This is a perfect poetry prompt for me as I love to explore shadows and light in my writing.
Here’s an extract from The Curse of Time – Book 1 – Bloodstone followed by my Tanka.
The evening descended, and darkness filled my room. I couldn’t sleep. I tossed and turned, but the stagnant dead air in the house tightened around my neck choking me. I slipped out of bed and opened a window. It made no difference. Feeling anxious, I noticed a deep sensation of dread forcing its way into my soul.
I often heard strange grumbling voices and laboured breathing coming from the walls of our silent house, speaking in unison, ‘Cursed house, dreadful misfortune.’ Tonight, no difference awaited me. Those weird sounds seemed to reverberate from the cramped attic room at the top of the house, right down to the ground floor. The hexagonal hallway grumbled as I heard six whispered voices that unified into one loud, persistent groan that amplified, filling the hall with the same repeated words.
I wrestled with alternating tiredness and wakefulness, pushing the sounds away, I fell into a deep sleep. I dreamed. A vision formed and I could see the pathway ahead lay deserted, not a soul in sight. The dead of night beckoned, and an eerie silence magnified every rustle and quadrupled every whisper in the breeze. The gentle sound of trickling water soothed my disturbed senses, but I couldn’t find the source. I fought a strange feeling that someone followed me. Yet, when I glanced over my shoulder, no one seemed to be there. No footprints, no churned-up earth, nothing. I walked faster, but my steps lagged, like a clock pendulum moving back and forth on a predetermined journey, yet moving in slow motion.
As my dream continued, the whispering winds grew louder. I forced myself to turn around and confront my growing fear. I saw the shadow of a man, and he was following me. Disconcerted, I tried to run and stumbled; as if this shadowy man’s long limbs were reaching forward to trip me up. Just when I couldn’t take another step, the winds stopped. The shadow revealed itself in a flash of light and vanished. My eyes blinked, captivated by blue-black hair, but I couldn’t see his face. I stood transfixed by a bright light followed by an immediate darkness.
© Marjorie Mallon 2017
Hope you enjoyed my extract and Tanka.
Here’s the link to join in Colleen’s weekly challenge: https://colleenchesebro.com/2017/08/22/colleens-weekly-poetry-challenge-47-haiku-tanka-haibun-shadow-light/
Yesterday, I had the dizzy pleasure of being hosted on three blogs. The first two, (Charli and Seumas,) to discuss my love of writing poetry, and then I hopped over to Sheila’s to discuss the subject of magical realism too.
Phew…
Charli Mills Raw Literature: https://carrotranch.com/2017/08/22/raw-literature-haiku-tanka-and-a-debut-novel/
And Seumas Gallacher Blog: https://seumasgallacher.com/2017/08/22/marjorie-mallon-poet-and-authoress-extraordinaire-come-be-entranced/
Plus Sheila’s blog yesterday too! https://scskillman.com/2017/08/22/the-curse-of-time-a-guest-post-by-m-j-mallon-author-of-the-curse-of-time-book-1-bloodstone/
The 22nd was my super promo day! Today, I’m staying at home getting everything ready for my online party on the 26th and I’m writing up a promotional post for Trent McDonald, who has just published his book Fireborn. So that will be on my blog soon.
In case you haven’t seen an invite to the launch of my kindle e-book on Saturday 26th August here it is. I hope you will do me the honour of being my guest.
Bye for now,
My social media links:
Authors/Bloggers Rainbow Support Club on Facebook
Here’s me and my good friends Colleen and Debby who run the group together.
Twitter: @curseof_time
Shadows… oh yes. Perfect, Marje. Hugs.
Thank you Teagan, glad you enjoyed. 🙂
Goodness you have been busy. Wishing you lots of success. 🌼🌼🌼
Yes, I’m planning on a bit of a break after the launch. Well, it will probably be a quasi-break. My daughter is off to S.Korea to teach English as a foreign language 1st September so have to have some quality time with her before she goes.
That sounds lovely. I have just enjoyed two weeks staycation with my family visiting from Scotland. It was a lot of fun.
Glad you managed to have some time with your family. 🙂
Wonderful poetry MJ…loved this one. 🙂
Thank you Balroop. I so love writing poetry! 🙂
Well done, Marie. I knew these words would give you an extra push this week. An excellent Tanka! <3
Thank you Colleen. 🙂 xx
A lot of depth in the tanka Marje, imagination running wild.
Thank you Denis. My imagination does tend to go on overdrive sometimes!
I enjoyed the extract Marje, it was very gripping, and pretty creepy too! The tanka fitted perfectly 🙂
Thank you Judy, glad you enjoyed. The story is a little creepy sometimes. Ha ha… particularly as the series develops. This is book 1, I have lots of ideas for book 2! Can’t wait to get back to writing the second book in the series. 🙂
You are on a creative roll, Marje. I am looking forward to getting stuck into the book 🙂 x
Thank you Judy. That’s wonderful, Enjoy!