WQ145 + "Groundhog day"

I finally had a go at Iron Writer Weekend Quickie 145!
I love the movie "Groundhog Day", the whole concept, the 10,000 years of suffering and change to become selfless is amazing and Bill Murray is fantastic...in fact, I can't think of one single movie where he wasn't. Andie MacDowell on the other hand, I can see why she later went on to do adverts.
Children are slowly taking over...have you seen it? Of course, those in power are in control, but one day these spoilt children will rule the world...help us all...

Here is my WQ145 on the website...
http://theironwriter.com/the-iron-writer-challenge-weekend-quickie-145-2/

But here it is... here...:-)

145 – image of a polluted, dried up/clear, green grass city, artifacts of antiquity, something from the film “Groundhog Day”

A taste of the future

The radio blared out "I Got you Babe" as his alarm clock hit 6 am.

"What the hell? Am I in 'Groundhog Day'?" moaned Steve, wiping the sleep from his eyes. "Well at least that makes me Bill Murray. I wonder who my Andie MacDowell is? I hope she doesn't have curly hair."

He got out of bed and shuffled over to the closed curtains. With a defiant, swift movement, he opened them to his fantastic 14th floor view of the city, smog hanging over the buildings, dirt covering the streets, homeless begging for water.

"One day, I'll open these to find a city of life, the sun beaming down, the people laughing and smiling, and grass growing in every nook and cranny," he said, scratching his groin. "Then again, maybe not."

Moving into the kitchen-cum-dining room-cum-living room, he greeted his parents, two ancient artifacts of antiquity crunching through their morning muesli.

"Morning, son, are you gonna get that sorry arse of yours to do something today?" imitated Steve.

"You're a...!" said his father.

"Now, now, dad, you know you're not allowed to oppress me," smiled Steve. His mother whimpered as he stole her breakfast. "One call and that's it."

 

New Iron Writer Story Up! Votes! C137

Yes, I have a story up again in the Iron Writer Challenge 137.
The rules: 500 words, 4 elements, and 4 writers.
Unfortunately...
1. I can't tell you which story is mine as they're all anonymous;
2. Your vote only counts if there is a tie (equal votes) in the Iron Writer's own little official writer-to-writer voting system over in Wiggio.com. Changes. Another attempt at quality control. ...I'm losing that, by the way...
My story? It has no spelling mistakes and it keeps EXACTLY to the rules (see above). Plus it's the best...what? Modesty? Well, someone has to believe in my writing skills, if not myself then at least my fingers typing right now...
Please go over, read and vote!
http://theironwriter.com/the-iron-writer-challenge-137/

Decadent lives!

I read an Upworthy post "13 devastating photos to show your friend who doesn't believe in climate change"
(http://www.upworthy.com/13-devastating-photos-to-show-your-friend-who-doesnt-believe-in-climate-change)

 I believe that we are destroying our planet with our decadent way of life and sure, that’s fine, I’m all for images that help convince people that we should all do something about it…BUT…can those that need convincing of this fact connect to ANY image? No, they can't, the leap is too vast, leaving us ignorant of the significance.

And in conclusion, the writer states that the World leaders are being pressurised by YOU to create more eco-friendly policies. No. World leaders don’t care about climate change. They care about power and money. If there’s none of that in fixing our planet, it’s not going to happen. Full stop.

But these images? Did they convince you to stand up and do something or were your reactions closer to the words of a barbarian?

We can’t connect to these images, or any. They don’t hit us, they don’t touch our prosperous lives of running water, 24/7 electricity and wall to wall cable TV. We don’t understand that every time we have another coffee or play another round of Fallout or drive down the road that we are destroying our planet a little at a time. We cannot change our habits because the people around us do not change theirs and if we change, we will be seen as insane.

When climate change hits us on a personal level, as with anything, we will change. But unfortunately, it will be too late. You were a member of the richest part of our race, living and working in the most privileged part of our world, a world we are helped to destroy.

So what can we do? Accept our lives should be different. Change. A little every day. Maybe we’ll get lucky…

Christmas Lites V - come and get it!

This little beaut just shot my Amazon Author rank up from to 154,387 from a shitty 478,841 (the lowest since August).
Christmas Lites V!
A collection of Christmas short stories from dozens of writers...mine's a sci-fi.
All put together by a great person, Amy Eye, and every cent you pay for this book goes straight to NCADV (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)...in the USA.

Please, go and get it and read and REVIEW...the more reviews, the more 'alive' the book becomes.....(talking of reviews, any chance of a few on my other books I'm in?)

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Lites-V-Amy-Eye-ebook/dp/B018O3SEP2

WQ144 + update

The Firefly Magazine Issue 1 is out, and we're now working on Issue 2...Thanksgiving an' all...
Nothing much happening in the books, reviews and sales area...NONE, absolutely none...who is out there? Who are you? How do I get more of you to read my stuff? How do I get YOU to read stuff? I know you have....have you reviewed? Are you waiting for the one about the squirrel? ...I am...

I'm in the Iron Writer Challenge 137, in a week, it's a good story. I'll send a link... :-) Later...

...but now here's Weekend Quickie 144...
http://theironwriter.com/the-iron-writer-challenge-weekend-quickie-144

WQ144 – Elements: Black Friday, teamwork, describe something happening in slow motion

After a recon of the store before Black Friday weekend, we were ready when the doors opened on that fateful day. We all had our targets: my husband the sound system, my sister the TV and myself the Xbox. We left little Suzie with the babysitter and camped out at the main entrance. When the doors opened the teamwork began, the three of us dispersing through the store and crowd. Pushing past parents desperately searching for toys their children wanted, I ran for the aisle I knew my prize could be found. Turning the corner, I saw the shelves empty, shelves once full of Xbox Ones. My heart stopped and in complete despondency, I fainted in slow motion to the floor, my eyes passing each empty shelf as my face hit the cold, laminated floor. When I came to, I saw, kicked behind the bottom shelf, one beautiful Xbox...
...on Christmas day, Suzie stared at her presents and burst out crying.
"What's the matter, darling?" We had the TV screen that covered the living room wall, the 100W Surround Sound audio system and the sacred Xbox One with 10 fantastic games. What had we missed?
"I wanted a white one!"

4 Murdered Shakespearean Plays!

So far in the last four years, I've re-written (murdered) 4 Shakespearean plays for the groups I teach in school so that they can perform them on the bard's birthday (which just happens to be the same official birthday of Éva Janikovszky, of whom the school is named after).
The first was Midsummer Night's Dream and although there are very few 'original' lines, it was long and kept to the 'style'. The kids had to learn A LOT of lines. But they did it. The performance was 30 minutes long!
The second, done by the same group, was Macbeth (renamed "Beth" because the role was played by a girl). Down to only 15 minutes, it was more concise, funnier, and had a LOT of 'blood'...Macbeth killed everyone and anyone.
The third, with another group, was Romeo & Juliet, with a LOT of silly lines and overacted 'love'...between Romeo (played by a girl) and Juliet (played by...a girl). The 10 minutes performance was 'punchy' and 'alive'. The kids had their own 'media' team that produced the video (I have videos of all 3 performances).
The fourth and latest, which we are working on now is Twelfth Night. Again, based on 'love' and confusion, it should make for a good performance around the 10-15 minute mark.
One day I'll put them all in a book so that people can read them...and other groups could play them! Maybe I'll do that this year, 4 plays seems a good number.

Firefly magazine Issue 1 OUT NOW!

Yes, the "Firefly" magazine Issue 1 is finally out! 46 pages of literary articles, short stories, interviews, reviews, and even a bit of fun!
I'm the editor of this great little magazine, and it's quite a thing for me. I hope we can get a few more issues out, you never know, it might catch on!
You can even "Read [a] Sample"! (Oh, and that's Jasper T. Scott on the cover, such a great guy!)
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/1006232