Looking for something to read?

So it's officially 2015, and maybe you want to start off the new year by reading something. Well I think maybe I can help with that a little... ;)
First, I would like to apologize for only now thinking of this, but hey, better late than never. I realize that I haven't ever posted anything else on here about the shorts I post on Wattpad...not anything really detailed anyway. So, I thought why not do that now? Granted, there's only a few stories posted now, but I plan on adding to the small collection very soon. A couple of them have gotten their own spotlight post before. But it's been a while since then too.
So without further adu, a little something from each story currently up on Wattpad, along with links! Enjoy! :)

The Little Mermaid: Modernized
This particular short was originally written for a contest over on Booksie. The idea was to take a familiar fairy tale and then re-write it with a more modern spin on it.
Errik knows it's forbidden to love a human. They're dangerous, and unpredictable. Yet, he still goes up to the surface every year-once a year-to watch her. The human girl he's been watching since he was 15. He knew to wait. It wasn't time yet. But now it was. She finally reached the age of 18, and he could approach her...maybe. If he could ever get up the courage. But what would happen when he finally decided to speak to her. Would she accept him as he was? Or run away screaming, leaving him heartbroken? Only one way to find out...

Clue
This is a novel-in-progress that has been on hold for far too long. But I'm hoping to be able to really get it moving again soon. I'm actually a little sad-ok, so a lot sad-that it's taken the back burner for so long.
When six friends go to a murder mystery show, they discover that it's not so much of a show, and more real than they ever imagined. A fun night has turned into someone's twisted game.

I Just Want To See My Baby (Christmas Short Story)
Is it really ever not the time for a good Christmas love story?
Growing up, Lindsey and Ben were inseparable. Best friends since before they could walk, they did everything together. When both were told the other had cooties, neither ran away. They stuck together through thick and thin. And eventually, Lindsey developed a crush on Ben. Right before graduation and Ben moving off to another college. Now, a year later-and still as head over heels for Ben as ever-Lindsey can’t help but wish to see him for Christmas. The only question now is, will Lindsey get her Christmas wish come true?

NKB Short
This is my scene for the 4th annual No Kiss Blogfest, hosted by Frankie Diane Mallis. It's a blogfest focused on the tension of wanting a kiss so badly, and then something preventing it from happening at the last possible second.
Riley and Jordan are more than mere friends, they're practically family. To say that they were best friends and nothing more would be like an insult to them. They knew they were more like brother and sister and always had been. So what happens when the unthinkable happens and suddenly they don't know what they are to each other anymore?

So yes, this was a shameless self promotion. ;) I have plenty more in the works (more on that later), unfortunately life has been super busy and just crazy in general. But I think I'm going to stick with my New Years Resolution that I had last year and resolve to write more-and to blog more. And since I plan on keeping the Blogging Friday posts, that should definitely help. And I'm already writing a little every day with the Year of Writing thing I have going. I'm excited to see how that turns out.
Be sure to keep a look out for future releases on Wattpad, as well as the continued story of Clue. :)

     Happy reading...
          -Liz

Oh...so close...

Alright, here it is! My No Kiss Blogfest scene! I hope you guys like it as much as I enjoyed writing it! And please feel free to leave any comments about your thoughts on it. :)
And don't forget to check out some of the other scenes here.

     “Stop it, Riley! I’m serious, quit it!” I couldn’t help but giggle a little. Riley continued to shove me sideways with his elbow.
     “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replied, grin showing in his voice.

     “You’re just mad because this will be my third round in a row to win. I’m just so sorry, Ri, but I’m just that good. I hate that you had to find out this way.”

     As if on cue, Mrs. Parker passed by the door and poked her head inside, “Riley, you’re not letting Alexis beat you too badly, are you?” She asked teasingly.
     “No ma’am, I don’t really have to try that hard to beat him.” I replied with a teasing smile.
     “Oh, trust me, I am perfectly aware of that.” She replied with a wink.

     Riley turned to look at his mom for a moment to mock shock that she would say such a thing. It was a well-known fact that his family was always like this though. The first time I ever came over to his house, I learned this right away and jumped right in. I loved spending time with his family. It had become like a second home for me. In no time at all, Riley and I were inseparable best friends. We had a rather unusual friendship too. Everyone anywhere always thought we were dating because we were always invading each other’s personal bubbles. Or we would be if we had one. Even though we had been best friends for years, his brothers and sisters were still suspicious about us having a secret relationship this whole time. Or that we were just in denial that there was anything there. We finally just decided that we knew the truth, and people could think what they wanted because we weren’t changing how we acted around each other.

     I took my chance while Riley was briefly distracted and sent the turtle shell I’d been holding onto for the longest, aimed at his cart, and let it fly. I bounced up and down on the end of the bed in a happy dance as I passed his wrecked cart and went through the finish line.

     “Yes! Winner and still champion, in your face!” I taunted.

     Mrs. Parker just grinned and shook her head while walking away.

     Riley turned the game off, “Ok, then, something else.” He looked at me sideways, and then suddenly pounced on me. “One, t-”
     I quickly countered and flipped him over, ending up on top of him, pinning him to the bed. “I’m sorry, what was it you were saying? I win?” I asked, grinning widely. As much as he wanted to pretend to hate it, I knew he secretly enjoyed our games. We never really wrestled, we would just occasionally pin each other to the floor for some random reason.

     Suddenly a voice came from the open door, “At least close the door if you’re going to be like that.”

     Riley craned his neck around to look at his younger brother, “Shut up, Jordan!”

     Jordan just rolled his eyes in slight disgust and walked off. He was probably the most convinced that there was something more going on with Riley and I.

     He looked back at me and just shook his head, “That kid can be such a brat.”

     I rolled my eyes in response, then I got an idea and smirked at Riley.
     “What?” He asked suspiciously.

     I leaned down and quickly licked the side of his face to show triumph that I still had him pinned.

     “Ew! Yuck! What was that for?” He asked in bewilderment while heavily wiping the side of his face.

     I laughed while I got off of him and climbed to the head of the bed to sit and lean against the wall. “It’s a moose kiss.” I giggled.

     “Oh, really now? Well then maybe you should get one too.” He said with a teasing look in his eyes.

     I squealed slightly, “No!” I argued as he grabbed me and wrapped his arms around me, holding me hostage as he tried to lick my face back. When I wouldn’t let him, he settled for tickling me.

     “Ok, ok, I give, I give!” I cried between gasps and giggles.

     Riley finally backed off a little, and just looked at me with a victorious grin spread across his face.

     I sat back up against the wall and tried to catch my breath. After a moment, I jerked suddenly, causing Riley to stare at me, “What was that?”

     “I just got a sudden chill.” I replied, folding my arms and hugging myself.

     “Oh, well I can take care of that.” He stated simply, while putting his arms around me, rubbing my arms. “Is that better?”

     “Oh, thanks.” I said while snuggling into him slightly. Riley was always warm, even on the coldest day of the year, he was guaranteed to still be warm.

     I felt tiny goose bumps slowly creep down my arms, and I could tell the hairs were rising on the back of my neck. I looked up at him only to find that he was already staring at me. But it was a different look than I had ever seen on his face-at least when looking at me. I had seen that look a time or two when he was looking into the eyes of someone he truly liked.

     But that couldn’t be right… I argued with myself. And yet, somehow I felt drawn to him. Before I knew it, we were slowly moving toward each other as if some internal gravitational pull were controlling us. And neither one of us seemed to have a problem with that.

     He slowly raised his arm and gently placed his hand on my face. He drew me closer to him until we were mere inches apart. I could feel the heat coming off of his chest. I felt my heart beat quicken to the speed where it was pounding against my chest and I was sure he could hear it. If he did, he didn’t say anything. He just continued to stare into my eyes. And I was suddenly very aware of how much I was breathing into his face. My breath had quickened as well, and I seemed to be taking short deep breaths.

     We stared into each other’s eyes for what seemed like hours, when suddenly, his gaze moved from my eyes to my lips. I knew it was coming then; any second now. If it were even possible, my heart beat felt faster. Without even realizing it, I held my breath then let it out in one long, slow breath. I stared at his eyes, then his lips, then back again to his eyes. I couldn’t help but stare at his lips though. His full lips that looked so kissable. And now barely an inch away.
     It would be so easy to just kiss him already. I’d barely have to move at all.

     So easy, and yet I didn’t dare move. I felt frozen in place.

     Finally, he began to move the last half inch to kiss me, when, “RILEY!!!”

     He let out a heavy sigh, and hung his head, “That would be Lauren. I’m supposed to go tuck her in tonight.”

     “Oh, uh, right. Yeah, go tuck your little sister in. It’s fine.” I replied, feeling like I just tripped over my own words for speaking too fast.

     Riley gave me a barely readable expression that I took for apologetic. Then he left to go see his baby sister. I did love the girl though, cutest little three-year-old.

     As soon as he had left the room, I collapsed on the bed, What just happened?

Well, I hope y'all enjoyed it! And again, feel free to leave a comment below! I look forward to seeing what everyone's thoughts are on it!

          -Liz

Happy New Year

So I wanted to start this year off by wishing everyone a happy new year. And I hope y'all have just wonderfully fantastic years ahead of you!
I am going to do my absolute best to do better this year on my writing. I can tell in just the past month or two that my writing style has definitely improved. I feel like more of a writer now.
On the note of doing more writing this year, I'd like to share a little heads up on what to expect in the weeks to come.
First of all, there's still Clue: A Modern Tale that I'm working on. The plot summary is simply that when six friends go to a murder mystery show, they discover that it's not so much of a show, and more real than they ever imagined. A fun night has turned into someone's twisted game. I'm really excited about this story. Be watching my Wattpad or Booksie page for updates!
Other than that, there are around four short stories that I'm working on, if not more. Among them are Curiosity, The Candle, and The Missing Clue. There are others, but they have yet to be titled. I have a rough schedule planned for getting three projects hopefully tackled and posted. I'm focusing more on Clue first-after, of course, my No Kiss Blogfest scene is posted. After the next chapter of Clue is up, I'll be working on the previously mentioned short stories a bit and try to get one or two finished, then go back to Clue for another chapter. And somewhere among the craziness, try to finish my NaNoWriMo novel, 3,000 Miles Away. Because as I've said before, I have three friends who will never let me forget it if I don't finish it, haha.
So, that's the crazy year I have ahead of me. But I'm so looking forward to it! And besides, being a bit crazy sort of comes with the territory of being a writer. Not that I mind, of course. ;)
Check back later today for my No Kiss Blogfest scene! I hope y'all like it!

          -Liz

No Kiss Blogfest...

So I was browsing a writer's blog that I follow recently, and I discovered this mini contest that she's entering. I thought, "why not?" and looked it up. Basically, it's a scene contest of sorts where you can write a scene (or provide one already written, or a video, picture, etc.) about a close call kiss. A scene where your two characters almost kiss...but they don't. There are quite a few people entering too. So to add onto my "why not?" attitude, I decided to go on ahead and enter as well. This should be fun. :)
If, by now, your curiosity has peaked somehow, you can find the No Kiss Blogfest(ivities), along with a video example of how it's done, here. :)
I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. I've already discovered an entry by the host herself from a previous No Kiss Blogfest, and let me tell you, she is quite the writer. I'm anxious to see what she comes up with this year. :)
One of her previous entries that I rather enjoyed involved a couple in a movie theater. You can read it here if you like. I have a feeling one reason I enjoyed it so much is because the writer is such a tease, hehe. Plus, the guy in the scene seems like a tease himself.
I am currently planning out my own scene and will be writing on it in the next few days. The No Kiss Blogfest deadline is this coming Wednesday, the 2nd. So be looking for that to magically appear here. :)
I'm probably going to be using this for a little bit of inspiration. It's better when you can see the whole scene. It's from Psych, Bounty Hunters episode. :)

And if you wish to enter yourself, it's not too late to do so. You can enter as late as the day of the deadline. If you so choose to enter though, please let me know. I'd love to see what you come up with! :)

     Call me crazy...
          -Liz

And the madness continues...

So I posted recently about my crazy busy schedule. It's lightened only slightly since then, the reason being that I finally managed to finish and post my Christmas short story. However, I have so many projects I'm trying to finish that my load is lightened only the tiniest bit.
I've come to the conclusion that what I probably need is some sort of schedule for writing. And I think I may have come up with something that just might work. It's not so much of a schedule, as it is just simply setting my priorities. And what I've come up with as far as that goes is this:

1. Start working on more chapters for Clue, as per request of one certain reader.
2. Work on a couple of short stories, in hopes to get them closer to being ready to be posted.
3. Get back to work on my NaNoWriMo novel so I can hopefully at some point reach that 50k mark.

So this is what my writing life will consist of in the next few weeks. With the exception of the No Kiss Blogfest, but I'll elaborate more on that later. I look forward to writing a little more on Clue as well!
And although the excitement had died down for my NaNoWriMo novel, 3,000 Miles Away, I'm beginning to get re-excited about it again. Hopefully sometime soon I can get some actual work done on it and get that much closer to my first 50k novel! :)

          -Liz