Lip Service 💋 [SOCS]

Blips are bad when they appear on your phone, but on an EKG you’d better hope you have some.

Clips of politicians acting like jerks I’d rather not click on whether at home or at work.

Flipping my hair to flirt with a dude is something for which I’ve never been in the mood.

Lipstick is lovely in pink or in red, though it can mess up a collar or a pillow in bed. 💋

Slipping and falling flat on my butt I try to avoid though I don’t have much luck.

Tulips can be tiptoed through, or so Timmy sings, but I wouldn’t want to crush one, since they epitomize Spring!

Red Flag [flash 200]

Olivia felt happy about her date tonight so far. Andy seemed like a perfect gentleman. He’d brought her a lovely red rose and was a wonderful conversationalist throughout dinner.

As they left the table, Olivia made sure to notice how generous Andy was to their waiter, so unlike the miserly man she’d dated previously.

“So, Olivia,” Andy said as he drove her home. “It’s neat that you like to sketch and hike, but I should tell you I’m a storm chaser.”

Olivia was eager to learn something new and participate too. “What’s that? It sounds fun!”

He laughed. “Well, I certainly think it’s fun! Exhilarating might be a better word. My group and I watch for upcoming weather events, the bigger the better. Hurricanes, tsunamis, cyclones, you name it. And we try to get to the vicinity if we can.”

“Ookay.” Olivia felt puzzled. “But why?”

“To feel alive!” Andy moved his hands around his head, pantomiming the swirling motion of a tornado.

“I see,” she said, though she didn’t really. “But isn’t it dangerous?”

Andy nodded, his dark eyes glittering. “Sure. Last year one of our group died in a brutal blizzard. He got a great video first though.”

~*~

A2Z Observations

We’re 10 days into April now, marking a third of the journey through my first A2Z bloggery challenge. Now, to be honest, I didn’t join in to get motivated to blog daily, since I do that already. I joined because I thought it would be fun to have a daily themed post.

Well, it’s not. 😱

Yes. Sacrilege. Allow me to pontificate. It’s a burden to write the posts that I’ve planned out on my list. It feels like work, bleh. It’s not fun like the other posts are, the genre challenges, the impulsive poetry, etc.

Another issue is that people aren’t responding to the romance novel reviews much, except to drop likes. I thought I had more romance readers here who would be interested in these books. Guess not. Maybe if I reviewed something “rapey” like The Flame and the Flower I’d get a conversation going haha.

But people are responding to the romantic comedy movie reviews, so I’m modifying my list to include more movies and fewer books, except for the reviews I’ve already scheduled. I’d rather go for the reliable over the uncertain, and it makes me a little sad to have a post with likes and no comments. Dunno why people can’t extrapolate things I say about romance novels into general discussions about other books and writing too, but like whatever. We’ll just focus on movies. 🙄

Further, with my regular newsfeed still overflowing with favorite bloggers posting great stuff, I don’t have time to wander to the A2Z page and check out new peeps. I’m already much too busy with blogging and working and everything else. That “make connections” part of A2Z is a bust for me, unfortunately. I don’t know how I used to have any spare time. Where did it go?

I think in the future if I do A2Z again it will be with a much more casual approach, not a theme/list. This feels way too much like actual work. 😝

Green [fiction 500]

Finally, all the pesky environmental protection laws had been defeated and steel drilling rigs covered the coastline. One by one, native species of flora and fauna died off, except for the Pacific greenworm. The greenworm flourished without its former predators and swiftly mutated into a new creature that could absorb nutrients from steel. There was a lot of steel around, and the worms were hungry.

*

At the university laboratory, the brilliant microbiology team studied the mutant worms in an attempt to understand how to kill them and protect the oil industry.

“Shouldn’t we be wearing full protective gear?” Ashley Adams asked, her voice wavering, since she was new on the team, yet worried they weren’t following proper procedure.

Team leader Brock Butler shook his head. “No need for that expense,” he said decisively. “These little worms are only harmful in water. Plus we aren’t made of steel!”

Chris Campbell sneezed and said, “Hey guys, I’m leaving early for break. I haven’t been feeling well today.”

*

Cantankerous old Grandpa Campbell knocked on the bedroom door. “Ain’t you up yet, Chrissy? I got sumthin to show you.”

Chris slipped her arms into her bathrobe, shivering and shaking. Her chest felt crushed, and she knew she was much sicker than a week ago when she went on Spring Break. She shuffled over to the front door where Grandpa was pointing. “Oh, my God.”

A bright green film covered everything: the porch, the walkway, the cars, the trees. It was as if the sky had dumped green snow as a belated St. Patrick’s joke. “What is that?”

“Worms,” Grandpa said. “They’s eating up the world. And they started in your school stuff. I threw your backpack on the porch when I first saw them, and the next day there were a million. Now a hundred million. A billion!”

“That can’t be,” Chris said. “They only live in the ocean and eat steel!”

Grandpa waved his hands. “You got eyes same as me. Look! That ain’t the ocean out there. And those worms are eating my trees.”

“I have to call my team.”

“School’s gone,” Grandpa said. “Was on the news. Worms ate everyone. From the inside out. They ate the buildings too. And the computers.”

Chris had a coughing fit. Worms. Ate people. From the inside out. “Grandpa,” she gasped. “I have them.”

“No doubt. And it’s too late for me.” He nodded. “I handled your bags.”

“What are we going to do?” Chris stared out at the bright green cars that used to be a white Corolla and a black Ford pickup.

“How about a martini?” Grandpa suggested. “We have time for maybe two each.”

Chris frowned. “Time? Before what?”

“Russia and China are about to nuke us, to stop the worms from spreading over there.” Grandpa walked into the kitchen and opened the liquor cabinet.

“But doesn’t our government have something to say about that? Can’t they protect us?”

“Naw, honey.” Grandpa took down two glasses. “They’ve all fled the country.”

~*~

Genre Writing Challenge: Eco-Thriller

Opposites Attract Challenge: April 9

Three Things Challenge: PL54

Confab [SOCS]

Fab is a word I associate with the Beatles, but sometimes it’s used to describe the 4 British Royals: William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan. For a short time, I used faboo as an expression of glee, but I quickly grew bored with it. I’m pretty much back to my boring old great! and yay! 🎉

Last week I stopped in Jo-Ann’s fabrics, but it wasn’t as much fun as I’d remembered. I think my crafting days are kaput ~ except for when my little granddaughter is old enough to make braided lanyard bracelets and paper flowers and beady things. That will be great! 😍

Fabricate means lie, like prevaricate… though they are subtly different. Fabricate is more about constructing a false body of evidence, while prevaricating is evading the question. But ultimately lying is lying, in my book. I think I forgot to say that in some post or other recently when were gabbing about this topic ~ I was thinking about saying that lies of omission were also lies, but then I omitted it! Oopsy. 😱

Finally, we have fables, which are a great form of storytelling. I’ve always loved fiction, but as an adult I’ve only enjoyed realistic fiction until fairly recently. But in the last couple years, something changed and I became more open minded toward fantasy in fiction. This led me into different genres, such as sci-fi, magical realism, magic in general, shapeshifter romance, time travel, steampunk, dragons… and of course culminating in Game of Thrones.

Have I mentioned that I really really love Game of Thrones??? 👑🐺🐉❄️🔥

Miscellaneous Muttering

I have so much to do! Thank goodness it’s Friday, so I can look forward to two days of chores. When I left my apartment this morning, there was still laundry in the basket to put away from last Sunday, but now I have more to do again. 🙄

Two days seems like plenty of time to get everything finished, but the hours float away quickly, especially when I have two more movies on my list to watch for A2Z bloggery. I have to refresh my memory on these romcoms and romance novels when it’s been years since I’ve seen or read them, lest I write something inaccurate. 😱

My kitty is better (fingers crossed), and I was going to skip his flea meds this month to give him a break, but I awoke with some sort of bite (probably a spider), so I gave him the meds this morning. Not taking any chances. Hate fleas so much! Poor little guy knows what’s up when I remove his collar, but he hates fleas too ~ wish I could make him understand that the meds are better than the bugs (especially the nightmare cycle). And he never even goes outside! But somehow a flea may venture in anyway. They do that. 😡

I’m trying not to be emotional about it, but I will have to miss out on the Renaissance Faire this year. It’s one of my favorite things, but I can’t face all that walking and uncomfortable seating at this level of pain. I’ll just be miserable, and the days after will be awful too. Yesterday I was depressed, I admit, but now I’m trying to be cool and logical. Besides the increased pain, going to the Faire would also carve out a big chunk of time, which would also increase my stress. Plus the inevitable higher pain level over the following days would decrease my productivity, further stressing me out, etc. It’s for the best I don’t go. 😢

Alrighty then.

~*~

Opposites Attract Challenge April 5

Ten Days To Go! [Game of Thrones fanfic]

What was once derided as myth and fairy tales of crazy witches has now come to pass: the army of the dead is marching on the living. It won’t much matter who was more prescient in choosing a leader, except there’s a slightly better chance of surviving if the living fight together rather than conspire against one another as they have done until now.

But some say there may be a forgotten factor. Nymeria, the cast-off dire wolf from House Stark has survived all these years in the frigid forests of the North. We caught a glimpse of her when Arya was traveling alone and a wolf pack appeared, led by Nymeria. There were thousands of dire wolves, an army in their own right. Will they fight for the living against the Night King?

As the air turns even colder and a brutal long winter descends once again upon Westeros, it’s fortunate that the remaining Starks have at least reunited in Winterfell. Whether the star-crossed Queen Daenerys and her two fire dragons will ultimately be friend or foe to the Starks, well…

We will just have to wait and watch!

~*~

Elemental Challenge: Air/Frigid

Opposites Attract Challenge April 4

Wednesday Wittering

Since everyone is announcing the things they are blogdoing, I thought I would too. I made a new tab! Ooh, yes. Biggie changes on the old Light Motifs II. It’s a poetry tab and I stuck 24 links on to poems what I like. My own poems, I mean. Now, it would be nice if people could go over there and like my poetry page so it’s not all naked. But if everyone is too busy doing whatever, I get it. Just remember all the times I liked your things and don’t feel guilty. 🙄

I also changed my other tab to link to my fave flash fiction stories what I posted. Now, you don’t have to bother liking that page, since it already has lots of likes from when it had sumpin else on there. I guess that’s cheating really… to change a thing people liked into a different thing after they liked it. Gosh, I’ll probably lose sleep over that. 😂

Since I feel all blissful from organizing my stuff under tabs in this way, I’m going to do more! I’m planning to create a series tab, for links to my sets of themed stories; a dating tab for my sad and funny dating stories; a tab for Gatsby; etc. Actually, I feel quite penitent for neglecting this area of my blog for so long. I haven’t made it easy for peeps to find things. 😢

On second thought, maybe I should make series a subset of flash. After all, my stories are really all flash fiction, by definition, and there is no reason to drench my poor blog in a veritable flood of tabs. I always get so carried away! 🤪

So, here’s a thing. I try not to think about certain times in my life too much unless I’m deliberately calling up an emotion for writing purposes, and even then I have to be careful. But the blog is tricky. Reading some of that older poetry was painful ~ I know what motivated it. I know why I had the need to articulate certain concepts the way I did with the words I chose.

Even worse though are the blanks in blogtime, where “nothing” appears. Those weeks weren’t always blank. Some of them had poetry that was too painful to leave up, or rants or confessions or stories I decided were too personal to have online forever (yes, I realize they may have been archived or screenshotted by someone).

When I pass through the ghost weeks, I’m glad I don’t have to confront whatever unhappy event occurred… but yet I know it was there.

Something was there. 😶

~*~

Opposites Attract Challenge: April 3

Special Delivery [fiction 400]

George Grumble hurried his horses away from the darkening drive. He’d delivered the peculiar item, straight from the docks, as promised, and received triple his usual fee. But that look on the butler’s face had given George the shivers. He did not wish to be anywhere near Ravenwood Manor when the sun set. He’d heard rumors of hauntings and evil, and now with the grand matriarch’s dead body, God rest her soul, shipped all the way from India to be interred in the family cemetery… well, the soonest George could put another mile or three between himself and that, the better.

*

After the last bit of the day’s light had disappeared, the butler lifted the lid of the coffin the delivery man had brought. He gazed down upon the exquisite creature within, not at all surprised to find an absolute beauty with pale, unlined skin, shiny black hair, and the lithe figure of a young woman.

She opened her golden eyes and gracefully rose from the coffin. Her black silk dress fell into place as she glanced around the salon. “Good evening, Wickham,” she said. “What a tedious journey.”

Wickham bowed. “It’s good to have you home where you belong, Lady Cyrilla. We have missed you. I have collected some items in the cellar for a homecoming feast.”

“Psssh.” Cyrilla waved a slender, black-gloved hand. “I’m home now. Call it an idiosyncrasy if you wish, dear Wickham, but I’ve no desire to be served captive morsels like an infant. I am going to hunt!”

Her servant bowed again, a gleam in his eye. “Yes, of course.”

With a deep breath and a swish of her gown, Cyrilla transformed herself and flew through the window Wickham opened for her. When she had disappeared, the butler walked slowly to the cellar stairs, gleefully anticipating how he would dispose of the things he had gathered.

*

George sighed in relief; he was at least four miles away from that dreadful Ravenwood place now. He patted his pocket where his bag of coin rested. Mm, he could stop at his favorite ale house and treat his friends to a round or two, plus have plenty left for a special time with Tess. Happily thinking of warm blonde curves, George didn’t hear the flutter of cold dark wings, though he did feel the bite of sharp little fangs.

But by then it was too late.

~*~

Genre Writing Challenge: Vampire

Opposites Attract Challenge: April 2

Sweet

Sweet spring blossoms

Fragrance the air

With sublime innocence.

The pinkness of petals

Unfurling in the sunshine

Eliminates any need

To question the fresh

Mound of dirt

Recently raked over.

Just breathe in the goodness

Of tender green shoots,

And cast out speculation

Of the wicked ways

Of winter.

~*~

Elemental Challenge: Air/Sweet

Opposites Attract Challenge: April 1