Weekly Trifecta Writing Challenge: Harman Splinky's Second Novel

This week’s Trifecta Challenge was to write a story between 33 and 333 words using the third definition of  thunder:  bang rumble <thunder of big guns>

Harman Splinky’s Second Novel

“The stars twinkled in the night sky like stars that twinkled whenever it got dark out at night.” Harman Splinky carefully and painstakingly pressed these words onto the paper from the lead of his number 2 pencil — erasing the word night three times; changing it from night to evening and back to night again.

Harmon was finding it hard to concentrate with the thunder of that infernal cannon going off every five minutes.  Still, he was determined to get this novel published and, if not . . . well, Harman Splinky didn’t like thinking about if nots.

The taste of bitterness from the sweeping rejection of his last novel, The Starry Stars that Twinkled Nightly  – lingered in his mouth like week-old oysters marinated in Listerine that  really should have just been flushed down the toilet.

He had already gone through seven Number 2 pencils and two Number 7 pencils in the last hour and a half and still wasn’t pleased with his results.

But ever cognizant of the fact that he was a mortal being and, as such, would be dying some day; Harman finally settled on the first sentence of his new novel: “When it got dark enough for the stars to twinkle, they were quite twinkly.”

He was especially fond of his decision to use “quite” instead of “very”.   It was a little trick of the craft of writing he had invented—a little trick he felt set himself apart from the mediocrity of his fellow scribblers.

Harmon clutched the  box of Number 2 pencils and the  box of Number 7 pencils to his heart and stared out the window into the twinkling stars.

He watched as men of all shapes and sizes flew by.  He looked at his watch.  In only 20 minutes the Human Cannon Ball Training Center would be closing for the night.

Maybe he could get some real writing done.

“twinkly twinkling twinkly stars that  twinkle very quite star-like  in the night evening dark night . . . yeah that’s good!”