Ron

Ron is still incredibly sad that his (insert: laziness) has resulted in his (insert: inability) to manage his time. With (insert: unlimited) time he (insert: may have/might have/could have/have had) offered the most (insert: fantastical/stupendous/thought-provoking) story and or stories you have ever had the pleasure of reading. You may even have had a (insert: pleasurable/emotional/questionably awesome) experience while reading his words. To have read one of his stories might well have been ... . Sadly, we will never know. Nevertheless, despite Ron’s (insert: unfortunate) and potentially (insert: devastating) injury to his reputation, I expect you will all have some (insert: phenomenal) stories to read.

I'm glad to have finally gotten around to reading your story. You've written a nicely rendered vignette of youthful memories and the reality of life. I noticed one slip up in the second paragraph (so easy to miss) but not another one. Notwithstanding that single insertion, bravo!

I completely understand. Nevertheless, I personally look up words that I come across in the news or (gasp) a book I’ve been reading. Knowledge is power as they say, and others say, “You never know” so you may be able to work this word into a story of yours at some point. Or to paraphrase Taylor Dayne, “You’ve got to work. Work it girl.”, but I digress.

@Myr Good grief, man! You're a juggernaut with these 'Word of the Day' words, as it were. "Never give up! Never surrender!" - Jason Nesmith

Um ... . What do I say? Firstly, of course, thank you for your adamant admiration (Snort! Really? Oh! ... It's just too much! I couldn't!). Otherwise ... Reference the original, Bud.

I have met my enemy, and it is ... Laziness. That and too much news. I don't believe that it will be possible, despite my previously hinting elsewhere and otherwise, that I will be participating in this anthology as an author. If any of you got your hopes up , I apologize (deeply) for quashing them. Best to you all.

Oh, man! I have thoughts

Somehow, I have the feeling of being back in time, to a time when I had more than enough time to create a creature for the feature. But, now, I have very little time and so many ideas — the bane for writers.

I caught on rather quickly to the subject matter, but the execution was well done. You get a Bravo, too!

I liked it, my friend. You made a valiant effort in short time, but it’s not so easy to do. Remember: I’m is a contraction of ‘I am’ — you slipped that one in, no judgement.

Hmm, what’s that ball of string doing on the floor? Wait a minute… you’re no ball of string? You’re not fooling me!

Meanwhile — in Massachusetts: It’s meteorologically Fall. How is it that it’s still light outside at 7:00 p.m.? Beep, beep, beep. What’s that? Oh, yeah, it’s Frozen-DiGiorno (now baked) come to the rescue! Even a WAPO investigation (I mean a taste test) says, “Eat me”. Turn on that oven? “No, way! I’m turning on the toaster-oven — It’s twice as fast, and at a lower temperature!” And, and … What were we talking about? Oh, yeah: Friday Prompts. Go ahead, take on an opponent opportunity. 😉

I'm glad I gave the original post a thumb-up. I remain enthusiastic about short stories. One can achieve much of their objective vs. a much longer adventure, and all encompassed within far fewer words -- if you're willing to give up a bit of work. Oh, but that declaration is wrong! As is so often the case miniaturization is much more difficult than expanding upon an original idea with many words; there's more work to be done .... Edit: See, I had to remove a word and a space in time to further clarify this post. Ugh(!); Editing a short story, am I right?! Edit 2: Bows head — more editing for such a few words. It appears that I’m proving a point; short stories = hard.

Yes, I’m sure it was. 🫠

Well, dang! If I’ve learned something from all of the above it’s this: You do you because it works for you, and I’ll do me because no one else is doing me (or something like that). Otherwise, I can greatly sympathize with any and every author who struggles to get their words out on the page. I would love to disagree with @Jason Rimbaud on the subject of discipline but I fear I’d be on the losing end of a stick. But all the same I agree with @Mikiesboy in that having too much time on your hands is a grave risk, considering one’s time might feel unlimited — I can sit down and write pretty much any time I want, until I wonder where the day went. And, there’s this little gem from @Inkognito : “It’s just storytelling and stress, bro.” We need a drumroll after that. @BendtedWreath needs to know what the ending looks like in order to write toward it. For whatever reason I usually come up with a title and an ending lickety-split, along with some of the beginning and/or parts in-between, then I’m left with all these blank-spaces that must be filled in. And then I actively muse and muse some more (as opposed to being affected by a muse) thinking that I have lots of time… . In the end I’ve paid attention to all of the given advice (even if I didn’t mention you specifically). Yes, I could have spent all of that time writing instead of reading and writing this, but I’m sure some things may require time to percolate. I’ll take the wait-and-see approach, maybe some of it will stick. Thanks.

Subtitles!

@Zombie I see your reactive Wow, and I raised you a Wow. What are you going to do now, huh?

@Zombie I believe that the talking babydoll near the end of The Planet of the Apes was first proof that not everything disappears.

I wouldn’t say that Hong Kong is my favorite. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting there — I’m fairly sure it has been five times — with the most recent being not long before the handover to China and, every visit has been a terrific experience. The hottest, spiciest chicken I’ve ever eaten in my life was at a small mom and pop restaurant up one of those high hilly streets. Both the chicken and getting back down the steep street (after a few beers and a bottle of wine, for three) were adventurous.

Has anyone watched Fellow Travelers? If so, what did you think about it? I’m thinking about buying the first season since it doesn’t seem possible to watch it on any of the streaming services I have access to for free.

Sometimes I just want to watch something stupid, comedic, or fun because there’s enough drama nowadays, but it also needs to be smartly crafted as well — or it gets boring fast.

I feel like I’m getting ‘picky to a fault’ at times. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of scrolling for something to watch. In any event I was giving “The Summer I Turned Pretty’ the side-eye even before watching it, and now it feels like I’ve been vindicated.

I am seriously giving thought to this anthology. But I can’t really say much without giving away my idea, but I do have three nearly complete storylines bouncing around in my head. Some might say that’s grrreeeatt 😉, pick one, but there’s still the writing, self editing and finding someone to beta-read and then finally finding and working with an editor — that’s a lot of … well, a lot.

Wow, those are some cool features!

If you watched and liked the movie Mascarpone (2021) then you might be interested to learn there is a sequel out called Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake (2025).