Testing

I'm trying to link this blog with my Amazon profile at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004OUHHB2.  Let's see if I did it correctly.

1 in a million

Ex 218: Write an opening using, "You're crazy.  You're all crazy and none of this is real."

"You're crazy.  You're all crazy and none of this is real," Katherine yelled.

We understood her frustration...we at least I did.  I remember the first time I was told about my alters.  It didn't make me feel good or excited.  I realized there would be about 6,000 versions of me somewhere, but to meet them, and for their likenesses to be so accurate...I didn't know what I would do.
Actually, I kind of expected to see aliens next.
"And the government's just been..."
"Using us.  Experimenting on our genomes.  Finding cures.  Creating diseases."

Six Whole Years Ago

Ex 232. Write an opening using, "Don't tell me you're still bitter about what I did to you six years ago."

Stephen look at her with his famous I-don't-care glare.  "Oh, please, Angie," he said, waving his sword in an exaggerated gesture.  "Don't tell me you're still bitter about what I did to you six years ago."

At this, Angie's skin felt flushed.  She could feel heart from her anger inflaming her cheeks.  "Stephen, you got me accused of treason!  Even after I was found innocent, I was still exiled.  I lost my home because of you.  You selfish traitor!"

He just shrugged off her ire.

She winced in frustration, then she remembered who she was dealing with.  Stephen had never cared about anyone but himself.  And as she pointed her gun at him, she didn't feel bad about what she was going to do.

Another Snow Day Wednesday

Ex. #207: You have been locked away in a max security mental hospital.  Write about it.

I can't believe this is happening to me.  They think they can keep me here forever with their drugs and their double talk, but they're wrong.  Try to save the world, blow up one little factory, and get thrown in prison.  Escape one little prison, get thrown into a mental hospital.  This is ridiculous.  If these doctors, these crazies, had seen the world the way I've seen it, they would gather an army to join me.

This Earth will be gone in a couple of years.  That is unless I stop it.  I know what's coming; I know the war that will end humanity.  And I will not let these walls keep me from doing everything I can to save this dying planet.

Crazy Days and New Boys

Alright, I didn't do the five-minute flash last week.  I didn't do it this week.  I failed two weeks in a row.  I admit it.  (Especially, since I can't lie, what with this being the internet and all).  I've been working on my Artists for Schools event, my Blue Ships magazine, and widdling a to-do list about a mile long.  It happens.  It sucks.  But it happens.  At any rate, I thought hey, I've actually kinda started working on another set of characters, The Grimm Brothers.  So if anywhere is a good place to debut them to the public, it may very well be here.  So here is an excerpt from the as yet titled story, The Brothers Grimm.  Enjoy.

The Brothers Grimm

Try as he might, Stephen could not get the scent of girl off of him.  If he stayed in the shower any longer, his soft washcloth was going to start feeling like a brillo pad against his shriveled skin.  The memory of the girl’s crazy pink hair that looked like it was fading and the feel of her on top of him was enough to make him choke back bile.  God, if he lived to be a hundred, he would never tell his wife about what happened an hour ago in this cheap motel room.  He already felt enough like a prostitute; the last thing he needed was for the love of his life to leave him.  Especially at a time like this.

            He climbed out of the shower and looked at himself in the mirror as he dried off.  The girl had been a sad reminder of why he hated his face, hated his long eyelashes and chestnut skin.  Everyone everywhere wanted their turn in his bed; it made him feel dirty and self-conscious.  However, the girl had turned out to be useful.  Or at least he hoped.  He wouldn’t know until he followed the leads, which he couldn’t do until tomorrow.  God, he hated waiting, hated that he needed sleep.  Yet, even as his body begged and ached for the relief that came from a good night’s rest, he still couldn’t sleep.

            Images of what might be happening to his sister, the torture she must be going through as he lie in his cozy bed, flashed in his mind every time he closed his eyes.  His heart beat rapidly as worry and guilt suffocated him.

            Alaine.  His baby sister, his only sister, taken.  Her six older brothers, powerless to protect her.  And he was the oldest.  What was he good for?  Sure, he had taught her how to fight and protect herself, and from the looks of her apartment, it was training time well spent, but it just wasn’t enough to save her.

            He never should have helped her move to New York.  He knew it was a bad idea.  But she was a big girl, or at least trying to be.  And big girls went off to college.  It was a normal every day thing.  It’s just what happens.

            Besides, it wasn’t as if he had left her completely without ends.  He’d helped her find an apartment so that he could make sure she was living someplace nice, safe.  He wanted to get a nice one-bedroom in a gated community, but those things run upwards of $2,000 per month.  She’d be damned if she was going to let him spend that much money on an apartment she was fairly certain she would never see again once she graduated.

            Alaine loved her brother dearly and being CEO of a major bank granted him the luxury of being able to afford a place like that and still take care of his family.  However, he worked hard for many, many years to get to where he was in life.  All she wanted was the same opportunity.  To go out and make something of herself.

            The compromise on the apartment was the cheapest studio the complex had, which was still around $1,200, and she paid her own bills.  He could live with that.  Hated it.  But he knew fighting with her was pointless.  She was as stubborn as any of her brothers and twice as irritating.  At least his brothers he could knock around.  What was he going to do with her?

            What was he going to do without her? 

Insomnia and the Snow Day

So it was a snow day today in good 'ol Kansas City, MO, which means, I didn't have to go to work.  Whooo!!! Hoooo!!!  And kids think teachers don't appreciate a good snow day every now and then.  Anyhow, on wards and upwards with this week's 5-minuter.  Enjoy.  Oh and check out the new Blue Ships Magazine site.  And while you're there, submit something.

Ex. 291: You have insomnia.  What are you doing while the rest of the world is asleep?

10pm: The wife is nagging me because I won't see a doctor about my insomnia.  I nag her about moving from Alaska, where it doesn't get dark for parts of the year, to moving back to Vegas, where I loved living.

12am:  The wife has finally decided to take a shower and rest.  I look in on the kids for no reason other than I can.  This also marks the 15th day I've gone without sleep.

12:05am:  I have opened and closed the shutters in my bedroom six times.  Still nothing.

3:47am:  I have been watching a multitude of random late night/early morning programming on over 300 channels.  Not all of which I have a subcription for.  It usually takes me about 5-6 minutes to realize that's why the channel's blank.

4:03am:  I jump in the shower and get ready for work...in five hours.

Helloooo, New Year. Helloooo

Ex 398:  Perfection

   Perfection.  That was the only way Leona could describe Ewan.  He moved like a cool lake and spoke like a sonnet.  And every morning when she woke up and looked into her husband Owen's sleeping face, she hated herself for even daring to think about another man.  So what if Ewan was king of the land she was born from?  Owen was her king now.  He was good to her, kind.  He deserved more than half of her heart, more than she could ever give him, or anyone else.