Writers-Academy

It was just past midnight and a full moon hung like a Swiss cheese over the rooftops of Paris. The sound of steam carriages and passing pedestrians floated up through the darkness of towards Charlie Fox, where he was poised on the roof-ridge, looking up at the star-spangled sky, feeling the wind tear at his strawberry-blond curls. He reached inside of one of the many pockets of his tattered gray leather coat and retrieved the slip of paper. A dancing lady at the Moulin Rogue had given it to him, reached inside of her generous décolletage and produced the tiny sheet. "Orders, man. Don't look at 'em now, wait until you're all cleared," she'd said in her rural dialect, so far from the French of the preppy Parisians. "And don't look behind, but there's a man in a black beard and a monocle two tables behind you. He's watching you." Then she's been off, like an autumn leave in the wind. And he'd seen her on stage later. Pudgy and verdant, and he'd wished she was more than just a business

Just outside the Hotel's entrance there was a taxi dropping off a couple of elderly people and Emil caught it before anyone beat him to it. "Hotel Axeline," he told the driver. Just saying the name made memories explode inside of his overheated brain. The entire ride to Ameline's hotel, Emil told himself he was being a fool. Ameline had made it very clear that she didn't want anything to do with him. For good reason. Just because he still loved her didn't mean she had to do what he said, what he wanted. He had been so afraid to lose her. So he'd gone ahead and done what? Pushed her away? "I'm an idiot," he mumbled while gazing out the side window. "Say what?" the driver asked, a man from some Middle Eastern country with a large, grey-sprinkled moustache. "Nothing." "Thought so," the man said and turned the final corner. Emil paid and stepped off, watched the Taxi disappear in the night down a sleepy side street. He sat down on a bench for five minutes contemplating all the ways

The door swung open so hard it bounced off the wall, making Ameline jump in surprise. "Dinner is due in 15 minutes," Meredith's mother announced in a too-bright voice. "We're going to need the kitchen. You two can finish your conversation by the bar. Nice and cozy. Quiet." "I've nothing else to say." Ameline said, keeping her head held high as she strode past Emil without hardly acknowledging him. How dared he apologize? Say that he loved her? Her heart, hardened with anger and accusations, challenged her head to turn over each word he'd said. Had she turned into a bridal terror? He had wanted a small wedding, but once you invited one person, things snowballed. That person contacted another person, and the next thing she knew, she had to rent a larger hall. But it was for love. She only planned on getting married once, so if things were lavish, why not? So what if she'd maxed her credit card on that dress? She would have looked like a princess in it. Not that Emil ever got to see it

"I couldn't be happier for you than knowing that you're marrying an amazing guy," Ameline told Meredith with all sincerity. "However I refuse to speak to his jackass of a brother." "You have to be polite, that's all," Meredith said with a shudder. "A few people have noticed that you've been avoiding Emil." "For good reason! We haven't spoken since he left me at the altar." "He called you," Meredith reminded gently. "Texted." "Rude, lame, awful and unforgivable behavior." Meredith curved her arm around Ameline's waist and squeezed. "But Emil is Toby's step brother as well as best friend and Toby isn't getting married without him as his best man. And I can't blame him. And I selfishly need you, my best friend and sister of the heart. There is nobody else." She bit one of those full red lips, dark eyes pensive beneath long lashes. "You can count on me," Ameline promise. "At least being there and being polite. However the temperature level might well hover around zero when it comes

Just as it had always done, every midmorning, Mother’s serene voice told Isa that the Window would be opened for her allotted Sunlight. She was already sitting eagerly in the tiny nook, waiting. This was her favorite moment of every twenty-four-hour period that Mother called a Day. Isa was angled to best see the wilderness beyond the Window. It was slowly consuming strange, crumbling structures under a distant reddish sun floating in a dusty sky. Each time every Day, she'd wonder who or what had built these structures? What had they been like? What had happened to them and where had they gone? Had Mother made them too? Sometimes she would see strange creatures called Animals darting around the ruins on four legs, at other times she'd catch a splash of colour from some creature fluttering around the sky, but mostly it was just her and the vast Outside. Anticipation incarnate, she waited for Mother to open the Window. Old creaking mechanisms strained as the Window slid sideways. The

"This is stupid," Blacklite said. "We Shouldn’t be doing this." The freeways were empty and the yellow glow from the city lights hovered like a thick fog. I didn't bother replying, he was right anyway, this was stupid, and we shouldn’t be doing it. But we were. "If anything goes wrong, we abort," he went on. "I mean anything. I won’t get busted for this Shit." "Stop fretting. Nothing will go wrong," I said, even though of course I couldn't know that. "Has he contacted you since you left Dallas in October?" Blacklite asked. "Why would he contact me?" He tilted his head to one side. "Why wouldn’t he?" "I hate him." I saw no point in lying. "He knows it." "Roberto is a difficult man to like," Blacklite admitted, "but what did he do to make you hate him?" "Besides almost killing Mathilde?" Blacklite’s eyebrows drew down in concern. "I thought he saved her life . . . and yours." "He took the medicine. The very last one. If Val and I hadn’t come upon her when she did, she’d be

There was music pounding through the air and lights flashing wildly. Jostling bodies surrounded Fiona and her head was a woozy mess. Eyelids down, she moved with the crowd. She couldn't place the song, but the vibrations from the huge speakers at the head of the dance floor penetrated her very bones. With every pound of the bass, her heart shuddered and her breath caught in her chest. Nearly an hour ago had she lost count of how many drinks she’d downed. Shot after shot she'd put back, beckoning the bartender back for more, over and over again. Strange men had surrounded her, whooping and cheering her on in their own drunken stupors. Eventually the bartender had cut her off and she'd stumbled away from the counter and into the mass of people. A body brushed up against her, closer than normal. Fiona turned her face to see a man smiling down at her, his features a haze before her eyes. He was holding out something to her, nodding and smirking. Gazing closer, Fiona saw the small, red

Since Justin got back from being Scarlet O'Hara he got an app on his phone that lets him pick anyone he wanted to be from the Incredibles. It was similar to the app that turned him into Ann Gora from SWAT Kats The Radical Squadron and me to Rita from Animaniacs. He remembered that Ryan said he used the device I first used to get to the world of the Catillac Cats to get to the world of The Incredibles. Ryan turned into Violet and made it seem that she and her alter ego were 2 different people. Ryan had the Incredibles franchise on his youtube channel. All had been copied to the right video sites except for Mr Incredible and Pals. Justin wondered if he could help by becoming a character. It didn't matter if he did or didn't help because he wanted to be Mirage all the same. So he picked her. Then a light from his phone shone on him. His feet shrank and his socks disappeared. His shoes changed into black high heels. His legs shortened, thinned out, and lost muscle and hair leaving him

Robert Darren wasn't sure they knew what to do with him and his team as they returned from this latest mission. This very peculiar African sojourn. It was strange enough for him, Thomas and Vanderpool to return from Sierra Leone - it was stranger still to realize that almost no one in the United States seemed to have the vaguest concern about what had happened out there – or even cared. There were no flag wavers, no flag burners - there was nothing. Then, on his first day back, Darren had the amusing experience of trying to convince a Jack-in-office clerk that he was in fact still alive. He had come home to discover that his allowances had been suspended for three weeks. Unbeknownst to Darren, and mercifully never discovered by his family, the Navy had listed him as dead during the absence. Although he had sent a situation report within minutes of the landing of the Russian goods, there had been more peculiarities than 'no resources available'. Due to a miss in communications, it had

Since I went home after Justin had been Princess Charlotte and I had been Tiana he though he'd tell Al about what happened. So Justin soon went to Al's house. "I had used a machine like the ones you used to change into Princess Elena and Chicha" said Justin. "I was at a display about the Princess and the frog. I met Sam there. We found out that 2 people could use the machine at the same time. He turned into Tiana and I turned into Charlotte." Al seemed surprised. "I wonder if another machine like that could be found?" he asked. "Don't know" said Justin. "If we find anything of the sort shall we use it together?" asked Al. "Maybe we can" said Justin. Eventually they went to Disney World together. Soon they came to a display regarding Sofia The First. "I'd like to change into Sofia" said Al. "I had been her mother Miranda before but I'd like to become her again" said Justin. They looked around and they did find a machine similar to what I used to turn into Tiana and Justin into