Sunday, August 31, 2025

Chapter 39 now live!

 Chapter 39 is now live! Sorry for the delay (as always!)

We find Owen on the edge of a precipice. A fence. A partner in crime. A long feared enemy. 

 Read Chapter 39 HERE

https://talesofthespire.blogspot.com/2025/08/chapter-39.html 

Thank you for reading!
L.B. James.

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Possible Delay for Chapter 39

"See, they're all the way over there. But we're way over here..."

Apologies to all. But a potential postponement on today's chapter (hopefully only 24 hours, but will be dependent on some things). 

If able to post sooner, an update will come. 

Thank you all for your understanding.
-L.B. James

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Writing Prompt - The Last Flare

The light of stars are like a cosmic time capsule. What we see is what existed in time at a different point and frame of reference before we even have a chance to observe them. 

A lesson hard earned: you cannot take a passing moment back. Once it's memory it's gone. 
To sound melodramatic?

"Life gives us a present. It's unfortunate if we don't receive it."

Side note: Say what you might about Rick and Morty, but some of the music they feature is straight up amazing. Don't Look Back has been on my replay cycle a lot these past weeks.

-L.B. James

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Today's Music:  Don't Look Back (Diane's Version) - Kotomi & Ryan Elder
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imtFT33Xm5I

Prompt: The Last Flare (Third person, Semi-Omniscient, Scif-fi, Bittersweet)

=============================
The stars outside the suit's faceplate shimmer like distant memories. Their light is cold. Brilliant, but unreachable. He drifts. The hum of the suit's life support and the stillness of his breathing the only sounds.

An alert flashes mutely. A warning to count down the last, dwindling supply of safely breathable atmosphere remaining in his supply. He is beyond the moment to care.

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Chapter 38 released!

Oh, boy oh boy!
Getting close to book one's end! Rain, Rain and MORE Rain!

(Also this one is a late post, but it's still TECHNICALLY saturday! Many apologies. Location and travel causing issues for me, but we made it!)

Please read Chapter 38 HERE!
https://talesofthespire.blogspot.com/2025/08/chapter-38.html

Thank you for reading!
- L.B. James.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Writing Prompt - Smokey Passions (A noir moment in time)

Smokey Jazz. A bar. A man with a gun, and a dame too hot for the presses. 

My kind of story...

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Today's music: Sexy Blues - Shen Lab
https://youtu.be/8HrZpKoWqUY


Prompt: Smokey Passions (First-Person, Noir, Suggestive)
Warnings: Indicators of Smoking, vague mentions of suicide, and drinking.
======================================================

Midnight had settled its cloak over the crossroads between worlds.

I was the last lonely customer nursing a drink at a bar where lost souls came to forget which world they belonged to. It was the kind of place where the bartender didn't ask pesky questions, and neither did I.

Just the way I liked it.

Beneath a cover of boiling clouds the color of smokey grey ash, through an ornate skylight set within the ceiling of the almost empty atrium, I saw it. A bolt of lightning. It slashed toward a metal pole, erect and waiting upon the rooftop to receive its powerful stroke like a sentinel upon a raised dais. The crack of the thunder was almost palpable as the jukebox coughed out a dying blues riff, its speaker crackling like broken promises and warnings of thin ice.

I traced the rim of my glass with a hand, slow and deliberate, drawing circles around the truth I didn’t want to face. I'd been diving—two fingers past the point of no return. The remnants of the cheap booze clung to the sides of the glass like rivulets of regret as, like a guilty man beneath a burning bulb in a dark room, my ice cubes began to sweat.

Their diminishing shapes were gliding deeply below the rim when she walked in.

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Chapter 37 released! (Also a hidden, er...bonus?)

 For the observant, you may have noted Chapter 36 was actually released last week, but I failed to make a post here for it. (Whoopsie!)

 Chapter 36 can be read: HERE! 

 Also? Somewhat on time (cough cough...at least on the correct day!) Chapter 37 has been also released!Knock yourselves out! 

Chapter 37 can be read HERE!

Thanks for reading!
-L.B. James

Sunday, August 3, 2025

Writing Prompted: Fanged Strike

 Some days life takes the form of an opponent who sinks their fangs into you when you least expect it...

 =====================================================
Today's music: CHMCL SOUP - DARKSIDE 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl8PWccZ3mw

Prompt: Barbed Strikes (First-Person, Vampire, Veiled Action)

====================================================== 

My heart began to beat faster as the words of my departed master came forth.

Finesse. Not force.

Saturday, August 2, 2025

Week Delay: Unexpected travel

Many apologies, but due to an unexpected schedule change, Chapter 36's release will be delayed by one week. 

Thank you for your patience!
- L.B. James