5SF: Memories

Good Grief!!! How did I let another Five Sentence Fiction prompt sneak up on me?!? It's been up a few days already and I just learned that the prompt is MEMORIES.

At the risk of sounding insane - because, you know, I'm already hip-deep in a couple other WIPs already - I used this prompt to play around with yet another story idea that's been rattling in the back of my head. It's still very much a shot in the dark...so many details to sort out...but here goes:

MEMORIES

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She stared beyond the blazing fire pit into dusk-blue waters beyond, and thought back to when her world wasn’t inverted, or her family missing (she refused to think them dead).

Behind her, The Portolan House throbbed with life: full of curious rooms and half-told secrets, odd people and stranger inventions, and the impossible rituals that bound them all together.

I’m too young to feel this old. Absently she twisted the octopus ring on her finger, her mind racing back to the moment they’d brought her here – an accident, Brock said; but Meggie wasn’t so sure.

Nothing happens by accident, she told herself; but the hunger for what she’d left behind was too painful to ignore, despite the assurances of the Portolan staff that she would – eventually – fit in and leave her past behind.

Don't know about Lillie McFerrin's Five Sentence Fiction? You should check it out here.

Then go and add your own "memories" flash fiction to the line-up!! 

(I promise, we looooove fresh blood joining in the fun!!) 

As always, comments and observations are appreciated!!

Thanks for reading!!

5SF: Faces

Time for another Five Sentence Fiction entry for Lillie McFerrin's weekly challenge!

Check out Lillie's site!

This week's challenge: FACES

This one is a bit of a departure for me...but I felt like this was the direction I needed to go.

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I would like to know the real story behind this photograph.

Across the chasm that separated her from the encampment, behind a wall of twisted vines and angry mosquitos, Nora settled in with her camera. It had taken her weeks to get there - weeks of hard traveling by banana boat and overcrowded buses, a bribe here, a hard-won conversation with a local street vendor there.

But it had paid off. Though she could not span the gap, Nora could see the atrocities unfolding in the camp that no one wanted to talk about, that the local government "couldn't find", that the outside world didn't know existed.

Swallowing back the grief that threatened to swallow her whole, Nora focused her lens on the victims as they were lined up - one photo for each haunted soul she could not save.

As always - I love to hear your feedback. 

5SF: Blush

Time for another Five Sentence Fiction entry for Lillie McFerrin's weekly challenge!

Check out Lillie's site!

This week's challenge: BLUSH

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The haberdashery was no place for a lady - polite gentlemen, yes; but then gentlemen were supposed to go to the haberdasher for all their "elite particulars," as Auntie Mara always said.

Beatrice, however, was determined to choose the perfect present for her fastidious fiancé, no matter what Auntie or her wretched instructor at "finishing school" said on the matter. The shop owner was all politeness, but a bit frosty in his demeanor; but Beatrice chose to overlook it with all the faux grace of a headstrong girl used to getting her way.

Upon leaving, however - one foot on the boardwalk, the door still creaking closed behind her - her own "progressive" notion of deportment withered at the sight of a dashing young man striding up the street, cane and gloves in hand.

Heat rushed to Beatrice's face as she clutched her lapdog and thought bitterly: Be gracious, even if it kills you - that's what they taught at the school, isn't it?

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

And don't forget to add your own 5 Sentence Fiction as well!

5SF: Night

Time for another Five Sentence Fiction entry for Lillie McFerrin's weekly challenge!

Check out Lillie's site!

This week's challenge: NIGHT

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Light sloped beyond the hills, fleeing from a sky foaming with stars above a scribbled treeline, ink-black against a bleeding sun. Around her sagged the ancient graveyard, where the old bones called to her from beneath her feet. The dead ones rested, but their very quietude made her restless, as a gnawing ache within her screamed against the serenity: we are not all asleep here!

As the headstones around her faded into a flat gray dusk Jada sank to her knees and wormed her fingers into the damp grass around her. The tramp of soldiers clambering up the cemetery road unnerved her for a moment - she had not expected to do this again, let alone defend herself in this way - but she shook off her misgivings and turned instead to the task at hand: crafting some shadows of her own.

Yes, I used this as an excuse to do a spot more on Welsan's tale.

Call me selfish. But "night" was just too good a prompt to ignore.

Jada is a shadow-breather, after all...

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

And don't forget to go to Lillie's site and add your own five night sentences!

5SF: Harvest

HUZZAH! Lillie McFerrin has posted another Five Sentence Fiction challenge. 

This is my spin on the current prompt:

HARVEST

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Reaping souls was a grisly business - but curious too, and full of surprises. The final gasp, a last look of wonder (or terror), a squeaky question forced through a dying breath...there was no way to know how a person would ultimately face death until the last second.

Welsan hadn't filled his soul-glass in a while. His customers weren't happy; they'd been begging for a fresh supply for weeks - but he wasn't worried. Murder and war, plague and massacre all thrived in the world, and it was his duty to know where to find them.

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

And be sure to check out Lillie's page so you can read the other awesome entries!

FSF: Enchanted

Time for another Five Sentence Fiction entry! 

Here is my contribution to Lillie McFerrin's weekly challenge:

Enchanted

Harsh defiance stood between her and freedom, though she could not see it. She was perpetually sore from straining against it, her face splayed grotesquely against the transparent wall, while the rest of her body folded into a cage so narrow it took up virtually no room. Though so cruelly distorted, her vision was not - a cruel gift by those who had ensnared her. She could see through her glass wall into a vibrant world, full of life and beauty and color - a dream from which she was forever barred.

And all because she was gifted in one pitiful strand of prophecy, enabling her to tell dangerous flattery to whoever muttered: "Mirror, mirror, on the wall..."

Thoughts? Comments? Let me know in the comment section below!

Creative Pacing

A new month, a new blog design - and a new update schedule. Welcome to the new AL.

When I started my blog waaaaaaaaaaay back in September, I decided that I would not marry myself to one specific updating schedule, though the "shiny" of a new endeavor naturally meant that I was posting a lot. As in, every day.

I wasn't worried about the frequency at the time. New things always have their lustre that must wear off before you step back and readjust. Knowing that this blog would be a learning process, and an ongoing "writer's resume" (of sorts), I decided to keep up the 5-6 posts per week routine until I felt that both the topics and the pacing had worn thin, and I needed to scale back.

The big surprise: It took me five months to get to that point.

But that threshold - or perhaps I should say crossroads - has at last come. Personal craziness aside (the Goff Clan has been racking up frequent flier miles at the doctor's offices and hospitals lately), I've come to a point where the daily writing energy that I've funneled into blogging needs channeling to other projects, not the least of which is the now nearly-completed trilogy that I hope to query beginning in late May or early June.

The Upshot: I am going to hold true to my original vision of what I set out to do, by:

(a) Going to a Tuesday/Thursday update schedule (weekend silly posts and Six Sunday Sentence excerpts will continue as usual) 

(b) Hold myself accountable to the original discipline which started this adventure in the first place. (Especially item #3 in that link)

This new schedule will allow me to do three things:

1.  Focus on the writing that is at the heart of why I do what I do. 

2. Give updates of higher quality to my blog followers (including the popular Agent Tweets series) 

3. Stay sane.

OK ---- so maybe that third item is a bit of a stretch. But here's hoping. :-)

I also intend to continue with Lillie McFerrin's weekly Five Sentence Fiction challenge (really excited about this week's prompt, by the way - go check it out!). So expect the odd random flash fic to appear here from time to time.

So with all that being said...next Agent Tweets coming to you next Tuesday! With a little weekend silliness along the way.

Keep Reading --- Keep Writing --- Keep On Creating!

Let me know what you think in the comment section!

http://anonymouslegacy.blogspot.com/2011/09/new-endeavors.html