Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The Mythology Files: Aphrodite



I am Aphrodite.
I see you staring. Go ahead. Stare. You’ll never see anything this hot again as long as you live. That’s a fact. Carve it into stone, baby.
Oh wait! Been done.
Venus de Milo ring any bells?
Speaking of ringing bells… Alexandros of Antioch, the sculptor… well, I’m not really a girl who kisses and tells… What am I saying? I totally posed for that statue. He was never very good at carving hands.
You wonder why I can do that. Don’t you? Be unfaithful to the husband I was given to? Hephaestus. The god of fire and metalcraft. One of the strongest of the gods, if you ask me. He is also the kindest. I don’t deserve him.
And he doesn’t deserve me.
I have a reputation to maintain. Love and beauty.
You think I’m vain.
It’s okay. I know what the other goddesses say about me. That I’m vain and I have a one track mind. The gods, on the other hand, say… other things.
The truth is I’m lost.
I don’t know where I came from or how I got here.
The others — they all have a history, a lineage. They can trace their ancestry back to Gaea, the Great Mother.
What’s my story?
I floated up on the shores of Olympus on the foam of the sea. That’s it.
No mother or father. Nothing.
So why did they accept me as one of them?
Because I’m beautiful.
It’s all I’ve got. It’s all they see. I lose that one thing, and I will shrink back into oblivion, return to wherever it was that I came from.
Hephaestus doesn’t deserve the kind of baggage I bring. He is a gentle, sweet, giving soul. All I know how to do is take. I know it sounds heartless, but if I stop now, I will lose everything.

So to concede the apple to any other goddess? Yes, even to the queen… I can’t risk it.


Wednesday, May 21, 2014

WonHundred Word Wednesday: That's Love

PROMPT: The truth about love.



He raised a calloused hand, weathered by age and hard work, to shield his eyes from the sun and cast a weary glance far into the distance.

Though the days had stretched into years, he knew that some day he would see the figure moving toward him — that familiar gait, though perhaps a little slower for the passage of time — but there he would be… coming home at long last.

Every day the old man stood at the end of his driveway and watched the dusty road with that one hope.

Some day… perhaps today… the prodigal son would return.


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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

WonHundred Word Wednesday: Curiosity

PROMPT: You find a box in the attic that isn’t yours.


It was hand-carved, overlaid in hammered gold. I blew dust from the top and set it on the floor before me. What could be inside? So many possibilities. The runes encircling an engraved eagle spelled out a warning. I smiled. Curses were a myth. Weren’t they?

Whatever was in that box… I had to know.

I slid the ivory pin from the latch and raised the lid. The hinges creaked their objection.

Then the rushing wind, like a thousand bats taking flight with a screech. I gasped and slammed it closed, but t’was too late.

“Pandora! What have you done?”


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Saturday, May 10, 2014

NEW RELEASE: from Wendy Knight ~ Warrior Everlasting



Fighting alongside the boy you shouldn't love is hard enough. Doing it while riding a unicorn who would gleefully fly to her death with you on her back is worse. What makes it insane?
Doing it in hell.

Scout and her unicorn, Ashra, risked everything just to make it into Aptavaras. Their plan is to free Scout’s family and the stolen souls, and seek vengeance on the man who took everything Ashra had once lived for. What they hadn’t counted on was Trey and his unicorn, Torz, following them.

It might be the only thing that will save them.

Because in Aptavaras, the soul stealers are many and the chances of survival are slim. Even if they can get past the demons, trick the demon master, rescue the souls and escape with their lives, there’s only one person who can open the gate, and he’s on the outside defending the world. But Scout, Trey, Ashra and Torz have one thing the soul stealers don’t—


A reason to live.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

The Mythology Files: Hera



I am Hera.
Don’t pretend like you don’t already know who I am.
Everyone knows who I am.
I am the queen.
Everyone else answers to Zeus. But Zeus… he answers to me.
I know what people say about me. That I’m a jealous, vindictive wife. That I am a vengeful witch.
People should mind their own business.
It’s never a good idea to poke your nose in where it doesn’t belong. Especially when it comes to how I deal with my husband’s… how should I put it? Shortcomings.
And he has a plethora.
As the goddess of marriage and fidelity, his philandering is more than just a broken trust and broken vows. It is a blasphemous offense to my divine nature. I deal with it accordingly.
Case in point.
Io. A mortal woman. I can honestly say I don’t know what he sees in any of them, but Io? Mousy brown hair, dull brown eyes, short and far too tan. And cankles. She had cankles. A hideous creature. She reminded me of a bumbling bovine — and not the sacred kind.
Not that I believe it was Io who started the whole affair. That was definitely Zeus. I know how persistent he can be. When he asked me to marry him I refused. I refused him over and over and over again. He would not give up. But I knew even then he would be unfaithful. He had a wondering eye and already was collecting a harem of immortal wives. Metis, the Titaness, for starters. She is no longer a rival, however. After an unfortunate incident during a shape-shifting game, Metis now resides in Zeus’s head. Forever relegated to advising the king of the gods from within.
Like a tiny little conscience.
Well, I use the term loosely, because either Metis turns the other way when Zeus is slumming it with mortal women, or his thought process bypasses his head altogether. My drachma is on the latter.
Like I said, he’s persistent. After I refused his proposal multiple times, he got creative.
He turned himself into a bird.
You heard me correctly.
The great god Zeus shifted into the form of a bird and hopped around pitifully like he had a broken wing. My intention was to help the bird.
What?
Don’t judge. I felt sorry for the poor little thing.
I scooped it up into my arms and suddenly I wasn’t holding a bird anymore. It was Zeus. And I knew that he would never give up, so I agreed to be his wife. And his queen.
So yes, I know it probably wasn’t Io doing the pursuing. Zeus has always been the pursuer. It’s not new. But I can’t just go around punishing the king of the gods. It undermines both our authority. That leaves the pursuee. Always. And sometimes, I also punish their illegitimate offspring. And to answer your question… I sleep fine. Someone has to suffer the consequences. It is simply the way things are.
Zeus turned Io into a snow white cow in order to hide her from me. Fitting, considering the cankles. But I am very good at playing the game. I insisted he give me the lovely little cow as a gift. He thought he was getting away with something, and he didn’t want to give up his little secret, so he indulged me. I set my personal bodyguard to watch her 24-7. How can anyone do that, you ask?
Argus was no ordinary bodyguard.
He had one hundred eyes spread over his entire body. They were never all closed at once. Never. He was the perfect watchman.
Until Hermes—
I hate to even think about it. The little rat.
You may as well know the story.
Zeus sent Hermes to rescue Io. The coward wouldn’t do it himself. He was too afraid of me finding out about his torrid love affair with cankle-girl. Since Argus was on duty, she wouldn’t be able to escape, and no one would be able to help her. Except Hermes.
He literally bored Argus to death.
With the longest, most pointless, most stupid story ever. It went on and on and on. Argus fell asleep. Every last eye closed. Then Hermes used his wand to make it permanent.
I will never get over that. Argus was my favorite. Ever.
That was just one of a multitude of incidents. Zeus owes me big time.
And I. Never. Forget.
This beauty contest? Should NOT even have happened. Zeus should have just given me the apple and let life go on.
I’m the queen of the Greek gods. No woman — immortal or otherwise — can hold a candle to my power and beauty. And that is a fact. Zeus would never have chosen me as queen otherwise. So why is he hesitating now?
Cowardice. It’s disgusting.


Read more of the story on Wattpad.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

WonHundred Word Wednesday: Young Love

PROMPT: You know what they say...



It started with a movie. I asked Betty. She accepted. Afterward on her porch, I said goodnight seven times, hoping for a kiss, until her father flicked the light off and on. I said goodnight one more time and turned to go, but she reached up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek.

That spot burned all the way home. And I knew I was in love.

The next day at school she told me. “I’m moving to Arkansas.”

Mom said, “You know what they say… ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder.’


I asked Paula to a movie.


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