November 2004 Archives

968 words so far…

Posted on November 30th, 2004 by Patrick

…in “Andy’s Party”, which is (probably) going to be my Kitchen Fiction entry.

Excerpt:

Gerald and Phil ran into Dean and Carleen at the liquor mart. The party was BYOB, and so they were trying to decide between brands of vodka. Carleen was a bit of a conoisseur, and so was trying to steer Dean toward the expensive stuff. Dean was looking at the cheap stuff, the economy being what it was and all. Gerald said, “I read somewhere”–which with Gerald usually translated to I saw on the Internet–“that you can filter the cheap stuff through a water filter, like say a Brita? About four times, and it tastes just as good as the expensive stuff.”

Dean gave Carleen a look, and Carleen said, “You’re not helping, Gerry.” Which was true, and at least partly why he’d said it in the first place.

“So if you were wanting beer”–Carleen made a face–“what kind would you like?”

“Horse piss,” said Carleen, not quite sotto voce. An older man on the other side of the vodka aisle gave her a distasteful look, and she winked at him. Flustered, he looked away.

“Uh, Rickard’s is always good,” said Dean. “Canadian’s not bad either.”

“If you can stand the taste,” said Carleen.

“You’ve already made it clear you’re not drinking it,” said Phil. To Dean: “What about Blue?”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” said Dean. “Beer’s beer, you know?”

They all four of them nodded.

Sound Manitoban? Prairie? Canadian? Hope so; that’s what I’m goin’ for.

And another 1200 words…

Posted on November 26th, 2004 by Patrick

…on the Kitchen Fiction contest story, currently titled Contract Work. Yay me!

800+ words in the last two days…

Posted on November 26th, 2004 by Patrick

…in the “kitchen fiction” story (contest entry for the Manitoba Writers’ Guild contest).

Hopefully more this afternoon, too.

Not much lately…

Posted on November 24th, 2004 by Patrick

…about 600 words last night. Hopefully more in the next few days.

Today’s progress

Posted on November 14th, 2004 by Patrick

Across a Wounded Land — 1300 words

Not bad…

Posted on November 10th, 2004 by Patrick

Skipped judo tonight, walking wounded*, and wrote instead. About 1100 words in Across a Wounded Land, so that’s not too bad. Granted, there’s some cut’n’paste from the first draft, but not too much tonight.

Sample:

The office was a white cube, with a small white desk in the geometric center of the floor. White curtains framed a sunny north window. Hamid do Rufinnus wore soft white linens and, Leonid felt confident, white leather boots. The only spray of color in the room came from a dwarf cherry tree, a bonsai in full cascade, standing in a tall, narrow lacquered white pot atop a waist-high pillar of glittering, pale quartz. The waterfall of its leaves trailed almost to the white floor. Minute pink blossoms dotted its entire languid length. Leonid’s eyes kept straying back to the flowers; against the starkness of this room, they seemed to pulse with hallucinatory color.

I think it’s proceeding not too badly.

*Well, sore from working out. First time back. Should’ve stretched.