Month: January 2014

January 31, 2014

Flash! Friday Vol. 2-8: Promise Kept

Car wreck, ca 1920. Public domain photo.

Car wreck, ca 1920. Public domain photo.

Josephine puttered through the door of her daughter’s house, widow’s black draped on frail shoulders tired of sorrow and empty platitudes. Her grand-kids played in blissful silence. She knew their grandfather sat in their minds as a stranger’s face, rarely seen and not to be mourned by innocence.

The phone rang and rang. She let it go in her desire to evade the well-meaning well-wishers that plagued her.

“Ma! Could you get that, please?” her daughter, Kelly, shouted.

She sighed and picked up the old-fashioned corded phone. “Hello?”

“Joey? It’s me. There was an accident, but I’m all right. I’ll see you soon, love.”

She gasped and dropped the phone. Kelly ran in at the clatter to see what happened. “Ma?”

Josephine looked at her with tears in eyes. “He always told me he’d let me know he was okay if anything happened.”

She buried her face in her daughter’s shoulder. “Whatever his faults, he kept his promises. Remember that.”

Word Count: 160

For Flash! Friday – Vol. 2 – 8. The prompt this week is the photo above. There is an extra element, called the Dragon’s Bidding, that needs to be incorporated into the story. This week’s Bidding:

PhoneCall

Rules of the challenge:

* Word limit: 150 word story (10-word leeway) based on the photo prompt.

* How: Post your story here in the comments. Include your word count (140 – 160 words, exclusive of title) and Twitter handle if you’ve got one. If you’re new, don’t forget to check the contest guidelines.

* Deadline: 11:59pm ET tonight (check the world clock if you need to; Flash! Friday is on Washington, DC time)

* Winners: will post Sunday. 

* Prize: The Flash! Friday e-dragon e-badge for your blog/wall, your own winner’s page here at FF, a 60-second interview next Wednesday, and your name flame-written on the Dragon Wall of Fame for posterity. 

***Dragon’s Bidding (required element to incorporate somewhere in your story; does not need to be the exact word unless that is specified).

Hope you enjoy.

Happy Reading and Writing!

J. Milburn

January 31, 2014

Five Sentence Fiction: Frozen

The monster that took my babies shuffles forward. He sits upon his horrid throne, crown affixed and smiling beatifically at his audience. He speaks, and his words will echo with the sick and depraved for generations. A thrown switch, and his muscles jerk, then freeze, as electricity courses through him.

I feel nothing.

Image Found: wikimedia.org

Lillie McFerrin Writes

For Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction. The prompt word this week: Frozen.

January 31, 2014

PTWWW & New To Me Poetry: Epigrams

For the Paint The World With Words “Be Inspired Challenge” this week, we are playing with Epigrams. An Epigram is defined as, “a pithy saying or remark expressing an idea in a clever and amusing way.”

My epigram came from wondering what the hell I was going to write for an epigram:

In the recess of thought, great words sit;
awaiting the writer to unleash their wit.
They lay in silence and pique’d fit;
for most, including me, aren’t up to it.
 

I also decided to try my hand at some other epigrams:

Faith is a five-year-old’s belief in parents perfection. Wisdom is the realization they are not.

I love movies. They divorce people from reality, who in turn divorce each other because their reality is not a movie. 

Writers strive to reveal society’s troubles. Society obliges by giving them so much to write about.

Zeal is great…until it crosses to zealotry. Then, not so much.

Hope you enjoy.

Happy Reading and Writing!

January 29, 2014

Haibun Thinking: Love’s Wrath

Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm
Robert Burns

Fire propels her hand to a blur. The rasp of metal against stone, the technique taught to her by a once-love, fills the yawning maw of blackness inside with its star-sparks. She caresses her cold companion; so unlike flesh in its rigidity and focus of purpose.

In its faithfulness.

Trembling fingers slip. Crimson blossoms in a slow fury. The empty pillow next to her falls victim to sharp rage. Practice for when he stumbles in from his “business” meeting later.

tip of blade glistens
careless hands destroy two lives-
love’s flame fanned to rage
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

For Haibun Thinking. This week’s prompts are the quote from a Robert Burns poem, as well as a photo prompt you can find on the challenge site. The quote stirred feelings of betrayal and vengeance, so my haibun reflects that. Head on over and join in with your own haibun.

Hope you enjoy.

Happy Reading and Writing!

J. Milburn