Thursday 30 September 2010

Mash it up for the Blogfest!


This blogfest is brought to you by the wonderful S.E.Sinkhorn @ Maybe Genius, and it's all about mashing it up.

Here's what she said concerning rules:

1.) In no more than 1000 words, produce an original work of fiction or poetry that combines two genres that are not normally written together. You may include characters or a scene from a WIP, but make sure it fits within the theme of the blogfest. (*rubs hands and chuckles with glee*)

2.) It is due October 1st by 11:59 PM. You are welcome to participate later, but your entry will not count toward the prizes. (scheduling it early, so there!)

3.) Sign up on Mr. Linky  to participate. (Done this! Yay me! If you want to join or see the linky list, go HERE)

4.) You can specify the genres you're mashing, or leave it up to the readers to decide. Up to you. (wait and see!)



So here you go, my Mashed Up Story, all 852 words of it: 


#EDIT: apparently my first version was a little cryptic so I edited a line or two...hope you don't mind!#





“So, you’re absolutely sure about this, are you, boy?”
Surf cocked his head to the side and whined at me, then padded over to tug at the leash hanging off the doorknob. There was tail-wagging involved, too, thump thump thump against the wall as he passed. I sighed and went to look out of the window. Yep, still raining. 
“Absolutely positively?”
Thump thump thump
“Fine, whatever!” I rolled my eyes at him (a singularly useless exercise), grabbed my raincoat and opened the door. 
It really was pissing it down tonight, the water so dense in the air that I could hardly see the sidewalk three meters in front of me. I looked down at Surf and smiled. He was right, we needed this. 
I stepped outside and waited for the click of the electronic lock before wading down the waterlogged wooden stairs to the street. My trainers were soaked through in a matter of seconds, and the accompanying sqush, sqush, sqush sounds got louder and louder. The water felt kind of nice but it was rather cold. 


But then, nothing could really compare to the Carribean Sea I'd grown up in.
At least it wasn’t snowing. Snow was bad. Last winter had been a nightmare of epic proportions. I really should have known better than to move up north from my little island. But really, frozen water? It had sounded so cool I couldn’t resist. What nobody mentioned was the fact that people actually use salt to melt the ice from the roads and sidewalks. 
Surf and I had to fake a rampant cold for weeks, and I used up all my vacation days, too. Salt water and human form just didn’t mix well with the two of us, and how on earth would I explain fins to my boss? Or my partner? Let me tell you, being a mermaid in the city was hard work. At least here in the north.
I was watching Surf prod random bits of dirt with his nose when my phone rang. I flicked open the old-fashioned Nokia (I kept dropping them in the nearest body of water so no fancy phone for me). 
“ ‘lo?” 
“Jones. Where are you? We need you here, like an hour ago,” Finn (yep I got the irony there) barked into my ear. 
“What’s up?” I frowned down at Surf doing his business. “Do we have another one?” 
“34th Street and Grand, same MO as last time, same vic type, too. Hurry up, will you? The vultures with their first amendment bumper stickers and are starting to get here,” Finn growled and hung up on me. 
“Surf, we gotta go,” I said and turned back, tugging the leash. 
That was the fifth murder in as many weeks, each one as improbable as the last. A burning with no fire in evidence, as if it had come from inside the vic. A body as flat as a pancake, right up on the roof of a skyscraper. Two drownings, one on the underground with lungs full of wine and one in a downtown cinema done in by two liters of diesel. And then there was the one completely devoid of blood with no sign of how they got it out of her. With each victim, the killer had left a single perfect rose and no other evidence whatsoever.
With Surf safely stowed away in my house, I jumped into my car and headed towards the scene. 
***
The press was already there full-force when I arrived. I should have brought Surf - he was good at dealing with rowdy ambulance-chasers - but Finn wouldn’t have been happy. He started sneezing whenever Surf was close (he thought he was allergic to dogs as well as shellfish and I chose not to enlighten him). I elbowed my way through to the police line and flashed my badge at the resident rookie. It cost me a raised eyebrow to stop his wandering eyes before he lifted the barrier and let me pass with a murmured "detective". 
The crime scene techs had already done their thing. A circle of silence had formed around the body. It was a young woman, just like the others, lying right there on the filthy ground in a pristine white dress, arms crossed and holding a single red rose to her chest. Her long blond locks formed a halo around her head, and if it wasn’t for all the people, if Finn hadn’t been there, his cowboy boots almost touching that golden hair, I’d have thought her asleep. 
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Finn told the corpse, “Jones will get her ass in gear soon and then we can take you away from this place.” 
I snorted and walked towards my comedian partner. My feet started tingling about two feet from the body. My breath caught and I stopped and stared at them. 
Shit. 
“Salt,” I said, earning a puzzled glance from Finn. Then I ran as fast as I could to dunk my feet in a salt-free puddle. 
“Salt,” I repeated when my feet finally calmed down and stopped blurring. “There’s a circle of salt around the vic, about two feet out.” 
Finn stared at the ground, then back at me. “That’s great, Jones, thanks. And what? You thought it might ruin your trainers?”



There, I hope you liked it! What do you think? Good mash-up? Okay concept? Do you like Detective Jones (who's first name is Mia, btw)? Tell me what you think and then off with you to check the other entries HERE




ALSO Don't forget about my THEY'RE PEOPLE, TOO! Blogfest tomorrow! GO ON, you can still join! (Also, there's a prize...) 

18 comments:

Mara Nash said...

Hey there! Am I right in guessing it's paranormal/detective mashup? Is Jones a mermaid? If so, I think you could even add more hints or just come out and say it. It was almost too cryptic.

But I liked the scene overall. And I'm intrigued where she came from, how and why she became a detective, and if she finds the murderer.

Is this part of a WIP you're working on?

Unknown said...

LOL apparently I'm having a cryptic day today! Yep she's a mermaid, and no, it's not a WIP (yet) just one of those ideas floating around...

Unknown said...

Hehe now I've added a line or two to make it less cryptic... whatcha think?

Mara Nash said...

Much better!

Unknown said...

Cool, thanx for pointing it out!

Unknown said...

How fun!!! I love!!! What a super fun blog fest! I'm actually participating in another one or I would have joined in, but your piece was great!!!

dolorah said...

Oh,Tessa; that was excellent.

I didn't know about this blogfest, but I doubt I could have participated. The criteria is so - unuaual.

You really pulled this off. Murder mystery with fantasy (or paranormal if you prefer.)

Wow. Yes, I liked this detective, and her introduction as a mermaid, and the hint that the dog is not a dog but a shell fish of some sort.

Oh yeah, this was very good. The character is engaging, the setting perfect, the bit of backstory just enough. I love the last line: ". . afraid to ruin your trainers".

So much personality in all these characters. And the continuing story is so full of potential. You've really set yourself an intriguing but difficult task here, if you choose to complete it. The easy route is to shoot for short story, but I really couldn't say what would work best here.

Just know that this is awesome, even as a completed flash fiction. You're really showing your best writing skills in this excerpt.

Good job Girlfriend.

And yes, I'm still planning on participating in your blogfest.

........dhole

Unknown said...

@Donna: *blushes* aww thank you so much! You made my day, you totally did!

Emily White said...

Wow! What a cool story! You have me seriously wondering just what kind of creature this murderer is! And mermaid detective? You can't beat that. :D

Unknown said...

Hi Tessa! I've been here :D Thanks for participating!

Brenda Drake said...

Tessa, Great! Loved it! I'm not participating in this fest, but I'm reading some during breaks. Mermaid detective--a whole lot of awesome!

Elena Solodow said...

Love it - I can just see Mia getting into all sorts of trouble! I love the dog's name too. nice job.

Anonymous said...

Great mash up of unlikely monsters!

Arlee Bird said...

I was thinking how dumb I was and that I was not getting this right. I was glad the comments were there for me to read. Okay I guess I was getting it okay. These mash ups are kind of weird, but it's an interesting exercise for the brain. And then I saw that there were length rules--mine went over by a little bit.

Good job -- I'd like to read your crime writing that was just about real people.

Lee
Tossing It Out

Lisa Potts said...

Good job, Tessa. I would love to read more about your detective.

Props for being able to do three blogfests in 48 hours!

vic caswell said...

usually i'm not a fan of either detective stories or mermaid stuff... but jiminey cricket tessa! this was really interesting and left me wanting to read more! it should totally be worked into a bigger story- like a novel or something! :)

J.C. Martin said...

A mermaid detective! How cool is that?

Anonymous said...

I totally loved this! I loved how she couldn't be near saltwater - I thought that was an excellent detail. Really fun to read!

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