What's in a face? --WEP Challenge for FEBRUARY 2014

Welcome to WEP's Blogfest for February [=Write-Edit-Publish, formerly 'Romantic Friday Writers'] Challenge for Wednesday 22nd February 2014 - 'What's in a face?':

I think I came up with at least seven different ideas for stories from this prompt. This is one of them. It is a stand alone piece of flash fiction, although it feels to me as if it could be a part of a larger work. But I doubt that I will do more with it than what you see here:

What's in a face? 

Early one morning, the recently employed receptionist at the Farmer & Melker Clinic, Marcy Kramer, sat behind the reception counter, applying blood-red nail polish on her long, well-manicured, fingernails. She turned to her co-worker, surgical nurse, Julie Neumacher, and asked, "Hey, when's the first appointment  today?" Marcy looked at her wet nails. "I hope this will dry in time."

"Hm, let's see," replied Julie Neumacher, as she scrolled down a list on her computer screen, "Ten o'clock, for Doctor Melker. And it’s only ten to nine now." Julie looked at her upside down watch, pinned to her shirt breast pocket.

“I must tell you about my date with Chuck the other night," said Marcy continuing to apply polish on the other hand and finding it awkward, as it meant holding the brush with the hand she did not write with.

"Chuck who?" mumbled Julie and wrote something quickly in a notebook.

"Chuck? You know, Chuck Norton, that cute guy who's just starting out as a junior lawyer at that law firm… I can’t remember the name…” said Marcy admiring her outstretched fingers with painted nails. 

"I need coffee," said Julie, as she went to the office kitchenette, "I hope we have time for this, before Caligula and Nero arrive."

“Caligula and Nero? Weren’t they Roman emperors?”

“Yes, who fed the early Christians to the lions, and helped bring about the fall of the Roman Empire. Cream and sugar? 

“Oh, just a drop of milk, please. Why do you call them Caligula and Nero? It sounds like names you'd give a pair of naughty tomcats."

“Bingo!”

“What do you mean, Julie? Is there something about these doctors that I should know? You’ve been working here, for er... how long?”

“Two years.”

“I guess we don’t have time to talk about my date with Chuck?”

“No.” said Julie returning from the kitchenette with two mugs of coffee and putting them on the writing desk behind the reception counter. “I’m just saying that if any of the doctors shows up early, we have to look like we're doing serious work, or we're dog-meat.”

“You don’t mean that literally, do you?”

“No, of course not. Metaphorically. It’s just an expression.”

The reception telephone rings. 

“The phone's ringing, Julie. What should I do?”

“It’s your job is to answer the phone and take messages. You know what to say. We went through this yesterday.”

Marcy answers the phone: “Good morning. The Farmer and Melker Clinic, doctors J.P. Farmer and C.T. Melker, Plastic Surgery. How may I help you?”

“This is A.P. Morgonstern from Hamiton, Pritchard and Morgonstern, attorneys at law. We represent Miss Zelda Dimstar. Has Doctor Melker received our letter?"

“This is the reception. I would not know about that, sir. You'll have to speak to Doctor Melker."

“Could I speak with him now?”

“No, I'm sorry, sir. Doctor Melker is not available at this time, but if you would like to leave a message, I'll see that he gets it."

“You do that, Schweetheart," said Morgonstern, “You tell him that he's made a mess of Miss Dimstar's face and career, and that he's going to have to pay for it.”

“I'll tell him, Mr. Morgonstern.”

“Yeah. Tell him we’ve got a date in court on the 15th. He'd better show up."

“Yes, sir. I'll tell him. Was there anything else?” 

Click.

“Good-bye,” said Marcy softly, “He hung up.”

“What was all that about?” asked Julie.

“Someone seems to want to sue Doctor Melker,” explained Marcy waving her hands in the air to speed the drying of her nails, “Has this happened before? Do we often get calls from the lawyers of unhappy patients?”

“You wait and see. This is why I am looking for a new job.”

“What? Did he really operate and make a mistake? Or are these people just ambulance-chasers?”

“I don't know, Marcy. What’s in a face, anyway? What can a perfect face be worth? I mean, to a movie star?”

“A film career and several million dollars, maybe?” said Marcy sagely, waving her hand and knocking over her coffee mug, spilling coffee over the computer keyboard, a pile of letters and bills, as well as splashing coffee on her skirt and blouse. “Oh no, and I've ruined my nails, too.”

At that moment, the office door opened and in walked Doctor Melker.

---------

Word count according to WordCalc: 523

This text is fiction. Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidencial.

Best wishes,
Anna










First Commenter:
Yolanda Renee
of
Defending the Pen

 

IWSG - The February edition of Insecure Writer's Support Group - February 2014

Anna Nordeman

 

Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for starting Insecure Writer's Support Group.

This is my twelfth post for IWSG.


For those who would like to see my list of how-to-write-books, please go here. 
[If you would like to read my other earlier posts for IWSG, go back to August here, for September here, for October here, for November here, for December here, and for January here.]

For my February edition of IWSG I would like to conclude my discussion of ideas and themes that can be found in children's and fantasy/sf literature, by looking at some inventions found in the Harry Potter books that are NOT likely to become a reality in the future.

Last month, I looked at magical inventions, such as magic wands and the map of Hogwarts, that have counterparts in our world: mobile phones and GPS-maps. Leanne Ross of readfaced, a writer of futuristic science fiction novels, lamented that she has to think hard to invent things that do not already exist or will soon exist in our 'magically' electronic world.

One of my favourite charms in the Harry Potter series is the 'Invisible-Extention-Charm', that allowed Hermoine Granger to pack books, medical supplies, clothing and an enormous tent in her tiny beaded bag that went with her party dress for the wedding of Bill and Fleur Weasley, one of Ron Weasley's older brothers (to be found in the film The Deathly Hallows Part I). 



The ability to pack large and heavy items in this small, delicate bag, made it possible for Ron, Hermoine and Harry to flee the wedding party when the death-eaters suddenly arrived. In our world, there have been attempts to store clothing in vacuum-pressed plastic bags in order to save space, but there is nothing in our world to compare with Hermoine Granger's beaded bag! 

The idea is simple: it looks small on the outside but is enormously roomy on the inside. The first item, that fits into this category, is the tent that the Weasley family had with them to a Quiddish match in the novel, The Goblet of Fire. Harry is a guest of the Weasleys when they attend a world cup Quiddish match in Ireland. Eight people, six members of the Weasley family, Hermine Granger, as well as Harry Potter, all sleep comfortably in a tent that looks tiny from the outside but is cavernous as soon as you walk inside. 





Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could invent a way of taking everything with you and still not have to carry more than just a small beaded bag? It defies physics and will simply never be! But it is a nice thought, especially when you find that you absolutly must travel or even worse - if you are required to move - and are forced to decide what things to bring with you and what must be left behind, sold, given or thrown away.

This comes close to home for me. Much of my life, I could just acquire more and more possessions, until one day my former husband decided that he did not want to live with me any more. And I was the one who had to move out. But moving from a fancy and very large town house to a smaller dwelling, meant that some things just had to go, and more things are on their way out, as I dig deeper into stacks and stacks of corrigated packing boxes, that still dominate my new home.


Even if it is a practical necessity, the idea of down-sizing my home makes me feel old. It is similar to reading the obituaries and finding more and more acquaintances there. (I remember when my paternal grandmother talked about this. I understand her better now.)


One of the other inventions in the Harry Potter-series that might be interesting to try, is 'The Time-Turner'; but The Resurrection Stone would be too emotionally taxing for me. I don't want to see my departed loved ones knowing that it is only a short visit. (Maybe just to ask a couple of short questions? Excuse me? Where or what or why...?)

But short visits from a ghost from another time is a device or theme that is used in science fiction and other literary genres. Stephen King uses it in the novels, The Shining and A Bag of Bones. 




 

Daphny du Maurier lets the mother of her protagonist appear long after her own death to comfort her son as an adult, in her novel, The Loving Spirit. 





Another example is to be found in Ian McEwan's novel, The Child In Time (1997).

I don't think any of these events, spells or tools will become a part of the real world in the future. But there are 'messages from the departed' in our world.

I'm thinking of video tapes recorded with messages to children from parents who, for one reason or other, know that they do not have a long time to live. Well, why don't they just write a letter?  A letter to the child as an adult person, whom you will not be able to meet? I'm sure it has been done. Isn't that what a last will and testament is? A legally binding letter of instruction to those you leave behind.


I apologise for ending this post so morbidly. Maybe  I'm just tired of winter.

It's Saint Valentine's Day soon. I wish... I wish...

No. Be careful what you wish for!

Yours faithfully,

Anna

P.S.

This is just an afterthought: An exampel of such a "videotape" recording (before video became available to the general public) was the little box included in the rocket that Superman's biological parents send with him to earth when the planet Krypton is about to blow up. When Clark Kent's adoptive parents tell him that he is adopted and show him the rocket ship that took him to earth, he views this recording and gets to "meet" his real parents who died after they sent him away. This animated film was made 2005 but it looks like the comic book version that I used to read as a child in the 1960s.

First Commenter:
Alex J. Cavanaugh

 

WEP-challenge for 22nd January 2014 - New Beginnings

Welcome to WEP's Blogfest for January [=Write-Edit-Publish, formerly 'Romantic Friday Writers'] Challenge for Wednesday 22nd January 2014 - 'New Beginnings':


'It's the uncertainty...'

It was a cold, icy morning in January with new snow blanketing the rural landscape after an unusually warm autumn and snowless Christmas. A woman dressed in winter boots, knitted hat and drab grey woolen overcoat, stepped out of a small blue car parked by the stone wall around the country church. She held a large brown envelope under her arm, as she knocked on the church door. The door was opened by a tall slender woman dressed in a black kaftan.

'How do you do, mrs Bly? Please come in. I'm Kristell Karlsson, assistent pastor. We spoke on the phone. I'm so sorry to hear about your daughter. Would you like a cup of tea or coffee while we talk?'

'Yes, tea please,' replied mrs Bly, trying to catch her breath as she briskly followed pastor Karlsson to a smaller meeting room behind the sacristy. The two woman sat at a large and elegant wooden dining-room table decorated with lace doilies and a vase filled with dried flowers. Pastor Karlsson poured tea into two china cups and asked whether mrs Bly took sugar, and lemon or milk.

'How long has your daughter, Karla, been missing?'

'Since the day before yesterday.'

'And you've reported it to the police?'

'Yes. They've asked me all kinds of questions. They even want me to give them samples of fabric with her blood, disgarded bandages or stained sheets from a scraped knee. Just in case. It's not easy to find. That's not the sort of thing you save.'

'I see. Well, I hope they won't need them. They probably ask everybody that routinely. What do you have there?' asked Kristell, changing the subject by pointing at Sonja Bly's thick envelope.'

Mrs Bly opened the envelope and took out a poster with the photographic portrait of a smiling nine year old girl, with the caption, 'Have you seen our daughter, Karla?' above the photo image. 'Would it be alright if I posted one of these on the bulletin board here at church for people to see?'

'Yes, of course.  What an excellent idea. Did the police suggest this?'

'No, it was my own idea. I've been putting these up everywhere. I hope it helps. I'm thinking that maybe someone has seen her. And now that it's turned so cold, we may be running out of time. We need to find her fast.'

'Is there anything else I can do to help? I could write something in the weekly bulletin and say something in church on Sunday, unless she returns before then. There is still hope. She may even come home today.'

'That's what the police say. But so far we have not found a trace of her anywhere. And no one has claimed to have kidnapped her. No demands for ransom.'

'Is there anything else?'

'Yes. Please pray for Karla. It is so cold now. If she is out wandering about in the woods, she could freeze to death. After two search parties, no sign of her has been found.'

'Would you like to pray with me now?' asked Kristell gently. 

Sonja Bly took a sip of tea, put the cup down on the flaming birch table and then covered her face with her hands, 'Yes, let's pray. Prayer maybe the only thing we can do for her now.'

Before the prayer, Kristell Karlsson found a box of paper tissues and gave it to Sonja Bly, who had begun to weep.

Kristell held both of Sonja's hands and prayed for Karla's safe return.

She's only nine years old,' said Sonja and thought: Nine years old! Karla's not a toddler anymore, but what comfort is that? Nine years old is still very, very young. 

Sonja was grateful that Karla was small for her age and looked younger than her actual nine years. She remembered with horror newspaper articles about young girls who mature physically too early and look like they are about eighteen when they only are eleven, twelve or thirteen. 

'Thank you for your time, pastor,' said Sonja Bly as she rose from the table to leave.

'What are you going to do now?'

'I've got an appointment with a local radio station. The police are coming home to us this afternoon to discuss our next course of action.'

'Take this card, Sonja. It's the number to my privat mobil phone for unusual situations like this. I keep this phone in a special pocket near my heart. Call me anytime. If I don't answer, leave a text message.'

'Thank you pastor.'

'Call me Kristell.'

---------

Word count according to WordCalc: 784

This text is fictional! Any resemblance to events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidencial.

Best wishes,
Anna










First Commenter:
Lin 
of 
Duck and Wheel With String

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group for January 8th, 2014

Anna Nordeman

 

Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for starting Insecure Writer's Support Group.

This is my eleventh post for IWSG. I actually posted on January first, but then went to Alex J. Cavanaugh's site and discovered that IWSG will not post until January 8th. Yippee! More time to write this post! So my post has reverted to a draft until January 8th.


For those who would like to see my list of how-to-write-books, please go here. 
[If what I write here is difficult to understand, go back to my IWSG-posts for August here, for September here, and for October here, for November here, for December here.]

For my January edition of IWSG I would like to continue looking at ideas and themes that can be found in novels, especially in children's literature. Last month, I looked at villians that appear and reappear in different novels, and compared J.K. Rowling's villian, Voldemort, to Bram Stoker's Dracula. 

For the January edition of IWSG I would like to return to the Harry Potter-series, to find examples of modern inventions that appear in magical disguise. 

One of my absolute favourite tools that Harry Potter is presented with, is the Map of  Hogwarts, that shows every individual's movement, within the castle. This wonderful piece of magic, that works well in several plots, was given to Harry by the older brothers of his best friend, Ron Weasley, the twins, George and Fred. There is nothing in our world, exactly like this beautiful piece of hand-lettered parchment. But a GPS-map comes close! 

The GPS-location system, without any disguise, plays an important role in several children´s stories, including the film, The Incredibles, and in Pagten, the Danish Christmas series about a family of gnomes.
  
Within Hogwarts, in Harry Potter's world (especially as seen in the films), everything seems to be done in an old-fashioned way, but with a little magic to speed things up. There is no electricity or central heating. Lighting is provided by candles or flaming torches. There are no typewriters. All writing is done by hand with ink and quill (unless you are the journalist and author, Rita Skeeter who has a magical, automatic pen). There are cameras and photographers, but all photographs (and even all oil paintings) move slightly, as if they were short video-clips.

The idea of magic, in the Harry Potter-series, could be interpreted as a symbol of the many inventions that we now make use of, that did not exist sixty years ago: Computers, the use of the Internet, mobile telephones and so much more, that I don't have time to list here. 

The magic wands that Harry and the other wizards and witches always have with them, exist partly, in our world: We have mobile phones and iphones and ipads, that allow us portable access to a world of information. In the 1960s, a comic book character named Dick Tracy, was admired by children at that time because he had a wrist watch that was a telephone!

I could go on and on comparing the recent past, a time that I myself once accepted as normal, with the 'Brave New World' in which we now live. But then I would have to use footnotes and document everything I say, when I just want to make conversation. I'm not writing an essay or trying to prove anything.

It is New Year's Day, and I really don't want to sink into a depression about the passage of time, and missing loved ones who are no longer here with me. I prefer to wish everyone who takes the time to visit my blog, a happy and safe 2014. Light a light, instead of cursing the darkness.

I have been reading Harry Bingham's book How to get Published, in between washing up, picking up and cleaning litter boxes for the cats. And it seems so hopeless. Will I ever get that far to even be able to use the advice in that book? I admire all of you who stick it out and finish writing your novel. 

There is one scene that I love above all others in the Harry Potters movies: It's when Harry and Professor Dumbledore call on Professor Slughorn finding him inside a house that is in complete shambles; it is Slughorn himself who has made the mess in order to hide from the Death-Eaters who want to recruit him. Professor Dumbledore suggests that they clean the place up, especially since the house belongs to a family away on a trip abroad. 

With a wave of his wand, Professor Dumbledore reverts all damage and sets everything to right. It is a wonderful example of special effects-filming. I don't know how they did it. It was probably computer-generated. For me, it is one of the happiest scenes in the entire film series. Magic put to good use!

When I look at my own kitchen sink, now, after the children have left again to celebrate New Year's with their father, I wish I had Professor Dumbledore's magic wand. Or perhaps just a new dish-washer?

It is January 8th and time to get back on the subject of writing books....

Is there a writing lesson to be learned from all of these gadgets and spells that abound in the Harry Potter Books? I think there is. J.K.Rowlings introduces her magical inventions in one book and lets them be used again and again in several of the following titles. The reader learns for example a spell in the first book that is used throughout the series. The GPS-like magical map of Hogwarts is introduced in book three and then used repeatedly until the end. 

This is an economical use of elements that help to hold the world of Harry Potter together. And this is something that is recomended in how-to-books on writing. Take, for example, Roz Morris, the author of Nail Your Novel. Roz Morris calls the reuse of elements for 'reincorporation'. According to Roz, many novel plots fail because the author has included too many elements that make it unmanageable (p.57ff). Roz advises: 'When you don't know what to do, or think you're inventing too much, lay your key elements out and see if there's something you can reincorporate.' 

The map, the cloak of invisiblity, the elder wand, and the resurrection stone, all help to tie the HP-series together at the end. J.K. Rowling makes good use of reincorporation thoughout the series. She is able to include many elements because she reuses them and renews them each time.

Something to think about when plotting your own novel!


Best wishes,

Anna

First Commenter:
Donna Hole

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group for December 2013

Anna Nordeman

 

Thanks to Alex J Cavanaugh for starting Insecure Writer's Support Group.

This is my tenth post for IWSG. 


For those who would like to see my list of how-to-write-books, please go here. 
[If what I write here is difficult to understand, go back to my IWSG-posts for August here, for September here, and for October here, for November here.]

For my December edition of IWSG I would like to explore how some ideas in older books live again in new books; how stories inspire stories. Last month I mentioned the example of J.K. Rowling's incredibly successful story, the Harry Potter-series. 
  

 


If you have read the Harry Potter books and/or seen the films, you may or may not have noticed motifs and themes from other stories. Yet, Harry Potter seems so fresh and original, as if Rowling invented it all. But she hasn't. 

Let's take the example of how the main villain, Lord Voldemort, is connected to our hero. They can read each others mind from great distances. It is Harry Potter's ability to read Lord Voldemort's mind that enables him to defeat him. Where have we seen or read this before? In Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, of course.

 
Rowling has been careful to never use the word 'vampire' in her series. In the Harry Potter books there are witches, wizards, shape-shifters, werewolves, giants, dragons, unicorns, centaurs, flying horses, and a treasure trove of mythological as well as made up magical beings; but no vampires. 

But Rowling does let Lord Voldemort do a lot that Dracula can do. One of Dracula's victims can see into his thoughts and help defeat him. This is a motif that is too good to not use, especially since Rowling steers clear of tainted blood and sharp teeth for Voldemort. She leaves that to her werewolves. My guess is that this is a strategic decision. Dracula and vampires have become hackneyed, while connected minds was still fresh when Rowling wrote Harry Potter. 



 



















Borrowing images, motifs and even characters has been done ever since stories were first told by the fire in cave dwellings. A good example of a borrowed villain is the Snow Queen in C.S. Lewis' series The Chronicles of Narnia. Where has C.S Lewis found her? 'The Snow Queen' is one of the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales! 


 












A convincing villain is an asset to any story. So if you can't create your own, borrow one from the best!
 

Best wishes,

Anna

First Commenter: Alex J. Cavanaugh