Offering

China is part of the file name for the prompt for the second Business Card Fiction, but I've recast it off the waters of Vietnam, seeing as how I'm living here  - that also lets me slip in some accented letters and a different font to spice it up from just normal text. I also selected colours from the picture to try and liven it up a bit. They're sort of Christmassy too, so that's a nice touch.. The final font is popular on shop fronts and printouts here, because it imitates calligraphy, although it doesn't seem to support diacritics which I find a bit strange. But I guess those accents only help people like me who have to look up the meaning of words. Even at high font sizes it can be a bit tricky to read.

The prompt:

The story:

For those of you who struggle with the font as I sometimes do, the last line reads The Dragon would bring revenge

I saw Business Card Fiction being talked about a while back, and added it to my RSS feed as I loved the idea of it... and I'd forget about it otherwise. Instead of a word count, you're limited by space. To some degree you can tweak it, based on what font you use (and I am a sucker for sexy fonts - though most of them are pretty illegible if you go too small). My story wouldn't fit landscape, but there was buckets of space left over when it was portrait. For the inaugural prompt, we had this lovely scene:

And after talking about how I love fonts, what did I end up running with? Times New Roman

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.

Post Nano Post

Nanowrimo? More like NanowriNO. I got off to a good start, especially considering the second day was Sports day so a bunch of the free time I had went up in smoke. But my progress after the holidays was practically nonexistent.

However, a mate suggested instead of a word count, to write for at least 30 minutes a day. He's doing some sort of grueling exercise regime for 30 minutes a day, so if we both stick at it, it'll be great. Again, it's only early days, but it is working so far. I should go back and read what I've already written soon, I've already forgotten the name of one of the two main antagonists already, and who knows what else.

My friends who were also doing nano also have piss poor word counts yet again, so at least I can take refuge in that I'm not alone at having little progress over November.

That's enough whingeing for now, on to writing!

Mindful Writing Day - Small Stones

Today is the 1st of November, the start of Nano (got a grand down, but I am happy with that), and also meant to be Mindful Writing Day - which is for writing small stones. Here's my couple from today. The second one isn't very classy, but they don't have to always be happy and uplifting. And be glad I didn't find a picture to go with it, like I usually do!

*

Simple fare cooked with love, tastes better than a banquet.

*

Ropey tendrils of dribbling, glistening yellow snot
A guilty pleasure, squeezing the hanky so they squish moistly
Caramel mucus that sticks to porcelain as if fighting for its life
Make the most of sickness - find fun where you can!

*

Cocktails

More Halloween stuff. At the 100 Word Challenge, this week we're to think of a recipe. A cocktail recipe to me seemed the obvious way to go, but what with yesterday's potion and this older one for Unicorn Nipple Biscuits (which I like better, possibly because it is longer) I'm starting to run out of ingredients.

Here are the ingredients for a single serve, but when catering, mix a batch in your cauldron.

* One measure of bitter bile from a long-standing argument
* Two fingers
* Two fingers of whiskey
* A jigger of stolen souls – the real spirit
* Splash of broken dreams
* Nettles for colouring
* Pinch of brimstone
* A spoonful of ectoplasm

Disintegrate the fingers, brimstone and nettles with a howling curse. Add the remains to the shaker, along with the liquids. Shake then pour over ice. Add a dollop of ectoplasm. Serve chilled in a ruby slipper. Garnish with a stuffed fairy skewered on a witch-finder's pin.

Yeah yeah, it looks nothing like my description, but it's the coolest looking Halloween cocktail I could find. It's from here

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