A Christmas Short

Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah!

Christmas is today and I've decided to post another Oblivion Short!!! I've been in the Christmas Spirit lately (like listening to Christmas music and watching classic movies like It's a Wonderful life and Nightmare before Christmas) And it made me think about Christmas time around the Van Drake Manor. Obviously the thought was entertaining so I decided to give you all a treat and write it down. Without any further adieu here it is!

Oblivion Christmas Special

It was a cold night, not a usual Christmas eve in Southern Mississippi. The wind howled outside the Van Drake manor causing windows to shake slightly. Everything was quiet, not even a vampire crept the halls because Vladimir had given them the night off. And so all the light were off except for those of the Christmas tree in front living room and the colorful lights decorating the Manor’s roof and lawn. The grandfather clock in the Foyer chimed loudly through the halls calling out midnight and two large blue eyes popped open. The small, 13 year old brunette girl sat up in her bed and looked out the window at the moon light. She listened hard to hear even the slightest creak of the old floor boards, making sure Elliot and the girls hadn't returned early. When she was satisfied she was alone, except her Uncle down the hall, she slipped from her bed and crept across her room and slipped on her small fluffy house shoes before slipped out into the hallway.

It took a few minutes to move down the staircase and into the living room.

Ava’s eyes lightened at the sight of the tree. It was massive, glowing in a sea of colors. Ava walked over and sat down in front of it and stared at the blinking lights. This was her second Christmas at the manor but it still didn’t feel like home… She feared it never would. But the tree was filled with familiar ornaments, it was a familiar smell, and gave off a familiar feeling. She knew it would soon be over and taken down. But she didn’t want it to be… When her Uncle Vlad had told her about the magical world around her she found her new place. But the Manor was too big, there were too many unused rooms… Too much darkness. She would get used to it… one day…

Ava reached up and took an ornament off the tree and held it up to the light. It sparkled and shinned as she turned it. A smile spread across her face as she continued to play with the ornament but a sound coming from the hall made her jump and duck behind the couch. If Elliot caught her he would tell Vladimir and then she would have to answer too many questions. Ava peaked around the edge of the couch and saw the door open slightly, she heard thick Irish accented voices muttering quietly but she couldn’t tell who it was, nor did she see any shadows…

“Let’s check in here…” one voice whispered, “This room seems to hold a special purpose.”

Ava heard a loud thud and the voice exclaimed quietly.

“That’s a just a Christmas tree, you dolt…” A deeper voice grumbled. “Now shut up before the humans wake up.”

“What about the vamps? What if they come back?” the first voice asked.

“Oh they won’t bother us, not with all this silver on!” the deep voice laughed and Ava gasped silently. They were robbers!

Ava glanced around, the only way out was through the door were the men were. How would she ever get past them without alerting them? Her heart thundered in her chest… she could scream… Vladimir would hear her, he always had when she had nightmares. But that would let them know where she was... Why had Elliot been given the night off- wait they called them vamps…

“They know about vampires…” Ava’s jaw dropped. They knew about magic and monsters! “Shh… Did you hear that?” the deeper voice asked. Ava quickly clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from making any further noise.

She heard footsteps enter the room, Ava pressed herself into the back of the couch and closed her eyes.

“Do you smell that?” The first voice said.

“I do…” The deeper one said fearfully, “It’s a human… but it smells tainted. It’s a Van Drake.”

“It can’t be, we wouldn’t be alive if it were!” the other snorted.

“Find ‘em. Then we will know.” The deeper voice ordered. Ava bit her lip. She would have to improvise. She looked around quickly for a weapon but the nearest thing was a fire poker and there was no way she could reach it without being seen. Ava took a few deep breaths and decided to go for it. Quickly, she jumped and rolled across the floor grabbing the iron rod and leaping to her feet before the intruders even had a chance to gasp. Ava glared through the shadows but saw no one.

“Oh… it’s just a kid…” the first voice laughed. “Well that’s not a problem.”

Ava frowned, they sounded like they were inches in front of her, “Walk away now and you won’t be hurt.”

“You?” The deeper voice laughed, “Hurt us? You have a stick. We have magic and you are outnumbered, Give it up Van Drake.”

“One yell from me and you’ll be in big trouble.” Ava stayed in her stance like Vladimir had showed her.

Something grabbed the end of the poker and yanked it away from her, “Oh really? And why is that? Your vampires are gone for the night.”

“Vampires?” Ava smirked, “No, something worse than vampires. Vladimir Van Drake is just around the corner… and he’s very protective of his niece.”

“Blitz… I don’t think she’s bluffing…” The first voice said.

“Shut it, Fick…” the deep voice said and sighed.

“Show yourselves now and I’ll think twice about screaming.” Ava warned.

“Alright alright! Calm down…” There was a slight shimmer in the air and suddenly two people two and a half feet tall at the most appeared. They were as pale as the moon and had large pointed ears as well as red hair that was brighter than Fawn’s.

Ava blinked at the two small men in red tights and long shirts that were tied at the waist with a black cord. Around their necks hung gold chains with small daggers attached. Ava frowned at them.

“What exactly… are you?” She kneeled down to get a better look at the larger one he looked overly tough for someone she could stomp on.

“Wha- What are we?! Excuse me lass but shouldn’t you know? You are a Van Drake. Aren’t you?” Ava was happy she could place the deep voice of Blitz with the threatening looking one. Her eyes darted to Fick who was tall and very thin, His nose reached past his arm length… Ava had to keep herself from giggling.

“I am… I just haven’t seen anything like you before.” She shrugged.

“Well you wouldn’t!” Fick said proudly. “We are elves! Only come out once a year near the end to collect supplies then we go back to our homes.”
“Shut it, she doesn’t need to know everything.” Blitz growled over his shoulder.

Ava tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear and settled on the floor, “So… You’re like Santa’s elves?”

Blitz head snapped toward her, his pale face instantly turned red. “Excuse me?! No we are not Santa’s elves.”

“I’m sorry, those are the only elves I’ve ever heard of.” Ava tried to keep her voice down as she glanced up at the door. “You should be quiet if you don’t want Uncle Vlad to come down….”

Blitz cooled at the mention of Vladimir. “What about your vampire pets?”
“They have the night off. I don’t know when they’ll be back.”

“Good… I wouldn’t want to have to hurt them.” Blitz said and crossed his arms.

Ava scrunched her nose, “With what?”

“Our silver daggers, stupid girl!” Fick shook his head and wagged the small golden dagger at her.

“Uh… I’m afraid those aren’t exactly silver.” She held back a laugh.

“They are silver enough to help us escape. Obviously we aren’t going to carry around pure silver… we wouldn’t want to permanently injure your little buddies.” Blitz answered smugly.

Ava decided to give up on correcting the little beasts, “So why are you here? What are you looking for?”

The two elves looked at each other and shrugged. Fick was the first to speak, “Legend has it there is something in this house that could feed five elves with one cube of it…”

Ava frowned, “You’re looking for food? Don’t you have it where you come from?”

“Elves live off of sugar. Natural sugar is like honey but your human sugar is like heaven on earth to us…” Blitz shrugged, “We were sent on a mission to locate these soft treasures and bring them back to our people.”

Ava smiled, “That’s so sweet…”

“Blitz… Maybe we should ask-“ Fick said but Blitz silenced him with a single glare.

“We won’t be accepting any help from humans and that’s that.”

Ava thought for a minute then snapped her fingers, “What if I happen to leave a plate of said food under the tree?”

Blitz eyed Ava for a long moment, “What’s your angle?”

“I just want to help. Why do I need an angle?” She pursed her lips.
Finally Blitz nodded, “Alright fine… Fick… tell her what we are looking for.”

“They are white and soft… Normally they are coated in a white powder and smell like vanilla.”

Ava thought a minute then blinked, “Marshmallows?”

Fick shrugged, “We don’t know what the name for them are. We’ve only seen them a few times though… We’d know them if we saw them!”

Ava nodded and stood up, “I’ll be right back.”

After a few minutes of searching, she found a bag of jumbo marshmallows and a box of sugar cubes. She also grabbed any other sugary food she could find. After grabbing a large plate from the cabinet and dumping all the food on it, Ava stumbled back to the living room. The two elves sat huddled around the fireplace muttering and barely noticed her presence. After setting the plate under the tree she moved away and sat back on her heels.

She cleared her throat and the two looked over at her. Their jaws dropped instantly and they walked slowly to the plate before sinking to their knees. Fick grabbed one of the marshmallows and held it up, it was the size of his head.

“Oh my…” He muttered.
“Fick… We’ve done it…” Blitz said with clear emotion in his voice. Ava smiled at the two as they filled their packs but still there were mountains of it left.

“You can come back and bring a few friends to help, right?” she asked as they pondered on what to do.
Blitz turned around and looked up at her, “We have permission to enter the Van Drake house?”

“As long as you only take what’s on the plate… I don’t see a problem with it… But you’ll have to leave before sunrise, if Elliot or the girls catch you it won’t be pretty.”

Fick grinned, “Oh yes ma’am!” the two turned and started to march noisily out the door but Ava caught them.
“Please try to be quiet… Vladimir is still sleeping.” She pointed up the staircase. The elves looked up into the shadows then turned to her and nodded.
“Don’t worry lass,” Blitz smiled, “We’ll be as quiet as a snowfall.”

Ava smiled and stood up and walked back over to the fire place. She heard the door open but Blitz cleared his throat again.
“Say, Lassie… what’s your name?”

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled again, “Ava, Ava Van Drake.”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Miss Ava.”

The two quickly bowed then slowly vanished into thin air. Ava looked at the spot a moment more before turned back and watching the fire… Funny little creatures. She never would have gotten this chance if she were home… but perhaps this could be home to her after all. She only needed to try…

Just before dawn, just as the sun began to light up the night sky, the door to the Van Drake manor opened with a slight creak. Four tall figures slipped in silently.

“We should probably put the presents under the tree.” Elliot looked at his sisters, they nodded in agreement. He opened the door and started to walk into the dimly lit room but he stopped dead when he saw the small figure underneath the tree. He pressed a finger to his lips to shush his sisters then walked in. A smirk tugged at his lips when he found the little Dark hair girl curled up with a small pillow on the floor. He grabbed a blanket off the couch and walked over just as quietly as before, kneeling down he draped it over her. Elliot smoothed her hair down and leaned in close to her ear. His words were soft but he knew from the small tug of her lips she had heard him in her dreams far away from the manor saying, “Merry Christmas Ava.”

A Southern Haunts reveiw

Hello again! Yes I know it's been a while since I made a post but I've had reasons and more stories to tell but first I want to do a book review.

Today's review is on Southern Haunts, Spirits that Walk Among Us. 
Like the name suggests, it's a book of ghost stories by mainly southern writers. When I first picked up the book I thought it would probably be full of scary stories that would be told around a campfire late at night but I was soon to find out I was wrong. The first story, Interview for a Ghost Hunter by Windsong Levitch, was actually funny. (To me at least) Other stories like The Top Floor by Alexander S. Brown were classic horror stories. (Which I also enjoyed greatly)
The book is great fun for the whole family, from your socially awkward 13 year old son to your 98 year old GranGran that lives in basement and likes to complain about how the TV is when you don't even own a Television... So if you happen to be looking for a book to read with your kids (Or you're just obsessed with the paranormal) I fully suggest Southern Haunts, Spirits that Walk Among Us.

I actually had the pleasure of meeting one of the writers/editors Alexander S. Brown. (Sadly writer/editor J.L. Mulvihill was unable to make it that day) I spent about two or three hours talking to Alex at my local library earlier this year while he was doing a book signing for Southern Haunts as well as a few other books of his. I ended up buying at least three books (I probably would have gotten more if I had brought more money... I don't even know why I even typed probably. I would have bought him out if I could.)

If you would like to learn more about Southern Haunts (Or about any of the other writers mentioned here or the authors not mentioned) You can find their books on Amazon and you can also like their facebook page (Links will be given at the end of this post)

I have had the best time meeting other writers! I absolutely adore it, in fact. It's nice finding out some of my weird quirks (waking up at 3am to write a scene you just came up with or talking to yourself... well more or less your characters) are mostly writers traits...
On that note: if there are any psychiatrists reading this, I do not hear voices... ok I do but it's normal I swear.

Southern Haunts Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Southern-Haunts/417536915003428?ref=hl

And also my page C.G. Bush:
https://www.facebook.com/officialCGB

Alexander's S. Brown's page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexander-S-Brown/47904064687?hc_location=stream

And last but not least the fabulous J.L. Mulvihill:
https://www.facebook.com/mulvijen

And the Unlucky Day Continues...

You'd think that all of my bad luck would have run out by now, or at least run down. But I'm sad to say it hasn't. (Lucky for you because otherwise I wouldn't be posting right now)

Every Thursday I go to my friends house to take piano lessons and hang out for a while. Yesterday I stayed till about three then we talked her mom into letting her come with me to drop off a computer and hang out a while. Normally this would be great fun (And of course bad things happen when I hang out with friends, like we would get stopped by the cops because we do not look our age but we do look like "could-be-teenaged-thugs") But today when we get back to my house my parents were putting in the new stove. (Yes. We had to get a new stove...) We quickly decided to just leave and let them put it in. So we go to Walmart to walk around and waste time. On the way in, the sky starts getting dark and clouds of doom start stretching over the sky. I parked as close as I could and thought, "It probably won't even rain today"

No.

As soon as we get inside it starts to pour. I mean you could barely see three feet in front of you. I thought maybe after a little bit it would let up some so we could make it back to the car at least. So we start walking around causing trouble (A.K.A. giving our reviews on movies.) And wandering through the Halloween costume finding misspelled words on packages and things. Finally about 30 to 45 minutes later I decide it's not going to let up and we've been around the building at least 15 times. So I tell her I will run out and get the car and pull it around so she wouldn't have to get too wet.

This is mistake #2

When I get to the door it's still pouring down. I looked back at her like a sad puppy hoping she might say "Why don't we just wait a while?" But what does she do? She waves and says "Don't forget to unlock the door buddy!" Clearly seeing she was going to do nothing to stop me, I ran out in the rain.
After a few seconds I was soaked and decided "What the hey?" So I start running for dear life splashing myself as well as anyone running near me. About halfway across the parking lot I forget where I parked. There is something you should know about my car. It is tiny. Like it's really really tiny.... So all the other cars are blocking any view of it. After a minute or two I give up and start running in the general direction I thought it would be in. Luckily I see it! I take off in a dead sprint and that is when my foot touches the ground. My first thought is "I've messed my shoe up!" but when I look down it's not even on my foot. I look around frantically searching for it only to see that it is floating away! (Yes it was raining that bad.) So there I am running through the parking lot in the rain with only one shoe on chasing the other. I finally caught it after a minute and that is when I give up trying not to get soaked and calmly walk back to my car and unlock the door. This is about the time I notice that there are people sitting in the cars around me laughing insanely. I look at them and wave and then get into my car and crank it up. I leaned over and unlocked the door first thing ok? I really did. But when I got to the door, she was standing there dry and happy... So yeah I locked it back.
I left it like that for a minute till I realized she had my phone so I let her in.
That's when she starts laughing because I'm completely soaked. To make up for her laughing at me I took her cupcake and ate it in front of her... She was still laughing when I left... Her mom thinks we're insane...

On to what happened this morning... I wake up to the sound of screeching chickens. They do this all the time so I didn't even bother to see what they were doing outside my window. But after about ten minutes of this I got up, ready to make some fried chicken. When I look out the window I see two of the chickens have their heads caught in the fence. Being the animal lover that I am, I rushed out and poked them back into the pin but what do they do? They just ran and shoved their heads BACK into the fence. I had no idea what was going on. That's when I see one of the bigger hens jump on them. Apparently my Dad decided to try putting the two babies in with the older ones again. I wouldn't mind if they would stop jumping on them. So I get them out. But in the process of being bitten by chickens that are trying to jump on the babies in my hands, a car drives up. It is none other than a costumer dropping off a chair.

I'm in my night clothes, fighting off a pack of deranged chickens and of course this woman in an expensive car drives up and sees the whole thing.
Lovely timing.

After she left I started cooking breakfast in the new oven. Let's just say this oven hates me. It probably heard about what happened to the last oven... It burned my cinnamon rolls! So now I'm sitting here chewing on the burnt rolls and wondering what might happen next... 
I should probably wear a helmet today just to be safe...

The Very Unlucky Day

Saturday was not my day by far. How bad could one day get? Apparently it can get desperately horrible. Normally I only have one incident a day.... or two... Who's counting?
Anyway, my day seemed to get worse with every passing second. So that means I have a rather great story to tell.

It started off pretty good. I woke up with the house all to myself so that meant I could pig out at breakfast and no one would say anything, it's a good thing about days like that... Or so I thought.
I popped a tray of crescent rolls into the oven and started to check emails and facebook and other things like that. About ten minutes later I went to check on them. The oven wasn't even hot. I looked at the clock and the first thought in my mind is "Something is wrong" but sleepy me decides that I probably read the clock wrong when I first woke up. (Like normal) So I decided to give it a few more minutes. I run through the shower (Warning: this is just a figure of speech. You should NEVER run in the shower. You should also never dance to 'Single Ladies' in the shower. You can be seriously injured or you could break a hole in the bottom of the tub) But when I get out, the oven is still not hot. I even grabbed the pan! (Which is also a very stupid thing to do. Don't do it.) But it wasn't even warm. So I call my parents but of course neither of them answer so I sit there and look at my uncooked breakfast. I finally decide they aren't going to cook themselves so I put them into the toaster oven. (Fun Fact: Like microwaves, toaster ovens are completely incapable of cooking food correctly. Expect the worst.) This is when my Mom finally calls back and I tell her what's going on. She tells me to "leave the oven alone. You're Dad thinks it might explode"

... Let me just pause and say, That made me feel 100% better about the whole thing.

So, that is about the time I remember my breakfast. I really hate that toaster... Somethings it can cook wonderfully but others? My poor breakfast came out with the bottoms burnt to a crisp and some of the tops burnt as well... while on others, the tops weren't even done.
Needless to say I skipped breakfast.

Around supper time my Dad starts gumbo. It's always so good until he adds something that he thinks is missing. When it's not. So I have to stand there and watch him very closely to make sure he doesn't go back and add something that has no business doing in gumbo. Dad decides he has the taste he wants. Which is rare. So I had to 'sample' it. It was great! But overly hot. I burned the roof of my mouth. (Least it wasn't my tongue)
That's when I decide I need a short break from cooking. I had meant to finish cleaning all day. But of course I never got around to it. I leave him stirring the gumbo and go to get the vacuum.
While I'm cleaning, I notice a large spider in the corner behind my door. He had made a web over a hole in my wall. (Where that hole came from I have no idea... maybe it made it when it came in.) I can't very well hit it because it will go into the hole and escape! That's when this brilliant plan hits me. I can vacuum it up!
So I get the vacuum and start destroying the web... then the spider. It took maybe five seconds to be rid of the beast. Or so I thought... Less than a minute a later I hear a high pitched whine. I turned around and found that it was coming from the vacuum. After a minute it quits so I keep vacuuming. This is the worst mistake of my life...
A minute or two later I smell something disgusting, like burning plastic. When I turn back around I see smoke pouring from the the vacuum. I think might have screamed but I don't remember. All I really do remember is yanking the cord from the wall and tossing the entire vacuum out into the hall...
This is when my Dad leans over from his spot in the kitchen and sees me coughing and crawling from my room. He frowned at me and said "Having problems?"
I drag the still smoking vacuum into the kitchen and hand it to him. He looked at it and shrugged. I set the vacuum on fire and he shrugs.

I tried to explain it to him but he didn't really seem to give me much more of a reaction:

Me: I could have died in there...
Him: You can die anywhere.
Me: Yeah... but there was a greater risk of me dying...
Him: I suppose so.
Me: I think this was a sign. I should never clean my room again.
Him: I think you just ticked off a spider.
Me: ....Oh my gosh... That spider tried to kill me!
Him: Why did you try to vacuum him up. He was just eating the other bugs in your room.
Me: Dad, that thing was massive... Wait... other bugs? What do you mean other bugs?
Him: I mean the other spiders... What you thought there was just one?
Me: Dad! They saw me murder their cousin or brother or something! They'll come after me in the night and smother me in my sleep!
Him: Don't you mean attempted? He's probably still alive.

That's when I took the entire vacuum outside and set it on the front step... This didn't look good when my Mom came home. Try explaining to your mom that a spider set the vacuum cleaner on fire. It's not easy my of course my Dad did not help me out at all. He didn't even back me up!

In a course of one day, I successfully murdered my mothers vacuum, burned my mouth, and nearly blew up the house... I'd call that a bad day, wouldn't you?

The Annoying Door

Hello Friends, I'm just sitting here at my Aunt & Uncles house borrowing the wifi while my sister updates her computer and stuff. So I decided to get on here and post a new story like a good little blogger.
Today's story happened a few nights ago...

If you've had any contact with me in the past three weeks then you know that I've been getting little to no sleep. I've had Camp NaNo going on this past month and to get finished with that and to do my daily duties, I've had to stay up very late and get about 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night. Same as the most of you when you go to sleep and happen to wake up in the middle of the night to get something to drink or use the bathroom or whatever you do; I have like the upper body strength of a kitten. Don't laugh cause you know it happens to you too. You're trying so hard not to wake up you just really don't care about doing anything.

Some of you may already know but my bedroom door has this doorknob that sticks terribly. I know I should get another one but I just haven't yet. So the other night around two thirty I finally turn off my laptop for the night and hit the sack. Forty-five minutes later I suddenly had to go to the bathroom. I tried to just go back to sleep but I couldn't. (All that iced coffee was starting to be a bad thing) Finally I get up and go over to my door. But what do you know? It stuck. I'm still trying to stay asleep as much as possible so I and slamming myself into the door, trying to get it to open by hitting the knob repeatedly. After about five minutes of muttering nonsense that I assume was meant to be curses... I finally got the door open. When I step out of the room it just so happens my sister was coming out of the bathroom. She had stood there and watched me struggle with the door! After yelling something that wasn't even in a language known to man I went back into my room... I don't think I ever made it back out until morning because the door stuck again...

Breaking the Rules

Happy Fourth Everyone! In celebration I've decided to post an Oblivion Short! There will be absolutely no spoilers in it so Faith if you were thinking this is your lucky break you are wrong.

Breaking The Rules

Elliot looked out the window at the fireworks bursting in the sky. The bright colors always intrigued him, but he never wanted to get too close. Every time one burst in the air it would light up his pale skin and dark hair.
"Elliot!" a high pitched voice shrieked behind him. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see a short brunette girl around thirteen years old running toward him.
"Hello Ava." he smiled slightly and turned back to the window. She grabbed his arm and tugged on it rather hard for a girl her age.
"Uncle Vlad got fireworks!" she beamed. "I've never gotten to shoot fireworks before! Come on!"
He looked down at her and shook his head, "I don't really do fireworks Ava..."
Almost instantly she poked out her bottom lip, "Why not?"
"He's still upset about what happened a few years ago." Vladimir said walking in carrying a large box. Elliot knew that soon his blond hair would be either burnt or coated in soot, but that wasn't his problem. He had stopped warning him long ago.
"That's a little much don't you think?' Elliot crossed his arms, looking directly at the box full explosives.
"What? Not at all! You brought me a box twice this size when I was her age." Vlad waved away his concern and looked down at Ava, "Alright, are you ready to blow things up?"
Ava grinned at him and nodded. She beat him to the door and had time to wait and make jokes at him. Elliot smirked and looked back out the window. This was the first time Ava seemed excited over anything. Fireworks must have the same effect on all the Van Drakes.
Elliot could remember the night he introduced Vladimir and Cornelius, Ava's Father, to them...
It was warm and just starting to get dark. After losing their last parent the boys seemed so sad, they never played or laughed anymore. Elliot couldn't stand it. They complained when he told them to wait in the yard but they did as they were told.
"I don't understand, are you planning to kill us?" Vladimir sighed. "Because I'm sure you could do that in the comfort of the house."
"Really now, have I ever tried to eat you before?" Elliot frowned, pulling a large cardboard box out of the trunk.
"Yes you have." Vlad pointed out.
"What's in the box?" Cornelius asked curiously.
"I've never really tried to eat you... I'm sure you would taste very bitter." Vlad made a face but didn't comment. Elliot looked back to Cornelius, "Today is the Fourth of July. It's a tradition that all young boys and girls set off fireworks till midnight."
"We are supposed to be in bed by 10." Vlad shook his head.
"Shut up!" Cornelius rolled his eyes. "How do you set them off?"
Elliot took out a single bottle rocket and set it up in the middle of the yard. Then he lit a pump and handed it to Cornelius. "You lite the fuse then you get back."
It took a few tries but he finally got it lit, as soon as it popped in the air he was back for more. Vlad even moved slightly closer to the box trying to look inside. Elliot smirked but pretended not to notice.
"We.. aren't supposed to play with fireworks...  Dad said..." He muttered but was soon distracted by a very large ball with a long fuse. His eyes widened with excitement. "How do you lite this?"
Elliot showed them, and soon they didn't have to ask. It was well after midnight and the box was still half full. Vladimir set up yet another bottle rocket, it took only two seconds to light now. He would only run a few feet back then turn. But this time as he ran his foot kicked the bottle and caused it to fall over. Vlad's eyes widened as he realized the rocket was aiming right at Elliot... and the box of fireworks.
"ELLI-" He started to say but the rocket took off and dropped into the box. Everything was silent for a minute, Elliot looked at Vlad confused.
"What is-" he started but suddenly the box behind him started to explode with bright colors and rockets flying out of it in every direction. Elliot was hit multiple times as he tried to get away from the box. He grabbed Cornelius and Vlad and moved them to as safer distance. Only then did he turn back to see the box too close to the car. It was nearly under it, spitting fire at it and Elliot knew there was a leaky fuel line he hadn't gotten around to fixing. The explosion was loud and the fire rose almost above the house. Cornelius and Vladimir stood starring at the car for a moment with large eyes... Elliot thought they were about to cry, but then Cornelius did something unexpected. He laughed. His laughter was contagious and soon all three of them were laughing as the car burned before them.
Elliot really couldn't help but smile. Vladimir had learned his lesson but still... Ava had never had a chance to shoot them before... He was going to let Vladimir handle this one while he stayed safely inside.

Being Inspired and The Battle of the Second Book

If you have ever written anything or made anything then you know that one of the best feelings in the world is suddenly being inspired to create something. Inspiration can come from anywhere at anytime. I mostly get my inspiration from music or seeing a picture or someone saying something weird. (Mostly it's Yowah that does the weird sayings)
The other day I was suddenly inspired by a picture of a human/dragon person. (What I plan to do with that you will have to wait and see. For now it's a major secret.)
But what I'm working on right now is not a major secret. I am working on the second book in the Oblivion Trilogy which if you've read the first one you will see that the name of this book is called Oblivion's Knight. 
It basically picks up from where the last book left off. You are probably wondering what in the world this one is going to be about. Don't freak you'll be able to read a synopsis soon enough. I hope to have it out by the end of this year or early next year. What I can tell you is that it will be longer than the first book (Or at least that's my goal...)

This book is so much harder to write than the last one. Unlike the first book where I could stumble around blindly and just happen upon a story, I actually know where I'm going with this book and how I'm planning to lead it into the next book. The next thing I'm going to tell you is something that I've been called insane over at least 20 times already. When I first started this book it was for the Camp NaNo (20,000 words in a month was my goal. Which seemed easy to the last goal which as you know was 50,000) The first day I wrote about 3,000 words or so. But the whole time I really didn't like where it was going. There were no jokes and Ava was about as funny as a rock flying at your face at 100 mph. She seemed to dark and angry and she wasn't the light character that I created a few months ago. I finally turned off the computer and went to bed. But I couldn't sleep. Not with that horrible piece glaring at me from across the room. I woke up around 3am and in a furious rage/panic attack, I deleted the entire story. The next morning I felt better. I tried starting over again. This time there were a few jokes (albeit very VERY morbid jokes) but it wasn't as light as I wanted so I turned off my computer again and left it for about two weeks. Needless to say I did not finish the 20k in a month nor did I even reach 5k. But I really didn't care. I was busy with the first Oblivion novel. I finally started writing again in May. I once again restarted the story (I kept the other draft this time) but this time I was content with the story line. Yes it's probably going to change a lot more before your read it but hey, I made it past the third scene finally. Right now I'm about... 16,000 words in or something like that...

I was also talking to Samantha a few days ago and we were talking about how morbid our stories were and when we thought we crossed a line. (NOTE: Her book is a Christian Western based in the late 1800's while mine is a book about modern day monsters.) She told me that she had removed some of the gore from her book while editing. (I was wondering what gore she was talking about, she had to explain it to me) The climax of her story involved some blood and that's what she changed slightly. She thought having blood on one of her characters heads was a little much (I hope I'm being vague enough) I told her that I have yet to find my line and how her story goes on emotions, mine kinda circles around sarcasm and my basic all around weirdness. At one point in the conversation I said it was easy writing the morbid jokes since half of what I say comes out like, "Waiter! There's a dead man in me soup" (Which apparently is funny...) or "You're dancing around the gore and letting their imaginations do the work.. I am doing back flips into a pool filed with skeletons." (Which she seemed to find funny as well... my house hold must look like pewee's play house to whoever comes over because things like this are said on a regular basis.)

It would be great if you checked out her book 'The Other Side of Me by Samantha Bartley' 
It's available on Amazon and the kindle. The same goes for my book 'Oblivion's Heart by C.G. Bush'

Laters!

Oblivion's Heart~ Behind the Pages

I think it's about time I wrote up a post talking about my book, Oblivion's Heart, and what possessed me to write a monster book when normally I write short mystery stories. It's a novel I'm proud of but sometimes it is very hard to explain to people... Normally people want you to explain your book in a few words and for someone with so much to say... It's hard. So normally I just say it's about monsters when really it's not. It's about a girl fighting to save her family from a curse. She just happens to be backed by a league of monsters...
I don't know why I don't say this. They would still give me strange looks. The facial expressions of people when I tell them (or someone else tells them) that I have a published novel and I'm only 17, goes from impressed/shocked to freaked out/confused in a matter of seconds. That's when their voice goes an octave higher (Which means that they are either lying or freaking out) and they try to change the subject as fast as possible.
But I still believe it's a good book; I'm just talking to the wrong crowd. But enough about that, let's get on to the stories behind the story.

The novel was written for the NaNoWriMo (Short for National Novel Writing Month). It's a contest that happens every November; You have to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days. If you complete that you win. My friend Samantha Bartley (who also entered this contest) sent me a message one night telling me about it and I thought it sounded fun and told her I would do it with her. It started the next day so I had planned like zip. But I never really planned out books ahead of time (Yes I know it's crazy but you'd be surprised what can be accomplished while blindly stumbling through your mind) All I had was one scene and yes that was enough for me. I think you can build a story off one name (Which I've done before. I really wanted to use that name but I didn't have a story to put it in so I made one)
Speaking of names, If you ever wondered why I named two of the main characters Ava and Vladimir, it's because I was trying to explain a scene to Sam and I needed makeshift names. Ava was short and I could type it fast and I just felt like using Vlad. I had planned on changing them but after a while they stuck.

Elliot on the other hand has been changing since day one. First of all I really do not like the idea of cuddly vampires. So even though I don't flat out say it in the book, The vampires are killers and they drink human blood like all good vamps should. Originally Elliot was an older man around Vlad's age or a little older but I couldn't picture an older man running and doing some of the things Elliot does/ will do. (Just because I didn't think out the first book before I started it doesn't mean I haven't thought up the last two books)

While writing the 1500 daily word count, my nights were spent up very late. Sometimes I would get up in the wee morning hours and start typing till around 7, go get food and start again. I did have days I didn't even touch my laptop and those days I fell behind I freaked because you never realize how much 50k really is until you start working on it. I worked until I hit a block and then I would text Sam or Faith or even Tiphanie. Sometimes they would say something or sometimes I would just talk until if straightened out the problem. When I thought the book was getting boring I would go into my sisters room and have her ramble until I something caught my attention. I would go to piano lessons tired and my recital songs started paying the price for my lack of practice. But by the third week I had balanced writing and my life. It was stressful and exhausting but it was one of the best experiences of my life. I had good days where everyone would cheer me on but I also had really bad days when everyone just really didn't care and thought I should give up. But I didn't because even when I had those really bad days I still had friends cheering for me.

While stumbling through a first draft you will never know what you will find. I was in my room typing away one Sunday making excellent progress, I was working away still not knowing the ending of the book or the name of the book or even the name of the Oblivion. When all of the sudden I type a single line. I have no idea where it came from but when I typed it it all suddenly just hit me. Jerked my hands back from the keyboard and gasped (Yes I was so shocked I nearly screamed). I had my monster, my name, and most importantly my ending.

Another time when I was writing late one night I was sitting in my chair, minding my own business when all of the sudden I hear (I kid you not) whispering. I glance up from my computer and it stops. A few seconds later I hear it again and this is when I'm starting to panic slightly because I was writing a scene that involved whispers. That's when my sister says "Night" and I scream and nearly threw my laptop. Apparently she had been talking for a few minutes and I wasn't listening.
The next night I was typing again and I heard something and I saw shadows out of the corner of my eye. My sister was obviously trying to scare me again so I put my laptop down and open the door to give her a piece of my mind. To my surprise she wasn't there. This is when I stomp to her bedroom... only to find she was already asleep... Ok yes I was starting to freak out again. I went back to my room and started to type but I had just started when I heard a pop right beside my ear and a shadow on the wall. In one quick movement I was across the room holding a hammer ready to attack whatever it was. But there was nothing. Finally I just stand there and watch the spot waiting. After a few minutes the shadow appeared again. It was a beetle that had somehow gotten into my lamp above my chair and was now stuck.
So yes I had a few freaky nights but it was still fun.

The last thing I'm going to mention is Samantha's room... One night I was talking to her and she had been telling me about a room in her house that was hidden behind a bookcase. I thought this was a really cool idea so I added one into the story. When I talked to her a few days later I told her about it but I was shocked to hear that that room was no longer there. They had moved the shelf. I still claim to have stolen her room by accident. The room is now in Van Drake Manor where it's slightly stuck. (Sorry Sam)

That's all I can think of right now, if you are interested in buying a copy you can find it on amazon.com under Oblivion's Heart by C.G. Bush

Or click on the link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Oblivions-Heart-Oblivion-Trilogy-Volume/dp/1482344815/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369261286&sr=8-1&keywords=C.G.+Bush

Laters!

The Random Scavenger Hunt

A few days ago I invited my friend Faith over, Those of you who read by blog may know her by the name of Jess and I keep forgetting to write it like that. Earlier in the week Faith had told me she wanted to join me on one of my adventures since they always seem to happen when shes not around. So I told her that we would have a very interesting adventure... as it turns out we did. (But it's always interesting when you have Yowah make up a scavenger hunt list.)

This list was one of the most random things ever. It mostly involved taking pictures and doing things but I am still calling it a scavenger hunt.
We tried to involve all of our main spots in town. We were going to Red Bluff but it had rained and I didn't really think the mighty Craig could get out of the mud if we happened to get stuck. So that was crossed off the list as well as the coffee house and the museum (They were closed)
But the rest of it we did and we added things as we went along. First we went to the library to find a book on dragons.
Being the bookworm that I am I knew that the children's section upstairs had at least two dragon books but still I hadn't been up there in years so I asked the woman at the desk. She seemed really confused... Faith is probably going to read this and say that it was my fault for confusing her but it really wasn't. This is what happened:

Me: "Hi I'm looking for a book on dragons." *Insert Faith's 'Crystal-what-the-heck-are-you-doing-you-can't-just-ask-her-point-blank-like-that' look*
Her: "You want a book by a dragon?"
Me: "No a book on dragons. You know... big and breaths fire? It's for a scavenger hunt." (Actually saying that was probably a mistake because her face was like "Oh no there's gonna be more of you?")
Her: *Types on the computer a minute. Faith is standing by awkwardly.*
After a few minutes I decide to find it myself. Luckily they haven't recognized the books.

We took a picture of it then a thought hits me. Let's take a picture with the librarian, she wasn't that excited about it and I don't think she was smiling much either... But she did take it.
After that we walked across the parking lot to the park.Where we found that all of the graffiti had been sanded away. (Almost all of it) Then Yowah started chasing us like she had put on the list she was going to do. She caught Faith but I was too quick so I won that round.
The next thing we did will need slight explaining. (everything we did needs explaining but this needs more than others.) There is a stage near the Library where they use it for... stage purposes... Anyway the last thing we needed to do was put on a performance. Faith and I are proud Sherlockians so we decide to reenact BBC's Sherlock 'The Final Problem' The scene where Sherlock *Spoilers* dies.
I act as Sherlock and stand on stage. Faith gets on the ground and Yowah is filming. (Yes we captured this moment on video)
We say the last three sentences or so and I dramatically fall face first to the ground. It was Epic.

As we walked back to my car we spotted the mailman making a delivery to the library, we added yet another item to our list.Take a picture with the mailman. (Strange enough Faith didn't really want to be in many of the pictures. The mailman seemed excited that we asked... He even did a dance and sung "I'm gonna be on the internet! I'm gonna be on the internet!" We made someones day so I guess this hunt wasn't totally pointless.

After leaving the Park/Library we went to the Dollar Tree and bought a hand full of fake flowers for the last thing on the list. We took them apart in the car so we would have more and then Faith asks 'So how are we going to do this?' That's when I grab a single flower and jump out of the car (we had drove to the walmart parking lot) and look around. I spotted a little older woman and her husband putting the groceries away. I raced across the parking lot and handed her the flower. She looked really surprised and kept saying thank you but all that time I just smiled then I turned around and ran back to the car.
The woman watched us until the three of us disappeared into a crowd randomly handing out flowers. Only one person refused to take a flower. Everyone else seemed too shocked to question it. We also took a picture with both greeters who were happy to receive a flower. We ran into at least five people we knew who all asked us what on earth we were doing. We handed them a flower and kept walking (with the exception of one couple who we talked to while passing them out.)

We didn't do anything illegal; just really weird. Not like we were dressing up in black cloaks and running around a grave yard... *Smiles innocently*

After this adventure I took Faith home which ended the random scavenger hunt. we plan to do a better one the next time she visits... and next time we will be visiting a some place haunted! *insert random ghosty noises*

Till next time,
Laters!

The Picture That Inspired the Demolition of My Mothers Kitchen

I've had a rather interesting morning. First I woke up really early and started going through photos on my phone because Sleepy Me thought it was time to free up some space and I had 3GB of photos and videos. I lowered that down to 2.3GB before eating breakfast. Frankly I do not remember what I all deleted.

After doing school and other random things around the house which come to think of it I can't remember what I've really been doing... (My room is clean so I must have done that but other than that and six finished history lessons I'm at a loss for where I've been.) After lunch I'm sitting in the living room with Yowah. (I think she was talking but I was wasn't listening... I vaguely remember her mentioning about getting something in Latin and people misunderstanding it for some kinda hoodoo...) I was on facebook or something looking at stuff (And by stuff I mean the random pictures that I get tagged in) when I come across this picture of an orange rind filled with jello. They looked really cool and I thought "Hey I'm babysitting today and the kids would love these!" Plus I had everything to do them with.
I ask if Yowah wants to help and she decides that in this state of mind I should have adult supervision while working on one of my 'experiments'. (Adult... haha she thought she was the adult supervision in this.. hahaha)
I start to cut the oranges up while she is mixing up the jello. Before two minutes are up: I'm covered in orange juice, the counter is also covered in orange juice, my foot is covered in jello, and Yowah is trying to figure out how to keep the oranges sitting up right.
After finding these small cups to neatly hold the orange halves full of jello we got back to work. It took about thirty minutes to finish this little mess... We suddenly realized that the kitchen was a total wreak. The sink had pulp clogging it up, the counter was coated in a thick layer of orange juice...I was covered in jello and orange juice... We needed to clean. Fast.
Time was running out. The kids would be arriving soon and most importantly, Mom would be home. *insert dramatic music* Yowah returns to the living room leaving me to fend off the dirty dishes alone... But with a scrub brush and a some quick maneuvering I was finished within thirty minutes. *thunderous applause*
I took pictures, I'll be sure to add them later on. Until then..
Laters!

The Curious!

So today I went to Hubfest, which is a really big thing in Hattiesburg. This was my first time going to it; I was a little hesitant at first since (A.) I don't like big crowds and (B.) I haven't really been downtown much, driving that is. But I think I could navigate it now if I have to.
Anyway, What really sold me on going was the silent movies at the Saenger Theatre. (I would stay at that place if I could!) They showed silent movies all day and you could go in and look around. I loved that. After spending a few minutes there my sister and I went exploring. While she was looking at the booths I was looking at the buildings. One of them caught my eye as we were walking, it was called OddFellows. I had no idea what this was but I just couldn't help but finding out. (As in my nature of being nosey) There was a really nice woman there but sadly I never caught her name. She told me it was actually an art gallery and (being the geek I am) I freaked and pulled my sister through the gallery at least four times. After I had seen every picture in there my sister decided to pick a store. I cannot for the life of me remember the name right now and I know it's in the magazines on my bed but I'm so tired you can wait for the name. Anyway, it was a comic book store.
We stayed in there while she geeked out over a Doctor Who/Star Trek comic and a few others but finally we left (I imagine we will be back there soon now that she knows it's there. Like I said we never get a chance to go downtown much but I'm sure we will make time now)
So when we leave the comic store I realize I never looked at the table outside of OddFellows so we went back. Again. As I was looking on the table I noticed some magazines so in my browsing mode I pick it up and flip through it. The first page had warnings on it that were so hilarious I finally just moved off to the side to read more. The first thing that stuck out to me was a quote. Not just a quote... a quote from Dorothy Parker. My face was probably shocked more than anything because the nice Lady from before told me a 17 year old had created this... Instantly I'm freaking out because I've never met any other 17 year old who even knows the name Dorothy Parker. The nice lady told me I could have it since (I didn't notice at the time) that I was still in a crowd and I was geeking out over a magazine... to people watching it was probably hilarious...So I thank her at least six times and keep standing there reading when my sister picks up one of the other two left and she starts laughing. Not at the jokes. But at whats about to happen. That's when she turns the page for me to see and it's about none other than Alfred Hitchcock. I think I freaked out too much. But if you had seen Dorothy Parker and Alfred Hitchcock in the same magazine you would freak out too. (Ok probably not but let's not totally crush my hopes of people remembering things before twilight... *shivers*) So the Lady says I could have them all when I ask how much she wants for them. She said she'd give them to me but being well.. me... I told her that I couldn't just take something that awesome. So she sold me the two for five dollars. I would have gotten a chance to talk to the boy who made these awesome magazines (I cannot leave out that she said his little brother helped) but she couldn't find him even though he had just walked into the gallery. (He left through the other door) I'm going to guess his name is Salvatore Dolce. And no I was so flabbergasted I didn't even ask his name. I wrote down this site and asked her to tell him to look it up sometime and I also gave my number just in case he showed back up. I seriously want to shake this guys hand for making my day! So Salvatore, if your reading this, you missed one heck of a show. I don't geek out in public much but Mister you succeeded. Congratulations! So I recommend you pick up a copy of The Curious magazine.
Now I'm going to go treat my sunburn...
Laters!

Quest for the Moose of Destiny

Alright so the other morning I woke up with nothing really I needed to do. Around lunch time I suddenly remembered my friend Cass has a birthday Thursday. I knew what I was going to get her but it was going to get here late so I decided to get her another gift. A stuffed moose. Why I was suddenly possessed to go searching for this moose was beyond me but my sister agreed. So right after lunch (around twelve thirty or so) we packed up some quarters in a bag and set off on our journey on my mighty stallion Craig!
 NOTE: PICTURES WILL BE ADDED LATER
So off we go on our quest! Nothing but the open highway in front of us and ... More highway behind us. Halfway there we started singing very loud and horribly off key. What were we singing? "We're taking the hobbits to isengard to find the meese of  destiny!" Yeah. That right. Meese. Cause saying moose had gotten old. We also sang eye of the tiger but that is a whole other story. So we head to Walmart! The place where you can find anything! Surely they would have a stuffed moose there right? Wrong. We searched high and low but no meese were found. Finally I asked one of the employees... Sadly I forgot to say moose instead of meese and she looked at me like I had just kicked a whale. When I explained further we were looking for a plush moose she told s they didn't have any.

So... On to Dollar Tree! They have piles upon piles of little stuffed animals and surely they would have a moose... No they had hippos and lions and everything else but no Moose. It was slightly depressing but I wasn't giving up yet!
I grab Gandalf *Yowah* and we jump in the car and scratch our chins thoughtfully... where would we find a moose? By this time I decided if we did find some we would buy two one as a trophy from our quest and the other as a present. Our next stop took us down town to a thrift shop where we found two dwarfs to accompany us on our adventure. After searching the thrift store we piled into the Mighty Craig and went to the Salvation Army. Now you must understand something about the side walk outside the SA. It has this ramp. Gandalf and I *Bilbo. Yes we used names from the Hobbit cause it's an epic movie. I wanted to be Smaug but Gandalf said I was too short to be a Dragon.* Anyway we couldn't pass up the opportunity to jump in the air and have one of those awesome photos.. so we did. I didn't notice till we got home that there is this random guy in the back ground of the picture that's standing perfectly between us and he's smiling. We were photo bombed by a random guy... Here's to you random guy!

So four stores were found without meese... where to now? Dirt cheap! We would have gone to the flea market but it was closed. So in dirt cheap Gandalf found a pack of stickers that looked like mustaches. We bought them and put one on the front of Craig.. then we went to Tractor Supply... We didn't find a moose there but we did find baby Ducks and Chicks... I wanted to buy one but I decided we didn't need any babies for our quest. So we left very sad. It was time to drop off the Dwarfs and head home.. On the way I spotted a florists shop with tons of stuffed animals in the window. Obviously I pulled over... Yet again.. no Moose. Back again on the road we stop at the drug store because they had lemurs in the window and I'm thinking... hey.. if they have that exotic animal why not have Meese? But once again no meese were found.

We ended up dropping the dwarfs off. We had some money left from the quest so we went to the frozen custard stand near the house. We had been defeated by the allusive moose... But I have not given up hope. We may have searched 8 stores and that's every store that had a chance of having a moose... there is another city 30 miles away that has yet to be searched. I will keep you updated on our quest!
Fare thee Well Young travelers!