Me Too Me Too

After Ryan posted (and told me) about Ficly, and how it had opened the creative floodgates for him, 1024 characters at a time, I considered joining.

At first, I didn't, but then I realized that I had a story I wanted to write.  I had tried writing it as 55 Fiction once, but it didn't quite fit.  It works much better within the 1024 character constraint, though, and it's now live on the site.  I'll be posting, as additional ideas come to fruition, under the name 'halfpenny'.

My story, titled Survival, is after the jump.

Stories Without End

I recently found an outlet for creative writing, and I’m actually using it. (Ficly) invites users to write 1,024-character (or less) stories. Each published endeavor is flanked by two options—“Write a Prequel” and “Write a Sequel”—to encourage community participation.

Here’s one of my efforts, written to enter a posted challenge to incorporate both fantasy and science fiction:

A Short Scene From SFO

(Something I jotted down while waiting for a flight to Reno, with some later editing.)

Economies of Scales

.
Though this book’s jacket notes the author was, among other indignities, “sprayed by a bird-eating tarantula” and “ejaculated on by a Bengal tiger,” it doesn’t hold as many up-close and bizarre wildlife encounters as it seems to promise. To be fair, the book’s subhead emphasizes “reptile smugglers” (not the animals themselves), and I’d be lying if I said there weren’t animals on practically every page, but I guess I was hoping for more.

Time Well Spent

I started writing this post on my lunch break at work. Not a big deal, I know, but this is significant to me, and germane to what I want to talk about, so I’m mentioning it.

My lunch hours for the last few years have typically been spent reading blog entries or online forums or things like that. As something of an information junkie, I love the new. The worlds of art, music, economics, religion, politics, etc. are in constant evolution, and they push and pull against each other in fascinating ways. It’s not always pleasant to watch, but it feels good to know what’s going on in the parts of the world I’m most interested in.

Bret's 2008 Retrospective Music Mix

As in years past (and as mentioned in my previous post), it’s time for my 2008 music mix. The idea is not that it be a “best of” list like you’d see from a music critic. It’s intended to just be a forum for reflection and the sharing of recent listening habits. The guidelines and my list are after the jump, and please leave a list of your own in the comments…