Archive for the Fiction category
October 27th, 2006
Here we go again.
- There was no way in hell she was going to the opera.
- Three hundred years had passed since the banishment of the War God and now the cracks in the world were truly starting to show.
- Shaina had made up her mind; she was definitely, probably going with decaf this morning.
- Bill was going to kill his brother.
- Taylor watched in horror as the crack slowly crawled across her windshield, forking in the middle and branching out like two great arms in some desperate plea.
Now it’s your turn…
Tags: Friday Five 1rst sentences, writing, fiction, meme, bloghopping
October 20th, 2006
It’s that time again.
- She had waited so long her fingers fingers were numb.
- The drip-drip-dripping in the otherwise peaceful afternoon was slowly driving Dale mad.
- It had been terribly long since Shelly had been tired of rain, but now after 30 days, 13 hours and 22 minutes, she was tired of rain again.
- The secret was out and Tess loved a good secret.
- Spider had picked up knitting in prison, or so he had said.
Now it’s your turn.
Tags: Friday Five 1rst Sentences, writing, fiction
October 13th, 2006
So, I used to try to do “this thing” every Friday way back when (before I knew what memes were) as a writing exercise.
What’s “this thing“, you ask?
Is it some weird cult thing? (That’s a fair question from the few people who know I grew up in New Orleans and went to a few Voodoo rituals.)
Naw, it’s fairly safe, though mentally challenging. It’s good for the writer’s soul.
A long time ago, in a city far far away, I had a writing circle where I encouraged the group to write five sentences that could be the first sentences of a story or novel. The intent is to draw readers in, to make them want to know more. The first sentence of short stories and novels and articles should grab the reader and make him or her unable to close the book and toss it away.
So, the object of this exercise or meme is to write five sentences that could be the first sentences of different stories each Friday and share them by posting them either here in the comments or on your own blog and post a link in the comments that you did so.
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Tags: Friday Five 1rst Sentences, meme, bloghopping, writing, fiction, NaNoWriMo
April 21st, 2006
It’s that time again.
- “Do you actually read Shakespeare or is he just sitting on your shelf because you think he makes you look intelligent?” the snooty man asked.
- If all hell was going to break loos at the office, couldn’t it have had the decency to wait until Monday rather than ruin a perfectly good Friday?
- Somedays it just wasn’t worth it to log on.
- It was really rather a long, boring story and this one is much more fun.
- Suri stretched one dew-covered wing as she wiped the sleep from one half-opened eye.
Tags: Friday Five 1rst Sentences, writing
March 31st, 2006
O.K. We haven’t done this in a while either and since Tamara so kindly nudged me, I guess I’ll get on with it too.
- Sometimes The Con itself was so convaluted that it became unclear even to Izzy and Bastian exactly who was conning who or who had even started it this time which made it difficult to figure out exactly when to call it quits and how to tell who won.
- Somedays Matilda just wanted to drape herself in dark withering colors and on other days, like today, she felt like trying to fit every color in the rainbow in
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Tags: writing, Friday Five 1rst Sentences
March 10th, 2006
I haven’t done these in a while. As reminder, here’s what this is about. Anyway, I decided to get off my lazy writer’s azz and do some. Hopefully this’ll kickstart some creative juices.
- Some days she envied the blissfully ignorant as they went about their daily routines of struggling to find a decent parking spot at the local Wal-mart or a sale on on iPod nanos.
- Delaney was always the last to know.
- Grandmother used to say that life was only good when the beer was cold, which is why, I suppose, she kept the keg in that fridge
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Tags: writing, Friday Five 1rst Sentences
November 25th, 2005
Chapter Thirteen:
And a Merry Christmas to all!Christmas was Nora’s favorite time of year – the lights, the music, the good cheer, the shopping, the sales, the shiny decorations. She looked forward to it all year. As much as she loved it, she dreaded putting the lights on the Christmas tree. Growing up, that had always been her father’s job and it had always been a big production – he would spend an hour or so, untangling ten or so strands of multicolored light strands and laying each one carefully out in its own space on the carpet. Then he would ritually plug each strand into the wall socket. Another hour would be spent replacing missing or burnt out bulbs. Then another thirty minutes would be spent methodically wrapping each strand around the six foot tall store-bought Christmas tree; they had to be accurately places so there were no “empty pockets” and no overcrowding.Then Nora and her mother would place all of the ornaments on the tree – there were more ornaments than branches but her mother would always try to get everything on the same tree every year; sometimes she would miraculously succeed. Her father would sit in his chair, watching CNN or some financial news show, and occasionally offering insistent advice as to where something should go.Afterward, her father would wrap the tree in tinsel garland with the same meticulous care as the lights. Nora always thought there was too much tinsel on the tree and they seemed to buy more every year. She thought it detracted from the lights and the ornaments, which her favorite parts. Still somehow overcrowded and covered, the Christmas tree was always beautiful and Nora loved sitting in the dark with just the Christmas tree lights on. There was something peaceful and relaxing about watching sparkly multicolored lights.So, while Nora had a store-bought tree as well (she had tried a live tree once but after vacuuming pine needles in March, she quickly lost interest), she did not use tinsel garland; instead she used wide Christmas ribbon. However, she still had a lot of anxiety regarding the lights of which she only actually used three or four strands. She was always afraid she would get it wrong so she almost always asked Jake or Kayla to help her with that part – the offer of free food always brought results and volunteers, particularly since Nora had discovered she was just as talented with cooking as she was with eating. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
November 25th, 2005
This is from the end of Chapter Ten. I’m not entirely sure it will make sense to anyone but me because of the technical stuff. I tried to “dumb” it down for folks like my computer-phobic mother, but I’m not entirely sure the whole thing makes sense…though the technical jargon isn’t supposed to be the point of the scene anyone.
Any comments, suggestions, questions would be well-received.
There were days when Nora did not just want to beat her own aching head on her desk but she wanted to beat her co-workers into unconsciousness. They seemed to thrive on
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Tags: writing, NaNoWriMo
November 15th, 2005
Well, here were are in the middle of the month and I’ve only got 19,775 words which is slightly less than 40% of what needs to be written by midnight November 30th.
I’m O.K. with it, I think. I’ve got to write about 2K a day the rest of the month to get caught up and I can probably do 3K-4K each of the last two Sundays so I should be fine even if I slip behind again.
I added a “disclaimer” at the beginning of my NaNo novel which I thought would be fun to share:
Disclaimer: This story is
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Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
November 13th, 2005
Quite frankly, that’s the sort of thing that one doesn’t get over – an invasion of privacy by haunted bathroom Formica.
Admittedly that’s the funniest thing I wrote today. 
I spent a whole chapter describing a house Nora didn’t buy during those six months before “The Firing”.
So, I’m at 17,726 words. I wrote 4,707 words today at the cafe. I’m 3,945 words behind where I should be. I wasted my day off cleaning on Friday. Then yesterday I went to the glass studio and worked on my pheonix and then wasted the rest of
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Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
November 7th, 2005
Chapter Four:
The Sound of Silence
Like most normal people, Nora paid monthly fees to a gym but only visited it once or twice every few months, despite it being across the street from her apartment complex. She had to look at it every time she pulled her car out of the parking lot and every time, she would feel a twinge of guilt about how she really should be exercising; sometimes she would make false promises of going the next day. Every now and then, she would get a sudden attack of guilt for not exercising while or when
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Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
November 2nd, 2005
O.K. I broke the rules. At least I read on the forums that you shouldn’t revise, etc., but just keep pushing on, but I actually think I not only improved some things, I added words to the revise of yesterday’s work.
I admit to recycling most of a post I originally wrote in real life but I tried altering it here and there to give it Nora’s voice. I think I might relook at Chapter Two again tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to listen to Nora a bit more.
I guess I’m not too worried right at the moment
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Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
November 2nd, 2005
Here’s an exerpt of the beginning. I’ve cut out the scene that I was working on when I quit last night. I guess I kind of want feedback and kind of don’t. If you do give it, please be honest.
Losing Nora: The Fall and Misadventures of a Computer DivaChapter OneSome days Nora felt that life would be so much better if she could just take a drill to her forehead and release the demons screaming and pushing and shoving to get out. Some days she couldn’t remember what life was like before the pulsating throb that
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Tags: NaNoWriMo, writing
October 8th, 2005
This is Izzy’s introductory post in the PBeM I joined.
Who: Izzy
Where: cockpit of the Tianlong
She’d crashed once. During the war.
That had been an unpleasant experience to say the least. Her fighter had taken an unlucky hit that had knocked out part of her propulsion system and she’d been sent spinning toward the unwelcoming view of a mountainside.
This was worse.
Cold fingers touched her forehead and came away with a sticky, wet substance. Green eyes tried to focus but it occurred to her that there was nothing to focus on. Not when her eyes were closed. Slowly,
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Tags: writing, fiction, Firefly, Serenity, Fan Fiction
October 8th, 2005
I wrote the following to be a writing sample for an audition for a Firefly PBeM game. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had to audition for a game. Usually I go on reputation because I usually know someone. Izzy is an original character, an ex-ace fighter pilot with a history with both the Alliance and the Independents which left her liking neither.
Izzy pulled her Stetson down low over her brow as she settled into the back corner of the hole in the wall bar. The bottle of whiskey sat on the unfinished table
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Tags: writing, Firefly, Serenity, Fan Fiction, fiction
October 1st, 2004
For some reason the air near the lake always has a different feel to it than then chemical-tainted air at the crowded community pool — cleaner, crisper, more alive, and there is always something special about that first splash into the still, wet mirror of blue sky on a hot Summer day.
Of course, it is always more fun to call it a “swimmin’ hole” and swing on a rope as far out as you can toward the middle of the stillness and pretend you are Tom or Huck in the good ole days after a hot day of pretending to
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Tags: writing, fiction, Short Story, Summer
