Elizabeth Drakes's Site

Fantasy Romance

Romance Writer

Pure Joy

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The pure joy of free-flowing creativity is the greatest endorphin rush.

Characters so excited for you to hear them that they are screaming at you.

New worlds unrolling at your feet like a carpet, and the people and places literally sprouting up all around you like CGI magic.

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I am writing storyboards as fast as I can type, the ideas are coping so quickly. Trying to capture these amazing characters, their trials and tribulations.

I am already in love with them. But of course I am! The trick is developing enough talent as a writer to help my readers fall in love with them, too.

Their backstories are coming to life as I learn more about them. As I hear their stories and their struggles.

Honor and love. Betrayal and vengeance. War, assassination, arranged weddings and secret babies.

I have been seriously blindsided by these characters. They are haunting me all day at work. They are the first thing I think about when I get up in the morning and the last thing I think about in bed at night. The have even invaded my thoughts as I brush my teeth.

I am furiously taking notes, trying to get it all down. With a full time job there is no way I can write their story this fast, and I am still trying to work editing another novel that I wanted to publish this.

But that other story, the one I was going to write this year that I haven’t started yet?

It just got shelved.

Micro Fiction: Free Her

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RohanDigsForHer (1)

They had not let him see her after the poison had taken her. Not let him perform the ritual cleansing.

Not let him free his sister’s soul and let it return to the gods.

She was trapped. Alone. In pain.

His sister. His twin sister.

His own soul twisted in anguish, and now he understood why.

He ordered a shovel and began digging.

Micro Fiction: Her Soul

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RohanHerSoul

Staring at her grave, tears glittered in his eyes even now.

He’d lost count of how many enemies had fallen to his blade, how many that swore allegiance to those that had taken her life he’d ended.

Yet she still lay in the cold unforgiving ground.

Uncertainty knotted his stomach.

She’d been dead and gone more than ten summers, yet he still felt her pain. Her torment.

The poison must have been pure agony.

Her soul had not passed.

Micro Fiction: He Would Give Them War

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RohanWouldGiveWar

Rohan sat on the windswept hill, the sun burning his eyes as the shadow of the Dragonscale mountains darkened his lands.

It was her birthday, their birthday, but she would never see another.

Because they had taken her. Stolen her life when she had seen so few summers. Far too few summers.

Her birth had been auspicious. Should have ended the never-ending war.

But they didn’t want peace. Didn’t want her.

He clenched his hands into fists.

If war is what they wanted, war is what he would give them.

He clenched his hands into fists.

If war is what they wanted, war is what he would give them.

Goal Update: Month One

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As I review my New Years Resolutions, I thought I would give a quick update of my goals to show I am holding myself accountable.

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Writing Goals

Release Two Romance Novels / Write Three First Drafts

I am still on track!! I finished my January goals, and while I waited for feedback from beta readers that I need to start my February goals, I did get to work on March goals. Not a lot, but with everything else going on, I am really proud of myself for completing January at all.

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Not Wasting Food

That has been more of a work in process. There were *so* many leftovers after the holidays that we didn’t make this goal in the early part of the month. We got better as the month went on, but we were far from perfect. That’s okay. February is a new month, and I have started it by cleaning out the fridge. We’ll try again.

Moving At Least Three Days a Week

Okay, I wasn’t perfect on this. And the bar isn’t all that high.

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Logging when I exercise has helped me learn a bit. With the new gym at work, I do manage to get at least two to three days of movement in. But they are all on workdays. I am terrible about exercising at home, even though we own a treadmill and elliptical machine. Time to do some thinking on how to get myself and my family into our finished basement so the opportunity to move more is at least there.

Logging Food

I have been pretty terrible about this. I am okay through lunch on workdays, but once I get home, I don’t remember. And, I have learned, I may have an after dinner sugar addiction. Hard to really see, though, as I have so little data. While I have identified the issue, I have yet to come up with a plan around it. Maybe I can set reminders or something in the app to ping me to log. Not sure. But I clearly am not remembering on my own.

 

How are you doing on your resolutions?

Micro Fiction: Gift or Curse?

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GodsGiftCurse

The gods’ gift felt more like a curse.

It revealed that men he’d liked and trusted were consumed by the same darkness that had once infested him.

But rather than fighting it as he had, they embraced it and the wealth and power that came with it.

Other he’d deemed cruel and selfish shone with the light of the gods.

His entire world, everything he knew, was gone.

But the only thing different was him.