Category: Fiction Friday

Killing Rutland

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday1 Comment

I have a confession: I love shrieking Shakespeare.  And I think there are not enough opportunities to do this.  I have had some good moments of very loud Shakespeare because I was very lucky in high school to be part of Shakespeare Society.  Many of my best memories in high school involve Mr. Shakespeare in some way.  🙂

I took an Experimental Fiction class in college, and decided to write a rather tongue-in-cheek story about my experiences with Shakespeare Society, and especially one favorite scene I enjoyed performing.  Because it was an experimental class, I wrote it in iambic pentameter–with footnotes!

I’m not sure how easy it’s going to be to handle footnotes on a blog, but…well, if it’s good enough for Robin McKinley, it’s worth a shot, right?  Sorry if you have to scroll up and down a lot!

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Killing Rutland

Have you ever shrieked out “Plantagenet”[1]

To the unhearing skies[2] stretching above?

I have because I am[3] a proud member

In my high school’s Shakespeare Society.[4]

Continue reading “Killing Rutland” →

A Bit of Humor at the Opera

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction FridayLeave a comment

It’s Friday, and I thought I’d share a little more fiction from my Phantom of the Opera novel.  This is a fun scene with the managers of the Paris Opera House, Andre and Firmin.  Context: this is a while after the usual story, but all you really need to know is that, with the Vicomte de Chagny fled in the night, the Opera has a new patroness who has thoroughly taken over.  Her nickname is Madame Laissez Faire–Lady Let It Be–because she doesn’t let anythng be.  She’s determined to wage war against the Phantom.  Meanwhile, Meg Giry and Erik (the Phantom) have become friends, though he’s still mourning Christine’s leaving, and is endlessly solemn.  But not above the occasional trick all the same.

One other note: this is mostly based on Webber, but I tried to work in at least one nod to every version of the Phantom I was familiar with.  This scene has my nod to Terry Pratchett’s brilliant parody, Maskerade.

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The first thing the managers did, as they did most mornings, was to go to their office, which for a rarity was empty of their patroness.  It was also empty of everything else.

André and Firmin stood in the open doorway and stared at the empty room.  There was no desk.  No cabinets.  No files or books.  Even the half-eaten sandwich Firmin had left behind the evening before had vanished.  There was, in fact, only one item in the entire room: a single scrap of paper lying on the bare floorboards (even the rug had gone) in the precise center of the room, held in place by a single nail driven into the ground.

“Merde,” Andre muttered, as Firmin entered the room and yanked up the note from the floor.  He brought the note back to the doorway and they read it together.  It was very brief.

If you can invade my private domain, I see no reason why I can’t invade yours.

The Phantom

André groaned.  “He knows we were in the labyrinth.  I knew that was a bad idea.”

“What are we going to do?  This is bad, all our records and papers and…”  Firmin trailed off with a sudden thought.  “I left my favorite coat here last night.  He stole my favorite coat!”

“That red one?”

Firmin nodded vigorous assent.

André shrugged.  “Just as well.  It made you look like a turkey.”

Continue reading “A Bit of Humor at the Opera” →

A Not-So-Charming Prince

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday2 Comments

I haven’t shared an excerpt from The People the Fairies Forget recently, have I?  I was thinking it would be fun to introduce…well, he would be Cinderella’s Prince, if he ever manages to get the slipper on the right girl.  Prince Roderick was one of my favorite characters to write, and he seems to get strong reactions from people.  One of my friends is quite adamant that she’d like to hit him with a two-by-four.

Context for the scene below: my heroine, Catherine, was mistakenly carried off to the palace when Cinderella’s slipper fit her.  She’s been waiting around for the prince to come see her; he’s just arrived in this scene.  My fairy narrator, Tarragon, is also present, but invisible.

That should fill you in, but check out the People the Fairies Forget category for more background and other excerpts.

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            Prince Roderick looked like everything a prince was supposed to be.  Tall and handsome and young.  He was wearing a multitude of gold braid and a rapturous expression that looked as carefully designed as the braid.  The expression dissolved away into petulance as soon as he saw Catherine.

“But you’re not the right girl,” he complained before she’d even completed a curtsy.

“That’s what I’ve been telling everyone,” Catherine said, looking vindicated.

Roderick turned to the smaller man with him.  “Leonard, she’s not the right one.”

I’d hardly noticed the smaller man when he had walked in with Roderick.  He was a thin man with long-fingered hands and a wisp of mustache.  His clothes and his hair and his eyes were all shades of vague pale brown, so that he almost blended into the background.  “How unfortunate, Your Highness,” he said smoothly.  “I can’t imagine how such a mistake could have occurred.  Clearly we should not have trusted the herald to handle such a delicate matter.”

The prince sighed deeply.  “Why is everyone always wasting my time like this?” Continue reading “A Not-So-Charming Prince” →

Return Trip by Bus

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday1 Comment

After posting my last Fiction Friday about an adventure on Greyhound, I looked back at my writing to see if the rest of the trip felt post-worthy.  Oddly enough, I found that the part about Disneyland was not as interesting as the part about Greyhound (which is not how it felt in experience!)

Don’t get me wrong: I LOVE Disneyland.  Which may be the problem.  I wrote like mad all day, but lots of “Loved this ride” and “That ride was great” and “PIRATES!” does not really lend itself to writing anyone else will find all that interesting.

But the ride home on Greyhound–that had more to offer.  So just take my word for it that it was an amazing time in Disneyland; and then we (the slightly fictionalized “we”) got back on the Greyhound to go home…

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Saturday, 10:50 am

I have definitely been waking up far too early far too often lately.  Up early again today, so as to get dressed, eat breakfast, pack up and get out.

Angela drove us to the Anaheim Greyhound station, which is very tiny.  One little room and a few chairs, just one door instead of numbered gates.  And, saints be praised, they had an intelligible intercom system.  Four Greyhound stations, and only one had announcements that could actually be understood. Continue reading “Return Trip by Bus” →

A Morality Tale on a Bus

On By cherylmahoneyIn Fiction Friday4 Comments

I’ve never liked the old stand-by rule, “Write what you know.”  If I did that, interpreting the direction in the strictest sense, I couldn’t possibly write about fairies and pirate captains.  I believe you should “Know what you write.”  Do your research, find out what guns pirate captains carried (flintlock pistols) and how many brothers the original Beauty (of “and the Beast”) had (three).  But “write what you know”?  Nah.

So today is a rare offering, of a time when I did write what I know.  The names have been changed, but this is in essence the story of a bus trip I took with a friend in college.  We were on our way to Anaheim to visit Disneyland, which required spending an entire day on the Greyhound bus.

The moral of the story?  Don’t ride the Greyhound bus if you can possibly avoid it.

I’m just posting the bus part today.  Disneyland was fun, and worth the trip–perhaps I’ll post that part another week!

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Friday, 6:10 am

Good morning—rise and shine, bright and early.  Actually, it’s not bright or shining.  I thought about opening the blinds in my dorm room but one peek past them told me that it still looks like the middle of the night out there, so I don’t think opening them further would encourage me towards wakefulness. Continue reading “A Morality Tale on a Bus” →