Mat Twassel: Blog

This morning I posted "Scented Candles." Like one of the characters in the story, I dislike scented candles. I don't get along well with smoke, either. Back in my Boy Scout days, the campfires didn't agree with me at all, and my hamburgers always stuck to the bottom of my stainless-steel Boy Scout frying pan. Still it might be nice to make love in front of a camp fire (or a real fire place), and candles do add something nice to intimate dinners and to loving sex. Just don't ask me to go into the gift shop area of a Cracker Barrel restaurant or a candle shop at the mall. Not that I'm a fan of Cracker Barrel cuisine or malls in general.

Today's two stories have fish in common. "Jazz at 906" and "Fish Tank." I suppose outside of the jigsaw puzzle and the main character's limited interest in fishing, there's not a whole lot of fish in "Jazz at 906," not a whole lot of jazz, either. But I like the title.

I had a difficult time with the story codes for "Jazz at 906." While sex is surely a driving force in the story, there's very little if any explicit sex. Some kissing. Some sexual conversation. So I marked it "no sex." There's also very little if any explicit violence in the story, but I marked it "violent," for violence surely plays a part. Sex and violence-I didn't want any reader to feel tricked. Story codes are tricky. I don't really have a feel for it, and I'd be fine if there weren't any, but I am not complaining.

Tomorrow I think I'll post a couple of stories about bowling.

Today's stories include a flash piece, "Extra Ohs," which I wrote years ago for the Bradley Stoke Flash Stroke Festival. The rules, if I remember correctly: the story had to fit on one computer screen, no more than 18 lines including blank lines, and no more than 80 characters per line. Of course back then there were no illustrations. I could not resist adding an illustration for this edition.

The second story, "Painting Lessons," includes nine illustrations. This story, like many of my stories, is set on Florida's Gulf Coast, Cape San Blas. I've take a few liberties with the geography, but not many. The cell phone service is somewhat better now than it was three or four years ago.

Today I posted the story "When the Time is Right," which is set along Florida's Gulf Coast at a time not too long ago but before the devastation caused by Hurricane Michael. There was much destruction in the little town of Port St. Joe. The hotel and the little cabins where Chad and Charlene stayed were badly damaged. Down the road to the west, just beyond the line where time changes from Eastern to Central, the town of Mexico Beach, where Chad and Charlene found the little diner and the friendly waitress, was all but obliterated.

We are staying in this New Year's Eve. But that doesn't mean we won't celebrate. Some after dinner dancing. The theme: barefoot in the bathroom and beyond. Emma prepares by dabbing a touch of my precum on her clit and around her nipples. Then she gathers a tiny splash of her own moisture and applies it just above my upper lip. My favorite kind of mustache.

Happy New Year, SOLers.

An illustration at
https://mmtwassel.wixsite.com/stories/new-years-eve-2020