The Last Road Trip

Join me as I write my newest flash fiction story about a women taking her mothers ashes on one last road trip. Even I don't know how it will end! All of this is done in 140 character, bite sized pieces as I write it out in twitter. Follow it here or use the twitter hashtag #140FFa

Here's the current twitter fiction installments:

This road trip wasn't her idea. It was her dead mothers last wish. The Urn with her ashes glared at her from the back seat.


Where are protocols for taking a road trip with your mothers ashes? Does she ride in trunk, shotgun or belted in child's car seat?


Starbuck cup with brown foam. Sign marker for 405 Freeway. Nothing on the radio. Why mom do we need to do this?


#sixwords Tired Tears Tacos Terror Temp Test


A missed exit. A missed thought. A missed chance. I sit on the side of the freeway and cry, the cars howling by. A boxed life waits.


the tears gone. The traffic gone. The night gone. Now we are here but no where, alone forever.


#threewords Can't Say Goodbye


The desert day is hot. The night cool. We watch the heavens. Heavens watch us. No hurry to watch the ashes dance home.


Stars swirl. We expand and grow. BANG you laugh, so quick, last. Road trip.


{Editing notes: This wasn't the best flash fiction I have done but I did like some of the technical aspects of it. With only 164 words, it is definitely in the micro fiction category and as such, it left out a lot of detail. For example, when I wrote it, I thought the main character was a women but since I never stated that in the story, it was not defined. I liked that better. The piece had some poetic forms embedded in the short prose. I used the twitterverse forms of #threewords and #sixwords to give some pause in the fiction for more emotional punch. I also used short sentences throughout for the same effect. There was a lot of repetition in the words for more free verse effect, like in "missed exit, missed thought, missed exit". To give me a feeling or tone for the fiction, I read some of the poems of Charles Bukowski who always seems depressed or pissed off about life. I don't know if I conveyed his affect in this piece or not. The last line is my favorite. It ties in the title of the fiction and gives a completeness. It also has the format of 2, 4, 6, 2 syllables - loosely speaking. }


  

Wine Experiencia Event

Come out and join me at the Wine Experiencia event to support the restoration of the San Miquel Mission. I will be donating two pieces of art work and selling some more! Get details here: http://www.missionsanmiguel.org/events

Join the Flickr "Ephemera Group"

Ephemera: "A short-lived thing. Printed matter of passing interest."


I started a group on Flickr a couple of years ago to allow lovers of paper ephemera to post their collections. Today there are over 1300 members with over 42,000 posts!

You can view a slide show of the group below or join us at http://www.flickr.com/groups/creativegifts/

10 Ways for Lightening to Strike you with Creativity

Don't wait for it. Got make lightening happen!!! What inspires you? Tweet us @thirstyfishinfo or comment below...

clipped from www.dontheideaguy.com Waiting for inspiration? Puh-leeeze! You may as well wait for lightning to strike. 1. Read more stuff Magazines, books, blogs, cereal boxes... it doesn't really matter (at least at the beginning) what you read -- just that you're reading at all. Just 15 to 20 minutes every morning and every evening is enough to feed your brain with enough new ideas to make you more strikeable. To increase the quality of ideas your reading generates, increase the quality of the writers you are reading. 2. If you have to watch TV, watch some good shows 3. Go see great speakers 4. Collect quotes 5. Listening to music 6. Play word games 7. Visit museums 8. Find heroes 9. Express yourself -- journal, sketch, paint 10. Radar up! There's a book titled "Personal Brilliance" in which the author lists four catalysts for creativity: Awareness, Creativity, Focus, and Initiative.