Flash: 50-Word Prompts (7, 8, 10 & 11)

Image courtesy of wpclipart.com

Third of four postings from the 50-word Flash Friday, where 12 prompts were given to writers for mini-flashes. The prompts were words or photos, and the flashes were limited to fifty words.

Today’s flashes are the stand-alone flashes based on word prompts. I think “Arms” was my favorite prompt; so many different meanings to the word. I tried to go with a non-traditional definition of the word for a romance writer. I wanted to attempt twisting the word away from standard after seeing what other people did with the prompt “Thong(s)”.

 

PROMPT SEVEN: Arms

“That is a lot of guns.” Bambi whispered, staring at the armory. Why on earth had Mason assembled all this? Shaking off the fear-factor, Bambi reached for an automated assault weapon. The zombies were about to get some hurt on. (words 40)

 

PROMPT EIGHT: Casablanca

The next clue was “White House.” George spent hours searching the local video stores political tape selections with no luck. The last store had the great presidential speeches next to classical black and white. Duh! He pulled the Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman movie out and found a new post-it-note. (words 50)

 

PROMPT TEN: Fig Roll

“Fig rolls follow a tradition starting in ancient Egypt with fig-paste stuffed pastries” The professor droned on. Abdul groaned. He needed to update his persona, which meant college in the twenty-first century. He had hoped a culinary degree would avoid the history he had already lived through. (words 47)

 

PROMPT ELEVEN: Myriad

The future. Must be so easy for those who couldn’t see it. Melusine froze. Myriad uncomfortable paths lay ahead. Choosing quickly, she moved on the one denying her love for a year. Staying still would have killed too many people, although it meant meeting Douglas tomorrow. (words 46)

(first published 2/8/2013; republished new blog format 3/19/2017)

Writing Exercise: Ticking Clock

Parkour Silhouette against Sky

Image copied from Learn About Parkour: http://robertjrgraham.com/learn-about-parkour/

Ticking Clock

You may be familiar with “ticking clocks” from the thriller genre, but they also occur in other genre. A few things to remember with Ticking Clocks:

1. Be precise about the passage of time.
NOT GOOD: “When we talked earlier today” ; “The other day”
GOOD: “When we talked before lunch in second period” ; “The day before yesterday”

The passage of time needs to feel important to everyone. If the clock is ticking off hours, be precise about the hours – if ticking off days, be precise at the day level.

2. Don’t slow down. As the deadline approaches increase the challenges. Torture your characters.

3. Remind your readers of the Ticking Clock through the urgency the main character feels, not reminding the reader by relaying the countdown through the prose.
NOT GOOD: Douglas tore down the sidewalks because he only had moments to meet his true love, according to the street soothsayer.
GOOD: The soothsayer told him he needed to be at the corner of Second and Main at 5:08 sharp. Douglas’ breath burned in his lungs as he ran. He never was good at running, but to meet true love he would arrive gasping.

WRITING EXERCISE: Write a Ticking Clock – At least three sentences and share below. Make us feel the urgency.

Make us feel like we are back in school taking a final of 150 multiple choices in one hour … urgent … and realize the last question is an essay and we have 10 minutes left …. building, racing toward the end, getting more difficult …Then realize that the essay is 25% of the grade. I did mention torturing the characters, right?

*****

Ticking Clock

Douglas rounded the corner to Main, plowing through the professionals pouring out of the Maddox building. He was going to make it; only one city block left and it was a short side.

The bright orange cones would not have stopped him, but the caution tape was at ankle, waist, and eye level. They were repairing the sidewalk and directing foot traffic across the street. He didn’t have time.

His eyes darted for a way as his feet continued to move.

Subway, had two exits, one on Third and the other on Second.

He half-jumped the steps and half-slid the rails down; more a control fall than anything else. God, who would have thought he would be doing parkour? He forgot to breathe during the distance across tiles between the staircases. He gasp a new breath as he faced the second set of stairs, trying to ignore the digital clock above letting the commuters know it was 5:07. He had failed at everything he had ever tried unless it was a total deadend, like his job at the coffee shop.

True love was seconds away, if he made it up the three flights of stairs.

(words 42 +195 = 237 – first published 7/11/2015; republished in new blog format 11/22/2016)

NaNo: The Opening of the Swan

The Opening page of The Swan, so far. I received feedback that the physical description came too soon and the opening is too “purple”. Also the name “Dougie” read like “Doogie” and threw people out of the story. I kind-of want the name to be Douglas for its name meaning. Do you agree with the feedback I have received? Do you have additional feedback. Comment below.

The Swan and the Kitty (Urban Fantasy)

The scream rending the night’s air in two, separating the indistinguishable grayness from half lit street poles into bright white full moon pools and black shadows, caught Dougie in the heart. He didn’t think twice before setting his laundry duffle securely across his shoulders and putting his four hundred pound, six foot frame lumbering in the direction of the noise. Echoing barks countered the caterwauls.

Tucked between the forgotten buildings of Tuscon’s south side Douglas discovered another battle in the age-old war between the canine pack predators and a feline solo hunter. Douglas cursed under his breath about pet owners who abandoned their pets when they stopped being cute. The Maine Coon cat had managed to get in an elevated area but was bleeding from several bites. Below it, four feral dogs each nearly twice the size of the admittedly very large cat jumped and barked, spittle flying.

He hated bullies.

After twisting the drying towels he had been carrying outside the bag tightly around his arms, Dougie stomped forward yelling and waving his arms.

Eerily the dogs immediately stopped barking and turned to face him. The bright black, brown and blue eyes staring at him were far too intelligent for discarded half-starved pets. The largest of the pack, a black creature with Rottweiler in its mixed line, yipped twice and the yellow and brown dogs broke from the pack while the Alpha and the fourth dog returned to monitoring their primary prey.

(243 words, first published 11/20/2016)

Blog: NaNo Choice Part 3

theswan-holding-cover

NaNo is just three short days away. Below is the synopsis for The Swan series with my guess for the word length of each installment. Time to get writing!

***

Bit by a were, Charlie discovers his transformation animal is prey in the world of shapeshifting predators. Can he survive long enough to his perfect mate?

The story is in four parts to be published as four short novelettes:

The Swan and the Pussy – Saving a cat from a pack of dogs ends up transforming someone who had been losing the game of life into a Swan. Unfortunately, Charlie is now a prey animal in a world of predators. Some people never get a break. (about 12K words)

The Swan and the Hawk – A seer predicted Charlie would meet his perfect mate. Can a fat Swan find happiness with the ambitious Hawk in charge of the City’s Aviary? (about 15K words)

The Swan and the Dolphin – Sent to Florida for testing, Charlie gets adopted by the Pod and dragged deeper into shifter politics. As the water gets hotter, can he hold his breath? (about 18K words)

The Swan and the Dragon – Seers are never wrong, but can Charlie survive a relationship with a … Dragon? (about 20K words)

Blog: Nano Choice Part 2

 

theswan-holding-cover

Holding Cover by Erin Penn

I’ve decided what I will be doing for NaNo 2016. I will get “The Swan and the …” series out of my head and onto paper. It is about a male shapeshifter (a swan) and various women he meets in the shifter world – the Pussy, the Hawk, the Dolphin and the Dragon. The first story should run a bit over 10K each, each one getting longer, with the last closer to 30K – for the total of 50K – the Nano Goal. Urban Fantasy Romance genre.