Mar 16, 2013

Silly Vocabulary


We sold our house on Thursday. On April 6, we’re moving from Orlando to Pasadena. I’m sure you’ll understand that I’m a wee bit scattered today (and likely will remain so for the next three weeks), but I’m desperately trying to not fall down on my obligations, so today’s post is about vocabulary. I can bitch about spelling, grammar and vocabulary just about any time, which made this post a quickie!

I have a little game on my phone called Beworded. A bunch of letter blocks fall onto the screen and you need to connect letters to make words. It’s a bit like Boggle solitaire.  

Most times when you get a word, it will tell you if it’s a noun or verb. In my opinion, it’s a mostly worthless “additional feature”. Occasionally it will see fit to define the word, which is sometimes interesting, but also mostly worthless.  Here are some of the fabulous definitions I’ve got recently:

Rosin - to treat with rosin

Seat - to place a seat

Creel - to put fish in a creel

Tone – to give a particular tone

Are you noticing a pattern? Didn’t anyone ever tell these people that you can’t define a word by using the word?!? Worthless. Then I got this one:

Cat - to hoist an anchor to the cathead

This one is slightly better, although only by a tiny fraction. Why, you say? Because now I know there’s some piece of a boat called a cathead. This is new information for me. However, I’m guessing that someone who knows what a cathead actually is may already be familiar with this particular definition of cat as a verb, and then we’re back to WORTHLESS definitions. If only I could turn off this “extra feature”. I’d rather they just showed ads in that spot, I think…

Mar 14, 2013

Three-Word Scenario: Partners (an M/M scene)

Today I thought I’d share another one of my three-word scenarios. This is where I take three random words and write whatever scenario comes to mind, using each word at least once.

I’ve decided to skip trying to keep the scenarios to a certain word count and instead go with whatever comes to mind and however long it takes to get the entire idea down. It might end up as a snippet that could become a longer story. Or it might be a character or setting description. Anything that pops into my head when I mesh the three random words together.

Last time Lisabet Sarai suggested these words: retro, parking, and mattress. Thanks, Lisabet!

Here’s my three-word scenario:



Partners

Sawyer drew in a long breath and leaned back on his elbows. His T-shirt lay crumpled in a ball beside him on the mattress, and his jeans were open at the front. He didn’t bother to zip them up. In a few minutes he and Finn would get back to where they’d been headed.

Who the hell got half naked, kissed like they’d been doing five minutes ago, and then stopped before they got to the fucking? Something was seriously messed up between them.

Finn stood across the room, his back to the wall, his arms folded across his bare chest. He sported a scowl that said everything Sawyer didn’t want to hear.

Or maybe he did. Maybe they needed to have this conversation. Get everything out in the open. Finally.

They hadn’t slept together in weeks. Every night after work, they hung out at Sawyer’s apartment, watching one of those ’70s cops shows, not talking, not even laughing at the stupid-ass crooks or the retro hairstyles they usually mocked all through the show.

Sawyer threw Finn a smirk, knowing that alone would piss him off. “You’re mad at me.”

Finn kept his hard gaze locked on Sawyer’s chest. “I’m not mad.”

“Fuck that. You’ve been mad at me since that day in the parking garage. Like it was my fault.”

“You got shot.”

“I didn’t ask the guy to shoot me.”

Finn made eye contact for the first time since the kissing ended. “You might as well have. You went at him like you had no training at all.”

Sawyer sat up with a jolt. “Are you calling me a shitty cop?

“No. I’m calling you a reckless one.”

“I know you don’t mean that.” Slowly, like he might spook Finn if he moved too fast, Sawyer got off the bed and went to stand in front of him. “Just like I knew in that garage you’d have my back. Like always.”

Finn met his gaze again and grunted out a laugh. He didn’t let up on the tense posture, though.

Sawyer grabbed him by the back of the neck and yanked him forward until they were eye to eye, their foreheads almost touching. “Just admit it. You’re pissed about the shooting because it freaked you out like nothing else on the job ever has. And it freaked you out because you’re in love with me.” He drew him forward until they were back to the kissing, this time their mouths and tongues and bodies coming together slowly, tenderly.

When they finally parted, Finn leaned against the wall again, the tension in his body long gone. “God, you’re infuriating.” He smiled with a softness Sawyer had never seen before.

“And you’re right,” Finn added. “About everything. So don’t ever get your ass shot again.”

Sawyer gripped him by the waistband of his jeans and tugged until Finn was in his arms again. “Deal.”


Award-winning author Sloan Parker writes passionate, dramatic stories about two men (or more) falling in love. Sloan enjoys writing in the fictional world because in fiction you can be anything, do anything...even fall in love for the first time over and over again. She lives in Ohio with her partner and their neurotic cats where her greatest moments in life are spent with her family, her friends, and her characters. You can learn more about Sloan and her writing at www.sloanparker.com.






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