A blog hop, kind of, sort of

Ali Isaac tagged me to participate in a Facebook project. I don’t have a Facebook account, and don’t particularly want one. I mentioned that to Ali, as I slipped toward the door. She said, “That’s okay, I posted my stuff on my blog too. You can do that.”

I read her post, here. It’s kind of a combo about her slowing down blogging for a bit to make some writing time. The part for me involves sharing the first seven lines of my work in progress.

I never quite do these things right. It isn’t fair for me to tag others, when I don’t Facebook personally. I also recently posted something about my novel in progress. I’ll run it out there again, but am giving it an extra line or two to get to the creepy part.

The Playground

Tommy Fazio lit the black candles in his seventeenth floor office and pulled down on some surgical gloves. The faint light revealed a bank of computer systems with cables leading to an autopsy table. The smell of burning tallow mingled with that of bleach.

He pulled on a white lab coat and walked up to the girl on the table. She was six or seven years old, it didn’t matter. Cables ran into every opening in her body, with a large one stitched inside her abdomen. Bloody slobber hung out her mouth and dripped into a plastic bucket. He wiggled the cable between her legs and she coughed.

“This one’s about finished,” Tommy said.

He spoke again, but in a deep baritone voice. “Yes. We need another one within the day.”

***

What the heck, here are some lines from a short story I wrote.

A Humid Business

The antiquated chunk of metal spun lazily in its weightless environment. As it passed over Germany it finished its final orbit and atmospheric friction started to warm it. The glowing purple growth on the exterior doubled in size at the onset of heat, much the same way a loaf of bread expands in a hot oven.

There were reports from Japan of a strange flash in the night as its orbit disintegrated and it burst into flames. Several ships reported the same thing further to the east.

I pulled on my coveralls and started my truck. We were stringing wire for the new high tension lines that would bring hydroelectric power to the coast…

Because I don’t Facebook, I’m not tagging anyone. If you want to play along, please feel free. If you leave a link in the comments I’ll read your post.