I thought this blog could use a little levity, after some of the heavy posts (emotionally and intellectually) of the past week. So here’s my latest short story, a just-for-fun romantic tale about two strange characters I just couldn’t get out of my head. Please don’t take anything in this story seriously — it’s a satire on stereotypes, fetishes and fantasies, and a chance to poke a bit of fun at myself, nothing more. Not suitable for children.
Jorg couldn’t take his eyes off her. Shopgirl, mid-20s, shoulder-length light brown hair, mischievous smile. His sister and her newlywed daughter were doing some Boxing Week shopping and had an armload of sale items that the shopgirl was ringing up, removing the hangers and the anti-theft devices and scanning each item. She was joking with an associate working the cash register beside her and also chatting with Jorg’s sister. Jorg had driven Laura and Kerstin to the mall as a favour — he had some computer supplies to pick up, and his sister promised to buy him lunch if he drove her and his niece — and now he was waiting patiently for his reward. As he wandered over towards the door to get out of the way of the other shoppers he discovered that the checkout counter was open on the side, and he could now see the shopgirl’s whole ensemble and profile. Image: Pretty Girl, by Tonica, at DeviantArt, one of the Web’s most remarkable little-known sites. |
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Wow, I didn’t know you wrote fiction too. You multi-faceted, multi-talented guy!
I have a raging hardon right now.
oh, and your “thinking of moving to canada” link is broken.
Dave, could you say how you handled or bought rights permission to use the tonica art? I couldn’t find out how one could use the picture, on Deviant Art, and it is an interesting site. Thanks…
Man, oh man. Is there no end to the breadth of your interests and writing abilities? Fun stuff, Dave :-)
Wissbegieriger: DeviantArt has a process for purchasing ‘hard copy’ art from its members, with 50% going to the host and 50% going to the artist. Click on ‘buy art’ in the upper right corner of the deviantart.com site. You can also e-mail any artist to get permission and pricing to use art for commercial purposes. My process for using it for non-commercial purposes (such as my blog, which I get no revenue from, or any presentations I do for free) is: (1) Always credit the artist and provide a link to the original site; (2) If I really like the art/cartoon and can afford it, buy a print or other merchandise with it on; (3) If requested to do so by the artist/cartoonist, immediately remove the graphic from my site. That’s the Creative Commons share-and-share-alike way, and I think it’s fair, and only polite. If I were to start running ads on my site or otherwise started to get revenue from the blog, I’d need to rethink this process. I’ve been contacted only four times by the authors of art/photography/cartoons I’ve posted on my site, and those contacts have always been positive and complimentary.
Thanks, Dave, for clarifying specific and practice experience – that’s helpful. I had tried the ‘buy art’, but couldn’t seem to locate any that wasn’t offered as hard copy, which tonica’s didn’t seem to be – just my specific there. Cheers…