Tag: Fiction

Posted in Fiction, Writing

My Favorite Writing Tools

Posted on by L. M. Montes

I use Scrivener for when I am writing. Some authors prefer Microsoft Word, and that’s ok. I have used Word in the past, but Scrivener fits my purposes best. When I finish writing a book, I export my manuscript to Microsoft Word and edit there. After I am finished with my own edits, I send it to my editor. When they are finished, they send it back. It’s still in Word. Then comes the book formatting. For this I then export it from Word to Atticus. There are other book formatting programs out there, like Vellum, but Vellum is for Mac computers only. I don’t use a Mac.

Here are some links to the above programs so you can check them out if you are ever in need of them.

Scrivener
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/

Atticus
https://www.atticus.io/

Vellum
https://vellum.pub/


Posted in Characterization

Character Moments

Posted on by L. M. Montes

Creating book characters can be a lot of fun, but there is a process. How you wield that process is really up to you as the author. Many authors create a character bible consisting of everything from physical attributes to personality analysis. Some do this before writing that first chapter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s always a good idea to know who your character is before you place them in your story. But you will not know everything about them when you start writing that first chapter.

There will be moments while you’re writing your story when ideas about your character will begin to germinate in your mind, thereby giving him/her more depth. That’s great! Go with that! Those are unplanned parts of the character’s personality. Now, that type of situation typically works out great. But there are times when that happens, and it can throw a monkey wrench into the situation. For example, years ago when I was in the middle of writing my first novel, I had one of my male characters do something out of character. And I’m talking WAY out of character. I sat there, stared at the screen, and said, “What do I do now? I like what I had him do?”

The easy way to fix this situation would have been to change his action and move on. The complex way to fix it was to go back to the beginning and change his whole character, moving forward to that point. So that is what I did. In the end I was happier with him, and the story was better off as a result.

Can you plan everything about your characters from the start? You can try, but be ready when that runaway moment comes that makes your story that much better.

Posted in Prompts

A Fear I Overcame

Posted on by L. M. Montes

When I was in the Navy Reserves, I took a course called Firefighting and Damage Control at the Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, Long Island. If any of you have been there, you know where I am talking about. The course was two weeks long with the first week covering firefighting and the second week covering damage control. The first week consisted of a lot of classroom instruction (Monday – Thursday), then Friday was hands on. Now keep in mind I was a novice at this. I had seen firefighting on TV shows, but I was never part of the act in real life. Until that course. Yes, I was nervous, fearful, and Oh My Gosh all wrapped into one emotion. The key is not letting that show.

The hands on consisted of various scenarios. In each scenario we had to put out a fire in a different type of environment as it pertained to Naval situations. For some scenarios we worked with a partner, and for others we were put into teams of six. My fear at that time was claustrophobia. Let’s just say it isn’t my fear anymore.

Let me explain. This school had a small Navy ship built into the pavement for training purposes. The galley (kitchen) was below the surface. The stairwell to get to it was painted black. The fire (Yes, there really was one, albite it being controlled) was in the kitchen. My team of six headed down the stairs (keep in mind that if we didn’t do any of these scenarios, we didn’t pass the course). I was in the middle of the line of sailors heading down the stairs. We got halfway down. It grew darker. The walls closed in. I froze, slapped my hands on the walls on either side of the stairwell, turned and ran back up the steps. When I reached the top, my instructor asked, “What’s the problem?” To which I replied, “Claustrophobia.” He told me to relax and breath. He didn’t force me to go down. After all, I did have a choice. But I needed to pass that course. That fact kept slapping me in my head more than anything. So I said, “I have to do this. I’m going down.” And I did. I trotted down the stairs, met my team mates who where fighting the kitchen fire, took hold of the hose and did what I was supposed to do.

I know I made this sound like the decision was easy at the end when I decided to finish the scenario. But, trust me, it wasn’t. The fear of failing won out in the end. We put the fire out and passed.

Posted in Prompts

Broken Bones

Posted on by L. M. Montes

Yes, three. When I was four, I decided it would be fun to hang on the arm of one of the flower pots on the side of the house. It was approximately 2 feet by 6 inches and about 6 or 7 inches deep. It was filled with dirt at the time. I wrapped my foot in the angular arm protruding out from the house, grabbed hold of it with my hands, and started swinging. It took one swing and the flower pot came down on my left ankle. I remember that pain like it was yesterday. I am thankful to God for not letting it come down on my head, or I probably would not be here today reliving that experience. Then…..

Last year, July 29 2024, I was on a walk. I had my cellphone in my left hand playing music (no headphones) and going at a pretty good clip. I was on the sidewalk (usually I walk on the street). As I approached the next street, I tripped over a piece of cement sticking up from crack. My knees went out from under me, I couldn’t right myself, and I flew over the curb into the street. I landed on my left side. My phone went flying, my left arm twisted, and the left side of my face smacked against the pavement. My right arm was trying to do its job, and in so doing, twisted as well but not as much as the left. The result? My left arm was dislocated at the elbow (radius), and the ulna was broken in three places. I have a plate and screws keeping it all together. The right arm had a tiny hairline fracture in a small round bone inside the elbow. No cast for the right arm, but it still hurt to the point I needed my husband to do tiny favors for me like opening the tube of toothpaste, LOL. The left had a splint for the first two weeks (after the ER doctor put the radius back in its socket). Two weeks later I had surgery on the three breaks on the ulna to put the hardware in, then it was wrapped for a month.

Now, ten months later, my arms are as good as new.

Posted in Books

Lights of Fantasy Presents

Posted on by L. M. Montes
Posted in Fiction, Short Stories

Mysterious Encounter: The Dark Abyss by L. M. Montes (Part I)

Posted on by L. M. Montes

The flat landscape lay empty. My night vision goggles guided me through the black of night while I ran for my life. The only sound penetrating the silence was my own puffs of breath. My lungs burned with the inhalation of air and adrenaline combination. The fleeting flash of a shadow slid by in my periphery on the right then another on the left.

I stopped and swept the terrain in front of me then to the rear, but there was no movement. Then I cocked my head and crinkled my brows when the ground in front of me moved. I was standing still, so this shouldn’t have happened. It led down now into a dark abyss. I couldn’t see into the depths below, even with my night vision goggles donned. I turned around, facing behind me again, ran two steps, and skidded to a sliding skid then tumbled down a steep slope. Not thinking to check the rest of the ground me, I assumed the rest was flat. Now, I fell on my butt, skidding downward. I pushed backwards with my hands and feet, but all that did was delay the inevitable. I rolled onto my stomach, scrambling upward. In that moment four dark figures with spikes protruding from the circumference of their heads stood at the mouth of the hole.

Anger heated my insides, and I jammed my fist into the dirt. The result drove it in six inches, so I used the indentation as a hand-hold, stopping my fall. I repeated same action with my left boot. Now, as I stood, pasting myself to the side of the slope, I gazed up again at the rim of the hole. But the four dark figures were gone.

A light high in the sky moved toward me, gaining in strength. I tore off my night vision goggles and continued staring at it. Its source came into view. It was a bright, glowing orb. It stopped above the hole, sunk lower in the sky as though staring at me, then it lifted back into the atmosphere, and shot away.

The ground beneath me lifted, becoming flat once more. The quiet air around me was deafening. I sat up, donned the night vision goggles again, and swiveled my head in all directions but saw no one. I tore off the goggles and stood, breathing hard and heart pounding. Then a pinch in my left side snapped my hand up, covering where I felt it. I leaned to the left, staggered a couple steps, and slumped to my knees. Something slick and sticky oozed. Dizziness played with my vision. I peered down, and a dark liquid covered my hand. Something hard slammed into my back. I hit the ground face down. Then someone struck the side of my head and darkness took over.

To be continued

The Veil of Time

Tora Jasper arrives home in East Tawas, Michigan after a long drive from Norfolk, Virginia. Doing so reminds her of the tragedy that befell her parents a year ago, so she doesn’t want to stay too long. She wants to finish with her parents’ affairs and get back to Virginia. However, her friend and fate have different plans for her, so she stays…. for now. But, while going through her parents’ belongings, she uncovers a discovery that turns her world upside down.

In the meantime, she meets Kyle Stevens and John Cummings and discovers her connection to them goes beyond the here and now. Through them she soon discovers more clues that lead not only to more secrets about her family and herself but also to a whole other world and a quest to go with it. The journey won’t be easy. Her adversary, the Black Mamba, is there at every turn threatening her whole existence. It isn’t just him but the darkness he represents. She finds a calm in the darkness, and it scares her.

Will Kyle help her stay in the light and be the protector he claims to be, or will she succumb to the darkness? After all, he has his own secrets. At first, it goes well, but when Tora, Kyle, and John hit a snag, something goes very wrong. Soon they are in a race against time.

The Cross’s Key

The fate of Kyle Stevens hangs in the balance after blacking out in the Cave of Treasures and waking up to find himself in another realm and an historical event playing out in front of him. The horror brings him to his knees. Then an elusive and long forgotten relic from his past presents itself again, reminding him of unfinished business. Just when he thought life couldn’t get worse, memories he didn’t know he had, surface, along with a life or death quest he must undertake.

But the evil angel, Lord Ladonnis, has another plan for Kyle, one that could cost him his soul.

Kyle loves his teaching career and his life the way it is, but the more he ignores the quest, the closer Lord Ladonnis gets and the more his past and present collide.

Time Series

Posted in Fiction

Out Now

Posted on by L. M. Montes

For those of you who have seen and read my short stories I posted on this blog in the past, as you know, I deleted them off of here so I could put them all together into a collection and publish them. Well…..I published my collection of short stories. They came available on Amazon today February 9, 2024. The link is below.

However, I slightly changed some of the stories that had been on this blog. Plus, I added new short stories never published on this sight. I hope you check them out. Have fun reading.

This collection of short stories holds a mixture of fantasy, mystery, and intrigue, so dive into some mind-gripping strangeness that will leave you scratching your head and wondering. Find out what happens when you are never happy with what you have in The Moving Room. Be careful, you just might find out you’re someone else in Time’s Illusion. Have you ever seen eyes in a pool, and they’re following you? You will in Lights of Fantasy. Sometimes treasures are meant to stay hidden in Time’s Wind. Jump into these and other fantastical stories. Your fate awaits you.

Posted in Starts

Story Starters Part II

Posted on by L. M. Montes

On July 15, 2020 I posted an article entitled Story Starters. In that article I talked mostly about the What If statement, and many examples were given. One example mentioned was: what if you stumble upon your parents who aren’t your parents but they look like them? In this article I would like to give you a variation of the What If statement.

Maybe the What If statements aren’t the way you come up with story ideas. That’s ok. We’re all different. Here’s another way you can do that without using the What If.

SettingCharacterActionDisaster
A FarmJeff (the owner)He’s milking the cowHe receives word that his
brother died.
He has no brother…
A high school classroomThe teacherShe is teach a math classShe is arrested.
A parkMr. John’s and his dogHe is walking his dogA random woman accuses him of breaking into her house.

You can see by reading the above examples, there’s much you can do with these general statements. The sky is the limit. But my point here is that the table above (and maybe you’d rather not use a table) is just one way of organizing your thoughts. The way each idea is stated is done in such a way that you can mix and match them. Instead of the teacher being arrested, Mr. John’s could get arrested in the park as he’s walking his dog. You see how this way is more versatile?

Feel free to use any and all ideas I present on this blog. Happy writing. Have fun.