Five Sentence Fiction - Waiting

Just scraping in before the cutoff for the topic of waiting for Five Sentence Fiction. It's not autobiographical... I think >.>

Aspiring Author

Things are too busy at the moment so I'll wait till they slow down to start writing. Wonder what's on T.V. tonight? Nano isn't really for me, I'm more of a planner. Where's my muse when I need her?

Epitaph: Wish I'd written a book.

Zoinks and Jinkies

This week's entry for Five Sentence Fiction. The topic is Doors.

Picture Source

As a kid I'd always loved Scooby Doo, the chase scenes especially. In one door then out another, on and on. Running away from different monsters (back then they were scary). It's not so great, now that I'm dead. It's the best explanation of the afterlife I've ever seen.

Scientific Discourse

"Scales? Oh, my goodness no! Such a miss-informed opinion only hangs on in ‘popular’ culture my friend. You see, further research has shown that velociraptors are actually covered in feat-"

"Shut it and ruuuun, Doc!"

I've been lax at joining in at Five Sentence Fiction the past few weeks. Does just what it says on the tin, though I do my best to pare down my normal meandering sentences (unless it's for character). The topic this week is feathers. 

And I couldn't resist a scaled - and feathered - Velociraptor for an illustration.

Fantastic picture found here.

Dealing with Corporate Office

What do you mean the it's too late?

The paperwork has already been processed?

I've already been replaced?

THIS SENTENCE REDACTED TO KEEP THE STORY PG 

For future reference, re-sign and  resign don't mean the same thing!

*****
Happily they haven't been that incompetent yet. But there's always the fear lurking at the back of my mind when dealing with them (and my contract is up for renewal soon). Usually my sentences are crazy long, full of comma splices and parentheses but in Five Sentence Fiction I try and make it as short and to the point as possible. This week's topic is misunderstanding. The sentence wasn't really replaced, as I'm quite an accomplished swearer, and there's no way I could limit such a tirade to five paragraphs, let alone one sentence.

Sunshine

Warm white sand. The muted susurration of the roiling ocean. A hammock with just the right ratio of sun to dappled shade. A good book - your choice of thought provoker, page turner, or trashy novel. Time enough to evaluate the age old question: do cocktails taste better out of a coconut or a pineapple?

Picture sourced from here

OK so that's not really a story but more of a setting, but with the manky weather we're going through, can you blame me for fond memories of our Christmas holiday. This is also not the first time I've used this picture before, because it so perfectly encapsulates my thinking of holidays on the beach. The topic for this week's Five Sentence Fiction was Sunshine. My answer to the question is: I need government funding to explore this complex issue in enough detail to be sure.

Parents Never Change

The Five Sentence Fiction prompt for this week is travel. This piece combines reality and what I'd love to come to pass in a very short entry. It is good to be finally writing again!

Picture from here

"Underpants, did you pack enough underpants?"
"Yes mum."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, mum!"
"Remember son, your mother and I are just a wormhole away."

The Five Sentence Fiction prompt for this week is Inspire. While I'm not really one for poetry, there are a few pieces I like, and I got my idea from one by Shelley. Though I might have come away with a different lesson than the one intended.

Picture from here

They always say "Think big!" but they never really mean it. My imagination is fueled by Golden Age Science Fiction and B-Movies. In my dreams, I am not bound to merely this ball of mud. Ozymandias was on the right track, but he had too much humility. My monument will be made of stars, wrenched from their orbits in a design of my choosing.

Nerilla the Joybringer

I like the idea behind Lillie McFerrin's Five Sentence Fiction, though I do have a habit of run on sentences.Today's topic was time. I was originally going to go with something more in a hard SF vein, but I was worried about the pseudo-science taking over the story. And the weather today is absolutely glorious - a burst of summer amidst the winter that had arrived early - so I wanted something chock full of happiness. I chose a picture to go along with it, but ah, if only you could see the image in my head that it conjured up as I was brainstorming.

Kneeling By The Stream Of Consciousness, taken from here

Nerilla the Joybringer

Surely hers was the greatest gift in the whole pantheon - to select those moments that each Sentient would look back on and treasure: 

Proud parents watching their podling making its first tentative steps.

The warmth of sunlight on carapace after returning from the void. 

Languorous breathing after a mating ritual. 

Nerilla would vicariously sample all these and more until the End Times.

Potions

It seems every prompt at the moment is Halloween themed. Here's a couple in quick succession. From Lillie McFerrin Writes Five Sentence Fiction prompt for this week - potions. She's picked a marvellous picture to illustrate it, too. Simply gorgeous.

People always say that the Arcane Arts aren't something you should meddle in, but how hard can it be? It's just like cooking really - you follow the recipe and get the desired outcome. Water of Lethe, hemlock, down from a phoenix, dryad's moss and a dragon scale. The master has them all in labelled jars... I should know, seeing how it's me that had to sort them away. This stupid musty old tome doesn't specify what colour dragon scale, but that shouldn't matter, should it?

Picture source

Eating Out

 “A long time since I see you in my restaurant, but still I remember what you order with your wife! You will have a banana flower salad, seafood nem, crispy squid and prawns steamed in beer, yes?”

Inwardly I groaned. We had been here about half a dozen times and that was over three years ago... a lifetime ago. “Uhh, that’s what I used to order with my ex-girlfriend - I’d like to introduce you to my wife, we’d like to see a menu please.”

Picture from here

I know this is meant to be Five Sentence Fiction, but this is unfortunately based on a true event. I saw the funny side of it, but Tho wasn’t overly impressed. For a city of six million, Hanoi is a small town. The prompt for this week is awkward.

Five Sentence Fiction: Memories

Another place I’ve been watching for a while, but hadn’t participated yet is Five Sentence Fiction, organised by Lillie McFerrin. So once again, now is a great time to start! This is a great idea - short pieces that will be good practice for me to pare them down instead of comma-splicing into paragraphs. The prompt for this week was the word memories, but it doesn't necessarily have to appear in the piece.

Picture found here

Lou slowly counted out pound coins into piles for each drink - his rheumatism was acting up again. Half way through the second pint his eyes would twinkle, and he would charm the young backpackers with his accent and tales of his beloved Maude; she’d been gone now these past twenty years (God rest her soul) and there wasn’t a day she didn’t grow lovelier in his mind. Often this lead to further drinks being paid for in an attempt to entice more stories but it was pointless. Given a third, his brogue would thicken, tears would fall, and Lou would yearn for more than mere memories... inconsolable.