Posts Tagged ‘ Flash Fiction ’

Damned I’m not Not Late Getting Started Again

Damned if I’m not late getting started again, but it’s not my fault this time. No, I blame day, that being last night.
How can I blame a period of time equal to a fraction of the rotation of the earth? Easy, I went to sleep at 0100, that is 1:00 AM for the twenty-four-hour clock challenged.
You see, I sit up with my lovely wife until she falls asleep, approximately 2345. (Subtract 1200 form the number to read the time.) Then, after watching a few minutes of The Late Show With Steven Colbert, I decide why not read for a while. One thing led to another, and I start editing back over yesterday’s writing.
Suddenly, it’s 0100. (If you can’t read that go back to my second paragraph.
See what I mean, not my fault at all.

Well, only so much exhaustion can be fixed with a cup of coffee.

Ah, much better. Now, where was I? Oh, yes.
The alarm blares at 0520. I wake up, stab my alarm to death with my finger, and glance at my wife and say, “Time to get up, Dear.”
“Five more minutes,” says Dear.
What is a man to do? So, I give her five minutes.
“Five more.”
Now I start feeling like the witch hunter in Salem, Massachusets who in trying to seduce a confession from a suspect witch dropped a rock on his chest only to hear, “More weight.”
You probably see where this is going but being a writer, I can’t stop.

It’s like an addiction, and there is no twelve step program.

Five minutes later. “Dear…

“One more minute.”
“I have to wake up the boys.”
“One more minute.”

Then up she pops like a devil from a Jack-in-the-box. Strip from her Tee-J. (That is a t-shirt she sleeps in.) Bathroom break. Brush teeth. Shower.
A few minutes while I wake up my son.
Dressed, we run downstairs where she fixes breakfast to eat from her desk at work and takes most of the coffee.
Son #1 comes downstairs, bleary-eyed. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug and the door.

I need to compress time here, a bit, so consider this a brief trip through a small wormhole. (Obligatory Science Fiction Term.)

Boys fed and dropped off at school, I return home, sit my cold cup of coffee on the end table and recline with a lie to myself. I will just close my eyes for a minute.
1100, Oh, shit!

Damned if I’m not late getting started again, but it’s not my fault this time.

Now that we’ve reached that sudden moment of Déjà vu for you, I need to go to work.

2019
01/15
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CATEGORY
Flash Fiction
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Writer’s Log 01.12.2018-0758

Good morning all you beautiful people!
Woke a bit earlier this morning, and begin what has become a comforting ritual, beginning my Log. Putting words on a page may be tedious to some, but I find the quiet pop of keys falling, and the appearance of black letters on a white screen soothing in a way that escapes my definition.
Of course, there is the annoyance of the occasional misspelled words or grammar mistake that I must fix, but that annoyance is more like biting into a peppercorn in a delicious meal, a rush of pepper than gone.

Shift, by Frank Darbe
“Two o’clock in the fucking AM on a smoky night with no clouds and only the light from the overglow of distant fires, Toss sat on the goose seat of a Harley Sportster with his arms around the waist of a beautiful woman. He lived a young man’s dream, and all he could think about after hours of driving East was that his ass hurt from his knees to his neck.”
Chapter 3: Chasing Ghosts
Available at JaCol Publishing and Amazon

Writer’s Log – Supplemental – 1628: I wrote a Flash Fiction piece titled, “The Path Most Demanding” using the painting by Johann Georg von Meyer. 812 words.


Painting by Johann Georg von Meyer

A Writer’s Plan:
So far, I have pursued this without a pl;an, other than published a book. Well I’ve done that and now I need to move on. I intend to try something a little different. Writing a series of Novella’s that will add up to a larger novel. Novella’s can be as short as 20,000 words and upwards to 40,000. I want to aim at 30,000 words. I can write one in thirty days or less. For a series, I can have each novel complete on its own, and series arcs.

I am already working on a Novella. I am going to make this either a duology or a trilogy. It will be Science Fiction of the Space Opera genre. It will run like a series of modules in a game, one leading to the next but each being independent, capable of standing alone.

Writer’s Log – Supplemental 01.13.2019-0048
I have written the basic background for the series of Novellas. I suspect it will be a Trilogy. The first novella will be the gathering of the three primary characters and their escape from Breakersbore in search of an ancient colony ship.

2019
01/12
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Flash Fiction
Novel in 30 Days
Novella
Prompts
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Informal Journal – Keep Pinging Away

Today, I wrote a first draft of “D’Artagnan Never Slept Here,” a science fiction flash story. Posting in Writer’s World elicited excellent responses that will go to the rewrite. I think it has the germ of a good Flash, but it does need some work. Keeping it under 1000 words will be no easy task.

Rewrote Dystopia Happens. I think of it as Science Fiction, and, its background strongly implies the breakdown of society with youth and an elderly man eking out an existence. I intend to submit it to flashfictiononline.com. That means, tomorrow I have to rewrite “D’Artagnan Never Slept Here.” I want to submit a full slate of stories because I have a better chance of selling one of them.>

Suggested changes to Chapter 2 of Shift were returned. I need to break them open tomorrow. I suspect I will accept them. I trust my editor.

Flash Fiction Resources

An Extremely Helpful, Incredibly Comprehensive Guide to Flash Fiction Submissions

Stories in your pocket: how to write flash fiction

2017
03/23
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Journal
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A Plan for Flash Fiction

There is a huge market for Flash Fiction, much of it unpaid, but a published story is a published story.

Today, I wrote another Flash Fiction piece, “The Box.” (300 words) As a writing prompt, I used an image of an old fashioned, black analog dial telephone. Memories of my grandmothers party line and the old Phone Exchange numbers, individual rings brother out a story about loss an dealing with death, particularly of my mother.

It could be considered Magical Realism. I have no problem with that.

Over the next three days, I will write more, and then submit them to Copper Nickel or elsewhere.

2017
03/20
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CATEGORY
Flash Fiction
On Writing
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