Sunday, May 27, 2012

Six Sentence Sunday: Kiss Like a Fist

The lovely Monica Vitti for no reason at all
That time again: Six Sentence Sunday. I figured you might like a song-inspired story that isn't inspired by The Fall.

Yes, they do exist.

The song is Florence + The Machine's "Kiss With a Fist" which you'll notice is not quite the same as the title of my story. There has to be a word for it: someone who cannot get a quote right to save their life. Even when they're singing along with the words. Hopeless: maybe that's the word. I gave that characteristic to my character Ro in my novel Owl Stretching [oh and good news -- final edits accepted, so with luck I'll hear something soon about the release date and so forth].

So here's my six from "Kiss Like a Fist" and below it Flo's bouncy celebration of mutual assured destruction. I've bleeped one objectionable word so I don't have to add an adult content warning to the blog; you'll find my crime/noir stories a bit sweary (Chloƫ would approve). This one also contains gratuitous but minor Shakespeare swipage (you wouldn't even notice if I didn't tell you -- working these things in is just the kind of puzzle that entertains me and matters to no one else. Another habit I need to cure, I'm sure):
She had a mouth that could raise the dead. It had raised me plenty over the years, but I'd never been close enough to Rosaline's orbit to do anything about it.


Until tonight.


I brought her a third martini and her tongue had loosened enough to share some sage advice with me as she leaned back in the little snug. "Never f**k anyone crazier than yourself," she said, sucking an olive between those rose red lips.

I would have done well to listen to that advice, but it was already too late...





Check out the wealth of authors participating in Six Sentence Sunday and find some new gems. This story's been under submission for about two months; checking Duotrope, that doesn't seem to be an unusual length for this publication (alas), so I'll curtail my impatience and keep working on other things. You know me, I get itchy if I don't have a new publication coming out.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Wonderful writing!

K. A. Laity said...

Thanks, Alix. You're very kind.

Stephanie said...

LOVE it!!!

K. A. Laity said...

Thanks, Stephanie! :-)

Mackenzie Crowne said...

Fun six. Love it!

Veronica Scott said...

Leaves me wondering about their backstory, what will happen next and then the follow on to that! Very effective six!

Sidney Bristol said...

Nice six! Love the orbit bit.

K. A. Laity said...

Wow, thank Mackenzie, Veronica and Sidney. Very kind of you. Fingers crossed the place it's submitted will agree! :-)

Unknown said...

This made me smile. Intriguing characters.

K. A. Laity said...

Thanks, Britt! I had fun with this story -- well, I suppose I have fun with most of them, but I had a few funny twists in this one.

Damiana Alder said...

Your writing has a great noir feeling to it!

K. A. Laity said...

Thanks so much, Damiana -- that's just what I was aiming for, so yay!

Lily Childs said...

Love the SS, love Flo, and love that song. What a punch.

K. A. Laity said...

Thanks so much, Lily! That song is so catchy. I love it.

Todd Mason said...

And there's always room for Vitti.

K. A. Laity said...

This is true!