Archive Tag:sci-fi

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Drabble 135 – Astrogony

Astrogony

I both love and hate where I live. On one hand, it’s small and conservative and the neighborhood kids are forever doing that thing they warn you about in driver’s ed where they chase a ball out in front of your moving vehicle. On the other hand, there are so, so many stars at night.

I grew up on an island where the night sky was absolutely filled with stars. I used to watch them through my curtain when I couldn’t sleep, imagining they were eyes winking back at me from somewhere out in deep space. When I got older and moved out, spending some time in a city, the lack of stars was disconcerting.

Of course, they’re there even if I can’t see them. But there’s always been something comforting to me about looking up and seeing thousands of tiny points of light, each one so far away I can’t even fathom the distance.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

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Drabble 97 – Heliotropism

Heliotropism

People often tell me that they wish they had the patience for gardening. I do too. I have a garden that I love very much, but it’s still a chore to get out there and pull weeds and check for pests. I don’t enjoy taking out the compost, especially when a bunch of fruit flies assault my face when I open the bin. I hate ants, even when they help my peonies open.

I tried and failed to keep a garden as a kid. Every plant that died was a mark of failure, but I still couldn’t bring myself to water with any regularity or keep the slugs off the strawberries. A few days ago I realized I’d lost a cantaloupe plant that had appeared to be doing well, likely because I’d forgotten to water it. I still felt guilty.

Even so, I’m looking at all the plants on my office windowsill, all of which are thriving. I’m thinking of the peonies and roses I cut this morning and put in a vase downstairs. It took two years for those peonies to bloom, but now they’re filling my living room with their sweet scent. I might have lost a cantaloupe, but I still have something.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

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Drabble 89 – La Douleur Exquise

La Douleur Exquise
IC1396 by Pat Gaines

There are many kinds of wanting, and I’m familiar with most of them.

There’s wanting something superficial, a craving for ice cream or a trendy hat. There’s deeper want, for fulfillment or acceptance or companionship. There’s terrible want, jealousy and envy and desire turned sour. None of them are pleasant.

But want, in my experience, is also a drive. I’m ambitious and driven and a workaholic because I want something, sometimes recognition, sometimes validation, sometimes just enough money to make me feel secure. I work because I want. I push myself further because there’s something just out of reach, and if I stretch a bit more I might be able to grab it.

I say might because I think I’m beginning to realize that there is nothing tangible to grab, there. It keeps darting just out of my reach but I keep chasing it like a cat with a laser pointer. Is that a bad thing? Hmm. I don’t think I’m the right person to ask.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

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Drabble 53 – Cosmogyral

Cosmogyral
Stars by Nigel Howe

I took a day off!

That might not seem like that big of a deal, but trust me–it is. I am terrible at taking time for myself, but last week I decided I didn’t have enough time to post a drabble, so I didn’t.

Most of the time, I hold myself to self-imposed deadlines because it’s very easy to let myself off the hook because of self-doubt. “Oh, nobody’s reading it anyway,” I say, despite knowing full well it isn’t true. At least one person is reading my drabbles, because she hounded me last week to remind me to put it up. (Thanks, Stephani.)

I give myself deadlines because somebody has to hold me accountable. But I’m the worst editor I’ve ever had, not in the sense of me being a poor editor (though I do usually catch at least one typo per post, hopefully before anybody else sees it), but in the sense of me having no sympathy. You’re sick? Too bad. You lack direction? Too bad. You literally do not have a spare minute between work and sleep? Too bad.

Writing often requires me to step outside of my own head. Sometimes that doesn’t mean just letting the words flow and not worrying about my insistent inner critic, but also talking to myself like I would talk to a friend in my position.

It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to take a day off. Let yourself breathe for a moment, then step back in. The words will be there when you get back. And they were.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

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Drabble 50 – Bolide

Bolide
Meteor by rwarrin

I’ve never been much of a sci-fi person, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I love fantasy, and the two are often lumped in together in a way that makes me feel somewhat disingenuous if I say I like SFF.

It’s not that I don’t like any sci-fi; I like things like Moon and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and most of the Philip K. Dick I’ve read, but if I’m going to pick another world to travel to it’s more likely to have magic and werewolves in it than spaceships.

I get the appeal though, I think. There’s something very hopeful about science fiction, and while the same might be true for other genres as well, so much of sci-fi is about looking forward and imagining what we might do in the future, or how we might have improved the past, or examining the courses humanity is better off avoiding. For somebody who wants to be an optimist as badly as me, that’s enticing. If only I could get into it the way I can other genres.

Anyway, here’s a drabble.

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