Category: Fiction

Song Title Challenge #5: Fools of Damnation – The Embrace that Smothers Part 9 by Epica

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge. (I know it’s later than usual. I was on the beach. (And for some reason I’m not $3000 richer. Must be doing it wrong.))

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is Fools of Damnation – The Embrace that Smothers Part 9 by Epica. Goodness, that’s a mouthful. Thanks to Cain Freeman from No BS Books for the suggestion.

I know I did not refer directly to the title in this story, but this is all I could come up with. Hope you enjoy it.

Fools of Damnation – The Embrace that Smothers

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Autopsy

Doctor Leichmann looked at the body on the table.

“Female, Caucasian, 5.7 metres, red hair, late twenties,” he began his dictation. “Preliminary examination indicates COD is a single gunshot wound to the chest.”

He measured the entry wound at the back, swabbed for gunshot-residue, and measured the exit wound at the front. Why did they want him to do an autopsy? Cause of death was excessively obvious. Besides, these type of things were usually handled by the county medical examiner, not the Chief of Medicine at a research hospital.

“Making Y-incision.”

Not that it was strictly necessary. A shotgun at close range opened you up pretty effectively, and by the looks of it pulverised just about everything you’re supposed to check during one of these. He removed the internal organs, or what was left of them, one by one and measured, weighed, recorded and sampled for the lab.

Something was not right. He carefully checked inside the chest cavity and studied the X-rays again. That was really strange. Even with a through-and-through you’d expect at least some of the pellets to remain, lodged in a rib or vertebra. But there was not one. Not a single one.

And what was that strange smell? He was used to the metallic tang of blood, the sour smell of the stomach-contents and the methane stink of the guts. But this was strangely sweet, almost like the apple scent you get with diabetics, but not quite the same.

As he contemplated the remains he thought he saw a movement under the skin by her left temple. That was impossible. He leaned closer to get a better look.

Song Title Challenge #4: Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer – Randy Brooks

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer by Randy Brooks and originally performed by the husband and wife duo of Elmo and Patsy Trigg Shropshire in 1979. I’ve embedded the music video below my attempt, but don’t watch it until you’ve written your own.

Have fun with this one!

Grandma got run over by a reindeer

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The Crucible (NOT the play about the Salem witch trials)

Here’s another piece I did in my creative writing course last year. We had to write a conversation where one character was explaining something to another character without it turning into a boring monologue. I decided to show off and combine it with what we learned about plots the previous week.

The Crucible

“Right, so, every story at some point needs a crucible.”

“Hang on. What’s a crucible? I thought this was a writing class, not religion.”

“Crucible, not crucifix. Technically, it’s a clay container in which you mix chemicals and then heat them up so they’ll react with each other –“

“Now you’re talking about chemistry. Do you really know about writing?”

“Keep your pants on! In writing, a crucible is a situation in which two characters are in conflict –“

“So, not a clay pot?”

“…No.”

“Okay.”

“May I continue now?”

“Sure.”

“As I was saying, two characters are in conflict, but it’s a situation they can’t escape, like, being stuck in an elevator, say.”

“Oh! Just like the chemicals in the clay pot. I see. It’s one of them metaphor-thingies.”

“Yes. One of them metaphor-thingies. Anyway, then you add something to make the situation worse.”

“Like the building being on fire?”

“Exactly. So, they have to get out of the stuck elevator before the building burns down with them in it, but they have to sort out their crap first, otherwise they can’t work together to get out, see?”

“Erm.”

“Yes?”

“Why’s the building on fire?”

“Why’s the..? Forget it! I give up!”

“Hey, wait! Where are you going? Come back!”

Song Title Challenge #3: If I Ever Get Around to Living – John Mayer

It’s time for this week’s Song Title Challenge.

Write a short piece of fiction, around 300 words, using the song title as your story title but don’t listen to the song. Remember to link back to this post so I can find yours.

If you would like to suggest a song title for a future post, you can do so from the challenge page. You can also leave a suggestion on the Facebook page.

This week’s song is If I Ever Get Around to Living by John Mayer. Thanks to Emma at A Wordless Blogger for suggesting it. I had lots of fun writing it. Hope you do too.