Lavender Legacy - Chapter 3: The Heart Wants

The Lavender Legacy series follows the Lavender family from the Sims 3: Supernatural game. Lila Lavender is the progenitor. Who knows what crazy things will happen in the lives of the Lavenders!

You can find previous chapters and the current chapter on Wattpad.

The Heart Wants

Lila has a good cry over her lost plants--she wishes there was something to chase off the zombies, but she knows it's not possible.

Her bad luck continues to bleed into the next day, unfortunately. She's furious, and she realizes her attitude can easily effect things around her, but she can't help herself. So, she grudgingly eats her unevenly cooked breakfast, and then curses the shower when it breaks on her as she's showering....

Enough of this. She suffers through work, then comes home and buys herself a fairy castle. It's time for some rest and relaxation, fairy style! She's already decided she's going to play hookie from work tomorrow. She sips her pollen punch, determined to stick to her guns.

At least she's able to revive two of her apple trees. And fix the damned shower.

The next day, she sticks to her decision and blows off work. Instead she finds some special seeds, sells some produce, paints, and plants. To end the day she has some fun at the Red Velvet Lounge, making friends, dancing, and enjoying herself. What a relaxing day, though the fear of getting fired lingers in the back of her mind.

Of course the fun doesn't last. She has the next day off of work, but she starts it off with her toilet breaking. This time, she's not going to let it get her down. She helps her friend Belinda by repairing her TV, paints another picture, and then has herself a fairy house party! You can't say fairies don't know how to party.

To keep things rolling along, she heads out to the Red Velvet Lounge and makes friends with Chauncey Grimm. Well, she's hoping their relationship can grow to more than friends. He rebuffs all of her flirtatious advances, though. True, he's in a relationship, but the heart wants what the heart wants!

Lila heads home, depressed over her relationship status. Can't she find someone to be happy with? Or at least someone to have some fun with? This fairy doesn't want to be alone forever. And life in Moonlight Falls would be so much better with a partner by her side.

The following day, she hears of a new neighbor that's moved into town. Supposedly a handsome, vampire neighbor. Her heart pounds in her throat as she makes the decision to visit him and welcome him to Moonlight Falls.

Will this new mystery man be the vampire of her dreams? Or will he spurn her like every other man she's fallen for?

Are there some things you'd be interested in seeing Lila do? Any particular tortures you'd like to see inflicted on her? Feel free to make some suggestions, and if they're interesting enough, I may just use them!

NEXT UP: What Am I Writing?

Magic Is Reality, Reality Is Magic: Orange

Magic is Reality, Reality is Magic is a series that highlights aspects of religions, particularly Paganism. We pull things from everyday life to use in our fiction. Magic is one of the key attributes of fantasy. Why not explore the realm of magic that many people already have in their lives?

Picture By Jean-Pol GRANDMONT Fall is creeping in (a bit too early in many areas!), and it will be the Fall Equinox in a few days. I've already touched on green, a color associated with spring. So now it's only appropriate to take a look at orange, a clear symbol of fall. It's one of the predominant colors when the leaves change colors, after all.

Orange really opens your eyes when you see it, so it makes sense that it represents energy. Do you ever get that revitalized feeling when you breathe in the crisp fall air? If you do, think of the color orange coursing through your body and giving you renewed energy to tackle anything.

Not only does it inspire energy, but orange is also the color of warmth--like a loaf of pumpkin bread fresh from the oven, or the cascading colors of the setting sun. It radiates enthusiasm. Why not jump into a pile of fallen leaves? You know you want to! Sometimes when I think of orange, I think of a child on a fall day, gleefully spinning around in circles until she's dizzy and splats onto her butt. Such joy and happiness.

Orange can also symbolize vitality, endurance, encouragement, stimulation, adaptability, attraction, and balance.

Now go find yourself an orange to eat--you know you want to after all this talk of the color.

What comes to mind when you think of the color orange?

If you'd like to read a bit more about this color, you can take a look at the following websites: The Color Orange, Orange Color Meanings, and The Meanings of Orange.

Further Reading Suggestions:

Buckland, Raymond. Practical Candleburning Rituals. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1999.

I hope you found this tidbit interesting! If you would like me to touch on a particular topic that fits in this series, please don't hesitate to contact me with suggestions.

NEXT UP: Lavender Legacy - Ch. 3

What Am I Writing? 9/10/14 Snippet - Dead As Dreams

Below is a snippet of something I am currently working on. Be warned, it will usually be rough draft material. Please let me know if you like what you read! It'll encourage me to keep going. ♥

She shivered as the rain cascaded down her skin and stepped forward. Each step was a battle not to fall again. Not sure where to go, or what she was looking for, she forced herself to be aware of her surroundings. She didn't aim for the crying babe--she knew the futility of that chase.

After what seemed like hours, the muscles in her legs sore from attempting to keep her balance, Aysa paused. The valley still stretched to all sides of her, unchanged. Someone or something was playing games with her. Her anger blossomed.

She realized, with her fury pumping through her, that her fear had vanished, and her yearning to follow the child's cries had secreted itself away.

And she looked up, the only spot she hadn't scrutinized on her journey through this flowered wasteland. The sky was gray, thick with storm clouds. Right above her was a crack, larger than what she had witnessed in the dream with Lazarus. It pulsed an olive green, almost the same color as the rotting flora under Aysa's feet.

For a brief moment, she thought she saw the blink of a pair of eyes, the sweep of lashes, and then the image vanished.

From Dead As Dreams, Chapter 11 (novel currently in the revision process)

About Dead As Dreams:

Dreams are in danger and souls are chained to the earth. Aysa, the Shepherd of Dreams, and Lazarus, a spirit seeker, join forces to restore the balance between dreams and nightmares and life and death. They face a rogue spirit seeker and a manipulator of nightmares--both intent on unhinging the world, but there is yet another pulling the strings.

NEXT UP: Magic Is Reality, Reality Is Magic - Orange

Writing Journey

I came across this picture to the right while looking for something suitable to use for my writing updates. Aside from it being a beautiful picture (it's a Public Domain picture on Pixabay), it reminded me how grand of a journey writing is. I write about many journeys in my fantasies, but I have to remember that I'm on my own journey as well, and one where I'm taken to many different worlds.

A journey where I cross countless bridges.

This bridge is a bit of a lonely view, but I'm not alone on this adventure. Not only do I have companions travel with me during parts of my journey (friends, family, acquaintances, business associates), but I also know that many writers are on their own journeys, and our paths may cross--we may traverse the same bridges even at one point or another.

A lot of times I get discouraged because unlike the end of a novel, it's impossible to see the end of the journey. Heck, like most writers, the end of the writing journey doesn't come until breaths no longer pass my lips, and I don't want to know when that end is around the corner. It's not only the end though that's elusive, but even the next path I'll travel, the next bridge I'll cross. It's like a Choose Your Own Adventure. I can make a choice to go one direction, but I can never be sure exactly where that direction will take me.

It seems futile, doesn't it? That doesn't stop me from remaining on the path, even if I've needed to take rest stops along the way due to life (life is that big monster in the path with sharp teeth and bloodshot eyes--after a while, it gets bored and wanders off, allowing me to continue).

This was supposed to be an update, but I guess it's turned into more of a reflection. No, the life monster isn't growling at me right now. I've actually made steady progress on revisions of Dead As Dreams. I also re-designed my website, as well as adjusted a few things on the blog. I sent The Mind Behind the Mind out for consideration to another publisher last week, and my short story "Ode to Buses and Libraries" got put into a slush pile the week before.

Though I don't have any new publications to report, I'm proud of the steps and choices I've made on my journey recently. Keep watching my word count trackers in the left column if you're curious how I'm doing. And if you're a writer on your own journey and would like to cross paths with me and some other writers for a bit, please join us at Writing Quest. I create a new event each month on my Facebook author page.

For now, I'm curious where my current choices will lead me. And if they make me go back across the bridge (rejection), I'll just cross another (more submissions, and even some indie publishing).

You'll be seeing a lot of this bridge in the future, whenever I post my updates and writerly ramblings.

NEXT UP: What Am I Writing? Another excerpt from Dead As Dreams!