and influence decisions.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Hunger Games, and wear my Mockingjay brooch with pride :)

'May the odds be ever in your favour!'

Write Foxy!

Write Foxy! Writers’ Inspiration Day

I attended the Write Foxy! Writers’ Inspiration Day on the 2nd November at the De Vere Village Urban Resort in Dudley. A day packed with invaluable information and talks from well-established authors. The day was geared up to put the fun back into writing. Once we start seeing our writing as a career it can often become all about the deadlines and we lose sight of why we write in the first place. It’s easy to forget the fact that this has been your dream job for years, or in my case from about the age of 6 or 7! Longing to be the next Roald Dahl, only a slightly shorter more feminine version!

The day was organised by Miranda Dickinson who is a Sunday Times Bestselling author of Fairytale of New York, Welcome to My World, It Started With a Kiss, When I Fall In Love and Take A Look At Me Now. She has sold over 500,000 books worldwide to date and has become an international bestseller in three countries. Known for her author vlogs and honest take on the publishing industry, Miranda has mentored new authors and works to encourage writers at all stages of their writing careers.

There were talks from brilliant authors... Hannah Beckerman - Author of The Dead Wife's Handbook (Penguin) www.hannahbeckerman.com

Tamsyn Murray - Author of the Stunt Bunny series (Simon & Schuster Children's) and Afterlife series (Piccadilly Press) http://www.tamsynmurray.co.uk

Cally Taylor - Author of The Accident - as CL Taylor (Avon) http://www.callytaylor.co.uk/

And of course, Miranda Dickinson - Author of five Sunday Times Bestsellers, including Fairytale of New York and Take A Look At Me Now (Avon) http://miranda-dickinson.com/

The informative talks covering many aspects of writing from editing to putting the fun back into writing, were punctuated with plenty of refreshments and snacks. There was even a writers’ den adorned with lovely owl lights, comfy cushions and sweeties if you wanted a space to work on some writing. I must admit I was too enthralled by the speakers to tear myself away for any writing. I preferred to network with fellow writers who all had a varied range of experience and interesting backgrounds. I do so love to spend time in the company of like-minded individuals. There is no one that understands the daily struggle of listening to the voices in their head and putting these ideas on to paper than other writers. To paraphrase Alice in Wonderland, we’re all entirely bonkers, all the best writers are!

A wonderful buffet lunch was also provided. There’s nothing like a plentiful supply of food to put the icing on the cake for an event for me!

I made some new friends, made great contacts, and met writers I’d admired from afar! The autographed books I collected testify to this even if I did feel like a geeky author groupie/stalker! But then I believe you can’t write well unless you read well, so it’s not stalking its research and networking!

It might sound childish but I was really excited to hear that we were getting goodie bags! And I wasn’t disappointed with the writerly treats. Notebooks, pens, the staple diet of writers were included. As well as a 2015 diary, foxy card, chocolates amongst other items. Needless to say, I was a happy camper!

All in all, Write Foxy! Was a fantastic day that I would and have been recommending to fellow writers’. I enjoyed it so much that I’m already booked up for the next one on the 8^th February, you can find details for that at: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/write-foxy-writers-inspiration-day-february-2015-tickets-11388516359?aff=eorg

The fantastic writers speaking at this event are Kate Harrison, Julie Cohen, Rowan Coleman and once again the wonderful event organiser and writer Miranda Dickinson, who makes everyone feel right at home and very welcome!