“Sprite,” said Yuffie as Sprite and Lucy arrived at the Grey Moon
pub. “Reala saw Spectre walking up the road to the afterlife last night.
By the time she got outside, he’d disappeared into the mists.”
Sprite deflated. “I didn’t think he’d…”
“Let’s go inside,” said Lucy, “I’ll get you a drink.”
Just then, the door burst open and Reala threw out a lion, a witch and a wardrobe. “I ain’t serving Narnia!” she cried.
Three posts to the blog in one day? What is this sworcery?
Once again, nearing the end of my internet month and my bandwidth is low. Also, Penguin Host is shuffling servers this weekend, So I can’t post anything safely on Saturday and Sunday.
Roit, so, on with the thing. Brace yourselves, Inktober is coming.
The prompt list has been out a few weeks. But a gentle reminder, if you’re just trying to improve your skill at drawing and the Inktober list doesn’t work for you, no problem. There are other October-Inktober drawing challenges. For example Witchtober.
Feck those guys who bash Witchtober for being the teen girls Inktober. Witches are awesome, and if you want to draw them, go for it.
Hey, I love that. Octobit. For the pixel artists out there.
Need some blood splatter and zombies? No worries, Goretober has your back.
So, dust off your pens. Grab a sketchpad and get ready to get doodling.
Coming up with a great name for your characters is one of the hardest things to do as a fiction writer. The decision that’ll shape entire characters can often paralyze writers before they’ve even started writing a story.
Now, you may not want your name so bland, ordinary and pedestrian that they’re forgotten the moment the slip of the page. A good name, the right name, can complement or enhance a character’s personality. It can help a reader identify with your protagonist.
But, if you go too far the other way, creating a whacky or creative name, you can distract your reader. If it’s too far out of the genre or setting, a bad name can pull your character right out of the story. Too many similar names, and you’ll leave your reader playing a game of guess who.
So finding the perfect character names can be tricky.
Sometimes, you’ll know the name of the character before you know anything else about the story, set or plot. Other times, you’ll know everything about the character, right down to the colour of their underwear, except for his or her name. This course is for those times.
The course is broken down into three parts. For the first part of this course, we’ll be focussing on names from the real world. For the second part of this course, we’ll explore other genres. For the third part of the course, we’ll cover some naming conventions that cover both the real world and beyond.
So, I hope by taking this class, we can figure out your character’s name together.
How to choose your character names. Follow the link, hit sign up, skip anything that asks you to subscribe, and enjoy. Linky: https://skl.sh/30xrMHv
If you love what I do and want to say thanks with some pennies, you can buy a tee on Threadless. A cup of tea over on Ko-Fi. Hit me up on Patreon for as little as $1 a month. I also have an Etsy store and a book series on Amazon.
A gust of wind blew up the road, and lucy floated down beside Sprite. “Missing your bro?” she asked.
“Yeah,” sighed Sprite. “I think he’s taking the road to the afterlife. I’m trying to catch up to him, but I think he has a good headstart on me.”
“Well, I’ve just dropped out of the sky, and you’re the only figure I could see for miles,” she remarked. “Although I’m sure I saw the footprints and the invisible woman, man, and their children.”
“Hang on,” said Sprite, “They had kids? What are they like?”
“Well,” chuckled Lucy. “They’re nothing to look at.”
Sprite looked up the road and knew where Spectre had gone and that he may have a significant headstart. He put his headphones on, cracked open Spotify and started Sinéad O’Connor greatest hits. For a moment, he pondered how long it had been since he last heard this playlist.
Sprite awoke in unfamiliar surroundings. He was sitting on a road, and in every direction, all he could see was sand. The trees, the wall and Spectre, who were all here when he went to sleep, were missing.
“Cripes alive,” said Sprite. “This place is emptier than a Tory promise.”
Today’s the last day my Skillshare course, Start publishing on Medium.com, is free. From tomorrow, it’ll be available only to premium members. If you enroll today though, it’s free for life. Linky: https://skl.sh/2N9RejV
(The story thus far. This series runs until October, so check back, Monday to Friday for the rest of the tales. In October, we’ll have a new series to coincide with Inktober.)
The Fears face unfamiliar horrors with a familiar sense of humour, as we find them washing ashore on a stretch of islands in the lands in-between.
Black Sands is our current series, with new tales published five days a week. Monday to Friday. Check back daily for updates.
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To be continued…
Check back every day, Monday to Friday in July, for further tales from the black sands.
Without Patreon, cups of ko-fi, Threadless sales and all the other links below, I wouldn’t be able to make you all groan every day and create series like this. So thank you, everyone, for all the support. May the groans and grimaces I cause give your face laughter lines and your scalp grey hairs. Thank you.
“So I’m trapped on this island until human-kind forgets about me?” cried Meria. “I’ve been here for fifty years. Surely they can’t still remember me.”
“They’d almost forgotten,” said Lucy. “But your mother, who you murdered for just £12, was a good friend of mine. About the only human, I ever loved. So imagine my delight when I sold my story to a film studio a few weeks back.”
Meria let out a howl as Lucy’s body turned to smoke. As the wind picked up and lifted her off the island, she noted, “I hear there’s going to be a book too.”
Little Fears 