Thursday January 14th, 2010

The exercise:

I felt like doing an acrostic today, so go nuts with that.

In other news, A Fighting Chance edged across the 50,000 word mark today, so that was kind of exciting.

AFC Word Count: 14,463

AFC Word Target: 14,000

Mine:

Courting your sugary spice,

Love of my heart,

I step into the spotlight,

Charmingly playing my part;

High may be your pedestal but I'd climb

Everest for you, my sweet tart.

Wednesday January 13th, 2010

The exercise:

Kat gave me my Valentine's Day present early - I get to go to drumming classes every Tuesday night for six weeks. The first class was last night and we stuck to the djembe drum but there's all sorts of neat stuff that we'll get to play with in the weeks to come.

Today's prompt was one of the rhythms we learned to play: calypso.

So of course I went off and wrote something that had nothing to do with drumming.

AFC Word Count: 13,433

AFC Word Target: 13,000

Mine:

It was hard not to think of how far away we were from home whenever I looked out the window of our temporary residence. The miles and miles of rock and sand were a far cry from the lush forests and tranquil lakes that populated my youth; the continuously black sky messed up our circadian rhythms, making sleep difficult at best; and of course there was our constant celestial neighbour, its massive bulk swallowing the horizon to my right.

I wondered once more what lay beneath the swirling black and red clouds that enveloped Saturn as I rested my elbows on the windowsill. We would find out eventually, I knew; it was just a matter of time before the captain realized we’d have to go down there ourselves if we ever wanted to discover the truth of the matter. If we survived the journey we might even be allowed to return to Earth with our results.

Feeling claustrophobic, I slipped into my oxygen suit and out the back door, closing it gently so as to not disturb the others. I stood staring up at the mysterious planet and felt my smallness, realizing with a start that if we failed I would be forgotten just like the men and women who were sent before us.

“I don’t want to be forgotten,” I whispered hoarsely. “I want to be remembered.”

And so I turned away and began to walk. But instead of returning to the house I circled around it and headed for the ship.

Tuesday January 12th, 2010

The exercise:

Your Two Haiku Tuesday prompt this week: mockingbird.

AFC Word Count: 12,308

AFC Word Target: 12,000

Busy night tonight, I'll reply to yesterday's comments later.

Mine:

Your voice is lovely,

But I believe I've heard it

From another's lips.

*     *     *

Outside my window

Your song greets the day with cheer;

Please stop mocking me.

Monday January 11th, 2010

The exercise:

As I was bouncing around the archive I came across a prompt I used only once that I'd had every intention of using again. So I used it today. Click on the label to see what happened last time around (yes, I'm all the way up to September with the labels now).

I'll provide the first line and then we can all go wherever we please with it. Here it is:

I have been tracking my prey through the wooded hills gathered at the feet of the Rocky Mountains for the past two weeks.

Update:

AFC Word Count: 11,116
AFC Word Target: 11,000

I am beginning to have my doubts the story will be done 'well before the end of the month', as I so foolishly predicted.

Mine:

I have been tracking my prey through the wooded hills gathered at the feet of the Rocky Mountains for the past two weeks. The first few days had produced precious little in the way of concrete signs of his passage and I had been forced to operate more on instinct than evidence. But that had changed on the morning of the fourth day with the discovery of a torn piece of white fabric hanging from the thorn of a blackberry bush like a signal of surrender.

Hunger had made him sloppy and that was not something you could afford to be with me on your trail.

A footprint in the mud two days later had sealed his fate, his destination now obvious to me. I began moving at night to make up the distance between us, to make up for the wasted time at the start of the chase when all of my movements were tentative. I could operate on an hour of sleep each night when I was on the hunt, caffeine pills and adrenaline fuelling my body until the capture was made and rest was once again permitted.

But even now he still manages to elude me. Perhaps I misjudged his strength. Maybe he had more supplies with him than my employer was aware of. No matter, I'm closing in and the end game has begun. Tonight I make camp for the final time and in the morning I will reach his father's cabin. If I get there first the takedown will go smoothly. If he gets there first it will be much messier, but the end result will be the same.

I hope I get there second.

Sunday January 10th, 2010

The exercise:

With all of the entries in for the first round of Protag's Winter Poetry Tournament, I thought it would be fun to share with you the poems from various contributors to this blog. You get to see a lot of their poetry here, but what can they produce when they actually spend some time and effort on their work?

The challenge was relevant rhythm and here are the results:

Archi                Greg

Gwen                Mine

Feel free to read through the other entries as well, there is some truly great stuff in there. And it's only round one!

In other news, today's prompt is one I haven't used in a while, Dictionary.com's word of the day: onus.

Update:

AFC Word Count: 10,062
AFC Word Target: 10,000

Hurray, I was able to escape the weekend without falling behind again!

Mine:

"It's on you now."

She said with a smile,

As though she did not

Think it much of a trial.

"I will not fail."

He said with a nod,

As though he was not

About to face a god.

But in the end

The burden crushed him,

And life for her

Became so very grim.

Saturday January 9th, 2010

The exercise:

Four line poem Saturday would you like to see you write about: plagiarism.

I'll update the AFC word count later, once I've actually done some work on it.

AFC Word Count: 9,149
AFC Word Target: 9,000

Mine:

What's mine is mine,

What's yours is mine,

It's all mine.

Yeah, that sounds fine.

Friday January 8th, 2010

The exercise:

Sigh, the spam has not stopped. I'll have to invest some time this weekend in figuring out a way to block it.

But today is Friday! And that is good. Your four lines of prose this week shall be based around: there's always one. I may have taken some liberties with my 'four' lines.

AFC Word Count: 8,152

AFC Word Target: 8,000

Mine:

I started really working out when I began university and since then I've made use of a lot of different gyms in a lot of different locations - chains, community centers, independents, small town, big city. But one thing seems to always be present wherever I go: that one weird guy who you do your best to stay away from.

Sometimes it's the smell, sometimes it's just how he looks, but there's always one in every gym - on Monday night it was a gentleman with a bushy Friar Tuck hairstyle, green cotton shirt tucked into red shorts that were well above waist level, who kept checking out his knees in the mirror (seriously... as best I could tell anyway) and using free weights right in the middle of narrow walking paths.

To his credit, at least he wasn't a grunter as well (don't get me started).