Welcome to my world and beyond...

A collection of snippets of the books I write and, occasionally, my life and the things that inspire my writing...

Saturday, February 23, 2019

Scattered Bones: Weekend Writing Warriors


Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors. Last wewriwa post of February 2019! March is just around the muddy, windy, icy, snowy, slushy corner. ;-)


   It's time for snips and bits of amazing tales by talented writers! Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly bloghop. Each week, participants sign up HERE at wewriwa.com, then post 8 to 10 sentences of their work, published or unpublished, on their own blog to go live by 9:00 AM Sunday, EST. Then we visit each other and read, comment, critique, encourage--all those things that do a solitary writer's heart good. 
             Snippet Sunday group from facebook--not us, but many of our participants do both, can be found HERE
            This week's snippet is from my WIP, "The Sands of Dhor".  Lily, abducted from Earth by alien slavers, is with Theusand--who seems to have rescued her from the slavers. His race can communicate mind to mind.  They have stopped on a world while en-route to his Dominion. They're visiting people he knows. She suspects he has some connection to them that he is keeping from her. They live in a cave system to escape detection of slavers. It's evening and their underground village has gathered for storytime. Narge, one of the villagers is telling the tale of the Bulragers invading their world to gather slaves. Last week ended with:
Forcibly, the diaspora of our people had begun again.  Creative punctuation ahead--to comply with guidelines. :-)
“Children were dragged away from their mothers’ arms, and fathers were beaten and chained for trying to protect their families.

“Then the invaders scorched our land and destroyed our crops to force us into nonresistance. We prayed for the evil, the pain, the death... to stop.

“Instead, the Slatheks came, our worst nightmare, cruel beyond belief. They mined our beautiful world for every mineral they could haul. Sucking entire lakes dry, they annihilated the grasses and the flowers, the trees and the animals. 
"The Bulragers rented our people to them for labor.
“The worst, though, was that they were carnivores—of the basest kind. Many of our brothers and sisters, even babes still nursing at their mothers’ breasts, perished in their soup pots. Their bones were left scattered on the barren lands and the sun shining in the rainless sky bleached them ghostly white.




  Now you have it--what happened to their very own Shangrila...
That's it for this week.  All opinions greatly appreciated. :-) Thank you so much for visiting and for commenting!

34 comments:

  1. Intriguing - so who was this other race?

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    1. You inspired me to edit my post and include the name--which might still be changed. The more I look at it, I'm reminded of the villainous creatures in an after school show. They were the Sleestaks. :-) Thanks for visiting, Ian! I'm leaning toward the Japhroath.

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  2. Wow! That is absolutely horrible! I'm curious about the other race, too.

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    1. They figure into Theusand's backstory. Thanks for visiting, Jess!

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  3. I'm guessing that these other folks aren't your heroes, right? Something, I don't know what, gives me that impression. ;-)

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    1. Haha! How astute, to not let that one get by you. :-) Thanks for visiting, Ed!

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  4. Well, this definitely isn't a very happy story time. ;)

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    1. Nope. It took a step into the dark tales. :-) Thanks for visiting Fallon. :-)

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  5. Yikes, what a horrible series of events. I can't even imagine going through something like that. But your imagination is always astounding to me. :) Fabulous work!

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    1. Thanks, Julie. I am afraid of the dark. It's no wonder why that is. lol

      When I was little, we were allowed to stay up late on Saturday nights and watch The Chiller Theater with older sisters and brothers (there were 8 of us). Those movies gave me nightmares. Still, today, I get a flashback of The Day of the Triffids when I'm sitting outside watching a meteor shower. Oh, those old back and white horror films...

      Thanks for visiting!

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  6. Very nasty! Blasting the planet into pieces might be better.

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    1. It might, but it's more lucrative to the locust races that pillage there. :-)

      Thanks for visiting, Aurora!

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  7. You've done it again. Another boost for your marvelous story and so much gore. WOW!

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    1. I'm not a fan of serious gore. Intensely descriptive gore. This past week, I passed on a scifi book because several of the reviews warned that it is full of gore and graphic. They gave it 5 stars, btw. I read for pleasure. lol. And that does not meet the pleasure criteria. ;-) Thanks for visiting, my friend.

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  8. Wow, great details here, loving the horror factor. :)

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    1. Thanks, Runa! There isn't a lot of horror in it, but what there is definitely fits the definition of horror. ;-)

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  9. YIKES. And I thought my villains were evil... :S

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    1. lol! Yep. I do recall reading some nasty villains in your Dar Sky stories. I love those books. Thanks for visiting!

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  10. So maybe Earth was lucky to get blown up? This is terrifying, because I assume those guys are still out there.

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    1. Maybe. :-)

      Yep. Those guys are still out there.

      They are reviled by most who are aware of their existence. The Bulragers even have issues with them. Every slave who gets eaten is one less to sell or rent out.

      Thanks for visiting! :-)

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  11. Bad enough to be subjugated but to be eaten, too!!

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    1. Evil heaped on top of evil...

      Thanks for visiting, Nancy! :-)

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  12. How awful. You increase the horrors bit by bit then--wham!--they're cannibals.

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    1. I have no idea if this is pushing too far. I'll have to judge by what Beta readers tell me. :-)

      Thanks for visiting, Diane! :-)

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  13. "perished in their soup pots" As in they were boiled alive? All the other stuff is bad enough and not terribly shocking, but cooking people whilst they still live takes a certain kind of evil.

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    1. Yes, indeed. Evil by our standards. Yet we cook lobsters alive. I've seen photos of critters much sweeter and cuddlier in foreign soup pots, little feet desperately clinging to the rims. If it is such here, I reckon that evil out in the universe is likely a subjective thing. Don't you think?

      Thanks for visiting, Aldrea. :-)

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  14. Oh wow, that last sentence gave me chills. Well done!

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    1. Chills! Woot--I've done my job. ;-) Thanks for visiting, Elaine.

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  15. I can't stand to hear crabs being cooked alive, so the idea of babies...Horrible destruction for this lovely world. I hope something is about to get better, though. Great snippet!

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    1. It will, but it will be a hard-fought war to change things. Thanks for visiting, Jenna!

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  16. The visual the story conjures is frightening!

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    1. Glad-not glad to read that. lol Thanks for visiting, Karen! :-)

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  17. This snippet certainly showcases a dreadful dystopian setting. What a terrible place to be!
    I agree that certain species must see humanity as being just as wicked as your villains.

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