Flash Fiction Friday! They're Coming

Come away from the water.

That's what my mother screamed. I heard her, faintly. She was behind me.  They all were. There was a crowd gathered on the beach.  I had been a part of it once.  I'd slipped away from them without even knowing I was moving.

No one had screamed shark. No one had screamed anything. A strong sense of terror had hit everyone at once and they'd fled the water. 

I was in the shallow waters when I felt it.  My sister and I were taking a break from arguing - she was telling me about her latest crush and I was pretending to care.  The sun beat down on my face and shoulders while waves lapped against my legs.  And then all at once, I was cold.  My heart beat fast and I felt like I would be attacked at any moment. My sister's face went pale and tears dripped down her cheeks. We were the first ones out of the water.  Everyone else followed, their efforts to escape clumsy and slow.

But then, something pulled me back towards the ocean.  My toes edged along the cusp of wet sand.  I was half pulled, half repelled.  I stood at the edge, not sure what to do.  

He rose from the water with all of us watching.  He did not swim but walked steadily, not jostled by the waves.  His movements were slow and rhythmic - I felt myself swaying to his rhythm.  He stood on the wet sand, water and foam curling around his ankles.  It was hard to see his face, his long black hair hung down over his eyes and fell all the way to his breast bone.  His skin was gray and scaly.  I could see one piercing green eye, like an emerald shining in mud.  He stood a long time on the edge of the water, not moving.

My mother's screams grew into hysterical shrieks.  She no longer formed words.  I expected to feel her hands grab me at any second, but they never did.

He opened his mouth and an eel fell out.  It was alive and writhing on the wet sand.  I could see it struggling to get back to the water out of the corner of my eye.  I could not take my gaze off the man.

I didn't see his lips move, but I heard him clear as day.  "They're coming."

He turned and walked back into the water.  I watched him until he was swallowed by the ocean.

A big wave crashed and a touch of water ran over my feet and I could feel fear there.  Whatever was coming, it wasn't good.

Happy Hump Day! The Mighty Boosh

Now, we take it to the UK for a seriously funny surreal show.  Yeah.  That's all true.  :)

I Cannot Be Trusted Around Wine

Two weeks ago, I and my lovely husband had a Groupon to visit five Virginia wineries.  I figured it would be no problem, each tasting is a sip of wine, right?  I was tipsy by the end of tasting number one.  I was flat out  drunk by our last winery.  I went home feeling sort of ill and with six new bottles of wine.  We don't really drink much wine in our house so I'm hoping the Book Club gang will knock it out for us this weekend.

This past Saturday, we went to the Renaissance Festival in Maryland.  My day started with these words, "I'll have a beer or two but it ends there.  I do not want to get drunk."  I really don't like being drunk.  I barely like being tipsy.  But I LOVE the taste of beer.   Go figure.  So, what went wrong?  My friend, Rachael, that's what.  Rachael said, "Have you been to the wine tasting station?  They're mixing all sorts of wines together.  They have raspberry wine."  And I was sold.  It doesn't take much to convince me I should drink more.  This is also a known problem.

I had two large glasses of red mixed with raspberry over the course of a few hours and then my husband drove us home.  I was drunk.  I was not horribly drunk, just a bit past tipsy.  My stomach hurt all night and my leg muscles hurt the next day.  Here's another fun fact about me, my body does not like alcohol.  I used to vomit every time I drank.  Yay college!

So world, now you know my kryptonite.   I am easily stopped by wine.  I should start drinking juice and just tell people it's wine.  I'll last longer at parties.  Also, the best thing about the Renaissance Festival (besides watching people in period costumes text on their smart phones) is all the fried food.  I love you Scotch Eggs, no matter how bad you are for me.  I love you!

Anyone else out there in a sharing mood?

Flash Fiction Friday! No One Is Truly Safe

"Shhh. It's okay. I promise. You look scared. Don't be. All will be okay. You can trust me."

The ropes around her wrists told her otherwise. Felicity had just woken up from a very nice dream to find herself tied to her bedposts with nylon rope. The sheets had been tucked tight into the bed, making it nearly impossible for her to move. She tried to scream but duct tape covered her mouth.

"Your problem is, you don't trust anyone."

Felicity had never seen her before. The woman sat just past the edge of her bed. She had pulled in a chair from the dining room. She kept her long gray hair out of her face with a pink plastic headband. Large green eyes peeked out from her red plastic glasses. She slurped when she sipped from her cup of coffee.

Felicity's eyes grew wide. Her vision went blurry with tears.

"No. I guess you are reacting rationally. That's okay. You cry if you have to. I won't hurt you. I won't even reprimand you."

Felicity shook her body, tried to throw off the ropes. The more she struggled, the more the ropes tore into her wrists. The pain was not unbearable, but it made her settle down all the same.

The woman at the end of the bed pulled Felicity's cell phone from her own pocket. She flicked it open and hit a few buttons. She winked at Felicity as she said, "Yes, I'd like to report a break in. Yes. Yes. Actually, I'm the one breaking in. No. I won't give the address, but I'll leave this on so you can come save this young lady. Ta ta."

The woman put the phone down on the bed. She stood, took a long sip of coffee and walked to the head of the bed. She moved a stray piece of hair that had fallen over Felicity's right eye. As she brushed it away, Felicity thought she could smell cinnamon.

"Now. It's okay to hate me. I won't blame you. I'm just leaving the world a message, one of many I'll be leaving. You, my dear, are my first instrument. When the cops arrive," she said and leaned down low, so low Felicity could smell the coffee on her breath, and whispered, "tell them, no one is truly safe." She stood back up and gave Felicity a warm smile. "It's a good message, and one I'll be showing them in better detail later on. Take care dear."

Felicity watched as the woman walked out of the room. A few seconds later she heard the front door close and lock. She screamed as loud as she could, hoping the emergency operator could hear her muffled cries. The screams came out as a muted mess, but Felicity kept screaming over and over again, "Please, save me!"

Happy Hump Day! Flight of the Conchords

A few songs from my favorite two man band!! Keep laughing and keep writing!

Updates from the place I call my brain

You may have noticed I've been hitting the interwebs hard recently.  Some would call it book promotion, I call it good old fashioned narcissism.  My latest stop was at the blog All The Days Of for an interview.  It was my very first interview and I didn't even have to kill anyone to get it!  Miracles do happen!  Click here to read the interview, should you wish.  You may notice, I'm the only one that's left a comment so far.  See, narcissism at work.

Me, looking in the mirror.  Narcissism!

In other news, I am down from 40+ hours a week at work to 32 hours a week.  That's going to leave a good bit more time for writing and blogging and reading the blogs of others.  Today is my first weekday off in a month, and it feels good.  I'm going for a victory run after this post.

I'm hard at work on a second collection of short stories, all of which will have a sci-fi bent.  This will not be hard sci-fi as I can't be bothered to learn the laws of physics.  I didn't study theatre to become a scientist, dammit.  Okay, I am closetly studying physics, but I can't promise I'll understand it.

Still working on draft 2 of Tough Girl but it has been slow going.  I'm trying to make it good, but right now it's looking kind of mediocre.  Wish me luck.

Other than that, I'm going back to my critique group this Wednesday after a long break.  I'll also be sending out more plays and approaching more book bloggers for reviews.

What's new in your world?

Flash Fiction Friday! There She Goes

"You've got to think about things practically," he said.

She pushed her cake around with her fork, tearing bits of it away from the whole and mashing it into the plate.  She kept her eyes down, careful not to look at him.  She enjoyed the squish of moist cake through the space between the tines.

"This... us, it was never going to work out."

She dropped her fork.  The metal clanged loudly against the porcelain plate.  "Why?"

"What?"

"Why wouldn't it have worked?"

He blinked.  "Well, because..."

"Because you're spineless and weak and you lie to get what you want?"

"That was out of line."

She picked up the fork and flicked it at him.  Cake splattered onto his face.  A bit of icing ran down his cheek and plopped onto the white tablecloth below.

"Wrong," she said.  "It wouldn't have worked because I never loved you.  Thanks for lunch."

She took a bite of cake and walked out of the restaurant.

Guest Post

Today, the wonderful M. Pax has allowed me to write a guest post on her blog, Wistful Nebulae.  If you're not familiar with the very talented M. Pax, I would recommend poking around on her blog  -  especially the right hand side where she has listed her free fiction.  If you're in a rush, just click on PLANT GIRL.  I like all her stories, but that one is my favoritest ever (so far).  Just a suggestion.  I do love it though.


And without further ado, the link to the guest post:

Libby visits The Wistful Nebulae


And a GIANT thank you to all the new readers I've acquired.  The Reading Masses has now reached 150!

A Good Review

Just a quick note today.  I received a very nice review from Jo over at Fluidity of Time.  If you  have a moment, please check it out.

Fourth Degree Freedom Review at Fluidity of Time


Also, did anyone else see the stomping the Ravens gave the Steelers on Sunday?  It kind of made my day.