Expansion Joints, part 37: "Present"

On Delivering Christmas Cards and Stockings

There's no time like the
present day for having a
run in a red suit.

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This is my response to part 37 of the Expansion Joints Challenge, Poetry Potluck's Christmas Special, and The Purple Treehouse's Haiku challenge. I hope you enjoy the puns, and the deliberate ambiguity of leaving out any commas in the title, as well as the haiku itself. The syllable count is right, at least, even if the form isn't quite up to classical standards. The inspiration is drawn in part from the wonderful Porky's Expanse! post on dissociative Santa analogues in alternate universes. The sentiments in the poem are all something they could agree on, I'd wager.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 37: Present

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. I endeavor to maintain the tradition. I'm not going to try to fill in for the whole time that I've been away in one post, so I'll just lay out immediate events, such as the recent winter solstice, the first since the 1600's to have a lunar eclipse and a meteor shower, and Christmas and other holiday celebrations. After far too long an absence, I am finally here, now, (or, alternatively now, and/or now, or even now), regretting that I can give you all only that most humble of gifts, my words, which are unlikely to win any literary awards. With that perspective in mind, the word of the week is "present".

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, die, fall, vent, skip, back, stand, plague beat, and pin, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

E-Book Extravaganza!

I know it is a bit late in the holiday season to be putting out a list of book suggestions, but if you happened to come across this blog, chances are good that, if you haven't gotten at least one bookseller gift card from friends and family already this year, you soon will, and I wanted to take this opportunity to review a few pieces (some by request, some because I just like them), and highlight a few things I think are really worth reading (and even spending money on!) that might otherwise have slipped under the radar. And, in case the good folks at the FTC are wondering, no one paid me to write these reviews, and I didn't promise to only say nice things in them...which is good, because that's not what I did. If any of these sound too much like publishers' blurbs, I blame my sordid past as an advertising copy writer, and my enthusiasm for the works. If you don't own a dedicated e-reader, don't forget that Amazon has free Kindle e-reader apps for Web browsing,PC, Mac, iPad, Android, and other smart phones. If you can read this blog, you can read an e-book.

Here's the quick list, so that I can get this out to you before the new year:

Fantasy / Sword and Sorcery:

Dragon Fate, by J.D. Hallowell

This is pure classic fantasy and adventure by a masterful storyteller, complete with dragons, magic, and swordplay. With smooth, effortless prose, this is definitely a step up from the usual fare, and the fact that it tells an engaging tale while barely rising to a mild PG rating makes it a great choice for fantasy fans of all ages from 'tweens to adults. A complete story in itself, it is also the first book of a series. For those who are wary of starting an intriguing but incomplete series for fear of getting trapped in a Robert Jordan-esque fiasco, you can breathe easy here: the second (and final) book in the series is already in the publisher's hands, and should be released early in 2012. I consider this the Godiva chocolate of mind candy, a perfect book to curl up with on a lazy afternoon...or two, or three, unless you are a speed-reader, because this is not a short book. That said, even at 140,000+ words, it was over too soon.

History / Politics:

Rule And Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party, by Geoffrey Kabaservice

If you are at all interested in modern American history and politics, or if you simply wonder how we wound up with the Republican Party we have today, this is a must-read. It begins with a clear analysis that places the Republican Party as it existed in mid-century in historical perspective, and goes on to reveal how, far from being the consequence of a spontaneous rightward shift in American values, the face of the modern Republican Party is the result of a systematic war that it is has waged on its own moderate wing over the past five decades, with devastating consequences...and it's by Geoff Kabaservice, so I know that you'll enjoy every insightful, witty, and erudite word.


Poetry /Short stories:

The New Death and others is a somewhat dark and eclectic collection of poetry and short stories. Some of the pieces are real gems. (Under the Pyramids is reminiscent of the sort of thing I imagine would have resulted if Rudyard Kipling had been an H.P. Lovecraft fan, for example.) Others fall a little flat, and a few are just silly or forced. The collection is a little heavy on puns, and on cats, neither of which fazes me in the slightest, but might put some readers off. Of course, if you are reading this here, you use the internet, so cats and puns are probably things you are used to by now, although you may be reluctant to pay for them, since they are so abundant for free in the local environment. The work as a whole could have benefited from a more critical editor, one who might have organized it differently and questioned whether every piece really needed to be included, as well as helping the author refine some pieces further. But honestly, the whole collection is only a dollar, and there is definitely at least a dollar's worth of entertainment value here, even if you have to hunt for it.

The Phoenix and the Dragon:Poems of the Alchemical Transformation, by Adam Byrn Tritt

We begin and end the list with dragons, today. While my usual preference is for formal poetry, the kind with strong meter and rhyme, I make an exception for Adam Tritt's unrhymed, more free-form work. Gabriel Erector, Pits, Recognizing Kali in a Young Girl, and the title poem, the Phoenix and the Dragon, have all been perennial favorites of mine since I received my copy of the first printed edition some years back. The recent release of the e-book (and the impending release of the illustrated "Bud the Spud", Tritt's twisted children's story), brought them back to my attention. While at least a broad general knowledge of world religions, philosophy, and history is useful to get the most out of these poems, they would certainly still be accessible and enjoyable without that perspective. Adam Tritt excels at taking the ordinary and revealing the extraordinary within it. You can get a deeper feel for his work at his blog.


I wish all of you the happiest of holidays! Enjoy!

Flash Fearsholiday: Hanukkah Horrors

This is my response to this weeks' (soon-to-be-released?) Flash Fearsday, a 140 character (or 140 word) microfiction horror challenge. I went with a Hanukkah theme in honor of the upcoming holiday...

**************************************************************************************

"We can hold out if we keep the fire going. They avoid it."
"Fuel?"
"One day, max."
"When do the others get back?"
"8 days."
"G-d help us."

Sorry for the silence...

The "word of the week" posts for the Expansion Joints Challenge are three weeks behind at this point, not by choice. I have been working on them in my sparse free moments, and will hopefully get the full posts up, complete with links, sometime in the near future. If anyone wants to get a head start, (or, at least catch up on this project ahead of me), the words are (Were? Will be?) plague, beat, and pin. All of which should give you a good idea of how the past month has gone...

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 33: "Stand"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week, locals took to the trees for the opening of black-powder and bow season for wild turkeys and bucks. On the topic of bucks, protesters outraged over the financial crisis and the wholesale transfer of wealth to the super-rich from the rest of society remained firm in their convictions and refused to leave financial districts and public squares around the world despite tear gas, clashes with police, arrests and conditions that were increasingly difficult to tolerate, while the position taken by St. Paul's cathedral regarding the Occupy London protests drew widespread criticism from those inside and outside the church hierarchy, and led to several resignations of high church officials. Here in the U.S., Attorney General Eric Holder agreed to testify before Congress about the disastrous Federal gun sting "Operation Fast and Furious". And for those RPGers who are interested in what level of craftsmanship is really possible using only human-powered tools, I ran across a remarkable video shot at a Moroccan street vendor's stall demonstrating the use of a bow lathe and hand (foot?) chisel to make chess pieces. The common element for them all is, of course, stand, and that is the word of the week.


If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, die, fall, vent, skip, and back in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints, part 31: "Skip" / Flash Fearsday

Rhythm regulating universal order,
primal heartbeats'
standing vibrations creating organization,
manifesting beauty.
Skip? Fatal arrhythmia.

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This is my entry for part 31 of the Expansion Joints Challenge and for this week's Flash Fearsday 140-character horror challenge.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 32: "Back"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week, I discovered The New Yorker's list of unlikely Occupy Wall Street supporters, a review of the state of current research on stem cell therapy for spinal cord injury that suggests that human trials should go forward, and genetics research aimed at reversing the ongoing collapse of the bee population. And, perhaps of more immediate relevance, I'm returning to post here, so the word of the week is back.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, die, fall, vent, skip, and in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 31: "Skip"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. I spent this weekend getting partially caught up on paying work by passing on other semi-essential activities, including writing on the blog - again. Here it is Wednesday already, and I have nothing up yet for the Expansion Joints Challenge, and I haven't glanced at the blogs or even the news in days. No real options at this point but resigning myself to missing a week, or improvising and using this as the relevant happening. Sounds like "skip" may be the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, die, fall, and vent, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Flash Fearsday / Expansion Joints, part 30: Plaguing Your Conscience?

Carried forward through pressure,
inexorably compelled,
reaching critical threshold, dispersing...
Vent?!
Spreads emotional contagions, too.


**************************************************************************************


This is my response to part 30 of the Expansion Joints Challenge and to the October 6th 140-character Flash Fearsday horror challenge over at Lunching on Lamias.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 30: "Vent"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. Here in the US, protesters in New York and in cities around the country continued to give voice to their social and economic grievances, with many complaining that mainstream media coverage of the protests has been perfunctory, dismissive or absent, in contrast to coverage afforded other, less significant news. Indisputably earthshaking news increased around the world this week, with a number of volcanic sites blowing off a great deal more than more than steam. Closer to home, I have now tried several times, unsuccessfully, to publish this week's Expansion Joints, with no luck, and no Blogger explanation for the errors, and it annoys me enough that I am including it here. I appreciate your patience in listening to me rant. Hopefully, Blogger will allow me to publish to the blog shortly. And, perhaps best of all for me, it looks like I'm finally going to get the air conditioning fixed at the house. The word that draws them together? Vent.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, die, and fall, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints, part 29b / Flash Fearsday

Spiraling despair paralyzing initiative.
Motivation?
Illusory abstraction without propulsive momentum.
Depression forming!
Don't fall in...


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This is a combined response to part 29 of the Expansion Joints Challenge and to the Flash Fearsday horror challenge at Lunching on Lamias.

Expansion Joints, part 29:"Fall"

Fallout?!
Fall in!
Fall back!
Don't fall apart, fall behind, or
fall into their hands...


**************************************************************************************

This is my response to part 29 of the Expansion Joints Challenge.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 29: "Fall"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. It has been a hectic few days at home for me (hence being delayed in getting this up), with several incidents in which family members took tumbles and actually sustained some minor injuries, but an unexpectedly less busy time at work, where my appointment numbers dropped off significantly for no readily apparent reason. The equinox arrived Friday, a planetary event on a scale to put such things back into perspective, ending the southern hemisphere's winter and moving the northern hemisphere, where I reside, into autumn. Its arrival was heralded by declining temperatures, with highs that this week have been reliably below 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time since May. And then there's this. It should come as no surprise, then, that the word of the week is "fall".

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, file, and die, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Die

This is my response to part 28 of the Expansion Joints Challenge.

**************************************************************************************
Die?
Cast, the aleatoric scythe sculpts boundaries,
throws existence, non-existence into perfect relief.
Roll again?

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 28: "Die"

Many apologies for the long silence.

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. The past week and a half, for me, has been filled with the rituals and emotions at the end of life, the celebration and mourning of a dear friend who passed away September 8th. I've been delaying writing here, caught up in memorials, and house blessings, and the scattering of ashes, waiting for the time and the words to come, waiting for the moment and the inspiration that would let me communicate something about the essence of the week without getting overwhelmed by emotion. I wanted to be able to share something of the spirit and the life of a woman whose personality was such that her memorial reception would not have been complete without the Star Wars-themed plastic tablecloths and plates, or the Stargate montage that featured prominently in the service itself, whose friends posted Facebook statuses like "Spent the evening disposing of human remains in the river under cover of darkness..." after scattering her ashes. But words fail me. Yet, this is the second Sunday that the blog has sat quiet, and that can't continue. Hard as it is to say anything right now, it is harder still to write here and say nothing. So you get the short and badly-polished version, and I hope to do better in the future. I'm going to be trite now, and remind everyone to love life, and drink deep from it, get every last drop. You may not be able to do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about the depth and the breadth of it. That said, I do want to share a few other things that have come my way this week by chance, and the coincidences confirmed my choice of word. The first is this intriguing project on positive and negative space and the second is this amazing WebComic from TwentySided, which you have probably all read before, but which I had somehow managed to miss until a friend sent me the link this week. The connection between them all is, of course, "die", and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, blow, and file, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints, part 27: File

"Government advisors here are AIs?"
"Of course. How could we function without the File Cabinet?"


**************************************************************************************

This is my contribution to part 27 of the Expansion Joints Challenge.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 27: "File"

Many apologies for the delay in getting this up.

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week, the US Government brought lawsuits against several major banks for knowingly selling it bad loans bundled as securities. And, in an interesting twist on the usual "social conservative" bent of the Republican party here, a rogue Republican Florida state representative introduced a bill repealing the state's laws criminalizing 'open adultery' and 'lewd and lascivious cohabitation' of unmarried opposite-sex couples (something most of the rest of the country decriminalized years ago.) On a more personal level, I have been swamped under a mountain of work relating to maintaining patient records and submitting insurance claims. All the work stress is a bit ironic considering that here in the US this is Labor Day weekend, a national holiday started by trade unions in honor of their ordinary members. It seems that the single organizing concept binding them together is "file", and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, field, and blow, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Hyperbolic Bowling Pens, part 1: Mirthy be!

This is my entry for The Armchair General's microfiction challenge, The Hyperbole Bowl.

The requirements for this week's challenge (the rules shift every week) are to use two nouns, two adjectives, and a verb to form a sentence that "ends up with an exaggerated clause." Here goes:

*************************************************************************************

The manic Santa convulsed in uncontrollable laughter.

*************************************************************************************

I don't know that I could create a more exaggerated Claus than that in one sentence.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 26; "Blow"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. Here on the East Coast of the U.S., Hurricane Irene dominated the news this week, breaking out of the usual storm pattern to strike the heavily-populated Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states with high winds, storm surges, and torrential floodwaters causing significant physical damage to powerlines, trees, roads, and buildings, all at what ordinarily would have been the peak of the tourist season, which will undoubtedly result in a heavy economic hit to the region, as well. In the midst of awareness of such devastation, it is easy to shut down or hyperfocus, and miss that ordinary life is still happening all around us. For example, police outside of the disaster areas are still doing their routine jobs, making routine speeding stops, but sometimes, in the midst of the ordinary routine, they find things they didn't expect to. And finally, still going with the idea of exploding our everyday experience of ordinary things, lest you think that this week's post is going to be too heavy, I leave you with images of effervescent light and beauty from an unexpected source. The single word of inspiration common to them all? "Blow" - and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, balance, and field, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Flash Fearsday: Eye of the Storm

The voice of the storm howls out a warning.
Its arms sweep out a path of destruction.
But the eye, the eye is calm and silent.
Watching...

***************************************************************************************
This is my response to the August 25th, 2011 Flash Fearsday challenge over at Lunching on Lamias.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 25: "Field"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week saw the release of the first ever footage of a Coronal Mass Ejection traveling from the Sun all the way to the Earth, and the images give us a great deal of new information about, among other things, the solar magnetic influences active during these "solar storms", the details of which have been largely hidden from us until now, although many in the far north or far south have been privileged enough to witness the spectacular auroras that result from the terrestrial atmospheric interactions with such events. In a decidedly less cosmic arena, the US Democratic party faithful quaked in fear at the week's news, when it became clear that not every Republican candidate for the 2012 presidential race is a religious fanatic with an IQ below room temperature. The more rational elements in the Republican party quaked in fear when they saw his polling numbers in relation to the rest of the candidates. Here in the blogosphere, we had this lovely image lending us inspiration for poetry and stories, and Porky's latest post on agriculture spaces in gaming, all of which led inexorably to the word of the week: field.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

C'nor, at Lunching on Lamias, gives consent to use any of his entries, which are partly located on his blog, but mostly strewn throughout the comment threads here.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, shock, and balance, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Flash Fearsdismayed

"Are you certain it's vanished completely?"
"Vanished? It's like it was never there at all. No trace."
"What will we do with Thursdays now?"

************************************************************************************


This is my response to the gaping hole in the fabric of space-time that appears to have swallowed this week's Flash Fearsday challenge over at Lunching on Lamias. The horror of it all!

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 24; "Balance"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This weeks lead-in is going to be short, if not particularly sweet, as the juggling act inherent in life is proving difficult right at the moment. Still, writing here and reading the responses is one of the parts of my life that counts in the "fun" column, and I am loathe to let it slide in favor of more "responsible" pursuits. The word for the week is "balance", something I strive for always but, much like some other people in the news, don't always attain.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, close, and shock, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints, part 23: "Shock"

This is my response to part 23 of the Expansion Joints Challenge.

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"The atmosphere was highly charged, Commander."
"Political unrest?"
"No, electrons. Gave 'Shock Troops' new meaning."

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 23: "Shock"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week has been a series of what might be best described as adrenaline rushes, although none of them were what I would describe as exciting, exactly. Standard and Poors' unprecedented downgrading of the US government's credit rating as a result of the unexpectedly reckless brinkmanship in Washington D.C. sent reverberations through world financial markets, and caused wild stock fluctuations, as well as some extraordinarily explosive rhetoric directed at the US Congress from within the population. (One of the businesses near my home has a scrolling marquee that now reads "US Congress - Hang 'Em High".) London and its suburbs erupted in days of riots that began over a police killing, as the world watched aghast. And closer at hand, I found out the hard way at the dentist's office that I really *am* allergic to some local anesthetics...it apparently takes longer to spell "anaphylaxis" than it does to start having it in response to an injection. Against that background, can there be any doubt that the most appropriate word for the week is "shock"?

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, opening, and close, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 22: "Close"

After promising that I would try never to be late again, I am even later this week. Perhaps if I told you all (falsely, mind you) that I couldn't care less about being late, and that I'll post these things when the mood strikes, I'll be on time next week...although, for reasons that will soon become clear, I doubt it.

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week has been one that has had the US and the rest of the world teetering on the edge of drastic financial uncertainty. As I write this, it appears that, at the 59th minute of the 11th hour, this Congress may have finally decided that we need to pay our bills, after all, although they still don't appear to grasp that actual revenue may be required to continue to do this. So the side show at the monkey house appears to be over, for the moment. Nearer to home, the sets are struck and the run of the play is ended, leaving all of us with mixed emotions, as the teamwork and camaraderie among the cast and crew were very enjoyable, although the hours and work involved in the production were grueling. It felt like saying goodbye to family to dismantle the sets, put away the costumes and props, and leave the theater and the rest of the troupe behind for the last time until next spring. I promised you at the beginning that you would soon understand why next week's Expansion Joints might well be delayed, and so I move on to the last bit of news to incorporate into the theme: a tropical storm, which is now forecast to be a hurricane by the time it reaches my neck of the woods this weekend, appears to be bearing down on us, and while the forecast track contains quite a bit of uncertainty, these sorts of things can shut down power and internet access even if they are technically near-misses. With all of that to consider, the word this week is a little different. Usually, the words I choose can be used as more than one part of speech, or have at least two different meanings, to give you all a bit of flexibility and/or to torture you with the need to make a decision. Well, this week it is even worse. The word of the week is "close", and I leave it to you to decide which of the words that share that spelling I mean. Both of them fit.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, cut, and opening, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Myth-marked Merchandising Challenge: Harry Potter

How could this Myth-Marked Merchandising be about anything but the Harry Potter books and movies? Your task: to write a piece of poetry or short fiction (500 words or less) that is NOT about witches, wizards, or magic, using at least 13 of these words:
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spell
wand
charm
potion
broom
cauldron
potter
granger
Minerva
snape (triple bonus points if you can work this one in)
magical
wizardry
philosopher's (or philosophers)
sorcerer's (or sorcerers)
stone
goblet
fire
chamber
secrets
prisoner
order
phoenix
half-blood
prince
deathly
hallows
*************************************************************************************
The point?

To create something marvelous and unexpected that people can stumble across when they are looking for something else entirely.

Or, perhaps, to drive traffic to our blogs by taking advantage of the masses.

You get to choose...

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 21: "Opening"

First, let me apologize for the delay in getting this up. I humbly beg your forgiveness, and will endeavor not to let it happen again.

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week has been intense and emotional. The brutal and senseless attacks in Norway and the death of Amy Winehouse both provided occasion to reflect on questions of the value and meaning of life and death and of the role of large-scale and small-scale media in driving behavior both at the societal level and on the personal one. The brinkmanship playing out in the US Government continued this week, and appears to be creating conditions that will allow for the passage of a debt limit package that will almost certainly prove to be a Faustian bargain that would never have been approved under other circumstances. On happier notes, the marvelous illustrations for a friend's third book (which will no doubt appear here when it is finally released) were featured in a fairly large art exhibition that started Sunday, and the production of Much Ado About Nothing that my son is performing in (and that I have been lassoed into assistant stage-managing for) began its run. The thing that links them all together is the concept of opening, and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, break, and cut, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 20: "Cut"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This week brought the release of the final Harry Potter movie, the last chapter in the greatly-streamlined screen adaptation of the books a generation has grown up on. This provided a welcome distraction from politics for those of us here in the US, where the Federal government appeared to be having a hard time deciding whether it wanted to slash taxes, social programs, investor confidence, or it's ties to reality more deeply. Closer to home, I finally made the difficult decision to close one of my offices, eliminating a truly dreadful 400 mile round-trip commute that I have been making almost weekly for the past seven years, but removing with it the chance to see a number of friends in the flesh on a fairly regular basis. The decision was made partly to have more time to spend doing hands-on homeschooling and creative projects with my son, who recently made qualifying scores for a national talent search program. The one word that gets to the core of all of these is "cut", and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, free, and break, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Flash Fearsday - Inescapable Logic / Expansion Joints, part 19 "Break"

This post is a two-for-one: this week's response to the Expansion Joints Challenge, and also to the Flash Fearsday 140 character microfiction horror challenge over at Lunching on Lamias.

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Break down?
Functional indications...
Break in?
Surveillance revealing... nothing?
Nothing!
Absolutely vacant...
Break out?
Inescapable...

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 19: "Break"

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. I do my best to continue the practice. As someone who grew up on the Space Coast of Florida, I have more than a little fondness for the US space program, and this week brought two rather sad pieces of news relating to it: the last launch ever of a US space shuttle, marking the start of what the government assures us is only a brief hiatus in the US manned spaceflight program, although they can't tell us exactly what comes after, and a preliminary congressional vote to kill funding mid-development for, among other NASA programs, the James Webb Space Telescope, planned successor to the Hubble. In related news, it turns out that the shuttle Atlantis and the ISS may have to take evasive action this week to avoid being hit by pieces of a defunct satellite. On a more personal level, this week brought some welcome recreation, if little actual rest, with an unexpected string of cancellations at work Friday mid-day yielding an extended lunch, and two very pleasant late evenings (and an equally pleasant day) spent with family and friends watching Harry Potter movies in anticipation of the release of the final film this coming week. I was with my son over at our complex's far swimming pool (our usual one was non-functional today due to problems with the filtration and chlorination system), relaxing between his play rehearsal and dinner and gearing up to write today's post, when I got a call that my friend with brain cancer had developed severe psychological symptoms bordering on psychosis and was at the Emergency Room. So, instead of blogging, I went to the hospital to see what use I could be, which turned out to be not much. The best I could do was assure her husband that going home and getting some rest while he knew that she was safe in the hospital was the absolutely most productive course of action that he could take. The only common theme running through all of these events that I could find was "break', and that is the word of the week.

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, line, and free, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.

Expansion Joints, part 18: "Free"

These are my responses to the July 3rd, 2011 Expansion Joints Challenge.


*************************************************************************************

Free? Of course you're free. Do anything you'd like...but there are always the consequences.


The captain swore silently.
A breach was no time to have to free hatch bolts.


"Free time" generally wasn't - you paid for it later, when you'd left too much undone.

Expansion Joints Challenge, part 18: Free

When this exercise was hosted over at Porky's Expanse!, he always chose the word for the Expanders! challenge based on some relevant happening or theme. This coming week sees Independence Day, July 4th, in the US. The week before this one saw the passing of Martin H. Greenberg, a prolific anthologist with a special interest in the theme of liberty in science fiction. This week saw a controversial US Supreme Court decision concerning freedom of speech, in which the court took the remarkable position that public financing of elections unduly restricted the "free speech rights" of the wealthy to buy them. In addition, this week marks the halfway point between the 45th anniversaries of what are, from my perspective, by far the two most important events of 1966 - the publication of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, origin of the expression TANSTAAFL (There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch), and my birth, the anniversary of which always garners me lots of free stuff, in direct contradiction to the preceding precept. As it happens, July 4th this year also marks exactly 65 years before the official declaration of Lunar Independence described in Heinlein's classic. With all this coming relatively hot on the heels of Free RPG Day, could the word of the week be anything other than "free"?

If you aren't familiar with the Expansion Joints project, it all began over at Porky's Expanse!.

The rules are just as they are described over at Porky's: as much narrative as you can cram into fifteen words, one of which must be the word of the week.

This can take the form of

1. An epyllion,or litle epic, a stand-alone fifteen-word narrative, or

2. An epos, or 'epic'. Instead of an independent 15-word story, you can choose to develop someone else's story from a previous week, or extend your own story from week to week. Just write the next installment. If it has 15 words, uses the word of the week, and continues the story, you've done it.

There are two important things to think about if you choose epos. First, you should have the permission of the person who wrote the story you will develop. If anyone writes a 15-word epyllion or adds to an epos and is happy for others to develop it later, please say so, with something like 'for use in an epos'. Second, by using specific elements of someone else's story, we technically create a derivative work, so it's best to avoid this.

There are a number of generous contributors who have given express permission to use some of their writing as the basis for epos:

Porky, the founder of the project, offers up all of his contributions.

GDMNW has opened up the three stories here.

Dave G_Nplusplus makes any of his Expanders! stories available for use in an epos.

Arlequin has an epos running on his Expanders! page, and he has graciously extended permission to play with any or all of the contributions there.

Andy, over at The Creepy Corridor, has also made his epos posts available for expansion.

And, as always, feel free to use any of the stories on this blog that are tagged as "Expansion Joints" in an epos.

Words that have previously made an appearance in an Expanders!/Expansion Joints include: food, fort, stuff, elf, rogue, pass, fool, hammer, note, temper, table, twisted, missing, sacrifice, spirit, rush, tie, and line, in case you are of an historical bent, or wish to write a complete set.

When you've finished writing your entry for this week, either post your 15-word story directly in the comments here, or leave a link in the comments to the blog page where we can find it.