OH MY GARBAGE

Flash Fiction Challenge!!!!!!

Go to your favorite Music Machine, set it to SHUFFLE, and whatever the title of the first song to come up will be the inspiration for your short story. You only have 500 words.

For more details, go here!

GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Steady Push to the Finish Line

It’s Saturday night, I’m nursing a cold, I’m yelling about walnuts I bought a while ago, I’ve put too much coconut oil in my hair, and I have frogs on my pajama pants. I can’t believe this has been my first real collegiate paper since 2007. It’s been four and a half years since I’ve attended school and I’m adamant on finishing, yet I am still having the same anxiety that I have for this paper as I do when I am trying to finish my novels. So to distract myself, I will be moving on to another class’ assignment. Hopefully this will help me better understand my character Quinn from one of my previous unfinished novels. Patrick has encouraged me not to abandon it completely, but to reconsider Quinn’s character and maybe finish later.

The assignment is to answer some questions about an original character.

I was going to answer the questions about his imaginary frienemy, Molly, but I know her too well and what fun would that be?

Full name: Quinn Kinsley

Brief Physical Description:

Dark thick hair, small bright eyes, thin nose, square jaw, clear skin, sparse facial hair, glasses (mostly for fashion). Average body; scrawny chest, broad shoulders, midsection is lean but with some noticeable love handles, exceptional legs, short fingernails, flat feet.

Brief Family Tree:

He is the youngest of seven, the only boy. His sisters’ names are Drew, Gertrude, Hannah, Dylan, Raquel, and Alexandria—Alex for short. Parents; his mom, Sharyl, and missing father, Hank. Quinn has no children, but he does have a rotund tabby cat name Marmaduke.

Where He Lives:

He lives in Ventura, California, in an apartment on Poli Street that overlooks the hills and beach that he rarely looks at because of the thongs of tourists. His apartment is small but surprisingly well maintained and decorated.

Occupation (if it’s a child, what does he want to be?):

For now he works as a restaurant critic writer for the

Daily Local

, but when he grows up, he’d like to be a travel journalist.

His Best Friend:

Molly

Something He Takes Everywhere and Why:

He has a lot of keys, with a keychain that his friend Mark got for him from Spain. He was reluctant to take the keychain—a small neon pair of boobs—but because it was a gift from Mark, he had to take it. At first, embarrassment to use his keys were expected, but as he found its usefulness in finding his massive collection of keys in his satchel amongst his notebook and things, he decided that the embarrassment of neon boobs sticking out of his bag from time to time was worth it.

His Biggest Secret:

Molly is his imaginary friend that he’s had since he was nine and won’t go away.

His Biggest Regret:

Loosing Joe, his ex-girlfriend to Jason, Mr-Perfect-She’ll-Marry-Him-in-a-Month.

His Biggest Ambition:

To become an acclaimed Travel/Food Journalist, like Anthony Bourdain.

He is Most Afraid of When:

Molly finally disappears.

If He Won the Lottery:

He would travel the world and eat everything, finding the time to write about them between moments of gorging.

Glad to have something that’s not due until Thursday out of the way. Now time to work on my paper that has a more urgent due date.

• a m b i r d •: Sunday Night Drawing Challenge 8