By Linda Robertson Somers

Through Karmic cycles never ending;
Through Lifetimes, wills unbending.
What seems forever beyond our reaching
are lessons wiser souls try teaching.
By Linda Robertson Somers
Through Karmic cycles never ending;
Through Lifetimes, wills unbending.
What seems forever beyond our reaching
are lessons wiser souls try teaching.
By Linda Robertson Somers
Death came to me in the still of night, and took me by the hand.
He said come with me my child to a far more peaceful land.
He wore a velvet cloak of the deep and darkest black,
And with him was a magic sack that he carried ‘cross his back.
When I inquired of him as to what the contents might be;
He said it was the souls of men who’d died from the beginning through eternity.
He touched my lips three times with his and pulled me from my bed.
He said I had no need to fear for soon I would be dead.
He took my hand and off we flew
thru walls and trees and morning dew.
I saw a house upon a hill
with dungeons dark and rooms to fill.
There was a game laid out to play,
and I knew I wouldn’t walk away.
In the corner were the bones
in their forever red rock homes.
I’m just saying that being able to set my own schedule is amazing, I’ve gone completely feral and I’m not sure there’s any way to bring me back from my night owls ways now. It’s glorious!
By Linda Robertson Somers
One time in a far off desert land
Where only few survive
There grew a cactus strong and tall
Who somehow stayed alive.
The cactus won all men’s respect
For her spirit was so strong
That no one pulled her from the ground
Or did her any wrong.
But the cactus wasn’t satisfied
With this earthly plan
She wanted to be beautiful
And win the love of man.
One day on a midsummers night
As she began to doze
The magic of her wish came true
And changed her to a rose.
The first one to behold the rose
Was a traveler passing through,
He saw a thing of beauty
Where once a cactus grew.
He smiled as he plucked her down
That was all she knew
Man’s love, for which she died was through
He tossed her to the ground.
Find part one here.
Ari sat in a crowded tavern in the small southern village of Umbleton considering his options. The clatter of dishes and roar of voices washed over him. Umbleton was about a day’s walk from Everness and the locals had definitely noticed the smoke that had been rising in the distance for several days as the city burned. Gossip was rampant but apparently no one had been brave enough to go investigate. Ari heaved a sigh as he regarded the tankard of ale in front of him and shook his head at the cowardice and selfishness of most people. Maybe the residents of this tiny coastal village weren’t concerned, but he was. He was very concerned.
In another life Ari would have been a king. His family had traces of dragon blood in their veins. That was the story anyway. He knew he could sense things that others could not. He could track a dragon with those extra senses. And track dragons he did.
Dragons had fled the boundaries of his homeland long ago. They had flow over mountain ranges and across oceans, they had flown over forests thick and impassable, they had flown across continents. They had settled in some of those places. Mountain tops too high for people to scale, remote islands too far for people to sail to, in caves and treetops in forests too thick for people to push into. For the most part, they had left people alone. And so the legends faded into fairy tales, children’s fantasies, and stories. No one actually believed in them.
Except the Dragon Hunters Guild. The guild was small and secretive. Secretive for good reason. The secrecy wasn’t so much to protect the dragon hunters from scorn and derision as much as it was to protect stupid humans that might actually believe and go looking for one and get themselves killed.
But now people were getting killed anyway. Three villages in three months, Northern Greys in southern regions, something was very, very wrong.
He had stood facing the Ridgeback Mountains, watching the Grey until it flew out of sight and then he had used his other sight to survey that mountain range. What he found was terrifying.
Dragons, and lots of them. Many of them far from their natural habitats. What were they doing there? Why were they gathering? How were there so many? Of course, when dragons had left it was to go and grow and replenish in secret. It would seem they had been successful.
His musings were interrupted by the arrival of an older man, ancient by some measures. Poradel arrived cloaked and hooded as was his wont. Without a word he pulled the chair opposite of Ari and lowered his creaking body into it. Ari watched as the old man twisted and shifted and settled himself into the seat. Only then did he turn to acknowledge Ari, lower his hood and glance around in annoyance.
“This better be important,” he practically snarled as he glanced around the room, “I hate people. But since we are here, where’s my pint then?”
Ari motioned to the serving girl, he held his tankard up, pointed to it then to Poradel. She nodded and headed back to the bar.
Ari knew better than to try to speak to the mage until the tankard was in front of him. Tipping the girl, he motioned with a jerk of his head for her to leave. He needed privacy for this conversation.
After a long quaff, the tankard clattered to the table and the old man sighed in satisfaction while wiping away the wetness from his white and grey streaked beard.
“Now boy, what do you want?”
“Nice to see you too Uncle Del.”
“Bah! You want something.”
“Yes.”
“Well?”
Ari sighed. Poradel had no patience for the niceties of polite society. He wasn’t his really his uncle as much as he was his great-great uncle. Not that family ties mattered to Del. He was a hermit, a grouch, an anti-social asshole truth be told. But he was also a brilliant magic user, and Ari needed his help. Plus, he didn’t know anyone else in this part of the country.
“I need to contact the guild-“ he started.
“Send a letter!”
“Quickly.” He finished.
“Rent a carrier pigeon, they fly between here and all the major cities.”
“I need to contact everyone at once and I need to do it tonight.”
“Why?”
“Because the Ridgeback Mountains are full of dragons.”
Del regarded him for a bare moment, then nodded curtly.
“Ok then. My cottage, two hours, I’ll have the spell ready.”
by guest contributer Sian Kelly
Jayziz woke.
He instantly knew deep down in his bones that this had been a rush job, a sloppy, half-assed, and downright ugly bit of business. There was no gradual dawning of awareness, no subtle shift to consciousness.
Jayziz felt like he had been kicked out of bed by an Amazonian giantess with Sasquatch feet and had landed in a concrete tub with maybe eight inches of freezing water at the bottom- banging his head in the process- while a heart shaped nuclear reactor pumped molten lava through his veins.
Yeah, his everything hurt.
He leapt to his feet, teetered sideways, crashed to the floor. He leapt up again, only slightly more stable the second time and stared at the six robed and hooded figures standing in a circle around him.
“Awww, hell naw! Which one of you misguided motherfuckers had the nerve and unmitigated gall to resurrect me?”
The six ruling members of the mages guild glanced about uncertainly, nervously wondering who would speak for the group. Jayziz threw up both his hands in frustration. His right hand and forearm broke off and landed somewhere on the other side of the mausoleum.
“Well that’s not good.” he muttered beneath his breath. He rubbed the tattered flesh of his face with his remaining hand.
“Alright, if my elbow has already rotted out then I’m guessing I’ve been dead longer than the standard 1,001 days. That means I’ve got roughly four minutes to lay back down or this back-to-life shit is gonna be permanent, so somebody better explain quick or I’m gonna Kamehameha all of you petty, pathetic, piss-poor parlor-trick magic users!”
Cowed by his tirade, the robed mages hesitated again.
“Oh? So you sons of witches think this is a game,” Jayziz said, “Ya’ll think I’m playing, huh?”
He waved his arm and his nub around in a complex, intricate pattern and shimmering waves of angry energy crackled into existence around him. He growled the word that would end them all,
“Kaamehaa-“
“Wait!” a blue robed mage said hurriedly, stepping forward, “We all worked together to resurrect you. We had no choice, Master!”
“No choice, Saulomon? Really?” Jayziz said through clenched teeth as he wrestled with the energy. “There’s always a choice!”
“No, Master, because the freaking red robes brought the apocalypse down on all of us.”
“It wasn’t my fault! Ass-rael and the greens are just as guilty, they planted the suggestion!”
“I don’t give a flying fuck whose fault it is!” Jayziz screamed in exasperation. He flung the energy to the side, blowing a horse-sized chunk out of the mausoleum wall.
“Energy not focused is energy waster. Now give me the really short version, Saul. Talk to me quick but don’t talk to me slick.”
“Eduardo here tried to pull off a McDisney’s Rapier,” Saulomon said, indicating the red-robbed mage by pointing an incriminating finger. “Instead, he bifurcated all of reality, and in the process he managed to leave one time-stream looped and the other stream just kinda sorta convex.”
Jayziz glared at Ed the Red, “You stoopid fuck.” Jayziz waved his elbow joint and with an inverted thump the red mages atoms were scattered to the far corners of the universe.
“Okay, so did he channel somatic energy the right way or did he take the material component shortcut?”
“The shortcut, of course.” Said a gaunt woman in yellow robes.
“Did he use basilisk blood or cobras venom?”
“With basilisk blood retailing at six hundred grand for a quarter ounce? You have to ask? El cheapo used cobra’s venom.”
“Well there’s your problem: Ed the Red didn’t know his asp from a hole in the ground, nahmeen? All you got do is ride the looped time-stream back to when he first began casting the spell,” Jayziz said, “Replace his snake venom with basilisk blood. Then use a Gregorovich shunt to unconvex the one time-stream, do a south Dallas crowbar to unloop the other stream, and meld them back together by performing a bilateral agreement. Easy-peasy!”
“Master, you’re a genius! That should put things back, make it like it was before!” Saulomon said.
“Yes, so once errythang is fixed back make sure you blow Ed the Red to smithereens again, just for me.”
“My pleasure Master.” Saulomon glanced at this watch. “Sixty seconds before you get stuck like that. Anything else?”
“Tell my beeyotch ex-wife I said wish you were here.” Jayziz climbed back into his casket.
“Saul, old buddy, you aren’t too shabby for a mage. Kelby, you either.”
The woman in yellow inclined her had in acknowledgement.
“The rest of you can all eat a dick. And one of you get that wall fixed. I don’t need critters gnawing on me. And the color in here sucks. Who decorated? Granite? Really? Wow, how original. Have it redone. Rose marble or some fly shit like that.”
Jayziz stretched out and yawned. Darkness was already closing in on him.
“And next time one of you brainiacs manages to destroy life, the universe and everything- even if it’s an accident- you’re just gonna be shit out of luck. Don’t come fucking with me, because I ain’t getting back up again.”
A skeletal hand shot up and flipped them the bird.
Jayziz slept.
Popped out of my little ad hoc home office today to grab a bite to eat between clients. What did I actually end up doing? Cracking all the ice and refilling the trays, making a gallon of tea so I could have some, making lunch for my 8 year old as well and putting a diaper and some clothes on the naked 2 year old. Oh yeah, and finally inhaled some food super quick before my next appointment. This is what working from home looks like.
I just finished the most recent installment in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison. It was fabulous, as always! I’m not going to say too much about it because I don’t want to give spoilers. But if you enjoy paranormal romance, and you haven’t read the series yet, then you should absolutely head to your nearest bookstore and remedy that situation as soon as humanly possible.
She walked briskly through the chill night air, a cacophony of voices rising all around her. On one side of the road, protesters.
“Dump Trump!”
“Drumph”
“Twittler! Orange Cheeto!”
On the other side, well, that was worse.
“Fags!”
“Perverts!”
“Kill them all!”
“You all deserve to die!”
“Fucktards, losers”
“…don’t deserve to live…”
“Get out of Trumps America!”
“Misfits, don’t belong here…..”
“You’re the real deplorables!”
“Disgusting filth…”
“Animals!”
“…should be exterminated….”
She shook her head in disgust as she hurried along. She headed toward home eager to be inside in the cheery warmth. Her sister was home from college and she couldn’t wait to catch up with her.
Her sister, Samantha. Sam was young, vibrant, and full of life. She always had a quick smile and an open, accepting personality. She was very talented and had won a scholarship to attend Columbia University’s school of visual arts. She had a bright future ahead of her.
She was smart, funny, kind and thoughtful. The kind of person anyone would want for a friend, or sister. Lydia felt lucky to be Sam’s sister. But now their family faced a threat.
Whereas no one in the entire world cared one iota who Lydia fell in love with, a huge portion of the American public had made it their mission to harass Samantha and those like her and strip them of their rights. Because, in addition to everything else that made up Samantha, she happened to be gay. Yes, her sister was a lesbian.
She shoved her hands deeper into the pockets of her purple jacket and increased her pace. Arriving at home, she fumbled for her house key, her breath making plumes in the air. She slipped inside her family’s home, the warmth cascading over her body as she entered the foyer, soft light filtering down the entry hall.
Lydia removed her jacket, momentarily sinking her fingers into the velvety softness of it as she hung it on the hook. Her shoes thumped against the wall as she kicked them off and hurried into the family room.
A fire crackled merrily in the fireplace, the Christmas tree twinkled in the corner. The room was ablaze with light and warmth, everything she associated with her childhood. This room had always been the hub of family life, family meetings, family movie night, and countless late nights huddled on the couch, giggling with her sister. Now the house was quite, silent. She couldn’t be the first one home.
“Mom? Dad? Sam?” she called as searched the house for signs of life.
There was a thump from upstairs, but no answer. Her heart leapt into her throat as her mouth went dry. What was going on up there? She took the stairs two at a time. Reaching the second floor she craned her head wildly around trying to determine where the thump had come from.
There, at the end of the hallway, a shadowy figure appeared in the doorway to one of the rooms. That would be the game room. Inside were the pool table, fuse ball, and air hockey. That room was the main reason their house had always been the neighborhood hangout when they were growing up. Countless evenings and weekends were spent in there playing board games or air hockey, watching TV or just hanging out. Now her heart pounded in her chest as she made her way quietly, and quickly, down the hall.
As she got closer, she could see the man’s face. It was Jared, what was he doing here? Jared and Sam had dated back in high school, but that had been eons ago! Obviously it was before Sam had come out. Jared shouldn’t be here her mind was screaming. He was out of place in the dark stillness of the family home. Who had let him in? Why was he here?
Adrenaline spiked through her as she realized his presence in the upstairs hallway could only mean danger. She extended her right arm and alternately flexed then clenched her fist. Her palms were sweaty and her pulse thudded in her ears as she felt the heat rush to her face. Oh no, not this again!
Lydia had been struggling with controlling her powers; she wasn’t good at it yet! It was so unfair that no one was here to help her, she might kill Jared without even trying to, and then how was she ever going to get into college?
She stalked closer to him, but Jared was complete unaware of her so preoccupied was he on whatever he was seeing in that room. She stepped purposefully toward him, trying her best to stay calm and keep quiet until she could assess the situation.
Jared continued to back slowly out of the room. Lydia could hear her sister’s voice now, “Don’t make me do it Jared, keep backing up, turn around and get out of my house!”
Jared started to turn, saw Lydia, jerked in surprise then started back into the room. He had a baseball bat clutched in his hand.
Before she could do anything, there was an explosion of light and bright drops of gold that sizzled and twirled through the air.
Jared staggered backwards into the hallway. She watched in horror as he slumped to the floor, a smoldering hole in his chest. She glanced down at her clinched fists in horror but her hands had never risen up to deliver that blow.
Sam rushed out of the room and threw herself down next to Jared sobbing, “I didn’t mean to! He came at me with that bat, he was swinging it!”
The hysterical sobbing broke the spell and Lydia rushed to her sister’s side, “It’s ok, it’s ok, it was self-defense! What the hell happened here tonight?”
Rubbing her wet face Sam haltingly got the story out. Jared had shown up unannounced, said his car broke down, wanted to use the phone, came inside with the bat behind his back. He started berating her for their breakup, for moving away without him, for being gay.
“He called me an abomination! He said we all needed to be exterminated!” She hiccupped through the tears.
Lydia felt a sense of calm descend upon her like a well-worn cloak. For once, she knew exactly what to do. Pulling out her cell phone she sent a quick text to her dad, “Please bring home pizza with pineapple.”
It was their code, her parents would come right away, with the entire coven. The adults would know what to do. Of course, she always thought the code would be used if they were in danger because someone found out their secret.
She shook her head as she shoved the phone back in her pocket. Dumb, stupid humans. This was exactly why witches were still in the closet. If they reacted this way over someone being gay, imagine what they would do if they found out witches were real.
She was right. The adults arrived and in short order, the body was gone, Sam was showered and in clean clothes, the hallway magically cleansed, and everyone was in the family room gathered around the tree eating pizza.
There would be no evidence Jared was ever there. She thought she should feel guilty about that but gazing at her sister, she just didn’t. It was clearly him or her. If it had to be that way then she was glad it was him, if she had to choose, she chose her sister, she would always chose her sister.
The need to write welling up,
Spilling over
It’s late, but here I sit
Soaking up the night
Feeling the day slip away
Stress, worries
Melt away
Along with the noise
The hustle and bustle
Of life fades away
Leaving me
Just me
My thoughts and fears
Hopes and dreams
Creativity flows here
And here alone
Poetry, fiction
Stories pour out
Only in the quite of the night
The rest of the house fast asleep
The night, she is mine
And I don’t want to share
The divine
Speaks to me here
My muse
Embedded in the dark
The quiet, the rolling away of Life
Solitude, introspection
My life plays out
For my inspection
Searching my soul,
Questioning
Everything happens
In the stillness of the night
All good things
All my thoughts and prayers
Are buried here
In the deep, dark stillness
Of the night
All the secrets of my Life
Still. Quiet. Night.
The pieces of my Life
Fledgling writer. Lover of chocolates, Big Brother, and all things random.
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