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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 57: To Bend a King’s will

This is the 57th a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

To Bend a King’s Will, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 27th January 2012

Word count: 752

“I am a corruption, an anomaly. I have stood upon this land for a millenia before this castle was first built, and the first castle was built a very long time ago,” the young man in worn robes said, sombrely.

“I tire of these theatrics, wizard,” the aged, “Citing your supposed age does not convince me that I should give this barbarian such a dangerous weapon. It would be madness, it makes any that holder blood mad. Barbarians are already blood mad. That’s why we lock them up.”

“This is not a barbarian, but it is true he is a beserker. The weapon was made for true beserkers, only they can control the blood rage,” the wizard said becoming animated, “The evil that approaches can not be faced by anyone else.”

“I have despatched an army, a cadre of my finest and bravest guards, and a quartet of wizards, admittedly they’re not of your supposed stature, but they can face a demon horde well enough,” the king said.

“And they will all be dead come morning. Demons, monsters, myths, legends, all very powerful and all, but they are nothing compared with the true demon that had stirred up this horde,” the wizard said.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 56: Imperial Spirit

This is the 56th a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Imperial Spirit, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 26th January 2012

Word count: 856

Theme: race, motor racing, sport, underdog, down to the wire, photo finish, drama

The story:

“You’ll have to manage with fourth,” Rossi said over the radio into Julian’s helmet.

“Easy for you to say,” Julian retorted as he cambered left for the sweeping corner.

“You’re twenty seven seconds up on Garner, just keep it clean and bring the car home,” Rossi instructed.

Julian didn’t reply, he settled into the fight off the championship, this race wouldn’t decide who got the trophy, but it could easily decide who didn’t.

The damaged Mercedes thundered down the straight coming out of the corner, but quickly became the sound of a dying gear box as it tried to find fifth.

Through the next corner Julian barely braked, he wasn’t carrying enough speed to afford the luxury. He sped over the home straight towards the start-finish line and started his final lap.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 55: A Rose Between Two Thorns

This is the 55th a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

A Rose Between Two Thorns, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 25th January 2012

Word count: 724

Theme: science, experiment, patience, right way, slow way, pioneer

The story:

“You need to go faster Paul, a lot faster,” a tinny voice said over the sub space comm output.

“I can’t,” Paul the pilot started to say while struggling to hold the ship on course against all the laws of physics it seems.

“Invert the port side thrusters, they’ll give you a bit more,” the tinny voice instructed.

“If I do that, forty percent of my active control will go,” Paul shouted back, barely holding the ship on the right course.

“Trust me, invert now, it’ll work out,” the tinny voice said.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 54: The Killing Ghosts

This is the 54th a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Killing Ghosts, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 24th January 2012

Word count: 697

Theme: alien invasion, resistance, war, survival, humanity, myth, legend

The story:

I got so scared, I felt I was alone facing things that shouldn’t even exist, never mind being in a relatively unimportant city in England. Whether they should be there or not, it was irrelevant.

The day had been going so well, I had a date that night, my job was going well, everything in life was grand. A few months earlier I’d Peru much had nothing to lose, but the day they came, I lost everything important, except my life.

It was mid-September when astronomers first saw the objects in the night sky, they were a wonder, unexplainable, mysterious globes of compressed liquid. Of course we didn’t just assume they were peaceful – though we didn’t even know about brains then. When it was obvious that they were on a collision course with the Blue Planet the US military took control of all efforts in regard. to the strange phenomena. They’re best efforts didn’t even cause the globes of liquid to waver, they kept coming.

Still life went on, the world split into three types of people. First off the were your traditional end of world types, (most figured them for loons, including me at first), then there were eager and excitable scientist types, lastly there was everyone else who couldn’t conceptualise what was happening, it was just this thing in the news. Sure it was the topic of many conversations but we didn’t understand, and it was years away.

So it was quite a shock when the center of Leeds was rocked by an immense exclusion as a globe crashed right into it. I’m told this was only a small one, but I was within five miles of impact it never felt small. It was the advanced unit, there to probe and test how we’d react, the rest of their armada arrived a month later, with sporadic advanced drops in medium cities around the world in between.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 53: The Second Chance

This is the 53rd in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Second Chance, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 23rd January 2012

Word count: 865

Theme: saviour, hero, sacrifice, ultimate ultimate sacrifice, religion, end of the world, saving grace, fate

The story:

“Okay, I’m sorry it has to be you,” the professor said, his voice echoing round the damp dark cave, illuminated by only a couple of battery powered lanterns. Eric thought the Professor looked gaunt, these past few weeks had been tough on the whole group, but the Professor had seen his hopes and dreams smashed too.

“I volunteered, I know what I’m doing. I knew this quest of yours would be dangerous, and I volunteered anyway. Just make sure the people outside, know it was my honour to have been with them on this, and make sure the world knows how close it came,” Eric said nobly. “Well if I pull this off anyway.”

“You have my word,” the Professor said sombrely. “Right do you want me to go through this again?” he asked gesturing to the three inch cables protruding from the wall.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 52: The Rookie

This is the 52nd a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Bleeding Heart, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 22nd January 2012

Word count: 831

Theme: lost cause, grief, road less travelled, determination, love, serendipity

The story:

“We go in by the numbers, we don’t know what hostiles we’ll face. Keep it clean, come back alive,” the lieutenant said to the gathered troops.

“Yes, sir,” the troop replied in unison.

Thus began the long wait for private first class Rory Simmons, it was his first combat misson, after basic he’d served two years as part of guard unit protecting stores Gamma Sigma, an area too far inside of the Commonwealth’s territory to be under much threat, and in two years there had been no action, except drills.

The private had gained acceptance into an active combat unit on his lieutenant’s recommendation, and his training certificates in seventy one distinct weapons. It was rare for a soldier to be trained in more than the weapons they would be assigned. Even then, it had been an uphill struggle, he’d had a black mark in training, (he’d panicked in a training op), but lieutenant Gabriel Gibson, or The Horse as he was nicknamed, took a chance. Note all Simmons had to do was payback that chance.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 51: Bait and Switch

This is the 51st a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Bleeding Heart, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 21st January 2012

Word count: 950

Theme: lost cause, grief, road less travelled, determination, love, serendipity

The story:

I was hoping, almost beyond hope, that my luck would change.

I was having the most crap of weeks, and it was hard to see how it could get worse, which is a silly thing to think. I should also point out that I had no idea how it could improve either. I’m not sure if I was an optimist, or a pessimist, I guess it’s academic now.

I guess I should give you the rundown, here goes, in one week:

  • I got made redundant, (and told the company was folding so no redundancy payments)
  • Broke up with my girlfriend of three years, (she didn’t want to be tied to someone she needed to financially support, I kid you not, her genuine words)
  • My car died, (and it’s going to cost a grand to fix)
  • My favourite television show was cancelled, (okay by orders of magnitude this is minor, but it all adds to the pain)

The list goes on and on, every little thing seemed against me. Let me tell you, it sucked the proverbial donkey nut, and then some.

But hey, for once in my life, I didn’t take it lying down, I decided, actually made a decision, to pick myself and get out there. After two days wasting away in my flat of course.

My indulgence of repeats of my show, served as grieving for the show itself, but for the way my life had suddenly gone as well.

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Where Have All the Robots Gone?

What’s in a word? Letters. Vowels, consonants, grammar occasionally.

Words are by far the greatest invention of humanity. Words are singularly responsible for civilization – and all the great and good, and evil and bad that that implies. I’m not a logophile as such, but I do love words. It’s part of the reason I aspire to be a writer, working with words is fun, and usually quite safe. Though there are some very dangerous words out there.

Words do have power though, in theory they shouldn’t. When spoken their just a random collection of noises we’ve learned to pattern together, likewise when they’re written it’s just scratchings in a small place. But these patterns are ingrained on our childish brains, and reinforced through strict regimes of practice, and necessity. And because our brains aren’t perfect, those patterns get loaded with a load of useless data as well – whether it’s random trivia, a memory, or an emotion. We love to charge words with emotions, and the emotions give the words far greater intent.

So, when clearing out some of my Twitter favourites from the past three years, (on my personal account, rather than my newer and not yet swamped in favourites writer twitter account), I came across this little gem.

While you’re at it, check out the Google Ngram of “literally” use over the years: http://j.mp/gkxMHR

Posted back in June 2011.

The word literally doesn’t do a great deal for me, but as soon as you see that tool – you can’t help but start firing words at it. And so I did, and it’s amazing the stories you can see in the graphs it produces. I set the Ngram Viewer to English, rather than English fiction. I wanted to see the effect on the whole of the English language dataset, rather than on fiction. With fictional elements, and concepts, obviously the effect will be greater in the smaller fictional dataset. Have a play, and see what I mean.

So, to start with I used the theme from today’s flash fic, zombies:

Zombies on Google’s Ngram Viewer

From Word Usage Post

Which as you can see is a fairly recent trend to use it, though I’m intrigued to find the uses of it in the 20’s and 30’s. The word undead shows a similar pattern. I’ve circled the bit I find particularly interesting, zombies are big business at the moment, with a TV series of the walking dead, and a few films due. There’s a zombie survival fitness training app doing the rounds, and numerous live role-playing zombie games going on. Yet while it’s still rising, it looks to be staling, the speed of the rise is slowing considerably.

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 50: The Bleeding Heart

This is the 50th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

The Bleeding Heart, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 20th January 2012

Word count: 999

Theme: hero, pariah, zombies, undead, soldiers, last stand, rescue

The story:

The doctor dragged the body inside the building, and the orderly slammed shut the door and barricaded it.

The doctor was on the floor checking for signs of life, and with none, he set about trying to return life to the body.

Thud!

Something hit the door.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

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Daily Flash Fiction Challenge 49: Connor, God Hunter

This is the 49th in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.

Connor, God Hunter by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 19th January 2012

Word count: 999

Theme: gods, fantasy, battles, vengeance, hunter, anti-hero

The story:

Connor used a cloud bank to gain some elevation as he ran along the holy plain. A god was flying ahead of him, in a race for life it looked like the god was winning. Connor though was not without power himself, how else could he have ascended to Ashatair, the home of the Gods? How else could he have taken down four other gods.

Connor looked like any other young man, tall, skinny, brash, and fond of being in the sun. However, despite his appearances he was nearer one hundred than twenty years old. An halfling of halflings,with powers hitherto unheard of.

Power, it’s why he was climbing up a cloud bank instead of chasing the fleeing god on the flat where he would be able to keep him insight. Connor drew his power from the sun, bathed in it’s light his power was furious, and as he broke through the clouds into clear skies, it washed over him, giving a boost. Connor ran for a few paces, until he felt he’d absorbed enough, and then he dived off the bank, and glided back down to the flat, staying above it and soaring until the god was in sight.

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