March 12, 2017

#WeWriWa Cargon: Honor and Privilege #fantasy #scifi #postapocalyptic

Sunday is a great day for sharing. You can grab a snippet of so many stories and authors by visiting the Weekend Writing Warriors. Each of us has 8-10 sentences from a work, in progress or published. Mine is from Cargon: Honor and Privilege, the first in a trilogy. I am hoping to release the second edition soon.

Cargon came with powerful consequences. The winner, deemed highly intelligent, took the place of the loser. If the loser came from lower status, he was further shamed and deemed less competent. Likewise, a winner of higher status was further honored and more likely to test those above him. What surprised and frightened Eve was the tendency of spouses to shift with the results as though their status, unchanged, kept them with the elite of that position. The practice, although well documented, made no sense to Eve. For all her intelligence, she would never claim to ‘think’ like the elite.
After dinner, she lingered, watching the High One tend the board. It was strange to Eve that the highest among them would assume such a menial task, but she did the same every night. Eve was gobsmacked when, for the second time, the High One addressed her.

--note: the first was just before Eve started attending classes intended for the Elite.

Unrelated, I have another title re-releasing soon.

What if Ground Hog Day included zombies?
Cassandra survived the zombie apocalypse. She and other young survivors band together to search the desolate city for food, lodging, weapons, and hopefully, more survivors.
On one such rescue mission, the zombies get lucky and Cassandra is their victim. Instead of dying, though, Cassandra wakes up in her own past, days before the outbreak of the virus that turned all the adults to mindless monsters.
She has one chance to stop it all. Well, maybe more than one.
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27 comments:

  1. Even though it's just a game, it sounds like the results can be pretty brutal.

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  2. Interesting how much winning the game can change one's status. I wonder if Eve will end up playing.

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  3. The worldbuilding is very interesting here, enjoyed the excerpt!

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    1. Thank you! I tried to create a recovering post-apocalyptic society.

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  4. You are unique, my friend. Interesting story.

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  5. I'm intrigued to see more of what "tending the board" looks like. Is she setting out the pieces, cleaning & polishing them, something else ... ? You've piqued my interest.

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    1. More the latter than the former. I have a few other mentions of the chore.

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  6. I found myself empathizing strongly with Eve's situation.

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    1. I'm glad! I worry sometimes. She isn't often emotional, relying on logic. It makes her cold...

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  7. Interesting game. Switching spouses? The consequences of losing could be disastrous. Great snippet.

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    1. Indeed! As Eve soon learns, their marriages aren't like ours.

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  8. I agree with Eve. That's a terrible way to think.

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    1. Indeed. She will adjust to it, somewhat, but never completely.

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  9. It sounds like a very intense game, with serious consequences.

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  10. Interesting game, but not one I would want to lose. :D

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  11. Power is everything, right? And the chance to get more power is intriguing for some.

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  12. Interesting game. Warped, but interesting.
    Tweeted.

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  13. The switching spouses doesn't surprise me since it often happens in our world when job displacement/termination occurs to one partner. Sad but true.

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  14. You have created a very intriguing world, Kimberly. The real-life parallels are very interesting. Excellent job

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  15. You have created a very intriguing world, Kimberly. The real-life parallels are very interesting. Excellent job

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  16. This game sounds rife with pitfalls. Interesting system to build a society on.

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