Neil Gaiman has joined the staff at the Clarion Writers Workshop.

ooh! I'd meant to mention it, but I picked up a book of verse edited by Neil Gaiman and ... someone whose name I don't remember ... called "Now We Are Sick". There's an advisory on the back that it's not for children.

Bruises

I’ve got quite an assortment. The one on my left shin, with a cut in the center, is from when I forgot the oven door was open. The one on the right thigh is from stumbling (I was wearing heels that day) and falling onto the desk. I got the one that covers my right forearm when the elevator door closed on me. And the big one that goes around my wrist and up my left arm from falling onto an iron fence. I guess wearing the hearts-and-flowers “I like it rough” t-shirt would be asking for it, huh?

a bruise drabble of my own

There's a bruise on the front of my left shoulder. Close examination shows it's in the shape of a cat paw. My cat has taken the same route to curling up at the top of my head every night for nearly 15 years. Left front foot, left rear foot always land in the same place on my shoulder.

The bruise is fading. He's losing a lot of weight, not much heavier than a kitten now. I don't think it's going to be much longer before I don't have a bruise there anymore.

Aww.

Connie, that made me tear up.

Hey folks, I need help writing some sell text. I've been staring and staring at this blurb I wrote for the GCS store, and I can't decide if it's fine, or if it needs tweaking. I want to include the keywords "elegant", "spooky", "Halloween", "Goth", "bat", and "Emo". Help?

Women's Apparel

Are you a lady in need of elegant and spooky casual wear? Something to show that every day is Halloween for you, even when you're not adorned in lace and velvet? Show your true colors with Gothic Charm School apparel! Graceful and flamboyant bat designs that are sure to appeal to Goths, Deathrockers, emo scene kids, and others of a dark and whimsical nature.

Graceful and flamboyant bat designs that are sure to appeal to Goths, Deathrockers, emo scene kids, and others of a dark and whimsical nature.

I would take out "that" in order to make it a complete sentence.

t been proofreading for hours now, documents not going away no matter how hard I wish...

A day off (100 words):

That day, I remember distinctly thinking, "I should appreciate this view and this office now, because I might not always have it."

And sure enough, by five o'clock, I didn't. Some part of me undoubtedly knew what was coming.

I had dinner that evening with my father and his wife, for the first time in five years. It was the most companionable, gentle, and even-tempered visit we have ever had together.

"Just as well," I said as he suggested a full day's excursion into the city. "I'd forgotten to request the day off tomorrow." Only then did it hit home.

Bruises (100 words):

Abusive relationships don't always leave bruises. My mother made sure I knew that much; the women she brought to our house from the shelter (in the days before our house /was/ the shelter) were largely unmarked, though by no means unscathed.

But I keep expecting to see welts — big, red, angry marks — every time I look at a copy of a sacred document, whether it be the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Bible, the Torah, or the Koran.

The pages remain unmarked, unbruised. And now I understand a bit of Christian iconography a little better than I wanted to.

Lovely language, Karl. And poignant vignettes.

The second one killed me. I think I type well for a corpse, though.