Author: catstark

via Daily Prompt: Thwart

I didn’t use the word “thwart” in The Grey House Trilogy. Here is a paragraph from That Which has No Name, where I do use the word:

Althea watched the interaction, intrigued. It was obvious that the Pastor thought well of the daughter. It was also obvious that she liked the man, as she kept looking at him from over her mother’s shoulder. But her mother was thwarting the girl’s every attempt to talk to the Pastor. It was amusing, and educational. Althea stood and smiled, her plan already formulating in her mind. She walked out of the church, into the nearby woods. If her plan was going to work, she would need to ditch her current host.

 

via Daily Prompt: Inchoate

Today’s Daily prompt is for a word I have never used and will probably never use. I had to look it up. Though I like “big words” and often use “big words” in my every day speaking and in my works, “inchoate” is not something I am familiar enough to use. Therefore, I have chose a random paragraph from The Grey House Book One, because that is more my style.

Slowly, deliberately, Vincent walked out of the office, down the hallway and out into the main room. Scanning the crowd, he found the quickest route through the guests to the private corner. Anthony and his mystery woman were still speaking softly. He stood unnoticed for two minutes. Vincent was not a happy man. He wanted to pull Anthony away from her, but he knew from experience that to rip a hypnotized person away from the hypnotist was a very bad idea. Instead, he cleared his throat. Twice.

via Daily Prompt: Haul

From The Grey House, Book Three, Protector of the Grey House:

Natalia vaguely remembered waking up twice before, only to feel a slight pain on her leg and then darkness. Not wanting to be drugged again, she kept her eyes closed and tried to look as if she were still asleep. It proved to be harder then she realized as thoughts of the others in the household flooded her mind. Her eyes snapped open and she tried to haul herself to her feet. She immediately regretted it when she felt a slight pain in her thigh. She looked down long enough to see a tranquilizer dart sticking out of her leg. She passed out cursing herself for her haste.

via Daily Prompt: Frigid

From The Grey House, Book Two, Inside the Grey House:

Natalia lay in the circle of his cooling arms, feeling as his body stole her heat, wondering what he would do to her when he decided she needed to be punished for her arguable betrayal. He moved slightly in his sleep, trapping her further as his arms tightened around her. She leaned into the frigidness of him, closed her eyes and let it all go. He would do as he saw fit and she would accept it. She killed Dean to keep him from suffering at the hands of the vampires in the house. She would take her punishment with her head held high, knowing she would do it all over again if she had the chance.

via Daily Prompt: Radiant

Every instance of ‘radiant’ I have in all the books that I have, is for “radiant smile”…

As that is an obvious usage, I have decided to forgo the Daily Promtpt. Sorry. Have a great night.

 

via Daily Prompt: Toxic

In The Grey House Trilogy, I’ve used the word ‘intoxicated’ a few times, but not ‘toxic’. I was not surprised by that, and decided to try finding the word in another book. The book is probably a two parter, but only the first part is written.

Though the book is about spiders, I never use the word ‘toxic’. I decided to try venom and even though someone is bitten by a spider a few times, I did not use the word ‘venom’. I cringed as I decided to make sure I didn’t use the word ‘poison’. Spiders are venomous and have venom. They are not poisonous and therefor ‘poison’ should not be used to describe their venom. Sigh… I used ‘poison’ a few times and once was incorrectly. At least this daily prompt helped me find it.

Here is the paragraph where the word ‘poison’ was used (it has been corrected):

 

Ann screamed as the black widow came out from behind a leaf and seemingly flew at her daughter’s finger. She tried to pull Mary away, but the spider reached her first. Ann batted at Mary’s finger, squeezing on her finger hard to helplessly stop the venom from invading her daughter’s body and killing her. Ann was up and screaming for her husband before the spider hit the ground. Ann squashed it with her garden shoe and ran to the house.

“SAM! Get the car! A black widow bit Mary!”

via Daily Prompt: Warning

From The Grey House, Book One:

He nodded. “How many times has a vampire fed from you?”

She gave a short, humorless laugh. “Other than the time your man took my blood as a warning?”

They stared at each other for a moment before Vincent answered. “Yes.”

 

 

via Daily Prompt: Betrayed

This is currently from The Grey House, Book One, but depending on how things turn out, may end up in its own book. Either way, it’s from one of my favorite scenes. Though Charlie is not a main character in the Trilogy, he is one of the supporting (and I think very important) characters:

“Charlie. You betrayed me. There’s no coming back from that.”

He started to speak, thought better of it, shrugged and plodded on, knowing he was using a poor excuse. “You know I won’t do it again.”

via Daily Prompt: Frantic

From The Grey House, Book One:

“The Ocean’s Edge. This is Richard, how may I help you?” He sounded frantic.

“This is Charlie, I work for Vincent. I need to know the last time Natalie was at work.”

There was a pause. “Who did you say you were?”

“I was sitting at the table to the right of Vincent.”

“Oh yes, sir. I know who you are.” Another pause. Charlie was wondering if Richard was going to talk to him when he finally came back on. “The last time she worked was Monday.”

“Has she called?”

“No.”

“Has she ever missed work before?” He already knew the answer.

“No. Never even been late.”

“I want you to call me if you hear from her.” He rattled off his number and hung up. He drummed his fingers on the phone then decided. He had to find Vincent. Charlie paused with his hand on the doorknob, really considering his actions.

via Daily Prompt: Micro

Micro(phones) is the word of the day. From The Grey House, Book One:

Vincent watched as the mysterious woman led Anthony away. From his security office, he could see the whole club. He followed them as they walked from one screen to another. His blood boiled as she took the bait. There was one section of the private room that was set up to be out of the way. There were hidden cameras everywhere, but only that corner had microphones.