Writing Successes: Yesterday's (Is it really only Monday?) Sunday Brunch chat, of course. This week: From Seriana's point of view. LOL Amazons on the brain this week.

Music Playing: 107.5 The Mix. This one is a lot of fun for me. Playing the songs of the 80's, 90's and today. Only time I freak is when they play "Let's Go All The Way". Other than that, it's a luff fest.

Fully intended to post Saturday, dunno where my brain went. I've been way tired, but unable to sleep. It's little things like this that make me feel like I'm manic depressive. One of Kou's "signs" she's in a phase, being tired but not being able to sleep. Happens to me all the time. Stupid, too, because I can sleep fine as long as I'm not in the actual bed. Chair, couch, bus...all fine. Put me on a matress and forget it. Bizarre.

My current writing to-do list includes all of the following, for those keeping track: TC submission patrol. Sifting, sorting, reading and choosing. All fun, all the time. Okay, good fun most of the time. Snark fun some of the time. Depends. TC article writing. Setting. Have done nothing. Feeling like I'm wasting time, that I should have done something by now. Been a week since I decided what to write about. Read and comment on Mari's story. Told her I'd get to it at the end of January. If this looks like the end of January to anyone, please let me know. And I did mean 2003, not 2004. Amazon archives. Huge sigh. Must get back to doing this. I think I'm going to try to do an hour a day on these, at least. There's a TON to do and I'm going nowhere fast.

Remind me to stay away from Amazon site changes. Six hours of solid work yesterday. My shoulder hurts, my arm hurts, and my fingers loathe touching the mouse, atm. But I think everyone likes it. Least, the four or five I spoke to thought it was pretty cool. Valkyra got AIM, I notice. Should help her be more "visible" to the Amazons. Get them to notice that she's the Regent, not me. I'm just the lackey. LOL

Okay, following is from yesterday's chat. Some have already read it, too bad. Posting it for those who haven't. It's kind of upside down time-wise. Taken from what I hope will be an interesting journey for the Amazons at the end of the week. See, don't tell them, but I'm going to kidnap them all and whisk them away to a desert. LOL. Anyhow, this is what I would do if I was Seriana, the Captain of the Guard.

Use the following words: horse, adrift, leaf, silver, thud: 15 min

The stolen horse thundered across the desert sands toward the distant hills. She could only just make them out at this distance, a hazy blue lump wavering on the horizon. Beyond the hills was the Thermadon, and home.

The mustang’s silver flanks heaved as they raced across the shifting earth. She was pushing the beast too far, but there was little else to do. The sun was high overhead and delays here would cost them both their lives.

It would also cost them the lives of her sisters. She would not fail them.

Soft grains began to give way to pebbles and small rocks, a sign she was nearing the hills that still seemed so very far away. A gnarled tree, ancient and burned black from the heat of the sun and the dry earth, sat adrift in the golden sea of sand; a silent sentry guarding the path back to the green shelter of leaves.

Seriana was uncomfortable in the open and urged the horse to greater speed. She longed for the comfortable shelter of the forest, the anonymity of a crowded market square, the camaraderie of a village full of Amazons. The desert was unnerving her with its emptiness.

“Seriana?” her aunt’s voice echoed into her mind.

“About time!” she returned mentally.

“Where are you and the others?”

A character awakens in a place without knowing how he/she got there. 15 min

Seriana’s eyes flashed open and she bolted upright. Shafts of purple, pink, red and blue sunlight filtered down through many colorful veils hanging from tall wooden posts around her. A comfortable mattress cushioned her and several linen blankets covered her scantily clad form.

She shoved the gauzy silk drapes aside and struggled out from the confines of the bed. Pillows were strewn from one end of the room to another, but arranged in seating positions across heavy hand-woven rugs.

She spun, recognizing the room as a tent, the sides moving in and out with what she assumed was a gentle breeze. There was a flap at one end and she marched over and tossed it aside.

The shaded interior of the room vanished as bright yellow sunlight blinded her. Heat enveloped her and she felt sweat break out across her forehead and under her arms. Sand sifted around her toes, scorching the bottom of her naked feet.

“Get back in there,” a man’s voice ordered. She stumbled as he shoved her roughly back into the shadows of the tent.

Where in the name of Artemis am I? She asked herself.

Picking herself up off the carpet, she surveyed her attire. A short-sleeved dark-green top of linen, embroidered with threads of gold and dangling small golden disks covered her breasts, but not her flat stomach. Matching that was a strange pair of pants; a pair of form-fitting shorts that turned to gauzy silk bound by linen at her ankles. There was a circlet of gold in her auburn hair, trailing more green silk behind her. Her feet were bare and the bottoms were a discolored russet.

She snarled and ripped the circlet from her head. It was obvious she was a prisoner, the guard was proof enough of that. The question was WHO had taken her, WHERE was she now, and HOW she was going to escape.

Don't forget to you can now comment. Kalispera and herete!