Fishsticks

So what do you do when your first kiss ends up killing a girl, and that girl starts haunting you? Good thing Salmon Coal is an amateur ghost hunter... Too bad that she's not the only thing out there that wants him dead.

[salmoncoal-blog]

"I seduce the skeleton."

"You can't seduce everything."

"... I seduce the DM."

[geneticandunattainable]

I miss New England so much it hurts.

[truehauntings]

Over The Garden Wall aesthetic

[leonardotaku]

[salmoncoal-blog]

Black Cats

I wanted to share what I wrote for this morning’s word war (I won, btw):

Limerick gave me a pointed look. I frowned. "What?" "You're doing it again." I looked at my hand. It was resting on the back of Limerick's shoulders. "What, this?" His yellow eyes narrowed to thin lines of gold in a sea of black. "What do you think?" I petted him again, fingers dipping into the thick fur between his shoulder blades. "Cats usually like being petted, don't they?" "You have no idea about cats, do you?" I actually didn't know, since Mom never let me have a pet before, but shrugged. "You're purring, anyway." He blinked, eyes going from gibbous to full moon in surprise. "I -- what?" And then he stopped to listen to himself, and there it was: a deep, rumbling purr in his chest. Limerick's eyes went half-moon and glared up at me. "Stop. Stop this at once." "You like it!" I stroked down the line of his spine. "Doesn't your master ever pet you?" "No, of course not. Have a sense of propriety; I'm a Familiar, not a normal house cat!" "Sorry," I said, but kept petting anyway. He didn't move. Soon, he settled into a loaf next to my leg, eyes completely closed. "You're a terrible person, Salmon Coal," Limerick said. "Yeah, I'm the worst." I moved up to scratching behind his ears, then down to his neck, rubbing the loose skin over muscle. "Ah, yes, scratch right at my neck there -- thank you." "You're welcome."

[salmoncoal-blog]

So Fishsticks is currently sitting at 68,434 words, which is roughly 273 paperback novel pages. The more I keep at it, the more I love the story, though there’s still a ton of work left to do. I want to keep the total thing under 80k, so that also means that I need to revise and cut a lot of stuff, too, because there’s no way I can finish it all in 12k. 

My brother suggested I try writing the story as a picture book to distill it to its purest form, and even though I’ve only gotten the first quarter down, it really has helped a lot.

It reads:

Salmon Coal believes in ghosts. He can’t see them, but he knows that they’re there. 

“The evidence is all around,” his dad says on TV. William Coal is a famous Paranormal Investigator who hunts ghosts for a major broadcast network.

“Don’t listen to that horrible man,” Salmon’s mom says. “He chose career over family. Let’s pretend he doesn’t exist.” But she is a librarian, and does not work for a major broadcast network.

It’s easy to pretend that his dad doesn’t exist, though, because he lives in LA while Salmon lives in Massachusetts, all the way across the country. But, if something really supernatural happened in town, his dad might just pay a visit.

Salmon goes out every night to record all of the paranormal activity around town. He even joins a Ghost Club at school with his best friend Theo, where they talk about how fun it would be to actually see a ghost. 

Unfortunately, none of them have any luck.

That is until Theo’s older sister, Lauriette, finds a cursed book in her grandfather’s study. 

“It’s totally haunted,” Lauriette says. “Just like the hotel.”

Lauriette and Theo live at The Linden Estate, which is a big hotel in the woods just outside of town. It’s popular belief that it is, indeed, haunted.

“Hella haunted,” Theo adds. “We should investigate during Homecoming because it’ll be at the hotel. You can be Lauriette’s date.”

This is very convenient, because no Coals are allowed on Linden property. That is because William Coal has always wanted to film a holiday special there, and Mr. Linden is not fond of the media. 

Salmon agrees to the investigation, but a date -- ? With Lauriette? 

Now that is scary. 

That’s 258 words, which is already almost HALF of what a picture book length should be. Oops. But I’ll work on it. :) 

[salmoncoal-blog]

39 Salmon, Limerick

Who is your OCs biggest enemy?

“My dad, probably.”

“The Vatican…” 

[salmoncoal-blog]

37 Salmon

What was your OCs first word?

“My mom says it was ‘no,’ but I can’t vouch for that.”

[salmoncoal-blog]

58 Lauriette, Theo

Is your OC introverted or extroverted?

“Extroverted... at least, from the definition of needing to draw energy from people... being a ghost, that’s my MO.”

“Natural born E! As in ENFP!”

[salmoncoal-blog]

51 Salmon, Lauriette, Limerick, Theo

What is your OCs favorite genre of music?

“Alternative.”

“Pop. Specifically, Lucky Flaw.”

“Jazz or swing, if you can believe it.”

“Soundtracks. Movies, games, tv serieses...”

[salmoncoal-blog]

43 Salmon, Theo

Who is your OCs biggest hero?

“Ezio.”

“Your face!”

“...”

[salmoncoal-blog]

50 Lauriette

Does your OC cry easily?

“Me? Cry? As if...” 

[salmoncoal-blog]

52 Limerick

How does your OC feel about insects?

“They can be a decent source of protein in a pinch.”

[salmoncoal-blog]

What are your plans for the future?

“I’m going to go to a university and study some branch of science, I think, ‘cause English is apparently a dead-end major, and no one takes Cryptozoology seriously. Biology, maybe? Study the supernatural with more authority, write some books...”

[lavida-inesperada-deactivated20]

I never want to leave

[forlackofabettercomic-deactivat]

Being an adult is the worst.

[salmoncoal-blog]

“Ghosts versus poltergeists versus demons...”