Fiction of Clare K. R. Miller
Aug. 9th, 2021 05:23 pmHi and welcome to my Dreamwidth journal! The main thing I post here is original fiction. Here's a list of the fiction I've posted here, slightly organized!
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Garden of Prose poll!
Jan. 26th, 2012 06:50 pmOkay, I've now done herbs, fences & gates, and paths, and I have a long list still of other garden-related themes. But I can't decide, so I'm asking you to help me pick the next theme!
Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments as well.
Poll #9253
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 8
What should the next theme be?
View Answers
fruits & vegetables
2 (25.0%)
flowers0 (0.0%)
ground cover0 (0.0%)
fountains, statues, & gazing balls4 (50.0%)
insects & spiders3 (37.5%)
seeds & planting1 (12.5%)
rain & drought0 (0.0%)
dirt, mud, & fertilizer1 (12.5%)
Feel free to suggest other ideas in the comments as well.
Fiction: Safety
Jan. 21st, 2012 10:43 pmTitle: Safety
Word count: 1,652
Rating: R for suggestiveness
Prompt:![[community profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rainbowfic Tyrian Purple 14, eternal sleep; Heart Gold 8, Talking of love is making it. - William G. Benham
Notes: Hugh has also appeared in Bigfoot Hunting and On the Trail; this story takes place about twenty-five years before those.
He’d lost the rest of his team, and it was getting dark, but Hugh wasn’t worried.
No, because being worried would mean admitting that maybe those backwards, superstitious locals were right, and there were vampires on this island. And that would be completely absurd.( Read more... )
Word count: 1,652
Rating: R for suggestiveness
Prompt:
rainbowfic Tyrian Purple 14, eternal sleep; Heart Gold 8, Talking of love is making it. - William G. BenhamNotes: Hugh has also appeared in Bigfoot Hunting and On the Trail; this story takes place about twenty-five years before those.
He’d lost the rest of his team, and it was getting dark, but Hugh wasn’t worried.
No, because being worried would mean admitting that maybe those backwards, superstitious locals were right, and there were vampires on this island. And that would be completely absurd.( Read more... )
Garden of Prose summary
Jan. 17th, 2012 09:57 pmThe January Garden of Prose is now complete! I've written 8 stories for 8 prompters. Most of them are incomplete, and I hope I'll be finishing them and giving final sponsorship prices (as well as starting to send some out for traditional publication) soon, but here's the list:
On the Trail
Air Traffic
The Pathless
East
Interview
Through the Snow
The Wrong Path
Seeking Shelter
On the Trail
Air Traffic
The Pathless
East
Interview
Through the Snow
The Wrong Path
Seeking Shelter
Prosy: Seeking Shelter
Jan. 17th, 2012 09:50 pmTitle: Seeking Shelter
Word count: 303 (incomplete total: 2,212)
Rating: PG-13
Prompt:![[personal profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
smeddley's: The storm's path
Notes: Hey, look! I wrote a Wasteland story with an actual sorceress in it! Considering how important a part magic is to my conception of this world, I haven't done much with it.
This got a lot creepier than I expected as I continued it...
The trees were whipping around them. The wind was coming faster and faster. Piri knew she had to get her family—her friends, but her family of choice—to safety. But which way? Where was safety? She wanted to climb a tree, but it wasn’t safe. The children were all crying. Her friends were trying to calm them down, but not having much luck.( Read more... )
Word count: 303 (incomplete total: 2,212)
Rating: PG-13
Prompt:
smeddley's: The storm's pathNotes: Hey, look! I wrote a Wasteland story with an actual sorceress in it! Considering how important a part magic is to my conception of this world, I haven't done much with it.
This got a lot creepier than I expected as I continued it...
The trees were whipping around them. The wind was coming faster and faster. Piri knew she had to get her family—her friends, but her family of choice—to safety. But which way? Where was safety? She wanted to climb a tree, but it wasn’t safe. The children were all crying. Her friends were trying to calm them down, but not having much luck.( Read more... )
Prosy: The Wrong Path
Jan. 17th, 2012 06:06 pmTitle: The Wrong Path
Word count: 362 (total: 3,465)
Rating: G
Prompt:kay_brooke's: The wrong path/is it really the wrong path.
Notes: This is several months after the other prison planet stories that I've written so far, but it's a scene I've had in mind for a while, so I'm pretty excited about it!
It was a beautiful, thriving, old-growth forest. The trees—even if they weren’t any that Carla would have recognized either from the biomes at home or pictures of Earth—were tall and beautiful, and the light filtering down through them was green and gold. If they hadn’t been able to tell by the slow warming of the air over the several months they’d been on this planet, she would know for certain that now it was summer. There were birds singing in the trees, and little animals scurrying about under the bushes (some of which were certainly the same kind that the men were now preparing for their supper.) It would have been a perfect, peaceful day, except…( Read more... )
Word count: 362 (total: 3,465)
Rating: G
Prompt:
kay_brooke's: The wrong path/is it really the wrong path.Notes: This is several months after the other prison planet stories that I've written so far, but it's a scene I've had in mind for a while, so I'm pretty excited about it!
It was a beautiful, thriving, old-growth forest. The trees—even if they weren’t any that Carla would have recognized either from the biomes at home or pictures of Earth—were tall and beautiful, and the light filtering down through them was green and gold. If they hadn’t been able to tell by the slow warming of the air over the several months they’d been on this planet, she would know for certain that now it was summer. There were birds singing in the trees, and little animals scurrying about under the bushes (some of which were certainly the same kind that the men were now preparing for their supper.) It would have been a perfect, peaceful day, except…( Read more... )
Prosy: Through the Snow
Jan. 17th, 2012 12:36 pmTitle: Through the Snow
Word count: 419 (incomplete total: 610)
Rating: G
Prompt:aldersprig's: Shoveling a path to the world.
Notes: This takes place two or three years after Harvest Day, and further into the winter.
Mama was sick. She said she wasn’t, but Tarnik knew better than that. Her belly and her feet were all swollen up, and she didn’t want to get out of bed. She kept making Papa bring her cups of tea and bowls of soup. Tarnik remembered how Papa had brought him lots of tea (even though he didn’t like tea) and soup the last time he had a cold.( Read more... )
Word count: 419 (incomplete total: 610)
Rating: G
Prompt:
aldersprig's: Shoveling a path to the world.Notes: This takes place two or three years after Harvest Day, and further into the winter.
Mama was sick. She said she wasn’t, but Tarnik knew better than that. Her belly and her feet were all swollen up, and she didn’t want to get out of bed. She kept making Papa bring her cups of tea and bowls of soup. Tarnik remembered how Papa had brought him lots of tea (even though he didn’t like tea) and soup the last time he had a cold.( Read more... )
Prosy: Interview
Jan. 16th, 2012 10:29 pmTitle: Interview
Word count: 320 (unfinished total: 521)
Rating: G
Prompt:ariestess's: the left-hand path
Notes: Palua has previously appeared in Gathering Herbs, though this story is set about a year before that one.
Today Palua was fourteen years old. She had been educated in the convent, along with several of her siblings and other noble boys and girls from the west of Atash, for the last six years. Now her official education came to an end, and she would return home.
That is, if all did not go well.( Read more... )
Word count: 320 (unfinished total: 521)
Rating: G
Prompt:
ariestess's: the left-hand pathNotes: Palua has previously appeared in Gathering Herbs, though this story is set about a year before that one.
Today Palua was fourteen years old. She had been educated in the convent, along with several of her siblings and other noble boys and girls from the west of Atash, for the last six years. Now her official education came to an end, and she would return home.
That is, if all did not go well.( Read more... )
Prosy: East
Jan. 16th, 2012 12:41 pmTitle: East
Word count: 305 (total: 705)
Rating: G
Prompt:kayim's: Crossroads
Notes: I ended this at what felt like a natural point (er, not that you can tell) but Sirna and Ayol's story is definitely not over, so I hope I'll write a sequel to it at some point. I hope nothing horrible happens to them.
It was hot. And Sirna was exhausted, even though she’d only woken up two hours ago. They weren’t sleeping well, because there was nowhere to sleep. And she couldn’t sleep too soundly, because she had to take care of her little sister, and there was no one else to help with that. There was only them.( Read more... )
Word count: 305 (total: 705)
Rating: G
Prompt:
kayim's: CrossroadsNotes: I ended this at what felt like a natural point (er, not that you can tell) but Sirna and Ayol's story is definitely not over, so I hope I'll write a sequel to it at some point. I hope nothing horrible happens to them.
It was hot. And Sirna was exhausted, even though she’d only woken up two hours ago. They weren’t sleeping well, because there was nowhere to sleep. And she couldn’t sleep too soundly, because she had to take care of her little sister, and there was no one else to help with that. There was only them.( Read more... )
Prosy: The Pathless
Jan. 15th, 2012 10:15 pmTitle: The Pathless
Word count: 331 (total: 1,017)
Rating: G
Prompt:pippin's: Roads for the pathless.
Notes: I believe it was one ofysabetwordsmith's poems that introduced me to the term "gynoid," which I use once only because "androids and gynoids" is a bit of a mouthful. I think this story might be the same world as another story I'm vaguely working on, but far in its past, so it might get its own world-name. Suggestions are appreciated.
“Your place,” he told Alacenna, “is to serve me.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Every soul has its appointed path. We learn, when a child is born, what his or her path is to be.” ( Read more... )
Word count: 331 (total: 1,017)
Rating: G
Prompt:
pippin's: Roads for the pathless.Notes: I believe it was one of
ysabetwordsmith's poems that introduced me to the term "gynoid," which I use once only because "androids and gynoids" is a bit of a mouthful. I think this story might be the same world as another story I'm vaguely working on, but far in its past, so it might get its own world-name. Suggestions are appreciated.“Your place,” he told Alacenna, “is to serve me.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Every soul has its appointed path. We learn, when a child is born, what his or her path is to be.” ( Read more... )
Prosy: Air Traffic
Jan. 15th, 2012 06:51 pmTitle: Air Traffic
Word count: 425
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt:anke's: paths in the sky; also inspired by this ballet performance prompt
Notes: I have absolutely no idea where this is going, if anywhere--but I like Captain Agnes!
There was an air barge coming right at them. Captain Agnes Leach hauled hard on the controls and pulled her own airship out of the way. The barge swept past them, without even any kind of acknowledgement. “Fucking asshole!” she shouted after him, even though there was no possible way the air barge’s steersman could have heard her. Then she cursed more as she realized her crutch had slipped out from under her shoulder, she was in serious danger of losing her balance, and she wasn’t going to get her airship back into her lane in time to avoid the next oncoming ship. “Hillary!” she called desperately. “Somebody, I need an assist!”( Read more... )
Word count: 425
Rating: PG-13 for language
Prompt:
anke's: paths in the sky; also inspired by this ballet performance promptNotes: I have absolutely no idea where this is going, if anywhere--but I like Captain Agnes!
There was an air barge coming right at them. Captain Agnes Leach hauled hard on the controls and pulled her own airship out of the way. The barge swept past them, without even any kind of acknowledgement. “Fucking asshole!” she shouted after him, even though there was no possible way the air barge’s steersman could have heard her. Then she cursed more as she realized her crutch had slipped out from under her shoulder, she was in serious danger of losing her balance, and she wasn’t going to get her airship back into her lane in time to avoid the next oncoming ship. “Hillary!” she called desperately. “Somebody, I need an assist!”( Read more... )
Prosy: On The Trail
Jan. 15th, 2012 03:04 pmTitle: On the Trail
Word count: 405 (total: 2,591)
Rating: R for blood (not appearing in this section) and implied sex
Prompt:ysabetwordsmith's: The trail left by a unicorn
Notes: Look, it's Kaede again! Unfortunately, this story did not want to cooperate by being in the first person (as Bigfoot Hunting did), so I've switched pronouns instead--Kaede's gender is very flexible. I'm not sure how well it works.
Kaede’s cell phone rang in the middle of the night, waking him. That was never a good sign. Groaning, he extracted his arm from under the girl in bed with him and grabbed the phone. He fumbled it open and pressed it to his ear. “Hugh?”( Read more... )
Word count: 405 (total: 2,591)
Rating: R for blood (not appearing in this section) and implied sex
Prompt:
ysabetwordsmith's: The trail left by a unicornNotes: Look, it's Kaede again! Unfortunately, this story did not want to cooperate by being in the first person (as Bigfoot Hunting did), so I've switched pronouns instead--Kaede's gender is very flexible. I'm not sure how well it works.
Kaede’s cell phone rang in the middle of the night, waking him. That was never a good sign. Groaning, he extracted his arm from under the girl in bed with him and grabbed the phone. He fumbled it open and pressed it to his ear. “Hugh?”( Read more... )
Clare's Garden of Prose
Jan. 15th, 2012 12:03 amWelcome to Clare's Garden of Prose! If you're new to my fiction and would like to read some before prompting, everything posted on my DW is listed here. Results from previous Gardens are also available: herbs and fences & gates.
What is Clare's Garden of Prose? Glad you asked. It's a crowdfunded call for prompts, in which I write short fiction based on prompts offered here in comments. It's free to prompt, but in exchange for donations and promotions, I offer additional perks, including more posted fiction.
( Go under the cut for the full details! )
The theme for this Garden is paths. Use the theme to inspire your prompts, but they can be as closely or tangentially related as you wish! Further, feel free to to specify if you'd like your story to take place in any one of my worlds, or if you'd like to see a specific kind of underrepresented character.
Prompting will be open from 12:01 AM EDT Sunday, January 15 to 11:59 PM EDT Monday, January 16. If you don't have a Dreamwidth account, you can still prompt; anonymous commenting is enabled, or you can post with an OpenID.
Also, another call for prompts is currently active--the Crowdfunding Creative Jam (also on LJ). I may combine prompts from there with Garden of Prose prompts, and feel free to mix and match--combine the themes to inspire your prompts, send me to particular CCJ prompts you're interested in, or just prompt in both places!
Leave a prompt to plant a prosy, and watch my garden grow!
What is Clare's Garden of Prose? Glad you asked. It's a crowdfunded call for prompts, in which I write short fiction based on prompts offered here in comments. It's free to prompt, but in exchange for donations and promotions, I offer additional perks, including more posted fiction.
( Go under the cut for the full details! )
The theme for this Garden is paths. Use the theme to inspire your prompts, but they can be as closely or tangentially related as you wish! Further, feel free to to specify if you'd like your story to take place in any one of my worlds, or if you'd like to see a specific kind of underrepresented character.
Prompting will be open from 12:01 AM EDT Sunday, January 15 to 11:59 PM EDT Monday, January 16. If you don't have a Dreamwidth account, you can still prompt; anonymous commenting is enabled, or you can post with an OpenID.
Also, another call for prompts is currently active--the Crowdfunding Creative Jam (also on LJ). I may combine prompts from there with Garden of Prose prompts, and feel free to mix and match--combine the themes to inspire your prompts, send me to particular CCJ prompts you're interested in, or just prompt in both places!
Leave a prompt to plant a prosy, and watch my garden grow!
Signal boosting!
Jan. 13th, 2012 11:36 pmI have a lot of stuff to boost today!
First and foremost: The Giraffe Call! I absolutely adorealdersprig's writing, and her monthly call for prompts starts tonight. The theme is In the City. She writes fantasy of all flavors, including lots of apocalyptic stuff. Yay!
...oh, I was going to boost the Tag Team Tarot Draw, but that's already closed. So I'll just boost another tarot draw:whatawaytoburn has jumped on the bandwagon and is offering one card draws.
Don Corcoran is doing a Kickstarter campaign for A Road Paved In Iron, his voodoo western dime novel. I know Don from NaNoWriMo; he's a really cool guy, and what I know about the novel is really awesome, so I'm excited that he's publishing it!
![[livejournal.com profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shadows_gallery is asking for votes on which sketch from Free Sketch Day to refine.
First and foremost: The Giraffe Call! I absolutely adore
aldersprig's writing, and her monthly call for prompts starts tonight. The theme is In the City. She writes fantasy of all flavors, including lots of apocalyptic stuff. Yay!...oh, I was going to boost the Tag Team Tarot Draw, but that's already closed. So I'll just boost another tarot draw:
whatawaytoburn has jumped on the bandwagon and is offering one card draws.Don Corcoran is doing a Kickstarter campaign for A Road Paved In Iron, his voodoo western dime novel. I know Don from NaNoWriMo; he's a really cool guy, and what I know about the novel is really awesome, so I'm excited that he's publishing it!
shadows_gallery is asking for votes on which sketch from Free Sketch Day to refine.Garden of Prose advance notice
Jan. 9th, 2012 10:23 pmI'm scheduling the next Garden of Prose for Sunday to Monday, the 15th-16th of January. The theme will be paths.
You can leavealdersprig a city prompt for her Giraffe Call on the 14th, and then come over and leave me a path prompt the next day! (Heck, leave us the same prompt! I think that would be really interesting, anyway.)
You can leave
aldersprig a city prompt for her Giraffe Call on the 14th, and then come over and leave me a path prompt the next day! (Heck, leave us the same prompt! I think that would be really interesting, anyway.)2011 book poll
Jan. 2nd, 2012 10:13 pmAs promised, albeit perhaps a bit late, here is the poll with all the books I read in 2011! Listed in alphabetical order for your convenience. Cut for your greater convenience.
A few things I read are not listed here, mostly because I used my Goodreads list and I never got everything from the beginning of the year cataloged. I specifically know that the Narnia series is missing, but I didn't feel like figuring out where to fit each book in alphabetical order!
( Poll )
A few things I read are not listed here, mostly because I used my Goodreads list and I never got everything from the beginning of the year cataloged. I specifically know that the Narnia series is missing, but I didn't feel like figuring out where to fit each book in alphabetical order!
( Poll )
Yuletide reveals!
Jan. 1st, 2012 02:59 pmYuletide fics were revealed today, so I guess I'll link to my fics!
My assignment:
O Solitude!, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin
A glimpse at Thomas and Janet's married-with-a-kid life, three years after the book ends.
A treat:
Good, Good, Good, Warehouse 13
A sort of brief casefic, in which Myka is suspiciously relaxed.
And for Madness:
Can't Say Goodbye, Warehouse 13
Myka brings Helena back. (Myka Bering/Helena "H.G." Wells)
My assignment:
O Solitude!, Pamela Dean's Tam Lin
A glimpse at Thomas and Janet's married-with-a-kid life, three years after the book ends.
A treat:
Good, Good, Good, Warehouse 13
A sort of brief casefic, in which Myka is suspiciously relaxed.
And for Madness:
Can't Say Goodbye, Warehouse 13
Myka brings Helena back. (Myka Bering/Helena "H.G." Wells)
December Books
Jan. 1st, 2012 02:12 pmDecember was a very busy month, so I didn't do a whole lot of reading...
97. Green by Jay Lake - ** 1/2
98. Chime by Franny Billingsley - **** 1/2
99. Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce - ***
100. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - *****
101. Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen - ***
102. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
103. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry (unfinished)
104. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory (unfinished)
It looks bad that I ended the month with two unfinished books, but I'm reading a couple of books now that I'm rather enjoying, and those unfinished books were both paper books I owned, so at least they're off the shelf and the TBR list!
The list comes to 104 books attempted this year, and when I counted up the books I'd actually completed, I got 78. Not too shabby.
State of the TBR: 191
I'm actually pretty surprised that I didn't get to 200 between the books I received as gifts and the Amazon gift card I also got for Christmas. Of course this is still a huge number, and I'm definitely planning to reduce it in 2012. I have a couple of plans for this; one is to keep on with the rule I made in October, to read one book I own for every library book, which I've been doing pretty well at. The other is a book-buying rule inspired byshanra--I'll keep track of books I read off my TBR list, and for every five paper books or eight Kindle books read, I'll be allowed to buy one more. Hopefully that won't prove too strict for me. (The paper books number is lower because it's more important that I get through them faster.)
Later I plan to post a poll, also inspired byshanra, of all the books I read in 2011 so people can tell me which ones they've read too! In the meantime, has anyone else read any of the books I read in December? What did you think? Any books you read in December that you want to talk about?
97. Green by Jay Lake - ** 1/2
98. Chime by Franny Billingsley - **** 1/2
99. Wolf-Speaker by Tamora Pierce - ***
100. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen - *****
101. Green River Killer by Jeff Jensen - ***
102. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (reread)
103. The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry (unfinished)
104. The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory (unfinished)
It looks bad that I ended the month with two unfinished books, but I'm reading a couple of books now that I'm rather enjoying, and those unfinished books were both paper books I owned, so at least they're off the shelf and the TBR list!
The list comes to 104 books attempted this year, and when I counted up the books I'd actually completed, I got 78. Not too shabby.
State of the TBR: 191
I'm actually pretty surprised that I didn't get to 200 between the books I received as gifts and the Amazon gift card I also got for Christmas. Of course this is still a huge number, and I'm definitely planning to reduce it in 2012. I have a couple of plans for this; one is to keep on with the rule I made in October, to read one book I own for every library book, which I've been doing pretty well at. The other is a book-buying rule inspired by
shanra--I'll keep track of books I read off my TBR list, and for every five paper books or eight Kindle books read, I'll be allowed to buy one more. Hopefully that won't prove too strict for me. (The paper books number is lower because it's more important that I get through them faster.)Later I plan to post a poll, also inspired by
shanra, of all the books I read in 2011 so people can tell me which ones they've read too! In the meantime, has anyone else read any of the books I read in December? What did you think? Any books you read in December that you want to talk about?Garden of Prose update!
Dec. 19th, 2011 01:20 pmMy poll about the extra $5 finally got a tie-breaking vote (there was a three-way tie!), so "The Other Side of the Gate" is the winner!
Here's the updated version.
For this Garden of Prose I had five prompters and received $10 in donations. That's the same amount of donations as last time and rather fewer prompters, but I'm hoping the busy-ness of December, with the post-Nano weariness and the holidays, is to blame for that. I intend to do another Garden, hopefully in January; the theme will be "paths."
Here's the updated version.
For this Garden of Prose I had five prompters and received $10 in donations. That's the same amount of donations as last time and rather fewer prompters, but I'm hoping the busy-ness of December, with the post-Nano weariness and the holidays, is to blame for that. I intend to do another Garden, hopefully in January; the theme will be "paths."
Signal boost!
Dec. 18th, 2011 02:17 pmaldersprig's Giraffe call is currently open! The theme is gifts, gifts, and the Gifted. Go give her some prompts so there can be more awesome stories!
