11th - 15th January 2026 Writings

[fardell24]

11th

Excerpt from: Jo and the Dragon Riders
Jo turned away from the store, disappointed.


It was still pouring when Jo arrived home. Her mother was on the phone when she entered the house.

“It’s Mia, she wants to know if you’ll be at the dig tomorrow.”

“Yeah, later,” Jo mumbled.

Words: 43


Excerpt from: Mysteries of Aurora
“So, what did you three find?” she asked.

Janara handed her several photocopies of the floor plans Alexia had found. “Freya said that she’s sure that she’ll be able to help.”

Olivia looked at the floor plans, despite her dyslexia making the small print impossible to read.

Words: 47


Excerpt from: The Network
“It’s her?” the protégé asked, after looking back.

“Yes. She ducked out of sight before you looked back.”

“Should we go back?”

“Not yet,” the mentor answered. “We’ll go to the library, and look at her exploits the newspapers may have recorded.”

The protégé nodded.


The heroine waited until the pair had gone out of sight.

Words: 56


Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
She turned to her yearbook, which lay open to where she had left it two nights earlier. She had been searching for SpiderGirl’s identity every night, but she and Daria had gone to Oakwood the previous night, which had precluded the search.

“Emma King,” she said as she looked at the next girl. She grabbed her energy drink.

“Findu mann sem heiter: Emma King!”


She was getting better at it. The search process took a second less than when she had started her search several days before Groundhog Day. She found Emma at her home not far from the Giant Strawberry.

“Thirty eight down,” she said. It was still only a fraction of the girls at Lawndale High.

Words: 118


Total: 264


12th

Excerpt from: Strange Days in Lawndale
“Yes, even Stacy,” Quinn answered.

Words: 5

Excerpt from: Endeavour’s Voyages
Daniel Brennan looked up and down the deck. Most of the crew had already arrived. He went towards the Captain’s office.

Someone was waiting there. “Lara Hawkins, is it?” he asked.

Words: 31


Excerpt from: The Challenge of Grounding
The next morning, Helen made breakfast, and then waited for Daria and Quinn to come down. However, only Ronni came down before 7:30.

“Where are your sisters?”

“Still in their rooms,” Ronni answered as she grabbed some bread. “Probably trying to avoid the talk before school.”

“I wouldn’t put that past either of them, but they should know better.”

Words: 59


Excerpt from: Death in the Field
Peta wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. She didn’t have an alibi. But there was one source of hope. That there was no motive they would be able to pin on her. ‘That’s the way I’ll get off, if it comes to that,’ she thought.

Words: 47


Excerpt from: Mysteries of Aurora
“This is where we were?” she asked as she pointed at a spot.

“Yes. As you can see, there is a corridor marked behind where we stopped.”

“And Freya did say that she’ll join us.”

“She did,” Janara confirmed.

“And when?”

Words: 41


Excerpt from: Convergence on Lawndale
“Three hours a day at most,” the Doctor answered.

“That’s not much at all.”

“It’s enough for me, even if it’s on the short side for Time Lords in general. I suppose you’re not always active?”

“Not always. I recharge in a low power state, but I’m still aware,” Kaelyn said. “Even have what could be described as dreams; mostly reviewing my memories of the day and comparing it to earlier memories and generating scenarios based on those.”

“That is quite advanced for this era.”

Kaelyn shrugged. “I’m quite aware of that. My parents are geniuses.”

“I didn’t have a doubt about that.”

“So, Time Lord? That has to be a title, right?”


The Doctor thought about the answer. He didn’t want to into too much depth about Gallifrey. “I’m from the planet Gallifrey, in the constellation Kasterbouros. The Time Lords are the elite of Gallifreyan society,” he answered, not wanting to refer to his people in the past tense. Kaelyn didn’t need to know about the Time War. He turned back to the Scanner.


The Doctor continued to examine the scan data as Kaelyn wandered in and out of the TARDIS.

Words: 192


Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
“Thirty-eight down,” she said. It was still only a fraction of the girls at Lawndale High.

She then turned back her homework.


Kevin arrived at the Strawberry and parked. “Now, the telescopes are at the top. Maybe I can see SpiderGirl through them.”

He ran from his car to the landmark and started climbing the stairs inside.


The Shadow parked a short distance away before approaching the Strawberry and scaling the western side, so as not to be seen most of the town, if they had happened to be looking in the direction, as even without the direct moonlight, the lower half of the landmark was well lit.


While he was looking through a telescope at the downtown, Kevin heard something. He jumped, hitting his cheek against the scope. “Ow!” he said as he rubbed it. He didn’t see anyone at first. “SpiderGirl?”

A cloud appeared and a figure walked out of it. “No, I’m the Shadow,” she said.

Kevin calmed down. “Oh. Why are you here?”

“Oh, making sure that nothing untoward is happening at the Strawberry. There are also rumors at school that the quarterback wants to meet SpiderGirl to ask her out.”

Words: 195


Total: 570


13th

Excerpt from: Loneliness of Alex
“I would have liked to see that,” Alex said.

Words: 9


Excerpt from: A Different Morgendorffer, A Different Sloane
“And, it’s not good for your reputation,” Sandi said.

Words: 9


Excerpt from: Bells of Saint John Underwater
Elsewhere in London, a couple of humans were talking in an office.
“Clara Oswald. We’ve got a positive lock on her but she’s borderline. Very clever, but no computer skills.”

Words: 30


Excerpt from: Secrets of Lawndale
Quinn looked at the menu board. Some of them seemed different; with the Lawndale Below spin. ‘What are those flavors?’

Words: 20


Excerpt from: Mysteries of Aurora
“The same time.”


Dana knew by now to expect Freya to come rushing up. “Did something happen?” she asked.

Freya chuckled as she sat. “Yes.”

Words: 25


Excerpt from: Convergence on Lawndale
As soon as school let out, Quinn, Daria, Jane, Stacy, Brittany and Peter met up in the parking lot.

“So, we’re heading to your place?” Brittany asked Daria and Quinn.

“That’s where the TARDIS is parked,” Quinn answered.

“You’re going to have to explain it,” Stacy said. “It’s the Doctor’s ship?”

“More than a ship,” Brittany said. “it’s a time machine.”

“Time travel too,” Stacy responded, slightly panicked.

“Relax, Stacy,” the Doctor knows what he’s doing,” Quinn said.

“I suppose so,” Stacy said.

“We need to get moving,” Peter suggested.

“Of course. We need to know what the Doctor has found,” Daria said.


The girls crowded into Brittany’s convertible.

Words: 109


Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
“That’s true. I do want to ask SpiderGirl out, as I’m the QB!”

“Is that because you were rescued by her over a week ago?” the Shadow asked.

“That’s right.”

“But I don’t think SpiderGirl wants to go out with you. I’m certain that she has heard about it as her secret identity by now.”

“Oh, yeah,” Kevin said. “All of you go to Lawndale High.”

“That hasn’t been in doubt, but I don’t know any of the others’ secret identities.”


The Shadow thought about that as Kevin took in what she said. She still suspected that Tania Ashworth was the fourth vigilante, but she wasn’t going to tell Kevin that.

“I wasn’t going to ask you that. I know that Ratboy never answers when he’s asked.”

“This isn’t a comic book. But does anyone try to ask Ratboy out?”

“Not in any issue I’ve read,” Kevin admitted.

“So, asking SpiderGirl out is wrong.”

“Exactly.”

Words: 155


Total: 357


14th

Excerpt from: The Enigma of Susan Foreman
“She is ahead of her age in some areas and rather deficient in others.”

Words: 14


Excerpt from: The Doppleganger Rival
“That we’re both Daria.”

“Yes!”

Words: 5


Excerpt from: Mysteries of Lawndale
Stacy jumped up nervously with a wave.

Words: 7


Excerpt from: Jade the Wildcard
That Jo Tiegan had accidentally knocked the crowbar down the well. She had proven difficult since she and her mother had arrived!

Words: 22


Excerpt from: Mysteries of Aurora
“So, what happened?”

“Olivia and Janara sneaked into the Main Library stacks last night.”

“Really, and I suppose they didn’t get caught?” Dana asked.

“Of course not.”

Words: 27


Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
Kevin wrestled with his thoughts with his thoughts for a while. His crush on SpiderGirl was intense, and he was sure Mr. O’Neill would ask him to find something else to try or fail at if he changed his mind.


The Shadow waited as she looked over Lawndale. She itched to sketch the scene, and the conflicted quarterback, but she decided to wait until Kevin had gone, as there weren’t all that many Lawndale High students who identified themselves as artists.


Kevin looked at his watch. “I better get going, Mom’s going to wonder where I am.”

“But what’s your answer?” the Shadow asked.

“I haven’t changed my mind. I still like SpiderGirl, and I don’t want to come up with something else for O’Neill.”

“You can’t just blame O’Niell.”

Kevin just left.


The Shadow waited until she saw Kevin drive away before taking out her sketchbook, and sketching his conflicted look from the surreptitious photo she took with the camera in her mask.


Around 9:30, Andrea received a tip in her email inbox.

Words: 174


Total: 249


15th

Excerpt from: Tales of the Twelfth
“Elsewhere in Roman history...” Amanda considered. “We aren’t getting anywhere!”

“Don’t give up, we’ll find something,” Clara said as encouragement.

Words: 20


Excerpt from: Hiding From the Inevitable
It was a quiet day in the City’s control room. Then the Gate unexpectedly activated. “Unscheduled Offworld Activation,” Chuck said.

“Deactivate the forcefield,” Woolsey ordered.

Words: 25


Excerpt from: Gandalf, Hera and Olwyn
“I’ll come to,” Olwyn said to Gandalf.

“You are welcome to,” Gandalf said.


They headed northwards.

Words: 16


Excerpt from: I, Cerritos
“Probably,” Mariner considered.

“I suppose I could run this by someone else in Engineering first,” Rutherford considered.

“That would be a good idea,” Mariner said. “But first, fix the speakers.”

“Oakie Dookie.”


Mariner emerged from the Jefferies Tube to find Cerritos waiting. “Rutherford is fixing it now.”

Words: 47


Excerpt from: Voyager Alone
In Baxiel, Neelix quickly accessed his database. “Vidiians,” he said, as he opened a connection for Voyager to use.


Voyager quickly scanned the database and what she found corroborated her fears. It was still mostly second hand, but there were enough first-hand news reports from various worlds in the region to confirm them.

Words: 53


Excerpt from: Spider Quinn
After dinner, Quinn told Daria what she had decided about Mr. O’Neill’s assignment.

“So, you want me to recommend a book for you?” Daria asked, as she opened her bedroom door.

“Yes,” Quinn answered. “Even if I fail to get through it, I will be exposed to more literature.”

“That’s a good point. You know that I have a great many here.”

“Let’s look at your shelf.”


Daria’s shelf was bursting at the seems as it were. Quinn was sure Daria also stored books elsewhere in the room.

“What genre would you like. I have a variety.”

“I was thinking something classic,” Quinn answered. “Maybe something about change.”

“Many of these books have change at the core. You just want me to recommend something, don’t you?”

“Consider that part of the assignment,” Quinn answered with a slight giggle.

Daria took out a large book. “You can’t go wrong with Charles Dickens.”

“Little Dorrit.” Quinn considered. “I suppose a large book would have a lot of change in it.”

“Yes,” Daria said as she took out another book. “David Copperfield, there’s less change, but more villainy, but different to what’s going on in Lawndale. But inspired by what Dickens saw around him.”

“If I can get through this… I might try that other one. Thanks, Daria.”


Daria put the volume of David Copperfield back after Quinn had left. ‘I don’t think Osborn is like the Murdstones, Steerforth or Uriah Heep, but there might be those like them here.’ She shook her head. She wasn’t sure how she would be able to deal with such villains as Dafoanairi, especially any Murdstone-like ones. ‘If there is anyone like Uriah Heep here, Upchuck would seem likely.’

Words: 282


Total: 433