Adam's Spark: Evolution Appearance

This is the kind of scene you end up in if you ask to be in my novel, not that Adam doesn't approve of his presence. As usual, not a final draft and may contain rough spots, enjoy the silliness.

Magnis took a big breath of the outside air. “What now?” he asked.

Melanie shielded her eyes from the sun and looked into town, “I’m not a fan of walking. What do you say we find some transportation?”

Magnis put his hand over his eyes and scoped the area. “Is there a place in this dinky town that sells cars?”

A dirty ragged dressed man ran at them from the direction the sun was coming from. “Eve! Eve! Eve it’s you!” Half hunched over, he ran waving his arms above his head right over to Melanie.

“Gah, what the hell are you doing?” The strange man tried to rub his hands on her legs or hug her, what he intended to do was not exactly clear at that point. She backpedaled to avoid his touch.

Spark: Evolution Chapter 5

The chapter's between the 1st and this 5th one are used for giving a stronger impression of who and what my characters are. This will be the first chapter through Laura's eyes, it takes you back to what happened to Magnis at the start of the novel. I wanted to share this chapter next because you'll get a first hand look at what a spark can do as well as meet a character that I absolutely love, Lazarus. (I'll post a picture of what I feel his attire looks like, at the end of this chapter)

As before, this is not a final draft, and may still contain some errors which I hope you can excuse and simply enjoy my work.

Chapter 5

Laura sat up in bed. Was there a crash downstairs just now? She waited and heard only her own breathe accompanied by the dancing gusts of wind in the night. I must have been dreaming. She looked over at the alarm clock and saw it was after two. Five hours before I have to get up. She looked over at her sleeping husband, smiled, yawned, and began to wiggle her head into that perfect spot atop her pillow.

Glass shattered moments later.

She gasped, opening her eyes wide. That sounded very real. Someone’s in our house! She shook Magnis gently and whispered in his ear, “Magnis,” no reaction. She repeated his name a little louder, “Magnis.” He stirred in his sleep and said a random jumble of words. She pushed on him violently. “Magnis wake up,” she pleaded.

Spark: Evolution Chapter 1

Alright, well, time to see if my hard work paid off and I produced a chapter that can grab you the reader's attention. The length of this chapter is a mere 1,276 words, so it won't take you very long. This is not a final draft, so some errors of certain types may still exist, so please excuse any mistakes and enjoy the opening chapter to my novel. Thank you in advance for your time and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 1

“Beep. Beep. Beep.”

Magnis twitched with annoyance from the first sounds of morning. He opened his eyes to meet the morning sun and felt pain. The sensation radiated from his back and spread throughout the top half of his body. He narrowed his eyes and rotated his jaw licking the inside of his mouth. Blood.

His eyes moved along the ceiling. The ceiling fan should be above me. He spread his fingers apart. Cold and smooth. Not the bed sheets and blanket he fell asleep with.

He lifted his right forearm and dug his elbow into the wood. With his head raised, he watched his feet. I can move my toes, I’m not paralyzed.

 His heartbeat accelerated. Laura would have shut the alarm off long before I would wake up from it.

“Laura!” Magnis yelled. The acoustics of the room muttered a faint echo in response.

He winced and grunted trying to accomplish the simple action of sitting up.

“Lau-ra! Where are you?” He jerked his head from side to side. I hope she is at work safe and sound? Please God just let her be at work.

Magnis' Truck Ride

This is a test to see if an otherwise unexciting and boring scene will still hold the attention of a reader. Please leave comments! This is still somewhat rough, so don't expect expert grammar and the like.


INFO: Magnis is traveling by foot to a town on an information gathering mission for Nowhere by pretending to be a traveler. After being covertly taken out of Nowhere via a 50-gallon drum to a dump, he figures out that he is going to use a fake name while in the town, Sinbad. (Explains why he says his name is different without copy/paste'ing the previous scene with him premeditating things.)

The walk was extremely boring. He muttered some of the songs he knew for a while, but soon exhausted the list of ones he knew the words to. It wasn’t long before he just zoned out and didn’t think of anything except what the road looked like.

Dirt. Rocks. More dirt. Oh hey look… more rocks with a hundred percent chance of dirt.

Unexpectedly Magnis realized headlights appeared behind him. They were already too close for him to duck into the ditch and go unnoticed. No problem, I’ll just act natural, if the wrong sorts of people happen to be in whatever type of vehicle that is, I need to not seem like a threat. If worse case happens, I can fight. With the training Nowhere has given me I’m certain I can fight even a few normal people if I have to. Unless… unless they are the people I’m looking for. In that case it might be very bad… or very good, I’m not sure.

Laura's Spark Unlocking

Here is a excerpt from Spark: Evolution that I just finished doing my recent edits on. The only thing you need to know is a man named Lazarus made Laura kill her husband Magnis before taking her to The Institution.

This is not a final copy and may still contain some technical or grammatical errors, please excuse them and read the story as intended, as entertainment. As always, enjoy!
 

Laura looked tired and unenthusiastic sitting in a cubical with several brain activity sensors attached to her head. One of The Institution’s mentors continued working with her trying their best to help her gain access to the spark and tap into its power. After a week and a day, the disappointment took a toll on both of them.

Her mentor Glen looked rather nerdy Laura thought. It must be the way he styles his short hair and the thick-rimmed glasses he wears. Although his physical build would not be typical for someone with that description. It’s hard for me to believe he is over forty when he doesn’t look any older than me.

“Laura,” he took off his nerdy glasses and tried to ease her mind, “it’s a new day. New chances for possibility. Today can be the day you find your spark, so think positive.”

Laura looked down at the floor, “Glen, how many times do we have to go through sitting here? How does The Institution even know I have the spark?”

Spark: Evoution Chapter 33 Excerpt

I'm very pleased to post a selection from Spark: Evolution. I'm not a professional editor so even though I've read went over this part many many times some errors may still exist.

 

The Scene: Laura, Yang (one of The Five, the leaders of The Institution) and her good friend Ginger (yes, from Step One Two) are on a mission to Laura's hometown. I'm sure that what is happening might not be 100% understood due to it being at the end'ish part of the book. Either way, enjoy!

 

Yang leaned into the front seat and pointed. “Right here. Pull into that driveway.” Ginger did as she was told and parked.

Laura looked at the house and at the area they were in. It was sort of familiar, but she wasn’t sure. It had been a long time since she had been here. The house was just like all the others in Lastville. Wind beaten and old looking on the outside.

Someone pushed aside the curtain and peaked out at them. When they noticed they were seen, they quickly moved away from the window.

Spark: Sins of Grievance (Part 2)

 Spark: Sins of Grievance

Part 2

Carlton opens up the door into his office and sighs. Same everything as always day in and day out. Some days he wished that there would be a slave or another guard hiding somewhere in his office waiting to kill him.

It wasn’t that he wanted to really die, as far as he could tell based on all the death he had inflicted on those unfortunate slaves throughout the years that dying hurt. At least in the manner Enforcers extracted it. He summed up his feelings as just plain tired.

He walked further into the room and sat down at his desk. He leaned forward and looked at a scribbled on sheet of paper containing recent numbers of both slaves and Enforcers Grievance had to how much energy they were producing that week.

“Numbers are getting a little low. I better crack some skulls… literally, if I don’t want Victoria breathing down my neck,” he said quietly enough for his helm to actually keep his voice normal.

He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. What to do, what to do, he thought.

There were the two girls he got yesterday and he would need to babysit them until he was sure they could both handle being an Enforcer while handling the slaves properly. He guessed that he could set them up in the east wing with the more experienced slaves. They were less likely to be unruly and would do the work they were told to. It would be a good place to start.

The two girl’s shifts would start two hours from now, it was 6 AM. Carlton himself didn’t need to be awake for another hour. As of late he found it very difficult to sleep for long periods of time. After tossing and turning during the broken six or seven hours of sleep, he would wash up and throw on his armor.

Suddenly his door burst open and he dropped his feet to the floor quickly and stood up. His chair spun around as a result of him getting out of it so hastily.

Spark: Step One Two (Part 1)

This short story was written as another secondary character's point of view. This time it is to show the spark retrieval process. The situation is unique and the characters that are the main focus act differently based on the situation than they normally do through the rest of Spark: Evolution. I uh, had a drink or two while writing half of this. So as always, I hope you can get past the grammatical errors and enjoy the story. I think this will be the last short story I will start for a while, and get into the next parts of the short stories I've already written. Also, these are basically rough drafts, unpolished stories, those who will check my blog often may see one of them transform into a polished form. Regardless, enjoy!

Spark: Step One Two

Part 1

“Nina, come on. Drive on the right side of the road!” Ginger yelled at her colleague.

Nina threw her head back and laughed loudly as she recklessly drove The Institution’s SUV down the empty highway during the middle of the night.

Ginger never liked being teamed up with Nina. She always treated every aspect of what they did as agents as a joke. Ginger being a serious individual that treated each mission very professionally always clashed with Nina’s careless mindset.

While the girls fought over if it mattered if people were on the road or not Luther sat in the backseat silently listening to the two girls. He never said too much and when he did speak it was always simple and to the point. His straightforwardness was only matched by his physical presence. Luther is a large dark man to start with and if that wasn’t enough, he has extraordinary strength behind all his seemingly fat limbs. Most people that he came in contact with for the first time were instantly afraid of him. Those who got to know him a little better learned to properly fear him as one of The Five.

Ginger eventually gave up at telling Nina to drive in the lines and at reasonable speeds. She crossed her arms and angrily glared at the dashboard until they got to their location. They were on a recovery mission to get someone in Ginger’s home town.

Spark: Cam and Get It! (Part 1)

Another quick short story. Yes, this one actually has a pinch of action, but not too much right now. This time it deals with a scene that happened before I opened up with chapter with a car chase followed by fighting. This is only the first part, and I intend to write another part so these posts don't get too long. Don't think that the other short story was all I'm writing about that either. Enjoy!

 Spark: Cam and Get It!

Part 1

 

Cam looked at an address scribbled onto a piece of paper that some random bartender had given him.

“This is the place, right?” his muscular friend Magnis asked.

“The guy said it was a mansion and that we couldn’t miss it. What do you think?” he said in a sarcastic tone while gesturing wildly at the large exquisite house outside of their car.

They had traveled far away from base in search of new recruits for their cause. Going to a local bar if a town had one was the first things Cam always did. Usually those who considered themselves to be tough hung out there with others like them. Upon visiting a bar in Roseburg they didn’t see anyone even possibly promising. He had asked the bartender where he would look if he wanted to find someone to fight. The bartender looked at him oddly and Cam lied and said he had a complex about himself, just wanted to test out his skills. The bartender wasn’t the wiser and said that if he was looking for anyone in these parts that he would have to go to the Crest mansion. There was a gang that held up there and he was certain to find someone to knock his teeth out there.

Cam didn’t like the idea that they would be going to a gang for recruiting purposes. Usually the results of something like that only yielded delinquents, not fighters. Mentally he agreed to himself that he would go to this mansion anyways just to tell Dan that they scouted the area properly. If they did find a group of people who weren’t strait up criminals than perhaps they could get an alliance out of them. It would be up to Dan to ultimately decide what to do when they got back to Nowhere.

The two men got out of Magnis’ vehicle and walked up the pathway together.

“Not going to grab one of your swords?” Magnis asked.

Spark: Sins of Grievance (Part 1)

This is a short story set at a location that I absolutely love within my Spark world. The short story itself has in it a secondary character from my 1st book, Melanie. The events in the story happen to her many years before she comes in contact with Magnis in Spark: Evolution. I hope that those who have read my book in it's rough state enjoy this tidbit, and those who have yet to learn about the world of Spark will find it rather interesting. I did not spend a large amount of time refining or editing this story, nor will I do the same on any other short stories, as my novel has my real focus.

Spark: Sins of Grievance
Part 1

 

A gruff crackled voice spoke through an armored helm that covered the head of a man fully clad in maroon and black armor. “Two thousand is my best offer Sampson. They are girls and there is no guarantee that they will even last as Enforcers.”

An older man’s voice answered back. “So be it then.”

“Would you like to say goodbye to your daughters?” the armored guard asked.

“What for? I think I’d rather avoid the waterworks.”

The guard sighed, a sound that his helm didn’t modify. “Your call I guess.” He took a pad of paper out of his desk and scribbled something onto it. He looked up at Sampson who waited eagerly for his payment. He returned his glance back to the paper and finished writing his note. “Two thousand clicks. Bring it to the bank in town and they will give you your money.”

Sampson took the piece of paper and stared at it to be sure he was guaranteed the amount they agreed upon. He looked up from the paper and smiled from one side of his mouth to the other. “It was nice doing business with you. Carlton was it?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I won’t be seeing you around,” he cackled as he strolled out of the room.

Carlton looked down in disgust at the carbon copy of his clerical note. He didn’t like being an Enforcer at Grievance. From under his helm of dark eyes and long black mouth slits he thought about the nature of Grievance.

Grievance, he thought, a slave city inside a mountain that produces geothermal energy. The concept itself was good enough minus the slaves. It didn’t always used to be that way. It wasn’t until their leader, an insane woman named Victoria, took control when her father died, that the place changed so much. Grievance made enough money as it was, but she saw the place as more profitable when she turned the workers into slaves. Those with families that tried to resist the decision ended up being enslaved themselves.

Spark: Evolution

This is the old blurb, but I'm still leaving it up. To see the new one click here.

Magnis meets the morning sun on the floor of his bedroom with a mysterious gash on his back. Subtle clues cause him to fear for the life of his wife Laura. Injured, but determined to find out what has happened to her, he makes his way downstairs only to discover an unidentifiable body. Mistaking the body for his wife he is devastated by her supposed death.

What really happened to Laura is that she has been assimilated into a group of people that have been able to tap into hidden powers of the brain they call a spark. They have reasons to believe that she is also like them and can help them on their mission to evolve humanity.

After a short amount of time Magnis leaves his home and through a unique situation ends up accidentally joining a group of underground fighters. Using raw strength and engineered enhancements they have their own plans for the world’s future.

Simple Spark Q&A

So what is a Spark?
A spark is the name I've given to an evolved part of the brain that allows those who possess it to do supernatural things. As described by a character in my book, it has both a physical representation and it doesn't at the same time. Unlike other parts of your human body, those in control of their spark are able to concentrate on their spark to use their abilities or store power prior to using an ability.

What makes a Spark believable?

The logical explanation I give for a spark existing is: after all the nations of the world dropped all their nuclear bombs, the resulting radiation wasn't as harmful to the world as expected, but the reaction to the elements where the bombs went off mixed and created an invisible haze around the world. This haze reacted to a small number of individual's brains in a way that gave them the ability to have a spark. The spark itself isn't actually active, it has to undergo an "unlocking" process.

So...

Think of the spark as a dormant organ you don't know you have in your body. No it is not like a soul or spiritual essence.

Spark Discovery and Detection