qazyfiction

[Cross posted on wordpress.]

Online fiction now has an award!

Thanks to weblit.us, I discovered that Elizabeth Barrette, who's behind Crowdfunding Creativity, with the help of friends, has set up the Rose & Bay Award.

What Is the Rose and Bay Award?
The Rose and Bay Award focuses on a growing business model known as "crowdfunding" or "cyberfunded creativity," which directly connects creative people and patrons of the arts online. This award recognizes exemplary projects and enthusiastic patrons. It spans five categories: Art, Fiction, Poetry, Other Project, and Patron. (Other Project includes any cyberfunded creativity that isn't art, fiction, or poetry -- or that spans more than one category.)

Chapters 23... the longest chapter by far, I think! Also posted in two parts.

Chapter 23

“Shiloh!” Amber moved forward to give the woman a kiss on the cheek. “I wasn’t sure we’d see you here.”

The woman smiled, half-embraced Amber, her eyes barely leaving Silver. “I’m covering for Max,” she replied, her voice a throaty purr.

Silver smirked. “Wouldn’t that involve you being inside, working?”

Was that a joke? Silver, making a joke? Lilith could hardly believe her ears; he had been so taciturn around her, she had come to assume that that was just his personality.

Shiloh gave Silver a lingering kiss on his cheek, then nodded at Lilith, taking in the fang necklace with the quirk of an eyebrow.

Silver looked uncomfortable. He cleared his throat. “This is—.” Then he paused, hesitating. Had he forgotten her name? Lilith couldn’t suppress a sudden flare of anger.

Chapter 21

Silver glared at the back of her head the whole way up the stairs. Lilith didn’t look behind to check; she didn’t need to. She could feel his anger burning into the back of her head, making her neck prickle uncomfortably. It gave her a little thrill—knowing he was angry—a sense of power and control that had been missing ever she stepped foot outside.

"Protect her from harm however much you want, but don’t protect her from what she needs.”

Chapter 18 - Part 1

Lilith had been expecting a large, unfriendly place, all gray blocks of poured concrete, dirty and grimy like the city Silver had taken her to a few days before. What she found, instead, was a small town of wood and stone, with orderly streets and carefully decorated facades. Most of the buildings were at most two levels high, although on the other side of town she could see something tall, painted all white; a church, perhaps.

She slowed her pace as they entered the town, examining her surroundings with suppressed awe. Every house had wooden window frames and doors—Wooden! Were they all rich?—and some even had potted flowers on display, outside of their homes where anybody could touch them.

Read on...

Chapter 18 - Part 2

Back underground in Aspin, where Lilith had grown up, there was a similar market, with noticeably similar stalls. As she followed Amber, Lilith spotted people selling food, drinks, odd little trinkets and knick-knacks; there was even one man selling gadgets, although the stall looked like more of an antiques collection than a tech shop.

And the people at these stalls looked honest, hard-working, their skin rugged and dark, their smiles slow but sincere. It was then Lilith realized why she had felt so comfortable: most of the people here looked human. If it wasn’t for the sun beating down on them all, this place could have been a replica of the local market in Aspin.

Read on...

In other news, you can also get news of updates at @qazyfiction on twitter, and there's a new wiki in the works!

Chapter 17

Howl was back to his grinning, bouncy self by the time they reached the other werewolves, all vestiges of his previous seriousness so carefully erased Lilith couldn’t help but wonder whether it was deliberate.

He ignored her sidelong glances and kept tugging her forwards towards the others. Only Silver, Amber, Jake and Fang were there, loitering at the very fringe of the forest, where the trees thinned out and the open sky was ominously visible. Silver and Amber were standing face-to-face, intimately close, talking quietly. Fang was sitting cross-legged on the ground, and Jake was off to one side, leaning against a tree.

They all seemed to notice Lilith and Howl at the same time; they turned their heads simultaneously to watch them approach, an eerie animal-esque movement reminiscent of a hunter scenting its prey. And they were animals; Lilith couldn’t let herself forget that. However human they looked and dressed and behaved, hidden inside was a wild creature.

Even Howl was an animal, she thought, peeking at the boy once more. This was no time for her to make friends, and neither was it the time to indulge her curiosity about the infected; not here where the danger was so close she could taste it.

Read on...