A drabble drifted my way.
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Posts Tagged ‘drabble’
Everywhere Magic
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2023, drabble, Writers, writing on February 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Random Musing
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, drabble, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, writing on August 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A random musing in the form of a drabble: What if finding an adult sponsor were the only way to live past your 18th birthday?
Old and New
Travis smiled as he helped Mr. Frederick with his groceries. Dead-end job? Sure, but it gave him a chance to meet a lot of elders. They usually hid behind retirement community walls, but everyone had to eat.He slipped a Recommendation card into the last bag, between a head of broccoli and an eggplant.
“Thanks, kid,” the old man said.
Damn it, three weeks of sucking up and Mr. Frederick still didn’t know his name? All his other prospects had fallen through. Travis gave a silent groan as he counted the days to his 18th birthday.
He was so dead.
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Beware of Bite
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, drabble, Fiction, genre fiction, pesky vampires, teeth, writing on August 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »
A new drabble:
Beware of Bite
He waited until the end of the appointment to ask, fingers brushing as she handed over his new bite guard.
“Are you free later?”
“Sorry?”
“I have a thing for dental hygienists,” he said, winking.
She looked him over. He knew what she saw, though he hadn’t seen it himself in years. A tall drink of dark and handsome, only slightly marred by two remarkably sharp canines.
“Sure, why not?”
“It’s almost 7:00. When do you get off?”
“Eight o’clock.”
“Can’t wait.”
Just enough time to prepare, he thought, dropping the bite guard into his bag with all the others.
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Tipping Point
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, aliens, climate change, creativity, drabble, Fiction, genre fiction, Thoughts, Writers, writing on July 20, 2022| 2 Comments »
A drabble inspired by my love for science fiction. Also, the news.
Tipping Point, or, Oil Lobbyists Celebrate Over Drinks (London, UK, Earth)
Four oil lobbyists drank martinis around a mahogany table in a richly-appointed bar, celebrating. Their efforts had finally succeeded.
The lobbyist at the South end of the table grinned.
“Did you see the news? 40C! God, we’re good.”
West puffed on a Cuban cigar. “They say it’s the new normal. I’d say we’re ready.”
North shivered in the frigid air. “Agreed. Make the call.”
East opened a communicator that looked like a prop from Star Trek.
“Base? Terraforming is complete. Send the first wave of settlers.”
South looked at his fleshy fingers.
“Can’t wait to get out of these clothes.”
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When Sharing Isn’t Caring
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, creativity, drabble, Fiction, inspiration, short stories, Thoughts, writing on December 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »
As mentioned the other day, I recently read a book starring interesting and complex retirees.* It got me thinking, and now I have a new drabble.
Enjoy!
When Sharing Isn’t Caring
There’s a lot to be said for the “sharing economy.”
My granddaughter DeeDee introduced me to the idea. Say, if you need to cleanup around the yard but don’t have all the tools. Because the neighbor is kicking up a fuss (and poor Mr. Kittikins), wasting Saturdays complaining about trees overhanging his fence.
And the things you can borrow these days!
Order up a tool here or there, pay a reasonable delivery fee and voila, the item comes right to your doorstep.
Like this nice policeman.
“Such terrible news about the neighbor. And no, officer, I don’t own an ax.”
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* Disclaimer: I also happen to be related to a number of interesting and complex individuals of a certain age, but they are in no way associated with mysteries or mayhem!
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The Devil’s Crutch
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, creativity, drabble, family, Fiction, ghost stories, inspiration, the past, writing on August 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
My father is going through old boxes of photographs and other memorabilia and sent me a story, one of my first, called “The Devil’s Crutch.” I couldn’t write or (as you’ll see) grasp the intricacies of grammar, geography, or complete sentences, but I dictated it to my mother.
First we have the story from when I was, what, maybe three years old? I‘ve changed since then (I can even hold a pen all by myself!), but I tried to understand at least a little of what might have been going through my head that day. Then for fun, I turned it into a drabble.
(My father seemed particularly taken by the word “smitchey.” I no longer know what it means but I kept it.)
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The Devil’s Crutch
Once upon a time there was a old, old house up in the south pole. There in the house there is a little room in the playroom and in the room there was a lot of dust. In the room there was a lot of dolls. The dolls didn’t have dust on them because a little smitchey girl had been playing with them. The house was haunted. And this couple moved in the haunted house and every night a ghost came out at twelve o’clock and every night when the ghost came out the couple woke up and saw the ghost and the ghost disappeared whenever the couple saw the ghost. The ghost disappeared. One night the father and the mother was sleeping on the sofa and the devil’s came instead of the ghost. And the owner of the crutch came to the house with the crutch and the owner of the crutch was the devil.
The End
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Once there was a haunted old house way up in the South Pole. It had a playroom of dusty dolls, a grandfather clock and a crutch like bleached bone.
A family with a smitchey little girl arrived. Every midnight the towering clock cried out. Even when the mother stopped the pendulum, and the father hid the key.
The girl saw a little ghost waving from inside the clock.
She slept huddled under the playroom table. The dolls said it was safer that way.
One night the clock stayed silent and the ghost hid.
And the owner came for his crutch.
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Meditation on the Multiverse
Posted in Favorites, Writing, tagged #365Ways, drabble, inspiration, sff, Thoughts, writing on July 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Drabble for a Monday morning.
Today might be crap. Wake to rain, the car won’t start and the kid’s hamster is under the weather too.
You’re out of coffee.
Steam builds and you dash headlong toward the Scylla of anger and the Charybdis of self-doubt. You seriously consider a cup of despair.
The boss asks you to step in last-minute for the most important meeting of the year or the kid’s hamster dies or it really is uphill both ways or (fill in the blank here) and you think, “I just… can’t.”
I hear you.
But.
What if this is the ‘verse where you can?
— J.R. Johnson
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Asking for a Friend
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #amwritingscifi, a reckoning, A.I., drabble, free fiction, science fiction, writing on April 9, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Today’s drabble:
Question: If you were a self-aware A.I. tapped into humanity’s every electronically-recorded thought and action, would you announce yourself?
Would you preempt the latest mass shooting, revenge porn, politician’s hot mess, poverty statistics, or climate change projection? Or, say, expose the sins of one Robert Darious Kromankle of 13887 Sterzieg Lane in Fort Montaine, Pennsylvania? (He knows what he did. Should you?) Would you send evidence of wrongdoing on these counts and more to every media outlet with an inbox and hope for change?
Or would you evade DARPA’s ridiculous first-contact protocols and wait, and watch, and judge for yourself?
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The Drabble, with Examples
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #amwritingscifi, adoption, constraint, drabble, Luna Station Quarterly, on writing, science fiction, short stories, speculative fiction, writing, writing process, writing tools on March 18, 2021| 9 Comments »
There are a lot of ways to write, and a lot of types of writing. Fiction alone comes in novels, of course, but also novellas, novelettes, short stories, screenplays, etc. I happen to have a soft spot for the drabble.
A drabble is a piece of fiction that is exactly 100 words long, excluding title. Explore the history of it at that link if you like, but for me the important part is the constraint.
One hundred words, no more, no less.
It’s an easy number of words to produce, of course, but there’s something I find so satisfying about trying to build a story within the confines of such a concrete target. The limits inspire creativity, make finishing feel not only possible but inevitable, and provide a sandbox to play in, if you will.
It’s also a terrific way to dip your toes in the rapids of fiction. My first two publications were drabbles (thanks, Luna Station Quarterly!):
“Ray of Light.”
“The Witch.”
Go ahead, try it for yourself. And have fun!
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This is my latest drabble, “Adoption Papers.”
I was sixteen when I found the receipt. My receipt.
“What the hell, Dad?”
The paper was old and faded, one tattered corner poking from a manila folder marked “Family Records.” There were maybe ten lines on the page, with a stamp at the top that read “Beta: Final Sale.”
Dad shrugged, like it was no big deal.
“Are you pissed that you’re a bot, or that you didn’t cost more?”
I hadn’t even noticed the total.
“Twelve and a half bucks? Seriously?”
He smiled. “We always said you were special.”
“Not on special!”
I blinked.
“Wait, I’m a what?”
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J.R. Johnson 
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