Week 42 participating in the very popular #vss365 challenge on Twitter. The aim, to write a daily Very Short Story in less than 280 characters, a single tweet. Yes, that’s characters! Not words.
The prompts themselves are seemingly random single words, the whim of this month’s challenge setter. This months fun is organised by @kara_goughnour in June. I’ve taken some liberties with formatting simply because WordPress is not Twitter and to make it easier to read.
This week’s cover photo is of Itchy being very vocal about some subject he’s passionate about. Unlike Archer, he has a very low tolerance for any form of bullshit. I’m not quite sure what he’s complaining about here. He doesn’t have a phone and can’t catch COVID-19 so I suspect that it’s not the governments failed “Track and trace” application. It might be the ongoing efforts of the extreme left and right of any debate to outdo each for most insane inflammatory antic of the week. But he’s hardly up to date on current affairs. So that also excludes the inevitable news that we are right on target for a no-deal Brexit. That said I’m fairly sure he’s a die-hard Brexiteer. Anything to stop next-door’s cat coming over the fence and taking away his job of shitting in the garden. Of course, it might be that his brother has eaten all the food again and is passed out in a coma on the kitchen floor. It really is a mystery. I guess we’ll never know as Itchy prefers to just sit there and whine in a single continuous monosyllabic meow.
I’ve been fairly busy writing this week. I’ve reworked an existing story to address the feedback I received from a professional editorial review I had commissioned. That was a useful if lengthy exercise. I thought it might take me 8 hours, in the end, it took me 18 hours in one sitting. Top tip – don’t ever submit a story when tired. I spotted a bunch of silliness the next day, ho-hum. I’ve fired this one-off for an upcoming sci-fi anthology. I’ve also had 3 drabbles accepted for a South East Asia themed anthology to be published by Insignia Stories. It was great fun researching SEA legends and folklore. Next on my list is a short story for a collaborative sci-fi anthology. I’ve got a bunch of reading to do first catching up on what the other writers have contributed. Really excited about this project, there are some brilliant ideas bouncing around.
Joe checked his watch as the lift descended. It’d taken all his skill to get this far. A promise was a promise and his bosses never welched on a deal. Bursting into Area 51’s #penetralia, he called out “Pizza!?”
A slim grey figure stepped from the shadows. “You’re late!”
Each night, I’d wander the rows of students, heads down in their dusty books. For them, the library was a prison. Time to be served. For me, time would fly. Ensconced in my usual seat, I’d open H.G. Wells and be transported far beyond the confines of the small #carrel.
The golden sands and cool #zephyr belied the dangers of the cove. Many had waded into its welcoming turquoise waters never to return. Victims of dangerous geography that created powerful riptides that could pull the unsuspecting towards the freezing abyss just off shore.
Under the darting iridescent dragonflies. Below the skittering water boatmen and spiny sticklebacks. Amongst the algae and the pondweed, wrapped in the decaying #benthos. That’s where you’ll find me. Where you left me. Did I pass your trial? Will your children pass mine?
Thursday 18th June – Constellate
Every month, the astronomy club would #constellate into the field behind old man Jacob’s barn to search the skies. If it was overcast they’d sit around the campfire, drink and tell tall tales of the comets that got away. Few could recall the last cloudless night.
Friday 19th June – Ingurgitate
It was a bad day to join the Dyson research lab. An accident with the new cyclone prototype unleashed a monstrous vortex that would #ingurgitate all in its path. As he sprinted from the vanishing building, the new intern was under no illusion, the new job sucked.
Would that I had some #periapt, some bauble that I could hang around your neck to protect you from the horrors of this world. Something you might clutch when the monsters chase you from your nightmares. Alas, there is no token. So I’ll stand in your shadow and keep watch.
