Tuesday, 9 April 2013

An A-Z Story - H

What a happy handbag! It's jumping and everything.
Image courtesy of Morguefile
Hooray! We've reached H Day. How's everyone holding up?

My theme is as follows: each day I will ask for words beginning with that day's letter, which I will randomly select five from to use in a sentence in an ongoing story. That sentence will be posted the next day when I'll ask for words for the next letter. So my Z sentence will appear on May 1st.

A hulking 201 words were hurled my way yesterday (thanks!) Here are the five which have been handpicked (well actually no, it's completely random) to continue the story:

Gregarious (suggested by Alex J. Cavanaugh - an apt choice for the Ninja Captain!)
Grapes (suggested by Ilima)
Guilt (suggested by L. Diane Wolfe)
Gel (suggested by Carol Kilgore)
Gardengoyle (suggested by Gwen Gardner - I'm so happy this got picked!)

So here's what we have so far...


Angels had always had a certain ambiguity, being both human and divine, reflected Acatour with an acute sense of malaise as he looked down on the arable fields of medieval England. A bird flew past making a belligerent shriek, unnerved it seemed by a boggart; Acatour descended, thinking it would take a brainiac like him to unravel the poor soul’s beginnings and why it had not reached Heaven.
     York Cathedral hove into view, shrouded in wooden scaffold as part of the local bishop’s campaign of restoration; but before he could challenge a carpenter over whether any of his colleagues had fallen to their doom, his presence was announced by the crawdad he’d eaten back in 20th century New Orleans repeating on him. He wiped dribble from his chin as the remains of the crustacean narrowly missed the workmen to land in the dew of the graveyard, berating himself for his debauched and unangelic behaviour the previous night; why did that dame have to desert him? The effervescent Ella had always been eager for exciting adventures, but when he’d asked her to accompany him on this esoteric time travel mission, she’d called him a crazy drunk and left.
     It did sound rather fabulous, in the true sense of the word, he thought to himself as he descended further before landing on an empty area of scaffold, all the better for making himself visible; next to him was some viscous fluid, making him think that any fall from this precarious structure would surely be a fluke. Stepping away from the gel-like substance, he felt something watching him and turned to see a Gardengoyle on the wall next to a carved bunch of grapes, which caused the gregarious sounds of the workmen to die away as two thoughts rang clearly in his head: what was it doing here, and did he detect guilt in the creature’s eyes?

I humbly ask you to continue to humour me by handing me your H words. You can offer as many as you like, and they can be as obscure and outlandish as you like (feel free to use a dictionary for inspiration). The more words you suggest, the more chance you have of one being picked. It doesn't matter if you suggest the same word as someone else (as I know not everyone always has time to read all the comments); each will count as its own entry.

53 comments:

Suzanne Furness said...

Hi Nick, how about - humble, hideous, hallucinate, humid.

Cynthia said...

Holiday
History
Happy
Hoops
Handsome
Hula
Hop
Hip-hop

Heidi Mannan said...

Hey, cool theme. How about these H words:
hiccup
hallucinate
hairy
heinous
Hump
Hehe!

J.L. Murphey said...

Just curious Nick. What are you going to do with this excellent story after A to Z is finished?

Now for my H...
Home
Hearth
hapless
horrid
hindsight
hospitality
hospital
halitosis

S.P. Bowers said...

Hubris

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Hey, awesome! Thanks for selecting one of my words. And funny you selected Gwen's creature. I'll just offer heroes today.

Unknown said...

Another great post. So, like J.L. asked, what are you going to do with all these stories when you reach Z?

Headache (I have one right now)
Hindurance
Hurt
Hypospray
Helicopter (from Arlee's post)
Healer
Hope
Hobbit

Dani said...

Hey, these little tales are coming all great!
Dani @ Entertaining Interests
#warriorminion

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

Let's go with...

horror
hyperbole
hindrance
horizontal
helium

Unknown said...

Do you know what I is amazing about this? You're writing these as we go. You are incredible. And I see your face on almost every blog I visit, as well as mine. You must never sleep.

Unknown said...

This is such a cool idea and very, very ambitious and you are doing an excellent job! I'm so impressed!


Michelle :)
Author, PODs available June 4th
Milayna available March 11, 2014
The Infected, a PODs novel available November 2014
Visit Me!

Unknown said...

The story's going great guns!
Oh! That was G
H:
harpy
harridan
horrific
heaven
henious

Shell Flower said...

Oooh a guilty Gardengoyle can't be good. Can't wait to see what that's about!

Hellion
Honor
Hillbilly
Hovercraft
Hone
Hewn
Hooky
Hawk
Homeopathy

Sally said...

Can I cheat and offer Hoplology from Elise Fallson's wonderful blog? Go on, include a sword fight.

Elizabeth Seckman said...

Harried
Hypothesis
Helium
Hell

Jessica Schley said...

How about horticulture?

And what a fun theme.

Ella said...

Its getting good..oh, I need h words-oops! ;D

hothouse
hope
heat
human
him
hired
history
heart
hockey
hearty
hill
horned
hail

:D

Mark Means said...

Hmmmm....

Hearth
Hambone
Herculean
Harbor
Hulahoop
Hipster

Jennie Bennett said...

I love that last line! :)

Jennifer Joyce said...

Yay, one of my F words was picked.

Now for H:

Happy
Hippo
Humble
Ham
Halo

D.E. Malone said...

Harried, hirsute, hysteria, highbrow, heinous. I'm enjoying this; keep up the great posts!

Michelle Wallace said...

Let me see...

Haphazard
Hasty
Horrific
Helplessness
Hysteria

Good Luck!

Writer In Transit

Unknown said...

You're doing great. I love the word Hippotherapy-- the therapy of riding horses for healing. Just such a great concept (with great H words!).

Mel said...

It just gets better and better!
Words:
Haberdashery
Horrendous
Haunch
Heretic
Hulking

Anonymous said...

I really like your idea for the challenge and am glad you commented, which led me to your blog, so I can read it.

I shall do a few H words for you as well.

Help
Haddock
Hairy

Carol Kilgore said...

Yay for gel :)
On to H:
happy
help
hello
holy
hero
hula
horns
hulk
helicopter

Julie Flanders said...

I love the word Gardengoyle! How fun.

Harlot, Herringbone, Hades, Hiccups, Halitosis

Clare said...

Hum ... why did the Gardengoyle have guilt in its eyes?

Excellent as always! :D

For H I offer:

Hoarfrost
habitat
hibiscus

Christine Rains said...

Gardengoyle is a very cool word. Here are my H words for you: hallucination, hermit, highfalutin, humbug, and hysterical.

Misha Gerrick said...

Honor. :-)

Jean Davis said...

Happy
Hippos
Hopping
Hilarious
Horribly
Hungry

Susan Oloier said...

Impressive work, Nick!
haughty
and because I have one right now...headache

Heather R. Holden said...

Gardengoyle?! What a great word!

Some H words: helpless, helpful, helium, hasty, helix, history, historical, hoopla, hefty, hanger, hinge, hero, heroic, hurtful, Halloween, haunting, heaven, heart, heartless

ilima said...

Yay for grapes! :)

heavy
howl
hand
hour
heresy

Anonymous said...

Hey Nick! Stopping in from the A to Z challenge! This is a GREAT theme! Really is unique!

Now for my suggestions: Hungry Hræsvelgr (a word suggested to me from a writing friend!)

Samantha May said...

The story is really coming along! How about:

Hideous
Hero
Heathen
Humongous
Helium
Hint
Heckle

:)

Al Diaz said...

hall
hell
hill
hole
hull
hahahaha, creative we are today!

Nick Wilford said...

Hugs to everyone! Some great suggestions so far, thank you! :o)

cleemckenzie said...

I'm stealing these two from another AtoZ Blogger. They were just too good leave there.

harlot
Henbit (a plant)

Here's mine:

harrowing
henpecked
hubris

Unknown said...

Hi Nick! Thanks for stopping by earlier. Here are some words that pop into my head:
heart, hear, here, humble, heartfelt

Michael Di Gesu said...

Hi nick,

You're such a great job with this!

Horrid

Happy

Harness

Handmade

Hula

Hipster

Hibernate

Hindrance

Hippo

Haberdashery

Hinor

Kelley Lynn said...

How fun!!!

Horrible
Hike
Hack
Hiccup
Hickey

;)

Anonymous said...

What a great theme! Love it. I am sure it keeps you busy though, dang, no scheduling your posts at all, good luck!
Horrendous
Horrible
Hack
Hellacious
Heavenly
hidden
hiccup
hemp
habberdasher

Carrie Butler said...

I'm glad gardengoyle was picked, too. I was wondering how you'd use that one. :)

hither
hide
happenstance

Patricia Stoltey said...

Ah, totally entertaining theme and method. It's still early where I live, so I think I'll add a couple of "h" words too. How about: higgledy-piggledy and hopscotch...

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

hilarious
humour (with the Aussie spelling!)

Rhonda Albom said...

Huddled
happy
hinterlands


Thanks for checking out my AtoZ.
Rhonda @Laugh-Quotes.com

Anonymous said...

Heckle, hackles, hefty, hubris, and hasty.

Nick Wilford said...

Huge thanks everyone! About to do my next sentence so that's enough H words for now. :)

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Nick .. I'm too late for Happy Hilary .. oh well! Quickly move on to square I ...

Cheers Hilary

Anonymous said...

haughty
heretic
heroic
honorable
hire

Gwen Gardner said...

Yay! You picked Gardengoyle! I'm so thrilled :)

Chuck said...

Well I got behind and missed H and I...damn this Challenge goes fast and waits for no one!

Your story is very creative so far.


Chuck at Apocalypse Now