Author Archives: Melissa

September 17, 2017

So we’re two weeks into the semester. I worked really hard to get myself on a study schedule that would not leave me working and studying every waking hour. That really killed me last year and was the major reason I didn’t write much at all. So I set up a study and work schedule that, as long as I don’t get sick, gives me Fridays and Saturday,and Sunday afternoons off from work and school (with the exception of about 4 hours on Friday for my teaching Practicum.)  Basically, I’ve scheduled myself a decent amount of the weekend to relax, read, and write.

I’ve also kind of set up a morning schedule that gives me about a half hour of writing time, but it’s been tough to get myself out of bed at 6 AM when pretty much all my night classes and shifts at work leave me getting home at 9 PM the night before.

All that is to say that I’ve made my writing a bit more of a priority than I did last year, and that’s mostly because this summer, I remembered how much I like writing. I’m working on Mad World, and it’s about halfway done. I got a bit stalled on a chapter because this scene is ridiculously difficult and I have get myself an afternoon to write it.

Today, I have another Micro Fiction for you, a continuation of the horrible title, Birthdays and Anniversaries. I wrote it in about 20 minutes and 30 seconds earlier today, and I wrote as an Author’s note that I like this concept and I’m going to play with it as a short story so this will probably be the last time I feature it in the Micro Fiction.

This entry is part 4 of 9 in the Flash Fiction: 25 Minutes or Less

Note: I actually like the concept of this story, and this will probably be the last entry for the micro fiction. I’d like to play with it as a longer short story. I’ll keep you posted.

Running late for a dinner with family, so remember: I wrote this in 20 minutes and didn’t edit or spellcheck.

Two years earlier, it had been the day after Halloween. Elizabeth and her best friend since childhood, Emily Morgan, had scoured the local store’s candy fire sale, brought it back to Elizabeth’s apartment and prepared for their annual post-Halloween scary movie marathon.

The tradition had gone back to the first time they had gone trick or treating by themselves (all brave at the age of twelve) and had fallen asleep through the third Halloween movie, woken up the next day to finish the rest of the series. To them, it had seemed like the perfect solution — trick or treat on Halloween and eat the candy the next day so they could watch all the movies and not worry about falling asleep or being sent to bed by one of their parents. And the fact that it was Elizabeth’s birthday? Beyond perfect. Elizabeth hated birthday parties and this was the perfect way to get out of them.

For fifteen years, they had kept the tradition. Through high school, through college, through law school and med school. Even the year that Elizabeth had been pissed because Emily had gone out with the guy from the newspaper Elizabeth had had her eye on. They’d fought bitterly the week before, but then Emily had shown up at her door, on November 1, with a bag of jellybeans and a battered copy of the IT miniseries. The guy was forgotten, and they’d moved forward.

Until two years ago.

“Escaped,” Elizabeth said flatly. Of course he had. “Do you have leads? Sighting? How the hell did he get out?”

Jason rubbed his hands over his face. “They won’t tell me much. It’s not our case and I’m too emotionally involved.” He bit out those last words with a lot of heat.

Elizabeth said nothing. Legal protocol, of course, would prevent the brother of the victim from getting anywhere near the case, even if he had been the original investigating officer.

She’d been the prosecuting assistant district attorney trying to put Diego Alcazar in jail for a string of serial rapes, and Jason had been the one to slap the cuffs on him a week before that day. And the target of his rage.

Absently, she rubbed her shoulder. Every once in a while, she could still feel the sharp slice of pain as that knife had slashed towards her. And the residual horror when she’d watched from her fallen position as Alcazar had gone after Emily.

“Listen,” Jason said after a moment. “You told me not to bother you last year—”

“I said that two years ago,” she muttered. “You just…listened.”

“You changed your number. You moved. And then you quit your job.”

She shrugged, returning to her desk and the paperwork. “So?”

“So, what I said that day—” Irritation flashed across his chiseled features. “I didn’t mean it.”

“Yeah.” Elizabeth met his eyes. “You did. And it’s okay. It was my fault. I Zknew he’d made threats—”

“I wanted to take it back,” he interrupted. “But you were in recovery and I felt like enough shit. I just—I hoped you wouldn’t remember it. My family was shattered. The job put me on administrative leave. And by the time I could—” He shook his head. “You disappeared, Elizabeth.”

“Bullshit.” But it was said without heat. “You’re a fucking cop, Jason. You wanted to find me, you could have. I didn’t change my name. I still practice law. Hell, your old partner arrested my current client. You knew where to find me.” She shrugged. “You didn’t.”

He exhaled slowly. “Fair enough. I didn’t. I tried to tell the state troopers Alcazar might come for you, but they ignored me. They think he’s on his way to Canada, but you and I both know why he came for you.”

“Yeah,” she murmured. “I guess we do.” She sat down, looking back at the Quartermaine notes. “Look, thanks for telling me. I’ll check into a hotel or something—”

“Elizabeth—”

Her office phone rang before he could protest further. “Zacchara and Webber,” she answered, turning away from him.

“Ms. Webber? This is Officer Falconieri from the PCPD. We responded to a report of a break in at your apartment.”

Her blood chilled. “My apartment?”

“Ma’am, you should…we need you to meet us at your home.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.” Slowly, she placed the phone back on the hook and turned to Jason. “The PCPD…someone broke into my apartment.”

His expression hardened like granite. “You’re not going alone.”

And though she was relieved that she wasn’t alone, this wasn’t quite the birthday wish she’d wanted. She looked one last time at the gaudy remains of Johnny’s goddamn cupcake. Fucking birthdays.

August 27, 2017

I’ll be honest — this nearly passed me by, but the seminal Jake’s scene happened eighteen years ago today. August 27, 1999. I actually missed them the first time around. When Lucky died, I took a break from GH. I love Liason, but Jonathan Jackson!Lucky was my first crush and I pretty much cried for a month. I was fifteen and I thought the world was over because Liz and Lucky were done, and they’d burned my true love in a fire. Would you believe that my mother didn’t let me stay home?

So I tuned back in when Lucky came from the dead, and my God, was I punished for it. I’m sorry to Jacob Young, but seriously — he made me hate Lucky for YEARS. It wasn’t until Greg Vaughan came on that I could look at my beloved again.

But I was watching in the summer of 2000 and I immediately saw how amazing Liason could be, but alas Jason left and I went with him. I tuned in and out due to high school, but after graduation in 2002, I was recovering from foot surgery and I started to watch during Elizabeth’s kidnapping. The rest is history.

So thanks to Twitter for the reminders and GIFS. We’re a crazy fanbase to still be going strong after all the knocks we’ve taken but I’m proud to be a member of it.

Writing is still going really well. I got little stuck on a few chapters in the middle of Mad World — crucial scenes that I rewrote several times before moving on. I tweeted a few times about it, so make sure you’re following me on Twitter to keep up.

I broke through the damn and I’m about halfway through the first draft. I have just enough time to finish the first draft before school really heats up next week, so once that draft is done, I’ll have a better idea when you can expect it. I’m leaning towards November. Once I start posting, though, you’ll have the assurance that it is completely done and there won’t be any hiatuses.

August 2, 2017

I wanted to post something yesterday about this because, well, yesterday was the official twenty-year mark for Rebecca Herbst on General Hospital.

I’ve been writing fanfiction about General Hospital for nearly as long as Becky has been on the show — I started with Elizabeth/Lucky fanfiction in 1998 back when most GH sites were on Geocities and we organized our fandoms by mailing lists, not message boards. Elizabeth and Lucky were my first love and my first foray in creative writing.

I can still remember watching that first episode on August 1, when Elizabeth showed up as a teenage badass who didn’t a give fuck about anything or anyone. I rushed home for a year to watch her scheme and plot to get the guy and then battle back from her rape. As I got older and busier with school, I wasn’t always able to keep up or record on our VCR, but I kept tuning in. I got a DVR in 2005, which made it a lot easier.

I loved Jason/Elizabeth from the moment I saw them on screen, but didn’t start writing for them until the summer of 2002 when I found The Canvas. Whatever that site turned into, I will always be grateful for them because I found a voice in my writing that hasn’t stopped since (despite a few breaks). I discovered many of the readers I still have today and also a group of amazing friends at Liason/Liz Underground who continue to be some of the strongest, funniest women I know.

I created Crimson Glass on September 19, 2002 but I started publishing fanfiction on August 3, 2002 at The Canvas with Deserving, a story that has been lost to rewrites, crashes, and being banned from The Canvas. It’s been fifteen years which seems insane to me but I wouldn’t change a thing. So I’m posting today, in the middle of these two anniversaries.

Elizabeth Webber remains one of my favorite television characters. I don’t always watch regularly these days because the rest of the show has never meant as much to me, but for twenty years, Becky has brought this character to life and I think it’s safe to say my life would be much different had she left the show as quickly as Jennifer Sky and the character of Sarah Webber. The character of Elizabeth was originally about fourteen or fifteen when she started (she turned 16 in 1998, then 18 in 1999), and I was thirteen so part of me feels like I grew up with her on screen. I will always remain #LizFanFirst.

Thank you for reading my silly stories and giving me a reason to keep writing.

July 28, 2017

With the completion of a Jason/Carly scene, I officially crossed the 50,000 word threshold for winning CampNaNoWrimo. I logged six chapters, and one scene from the seventh chapter as work I’ll be keeping and moving forward with. That’s about 30,000 words. Another 10,000 words for a draft I didn’t keep, maybe 10,000 for outlining and plotting out the new draft. The way NaNoWriMo works is that you have to write 50,000 words even if you’re not going to keep everything you wrote. I literally cannot remember the last time I wrote that much in one month.

I still have the rest of today and three full days so I’d like to write another 20,000 words to officially make it 50,000 words kept for Mad World, but we’ll see how it goes. As a celebration, I am posting two versions of a Jason/Elizabeth scene from the discarded draft. I had originally envisioned Mad World as taking place in 2004 in the wake of Sam’s pregnancy, Kristina’s paternity, and Cameron’s birth, but I’ve now moved it back year to place it in the context of the panic room storyline, keeping many of the same elements.

I’ll keep you guys posted for how it continues to go, moving forward into August. Make sure you’re following me on Twitter @crimsonglass, #crimsonglass for specifically CG related tweets.

Continue reading →

July 24, 2017

So I’m working on the logistics for Mad World — I wrote a ton, but then I had to kind of stop, and look at the product so far and start figuring out what I haven’t written yet and what order the scenes should go in. Something I’ve done to mostly keep myself on track about what’s happening when is to use dates at the top of every chapter or when a scene in a chapter happens on a different day.

I found myself doing it for Mad World and wondering if this is something I should delete from the final product? I mean, it’s useful to me to know so I can keep weekends straight and I don’t have two Saturdays or whatever. But is it something the reader gives a damn about? So give me a shout in the poll and let me know what you think.

July 15, 2017

I posted a new Micro Fiction, Birthdays and Anniversaries. It’s not connected to the last two mostly because I was n’t sure where to go next, and I saw this prompt. I wrote it about 22 minutes. I had set my timer for 20 minutes, but I wasn’t quite at an ending spot, so I cheated a bit 😛

Camp NaNoWriMo update: the writing is going well, but my schedule was cranky this week so I didn’t get as far as I wanted. However, what I’m writing I absolutely love. I have today and tomorrow completely off with only laundry to do, so I’m just going to write until I stop. I took a break to write this and I hope to get a Flash Fiction in tomorrow.

Make sure you’re following me on Twitter. I usually post about my writing progress and usually mark the timer for Micro Fiction, but I forgot today, haha.

This entry is part 3 of 9 in the Flash Fiction: 25 Minutes or Less

The cupcake was iced with garishly pink cream and some sort of candy hearts and it was set in front of her with candle already lit.

“Make a wish.”

Elizabeth Webber propped her chin on her fist and gave her best friend a dirty look. “Wishes are for kids. Birthdays are for kids. Who told you?”

“I snuck a look at your driver’s license when I realized we’d been working together for a year and it hadn’t come up.” Johnny Zacchara shrugged. “Blow it out.”

“Bite me.”

“Thought about it,” he said carelessly as he sat across from her, behind his side of their battered partner’s desk in their shabby office. “It wouldn’t work.”

“That’s because you laugh too much,” she muttered, eying the cupcake as it were toxic poison. “It distracted me. Also, you don’t do it for me.” Though it was a mystery because Johnny was, objectively speaking, pretty fucking sexy with his dark hair, soft brown eyes, and killer smile. And yet… “And your girlfriend would kick my ass.”

“This is true. Nadine is tiny, but feisty.” Johnny frowned now. “The candle is going to melt the cupcake if you don’t blow it out. C’mon, Bits. Make a wish.”

“Wishes are bullshit,” she muttered. “Fine. You know what I wish for?”

“Jesus, don’t say it. That’s not how this works.” He looked faintly horrified. “They don’t come true if you say them outloud.”

“God save me from Catholics and their superstitions.” She sighed. “Fine. I’ll wish something to myself, I’ll blow this out, and we can go back to work.”

“It has to be a real wish, not something stupid—”

“There are a lot of rules for a goddamn birthday cupcake,” Elizabeth retorted. She closed her eyes and decided what the hell. She wanted to see Jason. Just one more time. She opened her eyes, blew out the candle, and then shoved the cupcake across the desk. “You eat it. I’m not in the mood for a sugar rush. I have a defendant I have to keep from going to prison for the rest of his life.”

“You’re no fun,” Johnny said, but he grabbed the cupcake, tossed the candle, and ate it. Then he mercifully stopped reminding her it was her goddamn birthday, got back to work, and let her work in peace.

A half hour later, he headed home to the lovely Nadine while Elizabeth continued reviewing the lab reports for court the next morning. If she had a prayer of keeping Dillon Quartermaine from doing ten to fifteen years for a crime he hadn’t committed, she needed to keep her head in the game and poke as many holes into the DA’s case as possible.

A knock on the door to their suite distracted her about an hour after Johnny had left. She blinked bearily when the knock sounded again, but realized it was likely that their receptionist had left for the day. “Come in—it should be open.”

“It’s not.”

The voice was muffled, but its identity was unmistakable.

Elizabeth rose slowly to her feet and went into the cramped room that served as their waiting room, passing the wastebasket where she could see the gaudy cupcake wrapping and the candle still decorated with icing. “What the fuck are you?” she muttered down.

She slowly unlocked the deadbolt and tugged it open to find out that she was not, as hoped, hallucinating.

Lieutenant Jason Morgan was, indeed, standing at the threshold of her office.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, and then winced because damn if that hadn’t sounded like more angry than she had intended. Well, better than happy or relieved, or aroused. Because she was all of those things to. He didn’t dress like a high-ranking member of the Port Charles Police Department—not in his jeans that wouldn’t be called tight, but they certainly clung to the right parts, and a t-shirt that stretched across a broad chest with rippling muscles.

God he was gorgeous.

And standing in front of her. Fucking birthdays.

“You gonna let me in?” he asked, his brow arched.

She stepped back to do so, closing the door when he passed her. He turned at the tiny desk that Maxie Jones usually sat behind and faced her. “What are you doing here?” Elizabeth tried again, and was pleased her tone was way more even than it had been before.

“It’s your birthday,” Jason said, leaning against the desk. “Did you think I’d forget?”

Hoping. Praying. “You did last year.”

“You told me not to come by last year,” he reminded her. “But this year…well, it’s been two years. I wanted to check in.”

Check in. Sure. “Well, you’ve checked in. I’m alive. Looks like you are, too. Great. I have court tomorrow.” She went back to her desk.

“You always have court tomorrow,” Jason retorted as he followed. “Are you seriously still mad at me?”

No. Yes. Damn it. “I don’t know,” she muttered, but she felt better behind her desk. “Are you still mad at me?” she demanded.

He hesitated. “I don’t know,” he echoed. “I just…it’s been two years. I just thought…we should acknowledge it.”

“It’s been acknowledged. Your sister is dead and it’s my fault. You made that clear then, and since you can’t decided if you’re still mad or not, you still think so.” She shrugged. “So if there’s anything else…”

“Damn it.” It was more of a hiss than an actual swear, but he closed his eyes for a minute. “I came here to check on you, yeah. But also…Diego Alcazar escaped from Sing Sing about three hours ago, and I thought he might…”

“Come to finish what he started.” Her bones chilled. “Because he escaped on my birthday and the anniversary of the day he killed Emily and nearly killed me.”

July 12, 2017

Hey! Checking in to let you guys know what’s going on since there’s actually stuff to care about. I had back to back family parties this weekend and work, so I didn’t have energy for Micro or Flash Fiction. I’ll have them both this week at some point.

I wrote about 10,000 words for Mad World last week but it just was not working. I kept changing tiny pieces but it just felt like I was punishing myself for some reason. So I stopped on Sunday night and I just started writing about what I wanted the story to be. What story I wanted to tell, the meaning I wanted my characters to have.

And…I completely changed the story. It’s still called Mad World, but I’ve moved it to the summer of 2003 and made it almost a rewrite of the aftermath of the panic room storyline. And after that, I wrote 5000 words like it didn’t matter.

And this morning, I wrote a Jason and Elizabeth scene that was about 800 words in 20 minutes and I loved every single word of it. I think the story I’m going to tell now is so much better and I’m so much happier with it. So yeah, Mad World is going to be completely different but some of the same strains will be the same which is why I’m keeping the title.

I have to update the graphics for it since I dumped the entire Brooke, Alexis, and Ned stuff and the page will be updated when I have a chance. But things are going well with my writing for the first time in a year, and I’m really happy about it.

July 5, 2017

First, I just posted Micro Fiction #2: Spontaneous Combustion, Part 2.  It’s a crazy little story that probably isn’t very close to character, but I need to loosen up and just have fun. I’ve published more fiction in the last two weeks than likely the entire last eight months so I imagine you guys aren’t complaining 😛 I wrote it in about 19 minutes so I feel good about that.

I post on Twitter and Facebook when I set the clock for the flash and micro fictions, so make sure you follow me on both. At the moment, my Twitter is personal and related to Crimson Glass, so you’ll get both.

Camp NaNoWriMo is going pretty well actually. I’ve figured out what’s wrong with this draft and I found some fun ways to fix it. I like where it’s going. I’ve written 11200 words total, but since I eliminated some aspects, only about 3000 words are going to be kept after the month is over. I’m looking to get to my original 50,000 goal with the new version.