As the title says, this is a short story set in the Blood Bound universe. It takes place a few months after the events of chapter one (Charlie’s turning), but it is still early on in the whole “vampire hotel” thing the Richards family have got going on.
Warning for language and sexual references. Also for work posted without a beta (but with spellcheck).
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
One of my biggest fears about starting The Superhero Diaries is that Georgie/Gaia (the main character and narrator) would sound like a Delia clone.
It took me a while to get into Delia’s voice - my wonderful beta says it is because I was doing exams at the time, and so my head was in essay mode - but once I did her voice was clear to me. She’s very sweet, and what you might call an old soul. Despite the weirdness of the world around her, she’s used to it, and it doesn’t faze her much.
Despite being the same age as Delia (give or take a few months) Georgie comes across as being much younger - she’s going through the period of forced growing up that Delia went through several years earlier. Unlike Delia, who is an observer by her position and nature, Georgie is a world-changer by the nature of both her personality and the position/powers that have been thrust upon her as the newest Supe. She’s much drier in tone than Delia, plus I get to have fun using New Zealand slang and the like when she’s speaking. No more having to type “trunk” instead of “boot” and the like.
While I am enjoying writing The Superhero Diaries there is just one thing that really is a hassle: having to go Ctrl + I whenever I want to write fragments of a telepathic conversation.
Oh well. Writing the scenes and conversations between Georgie/Gaia and Santiago/Morph is worth it.
You okay up there?
The voice was in my head, but it wasn’t mine. I jumped just a fraction at the sound; I still wasn’t entirely used to being able to send and receive telepathic communications from a few certain people. A few months ago my mind had been mine, and mine alone, so it was still definitely a little awkward to have other people invading it.
Yeah, I sent back. I paused to wriggle my way through a dense part of the crowd. I guess you could say I’m still not used to this skin, even if it is mine.
Laughter echoed through the telepathic link. I hear you. I still get that feeling now and again.
You’re a shapeshifter, Morph. Of course you feel so out of place in your own skin – you’re in and out of so many of them I almost forget which ones are actually yours.
That earned me more laughter. Okay, okay. Time to get serious now. Can you spot me?
Not with Andre the Giant’s sister in front of me.
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
The problem with having a love affair with a vampire is that you will grow old and die, while they are young forever. Unless, of course, you make the choice to become like then. To quote a line from a Xandria song: would you “give your life to never die”?
And if you choose to actually live, what happens then? What happens to the immortal left behind? And so this piece, this conversation was born. I do imagine Dee and Daniel here, but it doesn’t actually take place anywhere in Blood Bound.
“What will you do when I die?”
“I don’t know.”
“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”
“I promise.”
“Do anything but that. Please.”
“I will go back to what I was. Spend all my time in my memories of you.”
“You’ll never forget me, will you?”
“How could I?”
“Well, say one day, a few decades from now. You’ve found another girl and-”
“Never.”
“To the forgetting or the girl?”
“Both. I spent two hundred years imagining you, I can spend twice as long remembering you.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“And then what? What will you do when I die?”
“Go on living.”
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
As I have mentioned before, I like making playlists for characters, stories and relationships that I write. It helps get me in the mood and things like that.
Today (instead of cramming for a Latin test) I started compiling a playlist for Dee throughout Blood Bound. One song per chapter. I call it Ordinary Girl.
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
… have to skip ahead to the next chapter.
For the past week or so I have been stuck on a certain section. While it doesn’t seem to be dragging from the POV of a reader as the writer I’m struggling to write anything more. I know what I want to write… the words just won’t come out.
After much time spent banging my head against a figurative brick wall I decided that, since my brain was writing other parts of Blood Bound, I would write those things instead.
So right now I am happily working on chapter 10, discovering news things about later chapters, and having fun with Charlie. 
“And what exactly are you supposed to be, Charlie?” I took in my brother’s costume: black suit and shirt, shiny black shoes, topped off with a black cape that swirled dramatically around him when he turned. His fangs were extended although to anyone who did not know his little secret they were just very, very good fakes. “Count Dracula?”
Charlie laughed, his wide grin showing off his fangs even more. “No, no, no, little sis. I am Count Sexula.” He struck what he thought was a model’s pose, complete with what he obviously thought was a sexy pout.
I rolled my eyes in return. “You are an absolute idiot, you know that?”
“Bit rich coming from the girl dressed as Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
I reached 39 000 words. 39 000 I am 1000 measley words from reaching the halfway mark.
In a way, this is very good, as I was struggling against writer’s block for some time. I worked around it by jumping ahead to a more exciting bit. Go me.
But in a way this is bad. No, not bad. REALLY FRIGGING ANNOYING. So close, yet so far.
But I will reach 40 000 words tomorrow! I know it!
And as a treat, a sample of what I wrote from Ordinary People.
It was not passionate in the sense of some kisses, desperate and needy clinging to each other, with Daniel devouring me as if he were starving and I was the only thing that could satisfy his hunger. No. To me the passion was in the delicacy, the gentle fluttering of his lips against mine that stirred the same reaction in my chest.
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
At 18k words I am almost at my second short term goal (20k). I’ve also completed chapter four of Ordinary People, and we are finally seeing Delia and Daniel actually interacting. Sadly, it’s not as Daniel was hoping. Or maybe he was…?
“The feeling of warm, living human skin… we come to appreciate it in a completely different way.” I felt his hand gently brush the curve of my shoulder and I shivered again. Only that time I couldn’t blame it on the cold. “And not just the feel, but the sound. You probably know our hearts don’t beat.” Of course. Everyone knew that about vampires, even if they only thought they were creatures of fiction. “I can hear yours from here: it’s so, so fast. You are not afraid of me, are you, dearest Delia?” I was, but not in the way I should have been. “And of course, there is the smell.” His voice was moving closer now. I trembled, but did not run. There was something about his voice that was almost hypnotic. “Your perfume… it’s nice, but it just doesn’t suit you.”
It was like my senses suddenly exploded all at once. I felt, rather than heard, his words near my ear. I saw, instead of felt, his lips brushing my neck. My mind somehow opened up and, even in the darkness that surrounded us, I saw us as we were then: me, stock still, white as a ghost with a look of panic frozen on my face. And then there was Daniel standing behind me, bent over slightly so he could bury his face in the crook of my neck. His hands were curved around my waist, resting on my stomach as he pulled me closer against him.
It was an extremely intimate position, and it could almost be mistaken for a lover’s embrace. But to anyone even remotely familiar with vampires – of reality or fiction, it didn’t really matter – the truth of the image would have been instantly obvious. The vampire had caught his prey, and all that was needed to complete the scene was for him to extend his fangs and-
At that thought I let out a shriek and ripped myself from his grip. Daniel made no attempt to stop me and I stumbled out towards the parking lot and the darkness beyond.
In short: when it comes to getting a girl’s attention, Daniel is a case of epic fail.
Originally published at Working Title. Please leave any comments there.
