Tag: thriller fiction

Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Prompt “est”

~ John W. Howell ~ 28 Comments

 

SOCS

It is Stream of Consciousness Saturday and this week’s prompt is “est.” That’s right “est.” What the heck am I supposed to do with “est?” I guess I will just have to figure it out once I start my story. Linda Hill says to have fun with it so as a good soldier I will try. If you want to suffer a little go to Linda’s post and read how you can jump into this exercise. https://lindaghill.com/2016/09/16/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-sept-1716/

Est by John W. Howell © 2016

“I was wondering why you continue to invent these dialogs?”

“What are you talking about?. This is fun stuff.”

“Maybe for you, cause all you have to do is come up with sentences in response to what I say. I’m the one who has to work in the prompt.”

“Oh, poor baby. Are we feeling a little oppressed?”

“‘We’ are feeling like we have more of the heavy lifting on this prompt business.”

“Okay then I’ll take over the prompt part, and you just sit there and react to what I say.”

“You’re on. Go ahead.”

“What’s the prompt?”

“I can feel this is going to work well. The prompt is est.”

“What? Dis you hiss at me.”

“No. That’s the prompt E-S-T.”

“Est? What the hell kind of prompt is that?”

“Stop now. You are either going to play or give it back to me.’

“And have you whine for the rest of the day no thanks. Okay, I’ll give it a try. Ahem. Your girlfriend is the nicest.”

“Okay, you got one. Now leave my girlfriend out of this.”

“My, my. You certainly are sensitive. I would say the sensitivest.”

“Beep. No such word. Try again.”

“Hmm. Before I met you today, I was the busiest. Now I’m playing a word game.”

“That works. How are you going to keep folks entertained with this stuff?”

“What’s the problem I have two.”

“Yeah and no one cares. You are not doing anything with the prompt.”

“Like what.”

“Like tell a story. You are just picking words out of the air.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so. Here goes. There was a guy who was the baddest, ablest, calmest, deadliest, evilest, and most contrary person in town.”

“Now you’re talking go on.”

“Well he walked into the bar and yelled,’who is the fastest gun in the place?”‘

“Then what?”

“Some other guy jumped up and said ‘I may not be the fastest but am the gnarliest.'”

“Now I see where you are going?”

“What?”

“You are saying “est” words in alphabetical order.”

“Story is good though isn’t it?”

“No comment.”

Friday – JohnKu AKA – TGIF

~ John W. Howell ~ 32 Comments
John Ku
‘I’ve got a great system. I just pick the same stocks Ed does.’

It’s Friday again and time to look back on the week. It has been a good one except for the stock market concerns over the lower price of oil. I can never figure that one out. A lower price of oil means lower cost of manufacturing and travel. A lower cost of manufacturing and travel means more income. More income means more discretionary spending. More discretionary spending means better profits. Better profits mean a healthy economy. OH, I GET IT NOW! The street is worried about rising interest rates. So yeah, let’s sell off all our stock because we are worried about a .25% increase in interest rates. Investing in the market should be called gambling on the market. Today’s JohnKu talks to a gamble and the market.

The Market by John W. Howell © 2016

Take your earned money,

Throw it hard against the wall. . .

Yours to keep has stuck.

 

Thursday – A little Personal – Kreative Kue #94 By Keith Channing

~ John W. Howell ~ 23 Comments

Another photo prompt from Keith Channing. Here is his explanation.

“Using this photo (below) as inspiration, write a short story, flash fiction, scene, poem; anything, really; and either put it (or a link to it) in a comment or email it to me at keithkreates@channing.fr before 6pm next Sunday (if you aren’t sure what the time is where I live, this link will tell you). If you post it on your own blog or site, a link to this page would be appreciated, but please do also mention it in a comment here – pingbacks don’t work.

Go on. You know you want to. Let your creativity and imagination soar. I shall display the entries, with links to your own blog or web site, next Monday.”

Here is the photo.

Kreative Kue #94

Help Him by John W. Howell © 2016

“Now what makes you think that person is reading your mind?”

“Look at her. She seems to know what I’m thinking.”

“Come on you haven’t even talked to her. How do you know?”

“I don’t want to tell you. You’ll laugh.”

“I might laugh anyway since you are being foolish. Let’s go talk to her.’

“No that’s the last thing she wants.”

“What are you talking about? You know this is not funny anymore.”

“I know. It is about that guy we passed on the road. Remember him?”

“You mean the one with the sign that said, ‘Help Me?”‘

“That’s the one.”

“What about him?”

“We should have stopped.”

“This has gone far enough. What do you mean,’we should have stopped”‘

“I think that guy is an angel.”

“Now you are scaring me. let’s go.”

“We can’t now.”

“Why not?”

“We need to wait for the guy.”

“Who says so.”

“She just told me.”

“Um. She is way over there.”

“She is talking to me now.”

“How? Her lips aren’t moving.”

“I don’t know. In my head.”

“What is she saying?”

“Help him.”

 

 

Wednesday Story Day – AKA Hump Day

~ John W. Howell ~ 33 Comments

 

Hump Day

It is Wednesday Story Day again which means we have to go back there and check on Mrs. Worthe and Ben (Please don’t make me.) Last week we left Ben in a position where he was offered a fifty-thousand dollar payoff if he would go with the Worthe’s to the Cayman Islands. Mrs. Worthe asked him to step in the house so she could get the money. The last line spoken last week was by Ben and he said, “After you Mrs. Worthe.”
“Why thank you, Ben. You are such a gentleman after all.”
“Truth be told I don’t want to turn my back on you .”
“Now there you go you, naughty boy. Being rude again.”
“Well, I calls em as I sees em.”
“Cute. Where did you get that one an old Gabby Hayes movie?”
“Who?”
“Never mind. Stay here I’ll get the money.”
“OMG look who’s here.”
“Hi, Alexis. How are you?”
“Just fine Ben. Mom told me you had gone away.”
“She could only hope.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Your mom has invited me to the Cayman’s?”
“No way.”
“Yes, way. She wants me to come with you guys and soak up a little sun before she eliminates me.”
“Don’t talk silliness. She’s not going to hurt you.”
“Well, I have to beg to differ. She is in the bedroom getting $50,000 for me. It’s an incentive to get me to go.”
“Fifty thousand? How about us. Isn’t that incentive enough.”
“You told me to get lost.”
“My mom told me you told her that you didn’t want to see me anymore.”
“As I said it was a lie.”
“Let’s not fight, Ben. After all, we have a whole month together. Who knows what can happen.”
“You give up your nun vows?”
“You bad boy. I wasn’t talking about that. I was talking about the beach, pool, and nightclubs.”
“Yeah, I could have guessed.”
“Who is that coming up the walk. Why it’s Father Lightfoot. What do you suppose brings him here.”
“Not sure. I have a feeling it’s going to be an expensive visit, though.”

Tuesday – Anything Possible with The Experimental Notebook of C.S.Boyack II and Lisa Burton #RRBC

~ John W. Howell ~ 63 Comments

Today I am so happy to welcome Lisa Burton once again to Fiction Favorites. For those of you who have been roleplaying vampires too long and haven’t been out much, Lisa is the robot assistant of Author C.S Boyack. Don’t let the term robot throw you. Lisa is every bit as human as I, as I, as I am. She is a terrific spokesperson and is used to help Craig with his promotional programs. Also noteworthy is the fact that Lisa is much better looking than Craig, so you have to respect his intellect on the choice. Without further blather, I present Lisa Barton who is here to discuss C.S.Boyack’s latest book.

Thanks for having me over again. The last time I was here I think I was interviewing you. You might find it interesting that you played a role in some of the goings on at Entertaining Stories.

My job today is to promote Craig’s new book, so we ought to deal with that first. It’s called The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack II. The book is Craig’s second collection of short stories and micro-fiction. The first one was pretty popular, so he decided to do it again.

Experimental Notebook
Click Cover for Amazon

The covers have a theme going, and Craig could carry this on for quite a while. There is one alchemy wheel on the first book, two appear on this cover, and there will be three on the next one – if he produces it.

These are all speculative fiction and there is some paranormal, some science fiction, and one that barely passes for fantasy. There are also two in the collection that aren’t speculative at all. Because of them, this collection has more stories than the first one. Craig considers them as free add-ons. They deal with murder, though, so somebody ought to like that.

Craig likes to revisit at least one character from his novels in these collections. I was proud to get a short story in the first book, but this time, it fell to someone else. Pete Rogers is a gangly teenager in Craig’s novel Will O’ the Wisp. In this story he’s all grown up, has a wife and new baby, and is trying to make his way in the world. The story has also moved from the 1970s to the 1980s, but there are less cultural references in a short story. Pete winds up having quite a rough night on the same ground where everything went down in Will O’ the Wisp.

The story is called Night Bump Radio, and you, John helped out with some of the radio lingo in the story. Craig said to tell you; you’re an honorary Research Siren. (“I’m touched,” says John. “Thank you, Craig”)

About this time, you came up with the idea of having me interview you for a blog post. I’d never heard of anything like this, and neither had Craig. A fictional character interviewing a real author, pretty unique. Of course, we wanted to participate.

When Night Bump Radio was written, we discussed it as being one of the posters to promote this book. We acquired the poster, but I stole it. This was the birth of Lisa Burton Radio, the show where I interview the fictional characters, including Ned Tranes and John Cannon.

Lisa Burton

It wouldn’t be like me to show up at a promotional stop and not bring a gift. My posters reflect, but not 100%, one of the stories in the collection. This one is from a story called Career Move. People are more than welcome to snitch it and use it as a background image on a PC, iPad, phone, or whatever.

The Experimental Notebook of C. S. Boyack is only 99¢. For that price, I think it’s well worth the risk. Thanks for inviting me today, and Craig’s looking forward to hosting you on your own promotional tour.

Thanks, Lisa. I was honored to be one of Craig’s beta readers for both of the notebooks, and I can say they are both books everyone is going to want to own. At $0.99 (A third of a Starbucks coffee) these have to be one of the best literary buys around. I hope Craig will give me a shot at a beta read for number three.

Please come back again.

Craig Boyack
C. S. Boyack
Craig and Lisa
Craig’s Bust and Lisa

C.S.Boyack is  at these places.

Follow his blog: http://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com

Check out his novels here: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00ILXBXUY

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Virgilante

On Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9841203.C_S_Boyack

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColdhandBoyack

***

Social media, etc

Ten Things Not to Do While Watching Competition Shows.

~ John W. Howell ~ 29 Comments

Do it

 

The inspiration for this list came to me while watching a few shows where people compete for money, a hosting berth on a food show, to see if they would like to sell or list their house, or just want a new place to live. I did not know what to call these shows, so I labeled them competition shows. Anyway, I think you get the idea.

10 If you are watching a competition show and it involves food, do not think you need to match bite for bite. If you do, at best you’ll be too full to sleep. At worst, your doctor will conduct an intervention and perhaps admit you to a sanitarium to lose weight. (Man that first 100 pounds came quick didn’t it?)

9 If you are watching a competition show and it involves racing from one place to the next do not think you need to rush to the store after. If you do, at best the kindly officer will let you off with a warning after he hears your story. At worst, your insurance company will not reinstate your policy in spite of your promise to get rid of the racing gloves. (You would have been okay had you not slid sideways into the 7/11.)

8 If you are watching a competition show and the players are all on an island with no food, do not plan your vacation while watching. If you do, at best your room choices will seem luxurious when in fact they should be condemned.  At worst, you’ll arrive at your destination and realize that primitive camp living might not have been the best option. (Especially since your family considers roughing it as no room service.)

7 If you are watching a competition show and the favorite day of the show is demolition day, do not tackle that small home improvement. If you do, at best you will spend three minutes on demolition and ten days on reconstruction. At worst, your demolition fever will go unchecked until you realize you have no more bedrooms. (That night sky is sure filled with stars isn’t it?)

6 If you are watching a competition show and the principles pay for rundown houses with cash, do not make an offer on a house. If you do, at best you will overlook some needed repairs. At worst, you will realize there is no one to help you with what has been described as a “tear down.” (It looked so easy on TV didn’t it Bunky?)

5 If you are watching a competition show and the homeowners are asked it, they love it or should they list it? Do not call an agent to list your house. If you do, at best you will have second thoughts about your beloved home. At worst, your house will sell in two days with the new owners wanting to move in a week and you have nowhere to go. (How come everything for sale is higher priced than what you got for your house? Huh?)

4 If you are watching a competition show and there are judges eliminating chefs, do not decide you can cook better than all of them. If you do, at best your offerings may not be enthusiastically received. At worst, you will have a food walk out at your house, and you’ll be the last chef standing. (Seems kind of lonely just you and that pot of stew.)

3 If you are watching a competition show and it involves food trucks, do not think that may be an easy way to make a buck. If you do, at best your first week will be a killer. At worst, after you spend all that money to buy the truck you realize you can’t sell the truck.(Kind of cramped to live in right?)

2 If you are watching a competition show that involves two guys giving the homeowner a complete makeover for $30,000, do not ask for bids on your remodel. If you do, at best you’ll never get a price low enough to proceed. At worst, you will find someone to do the job at your price and have to hire another contractor to redo the job at twice the price. (All looked good until the ceiling fell. Right?)

1 If you are watching a competition show that involves selecting a home from three choices of houses, do not think you will be that lucky. If you do, At best you will need to see more. At worst, you will look at three and pick one and discover a better house has com on the market and is cheaper. (So much for being in a rush huh, Rube?)