#FridayFlash - Mysterious Ways

Calla pawed through the box, tossing aside stray bits of wire and broken pieces she couldn't identify. Ignoring things she had no use for, like several old cell phones and TV remotes. She could make things work but she had no talent for cobbling together bits of this and that. A lack of ability she lamented but what the hell, she only had so much money to spend anyway.

She moved on to another box, about done with this stall. There were other places in the bazaar to visit. She needed more of the jet beads the Craft Emporium in the zone didn't carry. Some vegetables would be nice too, maybe a few apples. Cloth to make a new set of sheets. Five more minutes at Albie's and then she'd go.

A flash of pink caught her eye. She dug it out from under a handful of floppy disks. An inch wide, two inches long, one button on the front above a tiny cracked screen and two buttons on the side. The smudged, worn out remains of print were no help in identifying the object but the unmistakable volume dial took care of that.

Calla glanced around. Albie was busy at the other end of his stall with a haggling customer. No one else paid attention. She closed her fist around the device and let her vision slide out of focus.

Plug me in, Nicola. Let the wires speak to me.

It took a moment for her to pick up a tell-tale trace of leftover energy. A hint of music teased, just enough to let her know this would be worth the money. She severed the connection and did a quick grounding, shuffling her feet on the concrete for good measure.

The little player was going home with her but she made sure to haggle a little and show just enough reluctance to not raise suspicion. Albie was a decent sort for a Normal but he knew she was Magic Born. Not a good idea for too many Normals, or other Magic Born for that matter, to know the strange path her magic had taken. Everyone like her, the few that she knew, were secretive almost to the point of paranoia. No one wanted to wind up in a DMS lab as the star experiment.

She finished her shopping quickly, constantly checking her pocket to make sure the player was still there. Usually she walked to and from the bazaar but this time she wanted to get home quickly so she spent a little more of her cash on a train ticket back to the zone. The subway was crowded with Normals, their dull energy oppressive in the hot humid car. An easy glamour kept anyone from noticing her, though purple hair and tattoos weren't exactly uncommon in this part of the city. Even so, she didn't want to risk bringing attention to herself.

The stop nearest the zone was still three blocks away. Calla hurried, badging in and ignoring the hard stares of the DMS guards. Another few minutes to her apartment and she was finally able to relax. She forced herself to put the other purchases away first but the whole time she could feel the energy building inside, a quiet hum growing into a heavy rattle.

Gathering a candle and the old laser pointer she used for a wand, she sat on the floor with the player on her knee. She let the rattle in her blood build to a bang and a clatter, thumping harder with every heartbeat. Directing the energy at the candle brought the wick popping to life. She thumbed the button on the wand, pouring magic into it. A short beam of reddish-purple light shone. She focused on the player, ad-libbing a spell.

Help me Tesla
Madman of the Wires
Let your power flow
Fill this with your current

The player floated to eye level, directed by her wand and surrounded by a crackle of blue-white light.

Madman of the Wires
Give it life, give it voice
Charge it with my magic
Charge it with your power

The blue-white light popped and sizzled with the force of the spell. Purple arcs of light flashed quickly before dissipating then blooming to life in another spot. The player spun, slowly at first, then faster. So fast she could barely see it in the middle of the electrical storm. Something snapped in her awareness like the clapping of hands or the slamming of a door. She held out her empty hand palm up. One last burst of multicolored light and the storm collapsed in on itself, the player shooting into her palm.

The outlay of magical energy hit her quickly. She doused the candle and the wand and walked to the kitchen on unsteady feet, eating an apple while digging out the ear buds she'd found in the bazaar months earlier. She finished her snack on the sofa, turning the player over in her hand. The buzz of energy from it murmured to her. That was still no guarantee, though. Sometimes things were too far gone to be recharged. Sometimes she and the Madman couldn't get the spell quite right, or maybe he wouldn't be in the mood to help. There was no telling with that one.

Time to see if it worked. Calla plugged the ear buds into the device, then placed them in her ears. She ran her thumb over the player's surface, hoping. She pushed her will into its wires and waited.

A long moment of silence answered. Then … music. A song exploded from the player, starting halfway through and almost too loud. She jumped from the couch with a squeal of delight.

The music, like the player, was decades old and unknown to her. That didn't stop her from dancing in her living room the rest of the night.

Sometimes the Madman of the Wires helped her with exactly what she needed.

*

Note: Um, so I hardly ever write flash fiction but I've been trying to figure out how Calla, the witch in my work in progress FreakTown, practices magic. So I decided to play around a little and see what I could come up with. The Madman of the Wires may or may not make it into the final version of FreakTown.


Here's a live version of the song that gets Calla on her feet - link.

Occupy the internet

The only reason I'm not participating in today's internet blackout is because I don't know enough about coding to feel confident I won't bork my site by tinkering with the template. So I decided to do an awareness type post instead.

A few minutes ago I checked out Twitter and was dismayed to see an author upset with Wikipedia for supporting piracy. I really, really wish that person would educate themselves about what's really going on. No one disputes that piracy and theft are wrong and need to be stopped, but the SOPA and PIPA bills are not the way to do it. Fighting piracy with censorship makes no sense, and that is what these bills would do.

Here's an example of what could happen if these bills become law: for whatever reason, legitimate or otherwise, someone flags my site for pirated content. That's the end of my site, period. No investigation, no oversight, no appeal, no chance to either remove content or prove that I was falsely accused. It's just gone. For someone like me, that would devastate my online presence and therefore my ability to sell my books. For someone hosting torrented material, well, they could probably have another site set up by the end of the business day.

Last night I read an interview on CNN with Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. The whole thing is worth reading, please take a look. I'd like to point out this paragraph from Wales:

Within our community we're very strong defenders of copyright. We have very strict rules about obeying copyright and we don't link to materials that we know to be copyright infringement. That isn't really the issue. The other side will try to paint this as anybody who's opposed to this must be making money off of piracy or be in favor of piracy. That isn't true. The issue here is that this law is very badly written, very broadly overreaching and, in at least the Senate version, would include the creation of a DNS (domain name system) blocking regime that's technically identical to the one that's used by China. I don't think that's the right way the U.S. needs to go in taking a leadership role on the Internet.

Emphasis mine. This is a perfect example of why people are protesting these bills: the intention of the bills may be noble, but the language and execution are the stuff of First Amendment nightmares. Those of us who are protesting and signing petitions do not support piracy at all. What we do support is a free and open UNCENSORED internet. A better written bill, with much more targeted language, would have my support and no doubt the support of most of both the internet and the creative community. SOPA and PIPA would do far more damage than good and if enacted we would not recognize the internet left in their wake. But apparently China would. Does the United States of America, a country with freedom of speech enshrined in our founding documents and woven indelibly into our national DNA, really want to find itself alongside the likes of China and other countries that censor the internet?

I don't think that's what any of us want. Please educate yourself about these issues, let your voice be heard, and most of all, remember this is an election year. A candidate who doesn't believe in the First Amendment is not a candidate worth voting for.

Prep work

Cross-posted from Write Club.


I've been in a kind of "project limbo" for a while, with most of my writing being on my serial. I had a few ideas kicking around in my head and it looks like I've finally settled on a story. Or perhaps I should say, a story has settled on me. Of course, the one I’m going with is the one I thought I would put off until I felt more ready to handle it.

The working title is FreakTown and it's very different from anything else I've written, except for having magic as the paranormal element. It's futuristic, dystopian, romance, and has a plot straight out of noir. (Somewhere in the story someone is going to say to the main male character, "Forget it, Nate, it's FreakTown." Just because.) I've already done a lot of world-building and written just shy of ten thousand words, and the need for an actual outline has presented itself. Normally I'm a pantser but with the kind of twists and turns I want for this story, an outline is going to be necessary. Right now I'm momentarily paused on the writing so I can work out more plot details. I'm also thinking of doing some characterization exercises so I can have a better handle on my characters, especially the two main ones. By this I mean, opening up a doc and rambling about their background, what they want, what they're afraid of, strengths, weaknesses, and since I relate to music so well figuring out a playlist for each one.

This is going to be the most challenging thing I've ever written. The world-building, the complexity of the plot, the emotional depth - in just about every way, it's going to be harder. At some point, I think you have to do that. You can stay at a level that's comfortable, or you can decide it's time to level up. I can't say if every writer recognizes when it's time to challenge themselves. It wasn't some cosmic signal that told me, you're ready to take your writing to another level. Because I don't know if I am ready. But the desire is certainly there. The desire is very much there. I figure this will either result in a really good book that might actually have some success, or it will blow up in my face and I'll trunk it. Hopefully the former.

Back to the practical. I think that when you're starting a story that you know is going to be really challenging it's a good idea to give yourself a solid base to jump from. All the world-building I've done helps with that and so should the character exercises. It may not sound as romantic as the idea of a writer pouring a story out with no planning, but the truth is I'm tired of not knowing what a book is about until I've written two-thirds of it.

So I'm off to outline my twisty plot and ramble about my characters.