She was surprised by how well her product was selling. She had expected to get support from the feminist crowd, perhaps some attention in the local media, but instead she saw significant, straightforward financial success.
What the creator of Deter-Gent man-repelling laundry soap hadn’t anticipated were all the male purchasers.
When he got his Visa bill, his eyes popped out of his skull.
They literally fell right out. We aren’t sure if something on the bill caused it, or if the two events were unrelated. All we know is that his eyeballs ended up on the floor.
It was gross.
Endless golden sands; a beautiful horizon. The sound of the bus trundling through the desert is as entrancing as it is monotonous.
The bus is boiling. Bill wipes sweat from his glistening brow, his orange hair sticking to his forehead.
Only the thought of his mum can keep him going.
Carmen “Checky Girl” Cousens sent in this story in response to a call for Desert Bus-themed stories during Desert Bus For Hope 2010, a fundraiser for Child’s Play.
I think I will write a story today.
Words to paint glowing meanings in which I’ll revel,
Using verbs and nouns, adjectives as well,
Fiction or truth, a story of many words I’ll tell,
To keep me happy, as hours to days will swell.
Oh, there is no ink! No stories today.
Gloria was a performer. She’d known it since the day she’d somersaulted out of the egg and into the fish tank with a brilliant smile and a saucy wink.
Now she performed synchronized swimming routines for the world-famous aquatic circus. With fame came fortune: she dined on caviar most evenings.
He let the stresses of life bleed off and burn away, leaving behind only his inner self.
Trapped inside his shell, life was difficult, but that was why, once a week, he removed his bodiless brain from his metal-and-plastic body, soaked in some formaldehyde, and just relaxed for a while.
I consider this story an informal companion to Like Inside-Out Acupuncture.
She sneezed into her elbow and wrinkled her nose.
“Blurgh, so gross” she said.
She couldn’t know that the contents of her nasal evacuation had contained a microscopic anti-viral agent, which attacked and destroyed a potentially human-eradicating new virus that had begun to grow on her sleeve.
Lucky for us, eh?
Full disclosure: I’m reading a Tom Clancy novel that involves an Ebola outbreak. Yikes!
“When a cockatoo has gone insane, it will either make its nest out of smelted cobalt, or build its nest on top of a Cobalt, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is very foolish.”
Dr. Mickelston squinted at his notes. Ah, this was why he’d been told to avoid citing Wikipedia.
This story was based on a prompt supplied by @Vanguard1219.
The clear plastic umbrella lay broken on the side of the road, twisted and forlorn. It looked so sad. Unloved.
And it wasn’t exactly keeping the rain off any more–cold rain that drove in at an angle.
Never mind; it’s not mine, I thought, as the bus pulled away.
Chrissey started writing seriously in May. She now has a second draft novel and material for four sequels. She is part of an online writers’ groups at http://www.kelleyarmstrong.com/forum, and recently challenged her group to come up with some 50-word stories.
It’s true! The 50-Word Stories book has taken a step closer to actually becoming available.
Crazy. I know.
I’ve been so distracted by other things and busy with school and life that I’ve been negligent in moving the book forward. But today I sat down and hashed out some details, found the files I’d been using, and decided it was about time I made this happen.
There’s not going to be a fancy cover design with a half-hidden story written on the binding or anything clever like that. I had some ideas, but in the end, I’ve realized that one of the biggest reasons I haven’t gotten the book done yet is that I had all these little ideas and tweaks that I wanted to get just right, and I was getting discouraged by any imperfections that I saw. So taking a cue from the Cult of Done, I made up my mind: forget about the imperfections, forget about whether the cover is pretty enough, forget about whether people are going to nitpick the final product; just get it done.
So to that end, I’ve finalized the (very simple) design at Lulu.com and ordered a proof copy. Once I have that and am satisfied with it, I’ll open up sales. I don’t know if I’ll sell 2 or 20 (maybe 2 is optimistic!), but regardless, I’ll be able to say I put the book out there.
And I’m planning to make a downloadable PDF version available for free, as well.
Finally!