October 22, 2009
Sir Percy Blakeney says this in A&E’s The Scarlet Pimpernel. I loved this line and fully subscribed to this view. Figures that my first completed poem does not and will not rhyme! It absolutely refuses to conform to my views of proper poetry.
Just thought I’d mention that. If anybody would like to read and critique said contrary poem, please let me know and I’ll send it to you.
(After that last rather sad post I needed to say something light.)
June 7, 2009
I am very pleased to announce that I have finished a short story entitled The Great Aunts Three and the Fairy Ida. It was written as an assignment on my writers’ group and I have to say that I’m really pleased with the way it turned out.
The assignment was to write as short story at least a 1,000 words long based on these pictures:
It grew to eleven and a half pages and is in some need of a little polishing up and feedback. If anybody would like to review it, let me know and I’d be happy to e-mail you a copy.
Genre: Definitely comedy.
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m really kind of excited about finishing my first more-than-two-pages-story.
March 20, 2009
Drabble # 7
Words: scribble, mess, issues, dozen.
The writing was barely understandable; to call it a scribble was being generous. The room was a jumbled, tumbled mess. One couldn’t imagine an old man living out his final days here, issues or not. At least, Sally couldn’t. She’d hardly known Grandpa; although her excuse was worlds better than those of her cousins: living overseas.
“Let’s get this over with,” grumbled Liv. “Who wants to read that to find out how Grandpa divided his money between the dozen of us?”
Sally was nudged forward.
She read: “All my money goes to whoever was brave enough to read through this.”
March 13, 2009
In order to meet drabble-criteria, I had to cut off too much…so here you go, a proper 100 word drabble and a 144 word drabble.
Words: honor, barn, bucket, stick.
Drabble #6
Life as a stick is simple.
Really, being severed from your tree isn’t so bad. You don’t have leaves anymore, but children take such delight cracking you against things it’s impossible not to feel joy. It’s an honor, really.
Of course, nothing is ever your fault. You’re entirely passive, you must be acted upon. Take me, for example. I’m not to blame because somebody decided to be a double idiot.
Thus I was thrown into a bucket of hot embers and thus the barn burned down. A real pity, because now I’m ashes, and I don’t know what to do.
Full version
Life as a stick is simple.
Really, being severed from your tree isn’t as bad as some say. You don’t have leaves anymore, but children take such delight cracking you against things that it’s impossible not to feel joy. It’s an honor, really.
And of course, nothing is ever your fault. You are entirely passive, you must be acted upon. Take me, for example. I’m not to blame because some boy decided to be a double idiot.
Thus I was thrown into a bucket of hot embers and thus the barn burned down. A real pity, the goats were much easier to live with when there was something to hold them in…and because now I’m ashes, and I don’t know what’s expected of me .
“You sit there and decompose quietly,” grumbled the dirt clod. “But I agree with you about those goats.”
March 9, 2009
Okay, uninvoked, I did it! However, I’m inclined to think it as random and strange as the words you picked.
Words: elephant, toothpaste, tissue, labeler.
The advertisement was for Zenxycne’s Toothpaste; displaying a picture of an elephant, an oversized toothbrush clutched in it’s trunk. The caption read: “Guaranteed to make even an elephant’s teeth shine!” Since Zenxycne had been very unpleasant about people not seeing their logo, Jack had placed it in various places: on the toothbrush, in the sky, on the pink tissue paper he had thrown in there for no particular reason.It was his master piece, his way to prove that even an old man had a future as a glorified labeler. Surprisingly, Kathlyn Hardgrove approved it, her only comment being: “Um…Ok.”
February 27, 2009
My last drabble for February; is that why I’ve been having such a difficult time coming up with an idea?
Words: author, writer, word, pen.
“This’s Nan; our resident author. If you are ever in need of a pen or of a witty word or ten, hers is the door you should knock on.”Mr. Cotherton had been whizzing Jane about the boarding house for the last hour, filling her ears and possibly a portion of her head with similar information. At this exact moment, Jane couldn’t have cared less if there was one writer or a thousand sharing the roof. She just wanted to get under her part of said roof and rest.“Mr. Cotherton,” she said at last, “my room, if you please.”
February 21, 2009
I have inspired Dad to join the wonderful world of drabbling!
Drabble #3
He didn’t know how many times he had died. Shiftslip technology reassembled you molecular piece by molecular piece in a different place. Most believed you survived a Shiftslip, a few believed your double lived with your memories thinking they were you; until their next Shiftslip.
Neither theory could be proven but the worst case was worth it.
All he knew was that he needed a shower, chow and sleep. Hopefully in that order. He was trained to turn battles regardless of the technology level of that world. Such was the life and deaths of an Alpha Warrior in Division Two.
Drabble # 4
As arrows rained on the Testudo he thought “I should’ve listened to Mom!” As if it were a physical manifestation of an exclamation point, an arrow thumped into the ground, narrowly missing his foot.
“I should have been a writer!” But who could’ve known that a Division Two Alpha Warrior would outlive an author by five millenia. He tried to imagine making a living with word and pen but the Testudo moved. He focused his thoughts on his mission: ensure Octavian defeats Mark Anthony at Mutina and later kill Cicero. This world was is not ready for a lawyer politician. At least, not yet.
Drabble #2
His blue eye opened. He would open the gray eye when he was ready for them. He surveyed the devastation. What happened? Where were his friends?
When the gray eye opened, the missing Science building dominated his view. Immediately the teleprompter filled with incoming mail. Everyone had questions.
He focused on the scissor menu, quickly cut all questions into a list, titled it “Prioritize” and sent the message. That would delay them by three committees ; enough time to survey the war-zone that was his home.
The great city of Atlantis had fallen
Drabble #1
‘You too Brutus?”, that’s it?”.
“You don’t understand. Julius exemplified Hedonism; Brutus held traditional Roman views. Brutus resented Julius’ love for his mother, the same affections that allowed Julius to love his killer like a son.”
The falcon spotted the target, the hunt began.
William replied, “You’ld think a Roman orator and emporer would have a better exit.”
“The English is weak, but my friend the Latin has heart.”
The peregrine dove, his body a perfect design for the kill.
“Why don’t you write it?”
“Mr. Shakespeare, I’m the soldier, you’re the writer.”
February 21, 2009
I’m not quite as happy with this drabble as I was with the others. However, here it is. Words: two, piece, alpha and chow.
“No, the Greek alphabet. That’s Latin.” Leah tried to keep her voice calm, but her irritation could not be denied. That wild Chow sniffing around her garbage had something to do with it.
“Oh, Greek! Uh, alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon, um, delta?”
“Not bad,” said Leah, “try it again. You got two out of order.”
Her pupil stared up at the ceiling, as all students do when the answer to a problem escapes them. He reached for a piece of pie, looking under it as though the answer might be there. The next question was a long time in coming.
February 14, 2009
Words: teleprompter, science, scissors, mail.
Every time the wind got above 20 miles per hour, the teleprompter failed. Duncan saw absolutely no connection between the two; but science was absent in this news room. Mail trucks broke outside the front door like clockwork every Tuesday morning, the air conditioning must have been set for the opposite side of the earth…the list went on.
Other than that, it wasn’t a bad job. Everyone was friendly; everyone was as dismayed about the strange occurrences. Everyone except Henderson, who, among other things, firmly believed that scissors were as good as pliers.
That teleprompter should really just be replaced.
February 4, 2009
On the writer’s guild that I joined, they regularly have writing challenges. For February, the assignment is to write four drabbles (short stories of exactly 100 words.) This week’s drabble has to contain the words: Shakespeare, heart, design and falcon.
Here’s my first ever attempt at a drabble.
“Remember,” the man said, pulling his mask over his face, “outside these doors my name’s Dan Gerous.”
“You are no Shakespeare,” retorted his companion. “Dan Gerous, indeed!”
“Dan” glared through the eye slits at the speaker. The man was simply too interested in tending to his stomach to really put his heart into his work.
He sighed. They expected him to train someone to be the best of the best and this is what they gave him…either by accident or by design. It had better be the latter.
“Hey, can I be M. Falcon?”
“No. You can be Hugh Blewitt.”
Hannah
“Of course, thinking of two things is rather useless if both trains of thought are dumb.” ~ Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind
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