Saturday, June 6, 2009

A little reformatting a little tidying up...

As you can see on the left I made tried to make some of the titles and other things more legible. Do you like it?

Also I have now created TWENTY-FIVE of those '5 Second Fictions'. What do you think? A clever idea or a cry for help?

I've got book two of my serial novel written and ready to go so I hope to be able to turn my attention to some of comedy for a while.

5 Second Fiction Twenty-Five

Jason Magwier wasn't afraid of death or dismemberment- poetry slams on the other hand...

5 Second Fiction Twenty-Four

This wasn't the first time Audra had put herself in danger for the sake of a frozen custard but it just might be the last.

5 Second Fiction Twenty-Three

The terrorists had control of the the prom but Captain Hero had a secret plan- Barry Manilow music playing at maximum volume!

Friday, June 5, 2009

5 Second Ficton Twenty-Two

As far as Gary was concerned you hadn't lived until you heard your supervisor screaming at you to put your pants back on.

5 Second Fiction Twenty-One

The suspension bridge lurched, cables snapped. One of the three men hanging to the edge said "Is this male bonding or what?"

5 Second Fiction Twenty

Special Agent Krump waved the DNA test results triumphantly, "According to the lab the blood on the walls was ...mine?"

5 Second Fiction Nineteen

Zeth let the last of them get away ...at least for a while.

5 Second Fiction Eighteen

The instructors were reluctant to let Isobel learn any new incantations until she promised not to use any on them.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

The kid on the left haunts my nightmares now...




The following nightmare fuel was courtesy of plaidstallions.com

5 Second Fiction Seventeen

Psychotic Kid had been Captain Hero’s sidekick for years. Mostly because restraining orders meant nothing to him.

5 Second Fiction Sixteen

"I've never been to a haunted house before." Isobel said.

"How can you truly be sure?" Magwier grinned at the thought.

5 Second Fiction Fifteen

It wasn’t so much the rumors of cannibalism that destroyed his candidacy as much as it was all of those damn photographs.

5 Second Fiction Fourteen

Things were tough all over, that was why Captain Hero patrolled the city from a taxi. And the fares paid for fresh spandex.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

5 Second Fiction Thirteen

Lorelei HATED zombies. They were like Wal-Marts- easily created and seemingly around every corner these days.

I love it when I get a shout out...

Dave Hambidge was kind enough to mention this blog in his BEST NEW SHORT-FICTION@BLOGCATALOG

I really appreciate the notice and I plan to poke my head in and check out his other recommendations, you should to.

5 Second Fiction Twelve

"It's rough going." Magwier said, "Keep hold of my hand."

Isobel cleared her throat, "Uh, I'm over here."

"Oh dear."

5 Second Fiction Eleven

Terrance never realized how much his girlfriend and her mother sounded alike until he called her house to ask for oral sex.

Zeth's Player: A memoir in fiction

Zeth wore baggy, cream colored clothes that were a sharp contrast to his dark-skinned, athletic form. His head was shorn close to the scalp. He stood perfectly still, a sour expression on his face. He barely seemed to be breathing.

If you have been following my work closely (and if you haven't shame on you!) you may notice a character that pops up here and there named Zeth. Now most of my characters are drawn from my imagination with the occasional dash of people I know and or hate (Why yes Brian I AM talking about you.)(And which Brian do I mean? I'm not telling.)

Now where was I?

Ah yes, Zeth.

Zeth is based on a real person, a gaming friend of mine. You see for all my tales of role playing game madness that I share with my readers, the 1990's and White Wolf's Vampire The Masquerade were actualy pretty good times. I mean sure I had the occasional player wrestle me to the ground and bite me but most games were a lot of fun and I made some great friends that I still talk to over a decade later. One of my gaming semi-regulars liked to play a Tremere named Zeth. Zeth was a bastard with a heart of gold. He was selfish and evil but loyal to his friends. I enjpyed the character and the player a lot.

Many of the players followed me along to other games and systems, the man that played Zeth was one of them. I remember that around about the time my daughter was 8 months old or so she would sit with us in her high chair at the gaming table just so she could watch us. She took an instant shine to Zeth's player.

Zeth's player also dabbled in writing and after games we would talk about fiction and poetry, sometimes we exchanged books. We both discovered Chambers The King In Yellow stories around the same time and I loaned him my copy of The Hastur Cycle.

He had it with him the day he died.

I won't go into the details, I just don't feel I have the right, suffice to say he died. He was almost a decade younger than me and he was just ...gone.

I missed his wake. I couldn't get out of work, they just wouldn't let me go. I always felt a little bad about that.

It was a few weeks later that the fictional character of Zeth wandered into my subconscious; he was a little of Zeth's player and a little of Zeth's role playing game character. At first he was just mentioned here and there my some of my characters but then finally he appeared in my as of yet unpublished novel (I may Lulu it? Interested?). He tended to hang around with my most mercurial character Jason Magwier who was a bit like Doctor Who but blisteringly obtuse and incompetent.

He even had an origin story but I never found a spot to use it in...

Zeth's player has been gone for over seven years now and since my belief in an afterlife is forever trapped between CS Lewis and Richard Dawkins I can't be sure I'll ever see him again.

But he lives on in my imagination.

And now he's in yours too.

Neat huh?

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

FINALLY this song makes sense to me!




Although it does make me wonder what kind of lunatic would perform such a tune...

5 Second Fiction Ten

Passion spent they lay half-clothed and entwined on the buffet table. This was class reunion that no one would ever forget.

5 Second Fiction Nine

Gary paused, when he spoke his mouth was full, "What do you mean I'm not eating cheese curd?"

5 Second Fiction Eight

Lorelei breathed a sigh of relief, "How did you know which of us was the duplicate?"

Zeth holstered his pistol, "I guessed."

Did you miss me?

This weekend the pool at our apartment complex opened so I spent most of the time watching making sure my daughter didn't manage to drown herself or any of her friends.

Then yesterday I missed work do to a doctor's appointment and would have felt strangely guilty if I posted anything as a result.

But here we are with the latest installment of my serial novel... as always I would love to hear what you think.

And as always keep circulating the blog!