New bit of text!

I know it's been quite a while since I came 'round here. Quite honestly, I've come to a decision: later this year, this blog will be closed (as will its French equivalent). The reason is simple: I lack the time to keep writing long, meaningful blog posts.

Instead, all of my websites will have a blog directly implemented in them with posts related to the subject of that website (i,e. my Ravenscroft website will have blog entries about my English writing career.) Just like my Facebook pages which, I think, will allow me to keep things better sorted and avoid my readers about my painting career and vice versa!

Anyway, I will let you know more about it as I go.
For now, I just wanted to let you: I've begun writing again! ^_^ And it feels really good.
This time, I intend to see my novel through to the end. I've dusted an old story of mine back again: The Lighthouse Keeper.
I'm now at 14,010 words in and I don't wanna quit! ^_^

I wanted to share the joy of it with you guys. And perhaps, a little excerpt hihi.
Here is the full prologue to The Lighthouse Keeper. I hope you'll enjoy it and don't hesitate to comment!

Happy reading! :)

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(Novel excerpt)

The old man squinted, studied the horizon. The icy wind bit his skin under his long coat. He shivered and breathed some warmth into his hands, folding his hood tighter. In order to fight the cold, the old man grabbed the pole standing in the crook of his elbow and gave a push. His boat dragged on the freezing waters in silence. This eternal silence. This place had never known anything else.

A thick fog rose from the river. As always. He squinted once more, peering through the darkness and the clouds until a bare shore appeared straight ahead. Wait: a bare shore? He frowned.

One more push on the pole brought him closer and any doubt he had vanished: the shore was indeed denuded of all presence. This was unprecedented. Something was happening... Something unnatural. Even the black waters were lacking their usual undulations. The worst could be feared.

The old man landed on the sand, and with agility beyond his years jumped off of his little boat. With long paces, he surveyed the white beach. Nothing. No one. Not a soul in sight!

He extended his survey to the nearby cave entrance.

The quiet calm inside the cave clashed against the strength of nature’s wrath. Outside, the sky was gray, gales were blowing in all directions and waves were crashing with violence against the rocks. Dark clouds were massing above, spewing cold rain and threatening of more.

The old man held on to his hood and was about to turn back when a shape caught his attention in the corner of his eye: something had landed on the beach out there. Forgetting everything else, the old man braved the fury of the storm and ran on the wet sand, holding firm to the stone walls when a wave swept the beach. He was making good progress towards the inanimate lump when a sudden realization stopped him in his track: the lump was a young man!

Lightning cracked above head, jolting the old man to life again. He rushed to the poor soul’s help and bent over it; perhaps his clothes were stuck somewhere. The old man knew better than to mess with a sea victim; the drowned had best be returned to the ocean that had claimed them. He was looking around, trying to find how it was that this dead man was not drifting away. That was when he saw it, something rather unusual in dead bodies: the young man’s hands were clutching a small boulder on the beach. The boatman’s eyes opened wide.

“He’s alive!”

A wave came crashing, dragging the old man back out at sea. With all the strength his years had left him with, he fought the elements: he had to save that young man! Soon, the miserable little rock that poor guy was holding onto with his last breaths would be drowned into the tide. He had no hope for life aside from the old man!

The boatman swam and kicked, prayed and swore and eventually, the sea spat him back out on the beach. Without a single thought, he ran to young man’s help and dragged him against the storm’s fury to the safety of the cave.

Inside, the old man noticed the shore had filled again with presences as it should but in this instant, he cared very little: the young man in his arms was alive!

The old man sighed.

“Finally.”