I thought you all would like to see how I managed to interweave the "Purple Seal" challenge in a book that has no aquatic mammals involved. I thought I was pretty dang clever. ;)
On this, the fourteenth day of March, 1813, Doctor Henry Frankenstein and Doctor Eugene Pretorius do so come to the agreement to create, forthwith, a new life. Working in conjunction until the project is completed, Doctors Pretorius and Frankenstein do so agree to pool their respective talents to create said life, female, for the purpose of functioning as a partner and companion to the creature previously manufactured by the aforementioned Doctor Frankenstein.
It’s a contract, signed by both of the doctors mentioned in the introductory paragraph. Pretorius, with the shaky script, and Frankenstein, with the barely comprehensible scratching, his signature only discernable via the process of elimination. There are witnesses as well, names that are so insignificant as to be completely ignorable. The entire package is sealed with wax the color of eggplant, the crest in the center edged in its family name, Frankenstein.
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50,363 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 13 40
Ooh! Fun stuff. Here's mine:
"So you're absolutely positive of this information?" he asked. The question actually annoyed her a little. As if she was lying to him or something. She supposed that a lot of people did lie to cops, but if she wanted her boyfriend's killer to be found, lying didn't seem to be the way to achieve that.
"I'm as sure of that as I am that he's dead and he's not coming back. Any more questions?" He started to shake his head, then stopped.
"Have you ever heard of the Purple Seal?" he asked. She snorted.
"Is that a weird *** indie movie or something? I hope you're not about to ask me out because I am way too young for you." His face turned bright red at that comment and she turned her head in order to keep from laughing.
"No. It's not a movie and I'm not even close to asking you out. It's a drug distributor and somehow a really huge amount of his heroin got into your boyfriend's system before he died. This isn't a joke, kid. So stop messing around."
That brought her up short and she stared at him with wide eyes.
30 Days of Prewriting: maidenfine.wordpress.com
2006 - I'm Afraid I Have to Kill You Now (Unfinished)
2007 - Elemental (Winner)
2008 - Hunting Lark (Winner)
2009 - Becoming Flair (Winner)
50,018 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 17 37
And here's mine. Sorry it's a bit long.
"Sure, I like that, too," said Shelly Two. "Let's be The Shell Collectors. And lets actually collect some shells, in case anybody asks to see them."
"All right, that's settled, then," said Shelly One. "Also, as the founder and leader, I must have a special name. I nominate The Purple Seal."
"Huh?" said Isaiah Mordecai.
"I told you to stop saying 'huh,'" said Shelly One. "Yes, the purple seal. Purple because I have purple hair. Seal because of the story of the selkies."
"What's a selkie?" said Shelly Two.
"Oh," said Isaiah Mordecai. "I think I've read about that somewhere. A selkie is a sort of mermaid, a person who wears a seal skin and swims in the ocean in some colder area. If the seal skin is burnt, then the selkie must stay human. Is that right?"
"I do believe that that's the story put about by some human group or other," replied Shelly One. "Actually, the selkies were an older group than mine. They went in more for the technology than the genetic modification, and the seal skin was really a sort of diving suit, so of course they couldn't get home if anything happened to it. Anyway, though, that they even had a story about them among the humans means that they made contact. Friendly enough contact, too, at least at the beginning. That's what I want! I will be the Purple Seal in memory of the selkies, and I will encourage contact between the species--races, really, of course, but it's so hard to realize that our peoples were originally related. So, I will be a pioneer of the merfolk and make friends with human young people, such as yourselves. And I will try to do so without any untoward happenings, such as those recorded in most of the old folk tales."
"Thanks for the speech, Purple Seal, fearless leader," said Shelly Two, only slightly sarcastically. "And, while I won't swear to defend you to the death just yet, I'm sure Isaiah Mordecai and I will both do our best to keep such 'untoward happenings' from happening to you."
"I bet it helps that she wants to be friends, not lovers," said Isaiah Mordecai. "Most of those stories are these Romeo and Juliet type of things, you know, with the doomed love affairs."
"Yeah, I guess they are," said Shelly One, "At least from the human end. From the merfolk end there was usually a healthy dose of politics to go along with the doomed romance."
"And we all know how much we love politics," said Shelly Two. Isaiah Mordecai laughed.
"Oh, don't get me started," said Shelly One. "Our politics are so much more complicated than yours. I could tell you stories that make your 2001 recount look like a unanimous motion with no discussion."
13,399 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 19 26
It had been a coon’s age since they’d both had a day off at the same time and had tried to do something fun together. Paula wondered what excuse she could find to take them both away for a day. It came to her like a flash. She remembered the little boy who came into the café asking to hang a poster in the window. It was a bright yellow poster, with red letters, and a picture of a purple seal balancing a green beach ball on his nose. The circus! Yes, that was it. Paula would buy the tickets, and beg and insist that Olivia go with her. They would swoon at the trapeze artists and the high wire walkers. They would clutch each other’s hands when the lion tamer went into the cage with wild beasts. They would laugh at the clowns. And they would tap their toes to the rhythm of the band and eat cotton candy until they were sick.
----------Grace and peace, Janice
55,329 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 17 47
I have used the purple seal in the novel, and more than once. There is one instance where I have a purple SEAL, meaning that at one point the minor character was a US Navy SEAL. Here is a very small quote from my manuscript using the purple seal:
"This unit also had purple seals, in fact there were 5 purple seals and a humanoid looking purple seal. There was also a purple seal that had the bottom half of an orangutan."
Keep typing!
182001yetiwolfman
11,684 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2009 - 21 49
She reached into the bottom of one of the ever messy drawers. Somewhere under a mountain of unneeded office supplies was what she needed for him.
"There we go!" she exclaimed with delight as she waved the stamp in front of herself with a flourish.
He showed her where to stamp the notebook that he carried with him for such things. She took it from him and very carefully applied the purple seal of the Greater City Waste Management Society.
He took it back, gave her a quick salute, and ran off to his next assignment.
I've forced my poor main character to work as the only filing clerk at a garbage processing facility. =)
50,487 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2009 - 10 40
Mine isn't as creatively written but I have it!!
Cullum had looked down and laughed with gusto. “You can blame Temper for that. I can almost guarantee you that he is the one who coded a purple seal in to the program. He is always pulling shit like that. I do not know why he does it, but he does. He seems to find it highly amusing. Personally, I find it to be annoying, and am extremely tired of finding weird animals in my programs.”
Alestra had chuckled, knowing that Temper most likely find more enjoyment out of seeing Cullum’s annoyance than the sight of strange looking animals. She was just hap-py that he had not made them disfigured or any thing of that similar line of thinking.
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72,051 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2009 - 05 26
My original purple seal idea fizzled, mostly because when I told my main character she was supposed to have a purple seal tattoo somewhere on her body she threatened to go on strike. But this worked, too.
For context, the main male character is at a bachelor party at a strip club - and obviously not a very high end one, either. If vague mentiones of nudity offend, turn away now.
“Go say hello to the groom-to-be,” he said, waving a five in the general direction of the girl’s hand. She tried to get him to put it in her g-string. She even tried to get him to put it in his mouth so she could retrieve it in any number of creative ways she was likely too young to know existed in the first place (where the hell were her parents?). He pushed it into her hand instead and pushed his chair back from the table with a music-buffeted scrape.
“Men’s room,” he muttered, hoping the twin heard it and didn’t just think he’d disappeared with some of the provided entertainment. Mostly, he didn’t want anyone forgetting he was here and leaving him behind. He didn’t want to be there if the cops decided to raid the place.
"The beauty of art is that there are no rules."
~Mia Michaels
54,291 / 50,000
Nov 24, 2009 - 19 10
I did it. On page 100 of my novel, the purple seal shows up as a wax seal on two envelopes.
50,451 / 50,000
Nov 25, 2009 - 12 16
The Purple Seal has finally made an appearance:
When Kyle was recovering, Stewart was one of his most staunch supporters, but in a quiet, unobtrusive way. Stewart was at the hospital when Kyle was slowly roused from his drug-induced coma. Kyle had vague memories of that time but he remembered a few things vividly. He remembered the nurse leaning over him checking his IV and resetting a monitor. He remembered looking up at her and wondering why she was covered in big purple spots. As his eyes began to focus, he realized she was wearing scrubs with purple seals on them. Each purple seal was balancing a ball of a different color. He remembered thinking then that he hadn’t been to the circus in awhile, as his mind drifted and refused to focus. She must’ve caught his puzzled look, or maybe it was because he raised a hand to point at her. “Yes, lovely isn’t it?” she said with a friendly smile, looking down at her circus themed top. “I normally work in Pediatric surgery so this is usually appropriate. Today, they pulled me over here to help watch you wake up. We’re expecting great things outta you today!” He remembered smiling or at least thinking he was smiling. If he could see purple seals and think about the circus, a least part of him was still alive.
61,615 / 50,000
Nov 28, 2009 - 20 05
here is my purple seal reference, at around 58,000 words. Thank goodness my sister thought of how to work it in!
The tables were small and round, some tall bar stool height and many shorter regular tables and chairs. Along the ceiling, a bizarre collection of inflatables was suspended. Hazel could see a football player, a soccer ball, a baseball bat, a bright blue dolphin, and a purple seal. Tyler leaned across the pool table and sank two balls before missing and returning back to the wall.
----------"So, you came." Tyler said.
"I drove past my house first." Hazel admitted. "But Brendan just gave me a lecture about not sitting at home being lame every night."
"So you came to Sharkey's to be lame instead?" Tyler teased. "Because this is probably not the cultural mecca that Brendan hoped you would discover if you left your house."
"Do you guys come here often?" Hazel asked. She couldn't imagine coming here often, but then, until recently she had never been to a baseball game either.
Perhaps my entire novel can be written during hours and minutes that my toddler is sleeping. Perhaps not.
50,086 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2009 - 17 27
Here is mine.
Matthias reached into his tunic and pulled out a rolled parchment with a broken purple seal. "My master said to give this to the first man I came to on the road." He handed the roll to David. "The queen's guard is scouring the villages. They are killing the children and those who would protect them. Our warning," he paused motioning to the parchment, "came too late. I only pray that it is not the same fate for you."
----------Renee Lynn Scott
Unlocking History Through Romance