Fun and Consequences
It’s Friday Fictioneers time again – on a Wednesday! Are we mad or what? Hosted as always by the talented Rochelle, this week’s photo comes courtesy of Kent Bonham. Our goal – to write roughly 100 words using the photo as our inspiration.
Check out other entries here – more are added throughout the week!
Copyright Kent Bonham
Skateboard ready, line it up. Just look at the length of this alley – this is gonna be a blast! Aim the board at some of those little ramps to keep the speed up. Fly off some of the steps. Is Jeff ready with the camera? Yep, he’s filming. This’ll be an internet sensation!
Here goes nothing!
Bobby thought back on that day as he lay prone, steel pins holding his pelvis together while nurses bustled around. He’d been the lucky one.
Luckier than the woman with the pram who’d suddenly appeared from a half-hidden doorway. Luckier than her orphaned child.
Office Irritations Part 1 – Interruptions
Picture the scene. You’re working away, you’ve just had a great idea and you’re struggling to bring it to fruition. You’re so close, when suddenly…
…there’s someone hanging off your shoulder pestering you for something which only you can provide.
You’ve lost your train of thought! Your mojo’s gone! You were so close to discovering the deepest secrets of the universe, or at least to making Excel do that split-screen thing, and you’ve lost it all because “the printer’s making a funny noise” or “my monitor’s gone all funny”.
An Ill-Timed Joke
It’s time for Friday Fictioneers again! As always it’s hosted by Rochelle, and our task is to write roughly 100 words on a photo prompt, which this week has been supplied by Al Forbes.
I had major word limit problems with this one (plus a lack of ideas, if I’m honest) – hopefully it still makes some sense! It was going to be all dark and spooky (whooo!) but it turned out, well, neither dark nor spooky.
You can read the other entries here – it’s updated all the way through to Tuesday as new posts are added so be sure to check back. You could even have a go yourself!
Copyright Al Forbes
The head gazed out over Athens.
Aethon gazed out from the head. He’d been stuck in that damn head for aeons.
He’d been joking about how Hermes was the “errand boy” of the gods. How, when in important conference, Hermes was the one they sent out for baked pita with extra feta and a side of olives (hold the anchovies).
How was he to know Hermes was two tables over, drinking with Dionysus?
Gods can’t take a joke.
Once he’d adorned Hermes’ greatest temple. Now he adorned the “Parthenon View” guest house.
Aethon almost smiled. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Spider Army
Keeps running through my head
I’m worried there’s a spider army
Underneath my bed.
I’m sure that sometimes I can hear
The spiders at their drill
And just the thought they’re coming out
Can give me such a chill!
I fear one day they’ll sally forth
Parade across my floor
Marching all in single file
To slip beneath my door.
They’ll leave my house but make no sound
On tiny, tiny feet
So no-one hears them coming
As they march off down the street.
And eat up all the bread
Or chew the wires in traffic lights
Until they’re stuck on red!
By taking off the lids
Or maybe they’ll invade the school
And frighten all the kids.
Don’t care what they attack
As long as all the little guys
Are never coming back!
The Master
It’s time again for this week’s Friday Fictioneers, in which a group of us attempt a 100 word piece inspired by a photo. Hosted as ever by Rochelle, this week’s photo has been supplied by Douglas M. MacIlroy.
To view all the other entries, click here!
Copyright Douglas M. MacIlroy
“You have learned well, my pupil,” smiled the old man. “Finally you too have earned the title ‘Master’. Wear it well.”
Yoshi bowed low in respect for his teacher. He straightened slowly, his hand a sudden blur as he sliced his ceremonial dagger cleanly across his mentor’s throat.
“There can of course be but one Master, old friend,” he said regretfully.
Sighing deeply, Yoshi sat cross-legged at the edge of the pond in quiet contemplation, watching as the water turned slowly to the colour of the brightly coloured koi as they swam all unaware through their recently polluted home.
Eye Aye
On Saturday I finally went for my eye test. I’ve got the system worked out now.
They send a reminder at around two years. It’s important to ignore this one. After a couple more weeks they send another reminder with a voucher attached for a £5 eye test. Hooray! I save £17.50!
Well, technically I save my work £17.50 because they pay (I spend all day staring at a pair of computer monitors – yes, I get two monitors because I’m just that good :-)).
But I save money all the same – it’s the principal of the thing.
I got a bit of a shock. Not my prescription – my eyes have remained “stable”. Apparently very short-sighted people (i.e. me) are at increased risk of detached retinas.
What? What!
Why has nobody mentioned this before?
The optician took pictures of my eyes and looked at them using a microscope gizmo with a massively bright supernova-like light in it. When I could see again she told me that she could see stretch marks around the edges of my retinas.
Stretch marks! On my eyeballs! Whaaaat! If there’s one place there shouldn’t be stretch marks, it’s in my eyeballs.
This is apparently quite normal in very short-sighted people. I’m afraid to nod my head now in case my retinas suddenly fall off.
She advised me to avoid extreme sports. I asked her if I looked like the sort of person who did extreme sports? Or, indeed, any sports? Does covering a pizza with half a bottle of Tabasco sauce and then scoffing the whole thing down count as an extreme sport, I wonder? Could the heat from the Tabasco cause my retinas to fly out of my head?
I’ll have to remember to be careful of my eyes the next time I go base-jumping, parachuting or bungee jumping.
A Little Bit of Me
This week’s end of season finale on Prompts for the Promptless is all about the Johari Window.
The Johari Window is a method of representing information (regarding feelings, experiences, motivations, intentions, attitudes, etc) – from 4 specific perspectives. It is a technique to help you understand how you are perceived by others, and how you see yourself. The perspectives are as follows:
- Open area: The things that you about yourself, that others also know about you.
- Blind area: The things you don’t know about yourself, but others know.
- Hidden area: The things you know about yourself that others do not know.
- Unknown self: The things no one knows about you.
Let’s take these one at a time.
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!
Click for a random post!
Woohoo!
I totally didn't win!
Share Your World
Friday Fictioneers
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.”