Cia

Okay gentlemen, let's not get started on pointing fingers and talking about how this person or that person does this or that to deserve being negged. The system is in place, it has flaws but then again this isn't high school. I don't play the games of, 'I don't like you so I'm going to try to be snarky by using the neg system' It's very rare for me to use that option usually if I don't agree with someone I don't neg them, I attempt to discuss the issue. Not everyone takes that view though. Some people will always be ready to show their disagreement in such a way rather than trying to talk an issue over. Others will use that system vindictively because they feel it's warranted because of personality issues or a private conflict independent of the topics or stories. I've been negged for posts and in my stories but honestly I shrug them off or laugh. I'm an adult. A number doesn't define me and if someone can't refute my opinions or tell me why they don't agree with me or like a story I've written then I could care less about their opinion, including that little red number. I just wish everyone else could realize that truth as well.

Lately I've been having a very hard time writing. I've found pleasure and some inspiration to start writing in different prompts lately and so I decided to start playing with them. These are all supposed to be under 1,000 words and embody the spirt of the prompt and yet still have all the same components as a larger story, as in beginning/middle/end of a sort. If you guys like the prompts or the stories I've come up with for them feel free to post your own ideas here as well as comments and suggestions for future prompts!! My Dribbles

"And in first place, Les Stevens." Les has his hand on one hip, still breathing hard and waves to the crowd in the bleachers. He still can't talk so he stays focused on walking until he is cooled off. His coach comes running over and claps a hand on his shoulder. "Good job, son. You ran a great race. I think you too the hurdles a little high, you could probably shave a little time off if you weren't so flashy." "Ahh, but how could I resist Coach?" Les smirks at him and the coach laughs

The little girl slips quietly over to the record player. The thin black record is carefully balanced on her fingertips. Standing on tiptoe she places it in the record player and lowers the arm to rest on thin grooves. As the cheerful notes begin to come from the speaker she hurries back over to the pillow on the shag carpet. Sunlight falls through a dirty window to make sparkle on the dust in the air above the book place like magic to her young eyes. “Come see!” she calls to her friend look

“Hey, she’s sleeping. The kids are up already. Get the pons, that’s part of your job.” “Sheesh, bossy much?” Uh grumbles as he walks over and kicks the pons to force their person awake. “There, happy now? She didn’t go to bed until late last night and her hypothalamus is going to be cranky.” He slumped back into his chair and glared his partner. “She’d have gotten more sleep if you had just left her parietal lobe alone. Gods, you’re horny all the time, and it’s just not right.” See gl

These are a few of the short flash fiction pieces I've done in response to various writing prompts I've been given. I will post the prompt and then the short pieces I came up as chapters here. I'd love to see any pieces inspired by any of these prompts from others too!

Wow! Thank you so much! I really tried to bring the emotions I knew into the story. It lets me know I did it right when I get such lovely reviews as yours. Thanks again!

Thanks so much Benji. I wasn't sure if that was going to work but I wanted to see if knowing the story had a happy ending affected the emotional impact of the rest of the story. I'm not sure quite yet but I think it worked!! Awwww, thanks hun! I'll keep plugging away writing if you keep reading! I don't care how long your reviews are, I treasure every one.

Delightfully vague. I like the way the story seemed to build the anticipation for what you knew was coming, though you didn't know WHAT it was. You could almost feel the discomfort and friction between them but I was hoping for more. You gave us that at the end. Good story!!

Alex was very silly but I think he embodies that 'I have to be this or that for everyone else' that so many of us have. The urge to fulfill what we think other's expectations are can be overwhelming. I'm glad you had your character wake up before he lost Craig, that would have been sad!

I'm going to stick with enjoying the animal visualizations. They were great, could definitely feel the warmth and the quiet and the nature all around, I've had summer nights like that. Memory supplied the warm soil smell, leaves, the musk of tree bark. That's as far as I'm going in visualizing though... no naked peoples allowed!! I'm not great at getting poetry but your imagery was quite well done.

LOL! That was cute. I thought with the beginning they were going to be up to something big, something to embarass the headmaster in front of the parents at least. It was comical watching them build up to the ending you did really well with that but I was very, wait... they're just standing in there kissing? It was soooo taboo to them, lol. I grew up around guys who were worried about being busted for the chop shop they were running and going to prison... can we tell I'm from the other side of the tracks from where you characters are portrayed? I really liked this tale of teenage hijnks, it was fun to read.

Hmm aliens, otherworldly critters, what have you.... They are all hot in blue! I really liked this story, it was very funny and I couldn't help but snicker as I read. I agree with Andy though, a few parts fleshed out would have been nice. The ending seemed like it was just cut off and you added the final paragraph to tie it up, rather than the story coming to its own end. But then you have to stop somewhere, right? I just wanted more!!

I liked the mystery of this story, it definitely left the reader with a sense of what? who? where??? The visualizations were great, you definitely put me right in the scene and my nose seriously wrinkled when you described Stetsonboy's place. One thing bothered me. Right at the end you say that he forgot everything but the Stetson and yet in the beginning you made it seem as if everyone remembers him but not what he actually looks like. Also, since your main character goes back to where he took him, he thought, then he didn't forget the event. I think you mean that he forgot how Stetsonboy looked other than the hat, not 'everything'. Other than that one part confusing me this was well done!!

Awww, thanks so much Kev! I like Doug a lot too. Wes... yes, he's a lot of me, but not 'me' so to speak so I really fell in love with him too. The photographer bit, well, I just couldn't resist. I was using so much of my memories for this story I wanted to start him off with aspect. Walking is important to everyone in life but if you feel what makes you 'you'-so to speak- is something you'll never be able to do again because of an injury it's almost devestating. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing hun, I always love hearing your thoughts on my guys!!

Oh wow!! So... Geoff is a bit of you, yes? You certainly have similar writing to what he professed to try and post and I see you have a yahoo group. I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved this story. I usually like some form of action or drama, just something else, to go with my romances when I write and read. Sometimes when I read a story, though, the absolutely wonderful romance and chemistry between two characters can sweep me away and be more than enough. Goeff and Adam were a dynamic couple and the story you wrote was just engrossing. I began reading this to approve it in the mod queue and couldn't stop once I'd finished my checks until I had read it all. Honestly, other than your dialogue punctuation I couldn't see errors or anything I'd suggest to make this story even a smidge better. It was wonderful; thanks for sharing it. I hope we get to see more of your writing in the future. Like... tomorrow. Or the next day at the most. You can handle that, right? Pretty please???

Thank you Bandage! I did hope that really having a pipeline to how the character felt would make it more dramatic and real. I'm glad it really came through. I came to terms with the accident a long time ago but I'm very actively outspoken against anyone drinking and driving since the person who hit us was very drunk. Perhaps that will be something to write about later... hmmm.... Anyway, Thanks for commenting hun, I can always count on you to leave some little nugget somewhere and I really do appreciate it!

You're not alone there hun. So many stories, so little time - for reading and writing. Anthologies normally take a few days to get readers since I've found the vast majority of people who actually comment for those are the other writers and the active readers on site who review regularly. Give it time hun!!

Thank you Frosty. I think the fact that I've lived a lot of what I wrote in this story definitely made it have that element of realism. Thanks for reviewing!

Yay, I just read your reply to my review!! I'd love to see more stories. If you're ever looking for someone to run a story by or anything you know you can shoot me a pm. I love this fantasy world you're creating, it's very original!

LOL. Who knows? I just might be that deviously deviant... muah ha ha ha You may be more of a reviewed/reviewer than I am but I've got you beat on forum posts! Ha! Well.. I do have almost a year headstart on you. No catching up to me, it just wouldn't be right!! As for the realism... Yep, some things come straight from memory. I was trapped in our car for over an hour while they cut it apart around me because it was crumpled so small and they thought I broke my neck or back or both. The firefighter I'll never forget held my head straight for that whole time and never once stopped talking to me and letting me know what was going on around me, even though I know I was annoying and asked where Josh was and told him I could wiggle my toes 50 million times. Massive concussions from breaking out the window with your head will scramble your brains a bit, lol!! The chaos of the ER, the absolute blank right after I finally was awake enough to be aware of how hurt I was and the resulting explosion after I was out of the hospital because I was just so damn mad at the world for being crippled when I shouldn't be definitely are my memories too. I was fortunate enough not to hurt my back or neck but it still took over a year to be able to walk without a walker, crutches or cane and there were moments of excruciating effort to force my leg to work properly that I felt had to come out in the scene where Wes is taking his first steps. So all in all... yes, a lot of this story is straight from what happened to me, more came from how I felt during the accident and my recovery though. I made sure I added enough changes to keep it from being autobiographical but it definitely is very much a reflection on a major part of my life that still affects me to this day. Thanks for taking the time to comment on top of the review and pm, hun!!!

Very vivid imagery and the impact of Alex and Raven's entries was spectacular. I was literally holding my breath as I read during those moments. That felt like the culminating moments to me though, before and after sort of faded which left the ending a bit lackluster. I think you were trying to set the ho hum fashion show as usual boredom before so that works but I really felt like the kiss should be the culmination of the story and it just didn't quite have the passionate punch of emotion I expected it to. How come Alex has such a mundane name?? I think that was part of the letdown, the 'these are just people' while they seemed so much more. I wanted Alex more haughty, more... more, idk, just something and the pair of them together to be an unstoppable force of raw sexuality. Instead it was more, we know we're hot, you can't afford to lose both of us so we're just going to do whatever we want and the person in charge just sort of capitulating without a fight.

Short but lovely. I really do like this story, Rachel's change from Raphael to Rachel to who knows... I wonder about the relationship between Connie/Constantine and Rachel... it is filial love or romantic love? Can Raphael now deal with whatever drove him to the brink before? There is only one part that really bothered me and that was when Connie was at the fabric store. For that one brief paragraph you switch over to her point of view and that really thrust me out of the style you were using of a stream of consciousness from Rachel, since it wasn't her voice. If you couched that in a memory of something Connie told Rachel it would work but it's not a big detraction from the story as is, just not quite right.

I want to know about the animals now! How did they know they were there? Did they hear them opening the door? Are they sentinels? Did the tigers evolve to become sentient? How sentient? Ahhh!!! Too many questions. I like the sort of... okay, looks like we aren't doing that! sarcasm but I wish there were more to this story. Even with the concrete ending it just feels like we don't get to see enough. I think a visual on the tiger at the very least would have helped with that, if it wasn't like what they learned about or had a definite genetic mutation based on being abandoned for millenia.

Great fantasy world, I'm glad to see you continued from your previous anthology. I liked this but I think that the story is a bit rough, not as polished as yours normally are. This story, however, does not seem like a story in it's own right. You didn't make it dependant on the previous one to understand, though it did help, but this has no resolution. What was the city? How was the battle between in and the demons a turning point? Was it a turning point overall in the fight to stay alive and stop their advance? Where will Etral go from here? Will Flame-brother stay with him? What's with the corgar's true nature (or is it just this one's pack) that was so different from normal in the area, along with the trees and such from the city that are normally hostile toward humans? Basically I guess I just feel like this would be a great chapter or two in a story but that this alone didn't have a beginning, middle, end with some sort of concrete resolution to the overall plot. I hope you continue the tale of Etral in the future though, I really do want answers to all of those questions and to find out what is to come.