New On-Shot: "Weeping May Endure for a Night..."

Back in April during the first Camp NaNoWriMo 2014, I was scribbling a couple of stories in a notebook while also typing away on Only by Moonlight. While one of these stories was the beginning of the sequel to Evening Star (still unnamed as yet), the other was written for a TwiFic Doctorward Contest. But I didn't have time to finish the story before the June 4 deadline, so I shelved it for a while, allowing it to simmer on my mind's back burner as I worked my (rather generous) behind off teaching both online and in the classroom in addition to homeschooling two teenaged boybarians. 

When this month's Camp NaNoWriMo came around, I dusted off Doctorward and typed him up, adding a bit here and there. This past week gave him real substance, and by the time I sent him to the brilliant ladylibre, he was nearly ready for posting. She adored the story, giving me some great revisions where I got too wordy (naaah, never happens! <grin>), and stating that this one-shot was among the best stories I had ever written. Even my husband, who rarely reads my fiction, read it and really liked it, too. 

So here is the beginning of this Doctorward tale entitled "Weeping May Endure for a Night...":

Weeping May Endure for a Night…

by Cassandra Lowery

            It was nearly midnight when I finally got home. Only the darkness greeted me as I entered and locked the door of our flat behind me. By force of habit, I dropped my keys into the ceramic dish on the small entryway table. Loosening my tie, I peered into the mirror hanging over the table, barely able to see myself in the glow of the city lights shining through the open windows.

            I looked like crap. Dark shadows encircled beneath my eyes, and my face was paler than usual, bordering on haggard.

            That’s the kind of word she would have used if she were here…”haggard.”

            I turned away from the mirror and paused in the kitchen doorway. Although I had managed to skip both lunch and dinner, I knew that there was no way that I could eat tonight; the knot of pain and grief in my stomach made the mere thought of food seem repulsive. Trying to ignore the slight dizziness that accompanied my lack of sustenance, I dropped onto the sofa—our sofa. Bella had loved it at first sight, choosing it for its comfort and for its rather shabby, “homey” appearance.

            She was so wise in such things.

            Most of my colleagues’ wives were focused on spending their physician husbands’ pay as quickly as it was earned, frittering away huge sums on designer clothing and spa treatments, decorating and redecorating their expensive homes as their main occupation, and sporting the latest model BMW, Audi, or Mercedes-Benz.

            Not my Bella.

            God, I missed her.    

            I rubbed at the persistent ache in my chest.
           She had decorated our home with estate sale finds, getting up at ungodly hours nearly every Saturday morning to comb through the eclectic neighborhoods of Chicago, dragging home a bureau, a bookcase, an end table, an armchair, or some other “amazing find”—along with stacks and stacks of ancient books that she “just couldn’t resist.”

            When I objected to the number of books she trundled home, she’d grin unrepentantly and declare that it was the price I had to pay for marrying a writer.

            How I adored that mischievous grin….

           

I hope that you'll enjoy reading "Weeping May Endure for a Night..." on both Wattpad.com and on FanFiction.net. 

I also updated Only by Moonlight last night as well, adding Chapter 14. I'm currently working on a draft of Chapter 15, and I hope to finish drafting Chapter 15 and Chapter 16 before the close of Camp NaNoWriMo. I know that I won't reach my goal of 30,000 words being written this month, but I have written, revised, editing, and polished two pieces of writing which add up to nearly 9,000 words, revising and polishing them at least four times each. 

During August, I'll be preparing for Year #18 of home education in which I'll be teaching our high schoolers in grades 9 and 12, plus preparing for three online Brave Writer courses (two of which are new Literary Analysis classes), and two courses for our home school group's co-op Class Days, one of which is a new Shakespeare class that will require a lot of preparation. But I'm still hoping to tuck more raw writing into the corners of my days (and nights) so that when fall arrives, I am hoping not to leave you hanging for two months again! :) 

Happily writing,
~Cassandra :)  

Teaser from New Story "On Our Way Home"

"On Our Way Home" was the first one-shot I started writing last summer, I think. I hadn't touched it much since then; it was barely over a page and needed some major re-vamping (please forgive the pun).


I'm thinking that, unless I run into a major case of writer's block, I should be able to complete this story as a special Easter gift (in addition to Chapter 31 of PbF).


So here's the beginning of it...and I hope that you like it (or absolutely adore it!!). And yes, it's short.... :(

"On Our Way Home"
EPOV from New Moon


After helping Bella into the window seat, I placed her backpack in the small compartment over our heads while Alice slid hers next to it. I gently closed the door before moving in from the crowded aisle as tired tourists filed past us, toting their carry-on bags. Sliding into the aisle seat, I gazed once again into the beautiful eyes that I had never thought to see alight with life again.

Bella gave me a tight smile, the same smile I had seen pass over her features only a few times since we left Volterra hours ago.

There was something very wrong with that smile, haunting me, mitigating the joy that had exploded within me in that shadowed alley as I realized that I held a living, breathing Bella in my arms, the joy that had been renewed when our safety became a reality as Alice guided the stolen sedan out of Volterra limits.

Thankful for the wide first class seats that Alice had insisted upon, miraculously obtaining them with much sweet talking and several generous bribes, I lifted the dividing arm between our seats, placing my arm around Bella's too-thin shoulders and pulling her against my chest. Now she could sleep at last. Ignoring Alice's frantic whispers to Jasper on her cell from the seat behind me, I sighed as I noted again the changes in Bella's appearance: the deep purple circles under her eyes, the dull paleness of her face, the lankness of her once-shiny hair, the loss of fifteen pounds of weight, and, most concerning of all, the tug-of-war behind those beautiful brown eyes. Gazing into them once again as I cupped her thin face in my palm, I saw her love for me war with uncertainty, hurt, anxiety, and, worrying me the most, fear.

What was Bella afraid of now?

So, please, let me know what you think. And, yes...it's short and terse...still in rough draft form. But I have always been captivated by these scenes in the book and with my opportunity to play in Edward's POV...why not?


Have a wonderful week, my writerly and readerly friends!!


Warmly,

Cassandra :)

Another One-Shot in the Works

Okay, I'm working on a new one-shot for all of you, but before I can finish it, I need your professional advice.


Which Wattpad book cover should I use????


Please comment below with your choice!



Choice #1 with "Film Texture"



Choice #2 without Film Texture and a different title font



Choice #3 (although the first one I created)



So, in addition to choosing the Wattpad book cover, I thought I'd give you all a little sneak-peek at "The Long Night," a one-shot written in Edward's POV of a certain incident in Eclipse. Please keep in mind that this excerpt is from the first draft, with no editing:

“Bella?” Charlie called to her, and I heard her creeping past the back of his sofa stop and the whisk of air as she turned to face him.

I heard his gasp as he took in Bella's bedraggled appearance, her red, swollen eyes still leaking tears down her drawn, set face, her arms folded defensively.

His mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario: Jacob had died from his injuries sustained in his “motorcycle accident.” Why else would Bella be so horribly upset—crying like he had never seen her cry...even after “he” (meaning myself) had left her.

That hurt...knowing that he'd never seen Bella so upset over my absence as she was now. Not that I wanted her to suffer—God no! But Charlie's thoughts had planted an insidious seed, one that I should try to kill off before it germinated.

But it already had.

Perhaps Bella was saying “goodbye” to the wrong one of us.

If she was suffering so dreadfully over Jacob—and had not suffered so when I had left—then she would be miserable with me.

She must be staying with me out of some misguided sense of honor—of not wanting to break her word to me, not want to let me down.

Bella knew what I was capable of—my mad dash to destroy myself in Volterra just a few months ago must have affected her more than I knew. Perhaps she was afraid that I would attempt suicide again if she left, so she stayed with me out of a misplaced sense of guilt, not wanting to cause anyone harm—not me, not my family if I should be successful this time.

So she was willing to sacrifice her feelings for Jacob—her love for Jacob, for she admitted to me today that she did indeed love him—to keep me safe.

That was exactly the kind of thing Bella would do.

And the agony that accompanied this realization was unspeakable...the only time I had been in worse pain was during those indescribable twenty-four hours during which I thought she was dead in March.

O God—what have I done?

I couldn't allow Bella to sacrifice her happiness for my sake. Although it would be agonizing, I needed to let her go so that she could pursue the one she truly loved.

Engagement or no engagement.

I hope to have the entire story up by tonight, tomorrow at the latest. So please, comment on which cover you prefer and on the bit of the first draft I've posted here.


Thanks ever so.


Love,
Cassandra :)

New One Shot Started....

It's been a crazy-busy month for me. I've started a new one-shot called Her Wedding Day at least. I'm working on Chapter 24 of Pinned but Fluttering, plus I have serious plans to write an outtake of Chapter 23 from Carlisle's POV, including Bella's arrival at the hospital, her treatment, and the meeting with the wolfpack. So we'll see how all these things come together.


And on Wattpad, Pinned but Fluttering just reached 2,000 votes and 2,000 comments and also passed 115,000 reads. Wow!!! My Wattpad readers just blow me away with their extraordinary kindness and manic enthusiasm! It's wonderful writing for them.


And the best thing about writing these stories? The friendships I've made. On FanFiction.net I've made good friends with Natalia Mazaur, LadyLibre, and SleepMyBella (and I also beta for the first two out of sheer admiration for their awesome talent!!). On Wattpad I've made too many friends to keep track of--seriously. But with each chapter I get to respond to their many perceptive comments and kind words of encouragement, and I am so blessed to befriend so many writers!!


The best comments I receive on Wattpad are from readers who either 1) hate Twilight, or 2) hate fan fiction, but end up loving Pinned but Fluttering!! Talk about the ultimate compliment!!!

As a special treat, here's the beginning of Her Wedding Day:

She was utterly breathtaking.

Sure, she wobbled just a little as she started down the aisle on her father's arm. Only my sharpened sight noticed the slight catch in her stride and the nervous tightening of her hand on Charlie's arm.

But that was my Bella.

Once she raised her eyes from the ground on which she carefully stepped, her beautiful brown eyes latched onto mine, and I could see nothing else.

I'm sure that her dress was perfect—lovely and graceful on her slim form, modestly outlining her curves in a way that would drive me distracted later.

Later...much later...I would peel that dress off of my beloved, and slowly, surely, we would become one in body as we were becoming one in heart and mind and soul in mere moments.

But I couldn't focus on her dress now; I could only see her warm, chocolate eyes—melted chocolate—as warmth and emotion filled them. I could feel my own eyes burning oddly, too.

Our love was like that...full, warm, complete.

It seemed as though it took hours for Charlie to walk his daughter down the aisle, but it was mere seconds.

But somehow, during the passage of these mere seconds, I changed...from a boy to a man. My age and appearance may remain the same, but I would never be that boy again.

I was ready, so ready, to step up and become the husband of Isabella Marie Swan.

After eons of gazing deeply into each others' souls as she drew ever nearer on her father's arm, she was here.

At my side.

Forever.

WIP Recommendations:

Within Reason by JA Mash

Words with Friends and Words with Strangers by Nolebucgrl

Serenity's Prayer by ladylibre

My Guardian Destroyer by Natalia Mazaur

(And yes, I beta the last two!)


Enjoy!!!!!

Well, it's 1:00 AM, so I suppose I ought to attempt to sleep sometime....

Love to you all--

Cassandra

Two New One-Shots

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR READERS!!!

I have a little surprise for you all. Despite being a day late in posting the next Chapter 20 of Pinned but Fluttering, I've also started two one-shots. And they're both written from Edward's point-of-view.

Neither one is very cheerful; I hope that the despair I'm writing won't be an indication of the dominant tone of the new year.

One is canon, called A Long Night taken from Eclipse. It's Edward's POV of the night when Bella cries over Jacob. I've only written a couple of pages; we'll see how it goes. It's intriguing, but not quite as intriguing as the second story which is partially canon.

The second story is at about five pages and is called The Last Day, and it's partly canon, but mostly not. I'm not going to say too much about it, but my hope is to finish it by next weekend. Here's a short excerpt from the rough draft. Let me know what you think:

I had been practically catatonic for the first two years after I left her. I had fled my family immediately after leaving Bella, throwing myself into my Volvo and driving mindlessly into the wilds of Canada, stopping only to refuel the car.

I finally ended up on the shores of a gigantic stretch of water in the northeast of Canada—Hudson Bay I discovered later. There I had parked the car on a deserted dirt road and walked to the edge of the water where I sank to my knees, sobbing tearlessly.

I don't know how long I stayed there, curled up, arms wrapped around my knees, knees under my chin, rocking back and forth as the grief overtook me, my eyes remained unseeingly fixed on the calm waters. I'm sure that Alice must have seen me there, but she must have persuaded the family to let me alone. I was grateful for the solitude; it was all I asked of my empty existence.

The snows soon came, and I remained on the shores of Hudson Bay. I didn't feed—I just couldn't. I could hear the rustling of prey very near: deer, elk, moose, foxes, but I couldn't unfold my body to hunt them.

My body weakened, even the silent rocking of grief finally slowed then stopped as the effects of not feeding took its toll on my immortal body.

The cell phone in my pocket was long dead, probably ruined by the rains that beat down upon me and the snows which built up around me. The only movement I made was to higher ground once the snows arrived—to a large rock that I could easily clear to keep the snows from swallowing me. Not that I would have cared. The persistent cold matched the cold in my heart—the iced over organ that once had glowed with warmth as my lips had met hers....

But stop. I wouldn't let myself think of her; it was too painful. I was barely hanging on as it was; adding memories of my beloved at that time would have ended me.

As she told me later, it was mid-February when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Although I had not detected her thoughts—or theirs—as they approached me, I did not move when I felt her touch.

She bent down in front of me, blocking my view of the iced-over inlet of water that had been my focus for the last five months.

“Edward?” she whispered. “Edward?”

I didn't blink. She looked over her shoulder. “Jazz?” she pleaded softly. She told me later that Jasper was overwhelmed with my despair so much that he had fallen to his knees behind me. He had gathered his forces as well as he could and tried to force his calm, his peace, on me, but nothing could penetrate the silent, private hell in which I had encased myself.

So, anyway, I plan to edit Chapter 20 of Pinned but Fluttering and post it later tonight, then I'll keep working on The Last Day all week and hopefully I'll have it up by next weekend.

Happy New Year, my dear friends!!!! :)

With best wishes for a blessed 2012,
--Cassandra

PS Chapter 20 of Pinned but Fluttering is now up! Enjoy!!