Amren Ortega - Writer

Every few weeks, I attend a free-association writing group in my city. We're given a single word as a prompt and then we free-write for 30 minutes. Somehow it always happens that my free-writing turns into blood and guts and death, even though that's not at all what I usually write about; my current work that I'm querying is more twisty politics and LGBT romance. This piece flips back and forth between first person and second person, which was completely unintentional. I considered editing it but I wanted to present my work in its original form. I kind of like it this way, actually - a little something different. A little extra creepy, like the narrator isn't quite sure whose head they're in. This week's prompt word was "pattern." -- A pattern. A row. A line. Of dots. Of dots. Of dots. Of dots. Of DOTS. You hate them. You hate the dots. Every dot, every time, every line telling you how long it’s been since you first g

  Malous and Jonalee Ilsedine, twin heirs to the throne of Kinh, have spent their entire lives together. They're inseparable, and neither of them can imagine life without the other. That perfect future is shattered when their father, King Liazar, announces that he has set up political marriages for both of them. Jonalee's marriage would take her away from Kinh - and from Malous. The twins take matters into their own hands and plot to steal Jonalee's marriage contract. However, when Malous meets his sister's fiance, he falls for the very man who would take his sister away.  When Jonalee discovers her brother's betrayal, she demands that Malous accompany her to watch a sacred water spirit ritual to prove his allegiance to her and their plan. Unfortunately, it's forbidden for anyone to watch the ritual, a key tenet of the covenant all members of the royal family must swear to uphold. So when the twins accidentally disrupt the ritual, the water spirits dem