Cryptic Fiction

Dawning of the Dead Summary

2007-01-31T00:19:00.000Z

Dawning is a survival horror piece I started a surprisingly long time ago. The idea behind it was to write and publish to the web a chapter at a time- I was working fast, enjoying where the story took me (none of the characters seemed to do what I'd intended), and I didn't stop to edit- so there are probably numerous typing errors in there.

Clicking on the links take you to a site called Deviant Art where the chapters are hosted. If there's a problem with any of the links let me know in the comments.

Chapter One is here and the others can be found in the links field to the right (or left if this blog template ever changes).

Update

2007-01-31T00:08:00.000Z

Been a long time since I posted here. If you've stumbled across this page somehow it's a collection of my own fiction writing. Not a representative sample by any means but the main body of work (the horribly titled Dawning of the Dead) was placed on-line for two reasons- to allow it to be read and to offer myself another incentive to keep writing.

Since my last post (it really, really doesn't seem like 2005!) I've managed to write very little of that particular story, although I do tinker with it from time to time. It hit an awkward point and due to a combination of circumstances I lost my grip on it. It will be back some day!

My main love in writing is horror- survival horror being of particular interest. I don't really want to see a zombie apocalypse but I am curious about what would happen if it did take place. If you're into that sort of thing you might want to check out the All Things Zombie forum. It seems a bit mad when you first read it but trust me, not all of the posters honestly believe that zombies are about to take over the world. Just some of us.

Anyway, I hope to add some more writing here soon. Maybe just the odd snippet but there should be some new material now and then.

Hope someone out there enjoys it.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Ten

2005-12-09T18:05:00.000Z

It's been an awful long time coming and it's a short one. I expect this will read a little more disjointed than any of the other chapters, simply because it was written in little bites as and when I could find the time. Hopefully the next one will be written a little more quickly.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Nine

2005-11-25T13:28:00.000Z

Definitely the most difficult chapter yet- took four false starts to get it going and progress was hampered by events in the real world. I had intended this chapter to be quite different but it just didn't work out that way. A new set of characters do turn up though so that should all a little interest to events. At least one major character was due to make an exit here but he, or she, got a reprieve- for now.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Eight

2005-11-18T16:13:00.000Z

This is another one that's a tad on the short side- and it may be a little disjointed as it was written in little chunks here and there due to the real world getting in the way. Some day I'll get round to reading over these parts and prettying them up a little.

I was going to write some more but the story's about to take a slightly different direction so I thought it was best to cut it off here rather than have it spill over any more. Think of this chapter as the end of part one of the story. If it goes according to plan that is- this story has a habit of taking me places I hadn't intended on going to!

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Seven

2005-11-14T14:18:00.000Z

This one pretty much came in one go, a frenzy of writing. The situation in the story is growing more and more dangerous as the characters find themselves in a world filled with zombies.

I'm hoping that the pace is getting a little faster and the excitement levels are high. That's what I'm aiming for anyway!

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Six

2005-11-11T17:40:00.000Z

Dawn has just broken on the first day of the zombie world.

This is a little shorter than I'd intended, and the pace has slowed somewhat, but I felt it was best to stop it where I did. Hopefully, you'll agree with that too when you read it!

Dawning of the Dead- Chapter Five

2005-11-10T15:13:00.000Z

The pace of the zombie infection is beginning to speed up more and more as the dawn approaches.

I'm not quite so happy with this chapter as the others so far- I had intended to make it a little longer, but it was turning into a bit of a struggle. Hopefully a fresh start with part 6 will sort this little blip out.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Four

2005-11-07T14:52:00.000Z

The zombie activity begins to step up a pace as the night moves towards the dawn.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Three

2005-11-04T17:15:00.000Z

Things are starting to get a little more interesting now :)

Dawning of the Dead Chapter Two

2005-11-03T16:07:00.000Z

Chapter Two - Awakenings- is now up. The zombie contagion is beginning to spread.

I've just finished writing it and am posting it straight away. Hopefully there aren't too many errors.

Dawning of the Dead Chapter One

2005-11-02T23:53:00.000Z

A zombie tale in a similar vein to Dawn of the Dead- the beginning of a global zombie outbreak. I'm going to post this one as I write it- as it stands I have no real idea of where I'm going to take it or what's going to happen.

Feedback appreciated as this is still a work in progress.

The Walking Dead Part One

2005-10-27T18:12:00.000+01:00

Nothing whatsoever to do with the comic book of the same name, Walking Dead is one of those little fragments of a story which I just can't seem to turn into anything longer. I did start a second chapter but it wouldn't work. Perhaps some day I'll have another crack at it. Perhaps I just need to be in the right mood.

It's in kind of screenplay style because I find it much easier to get started if I can begin a story with "Exterior. Night." rather than "It was a dark and stormy night." Usually after a few paragraph it'll mutate into prose but it's a very useful method of simpy jumping right into the story without any headaches.

Re-Vamp

2005-10-14T11:58:00.000+01:00

As you may have noticed the links to my stories here are currently down- I'm in the process of swapping over to a new ISP and so it'll be a day or two before this site is operational.

In the process of getting the place sorted out I'll hopefully post some new material- it's been a long time since I last did an update.

UPDATE- I've fixed the links.

Cavewoman Retold - Prologue

2005-05-05T17:06:00.000+01:00

This started life as a writing exercise, re-telling the origin story of the comic character Cavewoman. I give it my usual action-twist and also included the girl's mother in the tale- that wasn't actually meant to happen but the story seemed to be writing itself at that point. It's also a good example of how you can get some good material by using writing exercises- from this starting point, I kept going on my own tale.

From this prologue jump off I began writing my own "town back in time" story but it was significantly different from the Budd Root tale and the more I wrote the less inclined I was to actually include a Cavewoman character in it. I had my own militaristic story going on and a lead character I was growing to like. Even now, about 60 pages into my tale, I'm not sure whether I should include a Cavewoman character (Cave-family in my case) or just keep the characters I have.

To read the original Cavewoman story by Budd Root, your best bet is to go to Amryl Entertainment where you'll find a complete list of the Cavewoman comics. Be warned though, Cavewoman is a busty lass and the artwork gets more than a bit racy. It's definitely a comic for adults-only.

The War - Chapter One

2005-04-27T00:21:00.000+01:00

I wrote this one ages ago and had all but forgotten about it until I started this blog and was looking for bits and pieces to post. The idea came about after I'd been reading a fair bit of survival fiction and wanted to do some of my own. The end of the world was done pretty well in Jerry Ahern's Survivalist series but times have certainly moved on some since then. I also wanted to focus less on the horrors of a nuclear war in which the chances of survival would be pretty slim and more on the chaos of society collapsing. For a great example of this go and read Halffast's Lights Out. It's a fantastic work that in my opinion has set the bar for survival fiction writers pretty high.

The War is very much a vague notion at the moment but I will just say that the situation will change fairly drastically in coming chapters. I hadn't actually planned on writing more of this right now but my Other Half insists on reading more, and writing it- and posting it- will be a pretty effective test of my writing skills. If you want to see more do let me know because I'll be posting a variety of stuff soon and whatever turns out to be most popular will get the most focus.

One other note- the date and city are blanked out deliberately. The year might turn out to be slightly significant so I wanted to give myself a little leeway. The city is not mentioned because it's fiction and I'm making the area up as I go!

Writing Exercise 06

2005-04-24T22:29:00.000+01:00

This first piece is nothing more than a quick and simple writing exercise. The brief was simple- pick a picture and write a story based on it.

The image is of the character the Baroness from the GI Joe range of toys/cartoon. The Cobra badguys were particular favourites of mine when I was a kid, with the silver-headed Destro was my all time favourite figure. Anyway, that's where the story came from and, as with almost all the writing exercises I've done, it was kept short and to the point. These pieces are good practice when you couldn't otherwise write and there's always the possibility that the piece can come to life and develop into a fully fledged story. I kind of like to leave this one as a fragment, let the reader imagine what else is going on.

Welcome

2005-04-24T14:10:00.000+01:00

This page is designed purely to showcase some works of fiction written by my good self. The major theme of these pieces is old-school adventure, but also expect to see some horror (I have a thing for zombies) and perhaps the occasional bit of science fiction, depending on my mood.

I haven't quite made my mind up yet as to what I'm going to post but I have one or two things in mind. Please feel free to comment on the works - I'd appreciate the feedback. Hopefully, it'll not be long before the first works start to get posted.

Thanks for reading.