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Kisses and Eggs

Glad you could join us for the next kooky episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot K
Photo credit: Grayson Hartman

Walter never stopped to question why he had opened his heart (and his mouth) to the little stranger lying so helplessly on the river bottom. It was his nature to care. Ask anyone.

Ask his wife, Darlene. She had seen his compassion and compulsion to nurture everyone he met when they were just small fry in school. But it had been during their senior year, when they had both worn Kissing Fish masks to the Enchantment Under the Sea Masquerade that she had known he was The One. He was the one she chose to bear the ultimate responsibility of carrying their adorable roe to term.

Every spawning season since, Walter had protected his soon-to-be progeny from marauding pike and sinister scuba divers. And he had never — even accidentally — swallowed a single one. Around the reef they called home, he had earned his reputation as the World’s Greatest Dad. Ask anyone.

Ask Darlene — if you can find her.

Continue reading “Kisses and Eggs”

Jelly Balls

Glad you could join us for the next jarring episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot J
Photo credit: Judy Townsend

The approaching shadow spread over Elliot, blanketing him with a dark so deep he knew it was Death. He closed his eyes, apologized with all his heart for the time he’d told his little brother that the salt lick they’d happened across was an icy slip-and-slide, and he prepared to die.

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I is for Imagination

Imagine reading your own copy of Cat Tales and finding a story by someone you know. Me! 🙂 That’s the third best reason to purchase a copy for yourself, each member of your family, all your friends, and the Crazy Cat Lady down the street. Of course, the two best reasons are the Against Malaria Foundation and Cats Protection, the worthy charities to whom the proceeds flow. Please do. For only $1.99 (digital) or $9.50 (print), you can help make the world a better place, and read some really entertaining stories. Thank you. Thank you very much.

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Sue1 Illustration by Louise Kimber

Which a writer like Sue Ranscht has oodles of. Not just her – Harlan too. In Cat Artist Catharsis, Sue’s story in Cat Tales, the anthology drawn from last year’s Book a Break short story competition, Harlan doesn’t just imagine the cats, he imagines them into life. How’s that for the power of imagination? Phew!

By the time he was fourteen, Harlan’s bedroom walls were two-thirds covered by drawings of cats and parts of cats. He’d switched from crayons to two sets of coloured pencils, one set left dull-pointed for soft and blended colours, keeping the other set’s points pointy with his little pen knife, perfect for detailing claws, fangs, raspy tongues, and whiskers. And eyes—green or blue, yellow or orange, brown or copper, deep and speckled, flecked with gold, shiny and wise. Diligent practice had elevated his skill to a level…

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Infinite Blue

Glad you could join us for the next intriguing episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot I
Photo credit: staticflickr.com

The shocking splash was a cold, dead hand slapping Elliot smack in the face, yanking his breath right out of his lungs. Water filled his shell, now a brick dragging him belly-up to the bottom of a crushing grave. His life swam before his eyes; it looked a lot like bubbles.

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Holy Hydroplane, Batman!

Glad you could join us for the next harrowing episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot H
Photo credit: Grayson Hartman

One moment, Elliot’s foot surged over moist dirt, the next, it hit a large, wet stone and surfed across its surface, out of control and gaining speed as he streaked toward a precipitous drop into the roiling rapids.

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Gotta Go!

Glad you could join us for the next grueling episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot G
Photo credit Grayson Hartman

Deep in the underbrush, Elliot finally stopped to rest. Sweat dripped from his eye stalks down the back of his neck, trickling under the front edge of his shell. “Great,” he muttered, “now I’ll get an itchy salt rash, and I won’t even be able to scratch it.”

An exotically accented, soft female voice emerged from the undergrowth ahead. “It is soundink to me as if you are needink a friend — a vife, perhaps.”

Curious, Elliot stretched his neck toward the sweet sound. “Who’s there?” he asked hopefully.

But when the leaves parted, Elliot’s eyes bulged in terror.

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Frantic Food

Glad you could join us for the next fiendish episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot F
Photo credit: Mike Shaw

“Wait! Wait!” Elliot screamed.

The bird belonging to the beak above him jerked back in alarm. “What?! What?!”

“Please,” Elliot begged, “please let me go! Surely you can’t have rescued me from that spinning siren just to eat me? Please! I implore you, have mercy!”

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Everybody Eats

Glad you could join us for the next extreme episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot E
Photo credit: Wes Lum

From the shadows of Elliot’s mind, came a whistling chirp. “Is this what dying sounds like?” he wondered idly as darkness stole over his eyes and his body rose above the coarse black rocks. “If it weren’t for the squeezing sensation, I would think this was an out-of-body experience.” Continue reading “Everybody Eats”

A to Z Fiction, Anyone?

Quill
A writer’s word is never done… (Photo credit: S.T. Ranscht)

How many writers are creating fictional stories for the #AtoZChallenge this year? Are you? Have you come across someone whose stories you’d like to share?

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Dangerous Dance

Glad you could join us for the next distressing episode of Elliot’s Adventures. If you’re new here, you can catch up by returning to the beginning, and reading really fast…

Elliot D
Photo credit: Wes Lum

Suspended in the wavering blur of Elliot’s desperation, the mesmerizing Passionetta twirled before him, dangerous and distracting. Her voice stroked his weakened will with its ethereal hum, drawing him closer, tempting him with visions of carefree eternal rest.

It would be so easy, he thought, so pleasant, just to lie here and watch her dance. I would never have to move again.

He fought to close his mind to a tiny warning deep within, urging him to resist her beguiling charms. As darkness seeped into his sight, the murmur of alarm faded to the shadow of a whisper.

Time was running out.

Continue reading “Dangerous Dance”