500 Words XXXI - This Week's Sentence

This week's sentence - should you choose to accept it* - is taken from Willa Cather's slow-burn masterpiece 'Death Comes For The Archbishop'.

It is:
'Muerto,' he whispered.

Have fun with it.


* Requiescat in pace Peter Graves (muerto also), who this week set off on one last Mission Impossible.
Let's raise a glass to the man who gave us Captain Oveur ("Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?").
Good luck, Jim.

500 Words XXX - Story Time

This week's sentence was taken from E.M. Forster's 'A Room With A View'.

It was:
'It tasted partly of the paper in which it was wrapped, partly of hair oil, partly of the great unknown.'

I expected ickiness and was not disappointed.

First up: a big, friendly Blogville welcome to a new writer, the wonderful Adonia!

Adonia's 'Part 1 - Adonia'

Adonia got me hooked right from the start, with a gloriously disgusting description of an old lady's hat. From there, she upped the ickiness factor considerably.
Funny, fabulously imaginative and genuinely stomach-churningly delightful.
A great debut! Let's have more from Adonia, please.

Only one other story for your coffee-time perusal this week (so far):

Dive's 'Misrememberie'

Seems like I cannot stroll down memory lane without stepping in something disgusting.

Enjoy!

Next week's sentence will be posted tomorrow and a spanking administered to those (you know who you are) who said they might actually come up with the goods and write a story this week.

Hey! This just in:
One of our recalcitrant writers has avoided a spanking by handing in her homework at the last minute.

Robyn's 'Miss Bernice Takes A Job'

Some lovely descriptions and delightful little details as always with a Robyn story.
This one involves a heroine with a surname that always scares the crap out of me, but it's nowhere near as scary or icky (yes, more ick … yay!) as what happens at the end.

What a splendidly icky week we have had here in Storyland.


Holy crap!
Better late than never, Lulu comes running in with what is without doubt the scariest thing I have ever read:

Lulu's 'Cooking With Benni'

Brace yourselves, and whatever you do, do NOT eat before reading this (you certainly won't be able to afterwards). Lulu, that is the most truly disturbing and utterly disgusting thing ever set loose on the internet.
I'm still shivering (and giggling) … Brr!
Be afraid, readers … be very afraid.

WTF วันจันทร์

500 Words XXX - This Week's Sentence

This week's sentence is taken from E.M. Forster's 'A Room With A View'.

It is:
'It tasted partly of the paper in which it was wrapped, partly of hair oil, partly of the great unknown.'

Icky, eh?
You know the rules. Go to it.

500 Words XXIX - Story Time

This week’s sentence was taken from Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Moonstone.’

It was:
‘The Thursday night passed, and nothing happened.’

Just Lulu and me again this week, but Lulu's is an absolute corker!

Lulu's 'Home'

You have got to - and this is an order, so there's no getting out of it - you have got to click on Lulu's conveniently placed 'Jarvis and Smith' links at the top of her sidebar and read ALL seven chapters of this amazing story.

It all started way back in George Eliot's 'Middlemarch' assignment.
Lulu asked quite innocently: 'Is romance novel genre required?'
To which I answered: 'Go with whatever you feel: noir, comedy, space aliens, Godzilla, whatever.'

And so it came to pass. Noir, comedy, space aliens, Godzilla and much, much more (including some very steamy erotica) all came together in Lulu's brain and out popped the Jarvis and Smith stories.

Somehow (I marvel at her ingenuity) Lulu has tied all of these strands of chaos together in this week's chapter with a quite brilliant and very believable denouément and still she manages to slip in a tasty twist at the very end.

I am still grinning, days after reading it.

Dive's 'Thursday Night Fever'

Just me working out some of my issues with the Guy upstairs. Hey ho.

Next assignment tomorrow. Do join in, people. You're missing out on some fun.

WTF 月曜日

500 Words XXIX - This Week's Sentence

It's Friday, so it must be homework time.
Er … yay!

This week’s sentence is taken from Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Moonstone.’

It was:
‘The Thursday night passed, and nothing happened.’

Hmm … There's a nice blank canvas for you. Let your fervid imaginings spill forth all over it and we'll read the results like a Rorschach test next Thursday.

You know the rules. Get writing, people.

500 Words XXVIII - Story Time

This week's sentence was taken from Boris Pasternak's 'Doctor Zhivago'.

The sentence was:
'The hotel staff were being driven frantic; the incident in No.23 was only one more nuisance added to their daily vexations.'

Only two this week, unless there are some latecomers.

First up, the continuing saga of Jarvis and Miss. Smith, with a real cliffhanger of an ending.

Lulu's 'This Little Piggy'

Yikes! Poor Jarvis!
Lulu is really putting our hero through it. What started as a gloriously erotic encounter with Miss. Smith in his office a few weeks back has spiralled into a nightmare (albeit an hilarious one).
Plus some wonderful references to WTF posts weaved into the narrative. Yay, Lulu!


Dive's 'With Apologies To Anton Chekhov, Master Of The Open Ended Short Story'

More confused people in confusing situations. I kinda like Maggie, though. She might turn up in another story sometime.

Next sentence tomorrow. See you there.

Farewell, Comrade

So farewell then, Michael Foot.

One of my all time heroes died today, at 96.
A true and lifelong Socialist, a brilliant writer and essayist (one of the finest authors of the twentieth century), an eloquent orator and hugely entertaining raconteur, political maverick, co-founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, human rights campaigner, famously appalling dresser, freedom fighter, leader of the Labour Party and probably the nicest person ever to enter politics.

Rest in peace, old comrade. You will be sorely missed.

WTF วันจันทร์

Ah, the secret of happiness.

Thank Katie for this one, found in Chiang Mai.