Category Archive: flash fiction

2017 Disperser Retrospective – Writing

Occasionally, I write fiction. On that basis, I call myself a “writer” . . . and then quickly qualify the statement by saying I like to write. 

And, write I do. A lot. 

But, in 2017, not much of it was fiction. I’ll get to what little I wrote, but first, let me give you a quick summary of the past few weeks . . . 

To be sure, Grammarly is not all that reliable because whenever you open a document you’re working on, it counts the words already written and previously checked as new words. But, since I’ve not written any fiction in the past few weeks and since I’ve not edited any previously written stuff, the only double-counting comes from a few re-edits of my Christmas/New Year letter and the multiple calendar posts I’ve been doing. I estimate the 48K words is high by about 8-15K words. Call it 18K and that still leaves 30,000 words written in two weeks.  

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How about that? A new Flash Fiction Story

Well, not in this post, but in the next; the password protected post. Yup; you read that right. Password Protected Post. I’m reserving the right to potentially submit this story.

Yes, it’s short, but there are venues that publish Flash Fiction.

As you can see, I’m still playing around with Deep Dream. If you go to THIS LINK, you can see my gallery and when you click on a photo, it also shows you the original and what it was blended with. BEWARE: you can only “like” photos if you create an account and then generate at least a couple of Dreams. Sorry; their rules, not mine. I’ll keep posting a few of the photos here and in future posts, but there’s a lot of them. 

You can click on the photos here and they will open in a new window, but the sizes vary. That’s because they limit the number of photos that can be done in a given period at a given size. If you’re interested in a photo, click on it and it might be one of the larger ones . . . or not. 

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Flash Challenge – Coming Home

terribleminds is the site of Chuck Wendig, a “novelist, screenwriter, and game designer.”

His current flash challenge (HERE):

“I want you to write the end of a long journey. . . It’ll require you to bring some skills to bear to make it work, to give us all the information we need, and to make it more than a snapshot in time or just a vignette.”

Readers are to pick one and go off to a dark corner and write a 1,500 words flash piece, apparently applying “skill,” whatever that means. 

I own that skill. As for writing something . . .  

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A little of this and a little of that

Have you ever had so much pent up inside that instead of producing a flood of content you end up being creatively constipated and produced next to nothing?

No? . . . it must just be me, then, and when it happens, I fall back on posting a few photos and talking about random stuff.

These are all photos from the P900, and most of them are shot at maximum zoom. If not right at 2000mm, then pretty close to it. For instance, the above is a shot from the third-floor balcony of a flower on the far side of the pool below us. 

All of these will be in a gallery at the end of the post and the originals are in THIS SmugMug Gallery. You can also click on the individual photos for a larger version. 

Anyway, earlier today I had yet another urge to write me some fiction but, I resisted. Well, actually, more like procrastinated by snacking and surfing for articles about . . . well, dang! . . . I don’t rightly remember right now, but I’m sure it was important at the time. Productive, too. And, of course, worthwhile. 

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Writing ideas

I’m tossing around a few ideas — story ideas — related to the eventual integration of robots into our society. When I say robot, most people think of intelligent robots, but I view the matters of intelligence as separate.

Robots, to me, are and will always be mechanical devices no different than washing machines or toasters. They might integrate some “smarts” in the form of sophisticated programs — it’s not easy consistently burning toast at a setting of “4” and utterly fail to toast at a setting of “3” — but machines are never going to be anything more than machines.

It’s a fine distinction but think of our bodies as machines controlled by computing centers with poorly thought-out and buggy software.

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Stuff and a bit of Tarot Flash

If I followed the advice of some people, I would have at least a few posts a day, drive amazing traffic to this blog, become rich and famous, and eventually, die beloved by all. Or, something like that. 

All I have to do is shorten my posts. Alas, that ain’t me, Bob. 

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The frequent complaint I get about this blog is that because of the amount of content I share in each post, and the number of photos I include, and the size of the photos I include, my blog is slow to load. I recently addressed that fact — and it is a fact —in response to a comment on another blog.

I am trying to slow the pace of today’s entertainment. “From breakneck, to glacial!” is my motto. People need to slow down and enjoy life.

I’ve given my suggestion before, by I’ll repeat what I consider the best way to enjoy my stuff:
1) bring up any of my posts.
2) go make a cup of tea (or coffee, as one prefers)
3) call parents or sibling as you sip tea
4) make a run to the drugstore (or equivalent) and buy eye-drops in case you forget to blink.
5) get a few snack ready along with another cup of tea.
6) sit and enjoy the brilliance that is me (allow a minimum of 15 minutes).

Alternatively, get a faster internet hookup.

Yes, I’m glib, and I understand in today’s world many things are clamoring for your attention. I also understand most people do not have the time and patience to sit in front of the computer for a whole minute while photos or other content loads. 

I understand it because I know most people have never experienced sitting in front of a computer connected through a modem and watched a picture of something appear on the CGA screen one line at a time over the span of ten minutes. 

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Writing update

Nothing new on the short stories and the novel submissions. Rejections from the larger outfits come at a glacial place. Right now, all four of the September 2015 stories are out for submission. I play the lotto, and I can tell you I think the odds are better  that I will win the jackpot than actually having one of my fiction masterpieces picked up for publication. But, I took an oath to submit, submit, submit, and so I do, I do, I do.

Yes, that is one of them taunt-the-Universe statements made in the vain hope said Universe will prove me wrong. Think of it like praying but rather than a creepy malevolent deity being called upon to intercede in the workings of the universe, it’s the Universe itself, and its henchman, Chance, that is challenged to prove it deserves a leading role in the play fueled by the delusions of people.

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By the way, no new photos here. Processed differently, yes, but all have appeared in previous posts.

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