Tyrone’s sister watched shocked as he slipped into their boss’s
office towards the gated computer. Getting through the password guards was a
matter of understanding resources, standard company IT password protocols (word length, caps, numbers
and special characters) and his boss’s phobic forgetfulness.
Shaking the mouse bared a screen image
of orange and black butterflies. Easy. “Manoarch100.”
Tyrone opened
Outlook for the second shield. Chewing his lip, he spotted an old email queued
to the top. The subject: “Town on Friday. 2 nights stay. Back on Friday?" I know this one. “Fr1day1sH0rse!”
Skin tight, Tyrone searched the emails for proof.
The file labeled “Originals” was sealed with a bizarre riddle. Tyrone blanked. As
a professional journalist, he knew writers would always find help with an O.W.L.
(the Online Writing Lab). Tyrone opened a chat and typed, “What's the shortest
sentence in the Eng lang?”
“Go.” pinged back.
Tyrone entered capital ‘g’, zero, period. His original email with the attached
article, “Magic Mirrors – Revealing True Selves,” and a headshot of himself in drag was
the latest in a host of pirated articles. Determined, Tyrone composed an email to the editor and attached the file as the door thrust open.
“Move away and your sister goes free.”
"It's done.”
“Doesn’t matter. I won't get fired for one
article. But you will.”
"Will they for 28?"
~JRogers
7.27.2016
***
Prompt from Fairytale Plot Generator on Springhole.net:
"The story is about a brave queen who must defeat a tyrant,
find a magic mirror and solve 3 riddles to save the kingdom. Things are
complicated by the villain kidnapping the main character’s sister. Assistance
comes in the form of a magic owl.”
This prompt made me question my ability to write anything on an adult level. Then I remembered the fairy tale writers I enjoy now are Jasper Fforde of the Thursday Next series and Seanan McGuire of Indexing series. These authors and others like them take literary/fairy tale tropes and turn them into something excitingly new. Using some tips from Miss Literati's blog Write, Share & Shine!, I took a stroke at modern day fairy tale writing.
Miss Literati's first suggestion is to bring the fairy tale into the modern world which meant I had to change the way I defined things in the prompt.
"brave queen" = "Drag Queen"
"tyrant" and "villain" = "boss"
"magic mirror" = "reflection of true self"
"magic owl" = "O.W.L. (Online Writing Lab)"
Word Count: 219
No comments:
Post a Comment