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Flash: Archaeology is the Best Major

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Photo from Victoria Palacios at Unsplash

Rating: Mature (Language)

The doll didn’t fit.

He shoved harder. It will fit.

The.doll.did.not.fit.

Fuck.

He needed to wash it before returning it.

It would be creepy to wash it in a tub like a real person.

Stupid. Fucking. Ugh!

Fred yanked it out. Didn’t laundrymats have large washers? Maybe in the back near the attendant giving him the stink eye.

He pushed the doll body in the mobile laundry basket, limbs flopping over the sides, feet and hands trailing through the day’s grime, dryer sheets, and loose threads until he found the monster machines used to wash sleeping bags and king-sized comforters.

This time he stuck it in feet first, shoving in the butt next, followed by the head. The hands and arms crammed in any which way. The black hair was the worst, clinging to his hands, but he got the door shut without anything catching.

He poured coins and detergent in, set the machine to chugging and agitating, then waited, texting a cute girl he met on campus earlier this week and responded to various emails and facebook posts for other women he had recently met, trying to decide who next to use the amulet on. Someone smaller who would fit in the normal washers.

Seventy-two hours – three days of bliss, before dumping the doll off somewhere, clean and untraceable. Archaeology is the best major of all time.

(words 228; first published 6/23/2019)

Geeking Science: Writing Prompts

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of Somkiat Fakmee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net4

Over at Mythcreants, they put together eight natural phenomena to use in your stories. These are really geeking cool science phenomena on Earth and in Space.

  1. Lake Vostok
  2. Ball Lightning
  3. Solar Flares
  4. Gamma Ray Burst
  5. Natural Nuclear Reactors
  6. The Space Roar
  7. Catatumbo Lightning
  8. The Great Science

Read the details at “Eight Natural Phenomena to Use in Your Stories”. https://mythcreants.com/blog/eight-natural-phenomena-to-use-in-your-stories/

WRITING EXERCISE: Our world is weird. Using one of the eight phenomena, or another weird science fact, write a flash. Science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy, or other fantasy option – have the phenomena play a critical role in the turn of the story BUT remember the characters are the star.

Author Spotlight: MJ Blehart

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

I’ve known MJ Blehart for a long time, a couple decades or more, even before the automobile accident that sent him down his new path. The accident where he wasn’t in the car with all the protection of air bags and crumple zones – car vs. human walking equals a lot of problems for the human walking. The doctors seeing a rotund computer geek said he would never walk without aid. Don’t ever tell Mr. Blehart what he can or can’t accomplish.

The man fences now – hence the writing for the anthology “Spells and Swashbucklers“. He knows Swashbuckling.

He also writes, blogs, edits, podcasts, and reads for audiobooks. His blog is focused on Positivity and how Consciousness Creates Reality. Occasionally he collects the posts into non-fiction publication. Most of his fictional work is self-published and shows his growth as a writer. The constant immersion in writing fiction, blogging non-fiction, and exposure to other writers as an editor and reader has him growing by leaps and bounds. Look at his work on Medium.com to see his style interests you: https://medium.com/@mjblehart

Flash: Sisyphus Duties

Erin Penn

From Unsplash: Boulder Photo by Peter Gonzalez (unsplash link no longer available) / Woman Photo by terricks noah
Cropped and merged by Erin Penn

All she had to do was push the stone to the top of the hill just once before sunset. Once. Some days she nearly made it by inches, some days she only got half-way.

Today she didn’t even try. Just standing took all her strength. She leaned against her nemesis, the boulder, slapping it a couple of times like a good dog by her side.

Exhaustion.

Back before this mission, an eternity ago, she had similar missions. Get through this pile of paperwork. Pay the rent again. Take care of the student loan. Put food on the table. Smile at the spouse. A spouse she never saw, rent for a home she never was in, a loan for an education she never used, food for children she couldn’t raise. All to push paperwork off her desk until it returned the next day. Phone call, computer files, interviews. Push, push, push.

As things went, pushing a boulder up the hill was a breeze. If she started now, she may make it about half-way. She shrugged, having found her millionth wind, and started pushing. She wasn’t sure if she was in hell or purgatory or still alive on earth. The boulder started moving for the day.

(Words 204; first published 6/16/19)

Other Cool Blogs: Pictures

Erin Penn

ConCarolinas just past and ConGregate is around the corner. I’m rubbing elbows with a whole lot of authors – and, yeah, the below just may be a bit accurate.

(If you want to send some sales my way, go to my Books and buy some through the amazon links. THANKS! – don’t make me resort to the Deadpool advertising method.)

Image acquired from the Internet Hive Mind