Day: August 28, 2020

Secrets and Lies

Fandango15 Comments

“I can’t take this anymore,” Diana said. “I can’t survive like this as long as you continue to feed me all of your lies. Have you no shame?”

“Oh my God, Diana,” Bill said. “Don’t have a conniption fit, for crissake. Okay, I didn’t tell you that I had lunch with Susan at the inn, but it was just a business lunch between two work colleagues. No big deal.”

“You don’t get it, Bill,” Diana said. “A friend of mine saw the two of you at the inn together and she said it didn’t look like you were just talking about business. Besides, it’s not that you had lunch with a colleague who is a woman that bothers me. It’s that you lied about it when I asked you how your day was. Why would you lie about it if it was so innocent?”

“I hate when you act this way, Diana,” Bill said. “It was just a business lunch with a female associate. I didn’t tell you about it because I knew this would be how you’d react. You need to let it go.”

“Oh, so you expect me to exonerate you for lying to me?” Diana said. “Maybe I would if this was the first time. But it’s not, Bill. You’re a very bad liar and I always find out the truth. You lie to me all the time and I’m sick of it.”

“It’s your fault that I lie to you, Diana,” Bill said. “You always try to box me in with your jealousy. I’m just trying to avoid having another contentious argument with you over nothing.”

“So it’s my fault that you are a shameless liar, is that it?” Diana said incredulously. “Well, that’s the last straw. Feel free to go to lunch with Susan or do whatever it is that you want to do. No more secrets. No more lies. No more contentious arguments. I’m leaving you.”

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (survive), The Daily Spur (feed), Ragtag Daily Prompt (lies), Word of the Day Challenge (conniption), Your Daily Word Prompt (exonerate), and Jibber Jabber (box).

Friday Fictioneers — Fire Dancers

Fandango17 Comments

There was an outburst of “oohs” and “ahs” from the audience. But Deborah burst out crying. “Daddy, they’re on fire. You need to help them, Daddy.”

“No, sweetie,” her father said, giving a knowing glance to his wife, who was sitting on the other side of their daughter, “they’re not on fire. It’s done with lighting and costumes to make it look like that way, but it’s a trick. Isn’t it amazing?”

Relieved that no one was going to get hurt, Deborah stared in awe at the members of the troop. “I’m glad they’re not on fire, Daddy,” she said.

(100 words)

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: J Hardy Carroll.

Fandango’s Dog Days of August #28

Fandango15 Comments

Fandango’s Dog Days of AugustDo you need a muse to get your creative juices flowing during these hot, sultry days of August? Try a dose of Fandango’s Dog Days of August prompt.

At 6:00 am Pacific time each day this month, I will be posting a new theme. Today’s theme is “your favorite season.” There are only four to choose from, so which is your favorite…and why? Share a story, a poem, a photo, a drawing, some music, or whatever you wish to share about your favorite season.

If you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FDDA, and create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

And, of course, take some time to read the other responses to this prompt. See how other bloggers are coping with the dog days of August.

Fandango’s Friday Flashback — August 28

Fandango17 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of you earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 28th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on my blog on August 28, 2017.

The Pretender

This quote by author Kurt Vonnegut resonated with me. Don’t we all, at times, pretend to be someone we aren’t but perhaps would rather be? The quote struck a chord not so much with respect to my real life, but when it comes to my blog.

In real life I am who I am, for better or worse. And I’m at the age where, with more than six decades behind me, I’m not likely to be changing who I am. I guess you might say that I’m set in my ways.

But on my blog I am not limited by the physical properties of the real world. I’m not just some random senior citizen, an old fogie with internet access who has time on his hands and who rants and raves to anyone and to no one.

On my blog I can be whoever I want to be — or at least I can pretend to be whoever I want to be. When I write my posts, whether they are political and societal rants, casual observations, or short works of fiction, my words transcend physical and environmental characteristics. My age, gender, background, where I live, what I do, and my life situations are not important. It’s what I write that defines who I am to those who take the time to read my posts.

That doesn’t mean I’m living a lie or that it’s all just an act. I may be making up stories out of my imagination when I write my flash fiction pieces, but the opinions I express in my non-fiction posts are my own. And they are deeply held and voiced with conviction.

Yet I’m not sure I would share them the same way or to the same extent in the real world as I do here on my blog. Because, in the real world, people see me for what I am — or for what, to them, I appear to be.

Thus, their perceptions of what I have to say are colored. They may dismiss my rantings and the expression of my opinions and perspectives as those of some old coot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And so, in the real world, I tend to keep my mouth shut.

But here on my blog I can be a writer of short stories. I can be a pundit, a journalist, an editor. I can act as if I know what I’m talking about. I can pretend to be witty and engaging. I can pretend that others are interested in what I have to say about whatever is going on in the world around us; that my opinions matter to anyone other than to me and that they are worth sharing.

Most important, I can pretend to be the person I’ve always wanted to be.

And if, as Vonnegut says, we are what we pretend to be, that works for me.

FOWC with Fandango — Survive

Fandango32 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 28, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “survive.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.