January’s Pictonaut Challenge

Today is the first day of Two Thousand and Fourteen. The day has been cold and grey, the sun a wan and sickly thing. The gloom has pervaded throughout the entire day and so has the rain. rain so persistent and unrelenting that one would be forgiven for thinking that the world is crying; mourning the passing of Two Thousand and Thirteen. The world must go on, even though its old friend is now gone. There is something comforting about rain and cloud, something reassuring, something old and dependable. And that is a good thing to have when confronted by the myriad of possibilities that lay before us all. The beginning of a thing is always the most terrifying, the most monstrous and insurmountable. For to begin a thing we must overcome the mountain of inertia and haul ourselves up from the very bowels of the potential energy well. But once that’s done? Then it’s a downhill slope. Things get easier. Either that or you encounter an unforeseen co-interaction or strange quantum phenomenon and everything either catches fire or ends up filled with gribbly abominations from the Before Time. Swings and roundabouts really.

Other things once begun continue, ad infinitum, such is their inertia that they cannot be stopped by conventional means. They merely continue, because that is the way things are. So here we are in the first day of the first month, let us visit the first of the planets, let us visit Mercury.

The image in question is the work of German artist Cornelius Dämmrich and is in fact actually titled Mercury. No name changes this month. It’s got a cool and collected air of techno-futurism, something calm and thoroughly composed, without the loss of any mystery. It also has a cat in it. I like cats.

For the unfamiliar, the lazy or just plain forgetful, the Pictonaut Challenge is a simple thing: The task is to write a short story (or wordascope) of around 1,000 words. Then we all share them about, have a good read and give each other a jolly good pat on the back.

If you have ever thought “I really should try writing” or “I definitely need to write more.” Then this is a perfect opportunity to get stuck in. Think of it as a New Year’s resolution. If someone as incompetent at time management and motivation as I can manage to do it for 28 months without fail, then you certainly can. No excuses. Hop to it!