NaNoWriMo November 2022

 

NaNoWriMo

November is right around the corner and today I have announced my project.

The Door Between Us will reflect my life path in the past few months. I am unsure whether it'll turn into a novel inspired by real life events or if it'll remain an account of what has been happening. I'll make the final decision after the first week of writing.

As always, I'll work at Milk Wood where my writing community, the Virtual Writers, gathers daily at 8am SLT (Second Life Time).

If you're in Second Life and are doing NaNoWriMo, feel free to join us.

Thumbs Up

Tatty Soup

Thumbs up to the guitar player and his song and his hair and his boots and his eyes, contacts, and... No, this doesn't work. She stretched. The damn guitar was more interesting than everything else put together, and it wasn't even a nice guitar. Why did she have to praise the guy and pretend the whole concert had been amazing? No. She was going to be honest, brutally honest if need be. She opened a new message. "Thumbs up to the guitar player and the song and the hair, wow! And the boots, nice!" She sighed. Yup. Perhaps next time.

100 Word Stories

Invitation! A Road Paved with Women's Words

I invite you to join me at SLEA2!

Writing has been both a passion and a lifeline for me.

When Kisma K. Stepanich-Reidling (kismaksr inworld) invited me to take part in The Temple of the Divine Feminine, I accepted the invitation immediately!

What a thrill to join women from different corners of the world, different ages, different walks of life, all sharing their creativity at the SLEA2 - photography, painting, sculpture, videos, readings, and writing!

One of the events of this remarkable project is "A Road Paved with Women's Words", a discussion panel that will bring together three women writers in Second Life, myself, Jami Mills - Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the online RezMagazine and Angela Thespian - Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the online FOCUS magazine. Our moderator will be Kisma Reidling.

For more information, check the official website of the Second Life Endowment for the Arts and for a detailed tour of the SLEA Region 2, drop by Tara's blog post.

My talk is titled "When Two Words Become a New Path in Life" and I'll take you on a journey of hope and healing, creativity and empowerment. I will tell you how virtual reality and words, many words, can change your life.

Date: Friday, 14 October 2022

Time: 1pm SLT

Location: The Temple of the Divine Feminine

Event: In voice and text in local.

Speediest

Tierra de Fuego

"Grab your passport and run." Good advice from the boss.

When his underboss took me to the airplane, I looked unsure. I was the only passenger and I seemed frightened. He nodded. I grabbed my notepad and showed him my notes. "I'm just a journalist." He nodded some more.

When he grabbed his gun, I smiled. He was confused. I clicked the button and the plane exploded, underboss included.

I'm not sure why I needed the passport, but who am I to question the boss. After all, whatever he decided was the speediest way of getting your life significantly shortened.

100 Word Stories

January Code

 

Tatty Soup

Millions in the bank. She laughed, the fire pit crackling.

The safe. She had cracked it open so easily.

And the code. It was right there for her to grab.

She just walked out of the office and no one noticed.

Doing that boring secretary job for six months was worth it.

The new generation bought the code from her for a fortune. Smart kids. Nothing like their mobster fathers.

It was much better to be in the cottage than in that horrible office.

They were looking for her, of course. But money buys a lot of things, including silence.

100 Word Stories

Crash

 

Ten Pages

The bikes were new. He sneered. He didn't know about the upcoming crash. He didn't know she'd made a decision. Which one should he ride first? Yes, this one. She had told him not to, but he wanted to ride those bikes. He didn't care about her. In fact, her words sounded like a warning, the bitch. He never cared about anyone else. He always did what he wanted. When the time came for her to say a few words at the funeral, she sneered and said "Hope you had fun being who you were. Your ride is now over."

100 Word Stories

Contact Lens

 

Ten Pages

"This is a contact lens."

"Where's the other one?"

He chuckled, burying his feet in the sand.

"Look."

He held it close to his eye and the wind picked up and the waves became wild.

"What's happening?"

"Want me to kill that bird?"

Before she could say no, the bird just dropped dead.

Horrified, she stood up.

"Where did you get that?"

"Aliens. I meet them every Sunday after church."

"Aliens?! Dead birds?"

He smiled.

"I don't know what else to do with it."

"Rain, dude, make fucking rain. Useless aliens... Giving you, of all people, a... freaking contact lens."

100 Word Stories

Mimes

 

Westdell

The Drunk Monk Tavern didn't have a nice brew or even acceptable food but had the best mime contests. Mimes came from miles away to take a chance at winning the big prize. And what was the big prize? Lily. Lily was the daughter of a monk, according to her mother. And Lily desperately wanted to get away from her dishonorable past . The only problem was that she couldn't stand men yapping on and on. She wanted a mime. Her mother agreed especially because they were running out of room in the backyard and the local authorities were getting suspicious.

100 Word Stories

Remember

Time Remains

I remember this. Everyone used to find it amusing and mother found it particularly useful. The others laughed and giggled and sneered. And mother snickered, looking like a child about to be naughty.

No one ever said a thing. No one ever stepped in. Father was just too busy to even know. Or perhaps he had decided that it was best for him not to know. She used to hang it around my neck, the string emphasizing the humiliation. And I had to do the house chores with that sign on. It said "Bought and sold". I do remember this.

100 Word Stories

Evidence

 

Japanchubu

"No evidence," repeated the impatient historian.

"But Professor..."

The historian stormed out.

Stubborn fuckers, he thought.

So, he went back to Japan to check the temple again.

"Doubting me... Unacceptable."

After weeks of research, he found the small button in a dark corner.

Click. A whole new room opened up.

"Damn, they were right," he whispered.

The historian quickly closed the secret room and pulled a chest over to hide the stupid button.

The next day, the button and his stubbornness were all over the news.

"They followed me..."

And this is how arrogance is the beginning of your downfall.

100 Word Stories

Archimedes

 

Octoberville

"Archimedes!"

Archimedes received an envelope in the mail for years. He opened that envelope to find it empty. But he kept all those envelopes, neatly organized by dates, in a shoe-box under the bed.

One day, a man arrived in town asking for him.

"Your instructions."

He rushed to his room. He unfolded all the envelopes open and there it was. A map.

He followed the map and at the location, he found a box.

"Oh, my God! I'm filthy rich."

Ah, his uncle, his only surviving relative, the trickster.

Good thing he hadn't thrown any of the envelopes away!

100 Word Stories

Deal

 

Nighthaven

Millions. To sell him for millions. He wanted the millions. He wanted the fancy cars, the huge house, the yacht. He wanted the girls, the jewelry, the paparazzi. He wanted the interviews, the autographs.

Then the millions came and everything else along with it.

It was fun, at first.

When that creep jumped over his fence and held him and his family hostage for half a day, demanding the release of another creep from jail, it wasn't fun anymore.

He stopped playing football. He moved to the mountains to be free.

But he still kept the millions... just in case.

100 Word Stories

Of Teeth and Such

 

Milk Wood

Screaming kids running throughout the house, trying to escape the evil toothbrush with that medicinal toothpaste from hell that tasted horribly. This is how I remember Aunt Ethel. She was relentless, always trying to brush everyone's teeth.

One day, she couldn't find any of us (we were hiding) and she walked outside, toothbrush in one hand and the damned toothpaste in the other, armed for a battle only she and us kids understood. But she just left, walked away and left.

That's why we all became dentists. Secretly, we hoped she'd come back to realize she now had an army.

100 Word Stories

Cross Country

Pure Dreams

Taking the cross country path was a last minute decision. And it looked like it was the right thing to do.

It was lovely out there. The trees, the birds, the stars. They even found a pathway where all the trees had exotic colorful lamps, guiding them through.

In their oblivious enchantment, they reached the end of the pathway.

"Great, now we have to turn back..."

They didn't know it yet, but they didn't have to, no.

The light mist lifted slowly. It looked so magical, so beautiful.

When they noticed the copious amounts of skulls, it was too late.

100 Word Stories

Pop

 

Gehena Vampire Clan

The cork popped.

"It's worth the wait," he said.

She smiled. Yes, two centuries.

"It'll taste sour at first."

She smiled. She didn't like sour.

"But the aftertaste will be sweet."

She nodded. She didn't like sweet either.

In fact, she didn't like anything except the taste of hatred.

Two centuries. And here he was, oblivious that he had betrayed her many moons ago.

She had used her powers to look different, more seductive.

That green bottle was somewhat beneath her, but it would have to do.

Perhaps then she would be able to taste something again. "Pop! And cheers!"

100 Word Stories

Camp NaNoWriMo July

Done. No Words is concluded and I will now proceed to the next phase, revising and editing.

This was a well needed step in a long healing process. No one will ever read it, except for one person (B.).

Onwards we go.

Choke

The words “Drink me” were on the label. No one had ever ordered him to drink anything, except his mother when he was a child. She used to say, drink this but don't choke. Why would he choke?

He examined the liquid. Pink. Well, odd shades of green and blue usually demanded caution. But pink?

He shook the bottle. Might as well mix this properly.

He took a sip.

When he started choking, he thought of his mother and the way she would stare at him, waiting.

He knew that look would haunt him to the end of his days.

100 Word Stories

Robot

China

The robot mixed the colors.

The robot tilted its head left and right, as he'd seen humans do. Somehow, that felt important.

And the landscape appeared on the canvas. Blacks and blues and whites and a house. The water was so dark the painting turned into night.

The robot paused. Why did the night sneak in? He wanted a bright day of blues and whites and... The black. It was the black.

The night looked nice too. But... A splash of white here and there and...

The robot tilted its head left and right. If he could, he would smile.

100 Word Stories

Camp NaNoWriMo July 2022

 

Cover photo by Engin Akyurt

Camp NaNoWriMo is upon us again. It's such a cliché, but time does fly.

This July, I'll write a personal account of the path I have been treading for the past few years. It has not been easy and it's now time to exorcize those demons, trap them and keep them locked up. Writing is a wonderful way to understand things happening around me and, finally, accepting that I am doing my best.

Let the writing begin!

Bleak

 

Milk Wood

"My computer isn't working properly. The USB socket is all messed up. And there's a koala wallpaper that is driving me crazy. I need this fixed asap. That's what I'm paying you guys for."

"Certainly. What's your address? I'll send assistance over immediately."

"Assistance? I can't answer the door. I'm in the pool. The doctor told me to meditate for half an hour in the pool every day."

"Perhaps after the meditation?"

"No, I have a major function later on."

"Tomorrow? After tomorrow? Any day in the future?"

"Are you being snarky with me, young man?!"

The future is bleak.

100 Word Stories