Photo prompt story

Today I thought I'd do something different and write a short story based on a photo prompt I found here. Hope you enjoy!

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Tashan took a break from shooting lasers from his eyes to sit beside Ana on the wall. He made sure there was plenty of room between them - he didn't want to accidentally sit on the two-inch-tall girl. He was concerned about her: Tashan hadn't seen her smile all morning.

From her vantage point on the wall, Ana was watching George and the others play a wild game of 'Heroes'. George swooped to rescue some orphans from a burning train while Naveen and Soha climbed a tree to save an elephant (Soha had a cat at home and wouldn't want to move it from on top the TV, let alone a tree). May stood on top of the slide, letting her cape billow out in the wind, oblivious to the complaints of the other children wanting to slide down.

"Are you okay?" Tashan asked.

Ana's heart had started to thump energetically when she saw Tashan approaching. He was George's friend more than hers and Ana didn't talk to him that often. She liked him an awful lot though, since he made greater effort than the others to involve her.

In the summertime, when the weather is hot

It is currently 13°C.

The weather is NOT hot. I am sitting here wrapped in my blanket because I can feel a breeze in my room. The wind is an echoic howl outside, swaying the trees so dangerously I am almost afraid they will fall.* And it's raining. What's a girl to do when it's raining?

Well, I got up early this morning to buy some food (we were out of everything important - bread, eggs, honey. Honey is vital for my tea) and when I came back, promptly dealt with an unexpected nosebleed. Then I watched then season seven finale of Murdoch Mysteries (whhhyyyyyy!) and spent the next couple of hours reading.

That's right. Reading. For fun.

Since finishing my academic year, I've managed to get through two Angela Carter books: Heroes and Villains and Shadow Dance. I may do a comparison of them for my dissertation, I'm not sure yet. Both are pretty unusual and have similar themes although they operate on completely different premises. I am notoriously indecisive so everything is uncertain with regards to the dissertation aspect of my educational life. Why would they make me CHOOSE something so specific and stick with it for a year? I can nearly see the unravelling of my sanity just thinking about it.

But reading! So good. So fulfilling. So intellectual.

I am currently reading Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men.**



*I got a little carried away there and slipped into prosaic description. I am not sorry :)
**It's rated higher than the two Carter books on Good Reads. What does this say about the literary world? I'm not sure. Landy > Carter?

Inexplicable skin tips

As I write this, my face is covered in dairy which means my glasses are not on my face. I am therefore squinting at my laptop screen.

Hi, you've reached the blog of Terri Cerés. Sanity levels? Undetermined.

I jest. The dairy is natural yogurt, which I am using as a face mask. An odd choice for someone who is lactose intolerant, but it is what it is. Why am I using a face mask and how is this relevant at all to my writing life? Good question. Let me take you back to last week.

STRESS. DEPRESSION. ANXIETY. Those were the flavours of my life as I prepared to sit my final exams of the year. Okay, not so much the depression part - I was actually pretty chipper when I wasn't thinking about my two three-hour exams. But I was seriously tense. So tense that my face, my beautiful, beautiful face, broke out into more spots than a teenager going through puberty. Urgh, and don't even get me started on how oily it is...

My normal face cleansing routine wasn't cutting it so I had to take drastic measures. That's where the yogurt comes in. I've used it before and it made my skin super soft and glowing and just-

Okay, now this blog is turning into one about health and beauty. I'll stop there.

I've finished university for the year so now I can relax and do all the things I was too stressed to do before. This includes using a face mask, but it also includes writing. Lots and lots of writing. I have about 124 days worth of summer break (I counted) and I realised that someone could achieve a lot in this time. Like write a novel. And since I am already writing a story, I see no reason why I can't finish mine over summer. I'm not going out of the country. My job is part-time. I don't have kids to take care of. I'm pretty much a free agent.

And I like it.

Well, looks like it's time to rule the world.

Sweetheart's Sweetheart

The delicious Candy Kingdom was ruled by an ageing Queen, whose patience with her single daughter was growing thin. The Candy people needed to be led by someone who wasn't crumbling around the edges but Princess Sweetheart couldn't rule without being married. It just wasn't done.

Like the inhabitants of her kingdom, Princess Sweetheart was made of sugar and was as sweet and syrupy as one would expect from a princess. She was short and pretty with yellow hair and eyes the colour of green jelly beans. Not a day went by that she did not wear an elaborate, elegant and over-extravagant dress which looked good on her and really made the princess stand out. Her attitude was a little airy and naïve, but the Candy people were very fond of her.

The Queen, exhausted by her many years in power, finally declared that she was going to take a well-deserved holiday to the ski resort at Marshmallow Mountain. Princess Sweetheart would be in charge while she was gone and the Queen warned her that she had better find someone to marry by the time she returned.

Facing a challenge

"Keep dreaming, kid."

Recently I grew curious and searched up what an actual screenplay looks like. I found one for the film Big Fish (which I think is ace, by the way. My brother hates it). My first thoughts? "Damn. This looks technical." My second thoughts? "I can't do this what the hell was I thinking??"

But after having a couple of days to step away from it all and think about it, I realised it's not much different from writing a novel. I mean it is, but the effort required should be around the same level. Both require extensive planning if they're going to be half as coherent as they are creative. Both require characters who are fully rounded and functional. Both require lots and lots of work to get something proud of.

Writing a screenplay will be a challenge to me because I've never done it before. That shouldn't put me off doing one. If anything, it should make me more motivated to do my first screenplay simply because it will be my first. I'm not saying it will be anything worth showing off about but I do think it will be a stepping stone to much greater things.

Of course, I had the same feeling when I took my first journalism course and look where that got me (clue: nowhere. I hated it).

P.S Expect short posts between now and the 24th. It is officially exam season *cries*

Who will I be?

This post was going to be about my progress with the She-Hulk screenplay but after going to Janelle Monáe's concert yesterday, I had to push that back to Tuesday. Going to that concert changed my life. Seriously. Well, okay maybe not my life but it did change something inside me.

I'm a big fan of Janelle Monáe. I have all her albums and you can usually find me listening to her songs when I'm plugged into my iPod. Going to the concert was a big deal for me. I won't bore you with details like how I was three hours early and made friends with strangers in the queue, I promise. But standing there in the crowd, metres away from Janelle Monáe was spectacular. More so when I started listening to watch she was telling us.

I don't remember her exact words, but at one point she said to us "no matter what race, gender, who you love or what god you serve, we all deserve to be treated with equal respect". Okay, obviously this is true but it's not too often that you hear someone saying it. Calling the world out on its bad behaviour. And standing there, I decided I wanted to share this message of true love.

Yes, I still want to be a writer. (I may also want to be an editor but that's for another post.) But I do also want to be very present in my presence, so to speak. I want to go to schools and give talks to students. I want to hold motivational seminars. I want to make people feel good to be themselves. I hope to achieve this through my writing but I want to have a 'stage presence' as well.

We'll wait and see.

First step: investing in a cape.

Hey Terri, what're you writing over there?

A couple of practice essays, one or two poems and quite a bit of my main story. I'm at 36,000 words so far. I've also started planning the She-Hulk script. Man it's hard work. Who knew?

Okay this is largely a lie. I am having trouble planning the script but the majority of my focus is on revision. I figured that since these two exams shall be my last (unless I decide to do my driving theory) then I might as well go all out with the preparation, right?

Serious stuff.