Kleine Kurzgeschichte aus der Welt von Dumornay. Damien Moreaus Abmachung mit den Jägern von New Orléans gerät ins Schwanken, als seine Männer eine junge Jägerin finden.
Ursprünglich für den contest beim SadWolf Verlag eingeschickt. Wurde leider nicht genommen, aber auf der Festplatte versauern lassen will ich’s auch nicht. Eine kleine Kurzgeschichte aus der Welt von Dumornay :3
Continue reading “Der Teufel von New Orleans – Kurzgeschichte”
My Uni’s Creative Writing lecturer has a blog, which us students get to use too to put up little writing exercises or something else 😊
A little something that wouldn’t let me go to sleep last night until I had written it down.
She writes with the blood in her veins, but it is not blood that runs in her veins. It is ink.
And the ink gets heavier and thicker with each passing day.
With each day, her skin is parchment, something for the world with which to play.
And when the ink grows to thick and the burden to great, she sits down and takes up the pen.
She dunks the pen into the inkwell that is her heart and she writes and writes and writes.
Writes out all that pain of the passing days.
The sorrow, the anger, the love and the joy.
She writes it all down, until her heart is empty and there is nothing to write down anymore.
The papers stack up in her apartment, but she doesn’t throw…
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This was my first essay for last semester’s creative writing module and I just thought, I might as well share it here since it’s been graded already.
This was my first essay for last semester’s creative writing module and I just thought, I might as well share it here since it’s been graded already. I did actually do a lot of research for this, but – as with everything – it’s entirely possible I might have gotten some things wrong (or well, maybe I changed some things for dramatic effect xD just thought, I’d say it)
Looking at the sky, she saw a raven. A dark blotch of ink against the grey parchment of the clouds, hovering over the battlefield, observing the dead and the living.
‘Take me with you, Andraste. Take me to my freedom,’ she whispered. Her eyes still fixed on the sky, she heard somebody approach with heavy steps. Rain and blood had soaked the earth and turned it into a slippery field of mud. The footsteps came to a halt in front of her, Boudica moved her gaze from the iron clad sky to the pair of feet in front of her.
‘Your gods cannot help you anymore, Queen of the Iceni,’ the Roman replied to her. ‘I suspect, they abandoned you when you set your first step onto this path of insubordinate destruction and violence against the Empire.’ Boudica knew the name that went with the voice without having to look him in the eye. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, Roman Governor and the man who had been present when her daughters had been shamed and she herself flogged.
Now, Boudica did raise her eyes to look him in the eye. ‘I had every right to revolt, as your Empire went against its word and invaded my kingdom. Upon your emperor’s orders, my daughters were raped while I had to watch. Truly, an intelligent move if one wants to force their allies into submission – or into revolt. My people are only fighting for their land, their homes and their families. If that means we have to kill Romans, then so be it.’
Gaius scoffed and shook his head before crouching down in front of her. ‘Look around you. Your people are dying or already dead. You have no way of defeating the great military might of the Roman Empire, you’ve blocked your own escape with the people that follow you. It is over, Boudica, you lost. Your revolt is in pieces, your lands belong to Rome now. And you? You will be carted off to Rome to be caged and gawked at by the people like the animal you are. You will bow before Rome and maybe, you will be granted your life. If Nero feels merciful.’
Boudica spat in his face, internally grinning at the sight of him wiping her saliva off his face and glaring at her in return. ‘I will never bow before Rome. She never had the right of seeing me on my knees before her and she definitely lost it when her soldiers invaded my lands. I would rather die than submit to Rome and your Emperor,’ she growled in a low voice, moved her face just inches from the Roman’s.
‘Well, my queen. Your death is something that can easily be arranged. I would have to tell my emperor that you, sadly, perished on the battlefield. But I am certain, he will understand. After all, there is nobody around to tell another story. Certainly not you, should you choose to fight me,’ Gaius replied. Boudica shook her head. Gods, this Roman really was so full of himself, he would dare defy his own emperor just to get a point across. It did not matter. She would decide when and where she would die – nobody else. She was a queen after all. And queens do not bow to common folk, not even if they are a foreign army’s leader.
A self-sufficient grin stole its way onto her lips. No, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus would not dictate her how to live her life nor how to end it. ‘Whether I die today by your hand or somebody else’s does not matter. Your beloved empire is crumbling and one day it shall fall, if not by my hand, then by that of future generations. Maybe I and mine, and what we tried to do, will be remembered – maybe it will not. But, nevertheless, we showed the people that the great Roman Empire is not as invincible as it seems. You Romans bleed just like we do.’
Gaius sneered at her. One of his hands found its way around her throat and it began to squeeze. ‘Your husband is dead. Your army has been crushed under Rome’s heel. You yourself made sure of your defeat, as it seems you estranged yourself from your own allies. You did not show the people of the known world anything, except for the might of Rome. You lose, Rome wins. I win. Although, I have to say, you have proven a formidable opponent. But, in the end, nothing can withstand the valour of Rome’s soldiers. Certainly not a ragtag band of rebels. I am surprised you managed to get them to work together, instead of tearing each other to pieces.’
‘Are you paying me a compliment, Gaius?’ Boudica replied through clenched teeth and tight throat. Silently, she sent a prayer to Andraste. To give her strength. To not give in to defeat. And she thought, she felt her goddess’s reassuring hand firmly on her shoulder. The wind carried a whisper to her. I am with you, my child.
Boudica’s hand closed tightly around the shaft of her sword. The other went to the small pouch hanging off her belt. In it there were dark berries, hailing from the Lady Belladonna’s bushes, they would be another effective method in taking her life and bringing her freedom, should her sword fail to deliver the desired outcome. No, she would not fail in her task, the final one. Whichever way she took, she would not let herself be gawked at by Rome.
‘Rome will never set eyes on me. Tell your emperor, you failed, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus,’ Boudica whispered. Her hand raised the sword, the tip turned towards her own breast. She sent a prayer to Andraste, more a bid than a prayer. To watch over her daughters when she was gone. And then she pushed.
The blade pierced her leather armour, cut through her flesh and buried itself in her heart. She only distantly heard Gaius’ voice screaming ‘No!’ while she herself embraced her goddess and joined her faithful warriors in the afterlife. She even saw her estranged husband, smiling at her. Prasutagus was proud. After all, she had done what he could not do.
She had fought. With teeth and claws. With everything she had. And she might not have won the war, but she had won this battle.
Starting an experimental series of blog posts about things that I love. First up: Critical Role!
Hello guys! Welcome into the new year and to a new blog post – and something that might maybe, possibly turn into a series? I thought, I could write a series of blog posts about all random things that I love and, if you like it, I’ll publish them maybe monthly? (That could change since I’ve got Uni going on again) If you don’t like it, I’ll probably still do it anyway. If you find any facts or dates that are wrong, please feel free to correct me.
Before I get into the nerdy awesomeness that is Critical Role, a tiny disclaimer:
I am not getting paid for these blog posts. I am simply writing them because I love these things that I am going to write about and if you end up liking them too, that’s brilliant! If not, that’s fine too.
Alright. Now that we got that out of the way. Question one.
What is Critical Role?
Critical Role is a web series produced by Geek and Sundry, which made its debut on March 12 in 2015. It is centred on a group of voice actors, who meet up and play Dungeons and Dragons – live on twitch, while thousands of people are watching.
Their first campaign, which followed the tales of a group of characters collectively known as Vox Machina as they battle their way through the world of Exandria on the continent of Tal’Dorei, ended on October 12 last year. But fret not! The new campaign started on January 11, 2018 and if you missed it, you can still catch up when the episode is uploaded to YouTube on Monday.
Critical Role’s second campaign is set in Wildemount, 20 years after Vox Machina’s adventures.
Who is a part of Critical Role?
I’m only focusing on the people we see onscreen every Thursday night here. For the sake of staying spoiler free, I will only mention the characters from the first campaign as you get to know them during the first episodes.
Matthew Mercer Dungeon Master/DM
Most people might now know Matt as the voice of Jesse McCree in Overwatch. But, as everyone from the cast, he has a bunch of other roles under his belt (i.e. Levi in Attack on Titan or Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil). As the DM, Matt leads the sessions and voices NPCs – although the others sometimes do what they want, which often results in fun shenanigans or them getting into trouble.
Ashley Johnson Pike Trickfoot
Ashley Johnson is best known for her role on the NBC TV show Blindspot and for voicing Ellie in The Last of Us. During the first Campaign, we meet Ashley as Pike Trickfoot, a gnome cleric with a special connection to her goddess.
Laura Bailey Vex’ahlia
Laura has voiced characters like Nadine Ross in Uncharted and Fiona in Telltale’s Tales from the Borderlands. Her first character on Critical Role is Vex’ahlia, a half elven ranger, who is always accompanied by her animal companion, Trinket, a bear – who gives expert massages!
Liam O’Brien Vax’ildan
Liam voiced Gaara in Naruto Shippuden and Gollum in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, among others. On Critical Role he took on the role of Vax’Ildan, a half elven rogue and twin brother to Laura’s Vex’ahlia.
Marisha Ray Keyleth
Marisha’s roles include A.J. Mason in Friday the 13th: The Game and Mikoto, Effie and Oboro in Fire Emblem: Fates. Her character during the first campaign is Keyleth, a half-elven Druid.
Sam Riegel Scanlan Shorthalt
Sam voiced Griefer in Telltale’s Minecraft: Story Mode, amongst others. On the show he plays the feisty gnome bard Scanlan Shorthalt.
Taliesin Jaffe Percy
Amongst Taliesin’s roles, you will find credits for additional voices in Elder Scrolls Online and Dragon’s Dogma, as well as a part in World of Warcraft: Legion. Taliesin’s character on Critical Role is Percival “Percy” Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III, a human gunslinger.
Travis Willingham Grog Strongjaw
Travis played Castamir in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Thor in various Marvel games and Harvey Dent in Telltale’s Batman. On Critical Role’s first campaign, he took on the part of Grog Strongjaw, a goliath barbarian – who likes to rage.
Orion Acaba Tiberius Stormwind
Orion left Critical Role sometime after it started to focus on his own projects, but he had taken on the role of Tiberius Stormwind, a dragonborn sorcerer.
Apart from the amazing cast, Critical Role also lives through its crew and the community (lovingly called #Critters).
Why do I love it?
Not only does Critical Role give you the opportunity to follow the adventures of a bunch of brilliant voice actors, but you also get to connect with an amazingly supportive community. Sometimes heartbreaking, but mostly making you love until you cry, Critical Role has introduced me to the world of Dungeons and Dragons and actually made me want to play it myself. (I do have a group, but we’re trying to work out the logistics first.) If you want to spend hours watching fellow nerds play a tabletop RPG that has been around for ages and afterwards chat with others who watched it as well, then Critical Role might be the thing for you. And let’s not forget the epic tales, bloody battles and wonderful characters you get to know as well.
Where you can watch it.
Critical Role’s new campaign airs – as usual – on Thursdays on Geek and Sundry’s twitch and Youtube channels at 7pm Pacific Time (which would be 3am UK time and 4am Central European time). If you can’t make it to the livestreams, the episodes are being rebroadcasted on the twitch channel throughout the weekend until they are put up onto the Youtube channel on the following Monday. And there’s also the possibility of listening to the podcast, which will be updated with last week’s episode on Thursday of the following week.
2017 had its highs and lows, but I am glad, I can look back on a mostly positive year and go into the new year with new motivation.
A year is often a roller coaster for many people. Apart from events happening all over the globe, every person lives through their own year, their own hardships and highlights. Social media and blogs alike, tend to only highlight the good things over the course of the year. While, I, of course want to highlight the good things that happened to me this year and go into 2018 with a positive outlook and full of motivation, it’s also important to look at the not so great things that happened – because, ideally, you’d learn something from them.
Hopefully though, the good things outweigh the bad and not everything was a dismal, dark abyss of despair for twelve months.
In two days, on November 1st, writers from all over the world will most likely go insane over a span of 30 days, while they’re racing to write a novel with at least 50 000 words.
In two days, on November 1st, writers from all over the world will most likely go insane over a span of 30 days, while they’re racing to write a novel with at least 50 000 words.
For me, it will be my second time participating in NaNoWriMo (although I feel like the “National” in “National Novel Writing Month” is actually obsolete, since this is an international event) and, just like last year, I’ll be left stressing over assignments that need to be written for Uni while trying to write at least 10 000 words. If you follow me on twitter, you might have seen various tweets from me with the hashtag “#ProjectKA”, which is not only the hashtag for my project this NaNoWriMo, but was also the working title until I found a proper one.
Continue reading “The annual November madness – NaNoWriMo 2017”
Humanity has colonised the moon, Mars and the Asteroid Belt and continues to spread further across the solar system. Mars and Earth are at the brink of war – and amidst that a group of people, trying to save the Universe from a terrible secret.
Programme Title: The Expanse
Broadcaster: Syfy/Netflix
Seasons: 2
Episodes: 23
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama, Mystery
The Expanse is based on a book series under the same name by James S. A. Corey and follows Jim Holden (played by Steven Strait), his crew, Detective Joe Miller (played by Thomas Jane) and a few more characters.
Continue reading “The Expanse – A love letter to the show and Science Fiction [Review]”
There are people, who say that writing a book is not actual work, that you just string together words and sentences and – tada! Congratulations, you’ve got yourself a book!
Well, the truth is: it is work. It’s hard work.
There are people, who say that writing a book is not actual work, that you just string together words and sentences and – tada! Congratulations, you’ve got yourself a book!
Well, the truth is: it is work. It’s hard work. And I put a year and a half worth of hard work into writing Dumornay’s Legacy (which is still a working title, but I think, I’ll keep it). I spent roughly 18 months agonizing over plot and characters and what should go where. There were times where I made myself laugh and times when I made myself cry.
And still, it’s only the first draft. I’ve only taken the first big step towards maybe, someday, possibly publishing a book. A book, that right now, stands at 101869 words and 332 pages. Far more than I ever thought it would be. And I’m proud, but also sad and maybe a little bit scared. Because I’ve taken this first step, because I finished a story. The first part in a planned trilogy and I got to know these characters far more intimately than I thought I ever could.
In December 2015, the story of Alexandria Dumornay first took shape in a way that I could start writing it. Then, in February 2016, I had finished the first few chapters. In November 2016, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time, and although I didn’t win (you can win NaNoWriMo if you write at least 50.000 words), I managed to add roughly 25.000 words to Dumornay’s and I thought, ‘Wow, you’ve been working on this for so long. Can you finish it next year?’
I doubt, I could’ve finished the first draft in these 18 months without NaNoWriMo and CampNaNoWriMo (which is like NaNoWriMo, but takes place in April and July and you can set your own wordcount goal) – and of course, the Schreibnacht, a german writer’s forum and a monthly event, where people meet in the forum and on social media and spend a night writing together.
So, yeah. I’m proud of myself, because I finished something. And I’m tired, because it’s a lot of work and I put my heart and my back into it. And I’m grateful and glad for the people I got to know through writing and who supported me and sometimes even gave me a little kick in the butt and said ‘You can do it. If you sit down and write.’
And now, I need a little break from writing to recharge my creative battery, so to speak. (And I also have some work to do for the next trimester at Uni. Oh, and I don’t get paid to write about NaNoWriMo or the Schreibnacht, I’m just glad they exist ;))
Related links:
To be perfectly honest with you, when I first saw the trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I thought: ‘Oh, here we go. Another Hollywood action movie with Fantasy.’ Initially, I wasn’t even going to watch it.
With no idea of his real parentage, Arthur grows up in a brothel in Londinium. When he is one day faced with his legacy, he has to come to terms with his future and his past, being drawn into a war he doesn’t want to fight. But he does not have to fight alone. Arthur finds unlikely allies in the Mage, Sir Bedivere, Goosefat Bill and their little army. When he finally meets the monster from his past, he had no idea of its true identity.
To be perfectly honest with you, when I first saw the trailer for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I thought: ‘Oh, here we go. Another Hollywood action movie with Fantasy.’ Initially, I wasn’t even going to watch it. Until a fellow writer in a German Forum and I began to talk about it, and she told me to go watch the movie. Continue reading “Review: King Arthur – Legend of the Sword”
Hello there! Welcome to my blog.
I feel, an introduction is in order. So, let’s do that. My name is Sophie, and I’m the owner and author of this blog. Originally, I’m from Austria, but because I’m an English and Film student at Edinburgh Napier, I moved to Edinburgh last year (and I absolutely love it). Continue reading “Blog Introduction”
