Thursday 18 April 2013

An A-Z Story - P

Don't be feeling peaky - we're almost at the end of the penultimate full week of the Challenge. Perk 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 peachy 189 O words were provided yesterday - thank you! Out of these random.org has picked the following five - a couple of which were very handy, the rest proving more tricky.

Octave (suggested by loverofwords)
Othello (suggested by Mina Burrows)
Oh (suggested by Powdered Toast Man)
Officious (suggested by S.P. Bowers)
Ouch (suggested by C. Lee McKenzie)

Just to reiterate, the selection process is entirely random! If you've been a prolific participant, proffering piles of words none of which have been picked, don't take it personally. Just keep trying!

Please peruse the story as it now stands:


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?
     That horrendous stare was starting to give Acatour a headache when a workman with a harried expression shimmied up onto the platform via a hemp rope, his arrival causing an apparently hilarious reaction in the Gardengoyle. “Hey, you!” said the workman, stomping towards Acatour, but something seemed to interrupt his progress, drawing him inexorably towards the island of iridescent liquid, which seemed entirely illogical to the angel until he sensed the impish carving’s illicit intentions.
     The workman slipped on the puddle and waved his arms frantically like a jester, trying not to fall over the edge; in that moment Acatour sensed the wickedly joyful mirth of the Gardengoyle and grabbed the man’s arm, saving him from jeopardy and causing the creature’s joy to dissipate as it contemplated a future in Paranormal Jail.
     “Thank you,” said the man, “my darling Kate is too young to become a widow,” but upon saying this he started to keel over as if affected by his own version of Kryptonite; Acatour had been ready to show kindness to the grotesquely kitsch Gardengoyle, but now saw the only solution was to destroy it. While struggling to hold on to the lanky workman - who had become rather loquacious and kept babbling about his wife and lover, who Acatour hoped were the same person - and stop him from being lost over the edge of the scaffold, he cast around for any tools or discarded carvings he could use as a weapon and finally alighted on a rather hefty rock lobster, which, it occurred to him, would be much more effective than a crawdad.
     A look of merriment crossed the creature’s face that was quite deranged considering it was about to be smashed to smithereens, before it melted into the rock leaving nothing but smooth stone - it was magic, of course - and Acatour quickly descended the monumental structure, past more workmen and a rather flustered merchant, and burst through the main door just as matins was beginning. Two hundred heads turned towards him in a space as quiet as a nunnery, and he felt like a numbskull for interrupting, but he had a need as urgent as a junkie looking for his next narcotics to get that Gardengoyle before it did any more mischief; the next thing he knew, a numbing pain and squeezing sensation on his head told him the Gardengoyle had found him.
     “Oh Father, hallowed be thy name-” began an officious bishop, quickly interrupted by a loud “Ouch!” from Acatour and an earsplitting shriek from the monster at an octave which must have been unreachable by humans as the besieged angel finally wrestled it off his head, before pitching it to the black- and white- tiled floor which looked like pieces from an Othello set, where it smashed into a thousand pieces.


Pass me your P words, please, in order to allow my story to proliferate.

A quick note - sorry I haven't been around to quite as many blogs this week, and for posting late today. It's been a hectic one, with various appointments and meetings, as well as getting our car fixed. We're away on holiday too tomorrow, until next Tuesday, so I don't know how active I'll be before we leave - it doesn't help that as I write this, the connection is down! While I'm away, my only activity will be to update the story each day, but rest assured that I will get back to each and every commenter on my return. Thanks for your understanding.

30 comments:

Michelle Wallace said...

Okay, here goes-------
Pilfer
Profit
Premonition
Probe
Peacock
Protege
Programme
Psychotic
Pungent
Prolific

Good Luck! You are doing an amazing job!

Writer In Transit

Julie Flanders said...

Have to go with Penguin because of your adorable pic at the top!

Also Paradise, Penultimate, Pentagon, Precious

Have a wonderful time on your holiday! :)

cleemckenzie said...

See, I knew you'd need "ouch." *Drums fingers on desk, thinking* Now what about this P word?

Ah, here's one. Precarious

I'm out of P's

























p

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

This will be one cool story when it's finished.
Parasite, parfait, paranormal.

Susan Oloier said...

I've been away due to the hectic nature of life. I just read your story in its entirety...to O. Wow! Very impressive.
P words:
pensive
passive
polite
politically correct
posturing

Good luck with everything and have a fun holiday!

Carol Kilgore said...

Oh, I love the penguin!
Here are my P words for you:
porcupine
papoose
purple
pupil
people
persistence
pomp
prince
princess

Dee @ A Deecoded Life said...

Whew, Acatour is safe!

Pepper
Pedestrian
Patriot
Pumpkin
Pesky
Pretzel
Princess

nutschell said...

Gardengoyle! What an interesting creature!

Paramour
Paramount
Parachute
Parable

Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Samantha May said...

Okay the penguin is much less terrifying than the ostrich :)

Patriot
Parody
Paradigm
Peony
Peruse
Permeate
Pernicious
Protrude

Anonymous said...

Nice post. I love the penguin picture. :)

Hmm...P words. Let's see --

Prolific
Presumptuous
Perfect
Peril
Permeate
Peer
Pristine
Paramount

Best,
Alexandra~

Fe said...

I'm loving this story - thanks.

Orange
Orangutan
Obsolete
Obsessive
Ordinary

:)

Fe said...

Ugh - sorry - can I retract that one?

My mind is in reverse

Or precariously perverse, puerile and petulant.

Jessica Schley said...

Perfuctory
Prefect (not perfect)
Perspicacious
Prognosticate

This is so much fun to read! Thanks for putting in all this effort.

Suzanne Furness said...

Surely you could squeeze purple in there, Nick?! Or what about;

pimple
perky
pearl
pewter or
purple!

Keep on going this is such a great idea.

Christine Rains said...

I don't want this story to end! It's so much fun. Here are my P words: paddle, pearl, philosophy, pillar, and poison.

Al Diaz said...

pick
potato
please
perfect

Golden Eagle said...

Perfection
Partition
Pleasantries
Percolating
Premeditated
Probabilistic
Porpoise

Hope you have a good holiday! :)

Jay Noel said...

Not the Othello set!!!!!

Okay, P words:

postulate
poop
pip
ping
preppy
ponderous
panic

Heather R. Holden said...

Love where this story is going!

Some P words:

perfect
pernicious
pugnacious
petal
pedestal
pendant
prophecy
protestant
paranormal
pervasive
petulant
pest
powerless
prolific
party
psychic

Jean Davis said...

Pretty
Plucky
Penguin
Picks
Pickles

Jianne Carlo said...

Privileged, Passionate, Pleasing, Pretty, Pleasant, Persuasive, Pure, Pleasurable, Pleased, Perfect, Peaceful, Profoundly, Prized, Powerful, Pungent, Piquant, Potent, Pulsing

Nice to meet you on the A to Z!

Shell Flower said...

Have a great holiday! Don't worry about visiting other blogs. We all need some time off.

Piffle
Poopy
Pocked
Pocket
Pox
Pendulum
Print
Paid
Puke
Prime
Poof
Puff
Plinth
Poke
Purple
Pixie

Mel said...

Have fun on holiday (lucky)! Here are some P words:

Pernicious
Petunia
Plethora
Pragmatic
Plonk
Pithy
Pugnacious
Pip
Property
Plop
Poppycock!

S.P. Bowers said...

Woohoo! you used one of mine again. That's pretty cool. I'm late so I think all the p words are used. Good luck.

Unknown said...

Ok, I'm going to offer one word today because I rather like the word, and with my cursory scan of the other P words, I didn't see it, I think. H

Patronize

(Pick me pick me) hehe

Krista McLaughlin said...

Those were tricky words! Good use of your O words! :)

Nick Wilford said...

My profound thanks! Just about to produce the next sentence! :)

Rebecca M. Douglass said...

Polka-dot
pastoral
parquet
parakeet
pachyderm
perchance

Rachna Chhabria said...

Pest
Poodle
Perfume

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't want to run into that creature.