Platform-Builders Campaigner Challenge #2

Rachael Harries 2nd challenge. http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/

The Challenge is:

Write a blog post in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should:

• include the word "imago" in the title
• include the following 4 random words: "miasma," "lacuna," "oscitate," "synchronicity,"

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional and included in the word count), make reference to a mirror in your post.

For those who want an even greater challenge (optional), make your post 200 words EXACTLY!

NOTE: I could not find the word 'oscitate' in the Webster's Unabrided Dictionary or through Google.
I assume it's a verb form of oscitant, meaning yawning, drowsy, lazy.

This is my entry (#117 on the list) http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/

Imago: A Prose Poem On “The Apparition (Self-Portrait with Muse),” A Painting by Marc Chagall

           

What I see in the mirror is the truth of what I am: a fractured soul in love with shape, form, and color. The three qualities collide within my mind, creating a miasma of reality. Soft blues and gray-white blend in with my muse and oscitate above me in the lacuna of space-time. Within the disarray of flat space and broken time emerges a harmonious synchronicity--a portrait of myself that is beautiful in a way that cannot be explained.

The Platform-Builder Campaigner Challenge

I want to congratulate all the winners of the Rach Write's Campaigner Challenge. You did some great writing. I made some new friends. I think it was a great success.

Word Count: One Month Later

On August 19, I posted the word count on my WIP. So, now, one month later, I'd like to give an update.

Aug. 22-27:            5,582 words
Aug. 29-Sept. 3:     7,841 words
Sept. 5-10:             5,535 words
Sept. 12-17:           3,668 words

Total:                    22,626 words

On August 19, I estimated I had about 90,000 words to go out of a 110,000 word novel. I have to keep changing estimates, though. Now I feel the book is probably closer to 120,000-130,000 words in length, and I'm about, maybe just a little over, halfway. I've completed over 70,000 words, so I have about 50,000 to 60,000 words to go. (I'm not sure this math adds up, but, what the heck.)

I'm pleased with the progress I'm making, although I'm not sure I can finish the book during October. It's looking more like sometime in November. I'm thinking of self-publishing it in January or February 2012. I have some decisions to make, one of which is developing a cover for the book. I'd like to hire a professional firm to do that. I'm not sure how long it takes a firm to work up a suitable cover. Over and over again I hear and read that an eye-catching cover is crucial. So, that will be an important undertaking for me.

Rule of Three Writing Contest

I've been invited to join in on the Rule of Three writing contest, in which a short story is written over a period weeks using the rule of three. The setting of the story is a town called Renaissance, and it has a history. If you're interested in taking part in the contest, go to http://amloki.blogspot.com/p/sign-up-for-rule-of-three-blogfest.html . I haven't written a short story in years, maybe ten years or more. So it will be a challenge. I'll be using the story I started on the Platform-Builders Campaigner in a previous post of mine. At this point I have no idea where this story is going, but I'll do some thinking, planning, and executing soon. It'll be a challenge for me, but one I think I'll enjoy. It looks as if I'm going to be writing in a genre I've never written before (except for a story I wrote in high school back in the 60's--that tells you how old I am)--horror. Yikes. I would never have believed it. But, what the heck. I'm so fascinated by Roland Yeoman's blog http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2011/09/what-do-you-get-when-you-cross.html that I want to try it. Anyway, I'm hoping some of my friends will take part. See you there if the forces are with us.

First Campaigner Challenge.

The first challenge for Rachel Harrie's (http://rachaelharrie.blogspot.com/2011/09/first-campaigner-challenge.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RachaelHarrie+%28Rach+Writes...%29) Platform-Builders Campigner Challenge is to write a 200 words or less flash-fiction short story. It must start with the words: The door swung open....

Here is my entry.

An Open and Shut Door

The door swung open even though I had locked it. What the…? I pressed my back to the wall. Footsteps in the darkness. One foot dragging along the floor. What the…? There was grunting with each footstep and drag.

“Jack?” I said, barely audible. “Is that you?” My chest heaved, my breasts stiffened.

Another footstep and foot drag.

“Jack, if that’s you, I’m going to kill you for this.” I slid along the wall until I bumped into a side table, knocking something over, breaking it. Without looking at the table, I felt around in the darkness until I felt a saucer-sized piece of broken glass.

A large shadowy figure with large shining yellow eyes appeared before me in the darkness. What the…? “Jack, this isn’t funny.”

The yellow eyes were beautiful. They were alluring. I couldn’t stop staring at them. They offered warmth. But I knew they were alluring for all the wrong reasons. “What are you?” I muttered. “Keep back.”

“I want you,” the gravelly voice said. “Please let me have you.”

What the…?

“I need you,” he said.

Those yellow eyes…I wanted them. They were beautiful. “Okay. I’m yours.”

All of a sudden, the door swung shut.

That's it. Exactly 200 words.