Claire Gillian

Candy Land: The Great Lollipop Adventure

Image via Wikipedia

Welcome to another blog chain. We’re sparse this month because so many of us are doing National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo, NaNo when you’re too tired to say the whole damn thing.

I was preceded in the chain by CScottMorris and Aheila will follow me. The complete list of participants follows my post.

So this month’s topic is drabbles, not what they are, but examples of drabbles. For those who don’t know (and haven’t been reading my blog this past week or so), a drabble is story of exactly 100 words. Now our esteemed hostess Bettedra has given us the luxury of writing within the range of 95 to 105 words. While I’m usually a stickler for writing exactly 100, I used the extra allowance to tack on a moral to my story.

Like my previous drabbles, I’ve been using this site as my prompt generator. My prompt (#50) was:

“Write a story about a town that ran out of sugar supply”

I wish I could say it’s deep and political, but alas I cannot. Short and silly with a dark edge is more like it.

When the people of Candyland discovered they’d run out of sugar, everyone panicked.

“How will we make candy?”

A gloomy future loomed until an Elder suggested, “Let’s ask Cookieland to loan us some. We’ll gladly repay with interest.”

But Cookieland said, “No, we need all our sugar to make cookies.”

Cakeland, Cobblerland and Brownieland said the same.

“We’re doomed!” Candyland’s citizens whined until a small child stepped forward and said, “Why don’t we ask Dentistland?”

So they successfully pitched their proposal to the very wise but unethical dentists and thus the Evil Axis of Sweetness was born.

Moral: Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.

Image by rachel a. k. via Flickr

On November 1st, I, like many other writers, began a 30 day odyssey to write a novel of at least 50,000 words. This will be my fifth novel and my second NaNoWriMo.

Hopefully my widget on the left side of my blog is working to give you a current accounting of my progress.

I have a snippet for you today. I didn’t think I’d find any humor in this otherwise bleak tale, but I managed to squeeze some into this brief scene with Neely and her cellmate, Tracy. All first draft remember, so lower your expectations a tad.

“…What’s your story, Neely?” The padding of footsteps then the squeak of the bed coils gave away Tracy’s location.

“I won’t be getting out in a few hours.” She continued to face the wall, hoped Tracy might leave her alone thinking she was too upset to chat.

No such luck. “Whadya do? Strike that. What are they saying you did?”

She could lie and possibly end up in a long discussion of how the “man” picked on women for kicks or she could tell the truth and possibly scare Tracy into backing off. Of course, she could have her expected outcomes flip-flopped too. She opted for gloves off honesty. “Terrorism, kidnapping and murder.”

“Whoa. Who the hell are you?”

“Nobody. I’m nobody.” Neely rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling, tracing the water stain path with her eyes from the light fixture to the outer edges of its bloom.

“Did you do it? You don’t look Middle Eastern at all.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m from North Carolina.”

“Ah. You work for the cigarette makers then?”

“No. I’m a Finance Manager.”

“What’s that, like a loan shark or somethin’?”

Stay tuned for more NaNo snippets in the days ahead!