Note: I’m only allowed to write 1500 words. I have been looking for words not needed and managed to find 163 words so far. This is the 3rd Draft and the word count as per Google Docs is 1500. so every word I add from now on I will have to take one away. The deadline for the story is Monday, Sept 4th at midnight Pacific time.

The Holiday on Europa

Skena, a business woman on Ganymede the trade moon of Jupiter, was working. She also was watching a screen as the sun, in the Red Giant phase, was about to destroy the planet Earth. The screen went blank, her boyfriend, Culbert, wanted to video-talk.

“Hi honey, I’ve got us a holiday on the ocean moon Europa. Can you take a full orbit off work?”

“Sure, it’s funny, we have a business deal, and it is taking forever. There’s someone who is undecided. We’d need to rent a shuttle—got any ideas?”

“There’s a company called Max-Travels Ltd. giving cheap flights this orbit. I’ve got a deal. See you later.”

Skena’s screen returned to the scene of the Sun consuming the Earth.

*****

They both arrived at the docks. Skena noticed Max-Travels was only one man and his beautiful girlfriend, that were servicing an old shuttle.

Skena said, “Hello, we booked a return flight to Europa.”

“Oh… Yes, I’m sorry. I’m Maximus Blackglove, and this is my business partner Deidra Magic, I  own this company. It’ll be thirty minutes. Ok!”

“Isn’t that oil dripping into a bucket?”

“Yes oil, it’s working, we’ll be leaving in thirty to forty minutes. The senior shuttles are in excellent shape,” said Max.

*****

The ship hotel was sailing on Europa. Skena and Culbert had an apartment and then visited the wine bar for the evening. They had a bottle of alcohol. Culbert said, “I’ve got you something, and this is an excellent location to ask you. Look in your handbag; there’s a small box.”

“Oh yes, where did this come from?”

“Open it.”

“Aww… it’s an engagement ring.”

Culbert took the ring from the box. Holding her hand he asked, “Skena, will you marry me?”

“Of course, we are good together.”

Skena saw Maximus and Deidra behind Culbert. They were dancing on the dancefloor wearing little clothing and looking sexy. Later in the evening, Skena’s phone signalled. She saw that it said her business manager wanted to talk. “Oh, it’s Tawnee, my marketing director, I’ll take this call outside the room.”

Returning to the table, she said she needed to visit Callisto, another moon of Jupiter. She should talk with the undecided customer. She would be back within a tenth of an orbit.

Culbert said, “What, you have to go?”

“Look, I’ve got responsibilities too. Men don’t run the show.”

“Ok, be safe and come back soon.”

“I’ll have to use Max-Travels again,” said Skena. Her face looked concerned.

*****

Skena knocked on Maximus’ door, it was open. She could see Maximus and Deidra on the bed together having fun. Maximus noticed Skena and jumped from the bed using a sheet to cover himself.

“Yes?”

“I need to visit Callisto for my business. I’ll give you an extra five-hundred credits.”

“Well I don’t know, we’re on holiday too.”

“Six-hundred credits.”

Max turned and looked at Deidra, she looked upset and dropped the sheet that she had been covering herself. He turned back to Skena and said, “This is an upper management meeting.”

“A thousand credits.”

“Well… you’ll be back soon?” said Max.

“Yes.”

“Ok, another trip. One thousand credits.”

*****

During the flight, there was a radio announcement; “Solar flares could hit.”

“Damn, bad news, we’ll have to go back to Europa to wait this one out,” said Max.

After he finished speaking, the shuttle shook. The electrical equipment was emitting sparks all over the shuttle. “Oh shit, we are going to have to land fast.”

“Where, we’re far from Europa?”

“Jupiter has sixty-nine moons; there’s one a minute away.”

There was a loud crack, and a bright light filled the shuttle. Max crash landed the shuttle on a small moon. The radio circuits didn’t appear to work and one of the rockets which propelled the shuttle, no longer functioned.

“We’re going to get rescued, aren’t we?” said Skena.

“Look, our radio and a thruster is not working, but we are in one piece. I think this small moon is Thebe, and there should be a beacon on this moon so we could turn off the signal, and someone will come here to fix it. We’ll call for rescue through their radio. We’ll both have to look for the beacon, I’ve got another space suit for you.”

*****

Both were out on the moon and Max had a map of where the indicator should be. They followed the map to the location of Thebe’s beacon. But it wasn’t there.

Max frowned and said, “Ok, this is not Thebe. It could be Amalthea, another similarly sized moon close to Thebe. Amalthea doesn’t have a beacon.”

“So how are we going to get rescued?…  What’s on Amalthea?”

Max sighed and said, “I don’t know and you and me. We could be here a long, long time.” Max shook his fists and screamed, “Agh… No…”

“Look, calm down. I need you to remain the courageous and confident captain as you have been so far.”

Max finally became calm, and said, “We should go back to the ship and fix the radio. We can make water. Don’t worry water is hydrogen and oxygen, I use them for fuel, and there’s plenty of that on board. The food will only be little bags of emergency rations.”

“You know you can be useful, sometimes.” said Skena.

******

A full orbit had passed on Europa. The emergency centre called both Culbert and Deidra to tell them Maximus and Skena were overdue. Maximus hasn’t answered his radio, and both of them were assumed dead. The situation was not good, so Deidra clung close to Culbert and said, “We should go to my quarters and have sex. Everyone has sex when they find out someone close has died.”

“What? Not everyone,” said Culbert while wiping tears from his eyes. Her sexiness and attitude tempted him, although, he was still upset about Skena.

*****

A full orbit on had gone by on Amalthea. Maximus and Skena were unable to fix the radio. While looking out of a window, Skena saw two small shuttle craft landing close together. She screamed and said, “Ohh, there is two other craft not too far away. We could be rescued by signalling them.”

Max and Skena left the shuttle and walked towards the two new ships. There was a bright flash, and one ship exploded.

Max said, “Shit, they must be pirates, and if they find out we are here they will kill both of us. We must get back to my shuttle and risk taking off with one thruster.”

While climbing back into the shuttle, there was another bright flash and Max collapsed. Skena managed to push Max into the shuttle.

Max was becoming unconscious but managed to say, “Look, sit in the pilot seat, and I’ll try to show you how to fly. Bu-but, if the thruster stops working at any point, w-we will continue moving on the same trajectory for ever more. Then run out of oxygen and die.”

The shuttle lifted off the moon, and Skena got them back to Europa. The shuttle lost the last thruster, and it splashed deep into the water. Max was now unconscious, but they were close to a ship with people who saw the crash.

The people on the ship rescued both of them. Max was taken to a hospital. They had spent a long time together helping each other to survive.

Skena and Culbert talk about what happened, and Skena finds out Culbert had slept with Deidra. Skena said, “Oh, I’ve fallen out of love with you and in love with Max.”

*****

Skena smiled as Max was awake. “You’re looking better.” She rolled a monitoring computer aside, then pulled the chair closer to the bed and sat.

Max touched bandages on his head. “Yeah, still hurts, but the doctor says I’ll live.” He gave her a glance then went back to watching the sports game on his screen.

Skena laughed nervously. Her fingers played with the edge of Max’s blanket. She didn’t expect things to go in this way. “So, Max-“

“What, Skena?” he snapped.

Her stomach sank, but she wasn’t giving up easily. “What about us, Max?”

“Us, what?”

“We had something, didn’t we?” Skena tried to keep the fear building up inside, out of her voice. “I thought we lo-“

“Look,” Max turned to her. “I’m not moving to Ganymede becoming your secretary, and you’re not likely to become my co-pilot,” he sighed, “my life is too simple for you, and yours is too complex for me.”

Skena had tears welling in her eyes. “We could make it work. I know we could.” She reached for his hand. “Please, Max. We could give it a try.” The look on his face made her voice falter. He’d shut her out.

The tears fell freely now. She let Max’s hand drop as she stood to leave. “Not that it matters…I just want you to know; I love you.” She hurried out the door realising she was incapable of preventing the feelings of love for anyone.

So, I’m sure you’ve herd the phrase ‘i before e except after c’

It should say “i before e except after c or when your foreign neighbour; Keith, receives eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.

Weird huh!

This is very rough

Skena Frolicfay, a business woman from Ganymede, a business moon of Jupiter. She was watching a monitor as the planet Earth, was about to be swallowed by the sun, currently in its Red Giant phase.
The screen went blank, as her boyfriend, Culbert Bloodlocks, wanted to communicate.
“Hi honey, I’ve got us a holiday on the ocean moon Europa. Can you take a full orbit off work?”
“Sure, it’s funny, we have a business deal that is taking forever. There’s a guy that won’t make up his mind. We’d need to rent a shuttle, got any ideas?”
“There’s an old company called Max-Travels Ltd. giving cheap flight trips for this orbit. I’ve got a deal. See you later.”
Skena’s screen returned to the scene of the Earth being eaten by the Red Giant Sun.”

*****

Skena and Culbert arrived at the docks. Skena noticed Max-Travels Ltd. was only one guy and his beautiful girlfriend that was servicing an old shuttle. Skena said, “Hello, we booked a return flight to Europa.”
“Oh… yes, I’m sorry. I’m Maximus Blackglove, and this is my business partner Deidra Magic, I’m the owner of this company. It’ll be 20 to 30 minutes… ok!”
“Isn’t that oil dripping into a bucket?”
“Yes oil, it’s working, we’ll be on our way in 30 to 40 minutes, ok! The former shuttles are still in excellent shape.”

*****

On arrival at the ship hotel sailing on the sunny side of Europa Skena and Culbert had unpacked in their room and visited the wine bar that evening. They had a bottle of wine. Culbert said, “I’ve got you something, and this is an excellent location to ask you. Look in your handbag, there’s a small box.”
“Oh yes, where did this come from?”
“Open it.”
“Awww… it’s an engagement ring.”
“Skena, will you marry me?”
“Oh, of course, we are a good team together.”
Culbert went to the bar for another bottle of wine. While he was away Maximus and Deidra could be seen by Skena, they were dancing together with little clothing and very sexy together. Later that evening the engaged couple were eating, and Skena’s Phone rang. Skena looked at the phone, and it indicated that her business manager wanted to talk. “Oh, it’s Tawnee, my marketing director, I’ll take this call just outside the room.”
On her return to the dining table, she said she needed to visit Callisto, another moon of Jupiter, to have a sales talk with the undecided customer. It shouldn’t take long, and she would be back within a tenth of an orbit.
“What do you have to go?”
“Look, I’ve got responsibilities too. You men don’t run the show everywhere.”
“Ok, be safe and come back quickly.”
“I’ll have to use Max-Travels again.”

*****

Skena tapped on Maximus’ door, it was open, and the force of her knocks pushed the door wider open. She could see Maximus and Deidra on the bed together having some fun. Maximus noticed Skena and jumped from the bed and used a sheet to cover himself. “Yes?”
“I need to take a short visit to Callisto for my business. I’ll give you an extra 500 credits.”
“Well I don’t know, we are on holiday too.”
“600 credits.”
He turned and looked at Deidra, she looked upset and dropped to sheet she had been using to cover herself. He turned back to Skena and said, “This is an upper management meeting.”
“A thousand credits.”
“Well… you’ll be back here soon?” said Max.
“Yes, a very brief meeting.”
“Ok, we’ll take another trip. One thousand credits.”

*****

During the flight, there was a radio warning that solar flares could hit. “Damn, this is bad, we’ll have to go back to Europa to wait this one out,” said Max. After he finished speaking, the shuttle shook, and the electrical equipment was emitting sparks all over the shuttle. “Oh shit, we are going to have to land fast.”
“Where, we’re a long way from Europa.”
“Jupiter has 69 moons, there’s one just a minute away.”
There was a loud crack, and a bright light filled the shuttle. Max crash landed the shuttle on a small moon. The communication circuits were broken and one of the rockets that propelled the shuttle, no longer worked.
“We are going to get rescued aren’t we?” said Skena.
“Look, our radio is not working, but we are in one piece, and I think this moon is Thebe, and there’s a beacon on this moon, so we turn the signal off and someone comes to fix it. We can call for rescue through their radio. We’ll both have to look for the beacon, I’ve got another suit for you.”

*****

Max and Skena were out on the moon and Max had a map of where the indicator should be. They followed the map to the location of Thebe’s beacon. But it wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Max frowned, and said, “Ok, this is probably not Thebe. It could be Amalthea, another similarly sized moon close to Thebe. This moon doesn’t have a Beacon.”
“So how we going to get rescued? What’s on Amalthea?”
Max stared at Skena and said, “You and me. We could be here a long, time.” Max started to shake his fists and scream, “Agh… No…”
“Look, calm down. I need you to be the courageous and confident Captin.”
Max finally calmed down, and said, “We need to go back to the ship and see if we can fix the radio and work out how to make water and food. Don’t worry water is just Hydrogen and Oxygen, we use them for fuel, and there’s plenty of that on board. The food will be little bags of emergency rations.”

******

Back on Europa more than an orbit had passed. Culbert and Deidra were called into an accident room together and told that Maximus and Skena had not reached Callisto and was overdue and Max didn’t answer his radio, and both of them assumed dead. Things were not looking good, so Deidra clung close to Culbert and asked, “We should go to my quarters and have sex. Everyone has sex when they find out someone close has died.”
“Not everyone,” said Culbert while wiping the tears from his eyes. He was tempted by her very sexy look and attitude. He was still very upset about Skena.

*****

A full orbit had gone by; Maximus and Skena were still on the moon unable to fix their radio. While looking out of a window, Skena saw two small shuttle craft landing close together. She screamed and said, “Ohh, there is two other craft not too far away. Yay, we could signal them and be rescued.” Max and Skena left the shuttle and walk on the moon towards the two new ships. There’s a bright flash, and one ship explodes. Max says to Skena, “Shit, they are pirates, and if they find out we are here they will kill both of us. We must get back to my shuttle and risk taking off with one thruster.” Climbing back into the shuttle there is another bright flash and Max collapses. Skena manages to push Max into the shuttle. Max is almost unconscious but says, “Look, sit in the pilot seat, and I’ll show you how to fly. Bu-but, if the thruster stops working at any point, w-we will just continue moving on that trajectory for ever more.” The shuttle lifts off the moon, and Skena gets them back to Europa. The shuttle loses the last thruster, and it splashes into the water. Max is now unconscious, but close to a ship that saw the crash. Both of them are rescued, and Max is taken to a hospital.
Skena and Culbert talk about what happened, and Skena finds out Culbert slept with Deidra. Skena says to Culbert, “I think I’ve fallen out of love with you and fallen in love with Max.”

*****

In the hospital, Skena visits Max’s bed and discusses what has happened. Skena says, “It looks like you are getting better.”
“Yes, it was a bad concussion, but I’m slowly getting over that.”
“What’s the situation with us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Over the last orbit, I think we both discovered something about ourselves and each other.”
“Look, I’m not moving to Ganymede and be your secretary, and you are not likely to become my co-pilot. My life is too simple for you and yours is too complicated for me.”
“I don’t know, I could convert to a simpler way. It’s often not what you do, but with whom you are doing it. I think I’m in love with you.”

Rules of the Love Club

1. The prospect of love should always meet with a major obstacle. Your characters may want it, but they cannot have it for any variety of reasons. At least not right away.

2. The lovers are usually ill-suited in some way. They may come from different social classes-beauty queen/nerd; Montagues and Capulets, or they may be physically unequal; one is blind or disabled.

3. The first and always thwarted attempt is made to solve the obstacle. Success does not come easily. Dedication and stick-to-it-love must be proven.

4. As one observer once put it, love usually consists of one person offering the kiss and the other offering the cheek, meaning one lover is more aggressive in seeking love than the other.
The dynamic partner is the seeker, who completes the majority of the action. The passive partner, who may want love just as much, still waits for the aggressive partner to overcome the obstacles. Either sex can play either role.

5. Love stories do not need to have happy endings. If you try to force a happy ending on a love story that unmistakably doesn’t deserve one, your audience will refuse it. Genuinely, Hollywood prefers happy endings, but some of the world’s best love stories; Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Heloise and Abelard, are very sad.

6. Concentrate on your main characters to make them appealing and convincing. Avoid the stereotypical lovers. Make your characters and their circumstances unique and enjoyable. You will have to feel deeply for your characters, however. If you do not, neither will your readers.

7. Emotion is a primary element in writing about love. Not only should you be convincing, but you should develop the full range of feelings: fear, loathing, attraction, disappointment, reunion, consummation. Love has many feelings associated with it, and you should be prepared to develop them according to the needs of your plot.

8. Understand the sentiment and sentimentality in your writing and decide which is better for your story. If you are writing a formula romance, you may want to use the tricks of sentimentalism. If you are trying to write a one-of-a-kind love story, you will want to avoid sentimentality and rely on genuine sentiment in your character’s feelings.

9. Your lovers need to go through all the love. Be sure they are repeatedly tested; individually and collectively, and that they finally deserve the love they seek. Love is earned; it is not a gift. Love untested is not true love.

1. Forbidden love is any love that goes opposite to the conventions of that particular society, so there is usually either an explicit or certain force exerted against the lovers.
2. The sweethearts ignore social convention and seek their hearts, usually with unfavourable results.
3. Adultery is the most well-known form of forbidden love. The adulterer may either be the protagonist or antagonist, depending on the type of the story. The same is valid for the offended spouse.
4. The first dramatic phase should define the relationship between partners and phrase it in its social circumstances. What are the taboos that they have divided? How do they manage it themselves? How do the characters around them handle it? Are the lovers moonstruck, or do they deal with the realities of their affair head on?
5. The second dramatic phase should take the beloveds into the heart of their relationship. The lovers may start out in an idyllic period, but as the social and psychological realities of their affair become apparent, the romance may begin to dissolve or come under elevated pressure to dissolve.
6. The third dramatic phase should take the lovers to the endpoint of their relationship and settle all the moralistic scores. The lovers are usually separated, either by death, restraint or leaving.

This new Short Story competition is on. TheWritePractice.

1500 words on falling in love in:

Medieval France, or

The Moons of Jupiter.

Interesting, the medieval years in France would range from about 481 to 1430, which is around a thousand years. Everyone in castles and my favourite Shakespeare play Hamlet, even though in Denmark, it would bubble up some Hamlet and Ophelia type scenarios.

The moons of Jupiter however, would be set for some aliens or very, very far future human race, or a trip to some Jupiter moon as an exploratory trip for a Mark Watney type character and a fellow explorer.

From the feedback given in the previous short story competition, I would create a theme and edit the crap out of any dialogue, also put in a lot of research into current romance short stories. I am tempted to use the second person point of view. It’s only 1500 words and the reader could assume the role of the lover or the loved at the beginning. Mmm, some fun for the next two weeks.