Daily Scintilla – Sometimes it really is a monster!
The tarp that served as their shower curtain brushed her leg, and Yatzi suppressed a jump.
Just the wind, she told herself, rinsing the soap off her face so she could look anyway. That’s the problem with outdoor showers.
As she glanced down, she saw the tarp moving, unmistakably prodded from outside by something far more solid than the wind. She relaxed, recognizing the same prank Boris and Kettel had played on her last time she took a shower.
Fool me once, shame on you, she thought as she gripped the soap firmly and grasped the side of the tarp. Fool me twice, shame on me.
She pulled the tarp aside, arm drawn back to fling the soap hard at whichever idiot had decided to try to scare her this time.
It wasn’t a human on the other side of the tarp. Instead, an alien face looked up at her, then opened its mouth to show off far too many sharp, pointy teeth.
She threw the soap in its mouth. It recoiled, clawing at its own face, and she pulled down the tarp, throwing it over the creature’s head and then jumping on top of it to keep it pinned. “B-5,” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “B-5! Bring the stunner!”
B-5 was code for hostile alien organism inside the encampment. She could also have used A-3, expedition member in need of assistance, but all her thoughts were on the monster under the tarp.
SotS – A Round of Words in 80 Days Goals
A Round of Words in 80 Days is a writing challenge to, well, accomplish a self-set writing goal in the 80 days from January 3, 2011 to March 24, 2011. As part of joining the challenge, this post is intended to set my goal and the criteria by which I will measure success or partial success. (I’m not planning to consider anything a failure, and if that makes me a wuss, so be it.)
Goal: To complete a novel and send it to my novel support group by midnight on the spring equinox, March 20, 2011.
Measures/components:
I want to work on my novel every single day from January 3 to March 20, even if it only involves reading over what I wrote the day before and thinking about what to write next.
I will consider it complete if I can achieve a narrative story arc with at least some measure of closure and satisfaction.
No word-count requirements.
If you’re interested in joining in, you can read all about the challenge at A Round of Words in 80 Days – What is it?
Best of luck to everyone participating!
State of the Storyteller – Looking forward to 2011
So… I’ve mentioned a couple of times that things are going to change around here in 2011, but I haven’t yet given any real details on what I’m planning. Mostly because I hadn’t decided what I was planning yet. 
Now seems like a good time, though, since tomorrow I’ll be hanging out with friends and playing board games most of the day. 
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Daily Scintilla – Sunbeam
Sun… warm, bright, soothing.
Why is it that sunbeams never seem quite so warm or soothing when things are noisy and busy?
Maybe because to really soak the sunshine in takes attention, and those things suck the attention away until after the sunbeam is gone…
Daily scintilla – squeak!
*Squeak!*
“What was that?”
“Umm… nothing?”
“It didn’t sound like nothing… that’s a dog-toy, isn’t it?”
“No…”
“Oh? But I bet it was labeled as a dog toy when you bought it, wasn’t it.”
“…maybe.”
“Can I have a go?”
*Squeak!*
State of the Storyteller – Mornings…
Long weekend’s over, back to getting up at 5am. My body’s up, but evidently not my brain.
The ceiling in the bathroom was hot when I went to take my shower (because there’s a heating vent in the ceiling, blowing hot air), so I got to thinking about fires, and how our current fire plan consists of “Grab the cat, grab the external hard drive, and head for the nearest exit.”
But that’s actually an incredibly optimistic fire plan.
Fires can move fast – I mean faster than I really ever think of, when I think of what to do in case of a fire. Grabbing anything might not be an option. Getting out ourselves might not even be an option, though living in a small cape-style house, I tend to think it should be possible.
What if we’re asleep? A fire could cut off our access to the rest of the house before it woke us, and then we’d need to scramble out a second-story window. Brian’s phone is by the bed, but neither of our wallets are, nor the external, and only sometimes the cat. We’d lose all our data that isn’t backed up off-site, and all the things (ID, bank cards, car keys) that would make it easier to rebuild our life.
It might be a good idea to back up our Quicken data, at least, in the cloud – either through Dropbox or emailing the file to ourselves, or something else.
Then there’s the question of what if one of us dies? If we store data online, what’s the best way to make sure both of us can access it?
Also: clothing. If we became aware of a fire while sleeping or in the shower, clothing would be a problem. I mean, if the house was on fire, knocking naked on the neighbor’s door to call 911 would be a relatively minor consideration, but being clothed would be much better.
I think maybe I should keep my purse by the bed when I sleep, along with a bag with one set of clothes for each of us. It would be an easy change to make – put aside clothes we never wear, that are ready to be retired, so we don’t miss them while they’re sitting there in case of an emergency that will hopefully never come.
Anyway, back to my brain not being awake… I decided now (5:30am) was the perfect time to double-check something in the drop-ceiling we put up in the bathroom downstairs – *directly under the bedroom.* Thus waking Brian up with weird noises in the floor, and robbing him of an hour’s worth of sleep… *sigh*
Sorry, Brian.
So, what’s your fire plan?
Daily Scintilla – Confusion
“Now, if you’ll look to the left here…”
“You say left, but you’re pointing to the right.”
“Right, then. If you look… that way, you’ll see the most commonly taken entrance to the catacombs.”
“You’re supposed to be a guide? You are not filling me with confidence.”
“It’s just as well. Confidence is a detriment, once you’re in the catacombs. You need to get used to questioning everything, especially things you think you’re sure of. I’ll get you through, though. I’ve got twenty-seven incident-free traverses under my belt, and a higher success rate than any other guide you’ll find still working.”
“Twenty-seven? Vennda said you’d done over three hundred crossings!”
“True enough. It all depends on how you count them, really. Now, let’s go get your will in order before we set out.”
Short Story – Dishes, Done!
Three, THREE short stories today, to close out the year with a bang. Be sure to check out the other two posts. 
I’ll post later this week on plans for 2011, but for now:
Dishes – Done!
Louann woke from a dream of doing dishes. She washed and washed and washed, but the pile of dirty dishes had just kept on growing. She groaned as she realized she was awake and in bed. She knew the sink was full of dishes from the party last night, and that she needed to wash them before everyone came over for Christmas dinner today. It would have been nice if someone had offered to help.
She pulled herself out of bed, and dragged herself into the kitchen, putting off looking at the sink until the last minute.
It was empty.
Not only that, it was clean!
“Merry Christmas,” said a familiar voice from the doorway.
She looked up, and then launched herself at him, all fatigue forgotten as she hugged him tight. “Wolf! You’re back!”
He grinned and hugged her back, gratified that – for the moment at least – she was happier to see him than to have the dishes done.
Short Story – A Christmas Wish
Three, THREE short stories today, to close out the year with a bang. Be sure to check out the other two posts. I’ll post later this week on plans for 2011, but for now:
A Christmas Wish
Ella snuggled into her bed, so tired that her eyes had stopped focusing on her book and forced her to go to bed. She thought fondly of the friends she would be seeing tomorrow. Having a quiet Christmas at home with a good book was nice, but she was also looking forward to exchanging presents and seeing her friends’ children excitedly tear the wrapping paper off of their packages.
Wrapping paper…
She moaned, rubbing her face into her pillow. “I forgot to wrap the presents,” she groaned, knowing that she should get up and do it now, but reluctant to move out of her nice warm bed. “I wish my presents were already wrapped.”
She gasped, an instant after the words left her mouth, and shot out of her bed to run downstairs and check on the presents. They were all still sitting on the side table, still unwrapped. She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. He must not have been listening.” Full of adrenaline, she set about wrapping the presents in preparation for tomorrow.
The genii smirked, watching from one of the decorations on the tree. “Merry Christmas,” he said, too softly for her to hear.
Short Story – Dumplings
Three, THREE short stories today, to close out the year with a bang. I’ll post later this week on plans for 2011, but for now:
Dumplings, or What I Did Over Christmas Weekend
Some of you know my cake story, from when I was young and foolish and forgot that cake batter *rises.*
Now I have a dumpling story…
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© 2010 Catherine Wechsler, used with permission.
