Poetry Friday ~ Unrequited Love <3

Hello, everyone! Welcome.

Here are the words from Colleen’s Weekly Poetry Challenge:

“Circled and Squared”

I almost tossed in the towel when I saw the two prompt words for the week. What was I supposed to do with that? I thought. But in the end, I decided to give it a try. I’ve been hard at work with the blurb, cover and formatting for my upcoming book, The Rise of Gadreel. Please forgive me for not being consistant with my Friday posts the last few weeks. My Etheree poem was inspired by the second book in my Fantasy Angels Series, Son of the Serpent. I’ve also included an excerpt from that book. I hope you enjoy it.

Photograph by Mateus Campos Felipe @matfelipe

Unrequited Love

I fell in love with a beautiful mind

thoughts of him spiral out of control

as I crave what I cannot have

He entered my life and made

everything better

I can’t regret him

or corrupt him

he’s married

to the

church

Photograph by James Coleman @jhc

Dracúl came across a young girl named Miriam while searching the streets of Egypt for a place to rest for the night. She informed him that the pharaoh ordered every Israeli male child not yet walking be thrown into the Nile River for the crocodiles, and she feared for her newborn brother’s life. Here’s an excerpt in Dracúl’s voice from Son of the Serpent.

Gadreel and I left the waterfall and made our way to the street where I met Miriam. I found the house she disappeared into and knocked. 

      The door creaked open and a man stood before us. “Yes, how may I help you?”

      “We seek answers,” I said, bowing my head out of respect. “A girl named Miriam stated that we could get answers from her father, Amram.” 

      “I am Amram,” he said, creasing his brow. “You say you know my daughter, Miriam?”

      “We met once. She told me of a terrible decree ordered by the pharaoh. I have many questions. You could provide me with the answers I seek.” I glanced at Gadreel. She stared at the ground, and I returned my gaze to him.

      “Come in,” he said.

      I did not hesitate to do so. His home was humble but clean and cozy. The fragrances of incense and fresh bread wafted through the air. They did not have much but offered everything they had. Miriam came out of one of the rooms and helped serve food and drink to Gadreel and me. 

      “Why are Egyptian soldiers killing the innocent?” I asked once the meal was finished. 

      “Three months ago, a witch who passes herself off as an astrologer claimed that a liberator, a male child of Israel, was to be born. She told the pharaoh that this liberator would grow to be more powerful than any pharaoh of Egypt.” Amram’s face flushed as he gave us his account of the happenings.

      “Witch? Does this witch have a name?” Gadreel touched my arm and scowled at me. “Apologies. Please continue,” I said as heat bloomed in my face.

      “The pharaoh decided to end the threat by getting rid of the liberator while he was still a babe, so he ordered every male child that cannot yet walk be killed. My son was born three months ago, on the very day the witch predicted the liberator would be born. We believe our son is the liberator of Israel, for a radiant light filled our house when he entered this world.”

      Gadreel gasped, placing her hand over mine.

      “We have concealed him for three months, but it is becoming impossible to do so any longer,” Amram said as he wrung his hands, staring at us like we were his last hope.

      A woman approached and set a basket made of papyrus on the table. “My name is Jochebed. I am Amram’s wife and mother to Aaron and Miriam, and this is my newborn son.” She extended her hand toward the basket.

      Gadreel and I rose from our seats and looked into the basket. My eyes were fixed on the infant. He was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen. I was mesmerized.

      “He is special.” My words were barely audible.

      “We must do something,” Gadreel said, standing on her toes as she gazed at the infant.

      “I can help your son, but you must trust me,” I told Jochebed and Amram.

      They glanced at each other and then Amram spoke to me. “I knew God had sent you the moment I opened the door and saw your face.” He nodded once, and I picked up the basket with the babe inside.

      “Is the basket impermeable?” I asked. “Will it float?” 

      “Yes, I weaved the papyrus reeds tightly,” Jochebed said.

      “Very well.” The babe, he smiled at me the way only one pure of heart could. “I will take your son to safety. Say your goodbyes.”

      The family came forth, kissed and caressed the child, and said their farewells.

      Gadreel and I made our way to the door with the infant.

      “I will go with you!” Miriam said, hurrying to us. “Please. Let me come with you. I want to see where my brother’s fate leads you.”

      I faced Amram. “It will be a dangerous undertaking. If we are caught with the child, they will try to kill us.”

      Miriam turned to her father, her face wet with tears of desperation and sorrow. “Please father! I implore you. Allow me to go with them.”

      Amram frowned and waved her to go. She grabbed my arm, pushing me forward and out the door, perhaps afraid her father would change his mind.

      We rushed through the streets. The babe fell asleep and remained silent. He looked comfortable, wrapped in soft cloths.

      “The witch they spoke of––it must be Lilith,” Gadreel whispered.

      “It is she. I am sure of it,” I said, moving quickly while scanning my surroundings. “I do not know what makes me so certain, but I am. I will save this child, and then I will deal with her.”

      As we reached the bank of the Nile we stopped to look out to the water. Gadreel gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth, stifling screams. Miriam was shrieking so Gadreel rushed to her side, holding her tight as the girl sobbed on her chest. I stood frozen by a sight so astonishing in its level of horror that I had to bite my lower lip hard enough to draw blood to be certain I was not having a nightmare. A myriad of dead and mangled babies floated downstream on the Nile. 

Son of the Serpent is a High/Supernatural Fantasy sprinkled with Horror and Romance for an 18+ audience. Get your copy and give this book a try. It may surprise you.

Poetry Friday ~ Little Black Kitty

It’s the third week of the month! Time for a Photo Prompt! Colleen Chesebro’s 2020 Weekly Poetry Challenge

 

Image by Huda Nur from Pixabay

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog. I want to start by saying that I’m almost done going through my editor’s edits and the book is coming along great. I’m also working on the book cover for The Rise of Gadreel. I wanted to share an image of her with you today.

GADREEL

** I’m also a featured guest of Colleen M. Story at her Writing and Wellness Blog. I would appreciate it so much if you would visit her blog, read my author interview and comment and share. Thank you! ❤

I decided to share a lovely poem by one of my favorite poets, Emily Dickinson. In the poem, She Sights a Bird she perfectly evokes the tension of a cat about to pounce.

She sights a Bird—she chuckles—
She flattens—then she crawls—
She runs without the look of feet—
Her eyes increase to Balls—

Her Jaws stir—twitching—hungry—
Her Teeth can hardly stand—
She leaps, but Robin leaped the first—
Ah, Pussy, of the Sand,

The Hopes so juicy ripening—
You almost bathed your Tongue—
When Bliss disclosed a hundred Toes—
And fled with every one—

Thank you for stopping by my blog. Wishing all of you a peaceful, happy, and safe Friday and weekend. ❤

Poetry Friday ~ A Photo Prompt

Colleen’s 2020 Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 174 Photo Prompt

Jude, from Tales Told Different, selected the photo for this month’s challenge.

Hello! I hope everyone is safe, healthy and having a fabulous day so far.

THE GOOD WITCH

Once upon a time they used to burn us

Because in our gaze there is a snare

And we dance beneath the glitter

of a starry night, singing

We float with subtle grace

over Mother Earth

drawing circles

in the air

to end

plagues

I hope you enjoyed my Etheree. When I saw the prompt picture I immediately thought of a witch. The kind that knows what to do with herbs outside the kitchen. ;D

A quick update: The 3rd installment of my Fantasy Angels Series is still with my editor (she works on several manuscripts at a time). I can’t wait to get it back. In the meantime, I’ve had an idea for a crime thriller gnawing at my brain for quite some time, so I’ve started on that. I’ve written a loose outline, some character arcs and began my first draft a couple of days ago. I’m excited about it so I’m writing as much as possible while the juices are flowing.

Keep an eye out for a contest involving this book (Coming Soon).

Poetry Friday

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog. It’s Poet’s Choice on Colleen’s 2020 Weekly Poetry Challenge.

I’ve been super busy working on the 5th and final draft of my WIP (The Rise of Gadreel). As my own worst critic it took me a while to get my book as close to perfection as possible before sending it off to my editor. I have an amazing editor who misses nothing (that’s why I secretly dubbed her Eagle Eyes), but I’m a firm believer that a writer should work harder than the editor on his or her own book. Since one of my mantras is to make each book I write better than the previous one, I had my work cut out for me.

Beta readers are also an important part of the writing process. I had several fantastic betas critique my first draft. Although the first draft of anything is crap I’m grateful to have received lots of great feedback from these brilliant people. I’m excited with how the 5th draft is going, and I can’t wait to continue to refine my book with my editor.

Within my pen what words are pent, What mystery, what merriment!

It hath a door, my pen, somewhere, And what a throng is waiting there!

Bright thoughts are standing all about, And quivering to be let out.

O could I find the golden key, Open the door and set them free!

The poem above was written anonymously. I love it, and thought I should share it. I hope you enjoy it.

Poetry Friday ~ Character & Wild

I’m sure some of you know by now that there’s a hurricane in the Atlantic headed for Florida. Well, Hurricane Dorian is headed northwest right now toward Florida’s northern east coast but there’s a pressure system that is predicted to push the hurricane southwest to make landfall anywhere from central Florida to the Keys and I’m somewhere in the middle.

We stocked up on water, batteries, and all the other stuff – better to be safe than sorry. I’m hoping the pressure system turns out to be weaker than the meteorologists are predicting and won’t have the strength to push Dorian over land but instead, it continues north on the Atlantic Ocean, missing the east coast of Florida.

Changing the subject, I’m excited about Colleen Chesebro’s prompt words this week, Character and Wild because I was reminded of Lilith, the main character in the first book of my Fantasy Angels Series, The Fall of Lilith.

**I would like to give a little more insight into her and answer a few readers questions.

 

I’ve been asked, why did I decide to make Lilith both main character and villain in The Fall of Lilith?

My original thought was to make Michael the protagonist and Lucifer the antagonist but then I thought of all the books in existence with the same exact concept and the more I thought about it the more the idea bored me. So I thought, why not make the villain the main character and why not make that character female? I was thrilled to write this story because it was original.

A few readers complained that Lilith never changed but remained evil throughout, never learning her lesson.

Firstly, Lilith did change throughout the story, because she began as a mischievous but not evil young girl. Her goal early on was to please God. As she grew into a teenager, she began to understand that her lofty goal of being first in God’s eyes was not going to be met and began to feel resentful of others who God favored instead.

She became more and more dissatisfied with her position in Floraison (Heaven’s lowest realm) and also began to feel stifled by the laws the angels had to live by in Floraison. Soon, she realized she had natural psychology and was able to influence the other angels. When she managed to influence the most powerful angel and God’s right hand, Lucifer into rebelling against God and starting a war, she became drunk with her own power.

Even after losing the war in heaven and being exiled to Earth she made excuses as to why her plans failed – it was Beelzebub’s fault – Lucifer failed to do his part . . . She became more rebellious, angrier and vengeance, after going through many bad experiences on Earth, became her ultimate goal.

The bottom line is that Lilith never repented and never learned her lesson because like Narcissists she could never admit that she was wrong or that anything was her fault. Everything she did, no matter how bad, was done for good reasons. Also, she was on her way to becoming a demon and demons don’t feel remorse or regret, they just become worse – more evil and perverse. 

In Son of the Serpent Lilith is the villain and a full-blown demon-witch. Does she get her comeuppance? You’ll have to read to find out. 😉

I’ve had one or two readers be angry with me because I made Lilith a woman and an evil character.

First of all, why not? Women can be just as evil as men. In my Psychology studies, I learned about serial killers and although most were men, there were several female serial killers responsible for doing things that would make you sick. Most importantly, Lilith is not a woman. She was an angel turned fallen angel, turned demon – a supernatural creature.

A couple of readers claimed that I didn’t tell the story like it was written in the Bible.

First of all, and I’ve said this before, several times already, The Fall of Lilith is not based on the Bible. There are elements of the Bible in the story as well as certain characters but this is a supernatural fantasy. There are also elements of the Jewish scriptures and stories and characters based on Mythology and Folklore. Very little is said about angels in the Bible and Lilith is not a biblical character. She’s a character from the Jewish scriptures. 

Who was Lilith?

There are so many stories told about Lilith, from being Adam’s first wife, in Jewish scriptures to being a figure of cosmic evil in Medieval Kabbalah.

The traditional depiction of Lilith from ancient Mesopotamia through medieval Kabbalah presents an antitype of desired human sexuality and family life. Lilith not only embodies people’s fears of how attraction to others can ruin their marriages, or of how risky childbearing and raising children are, but also represents a woman whom society cannot control—a woman who determines her own sexual partners, who is wild and unkempt, and who does not have the natural consequences of sexual activity, children. Continue reading . . . Lilith | Jewish Women’s Archive

 

I hope I’ve been able to satisfy some readers’ curiosity about my character Lilith from The Fall of Lilith. If you have any questions you may ask in the comment section below.

 

I wrote an Etheree about Lilith this week.

 

She

was proud

She was vain

She’s never wrong

Feral was her way

Never feeling regret

Her soul needed no guidance

one moment revered and the next

hated and feared. A breeze or cyclone.

Feelings changed about her as the winds shift.

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Character and Wild are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer.

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

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To my fellow Floridians let’s pray for the best but prepare for the worst. For those who celebrate Labor Day have fun and be safe. Happy Friday, everyone!

Poetry Friday ~ Sodom And Gomorrah

Hello, everyone! Welcome to The Writer Next Door blog.

 

I’d like to share a beautiful poem written by Poet, Gary Bryson. This poem goes so well with one of the chapters in my book, Son of the Serpent, I decided to share a short excerpt taken from this chapter. I hope you enjoy the poem and the excerpt. 

 

Sodom And Gomorrah

by Gary Bryson

 

Surely there’s a righteous man,
Surely there’s a few.
Lord surely some would keep their Faith,
And trust alone in You.

As Sodom and her sisters,
Lie prosperous on the plain,
So surely there are ten or more,
Who still call on your name.

Preserve them Lord, preserve them,
Before it is too late.
I know there must be eight or more,
Who trust your Holy state.

Deliver Lord, deliver,
From judgment’s righteous call.
If there be only six or more,
Would you deliver all?

I feel Your anger kindled Lord,
And evil cannot win.
If I can find you four or more,
Will You forget this sin?

So be it Lord, So be it,
Justice demands your wrath.
You never change or compromise,
They freely chose their path.

Surely there’s a righteous man,
Lord, maybe there are two.
Is there only one who keeps his faith,
Alone I trust in You.

 

 

Illustration by Jonas Åkerlund (gerezon) DeviantArt

 

 In this chapter Dracúl’s search for Lilith brought him to Sodom, a damned city. This city along with the city of Gomorrah had been targeted for destruction by God. Messenger Angels came to warn the only righteous man in Sodom, Lot, to leave the city at once lest he and his family be destroyed along with the Lilituens and demons that reside there.

Dracúl had met Lot’s daughter, Plitith outside the city gates where she broke Sodom law by feeding the poor, sick and starving people who had been banished to the desert outside the city to die. He gave her all the food and water in his possession to help and afterward she invited him to her home where he heard God’s messengers warn her family to leave the city of Sodom at once or die. Dracúl decided to help Plitith and her family escape before it was too late.

 

 

Excerpt from Son of the Serpent:

 

I put my arm around Plitith, and we hurried out of the city. The moment we traversed the gates, they closed behind us, with the deafening groan and clank of bolts sliding into place, as if God Himself had bolted them shut.

      Lot led us in the direction the angels had told him to go. At first we ran and then walked as fast as we could. Lot held a shroud over his wife and younger daughter’s heads, trying to shield them from whatever was happening behind us. The look of discontent on Lot’s wife’s face concerned me. I was compelled to remind them of the angels’ warning again.

      “Let’s not forget what God’s messengers told us,” I said, watching Lot’s wife. “Do not look back toward Sodom, no matter what you hear.” I pressed Plitith closer to me, and we continued our escape.

      Before we got much farther, a thunderous growl made the ground beneath our feet tremble. Plitith gasped and Lot held his wife and youngest daughter closer as they screamed.

      “Keep moving!” I rushed, pushing Plitith along as Lot and the others lagged behind. “You must move faster!” I was no longer a child who jumped at the smallest noises, but the sounds we heard would bring the bravest man to his knees.

      Lot hurried and ran beside us, pushing his young daughter along ahead of him as we hastened toward the mountains. I kept an eye on Lot’s wife. She peered over her shoulder several times, and then she pulled away from Lot, stopped in her tracks, and looked back at the city of Sodom.

      “No, no, no!” Lot cried as he reached for her, but his daughter did not let him go to her. He fell to the ground and sobbed while she tried to lift him.

      “Help your sister and father. Do not look back or allow them to turn,” I whispered to Plitith.

She held on to me and shook her head. “Do not fear. I will not look.”

      I toddled backward until I was beside his wife. She looked frozen––pale and motionless, her eyes fixed on the city of Sodom. I moved back further to stand before her, my back to the city. I waved my hand in front of her eyes, but they did not blink.

      Then I heard a soft crackling and hissing coming from below. I crouched next to her legs and looked. Her body, beginning with her feet, altered before my eyes, transforming into tiny, colorless crystals. A briny scent wafted into my nostrils and burned. She had turned into a statue of salt. I scrambled to my feet and reached out to touch her neck with one shaking finger. I gasped as she crumbled before me.

      “Dracúl, help us!” Plitith and her sister were trying to get their father off the ground, where he lay facedown sobbing. I ran to them and helped get him to his feet.

      The sun burned orange and sank, and the moon threw its shadow to the earth. “We must hurry.” I took the youngest and put her ahead of us. Lot walked with faltering steps, swaying and tottering as he wailed, so Plitith and I put our arms around him and dragged him along.

      “What of my mother?” Her voice was soft and brittle. Lot and her sister turned their sights to me, also waiting for an answer.

      “She perished the instant her eyes gazed upon Sodom. Her body changed into a sort of crystalline mixture––salt. She was converted into a statue of salt. She crumbled to the ground before me and was carried away by the wind.” Shocked faces stared back at me, and then they wept in silence.

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Thanks for stopping by and have a happy day!

Poetry Friday ~ The Muse

Hello, everyone!

I’m happy to announce that I’ve finally reached the halfway point of my WIP. I take my time with the first draft because I’m setting down the foundation of my story and I don’t want to come back later and have to rewrite half of it or switch a bunch of things around. I could really use my muse’s help during this process but I can’t wait for her to come around on a whim. She’s a capricious little bitch. I’ve learned the hard way that muses are too unreliable and that inspiration comes from hard work and focus.

 

 

The Muse

 

I’m a playful ghost

teasing your sense of wonder

I will inspire you

if to do so is my will

Fact is I won’t be summoned 

 

 

Today I thought I would mention some of the places in my Fantasy Angels Series, along with some of the supporting characters and other beings introduced in Son of the Serpent.

“Son of the Serpent features a conflict of phenomenal proportions, characters that are richly developed and compelling, and a skillfully designed plot that keeps the reader turning the pages. I loved every bit of the narrative, especially the author’s unique phraseology and clarity of expression.” ––Readers’ Favorite

FLORAISON by Jeff Brown

 

Dracúl is the main character in “Son of the Serpent” and Lilith is the villain in the book. Interspersed chapters in Dracúl’s voice and chronicles in Lilith’s voice divide the book.

 

There are three realms of Heaven:

 

Heaven Most High – Where God resides.

 

Metá Heaven – Where God’s presence could be reached in His throne room. Only by His expressed permission could one cross the portal to this level of heaven. It is in the throne room God passed laws and judgments.

 

Floraison – The lowest realm of Heaven. A paradise where angels are born.

 

Different dimensions separate these realms and only God traveled between them as He pleased.

 

*Hell, also known as Netherworld, Sheol or Underworld is also divided into complex levels and realms.

 

 

Sila:

She is one of Lilith’s three close allies. She is an intelligent and cunning jinn with the ability to shift into human and animal forms, with the exception of wolves. Wolves are her foes. Her father was a fallen angel who fought in Lilith’s army during the war in Heaven. Her mother was a fallen angel who, upon arriving on Earth, was transformed into ifrit jinn.

 

Gremory:

He was a fallen angel who fought by Lilith’s side in the battle in Heaven. He was a four-winged cherub before he was cast out of Floraison. When he landed on Earth he changed into a vile creature—half demon, half wolf. He can transform into human form. Although he is male he prefers to take the form of fetching young women.

 

Asmodeus:

He is another one of Lilith’s allies. He was a fallen angel who had also fought in the war in Heaven in Lilith’s legion. He, like Gremory, was a loyal four-winged angel. Asmodeus was beautiful, powerful, and capable of flying and running at high speeds in Floraison. Upon crashing to Earth, he transmuted into a creature so hideous to look upon that doing so made tendrils of terror curl in your stomach and bile rise to your mouth.

 

Artemisia:

She was a beautiful and powerful woman. She was the granddaughter of one of Lilith’s many demon servants. Her grandfather was a reckless fool who slaughtered his entire family. She managed to kill him and escape the slaughter. She lived on the streets when Lilith took her in as an apprentice. Artemisia was eleven years old and already lethal. After being beaten and raped many times, she learned how to defend herself. Lilith recruited her because she saw much potential in her. Artemisia became the Persian king’s highest-ranking advisor and Grand Admiral and leader of the Persian Fleet. She was the most powerful person in Persia barring the king, and she lived like a queen.

 

Kailash Seers:

These were powerful beings born with the gift of sight. These creatures could invoke visions with incantations and contact. Their power of sight was much stronger than that of Lilith’s. Seers are cave dwellers with a taste for human flesh. The Kailash Seers are the oldest and most powerful of the species. With one touch they would be able to see more than your future. These creatures are known to be treacherous. They are never alone. There are usually three or more together in a cave. They also have the ability to drain one of their powers.

 

Princess Aini:

She is a stunning young woman daughter to the King of Persia. She is intelligent, charming, and innocent to the evils of the world. Before meeting Dracúl she spent a lot of time with her nose in books and daydreaming of adventures and romance. The princess was promised to a prince from a neighboring kingdom but she fell in love with Dracúl.

 

Orc Demons:

These creatures are the lowest form of demons, animalistic and dim. They had the distinct odor of flatulence mingled with sulfur and the stench of decomposed bodies. These demons took pleasure inflicting fear and pain onto others. It made them stronger. They had no sexual preference––man, woman, child, animal. It was all the same to them. They had no conscience, no morals. They are not known for leaving their victims alive.

 

Aurora:

She is a woman of otherworldly beauty. Her smile could tickle your heart, and make you want to dance with glee at the sight of it. Her hair is a resplendent silvery-white and waist long. Her skin is smooth and flawless like the finest alabaster. She is quite tall for a woman, and her eyes are said to be of many colors, like the sky near sunset. Staring into her eyes could put you in a dream state. Her father is a Watcher, an angel sent to live amongst the creatures on Earth to observe them. She received many of his gifts, and he taught her much. She was a well-known and powerful oracle.

 

The Dark World:

A world located in a different dimension from the world of man. He who visits there will be filled with true awareness and gain the ability to understand with perfect clarity the suffering he had inflicted on his victims. One by one his victims would appear before him, and he would understand and feel the anguish and pain he had caused them and their loved ones.

 

The World of Light:

This is another world located in a different dimension and it was white and bright. The landscape was dreamlike, unnatural and eerie. The sky was white with a hint of pink, and only the subtle hint of color differentiated it from the landscape. There was no contrast between the ground, landscape, and sky. Everything was bright and blinding––and clear. There were no shadows to blur your ugliness. The astonishing hideousness of a depraved soul would be displayed with great clarity. In this world, you saw yourself exactly as you are inside and out.

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Characters so life-like they fly off the page.

Happy

Happ◊

Poetry Friday ~ Distinct & Yearn

Hi, everyone! 

Gadreel is a character from my Fantasy Angels Series. In The Fall of Lilith she and Lilith were frenemies, they were “friendly” despite a fundamental dislike for each other, in Son of the Serpent she and Dracúl were friends with “benefits” and in the 3rd installment of my Fantasy Angels Series, Gadreel comes into her own as the heroine in the book.

 

“There was no sun in Floraison to torture us. We had brillantes, a time of divine light which was like the warmth of God’s smile. Here on earth, we have to endure days of glaring, fiery light which stings our bodies and perturbs our minds. In Floraison, we had nightglows when light dimmed to a soft glow, which reminded us that God was still near. Here, we have night––the absence of light when we are left on our own. I miss our home.”

~ Gadreel (exiled on Earth)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I know Valentine’s Day is around the corner and most people are writing about lovers and romantic interludes, but I thought I’d dedicate this post to the kind of love that only mothers can give. 

When Gadreel gave birth to twin girls she was shocked to discover that instead of legs they had the lower half of fish. Of course, their father was Dagon, a fallen angel that lost his wings on the way down and plummeted into the narrow sea (Mediterranean), where he was transformed into a merman. For some reason, Gadreel imagined herself giving birth to a being that would look as she and Dagon did in Floraison (Heaven) in their angelic forms. That wasn’t the case and she was horrified and disappointed–– at first––until she truly looked at them and fell in love at first sight.

 

Excerpt : Goodbye, Dracul

 

“Have you ceased to believe in our cause?” Satan raised his eyebrows.

Gadreel rose to her feet and moved about, inspecting her fingernails. “I––I thought I would stay behind with the little prince.” She shifted her weight to the balls of her feet.

“Very well, but be certain this time he remains in the cave,” Satan said in a somber tone.

“I shall take good care of him.” She scratched her nose as she said that and avoided his eyes.

With a deep sigh, Satan hurried to join the others. As soon as he was gone, Gadreel planned her escape.

“Dracul, you are an intelligent little being, thus, I shall not fret to leave you on your own.” She held on to his shoulders.

“Why must you leave me?” Dracul’s eyes were large and doleful.

She passed her hand over his hairless head. “This may be difficult for you to understand but unlike Lilith, Satan and Samael, I yet wish to return to God’s good graces, and I am unable to obtain pleasure from destroying other beings. I am determined to never again allow Lilith to manipulate me into situations that make me feel unworthy of God’s love. There is good in you, Dracúl. Remember that. Hold on to it despite what you see happening around you.” She kissed the top of his head. “Besides, I, too, have little ones like you. I miss them. I need to find them, for it has been too long since I have held them in my arms.”

“I shall go with you and help you find them.”

She kissed him again. “No, Dracul. If you follow me, I shall be punished. You must vow to stay in the cave until your father and mother return. Stay, I implore you. Otherwise my life shall be forfeit.”

Dracul nodded, wearing a frown. “I shall stay in the cave until my father returns.”

When his words of promise reached her ears, she took flight. She flew at full speed toward the beach where she last saw Dagon and her little mermaids.

Dracúl followed her with his eyes until he could no longer see her. He lowered his head and sniffed, holding back tears.

When the others returned, they found him alone entertaining himself with a bat pup he found hanging upside down in the cave.

“Where is Gadreel?” Lilith scowled as she looked about the cave.

“She fled,” Dracul said. “But she made me promise to remain in the cave until you and my father returned.”

“What do you mean, she fled?” Lilith’s face flushed a raging red.

“She said she needed to find her little ones––like me.” Dracúl looked as innocent as a daisy. His pet bat now hung from one of his horns and he giggled.

“And you allowed her to leave?” Lilith yelled, making him jump.

“Enough! Do not yell at our son! He is an innocent,” Satan said. “It is not his doing that Gadreel abandoned us.”

 

 

Excerpt: Gadreel’s Song

 

Gadreel flew in darkness and in light, only stopping to eat and rest. She did not fear Lilith’s certain retaliation for her desertion. Her mind was focused: she wished to reunite with her little mermaids. She was liberated, no longer dominated by Lilith, whose only thought was to seek revenge on God.

After some time, she arrived at the beach where Fornues was laid to rest, and where she last saw Dagon and her daughters. She tiptoed to the edge of the water and stared out to sea. The azure, never-ending ocean was calm and untroubled. It sparkled under the sun, but she saw no sign of Dagon or her children.

Gadreel entered the water. She waded to a nearby flat rock jutting from the ocean. She sat on its surface with folded legs. The ocean breeze played with her curly hair, the color of desert sand in the late afternoon sunlight. Once comfortable, she gazed across the ocean once more certain somewhere underneath the surface her little mermaids swam with their father. She began to sing:

 

Keenly, I watch my infants’ eyes,

dreading the stares, and soft sighs,

I’m blinded by what they surmise.

They mesmerize; they mesmerize.

 

Extraordinary off-springs,

Like new exotic samplings,

Shown with Dagon’s unique offerings,

They’re my blessings; They’re my blessings

 

Soon there dawned an epiphany;

Daughters of our love’s symphony,

Scintillas of our harmony.

True synchrony! True synchrony!

 

We shared moments evanescent,

When they flourished luminescent.

Now where fishes float florescent,

Is their descent, is their descent.

 

My heart was lilt in their gaze,

Wilts now in their absence and blaze

Deprived of their love, is to faze

As in a daze, as in a daze.

 

 Emptiness is all fills my core.

My soul burns with hunger once more.

My daughters, I long to adore,

Come to the shore! Come to the shore!

 

I fear I shall starve, o’er my babes,

Lest their dulcet gaze meet my face.

With time, I’ll be part of this place,

Singing their praise! Singing their praise!

 

Oh, bring back my mermaids, love-charm!

Come now, or I’ll make loud alarm,

Until my last breath suffers harm!

Cold rocks, no warmth! Cold rocks, no warmth!

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**I believe the above poetry form is called a Ballad. If I’m wrong, please let me know.

 

 

**It’s the first challenge of the month which means poets get to choose their own words. I chose the words, Distinct and Yearn

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

Poetry Friday ~ Begin & Fresh

Hi, everyone! I hope all is well in your world.

 

I am beyond excited today. My book, Son of the Serpent has received another wonderful review written by bestselling, award-winning author, Suzanne Burke. What a great way to start the weekend!

You can read that review on her blog Welcome to the World of Suzanne Burke.

♥ Please read and share this amazing review. ♥

Suzanne, thank you so much for taking the time to read my book and for writing such a heartfelt and really generous review.

Here’s my contribution to Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Challenge:

 

Opportunity

presented at her doorstep

so the writer seized

that one chance for her soul to

start a new kind of dance

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Illustration by Andrew Ferez (DeviantART)

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Begin and Fresh are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer.

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

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Happy Friday!

Poetry Friday

Hello, everyone! Welcome.

Today I’m sharing a Haiku and Tanka followed by a short excerpt from my new book, Son of the Serpent. 

The poems are written in the ocean’s point of view at the time of the Great Flood. I hope you enjoy it.

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He fills me with rain

I venture to cleanse the Earth

Of His tainted souls

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A form in the clouds

The ward who had restrained me

loosed my giant waves

All I wished for was to breathe

But my breath moves mountains

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Son of the Serpent is a High Fantasy|Paranormal novel sprinkled with Horror and Romance. It is aimed at an 18+ audience. The book is written in 1st person POV. There are chapters written in Dracul’s voice interspersed by chronicles written in Lilith’s (the villain) voice. Today I’m going to share an excerpt from one of the Chronicles of Lilith.

Excerpt: Chronicles of Lilith

 

As I prepared to leave Shuruppak, rumors about a man named Noah, who claimed to be God’s prophet, came to my attention. According to my human servants, this man said God speaks to him and has told him there shall be a catastrophic event. Every living thing on this planet shall perish, except those beings selected by God Himself.

The servants laughed and took pleasure in ridiculing this man. They called him insane. I, however, have learned throughout the years that there is always some truth to the ramblings of the insane. I would like to see this man, Noah, and listen to his preaching, thus my departure would have to wait.

In the middle of the night I awoke to booming thunder, the likes of which I had not heard since the days I wandered in the wilderness with Gadreel when we first arrived on this planet. I leaped out of my bed and ran to a nearby window. The sky was ominous, with large bitumen-black clouds gathering to form gigantic ones. My superior vision allowed me to see things in the darkness that no other being could. A flash of lightning lit the world white for a moment. Rain began to fall, first tapping on the window and then becoming a rapid succession of beats.

I threw on a garment and ran outside to get a better look. There were still people outdoors, servants slow to finish their tasks for the day and others who came out to see what was happening. They ran for cover as storm clouds spat their loads of water. Sharp droplets of icy-cold water needled my shoulders and back. I shivered under the prickly feeling. The rain came in torrents now. Puddles formed, and the puddles became streams. They grew into rivers. I ran to a nearby tree to take shelter under it.

I hid from the people running and screaming in fear and shifted to my serpent form. The torrent became more intense, and the night grew darker with the bruise of thick, angry clouds. A wall of rain moved over the tree I stood under, and the drops drummed against the canopy. So much water fell from the skies that the sound blurred into one long, whirring tumult.

Many of the people of Shuruppak left their flooded homes and wandered the streets like lost souls. They had never seen a storm of this magnitude. Some had only been familiar with the morning dew. I had seen enough. I spread my wings and took to the sky. Flying had never been more difficult. The rain pelted my wings, while bolts of lightning threaten to spear me as they sliced the air to my left and right.

The earth shook and sent shockwaves rippling through the ground like water, destroying houses in an instant. Fires exploded everywhere, and the smell of smoke twisting through the air between raindrops was acrid on the hot breeze. Regular clatters rang out as structures crumbled apart and fell to the ground. I needed to escape, find shelter, but where could I hide from such devastation? The skies were becoming more and more dangerous. I flew toward the coast, but my wings grew too heavy and sodden to keep me airborne. I fell to the beach.

I looked toward the coastline, wincing and moaning, feeling the pain of my fall. I had been to this beach before, but it looked strangely unfamiliar now, abnormally vast. I thought maybe the darkness of the night was playing tricks on my vision, but then I realized why the beach looked so strange. The surf had drawn back hundreds of miles; the abandoned sand twinkled in the moonlight despite the rain.

I gasped at a black line on the horizon and watched as a colossal wave swept toward me at hundreds of miles per hour—rushing, roaring, angry froth foaming from between its lips. I stared, eyes fixed, as the wave surged in. I knew it was impossible to escape it. Heat had never left my body as fast as it did in this brief moment of realization. The torrent came after me, granting me a few seconds to enjoy breathing the ocean air before it wrapped me in frigid foamy fingers and dragged me to the ocean floor.

I struggled as sand and briny water filled my lungs, causing them to expand and burn. As the wave moved, it pulled me along with it, like it wanted me to witness the devastation it would cause. My death would not be simple or fast, for the powers granted to me by the fruit from the Tree of Life would sustain me. Powers I once cherished now seemed a curse.

As the wave pushed me along, I crashed into debris in the water. Every stab, rip, and fracture my body suffered brought me immense pain. Men, women, and children drowned, their dead bodies floating around me, yet I remained alive.

The giant wave hit Shuruppak. It was nothing like the waves which lap the shore every minute of every day. This was a gigantic wall of water, cold and powerful. It came over land with the power of a volcanic blast. It moved over the city with more ease than a wave over the sand, reducing houses and structures to rubble and killing every living thing.

My broken body filled with water, sand, and debris until the weight of it fixed me to the ocean floor. People, livestock, uprooted trees, and all manner of structures floated past me. The rain continued to pour.

The sky was now hinting at sunrise. Nothing escaped my eyes and ears, but I was immobile. Every inch of my body throbbed with pain, and the cold of the water chilled my bones. As I lay motionless, I watched a large wooden vessel approach. It was the greatest ship I had ever seen. It glided over the water’s surface, throwing its shadow to the sea floor as it sailed past me, turning day to night. I overheard people singing and the roar, moo, bleat, and bray of animals coming from the vessel. Not everyone had perished. Some shall go on, while I remain imprisoned in this watery grave. The weight of the water pressed down on me, crushing me, as the rain increased its depth.

The feeling of drowning never left me. The feeling of panic, unable to take breath, to inflate my lungs. The slow filling of my larynx––gagging, coughing, briny water forcing its way through my nostrils and into my lungs like acid. I would drown and die, and after a moment of peace, the process began again.

A familiar recollection filled the void in my head, spinning memories of Beelzebub lying at the bottom of the Euphrates River bound in chains, disfigured by suffering and hate. Is that also to be my fate? Shall I become a grotesque monster wallowing in fear, self-loathing, and pain?A sharp, loud wail pierced my psyche, and I realized it was I who did the screaming.

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Try and Life are this week’s prompt words chosen by Colleen Chesebro ~ The Fairy Whisperer.

*The catch is that we can only use the synonyms to these words in our poems.

Colleen hosts a challenge that anyone could participate in called, Colleen’s Weekly Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge every Tuesday, and you have until Sunday to create a post featuring your Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Etheree or Cinquain poem. She is an author and poet, and also does book reviews and so much more on her blog. Be sure to check it out.

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Have a wonderful day!