Month: February 2019

https://wp.me/plpRp-1K4y

What do you think? Could the rise of cli-fi and solarpunk be helping people become more hopeful about the future?

This is a flash fiction in response to a challenge from mindlovemisery’s menagerie.

Idonny is the protagonist in a novel I’m working on. I can’t quite tell yet if it’s going to be #clifi, dystopian YA, or solarpunk. <grin>

Idonny slumped on her sofa and gazed at the rain pouring down the window. Algae, green and black, encrusted the bottom of the frame. It crept up higher every month. Soon it would obscure her view to the outside. Not that there was much to see, just concrete, the side of the neighboring tower block. The windows over there looked filthy too. No-one bothered to clean them anymore. The maintenance ‘bots had broken and no-one knew how to fix them.

She heaved a sigh and tore open a bag of crunchy veggie snacks. No actual vegetables had been harmed in the production of said veggie snacks and there was no actual flavor beyond salt, Reggie had liked them and she’d stocked up for him. He was dead now, killed during the almost constant fighting between the block gangs.

Idonny squinted at the window. The algal blooms in the corner of the window looked a little like Reggie’s face.

“Funny, never noticed that before.”

She lumbered to her feet and shuffled across the un-wood floor. The algae definitely looked like his face. Then she noticed another face. Her dad. She bit her lip. He was dead too, gone in a flood that also took her mother. And there was Mum’s face, smiling as always. Idonny had never had a photo of her parents. Maybe it was a good thing that the maintenance ‘bots had stopped cleaning the windows.

Here’s a little flash fiction I wrote in response to these six randomly generated nouns: death, butterfly, brooch, fear, strawberry, gun. It was a lot of fun so I thought I’d share it. Let me know what you think.

Janey stared down at the booth table, dazzled by hundreds of rhinestones littering the table. They were meant to be brooches but all she could see was ticky-tacky rhinestones stuck on everything. There were brooches shaped like teddy bears, all dressed up in various costumes, with colored rhinestones defining their outfits. Janey shuddered. Some of the brooches were shaped like cats or dogs. There were even shiny tractor brooches, done in yellow and green rhinestones.

God in Heaven, who would wear a rhinestone tractor brooch?

The vendor smiled a weary, desperate smile. Janey returned the smile out of habit and was about to turn away when she caught sight of a butterfly brooch. Shockingly, there was not a rhinestone to be seen on it. It was a dull black metall, unrelieved by any other color or even a decorative bit of metal delineating the eyes. It was incongruous sitting there amid all the sparkle and glitter of the rest, like some little insect of death.

“How much for that one?”

The vendor dropped her eyes to the table and frowned at the little black butterfly, confusion warring with irritation. It was as if she hadn’t even known it was there. Janey waited, not sure why she wanted to know. Was she honestly going to buy something from this cheesy craft fair at the Cupcake Pagoda? She was really only here for cupcakes and had stumbled across this little array of craft booths in the parking lot.

“…er, five bucks?” the vendor said, poker-faced now.

“Done.”

Janey stopped the vendor from wrapping the brooch up in scented tissue paper and declined the brown paper bag stamped with the words “Trudy’s Treasures.” She stuck the brooch on her faded Dead Kennedys t-shirt and grinned down at it. It looked almost venomous perching on her chest but Janey was pretty sure that butterflies couldn’t bite, especially not metal ones stuck to pin backs.

She sauntered into the Cupcake Pagoda and surveyed the cases. They were sparse today. All those crafty shoppers had got the best flavors. All that was left was strawberry cheesecake and some sort of vanilla with coffee beans stuck in the frosting. Janey sighed. Damn. She had been craving a Guinness brownie cupcake, perfect with a strong cup of java. The girl in a kimono behind the counter waited silently, looking bored. She looked past Janey out the door. Her eyes widened and she gasped, mouth twisted in a rictus of fear. Janey turned and saw a young guy with a gun at the door. She froze. He swaggered up to the counter, waving the 9mm around and said,

“Gimme your cash, babe.”

Tears filled the eyes of the kimono-clad girl but she hurried to comply, hands shaking as she opened the cash register. Janey didn’t move. The guy grabbed the cash then turned to Janey.

“Whaddya got?” he asked her, pointing his gun at her. She squeaked in fear and reached for her purse. A movement on her chest caught her attention and she glanced down, then stifled a scream when she saw the little black butterfly brooch moving and…growing? Yes, it was growing and before anyone had a chance to react, the dinner-plate-sized insect launched itself off Janey’s chest and into the air. The gunman yelled and threw his hands in front of his face, dropping his weapon. The butterfly landed on his shoulder and Janey saw long, glistening fangs sprout from its head. It plunged them into the guy’s ear. He bellowed with pain and fell to the ground, bleeding. The insect shrunk to its original size and tumbled off the guy’s head, clattering to the ground, inanimate. Janey stooped down to pick it up.

“Huh. Nice pin.”

Do you use random generators to get the words moving? Any favorites?