Author Archives: Tastyniblets

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers – The Special Vintage

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Here’s my contribution to this week’s FFfAW prompt, brought to us by Priceless Joy.

Chateau Vieux Monde stood at the top of the hill, catching the first rays of the sun as it rose over the valley.

The Allen’s watched the sunrise before walking up the main steps. They had waited years for this moment, so the few extra minutes meant nothing. Conventional medicine had brought David no relief, and they had sold everything they owned to travel to this remote little corner of France based on nothing more than a rumour.

And now here they were- pressed into an oppressive little room deep beneath the Chateau, rank with the musty smells of earth and rot.

Monsieur Le Monde stood by a large black barrel and half filled a small tasting glass with a rich golden liquid. “Who first?”

David took the glass and gave it to his wife. She took a sip.

“Did it work?”

Monsieur Le Monde pressed a small knife into her hand.

“See for yourself Madame. Test your immortality.”

Monday’s Finish the Story- Midnight Brew

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Here’s my contribution to this week’s Monday’s Finish the Story, brought to us by Barbara Beacham.

Finish the story begins with:  “The barista shook his head. That hedge couldn’t have moved closer overnight. Could it?”

Ever since they’d been selling the new coffee, the customers were complaining about its unusual side effects. That they were seeing fuzzy outlines around trees, and shadows flitting at the edge of their vision. Some people were even talking to dead relatives. The barista didn’t believe in such things, so when one of the regulars bet him $50 to drink a double espresso, he just thought that it was easy money. Except now he wasn’t so sure. The coffee came in a small black bag  with a name, and nothing else. “Midnight Brew.” He hesitated, twirling the tiny espresso glass before taking a sip of the  thick black brew. Heartbeat quickened, pupils dilated, everything came into sharp focus. It tasted of chocolate, and flowers, of his first kiss, of mothers milk, of tears, and of life itself. He shook his head and blinked. Was the topiary hedge waving at him?

Weekly Photo Challenge – Doors

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A few years ago I was in Rajasthan India, a part of the world filled with the most beautiful antique doors, which beckoned indiscriminately towards humble homes and ornate palaces alike. These are a few examples from my trip. I have also include a shot I took on the Inca Trail of a doorway high up in the mountains, looking out onto the misty mountainside. I think this photo captures the ‘otherworldliness’ of this place quite well..

JSno may be dead. But..

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Olly, you are in sooo much trouble. How much trouble? Thats right..

In a fever induced delirium the other night my thoughts turned, as one would naturally expect at 3am, to Westeros and the  deceased state of one Jon “Bastard” Snow of Winterfell.

The soul sapping virus within me (perhaps its from Asshai) offers a theory which I’m throwing out there into the fighting pit of  theoretic frenzy on everyone’s favourite Snow.

Here goes:

1. Jon Snow as we knew him is dead, but he’ll be back. He just won’t be the exactly same person, as previous examples of revivals have shown (a la Dondarrion and Stoneheart). They’re always a bit ‘different’ when they come back, but so long as he’s a bit more animated than the Khal Drogo effort, we can gloss over the fine print can’t we?

2. Whether he is Azor Ahai or not is yet to be seen, but if he is half Targaryen, and especially of the future dragon riding variety, then he probably isn’t going to have a problem with fire, so;

3. When his traitor “brothers” stick him on the funeral pyre, what if he doesn’t actually burn because he’s Jon Snow-Targaryen afterall and they don’t get burnt do they, and he’s back (thanks to Melisandre), and look his sword’s aflame now just like Stannis’s was supposed to be; and

4. He’s technically been dead now, so his “Watch” has ended and he’s no longer bound to his oath. Because really, we’ve got two more books and who knows how many seasons of the tv show to get through – and if this whole Ice and Fire thing is about Jon Snow then we can’t afford to have him moping about on the Wall feeling guilty for being alive the whole time. JSno needs to go global.

As for my own fate, well the one thing I’ve learnt from the lives of the Westerosi’s is that things can always get worse. Cold sore is coming.

Monday’s Finish the Story – The Seed

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Here’s my contribution to this weeks’s Monday’s Finish the Story, brought to us by Barbara Beacham.

Finish the story starts with “At first, it looked like an ordinary marble, but it was far from it.”

To the untrained eye, it was nothing more than a trinket, piled into the old straw basket sitting in a dusty corner of the bookshop. Cheap treats left at child height, making it easy for little hands to scoop out a reward for good behavior..

Mikah had already walked out of the store when a commotion made her glance back . A little girl had upturned the basket, scattering its contents all over the shop floor. She stepped back in to help the girl’s father and the shop owner who were frantically trying to clean up the mess. She stuck her hand under a bookshelf to pull out some of the escapees, and jumped back as a bolt of electricity ran up her arm. Shaking, she uncurled her fingers and stared at the tiny white orb which lay, ice cold, against her skin. It could only be one thing. A world seed.

Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge – Off-Season

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This week’s challenge makes me think of “off-season” travels, when the weather isn’t as bad as the travel guide says it will be, but  you get to experience special parts of the world without the usual hoardes of tourists at every stop.

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London ‘not-in the summertime’ means not having to stand 10 people deep in front of every painting at the National Gallery.

offs3 We had this little corner of Prague all to ourselves for a brief moment.

offs2 Winter in Venice.

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This is Colona, not far from Buenos Aires. It’s so very quaint (and quiet) in the off-season.

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The usually inviting Pacific Ocean is looking unseasonably uninviting on its South American shores, in Lima, Peru.