Settle down, class! Your assignment for next week is on the chalkboard below. Let’s take a moment to discuss last week’s assignments, which were all from Robert Heinlein’s To Sail Beyond Sunset and the first line from that book, which was “I woke up in bed with a man and a cat.” I was overall pleased with all 8 of them and enjoyed the various directions everyone went beyond the bedroom.
Lexy gave us a tale of a caged and mutilated woman that was outside the box fantastic.
Marian returned this week with a bit of Seussical humor and mermaids.
Carrie brought Rachel back and turned her into an old bitty.
We paid another delightful visit to Harper’s Grove with Eric this week.
Kir reminded us of college life that I hope none of my students participate in.
But it was a humorous tale of the devil written by the returning Troy that really stuck with me. As such, I asked Troy to choose any book, open it to page 144 and give me the 4th line on the page. Class, here is your assignment:
Your challenge this week is to use this line as a fourth. It can be used anywhere in the story as long as it is in a 4th position (8th line, 12th line, 16th line, etc). Please be sure the line stands out from the rest of your text by bolding or italicizing or enclosing it within quotes.
You have until Tuesday, May 14 at 9:00 PM to hand in your assignments.
She looked up at me with amber eyes. We swayed slowly, gently to the music, lost in our own world. It was just the two of us, dancing together on the laminate flooring laid on the grass special for just this occasion. Elegantly we moved in circles around the dance floor, laughing in that way newlyweds did. Promises of forever revealed in that moment, of our dreams coming true.
She looked up at me with golden eyes. We swayed slowly, gently, back and forth, just the two of us for just this moment. Just me and my newborn baby girl.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The challenge: write exactly 100 words based on the particular song. This week’s song was “Heavenly Day” by Patty Griffin.
I always welcome and appreciate honest feedback. Please share your thoughts in comment.
I woke up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat was real, but the man was not. At least that’s how it appeared at first glance. The man seemed normal enough, yet incredibly strange in the way he was dressed. He had an onyx top hat perched on his head, an ace of diamonds playing card tucked within the small charcoal band that bordered the brim. His pants were full and puffy, colored like rust, and tucked into his shoes. Those were a women’s lace up boot with white bibbing from the Victorian era. His hair was the color of smoke and so unruly a thorough combing couldn’t fix it. His plum suit coat, held together by a single gold button at his waist, covered a pirate’s shirt that ruffled elegantly to the lapels and ended just above the button. He lay in the bed stiff as a nutcracker with the cat, a plump carrot colored tabby with brown sugar stripes, curled up on his lap. The cat looked anything but ordinary with a wide tooth-filled grin permanently etched on its face. I rubbed my eyes with my fists but they were both still there when I stopped.
“Good day, James.” The man’s lips never moved. I looked at the cat that was licking a paw nonchalantly. “I say it is about time you awakened.”
Not only was the cat talking, but it was using proper language! My jaw gaped in amazement.
“How…how do you do that?” I asked as one eyebrow arched.
“I beg pardon? Do animals not talk in this world?”
“Um, no, they don’t.”
“Hmph. How sad. How very sad indeed.” The cat said. He stopped licking his paw and stood, stretching his legs and arching his back. I noticed movement from the man for the first time. His eyes blinked. The man raised slowly, his hat moving perfectly to the top of his head as he rose like a well-practiced maneuver.
“I say, is it tea time, yet?” The man said, glancing at an oversized watch on his left wrist. “I do declare morning is not morning until a spot of tea has been had. Tea, kind sir?” With that, the man took his hat off and produced a small porcelain cup filled with steaming tea from within it. When I shook my head, he shrugged his shoulders and took a sip. His eyes closed again and his lips pressed together. “Mmmm. That hit the spot.”
The cat looked on with disinterest.
“Oh, heavens me. Apologies, Chessie. You are due for a spot of milk, eh?” He pulled a small porcelain bowl filled with milk from his hat this time. I looked on in wonder that he didn’t spill a drop. “Now kind sir, tell me, please, where have that hare and dormouse gone?” His eyebrows lifted inquisitively as he stared at me with eyes so blue a ship could sail on them. I stared at him blankly, not comprehending what he was asking.
“The dormouse and March Hare?” he asked again, his eyes clouding over. It was like watching a storm roll in over the sea. It all sounded like something out of a literary novel to me.
“No, I’ve only seen you and the cat.” I answered, disbelief peppering my voice. “How did you get here?”
“The hat, of course,” he said, matter factly. As if he could read my mind, he took his hat off and spun it clockwise on the bed. The cat disappeared, bowl and all. A counterclockwise spin brought the cat back without the bowl. “It is the only way to travel, I must say. You should try it.”
He put a hand on my nightshirt and pulled, but I resisted. I stopped him with a raise of my hands. “No. I don’t travel with strangers.”
“Pshaw. Why, we just spent the night together, and we just had tea together. I do not take tea with strangers.” He pulled on my nightshirt again. I pulled back again, hesitating. A creepy smile broke his countenance. “Hello, my name is Hatta Maddigan. Hatter by trade, tea drinker and riddle maker by nature.”
I took his proffered hand leerily and shook it once. “James Conrad.”
Instead of releasing me, he pulled me hard and we disappeared into the hat.
“Do not let go!” he shouted, as if I intended to relinquish my hold on him.
I fully expected to fall, but we didn’t. Instead, we landed smoothly in mismatched chairs scattered around a long dining table placed perfectly in the center of a field, just as if we had been sitting there the whole time. Various small teacups and saucers were stacked haphazardly on the tattered tabletop. Eight tidily set place mats decorated the tablecloth. A large yellow cake with white icing and big pink roses sat on a large oval carnival glass at the center of the table. Hatta licked his lips excitedly, then stopped. Horror crept over his face.
“Wait! Do not eat anything!” He shouted. My eyebrows furrowed as I had no intention of eating anything anyway, though my stomach growled from hunger.
“Dormouse!” He shouted again.
A small voice squeaked from within a dirty cup. A wheat colored pointed face with long white whiskers and rounded ears peered over the edge. “What?” He snapped. “Can’t you see I’m eating?!”
“Where is the March Hare? I cannot enjoy this tea without him.”
The dormouse emptied the cup and kicked it into the high grass surrounding the table. I noticed other dishes littered the ground. “He is stuck in March, where you left him, Hatta!”
A sound of anguish left Hatta’s throat at such a pitch it caused the dishes to crack. They clattered to the table and rolled to the ground, none of them intact.
“No, no, no. This will never do!” Hatta rose and began pacing, his hands flapping at every turn. “No! No! No! Never do, never do.” He stopped suddenly and plopped himself down in the chair across from me. With devastation edging his voice, he looked at me and asked, “What shall we do?”
I stiffened as I felt tiny, sharp claws climb up my left arm. The dormouse stopped at the top of my shoulder. He leaned in and squeaked, “Why, we will go fetch him, of course!”
The cat suddenly appeared, smile first, resting comfortably on Hatta’s hat. “Yes, we will go fetch him, of course!”
Hatta sat up straight and grinned. “Yes, of course. We will fetch him straight away. Quick! Grab a teacup and a saucer! Pour from the pot that says ‘Drink me!’ and off we go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is my response to the Master Class assignment this week. We were given this prompt by Eric Storch:
As always I welcome and appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts in a comment.
Also, this is a teaser of what the new series that will be going up beginning May 10 is like. The rest of the series will be co-written by me and another author, a new author for each tale. If you are interested in writing with me, please use the Contact Me link above.
Attention, students! Please take a look at the chalkboard. Your new assignment for this week has been posted!
Your assignment last week was to use the line “She took off her glasses and squinted at the white hot sky, vaguely wondering if it was already on its way” from Clive Barker’s The Great and Secret Show in the middle of your story, not within the first two or last two paragraphs. The work turned in was extraordinary!
Carrie linked up with a story about an apprentice scryer that has beautiful visuals with Dreamspell.
Shannon set the bar with Fissures, a tale of metamorphosis that will awe you.
Words with Teeth rolled in with a very visual tale of a woman on the other side of the sun in Helios 12.
But this week, our old professor, Eric Storch, stunned us with an incredible peek into his comic book, Easy Money. This was enough to earn him the privilege of selecting this week’s assignment. Your assignment this week is:
Your stories must contain this line in its entirety and you can either choose to use as the opening line or the closing line in your story.
You have until Tuesday, May 7 at 9:00 PM EST to hand in your assignment.
Every day, twice a day, exactly twelve hours apart, the bobbin appeared. The human like head would bob up from the water always facing the same direction, looking out on the horizon. Nothing existed within eyesight. No ship’s sail broke against the blue. No silver sky bullets created new paths among the clouds. In fact, it was rare that even clouds marred the crystalline surface of the sky.
One day, a steel rod breached the edge of the sea. The bobbin’s lips curled upwards revealing a row of perfect teeth. The pupil-less eyes closed and a sound that denied definition burst from its throat. The rest of its well-muscled yet sexless body rose from the water. Its flat toe-less feet strode small steps across the surface of the water, defying gravity. It paused and lifted its arms towards the sky like a child waiting eagerly to be picked up. It stood sullen and still hour after hour as the rod slowly grew larger in the distance.
The steel rod became a ship, though the ship had no sails. It glided smoothly in circular motions over the water. Only its shadow disturbed the ocean beneath. It moved slowly, the small colored lights along its belly rotating as it spun. The bobbin’s arms dropped to its side and more bobbins rose from the sea, slowly emerging head first, one after the other, as sexless as the first, only the length of their hair giving any clue to their gender. Once the sea became nothing but bodies, the ship moved faster, enveloping them in a strange white-hot light. They shimmered and blinked out, disappearing quicker than they had appeared. Once the sea was empty, the ship moved to the shore. White light flashed and the bodies reappeared, no longer bobbins, but fully dressed like humans. Each one carried a weapon.
It was the beginning of the end.
July 31, 2013. A true account of the end of the world as seen from the edge of the pier by Janice Stephens, Reporter for the Daily News.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the Scriptic prompt exchange this week, k~ gave me this prompt: A woman in a dress is standing next to the edge of the pier on an overcast day. Why is she there?
Settle down, class! Your assignment for next week is on the chalkboard below. Let’s take a moment to discuss last week’s assignments, which were all from Robert Heinlein’s To Sail Beyond Sunset and the first line from that book, which was “I woke up in bed with a man and a cat.” I was overall pleased with all 8 of them and enjoyed the various directions everyone went beyond the bedroom.
Every day, twice a day, exactly twelve hours apart, the bobbin appeared. The human like head would bob up from the water always facing the same direction, looking out on the horizon. Nothing existed within eyesight. No ship’s sail broke against the blue. No silver sky bullets created new paths among the clouds. In fact, it was rare that even clouds marred the crystalline surface of the sky.
