August 2011
9 posts
End of Round One
The winner of the first ever round of The Great Cake* Experiment was:
Elaine Doyle (www.thedragontrack.com)
Congratulations to Elaine, and to all the incredibly talented writers that took part. We’ll be back here in November for Round Two!
Happy Endings
My mother loves films with sad endings. The double suicide, the abortion gone wrong, the terrible decision that leads to an inescapable, unhappy marriage or a life of quiet, unfulfilled desperation. She spurns the typical Hollywood movie with its tacked on, cheerful resolution and deliberately seeks out obscure, slow-paced Chinese and Russian dramas, where the only way you can tell the movie...
Happy Endings
There are long, long stretches of road here. Sometimes the only punctuation is the sign for a happy endings massage parlor or the crackling through of Christian talk radio. I’m not a Christian, but I like listening to Christian talk radio. Just the same: I’ve never had a happily ending, or any other kind of, massage, but I like looking at the signs.
I drive a great deal. I have...
Happy Endings
She was grateful for the shoes, but it wasn’t really her style. She hadn’t chosen them for herself, after all; her family had thrust them upon her, but it wasn’t a version of herself that she recognised. She thanked him for his attention, gently – but firmly – steered him towards the door, and went back inside. She would make her own life, out of the cinders of the old. No shoes – however...
1 tag
Happy Endings.
His face reddened with barely contained fury, Klaus stormed in to the cottage, leaving the front door open, and looked around for something to throw. His eye lighted on a smallish vase which he scooped up and, in one motion, flung to the floor where it shattered in to pieces. Ben looked up, an eyebrow arching over the top of his spectacles. Klaus met his gaze and held his hands out, his body...
The Great Cake* Experiment, Week 12: Happy Endings
I went to a work colleague’s wedding last weekend. It was a huge, lovely affair, with well over 200 guests. When I arrived for the post-dinner party, almost half the invited guests were on the dancefloor giving it their all to the backdrop of funky Afro-beats. I was quick to join them.
Near the end of the evening, came the inevitable throwing of the bouquet. The bride wrenched the...
A Happy Ending
Krung adjusted the breathing apparatus, knowing full well that no matter how much he fiddled it would never fit properly. Well, properly enough that he could still breathe but not enough for it to feel a part of him rather than a hindrance. But it wasn’t a surprise that it didn’t and couldn’t fit. After all, this was his father’s space ship, the XR-949. A ship designed specifically for his...
Tall Green Grass of Home
There’s a whole mess o’ trouble at the Choctaw Hill / Your sister didn’t make it but I bet you will The world is a blanket of green, stretching to the horizon. Vicky pegs it down the gentle slope, towards the backyard of her family home: wide, broad, and on the other side of the tributary. Behind her, a rumbling crackle breaks the quiet of the plains. She can see Nicola,...
Week 11: While the music lasts
July 2011
41 posts
While the Music Lasts
There is a man without memory, and a woman who loves him. Somewhere, a line got broken. In his mind, the pause before the drop: everything is suspended. He cannot remember his name. He cannot remember five minutes ago, or five hours, or five days. But he remembers that he loves her. When the storm arrived, everything was thrown overboard. The lines tense and strain, and the boards shout in...
While the music lasts...
Like pretty much most people I know, my existence to date has been accompanied by a vast and varied soundtrack. For each memory, a musical cue, for every tear, a tune. For every heartbursting moment of happiness, a matching chariots-of-fire-esque musical crescendo. Every song, every guitar riff or piano intro capable of transporting me back instantly to a defining – or utterly mundane – moment...