Writing Challenges
This week's Odd Prompts writing challenge at More Odds than Ends was from A.C. Young: “If right-handers who are good with both hands are ambidextrous, does that mean left-handers similarly gifted are ambisinistrous?”
It was a rather amusing play on words, but I wanted more than just a quick joke. Which raised the question of why the difference should be significant. Was there some kind of issue with the neural hardwiring, perhaps dealing with cyberpunk technology? Or maybe it was a fantasy world, and there was at least a belief that mages who were naturally left-handed would be more apt to turn to the dark arts?
Which led me to recall "Ghost Jaguar," my stalled sequel to "The Sound of One Child Crying." Might that 'verse be one in which at least some cultures believed that a left-handed mage was a sinister one, such that anyone with magical ability who could use both hands would try to appear to be right-handed.
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Between Left and Right
The chamber was still dimly lit, but now it was no longer dusty and cobwebbed from decades of neglect. The furniture might be rough-hewn and functional, but Reza had no doubt it would be sturdy, not crumbling from dry-rot. For certain, the nearer chair would not be apt to fall apart, given that a young man had been shackled to it for interrogation.
On the far side of the desk sat an older man, balding and round-faced in a manner that made Reza think of a rabbit. His speech was just odd enough that it required considerable concentration to parse.
"So let us go over this again. You have admitted that you have some acquaintance with magery, and you claim to be equally capable of using your left or your right hand. However, you have persistently refused to tell us whether you are actually left-handed or right-handed."
Another man might have yelled, or snarled, or growled those words to make himself sound more menacing. Yet this interrogator's soft, calm voice managed to sound even more frightening than any amount of angry bellowing.
The younger man swallowed, and Reza could tell he was fighting back fear. There was a barely detectable quaver in his voice, although he tried to keep it firm without becoming overtly defiant. "I've told you that I'm ambidexterous--"
"But are you really? Or are you actually ambisinistrous?" The interrogator pointed at his subject's right hand, then his left.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, Reza's connection with the past ended, leaving her standing in a dusty chamber that hadn't been used since the time of King Suslan.
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I'm not sure yet how this scene fits into the larger storyline of "Ghost Jaguar," but I'm hoping to have more writing time this winter, when I don't have any conventions for a while. With luck I'll be able to find out, and to have a finished work of fiction to publish.
I did get my story written for the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Writing Challenge. My effort can certainly be read as a mundane story, but I think it's a character from the Grissom timeline, although I'm not sure it's Alice Murcheson or Autumn Belfontaine, both of whom are from the Upper Midwest.
As always, if you'd like to participate in Odd Prompts, just send your prompt in to oddprompts@gmail.com to be assigned a prompt of your own. Or if you're not up to the commitment of trading prompts, you can always check out the spare prompts and see if any of them tickle your creativity.
There will be a new word and picture prompt up at Indies Unlimited on Saturday. Until then, the polls will open tomorrow for voting on the Readers' Choice Award, and will close at 5PM on Thursday.
In the meantime, keep writing.
It was a rather amusing play on words, but I wanted more than just a quick joke. Which raised the question of why the difference should be significant. Was there some kind of issue with the neural hardwiring, perhaps dealing with cyberpunk technology? Or maybe it was a fantasy world, and there was at least a belief that mages who were naturally left-handed would be more apt to turn to the dark arts?
Which led me to recall "Ghost Jaguar," my stalled sequel to "The Sound of One Child Crying." Might that 'verse be one in which at least some cultures believed that a left-handed mage was a sinister one, such that anyone with magical ability who could use both hands would try to appear to be right-handed.
===========================================================================================
Between Left and Right
The chamber was still dimly lit, but now it was no longer dusty and cobwebbed from decades of neglect. The furniture might be rough-hewn and functional, but Reza had no doubt it would be sturdy, not crumbling from dry-rot. For certain, the nearer chair would not be apt to fall apart, given that a young man had been shackled to it for interrogation.
On the far side of the desk sat an older man, balding and round-faced in a manner that made Reza think of a rabbit. His speech was just odd enough that it required considerable concentration to parse.
"So let us go over this again. You have admitted that you have some acquaintance with magery, and you claim to be equally capable of using your left or your right hand. However, you have persistently refused to tell us whether you are actually left-handed or right-handed."
Another man might have yelled, or snarled, or growled those words to make himself sound more menacing. Yet this interrogator's soft, calm voice managed to sound even more frightening than any amount of angry bellowing.
The younger man swallowed, and Reza could tell he was fighting back fear. There was a barely detectable quaver in his voice, although he tried to keep it firm without becoming overtly defiant. "I've told you that I'm ambidexterous--"
"But are you really? Or are you actually ambisinistrous?" The interrogator pointed at his subject's right hand, then his left.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, Reza's connection with the past ended, leaving her standing in a dusty chamber that hadn't been used since the time of King Suslan.
=========================================================================================
I'm not sure yet how this scene fits into the larger storyline of "Ghost Jaguar," but I'm hoping to have more writing time this winter, when I don't have any conventions for a while. With luck I'll be able to find out, and to have a finished work of fiction to publish.
I did get my story written for the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Writing Challenge. My effort can certainly be read as a mundane story, but I think it's a character from the Grissom timeline, although I'm not sure it's Alice Murcheson or Autumn Belfontaine, both of whom are from the Upper Midwest.
As always, if you'd like to participate in Odd Prompts, just send your prompt in to oddprompts@gmail.com to be assigned a prompt of your own. Or if you're not up to the commitment of trading prompts, you can always check out the spare prompts and see if any of them tickle your creativity.
There will be a new word and picture prompt up at Indies Unlimited on Saturday. Until then, the polls will open tomorrow for voting on the Readers' Choice Award, and will close at 5PM on Thursday.
In the meantime, keep writing.