A Festival of Friday Fictioneers!

March 22, 2013March 25, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

This weekend is the Virginia Festival of the Book–five days of books and their writers in the great Virginia town of Charlottesville. This is my third year to attend and my first to participate. I’ll be doing a reading from a story of mine, which appears in the Blue Ridge Writers 2013 anthology, on Sunday, and Rita Mae Brown will be in attendance. Gulp.

So, first time reading before an A-list author? Check.

Nerves? Check. Big time.

But the story, “Mourning,” is one of my favorites, and I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’ll keep telling myself that, and perhaps I’ll believe it by 1300 this Sunday.

Anyway, if you’re within driving distance of Charlottesville, VA, check out the remaining three days of the Virginia Festival of the Book here. I’ll wager you’ll find something you must see.

Today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt features one of my favorite things–a horse. I was a typical horse geek in my teens. On summer days I’d pack a lunch–for me and the horse–and ride as far as I could, eat lunch, then come back home. Some Sundays, my dad would saddle his horse, and he and I would “ride fence” to check where repairs needed to be made. Those times (and baseball games) made for some great father-daughter talks.

The first book I ever owned was Black Beauty–and it still makes me tear up. I almost had to walk out of War Horse until I figured out it would end happily. There was a time I preferred the company of my horse over any person. Sometimes I wish I still had a horse because they can still be better company than a lot of humans.

Though horses are not the smartest of mammals, they have excellent instinct, and today’s story, “Oh, the Humanity!,” captures how I always thought a horse would sound if they spoke human. As usual, if you can’t see the link on the title, scroll to the top of this page and click on the Friday Fictioneers tab. Then, you can select the story from the drop-down list.

Beware the Ides of Friday Fictioneers!

March 15, 2013March 15, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Actually, every month has “ides,” but the Ides of March William Shakespeare made famous when a soothsayer warns Caesar to beware them. In addition to March, the ides fall on the fifteenth of May, July, and October. The rest of the months, the ides fall on the thirteenth. I don’t know why; ask the Romans, who’d probably respond that the ides denote the approximate middle of a month. But, Gregorian or Julian calendar?

The photo prompts for Friday Fictioneers have featured incredible landscapes and beautiful examples of still life. Occasionally, the one picture will juxtapose two oddities, and those are sometimes the most thought-provoking. I think you’ll see that from today’s picture, which could be both a landscape and a still life. Those odd juxtapositions often send my brain into magical realism or speculative fiction mode. Today it went to an historical event (Yes, my parents were British, so for me it’s “an historical.”) and the paranormal, which should make for a great genre mash-up.

The story is “September Morning Forever,” and you can read it by clicking the link on the title. If you don’t see the link, then scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop-down menu.

And La Fheile Padraig Sona!

A Quick Friday Fictioneers

March 8, 2013March 8, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

Just a quick post to point you toward this week’s Friday Fictioneers offering, hastily written while attending AWP.

Click on the title, “Procrastination,” to read the story inspired by a truly unique photograph. If you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, then select the story from the drop down list.

Friday Fictioneers – In Like a Lion?

March 1, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

It’s the first day of March, which is the first day of meteorological spring, and at least in my part of the world, it hasn’t come in like a lion. However, there were snow flurries last night. Welcome to the world of climate change.

But coming in like a lion is today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt. As you’ll see it’s unusual, but certainly thought-provoking. I can’t wait to read other Friday Fictioneers’ creations.

Early March does mean the AWP Conference. (AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.) This year it’s in Boston, MA, one of my favorite U.S. cities, and, like Chicago last year, I’ll be among 10,000 other writers. Since I’ve made a nice group of writer friends on-line, from conferences and workshops, and from AWP last year, it’ll be a great time for a reunion, not to mention some chowdah!

Next Friday will be the peak of the conference, so I hope I can find some time for Friday Fictioneers. It’s a tradition now, and who likes change anyway?

Today’s story is “Eye of the Beholder,” and if you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the top of the page, click on the Friday Fictioneers tab, and select the title from the drop-down menu.

Oh, and back to the stretching yourself as a writer I posted about on Monday? Today’s offering is another first for me–young adult.

Friday Fictioneers – Almost Recovered

February 22, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

I think my cold is finally on its way out. How, you say, do I know that? Well, I took one look at today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt, and I went directly to the dark side. That shows my brain is finally firing most of its neurons.

Today’s offering may or may not be a zombie apocalypse story–I’ll leave that up to you. It may or may not take place in the near future–I’ll leave that up to you, as well.

What I do know was it was gratifying to be able to conceive of something and have it come to me almost instantly–and with no nose-blowing or coughing interruptions. [Knocks on wood.]

The story is “Death Throes,” and, as usual, if you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the Friday Fictioneers tab at the top of the page, hover your cursor over it, then select the story from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers–Cure for the Common Cold?

February 15, 2013 / unspywriter / 1 Comment

The common cold is uncommon in its inconvenience. Nothing will put it off when it’s determined to put you low, and this week it won the sparring match we’d been having for the previous several days. And “put me low” was apt; I barely lifted my head from the pillow for three days. Monday’s usual writing blog post? No way. Wednesday’s usual political blog post? Nope. I didn’t even have the energy to look at David Stewart’s wonderful photo until Thursday evening.

But I wasn’t going to let rhinopharyngitis keep me from Friday Fictioneers. Not to be too descriptive, but I settled in this morning with my ubiquitous glass of water (fluids, you know) and box of tissues (I’m on my fourth one) and studied the incredible sculpture in David’s photo. It reminded me of a sculpture I saw frequently when I worked in Washington, DC, The Awakening. The Awakening once graced Haines Point in DC, but when a dispute arose between the artist and the U.S. Park Service over maintenance, the sculpture moved to the new National Harbor complex south of DC, where the I-95/I-495 bridge links Virginia and Maryland.

Both sculptures are evocative, but today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt was somehow eerier and had a more visceral impact. The result is “Suzuki Method.” The concept that dawned is far better than the result my cold-addled brain produced, but, hey, it’s the first writing I’ve done all week. And that says a lot.

As usual, if you don’t see the link on the title above, go the the Friday Fictioneers tab at the top of this post, click on it, and select the story from the drop-down list.

Friday Fictioneers On the Wing

February 8, 2013February 8, 2013 / unspywriter / 1 Comment

The Friday Fictioneers’ photo prompts are always challenging as well as inspiring, but this week’s is especially meaningful. It represents where I spent more than half of my adult life–in and around airplanes–and Rich Vaza’s stunning photo brought out the occasional poet in me.

I’ll confess it. I love airplanes. I love the look of them, the feel of them, the smell of them. The emotions evoked while flying are sometimes better than sex. I can relive my first solo from thirty-plus years ago step-by-step, and I loved working around airplane people for three decades. We used to do a little riff in the office, usually to enliven a Monday morning. “I love the smell of jet fuel in the morning!” one would offer. “It’s the smell of freedom,” came the reply. (A far more appealing use of that phrasing that than offered by Robert Duval in Apocalypse Now, don’t you think?) I’m tickled pink that a recent switch in approach paths to Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport brings planes over my house. I love that noise, and I’d missed it.

And, yes, I take it too personally when someone, usually someone not in the know, says they’re dangerous or that they’re too afraid to get on board. Bottom line? You’re safer in an airplane than staying in your house, where home accidents take far more people a year than commercial aviation.

“Ad Astra” is a 100-word prose poem, one that’s probably far too maudlin and laudatory, but it’s how I feel. If you don’t see the link on the title, scroll to the Friday Fictioneers tab at the top of the page and select it from the drop-down list.

An Artful Friday Fictioneers

February 1, 2013January 31, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

I’m off to my first writing conference of the year today–the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference at Hollins University. It was supposed to be last weekend, but The Weather Channel convinced the organizers that Winter Storm Khan (cue William Shatner voice) would make the road messy. So, they postponed the conference to this weekend.

Winter Storm Khan didn’t materialize, at least here in the Shenandoah Valley, but it was too late to make a change to the change. I’ll report on the conference next week.

This week’s Friday Fictioneer’s inspiration photo immediately brought to mind one of those inane conversations you overhear at a modern art museum. You know the one that usually poses the question, “But is it art?” I’ve even participated in a few of those myself.

On purpose, there are no dialogue tags and no indication of the gender, or number, of speakers. I leave it up to the reader to delve the meanings behind “Hephaestus’ Wedge.” (A Google search for “Athena’s birth” might reveal one of them.)

If you don’t see the link on the title above, then click on the Friday Fictioneers tab at the top of this post and select it from the drop-down list.

A Sunny Friday Fictioneers

January 25, 2013January 23, 2013 / unspywriter / 1 Comment

This week’s inspiration photograph was a welcome contrast to the weather we’ve been having here in central Virginia–it was five degrees Centigrade upon waking this morning, and the forecast is for snow on Friday. That’s enough to make one long for tropical shores.

I grew up in a land-locked county in Virginia, and, in fact, didn’t learn to swim until I was an adult because my mother managed to instill a fear of water in me. Having a significant other who owned a boat was impetus enough to be more safe while out on the water, and luckily my local parks and rec gave adult swim lessons. It was one of those times where you learn something and wish you hadn’t wasted all those years avoiding it.

I loved swimming and loved being in the water. The SO and I eventually bought a house on a tributary of the Patuxent River in Maryland, and we vacationed at a lakehouse owned by him and his brother in eastern Connecticut. Both places got me out of being a pool-only swimmer. Then, there was the ocean.

Today’s 100-word story is “And When We Go Back to the Sea.” In addition to the photo, a quote from President John F. Kennedy also inspired it:

“All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea – whether it is to sail or to watch it – we are going back from whence we came.”

If you don’t see the link on the story title, go to the Friday Fictioneers tab at the top of this post and click on it. Then, you can select the story from the drop-down menu.

Friday Fictioneers – Ignore Your First Impressions

January 18, 2013January 16, 2013 / unspywriter / Leave a comment

When I first saw this week’s photo prompt, I wondered, “Oy! [No pun intended.] How will I ever come up with something for this?”

Now, other photos have posed quite the challenge, but this one–again, I say, oy!

Then, I stepped back–much like the protagonist in the story–and noticed, ooh, my favorite word, the juxtaposition of the objects. That hinted at a person, an object, and a place, and they brought to mind a game I’ve played with friends for hours at a time–Clue. (You know–Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the lead pipe.)

So, that meant this had to be a mystery, posed, investigated, and solved in 100 words. Easy, peasy, right? And I managed to work in two, other pop culture references into “My Fair Clue.” Can you spot them?

As a writer, sometimes you have to ignore your first impressions. You know, the ones that whisper to you that you’ll never come up with a story. Sometimes, you just have to look at things from a different angle, and, lo and behold, the story was there all along.

As usual, if you don’t see the link on the title above, scroll up to the top of this post and click on the Friday Fictioneers tab. Then, you can select the story from the drop-down list.