As the storm neared, Todd checked the tent stakes he had pounded through the wooden floor. It was easier than fixing the roof.
Month: September 2013
Fiction: Duel
“Gentlemen, will you not be reconciled?”
Morning sunlight streamed through the leaves of the trees in the little forest, dappling the world and the three people beneath the canopy.
The other men looked at each other.
“John, will you defer to me in the matter of the heart and hand of Elizabeth Parkwood?”
“Andrew, I fear I shall not do so. Will you defer to me in the said matter?”
“No, John, I fear I shall not do so, either. We are not reconciled.”
Morton sighed. As the mutually agreed second for both duelists, he opened the box containing the pistols and began preparing them for use. The pistols belonged to John’s family, and they had all shot with them for sport. Morton knew the guns to be exceptionally good ones; nothing within fifteen paces stood a chance of survival.
He was about to lose one of these friends.
Quotable 170
The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.
– Philip Roth
haiku 282
across the street
three-car wreck
two were parked
#quikfic 69
“Admit it, Chief: when a guy is smeared with garbage and locked in a chicken house to be pecked to death, it’s murder most fowl.”
Quotable 169
Very few writers know what they are doing until they’ve done it.
– Anne Lamott
#quikfic 67
She was found hanging from the monkey bars. Her dress covered her face; her panties said: If You Can Read This You’re Too Close.
Quotable 168
When I sit down in order to write, sometimes it’s there; sometimes it’s not. But that doesn’t bother me anymore. I tell my students there is such a thing as “writer’s block,” and they should respect it. You shouldn’t write through it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked, because you haven’t got it right now.
– Toni Morrison
haiku 280
blood draw –
two technicians, six tries
one purple bruise