A Costly Mistake
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers again! As ever it is hosted by Rochelle, and this week she has also provided the picture – our task is to write a story, poem or whatnot in 100 words, inspired by said picture.
You can see all the other entries here – more are added all the time – stop by and have a read!
Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Instruments lay smashed about the hotel room – heavy metal band “Iron Biscuit” was well known for such destructive after-gig parties. A young blonde sobbed in a corner amid the wreckage. Her eyes were fixed on the lead singer, his body cold and rigid, his eyes unseeing, the syringe still stuck in his arm.
A few streets away a dealer lay on the floor staring in horror at the gory mess his kneecaps had become. He had forgotten to cut the last shipment and had sold it 100% pure. His boss, an unforgiving man, had not been pleased.
A costly mistake.
Creative? Me?
There’s a new award in town! This award – the Imagine Award – was, I am reliably informed, created by Jenny over at My Fibrotastic Life – pop over and say hi! It was created in October this year, no less.
That’s last year if you’re reading this next year :-).
I’m in on the ground floor with this one. And look how cool it is – it’s got a unicorn and a rainbow in it!
It has been awarded to me by Teepee12 (Marilyn) over at Serendipity, and I have to admit I was deeply touched by her kind description of my blog – thank you! Let me tell you a bit about her blog, if you haven’t already found it. We’re talking amazing photos (sometimes aided by her other half), social commentary, light-hearted rants, all the time accompanied by a most wicked sense of humour. She manages to see the light side of many not-so-light situations. It is a most amazing blog – do visit!
The description of this award states that it was “made in order to recognize the bloggers who express their passion and dedication towards their blogs through their creativity”. Teepee has listed some qualities which make a blog “creative”.
- Words – my blog contains no end of words. They’re everywhere on my blog. Poems, fiction, musings and whatnot.
- Graphics – I have photos, doodles (both hand and computer drawn) and cartoons.
- Video – I’ve included one video. It was sort of a “Blair Witch Project” type of affair, except that mine was shot on my phone in a darkened bathroom while wearing a coat and sunglasses, illuminating my face with a torch (that’s “flashlight” if you’re in the US) and affecting a Scottish accent (and calling myself “Angus MacScotland”).
- Layout – hmm, moving on.
- Community – I have a little bunch of treasured bloggy friends plus some very welcome visitors!
Draliman’s Guide to Lists
A shopping list (noun) is a list of items needed to be purchased by a shopper, a grocery list is a the most popular type of shopping list– including items that need to be procured on the next visit to the grocery store. It’s time to get extremely personal. Share your grocery list with us! Scan it, snap a photo, or write it out.
Making a list can be a daunting prospect for the uninitiated. Without proper preparation, your list could go very badly wrong! I hope that this guide will help you to get the most out of your lists.
We’re going to concentrate today on one of the most common types of list – the “shopping list”. To explain, this is a “list” you might make before you go “shopping”.
A Bureaucratic Mishap
Hello, and welcome to my entry into this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted as always by Rochelle. The goal is to write roughly 100 words in response to a photo, which this week has been supplied by fellow Friday Fictioneerer Sandra Crook! It looks like the ruins of a Roman coliseum to me, so I’m going with that.
To view other entries to this week’s prompt, click here.
Copyright Sandra Crook
The roar of the crowd, until now muted and distant, hit Flavius like a slap in the face as the heavy wooden door opened. The long, dark tunnel stretched into the distance, where Flavius could see a square of light – the coliseum.
Flavius had never felt so excited. His life-long dream – to be a gladiator! He strode confidently towards the light, to meet his opponent and find glory.
The gate slammed shut behind him. He glanced around. Wait – where was his sword, his armour?
In front of him, the lions growled hungrily.
Surely there has been some sort of mistake?
Birthday Yay!
Yes, it’s my birthday again. It came around so quickly! It seems like only a year ago that I last had one.
Here’s a freaky thing. I opened my Chrome browser (Google’s browser) this morning and clicked on the little animation to “view today’s doodle” (for those of you who don’t know, Google do doodles for famous events, birthdays and so on) and this is what appeared:
Holy crivens! A doodle just for me! I knew signing up to Google+ was giving one of the world’s biggest corporations too much information. Am I supposed to write a thank you note, do you think?
I haven’t been posting much recently, apart from trying to keep up with the Friday Fictioneers challenge, and there’s a good reason (and this time it’s not laziness!).
I’m house hunting. This isn’t taking up a huge amount of actual physical time (“physical time?” – you know what I mean). It’s taking up a huge amount of mental time. Even when I’m not actually looking at house websites or talking to the bank, I’m thinking about it. My little brain doesn’t have room for anything else.
Why am I looking to buy a house (let’s say it like it is – why am I trying to persuade the bank to buy me a house)? I hate change, big time. I like my routine. I hate making phone calls. I hate taking risks. I hate suddenly having no money. This doesn’t sound like the correct mind-set for such an endeavour.
I’m getting older, fast. My pension, as it stands, will barely keep me in cheese and pizzas, let alone pay rent. So I need to get a house and pay it off before I retire. Otherwise I’m going to be living in my car.
So I’m just going to have to suck it up, take it one step at a time and let the cards fall as they may.
I’ve also learned some great estate agent terms!
- cozy – not even enough room to swing a cat
- compact – see cozy
- low maintenance garden – no grass
- green views – if you go upstairs, hang dangerously out of the window and squint a bit you may catch sight of a distant field
- parking for 2 cars – parking for 2 Smart Cars or 1 human-sized car
- 2 bedrooms – house built pre-90s, 2 bedrooms. House built 90s onwards – 1 small bedroom and 1 “bedroom” too small to actually get a bed in
- in need of modernisation – falling to bits
Wish me luck!
West Beach Story
It’s Friday Fictioneers time again, hosted as always by Rochelle. This week’s photo comes to us courtesy of E. A. Wicklund. You can read all the entries here – stop by and take a look!
I was going to write a story entitled “Invasion!” but this morning I decided to turn it on its head and do a sort of Romeo and Juliet type thing instead. Only with seagulls!
Copyright E. A. Wicklund
“Great mating dance, Romero, but this can never work.”
“But I… I love you, Julia!”
“And I love you, but I’m ‘West Beach Raiders’.”
“And I’m ‘Town Gull Massive’. Deadly rivals, always and forever.”
“Yes. But I shall love you from afar, always and forever. Now go, go back to town before you’re missed!”
“I shall be back when I am able, Julia, my love!”
All my thoughts are consumed by her. I can’t think, I can’t eat, I can’t slee… ooh, tourist, ten o’clock high! Zero protective head gear is confirmed. Begin bombing run, bomb bay doors open, attaaaaack!
Love Notes – Full Circle
Sometimes called a billet-doux, or a love letter, a love note is a personal letter to a loved one expressing affection. The loved one does not necessarily have to be animate, human, alive, or known.
The theme for this week’s Prompt for the Promptless, hosted as ever by the talented Queen Creative, is love letters!
I thought we’d take a look at love letters through the ages. Let’s start with a love letter recently discovered carved into a stone tablet, which was buried in the middle of a desert somewhere probably.
Ug,
Me kill mammoth. Me get meat. Me big. Me strong. Me want you. Me make you happy.
Me pick you up at eight.
Ug
As you can see, the cavemen didn’t waste words – in fact they didn’t have many words to waste! There is a directness to this letter which I find refreshing.
Next up, let’s zoom all the way forward to medieval England. A period of chivalrous knights and beautiful damsels, you say? Not a bit of it! Take a look at this recently discovered example.
My Lady Emily,
You hath spurned me for the attentions of Sir Bravealot and humiliated me in front of ye entire court. Therefore I hath struck down Sir Bravealot with mine sword. I hath also seen ye glancing in ye direction of Sir Slashalot. Thusly hath I sliced him open also.
Thus hath you but one suitor remaining in life – me.
I shalt pick ye up at eight.
Sir Killalot
Wow – serious stuff. I imagine that “Lady Emily” feels pretty special as Sir Killalot slaughters his way into her heart.
Let’s zip forward to the roaring Twenties next. Now we really get to hear some flowery stuff, as evidenced by this next example.
Your alabaster skin, soft and pure as the most perfect of rose petals. Your eyes, sparkling as the stars in the night sky. The smile that comes so easily to your lips, lighting the room like the brightest of suns. Your laugh, the tinkling of the most perfectly crafted of wind chimes.
Crispin Bonneville, Esq
Surely we have reached the very pinnacle of love letters! Let’s try the Fifties next.
Dear Emmy-Sue,
Gosh, I enjoyed our lunch date today! You’re so smart and so pretty, Emmy-Sue! Top in your class, a cheerleader and one of the most popular girls in the school! Gosh, Emmy-Sue, I can’t wait to take you to the sock hop tonight! And please assure your Ma and Pa I’ll have you home safe and sound by ten!
Gosh, I’ll pick you up at eight!
Chad
Although not as flowery as our Twenties example, I love the sweet innocence of this letter. Any girl would surely feel special to receive this! Finally, we’ll take a look at a typical love letter of our time. Well, love text.
And there you have it. I’m not even sure it’s written in English. I mean, what the hell? Such a shame.
We have seen that love letters have pretty much gone full circle. We began, and ended, with the caveman.
No Way In
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers again! It’s hard to believe a whole week has passed already. Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle, and we all try to write a 100 word post in response to a photo prompt, which this week is supplied by Rich Voza.
This week’s prompt is rife with possibilities – and I got nuffin’! Therefore I’m going to try a spot of dialogue with a truly silly ending. I’m even popping it in my “Just Silly” category :-). A bit of mid-week madness, if you will.
To view others’ entries, click here!
Copyright Rich Voza
“What the… what’re those doors doing sat there like that?”
“Dunno, man. Weird. What’re you doing?”
“Looking for the hidden cameras.”
“I don’t see any.”
“Me neither. Hey, what’s this chap up to?”
“Aaargh! No!” yelled the new arrival, skidding to a stop.
“What’s wrong, man?”
“Don’t you see? Look!”
“What, the weird doors?”
“Yeah! Someone’s stolen my house!”
“Your house?”
“Yeah! They’ve just left the doors!”
The new arrival looked thoughtful and then began to laugh.
“What’s so funny? Someone’s just stolen your house!”
“The joke’s on them!” he giggled. “How are they gonna get in without the doors?”
A Choice of Dark or Light
Approach-approach conflict is the psychological conflict that results when a choice must be made between two desirable alternatives.
I thought I’d do a DraliDoodle for this week’s PftP, brought to us by the marvellous Queen Creative!
The Light Side allows you to help out and makes you feel good! The Dark Side gives you the power to help yourself which sounds great in theory, but let’s be honest, it’s a bit “evil”.
Why is there not a Grey Side?
Unfortunately, by the end of the doodle I’m none the wiser. That’s me in a nutshell. I can’t make decisions.
Thanks to Lucasfilm.
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Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
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Not Any More
Hello and welcome to this week’s Friday Fictioneers, hosted as always by Rochelle. This week’s 100 word photo prompt has been supplied by fellow Fictioneerer Janet Webb, and you can check out the other entries here. I’m getting later and later with this, as I have “things on my mind” which I may post about at a later date (except I’m trying not to think about it too much).
I must admit, I’ve trickled over into 102 words this week. However, I’m safe in the knowledge that I could swap my two uses of “any more” for the modernised form “anymore” (which is annoying the spell checker as it’s technically incorrect in UK English), which would cut it down to 100 🙂
Copyright Janet Webb
“Hey Dad, what’s up with Uncle Bert, all alone over there?”
“He’s sulking. He doesn’t like the wet stuff. He doesn’t like getting his wheels wet. He’s worried he’ll rust.”
“Where did all the flesh-things go? Did they rust?”
“Maybe. Or maybe they melted. They never looked very hardy to me.”
“Where did all the wet stuff come from?”
“Full of questions today, aren’t you? I heard it used to be solid. Then everything warmed up and now it’s all wet and it’s everywhere.”
“So why are we here, Dad? Do we have a purpose?”
“Not any more, son. Not any more.”