CW -- Where was/am I, anyway?

So where am I with my Creativity Workshop goals, my One Story Per Week plan? I’ve already admitted that I didn’t write a single word during my vacation. My bad. But I do have a couple of semi-stories in the hopper from my ‘Breaking the rules/breaking the law’ segment — again, more    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash -- July 16

“I want those to go, too.” She pointed to the row of rosebushes, yellow and red blossoms bobbing in the breeze.

“Ma’am?” The bushes were healthy, lush, and while he wasn’t a flower man himself, he was sure someone had lavished a great deal of care on them, and recently, too.

She smiled and    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash Fiction 55

This builds on last week’s Friday Flash Fiction:

Barbara looked at her daughter. How could she tell her? Oh, Kirsten, by the way, I’ve been living a lie in front of you and Dad all these years?

She winced at the false notion of ‘Dad’ that her husband, her daughter held. What possible    [Continue reading]

CW - Update on goals & progress

So where am I along my Creativity Workshop path? According to the original plan, I should be starting my last of four stories centering around a specific place and time: post-Hurricane Ike Galveston Texas. Am I there?

Nah. I realized during my week in Texas that there was Absolutely No Time    [Continue reading]

Late Flash Fiction

Fellow blogger Parrot Writes set out this flash fiction challenge for last week:

We are traveling 60 mph on the interstate going home from our Ashland stay. Suddenly we see brakelights four or five cars ahead of us and watch a minivan swerve off to the shoulder of the highway and slide to an immediate    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash Fiction

This one came out of a short conversation I had with an airline seatmate last week.  She’d slept most of the flight, and I only got to talk with her after the plane actually landed.  She was in her late 20’s, probably, and she’d just come from visiting her sister, who was a couple of    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash

Here’s a little context-setting for today’s Flash. Yesterday my writing buddy Kathan posted her search for a character, Looking for my next character. Writing buddy Dayner posed the challenge to write Friday Flashes around one of the characters Kathan saw at Starbucks.

Could I resist? Of course not. But I couldn’t pick    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash Fiction

Becca ignored the ‘no trespassing’ sign to her right and continued down the long driveway. Dry leaves crackled as she stepped across them on the broken concrete. So much for quiet.

She reached the door and stopped. Of course it would be locked. Of course she would be breaking the law.    [Continue reading]

Friday Flash Fiction

“That your dog?” He laughed at the dirty hound licking crumbs and gravel off the sidewalk next to the outdoor café. She could see its ribs; dried blood stuck to a jagged scratch along its flank.

The only dog here is this date, she thought.

“Yes,” she said as she stood up.    [Continue reading]

Senior discount day at the grocery store (a true story)

After unloading the groceries into the back of my car yesterday, I headed toward the ‘cart corral’ with my empty cart.

“Hey! Ma’am!”

I turned, and the old man continued: “Can I have your cart?” He pointed to his foot, in a cast, and I walked the cart over to him.

I smiled; he    [Continue reading]