Friday Fictioneers is hosted by the wonderful Rochelle, the undisputed master of what I call Sound Bite Fiction.
She sets the weekly challenge, the standard, and the prompt photo.
The idea, as always, is to write a story of around 100 words based on the picture below, which this week is supplied by the lady herself.
© Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Click here to hear the author read his words:
E-book
Do you know that, during World War Two, British Intelligence agents used e-books to send messages to the French Resistance?
What?
Specifically a book called Instants, which contained French translations of short stories written in English by a Scots guy called Ayr.
Utter mince! There were no e-books back then, there wasn’t even the internet for 40 or 50 years!
So you want to spoil this great idea for a story just for a few facts?
If you don’t care about reality why not just get them to text the messages?
That wouldn’t be much of a story, would it?
Please note:
Yes, I have released, among other things, an e-book of translations into French of a selection of stories from my previously published Medville Matters.
Unless you speak reasonable French this will be of little or no interest to you.
However, it did provide me with one of those little moments that make life wonderful.
On the image below, see who is one place below me.
E books what are they I wonder, 🙂
An Interesting read, and re-read! I listened to you reading E-Book. You have a nice voice with a Scottish hint.
Thank you, Nan, but really, just a hint?
Nice one CE! Good to see the exalted company you keep. Droll tale, too.
Thank you, Penny, for taking the whole thing in the way it was intended, with tongue very firmly in cheek!
Must get the receipt, ‘utter mince!’
I think you just read it, James!
Recipe – I must turn off bloody auto-spell checker. Cheers.
A great piece of product placement!
My blog, my rules!
Cheers, Keith
Absolutely!
Interesting marketing to make the whole damn thing a plug, I have to say, I think you’re far more shameless than I could ever be. (Blushes coyly)
Blushing coyly, Michael?
You just upped and announced your new book!
For which, congratulations, mon ami
Why spoil a good story because of “facts”? Nice bit of shameless promotion!
We all write fiction, Ali, and we all self-promote.
I just added some humour!
I dunno CE… I think you’ve stretched alternative ‘history’ to the edge of the cliff! That said, it still made me laugh, groan, and manage my shortcircuiting neurones, all at the same time.
Congrats on Instants’ fame and the screenshot to prove it.
Don’t rest on your laurels though. Simenon sold 600 million books worldwide… There’s no time to waste if you want to keep your spot. Just sayin’.
Thanks, Em, but I think that right now ‘fame’ translates as ‘anonymat’.
And given M. Simenon’s legendary prowess in another field, I wonder when he found time to scrawl even a thank you note.
Funny, CE. Letting the facts get in the way of a good story kind of sums it all up, yes? I have wanted to do some stories in my second language, Spanish, myself. There are some of my writings that do have both languages in them. Fun story!
Cheers, Kent, cinq traductions sur cinq!
Shameless! I like it.
C’mon, everyone plugs their stuff here, at least I made it fun!
I said, “I like it.” The whole reason I started a blog was to promote “The L Squad” and “Norman Normalson & The Normals.” (<—Shameless!)
That’s the spirit!
If we can’t fleece our friends what is the point!
Regarding the French translation of your English short stories, je suis heureux pour toi. Entertaining story to segue as well! =)
Glad you like the story, Brenda, et merci pour tes mots gentils
he’s got a point. 🙂
I think there’s an echo in here!
he has a point. 🙂
I agree, we all make stuff up, that’s why it’s called fiction!
Smart and sneaky. Good luck!
It’ll be dead cheap in Canada!
Will it now?
It’s an experiment, a tester, so I would have made it free but Amazon are Amazon, so it’s at minimum price,US$0.99
I think I can handle that 😉
If you do, please leave a comment, that is gold on Amazon!
Anything I read, especially from my blogger friends, I do!
Now that would have made the war interesting. 😀
Well, I kinda thought…
Y’know…
Shrug…
Dear CE,
Definitely a unique take on the prompt. And an interesting bit of ‘history’ besides.
Shalom,
Rochelle
I confess I had no idea what that was, thought it was some electronic gizmo hiding in the woods.
Until, m’lady, I copied the image, when the title rather spoiled things.
Sorry about the title. But apparently no one else has noticed it.
Ha! Quite slickly done, CE. Good luck and congrats on your e-books.
Thanks, Varad
Sometimes, I want to save the screenshots of lockdown conversations. Someone alluded to us as being reduced to hunter-gatherers, preying on scarce supplies as and when possible. Plenty will feel so different after this.
I’m sure that’s as good a way of spending the lockdown as any other. I admire your confidence – I’ve lived in three countries other than my own and managed to get by in all three languages, but I’d never EVER dream of attempting to be published in them. Well done.
Thanks, Sandra, mais je parle français comme une vache espagnole avec un accent écossais.
But I know one or two French folk, y’know…
I’m in the middle of a Simenon reading phase at the moment – but the French translated into English. He is a master and deserves to sit alongside CE Ayr in the bestsellers lists.
This made me laugh, Iain, gentle mockery is greatly appreciated!
You might know that M. Simenon claimed to have, ahem, known 10,000 women.
To which his wife responded ‘Nah, more like 1,200’!
He was prolific with the pen and the… well, yes.
I like it, but I must question your dating. Being a Yorkshireman I can testify that for centuries we’ve been picking up something to read and saying ‘e book.’ And don’t get me started on ‘i phone.’
Thanks, Anthony, I have to admit that Yorkshire is not my specialist subject!
Shameless self-promotion, mate. But funny, I’ll give you that
It’s just where my head is, Neil, I have been e-booking furiously for weeks now, 3 of them out there now.
As for self-promotion, how many francophones read this rubbish!