After a looong break, here's another Flash Fiction story. It's a tad dystopian, but I've been in a mood.  

The challenge was as follows - 

It's 3 AM. An official phone alert wakes you up. It says "DO NOT LOOK AT THE MOON". You have hundreds of notifications. Hundreds of random numbers are sending, "It's a beautiful night tonight. Look outside."  No more than 1000 words - mine is 745.

Do Not Look At The Moon

It had come as an official WorldGov alert, popping up on my phone. 3 a.m. my time, but supposedly it was worldwide. I'd checked my messages, and there were hundreds of them, from friends and strangers, dismissive of the alert.

"It's a beautiful night tonight. Look outside."

No arguing with that. The last few full moons had all been beautiful, even since the Clear Air project. Pollution in the atmosphere had been just getting worse and worse, for decades. Corporations had been thriving, of course, but not people, with respiratory ailments on the rise. There seemed to be no simple solution either, until WorldGov came up with Operation Clean Air. Technology to the rescue, with a new chemical compound that would precipitate all those harmful chemicals and particles from the air. It would be launched quickly, as a new public-private worldwide initiative, an added payload in a massive expansion in the Starlink satellite program.

Well, it's been a while, but here's another Flash Fiction Friday offering. This one took a bit longer than the normal week - several, in fact. I'm trying to relax a bit and write without constant self-editing and the accompanying procrastination. Could be better, I'm sure, constructive criticism is welcome. 

The challenge was to write a story, examining a character, and the way they manage their stress. Plus, use a random character generator to give them three character traits. 1000 words max. I got naïve, caring and coarse, and decided to do as three characters. 

Like I said, took longer than planned and is a bit over at about 1080 words.

I know the cost of an editor seems expensive to many writers, but like any profession, quality work will require expertise and time. If you are on a tight budget, there are many suitable tools out there to proof read and even copy edit (Grammarly, ProWritingAid, etc). I would use one of those to clean a novel up initially.
After this, money could be focused on hiring an editor that can look for plot holes, pacing, and character development issues, and also provide suggestions on improving your work. If that's still not in the budget, I would suggest find some Beta readers with those skills.
Once you deal with their feedback, you could start sending to agents and/or publishers. Or self publish, if that's your route.

I've been doing various readings via my Twitch stream, as a test. My son lent me a wireless webcam, which I've put in my 9th-floor window, to show off a lovely view of the park, the river, and the city. I decided to add some audio to the video, so I did some readings from various authors - Stephen Leacock, Mark Twain, P. G. Wodehouse, Lewis Carroll, A. A Milne. No editing, but I am pretty good at reading aloud it seems. I stream simultaneously to Twitch, Youtube and Facebook, but I think a podcast would be better. Too hard to manage via Facebook. I had looked into podcasting last year, and got stalled - time to kick-start my project, I think. You can find my stories so far archived on Youtube here.  

The Peripheral by William Gibson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

2015 - I have enjoyed other books by Gibson, but found this one just too hard to get into. Maybe some character lists and careful re-reading would have helped, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood. Too many books to read/edit/write, and not enough time. I bailed at about the 30 page mark - sorry William.
Update - I usually like Gibson, so I really did want to like this book, so put a hold on it from my library. It popped up mid-move, but I tried to tackle it when I could.
Nope. Too confusing for me - storylines in the first 10 pages for Easy Ice, Netherton, patchers, Lorenzo, Daedra - a future world consumed with gaming and paparazzi - I got to page 51 this time.

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Mythos by Stephen Fry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Well, I got to page 181 of 350. Not completely the author's fault, as this popped up on my library hold list mid-move. But I did work at it here and there.
It's the Greek myths retold by Stephen Fry - as advertised - and covers many many of the various deities. Too many for me, dozens and dozens it seems. Too much time at the start spent explaining the detailed genealogy and not enough of the fact-based fiction he is so good at, with Fry's wry sense of humour. I'd advise starting this 1/3 of the way through - you won't know exactly who is who, and which god married his mother that was also his daughter, but carry on.
I may re-read this later - I'll add it to the things I do when I have some spare time. or when I get old.

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The prompt was to write about an old-school tavern, and to include one of six random objects. 1000 word limit.

I went with them all: iPod, shawl, broccoli, fake flowers, glasses, and a bookmark. Why not. I'm not sure how well this one worked. It's different. 903 words.

The challenge was to write a story about a pair of glasses. Special glasses, whether through science or magic. I missed my deadline by a week (!) so I will backdate the entry.  975 words.

This time, the challenge was to write about Halloween. Not from the point of view of kids, or students in a pub, but use that of pensioners. I missed the Friday deadline by a few days, but did get done. It's a cute story, I think. 998 words.

This week's prompt was a beautiful photo of autumn trees, with the sun shining through onto a path.  Out for a walk, exploring, you hear a faint cry in the distance, So, you check it out. 

Mine is 891 words.