Flash Fiction – Where Only Sand Remains

This story was written for the 23 January Flash!Friday competition, with “beach” and the photo as prompt.

Where Only Sand Remains

The sand was our salvation. We fled to the beaches and there our craftsmen breathed life into it. Melting it. Moulding it. Shaping the sand of the shore into ships of sheer glass. Ships that could ferry us to safety. Through the watchful nights the fires of the furnaces glowed and burned like the gaping mouths of lava-filled fissures. Like the breath of the dragons we’d left behind.

At the furnaces dark silhouettes fashioned glass through the night while some slept and others sang the magic songs to the glass; trapping the words even as it hardened. Those too old to work stared at the sea and told stories of the lands beyond the waves, beyond our shores. But none of us had ever dared to sail to where the sky and ocean met.

We unfurled the sails and left our shore for the horizon on the day the wind rose and the fog covered the land. Our songs caught the wind and we soared into the sky until we could look down at the beach where our old memories and old lives remained beneath the fog. There, where now only sand remains.

I turned to watch the sun rise.

Old Woman. CC2.0 photo by Giorgio Grande.

Favourite Music Thursday – The Mute by Radical Face

I only recently discovered Radical Face’s music on Noisetrade and was intrigued by the concept behind the music. On his website, Ben Cooper says:

“I just wanted to write a family saga. It's something I'd wanted to do for a long time. But I was timid at first. Family is a big topic from me, being from a large and atypical one, and I was hesitant to start for fear I'd do a shitty job of it. But once I started writing for it, it all kinda poured out. I started writing for it in 2007. I came up with a fictional family tree -- a Frankenstein of random genealogy charts, my own family history, some of my personal experiences and plain old fiction -- and used that as the basis for the songs. When I started organizing the record in 2009, I had over 45 songs to work with, even after ditching the ones I wasn't so sure of.”

The songs Ben Cooper wrote, are poignant, bittersweet, dark and sometimes very sad. But there is such a quality to them that I can’t stop listening.

For more about Radical Face, click here for the website, here for Noisetrade, and here for SoundCloud. In SA, the albums are available on iTunes.

The one I especially keep returning to is “The Mute”. The song is haunting and beautiful, and I adore the music video. I hope you enjoy it as well!

Imprinting Something of Yourself On a Piece of Paper

Or, the worth of a handwritten note

I’ve been doing a lot of spring cleaning (or summer cleaning, I guess). This includes going through stacks of paperwork, letters, cards, and even collections of recipes torn out of magazines. At least the recipes were easy – I’m severely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, so anything containing those I could put on the recycle pile.

However, I don’t throw out any cards or handwritten letters – even if they belonged to my mother or grandparents. It is bittersweet to see Christmas cards addressed to our family by people who are no longer with us. Of some I only have a vague recollection as I last saw them when I was small. And I realised that I truly miss sending cards and letters - proper handwritten ones.

With the postal strike dragging on and on and on... and on, it is difficult to send letters or cards anywhere, and I hope that the private companies will become more affordable. This is also why most people are switching to only electronic communication even for personal letters, I expect. But looking at all the cards containing so many memories – the condolences, birthdays, Christmases, and weddings, I decided to make an effort to give more cards. To write letters as often as I can. To reach out to people.

Sending an email or instant message to friends in other parts of the world is absolutely wonderful, but I’m starting to miss the way in which a handwritten letter or note can touch your heart – because you know that someone took extra time to write it. It is as if something of the person is imprinted on the paper along with the pen marks.

So, on Handwriting Day 2015, I am making a promise to myself to write more, to share more, to give a personal touch wherever I can to show that my ‘thank you’ is not simply something I type and send in a few seconds and then forget about, but something I truly mean and want to take time to express.

View image | gettyimages.com

Get Out That Notebook and Pen

Or,

Why I decided to write more by hand

Today (23 January) is the annual Handwriting Day. While typing is certainly faster than writing (depending on the speed at which you type, of course), studies have shown that writing by hand holds some definite benefits. I had found before that I remember things much better when I write them down in my diary instead of putting them on a digital to-do list or calendar app.

After having a go at keeping a diary, I decided to make a point of writing at least some of my fiction and articles by hand. While I was able to write a full page in about 5 minutes during my exams only a few years ago (thank you, Linguistics and Literary Theory), my hand now cramped after only one or two sentences. Not to mention that my penmanship had gone a bit down the drain. But I was amazed at how quickly I got back into the swing of things.

The best pen for the job

I’ve always loved stationery and still collect notebooks and pens. But I struggled to write with the normal ball point pens I’d been using because I developed a problem with my right wrist over the past few years. I played around a bit and found an affordable pen that’s perfect for me – comfortable to hold, light and easy on my wrist. It even made my wrist feel better after a day of typing. A few people at my office have even started to use them. And I finished quite a few of them last year… After spilling a gigantic mug of coffee all over the one notebook, I also discovered that the ink doesn’t run and I could salvage the now coffee scented notebook. I don’t think my laptop would have fared quite that well.

 

My eyes!

Between staring at a screen at work, a laptop at home, and my phone, I desperately wanted to take a break. Writing by hand also helps me with this – no glare, no distractions, no ads, no email notifications popping up on the screen. I have also spoken to quite a few people who are making an effort to write more by hand because they want to take a break from looking at screens.

No electricity required

Ah, Eskom. If you live in South Africa, you know very well the curse of “load shedding” (having your electricity turned off four about 4 hours at a time – if it keeps to schedule). And with batteries only lasting a few hours tops, using (paper) notebooks is an easy way of saving your laptop or phone battery while you’re still saving money to buy for a solar charger.

I can attest in all honesty that getting out some pens and paper is a very good idea – even at work. I must admit that being able to type fast also makes writing things by hand before typing them more practical. All in all, writing by hand ensures that you take time to slow down and truly focus on the task at hand. Rather than hindering your productivity, it can actually serve as a point of focus and keep you from multitasking.

And, yes, I did initially write this post by hand.

Disclaimer:

I adore Typo’s notebooks and pencil pens, but I have to sponsor myself to buy them. Except when it’s a birthday or Christmas gift. So I am not trying to do a bit of native advertising – it’s simply products that I enjoy using. And in honour of Handwriting Day I might just go and stock up again…

Boeke, praatjies en skakels

For English readers: This post is about the Afrikaans programme Skrywers en Boeke and the Afrikaans writer Jaco Jacobs.)

Skrywers en Boeke, een van RSG se programme, is ook as ’n potgooi beskikbaar en is beslis een om na te luister.  Volg die skakel na die webwerf, of gaan kyk op iTunes om die program af te laai.

1 Januarie se program gee nie net ’n voorsmaak van die Afrikaanse boeke om in 2015 na uit te sien nie, maar bevat ook ’n baie interessante onderhoud oor kinder- en jeugboeke (en die skryf daarvan) met Jaco Jacobs. Net gister sê twee van my kollegas vir my dat hulle kinders skielik begin lees het nadat hulle een van Jaco Jacobs se boeke voorgeskryf is. Hier is nou nog ’n bewys dat enigiemand ’n liefde vir lees kan ontwikkel sodra hulle die regte boek in die hande kry!

Om meer oor Jaco Jacobs en sy boeke uit te vind, klik hier vir sy webwerf en hier vir sy blog. Of jy kan hom op Twitter volg by @JacoZombie

View image | gettyimages.com

Flash Fiction: The Last to Leave

This piece was written for Flash!Friday on 16 January 2015, with the photo and "janitor" as prompts.

The Last to Leave

Marian is at the entrance with her cardboard suitcase when I get to work. “It’s not Thursday,” I say, but she just stares towards the high fence riddled with windblown plastic. “Why don’t you go inside? They’ll be here tomorrow,” I lie. A faint smile leads her away from me. For her, every day’s Thursday. Marion starts singing and I listen as I sweep.

Vandals came again last night, taking photos and covering the walls with snippets about ashes, horror, and mortality. A mockery of the brittle photos of classical ruins on the walls.

Some patients greet me as I pass them. Empty wheelchairs and beds stand a silent vigil in dust laden rooms.

Orange and scarlet autumn leaves have blown in through empty windows, mingling with flakes of pale paint peeling from the unkempt walls. This place will not remain like the ruins in the photos. Soon we’ll be reclaimed; the empty concrete shell, Marian, the patients, and me.

We’ll rest then; our lives no longer bound here, written in peeling paint upon decaying walls. We will become lost memories, an unknown white flare in a photograph.  

I’m simply waiting for everyone to leave before I lock up one last time.  

A janitor is always the last to leave.

Coliseum in Rome. CC2.0 photo by Vlad.