Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Fiction Tuesday - 001

As I said in my last post, Pirate's Cove is now running a weekly prompt based writing contest.  (Hmm where have I heard that before?)  This week marks our first entry.  Enjoy


Our First Fiction Tuesday winner is:




If you like this story, please consider leaving a donation over 60% of all donations got straight to the author.










A Pleasant Day for a Run




By James Keeling



Normally a run cleared his mind, but not today. Today it did anything but clear his mind, there was something about having to dodge gun fire that would do that to you.
Tom had decided to try the new running track that wound through Underwood Park.  Although it was his first time in this area of town, he had read on the runners digest website that it was a perfect five miler.  He parked his car in the lot and after stretching set out on the large loop that would take him around Granford Lake and through a very nice patch of countryside.
He rounded a bend and was surprised to see a large cloud of children completely blocking the trail ahead.  All of the children appeared to be holding signs and chanting.  It wasn’t until he drew nearer that he realized that they were not children.  The smell was the first sign; a very strong musky perfume scent permeated the air.  The second sign was the actual signs.
“Vertically Challenged Sex Workers Unite!” read one.
Another read “Legalize my Job!”
While yet another read “Organize now! Little people are people too!”
The crowd seemed to be very agitated and while they marched, they both blocked the running path and were physically accosting the local passers by.  Tom decided against the direct approach and chose instead to hop a fence into the woods which bordered the trail.  He would cross the small wooded area and rejoin the trail further on down.
Climbing the small fence had been easy and he set off at a jog following a small trail which wound between the trees.  The trees flew by as he ran, his gaze drawn to the lake off to the left as it sparkled in the sunlight.  A loud thunk caused him to pull up short and he gazed in wonder at the shaft of an arrow which protruded from a tree directly in front of and to the left of his face.  He glanced to the right and could barely see a small clearing with archery targets set up.  Doing his best to keep behind the trees, he snuck up closer to the clearing.  A large banner was on prominent display and it read “The Granford Archery Range welcomes the Metro Association of the Blind!” A line of men, women, boys, and girls stood with bows in their hands and arrows pointed down range. He noticed with a gathering sense of doom that the arrows were pointed every which way.  Many of them down range to where he stood.  As he stared in shock, all of the handi-capable archers let loose with a volley and arrows arched through the air towards his position.
He ran like his life depended on it, wending between trees and ducking his head as arrows rained all about him.  He saw another fence ahead and vaulted over it, coming to a stop to catch his breath.
As he stood with his hands on his knees, he felt a piercing pain in his calf.  Looking down, he saw a golf ball slowly roll away from a red welt which was rapidly forming on his right leg.  He looked and sure enough, he had found himself on a driving range.   He looked to the left and saw the shoreline of the lake.  No escape that way.  Not wanting to return to the blind archers, he set off at a dead run for the far side of the driving range.
This was apparently what the golfers had been waiting for and balls fell from the heavens like hard round pieces of dimpled manna.  Tom avoided the majority of the projectiles as he dodged and wove across the grass.  Seeing yet another fence ahead of him he ran for it and bodily threw himself over to land in another large patch of woods.
He sat for a moment, rubbing both the angry bruise on his right shin as well as the contusion an errant golf ball had left on his hip.  Tom struggled to his feet and set off once again.  He was bound to meet up with the running trail sooner or later.  He hoped it would be sooner.
His body pitched forward and he tasted dirty leaves, dirty branches, and dirt.  Then the pain hit him.  His back was on fire! At least that’s what it felt like to him.  Slowly he reached his right hand over his back and tried to feel what had hit him.  Maybe it was an ax.  It sure felt like an ax.  His fingers came back covered with red.
Blood!  He was dying!  Then he noticed that it didn’t really look like blood, the viscosity was all wrong.
Paint. He had been hit in the back with paint, which could only mean one thing.  He scrambled to his hands and knees and turned.  Sure enough a figure entirely clothed in camoflauge was peering at him from about ten yards away, a paintball gun clearly visibile.
“I’m not a target!” Tom yelled to the man, “I’m not here to play paintball!  Don’t shoot!”
A gruff voice came back.
“If you’re in the zone, you’re a target! And I just tagged your ass! Now I’m gonna do it again!”
The figure raised his weapon to take aim.
Tom ran.
Splotches of Red exploded in the forest all around him as he leapt over trees and ducked beneath low hanging branches.  His passage through the paintball field was anything but silent.  The noise apparently attracted the attention of other paintballers and it wasn’t long before all the colors of the rainbow were present as he sprinted across the battlefield.  The large red splotch on his back was soon joined by many others.  He was clipped by a bright yellow paintball on the left shoulder and a blue one impacted painfully on his right hip. The hip shot was the worst as it somehow managed to add even more pain to the already throbbing golf ball injury.
He was being openly chased now, his pursuers hooping and hollering.
“We’ve got a live one here boys!  Come and get some!”
Tom managed to get enough air into his burning lungs to bellow “Where’s the range master?  This just isn’t right!”
The reply came back accompanied by a hoarse laugh, “I AM the range master, and you’re fair game!”
Tom finally came to another fence, and he threw himself over it amid the hail of paintballs.
He hit the ground and rolled to his feet, bruised, battered and covered in paint.  The running trail sat ten feet away.
‘Screw this’ he thought.  ‘I’m getting a treadmill.”

Friday, June 10, 2011

Pirate's Cove - Treasure Island

The Pirate's at  the Cove are putting on a a full cast production of Treasure Island, If you enjoy this kind of thing feel free to check it out.  It should come out weekly.  Here is the first chapter.  Enjoy!





Chapter 1 Audio

 Subscribe To Treasue Island



TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER
If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
If schooners, islands, and maroons,
And buccaneers, and buried gold,
And all the old romance, retold
Exactly in the ancient way,
Can please, as me they pleased of old,
The wiser youngsters of today:
--So be it, and fall on! If not,
If studious youth no longer crave,
His ancient appetites forgot,
Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
So be it, also! And may I
And all my pirates share the grave
Where these and their creations lie!




PART ONE
The Old Buccaneer

Chapter 1
The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral Benbow


Featuring the Voice Talents of:

Doc Coleman
Dan Absalonson
Michell Plested



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Fiction Tuesday - Contest



Download the Audio version of this blog post
Welcome to Pirate's Cove an imprint of Flying Island Press.  I say that nearly every week, and some times multiple times a week,  but what does that really mean?  I have been thinking about that for a long time.  While I really enjoy working on all the public domain projects that we've been doing, the intent of Pirate's Cove was to produce original fiction as well.  To do that I have to have original fiction.

For the last three weeks I have been writing a weekly blog post called "Fiction Tuesdays."  The intent was that I would take one of the prompts from the Pirates Daily Writing Prompts, write a story based on that prompt and post it.  I like this kind of writing because, for me it is the kind of writing that I do best.  It is freeing almost.  But there are two problems with this.  First, Flying Island Press is not a vanity press, therefore posting my own work is kind of unfair.  Second, I realized that I am being rather selfish.  I know that there are other people out there that like this kind or writing, and in fact can do it very well.  You have only to look at other projects like Every Photo Tells and [clears throat] Great Hites to see what I mean. These people deserve to have their stories told.

So, Starting in two weeks we will being the Fiction Tuesday contest.  "Contest," you say?  "What are the rules?"  Well I am glad you asked:

1.    Write a story of no more that 3000 and not less than 1000 words (give for take a few hundred) based on ANY of the Pirate's Daily Writing Prompts.
2.    This is very important!  The story must have a rating of PG-13 or less.
3.    The story should be upbeat.  This means it need not necessarily have a happy ending, but at least it should not end so badly that people go away feeling worse than when they started.
4.     Stories need to be original and unpublished.  no re-prints please!
5.     Going along with being original we cannot accept FanFic of any kind.

And that is it.  Those are the basic rules.  "Well," you say, "that is easy how do I submit a story."  Again I'm glad you asked.

Stories should be sent in text format in an e-mail to Piratescove @ flyingislandpress . com  with the subject line of Tuesday Fiction Contest.

"How will stories be selected?"

All stories submitted will be put into "The Hold." (that is pirate talk for slush pile)  We will pick the best ones and publish those.  If you submit a story you will be notified within two weeks if it has been accepted, and given and approximate publication date.

"How will my story get published."
We will release an audio version (most probably just a straight read) and the text of your story for our listener / readers to enjoy

"Will I get paid for my story?"
You have a lot of questions you know that?  But it's funny you should ask that question.  Pirate's Cove does not currently have a budget to buy stories, we can barely keep the crew fed.  However, we do believe that you deserved to get paid for your work.  So this is the deal.  On each and every story that gets published we will have a donate button.  The First $20 in donations, that comes in goes directly to the author,  after that it is a 60/40 split (You get 60% and we get 40% this will help us in the future to be able to offer you more great piratey things)




If you have more questions please feel free to contact us at Piratescove@ FlyingIslandPres . com  We look forward to hearing from you

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Daily writing Prompts #3

Those of you who know me, knew that I could not go on forever without giving writing prompts. They are like little rabbits in my head and they multiple if I leave them alone for too long. Well I left them alone too long, and now there are tons of them.

Pirate's Cove is now offering a prompt a day (for as long as I can keep them up.) subscribe here, or just come by the site and check them out.

todays prompt:

Pluto sat with his back turned to Eris, a dangerous thing to be sure, but since she was asleep he figured it was a risk he could take. He carefully opened her date book and thumbed to tomorrow's date. Just for once he wanted to know what kind of day he should plan for.



These prompts are not part of any on going contest at Pirate's Cove or Flying Island Press, but you might get some extra points if you submit a story that is based on one of our prompts. Flying Island Press

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Mid Summer Night's Dream Act 1 Scene 1

When I stopped working on GreatHites I started working on another project that you might or might not have heard of. Five of us started Flying Island Press. As part of Flying Island Press, I am the managing editor of Pirate's Cove. We have lots of great project going on there, and I encourage you to check them all out. In the mean time I am going to be dropping a taste of each of these projects in this feed.

Our current big project is a full cast production of A Mid Mummer Night's Dream. Here is episode 1.

A Mid Summer Night's Dream Act 1 Scene 1

You can find more at http://flyingislandpress.com/cove

Or subscribe to the Midsummer Night's Dream Feed here.