Reply to Daily Prompt #2

Okay, here's what I came up with in ten minutes for the Daily Prompt #2 exercise:



The star on top of the Christmas tree swayed as the little house shook and rocked with the force of the winds outside. Marcy grabbed her cell phone and a flashlight before running for the tiny hall closet in the center of the house. She knew she should’ve gone out into the storm shelter but it was too late now. She just hoped the gas main didn’t blow and send her and her house spiraling toward Oz; fried crispy in the process.
This tornado had come on quickly, very late in the season, and no one had anticipated the force with which it would strike the small town she’d lived in all her life. As she crouched in the closet she squeezed her eyes closed and tried to think of the good times; coming in first place playing her violin at the state competition in high school, supporting her school’s sports teams, spending countless hours gossiping with her best friends during slumber parties. They were all good times and she was terrified that they were about to end.
Marcy’s phone rang and she flipped it open and wanted to cry with relief when she heard her boyfriend’s voice on the other end.
“Sean, where are you? Are you okay? I can’t believe how crazy it is here…I’m scared.” Marcy cried.
“Hey Baby, don’t cry. Just get in the groove, yeah? It’s all good, baby.” Sean’s voice sounded strange and Marcy was startled by his lack of concern for her wellbeing.
“Sean, are you high? I’m in the middle of a tornado!”
“Wow, cool, baby.” Sean laughed, obviously not in his right mind.
Marcy flipped her phone shut and buried her face in her hands and cried. Her life was falling apart and she was sitting in a closet while the wind ripped her house apart...and then everything was quiet; deathly quiet.
Marcy knew then and there that this was a new beginning for her. She didn’t need Sean or his stupid choices making a mess of her life…Mother Nature was good enough at that all by herself.

Daily Prompt # 2

Okay, here's Daily Prompt #2. Set your timer for ten minutes and write me a short story with the following parameters:

Setting for your story: during a tornado

Starting phrase for your story: The star

Four words you must include in your story:

Gas
Violin
Crispy
Groove

Post your results either here as a comment or on your own blog and tell me that you've posted it.

Reply to Daily Prompt exercise...

See the entry below for exercise directions. Here is what I came up with:


“I can’t believe you chose this—this hovel to hide in.” Becky hissed, trying not to breathe through her nose. The air was toxic, poison for sure and she just knew there were spiders crawling around in the barely lit space, waiting to pounce on her.
“I’m not the one that mouthed off to that guy and got him to chasing us.” Tim looked around, the muscles in his neck and shoulders moving smoothly under his skin as he tried to move in the cramped space.
“Okay, I’ll admit it, I should’ve been quiet and let you handle it but…an outhouse, Tim? An outhouse? You couldn’t have pushed me into a mud puddle or something? That would’ve been preferable to this.” Becky jerked her foot back when Tim stepped on it and she decided to give up and perched awkwardly on the edge of the ‘toilet’.
“It’s not an outhouse, it’s a port-a-potty, there’s a difference.” Tim insisted quietly as he leaned against the wall and hitched his thumbs in the pockets of his jeans.
Becky tried not to notice his long legs and how close he was. The air felt frightfully warm and close. She reached for an old magazine that had a thick strip of peeling red tape holding the binding together and used it to swat at a mosquito that was buzzing around her ear, annoying her more than Tim’s smug look.
“What? Why are you looking at me that way?”
“I knew you were gonna screw this thing up. I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep quiet and let me handle this. That’s why I called Deek for backup. He’ll be here any minute to rescue us.”
Becky frowned and wanted to punch Tim but he was right, she had blown it. Those goons outside hunting for them wouldn’t have gotten their dander up if she’d just kept her trap shut.
But there was no more time for thinking of that; Becky jumped to her feet at the sound of gunfire outside. With her standing, the space seemed too small again and she was painfully aware of her thighs pressed against Tim’s. When would this assignment be over so she could go on vacation and put some distance between herself and this infuriating, big headed, smart mouthed, know it all…incredibly sexy man?

Daily Prompt

Okay, a new game. I'm gonna try and post these exercises here regularly and see what kind of fun stuff we can come up with.


Setting for your story:

in a port-a-potty

Starting phrase for your story:

I can't believe

Four words you must include in your story:

Mosquito
Red Tape
Annoying
Poison

Set your timer for ten minutes and write!

A little writing exercise...

I found a website full of great creative writing exercises. Here’s one that I thought might be fun:


Fairy tales have happy endings. All of us know what happened in that mushy fairy tale, Cinderella. Yeah, it’s romantic, the prince actually finding Cinderella. They lived happily ever after but sometimes happy endings can be…boring. No zing, so predictable, so…happy. What if the shoe had fit one of the sisters? What would have happened then? Use your imagination here, be funny if you like, or serious, or be Alfred Hitchcock.

Write a new ending to the Cinderella story, this time with the shoe fitting one of the icky stepsisters. What would Prince Charming do? How would Cinderella react? What about the Fairy Godmother?

Post your ‘story’ here on my blog or on your own if you prefer. I can’t wait to read your results.

Do you ever....?

Do you ever go to your stack or shelf of books and pass over the unread ones, reaching instead for one you've read before; maybe more than once?

I finished a book yesterday and today as I searched through the handful of brand new, never read volumes, my eyes fell instead on an old favorite; a story I've read ten times if I've read it once. It's a Harlequin Romance- hard bound- that was published in 1971 called Lily of the Valley, written by Margaret Rome. I love this story because it evokes all of the feelings I want to feel when I'm reading a romance- sadness, joy, anger, frustration, elation, and above all that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach that keeps me turning page after page again and again.

Do you have a favorite story that you return to again and again when you're not in the mood to read something new? Or are you never not in the mood to read something new?

Gosh, two posts in one day... I'm a chatter box today :o)

I've been Tagged...again

Okay Elle, 6-10 weird things about me...hmmm, I might have to think on that a bit :o)

1. I, too, am ambidexterous and since you listed that one, I can too.
2. I can't get comfortable in bed unless it's made when I get in. I know I'm gonna mess it up anyway, but it has to start out made.
3. Some people think I'm weird because I detest eggs and milk. I refuse to eat/drink either of them.
4. I can only wear 18k gold jewelery or I get a terrible rash.
5. My dream vacation is not someplace tropical and popular, rather it's the historical landmarks of the eastern U.S.
6. I'm allergic to cats but own two of them.
7. I hate leaving the little island I live on, even to go shopping on the mainland.

I can't think of anymore right now. Maybe I'll add to this when I get back from the hospital this afternoon.

Why Do I Write?

As I sat here at my desk staring at the last sentance I wrote in my WIP and wondering where to go from there, I asked myself, "Self, why do I do this? What is the reason that I write?"

No, I don't suppose it's a life altering question but one that I had some difficulty answering- even to myself. What is it about writing that I enjoy so much? What do I hope to accomplish by writing the things that I do?

I guess it could be that my life is so dull that I have to live vicariously through my characters to find fulfilment. But then again, I have four children- two of which are teenagers, how dull could my life possibly be?

Is it possibly because I'm lacking romance in my real life that I have to generate it on paper- or computer screen as the case happens to be? That question was a quick and easy one to answer- No...I am definitely not lacking romance in my life...and that being the case, I thought that maybe because I have an abundance of love and romance in my life that I want to share it with readers who might read romance because they don't have enough or any in their lives.

Maybe.

I tried to go back and remember when it was that I first realized I loved writing and then it came to me. My love of the writen word started after a very tragic period in my life, around the age of twelve and I started writing poetry as a way of dealing with my feelings of anger and grief. It grew from there to include confusion and helplessness and eventually acceptance, happiness and love. Writing helped me work through my feelings and I've since discovered that writing about love from beginning to end is by far the most pleasant and enjoyable.

So that's why I write. Why do you write? What is your inspiration? Why do you write the genre that you do?

I'm here, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...yet

One of my loyal readers- you know who you are :o)- emailed me because she hadn't seen me around lately. What a nice warm feeling that created in me, to know I was missed out here in my little corner of the WWW.

My aunt is back in the hospital with more complications from her surgery and I found out today that it was because of doctor error that she's got this terrible infection. I always thought that some surgical instrument getting left inside of someone happened to 'other' people. Well, it can happen to regular folks too. That's right, a surgical sponge was left inside of her and has caused a nasty infection. The poor dear, like she hasn't been through enough. Hopefully I'll get to pick her up from the hospital tomorrow; I hope so anyway.

To those of you who've been praying, thank you.

As for my writing, I actually opened my writing program and added about a thousand words to my WIP today. It's the first time in a couple of weeks that I've even looked at it. I missed it terribly- one more reason to get a laptop so that I can write when I'm away from home. I promised myself that as soon as I sold a book I was going to treat myself to a brand new laptop...that's pretty good motivation :o)