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...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
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.
************************************************************************************
Break down?
Functional indications...
Break in?
Surveillance revealing... nothing?
Nothing!
Absolutely vacant...
Break out?
Inescapable...
************************************************************************************
Break down?
Functional indications...
Break in?
Surveillance revealing... nothing?
Nothing!
Absolutely vacant...
Break out?
Inescapable...
Sunday, July 10, 2011
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.
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.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
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.
*************************************************************************************
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.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
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.
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.
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