So, I found out about this competition called Literary Taxidermy in 2018 – and what can I say? It just had to be fun! You all go and check it out here: The Lit Taxidermy website and see for yourselves.

So, in 2018 I started writing for one (of the three available) assignments, Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, but didn’t finish in time. In 2019 is somehow missed the assignment or maybe hadn’t had the time to try my hands on the Ray Bradbury prompt. But now, in 2020, the competition is back with two new possible prompts: Adolus Huxley’s Brave New World and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

I think, I’ll go with the Huxley prompt. It’s feels like it will fit right in with my SciFi-ish kind of stories. Here’s the first try on a first paragraph:

A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories in the shadow of a city spire wasn’t the hideout Gainelle Mimosa had expected the most notorious fence anywhere in the next fifty square ligues would choose. The place’s ramshackle security features were even worse than the location: cheap sweepercams at the front gate, the security shutter hanging at an angle and refusing to roll all the way up, and the bulky outline of a WeWhiz 700S detector combo right behind the threshold. Surprisingly cheap, battered, and outdated for the lair of the most and if Gainelle hated anything, it was surprises.

I’ll see where this start will lead me. And if I’ll finish this time around. Then again, we all know how much a deadline can help with getting things done.