October | 2010 | Claire Gillian

This one comes with a disclaimer–I don’t like it all that much, especially the ending. I’d like to say I ran out of time, but the truth is I ran out of steam. You’re probably wondering why I bother to post it. I like to think it has some salvageable merit. There’s at least one sentence in it that earned me some kudos. That’s what I like about the AW Flash Fiction regulars–they always find something nice to say. Perhaps I can edit it at some point but it is what it is for now.

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Zoe flipped The Anxiety Clinic’s brochure for the thousandth time, worried she’d missed some sort of disclaimer. What if she died during the surgery? What if she didn’t die but became a vegetable? What if she lost all ability to command her muscles, became trapped in a body that tethered her to the charity of others? Continue reading →

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25. Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.

Another short and sweet post. Yes, some of my characters have had pets. The hero of my first trunked novel had a cat named Oedipuss. I thought that was pretty darned clever and plan to use it in real life one day. Even more clever, I thought at the time, was his love interest being several years older than him. Ha! Yet another reason why I trunked it.

Shelby in All’s Fair had a very naughty cat named Ripley (borrowed from my own cat). He claimed responsibility for a rather major plot twist because of his evil deed. In fairness, he did it right after Shelby had him neutered so she sort of had it coming.

And that’s it for pets. I love animals, have a cat and dog, but unless I need them in the plot or the story is about them (except I don’t write animal stories and reading them usually makes me cry), I don’t gratuitously include pets.