#eden burning

[butchersmiles]

after 3 years of endless writing and rewriting, i finally finished my manuscript. i thought i would feel... relief? pride? excitement? and i do! but the overwhelming, overarching feeling is... grief. i've felt very heavy since then, very lonely. like the characters i fell in love with and thought about incessantly—they went quiet. and i miss them

[butchersmiles]

pray the sun will rise

hi i don't really consider myself to be a writeblr but i'm trying to get involved with the writeblr community more so i thought i could post a little about my wip in case anyone wanted to know!

pray the sun will rise is about a youth pastor who believes he is having visions from god and receiving messages from angels to "save" several of the teens in his youth group, by kidnapping them and keeping them in his home, "eden", where they will supposedly pay their penance and be saved from sin.

james muldoon is the youth pastor who believes he is a messenger of god, and wants to help save the teens in his youth group from an eternity of damnation, in a rather twisted way.

lottie (charlotte) muldoon is james's wife and the first person he kidnapped, though she is now an adult and helps james lead his youth group at the church.

jasper is the second person james kidnapped, though this was really more as a favor to jasper at first; james took him in and helped him run away when the police were looking for him after he shot his father, but didn't tell him just what his new life would entail.

ellie (elizabeth) is the third person taken into eden, after james caught her having a relationship with another girl in the youth group. she's the rebel of all of them, and despises james thoroughly.

lucy (lucille) is the fourth person taken in, the protagonist, and also the perspective through which the story is told. james took her into eden after she got an abortion, and she's the person to obey him the most, after lottie--purely out of fear.

molly (margaret) is the last person to come to eden, though she wasn't kidnapped. after finding out what james was doing, she was convinced he could save her soul, and so ran away from her home to live with him. because she committed no "grave sins", james sees her as pure, and because of this favors her greatly, building resentment between her and the rest of the inhabitants of the house.

abigail muldoon is the daughter of lottie and james, and grows up in eden, taken care of by everyone, but primarily lucy. abigail takes the name her mother had before being forced to change it by james.

-

that's the basic rundown! i don't have any of it posted anywhere online (i want to finish the first draft before i do so), but i'll update this post with a link when i do 😁 my tag for all things related to this wip is "eden burning" if anyone is curious!

[butchersmiles]

thank you to @lightpurplelilies for tagging me and sorry for taking so long to get around to participating!

the words were cruel, opposite, ice, and silence, and i'm doing this from my current work, pray the sun will rise.

cruel only shows up once, which is kind of surprising:

“I don’t recall Elizabeth asking to be excused. Am I being forgetful? Did she ask my permission, and I’ve suddenly forgotten? Perhaps I’m getting old. Do you think that might be it, Lucille? That I’ve gotten old?”

What a cruel man. Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to play with your food, James?

opposite shows up twice. here's the first:

"Charlotte,” James said gravely. I saw his feet turn to point toward her. “I think you need to go lie down for a while, until you're feeling right.”

“James—”

“Now, Charlotte.”

There was a pause, then she stormed out, slamming the door behind her. The mattress creaked at Jasper and James perched themselves on opposite ends.

ice shows up three times. this is my favorite passage it occurs in:

James swallows down his whiskey and puts his head in his hands. He looks old like this. He looks like my dad the day after mom left.

"Lucy," he laughs, "she's gone. Lottie is gone."

He swipes the glass off the table. Ice cubes hit the carpet, melt into little piles of nothing.

silence shows up seven times. this is the first:

A bed without sheets in an attic without windows. A stolen copy of a forbidden book. A lifetime of wanting spelled out in the silence before a prayer. It’s funny how you start to call these things home.

i don't really have many friends in the writeblr community! so i'm tagging anyone who sees this to do this cause it was funnn

[butchersmiles]

last line tag

thank you for tagging me @lightpurplelilies!

"You want to have a baby, you selfish bitch?" James spits at Lottie. "We'll have a fucking baby."

i don't really have any writing friends on here since i'm not super involved with writeblr so i'm tagging anyone who sees this post and wants to join in!

[butchersmiles]

@lightpurplelilies sorry for also missing this tag game, but this is my response to the chapter title tag! because my story relates so much to religion and it's such a huge theme, all my chapters are titled with a bible verse i felt was relevant to the chapter theme.

these are all the chapter titles for part one: the old testament

I. genesis 1:1

(In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.)

II: ephesians 5:19

(Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the LORD.)

III: isaiah 43:18

(Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.)

IV: matthew 5:7

(Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.)

V: jeremiah 5:26

(For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.)

VI: proverbs 19:9

(A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.)

VII. genesis 19:17

(And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.)

VIII. ephesians 5:22

(Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands, as unto the LORD.)

IX. proverbs 31:30

(Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.)

X. 2 corinthians 5:17

(Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.)

XI. 2 timothy 3:2

(For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy.)

XII. exodus 20:12

(Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.)

XIII. luke 12:2

(For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hidden, that shall not be known.)

XIV. isaiah 49:15

(Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee.)

XV. 1 corinthians 15:33

(Do not be deceived: bad company corrupts good character.)

i want to tag @apinchofsanity @martyrsuggestion @redstainedsocks @rammyrue i'm like so super aware that i have never talked to any of you or at least not for a hot minute, but i hate not tagging back for these so no pressure

[butchersmiles]

@lightpurplelilies tagged me in a writing game! it's been literally 3 months, but this has been sitting in my drafts unposted for some reason (sorry!). the words are friend, fear, cheek, exchange, narrow

"friend"

Lottie, lying on the ground, cold and alone and dying; Lottie, looking for something to love into existence, something to give James to make her whole, Lottie, the light leaving her eyes, searching the room for a friend. And not me, not me, I don't want her to give me this baby. I don't want to take her place. I'd never survive.

"fear"

“You’ve been in my room,” he sneered, and stepped toward me. “You’ve been in mine and Lottie’s room, haven’t you?”

Despite my rage, I stepped away from him, fearing him still, knowing he was bigger, knowing even then what my place was. But still that letter was in my hand, and still I was out for blood, knowing that I did still have a life outside of here that wanted me back.

"cheek"

I fumbled my way around, following sickeningly bright signs, until I found the church basement; in there sat Charlotte and James, talking sweetly to each other, Charlotte’s cheeks either flushed pink or carefully painted on to appear so. A white card table was pushed against one wall, ready to buckle beneath the weight of several gallons of sweet tea—why did everyone in the south like sweet tea so much?— and four pizza boxes, a bowl of chips.

"exchange"

Lottie hands me the last of the plates—fifteen, sixteen, seventeen—and writes out a list in her neat cursive. Her wedding band and engagement ring catch the light as she does so, glimmering enticingly. Two small metal circles and a stone. Good morning kisses and keeping a clean house in exchange for sunlight. The lucky bitch.

"narrow"

When we’ve finished eating and the table is cleared and we’ve all done our chores for the night, it’s off to bed with us. The nightly routine, brush our teeth and fix our beds and go to separate rooms to put on our pajamas, but tonight Ellie takes a shower, too, she can’t get blood on the white sheets. After this, we trail behind James up the first flight of stairs, and then up our narrow staircase to the attic. James and Lottie lead us in our bedtime prayer, the three of us kneeling at the end of our respective beds like pious little children, and then they bid us goodnight and head off to their own room for their own routine. James locks the door behind him.

It’s tense, once they’ve gone. Ellie moves silently around, eyes lingering on her meagre belongings, hands just barely ghosting over the surface of her things as if she isn’t really here.

once again i don't have too many friends in the writing community 😅 so i'm tagging who ever sees this and wants to do it. thanks again to @lightpurplelilies!

[butchersmiles]

when you want to make memes about your wip but then you remember that literally no one has read it so they wouldn't make sense 😔

[satxmusic]

7/26: "Can't Beat This Drummer Down" (Benefit) - The Selfish Machines, Machination, Devilmaycare, Cousin Kit, Eden Burning, Red I.V., The Steel Soldiers, The Akuzma, Bone and more @ Fitzgerald's Bar

ROCK/ALTERNATIVE/HARD ROCK/METAL/INDUSTRIAL/PUNK

DOORS AT 6 P.M., $5 COVER, 18+

FACEBOOK EVENTS: 1, 2

The Selfish Machines: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Machination: Facebook

Devilmaycare: Facebook, ReverbNation

Cousin Kit: Facebook, ReverbNation, Twitter

Eden Burning: Facebook, ReverbNation, Twitter

Red I.V.: Facebook, ReverbNation, Twitter 

The Steel Soldiers: Website, Facebook, Twitter 

The Akuzma: Facebook, ReverbNation, Twitter 

BONE: Facebook