This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: Use this lyric from Shore Leave to flavour your story: “Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels” Note: Shore Leave is a song by Tom Waits. Look him up. If you like the blues, you’ll appreciate his music. I wasn’t really feeling this prompt, and I have three endings to write for my part of the CYOA book I’m collaborating on that are due tomorrow, but I decided I’d go ahead and go for it anyway. Oh, and New2WritingGirl, this one is for you. Tom Waits’s growling voice flowed from the juke box through the bar, “Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels” sticking in his mind like one of those songs you wish to forget but can’t; the song that incessantly plays in your head that drives you all … Read entire article »

This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: Why did the Tooth Fairy fail to deliver coins one evening? Flipping the switch on the siren, I tapped the brakes, rolled cautiously through the intersection of Twelfth and Oakwood, slammed the accelerator and watched through my periphery as the speedometer in my cruiser climbed steadily upward. My reds and blues flashed back at me tauntingly from the storefront windows that lined the street, as if to say “hey wait! The emergency’s right here. Where are you going?” I received the call as I was sitting in the drive-thru ordering my dinner – a young woman’s body had been found in the park over on Eighth Street – and I found myself, of course, angered at yet another break ruined by the scum of society I … Read entire article »

This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: Use one or more of these words in your story (but resist the temptation to look them up first!) * Periapt * Vilipend * Embrangle This week’s prompt struck me as rather interesting and fun. Anyone that knows me on a personal basis knows of my propensity to substitute words at sometimes inopportune times (the result of my speech impediment). I used my own personal experience in conversation and used a bar that I frequent for the setting. Let me know what you think. Oh, and the definitions are at the end of the story. I didn’t want to put them at the beginning because it would ruin the telling. “… and you’re so periapt it’s not even funny.” Lewis thumbed the bill of his faded … Read entire article »

This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: “Albert is Dead” Along with romantic scenes, many writers find writing a scene which involves killing a character a challenge. Here is your chance to write a scene where a truly objectionable character dies. Step 1. Go and read “Doggone” – a Friday Fiction first draft piece from a week ago. Step 2. Decide who, what and how Albert dies. It may be accidental, a blundered break in, monster attack – or by one of the many characters within the short story who may or may not have a motive. Step 3. Now write… You can choose to be as graphic or lyrical as you like, choose to show but not tell – or just tell it all. The only rule is – Albert must be dead by the end … Read entire article »