Good Day my Lovely Newbies! Lest’s see, where to starts todays mind dump? I guess we can start with, yay, possible new job! No not really yay. It’s yay because hey, being honest, writing takes money. Especially if you’re self-publishing. So with that, there needs to be a job. Being laid off had it’s benefits, it allowed me time to nail down my outline. It really gave me time to get a feel for what it’s like to have nothing else to do but write. But, funds dry up and fun money is always a plus.
With the prospect of working towards home ownership, my fiancé and I agree on a job that isn’t to demanding, but pays decent. So it’s back to being a Pharmacy Tech!
On top of that, I have decided to step up and help my Dad with his business. Which, I knew was coming, but doesn’t help the fact that it’s more hats to wear. Dad isn’t very tech savvy, so that’s where I’ll come in. Building him a website, setting up “emails”, possibly setting up a server at the office so he can remote into it. Everyone in the house uses his computer, my four year old nephew is notorious for being a Youtube Fanatic.
But, hey that’s life right! Enough whining lets get on to the more exciting stuff. I figured I would give you guys and gals a sample of what I’m writing. The short story was original for a yearly competition for the Florida Writers Association. The theme was “What a character”.
The back story: At the time, I was still working for a software development company here in north Florida. It was a slow day and my mind drifted from one idea to the next. I started thinking “What if someone decided to take this building hostage? What would happen?” Mind you, there were two Marine, one Navy, one Army, and two Air Force (myself included) veterans who work in the office. Fight scenes started to form, co-workers started to warp into characters. I shook it off, thinking “Naw, I need to concentrate on one of my other ideas”. Fast forward a few months. My expiration date at the company, along with nine others, was fast approaching. This is when a co-worker asked me what the heck was I doing working IT when I loved to write. So at that moment, I decided to turn him into my competition piece, with his permission of course. I wrote this in maybe forty minutes, that’s with answering calls. But sadly, I went out of town, only taking my iPad with me and was unable to submit it to the competition. But something happened when I wrote this, I shared it with my co-workers, which is something I had never done. I always kept my work to myself. I realized, that this story was going to be my debut book.
So with that being said, here is a small glimpse at one of the characters in my current work in progress, Darius Lemmings. Mind you, my co-worker was the inspiration for this character, but his name was changed.
Working, 9 to Kill
Character Glimpse
Darius Lemmings
The cleaning crew showed up as he cleaned the blood off of his knife. He didn’t know why he even bothered, they would be taking it from him and disposing of it anyway. Force of habit he guessed from a life before working for this agency. William let out a whistle “D, the work you do. Just a masterpiece” he said looking at the contract I completed no more than fifteen minutes ago. Mijenk Danilo was head of the local crime ring, second generation. He had recently taken over an area in Croatia called Rabac, and took to terrorizing the locals. Didn’t take long for his hit to come across my phone, at a price that he just could not pass up. “What can I say Will, when a certain price tag is set on a head, it requires a certain amount of extra pizazz.” He smiled. “And that’s why they give you the bigger hits my man.” William laughed before pulling out his phone. The phones the agency provides are top of the line, and require retina scans to unlock. If the wrong eyeball gets scanned three times, the chip in the phone turns everything on the inside into a liquid. Best to drop it once it starts to heat up because I’ve seen it melt a counter top. After taking a few snapshots of Mijenk, William handed over his phone “I need your eyeball” he snarked as the camera scanned my retina. He did the same, sending confirmation that I indeed completed the contract. Within two minutes my phone buzzed, notifying me that I was $850,000 richer. Of course it was a million-dollar hit, and the agency had to take their fee off top. “Where does your old lady think you are now?” William asked as he signaled for his worker bees to start the cleanup process. “I’m going to a dojo in Austria, she just doesn’t know why I have a four-hour layover in Croatia” he shrugged. “Ah… sneaky bastard. Nice cover, wish more people could cover their tracks as well as you do” William shrugged “You heading back after this?” he asked “Naw, waiting on confirmation for the Alojzije hit. Should be any minute now.” William said stuffing his pocket with his phone “Oh they meant business if they are knocking off the top two in one night. Who has his hit?” I chuckled “Your BFF, Ali-cat, and I’m pretty sure she is still sour about you getting the bigger hit out of the two. She stands to pocket $500K” William nodded “I’ll send her to a beach somewhere. I’m out, got to catch my flight” he said handing the worker bee what he called the psycho hit man survival kit before heading for the door. “Hold up superman, you got a gash on your cheek” William said. He froze taking a look in the mirror by the front door, sure enough there was a nasty cut on his face that he hadn’t even felt. That’s the problem with killing street brawlers, they had raw power, but no type of freaking discipline. William walked over and handing him a toilette and a small container. “Here free of charge” he winked before going back to watch over the cleaning crew.
2 days later
Darius watched Attack of the Titan as he sat in the terminal waiting on his flight home from Austria. He was grateful for Will to have provided him with the little container of what they called scar less. The .5 oz bottle he had been given cost $5K and healed minor cuts in a matter of hours. Large wounds took a little longer, but in the end left no trace of ever being injured. Now he didn’t have to make up some excuse about how an amateur got the best of him or he got smacked breaking up a fight. The Arnis workshops had been successful, as they always were. As much as he loved to travel the world and teach his love of his favorite martial art, it sadly did not pay the bills like being an assassin did. It also didn’t fulfill a need that he had running through his veins since Uncle Sam experimented on him over a decade ago. He still had a sour taste in his mouth on how they tried to dispose of him and his team once the project was over. It wasn’t until they started sending their men back in pieces that the government back off. But he knew that they kept tabs on him as best they could, and he was sure that every job that he went on, they hoped it was his last. But that’s what happens when you make a skinny bean pole from Georgia into a super strong bean pole. The people he killed never expected that a small man his size, could break a person in half and not break a sweat. For five years he killed people for his country until they tried to kill him. That’s when the agency found him, and now he kills for the highest bidder. But only those who are causing the wrong kind of chaos in the world. The ones where you weigh them on the scale and decide if one life would benefit that area as whole. But this last year, he had been at war with himself. He met Mia, although meeting women wasn’t something new. The hard part had come when Mia popped up pregnant and refused to have an abortion. He couldn’t have any liabilities, it made his job that much harder. If his enemies knew he had a family at home, they would use them as a bargaining chip to tip the outcome in their favor. And he knew after the first time of holding Jayla in his arms, that he would do anything to keep his little girl safe. He just needed one more hit like this one, and he could retire from this business. The only questions now are: Will this business let him retire? And would the crap the government pumped into his body, ever let him have peace? Or will he continue to need the thrill of the kill to keep him from going insane?
Chronicles of a Newbie Writer 