The lovely Delores at Under the Porch Light
has been running this meme for a considerable period of time, week
after week. Computer issues led her to bow out for a while and I took
over. When Delores' absence looked like being more permanent I begged
and cajoled for other volunteers to share providing the prompts, and Words for
Wednesday became a moveable feast.
Last month Jacqueline at Randomosity tested our mettle. This month it is my turn.
Essentially the aim is to encourage us
to write. Each week we are given a choice of prompts: which can be
words, phrases, music or an image. What we do with those prompts is up
to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with
ignore... We can use some or all of the prompts.
Some of us put our creation in
comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. I would really
like it if as many people as possible joined into this fun meme. If
you are posting on your own blog - let me know so that I, and other
participants, can come along and applaud.
This week I am going to give you two sets of six words and a phrase.
First the words.
Set the first is:
- graveyard
- chapter
- symbol
- near
- dangerous and
- sawdust
- challenge
- ballerina
- billion
- arcane
- conclusion and
- convict
The phrase I am including this week is from one of the books I am reading and got my mind going into overdrive. I hope it does the same for you.
'Absolution, my child, is not like the bus pass. It does not run out.'
While we are talking writing challenges I am going to throw another into the mix.
A Valentines Day challenge.
The lovely Denise Covey and Yolanda Renee are hosting yet another WEP (Write, Edit, Publish) challenge. The rules and timing for the challenge can be found here. And the more the merrier.
***
While we are talking writing challenges I am going to throw another into the mix.
A Valentines Day challenge.
This looks fun but my brain is not working right now. I'll try to get back later.
ReplyDeleteDeniseinVA: I hope you can.
DeleteHow is the Skinny one?
ReplyDeleteBob Bushell: Asleep. And not too bad.
DeleteGood work thank you for sharing
ReplyDeleteMartin Kloess: Are you going to play?
DeleteAnother chapter in her life was over. After the funeral she stood looking at the cross a supposed symbol of goodness yet the dangerous and near death experience before his death left her feeling like a pile of sawdust blowing in the wind.
ReplyDeleteLinda Starr: I hope her sawdust solidifies into a new and wonderful shape. Soon.
DeleteI agree with EC's sentiments. :)
DeleteThe ballerina entered the contest and considered it a tremendous challenge. It was a billion to one she'd make the cut. Many of the required moves for the competition were arcane. Each judge made their own conclusion and convict of any errant position of the contestants.
ReplyDeleteLinda Starr: You are on a roll here. Are you going to play with the phrase too? I hope so.
DeleteKeep spinning, Linda...did she make the cut??
DeleteExcellent job, Linda!
DeleteWow. You've got lots going on. I'm kinda like Denise...only my brain is napping at the moment;0
ReplyDeleteSandra Cox: Lots of napping brains this morning (including mine). I hope you when yours wakes up inspiration strikes.
DeleteI'll have to think about this one for a bit.
ReplyDeleteDelores: I am convinced that your agile mind will come up with magic.
DeleteAnother chapter in my life has opened. I can remember so clearly lying in the sawdust in Riordan's meat shop slowly bleeding out. So near death...I managed to draw a hex symbol in the sawdust before the lights went out. When I opened my eyes again I was sitting on a mound of earth in the graveyard watching the mourners surrounding my coffin. " What on earth are they burying?", I wondered.
ReplyDeleteDelores: My faith in you was more than justified.
DeleteYou leave me wanting to know more...
DeleteYikes, yes, continue the story!
DeleteYour imagination is wonderful, Delores! I love it! :)
DeleteA roaming soul who doesn't realise he or she has died? I like it.
DeleteWhat an idiot, I thought to myself privately, on the rainy somber day we laid Ricky to eternal rest in the graveyard near the forest. My younger sister, who always liked my husband (god only knows why, because she didn't live with him I say), wept noisily and clung to my coat sleeve. She'd come on the bus from the far side of the city and now I'd probably have to keep her over night. Like I needed that on top of this. The priest was up there now by the grave, waving his trinkets, talking symbols and life ever after and about to drop a handful of dust over the casket as he mumbled about dust to dust. More like flesh to sawdust, I was thinking. Ricky wasn't all that bright. Drinking a case of Coors before going out to chip up the tree limbs? Seriously? He was yelling at the neighbor, whom he hates (hated) with his beer can clutched in his extended arm, loosened his grip to gesture with one finger (you can guess which) and that beer can dropped down into the running shredder. He didn't pause a second going after it, arm got caught up, pulled the rest of him in, and out he came on the other side, in kind of a tomato soup. Neighbor came running over, also clutching a beer, yelling what a dangerous stunt that was, not knowing Ricky was now the red smoosh all over the lawn. That ends the Ricky chapter of my life. My sister was leaning hard against me as Ricky's pine box was covered with dirt. The end of the service was near. My sister, a good soul (unlike me), believer in angels and unicorns, soothes me (or thinks so) by saying, he's not gone, we'll see him again, real soon too, in heaven. Or god will shoot him back here all made whole again, only he'll be like a dog or a mouse, something like that. "Absolution, my child," I said, "is not like the bus pass. It does not run out. He's absolutely dead and gone." With that we walked off, arm in arm, her still snuffling and me thinking about that fat life insurance policy I took out on Ricky after last year's chain saw incident.
ReplyDeleteI meant to add, before hitting publish, that the pine box was all for show, that they'd had to scoop him up into some quart mason jars and padded in the space with some of those limbs he meant to shred and dead leaves.
DeleteStrayer: Brilliant. Dark, funny - and not impossible.
DeleteHahahahahaha! That's good...very good! :)
DeleteDark humour is often the best kind and in this case, you nailed it!
DeleteThanks EC, Lee and Jacqueline! Makes me happy you liked it.
DeleteIt was a new chapter in her life she had escaped from a abusive husband, last night she slept in a graveyard in a outbuilding on a bed of sawdust, it was dangerous to stay so near to her former house but she had a beloved dog who would not fare well living with her angry and nasty husbane so when she got a chance she would snatch Sandy, her dog and they would start a new life together, he was her symbol of freedom.
ReplyDeleteMerle.............
Merlesworld: Love it. And I hope Sandy bites her husband on their way out.
DeleteLet's hope they did. Like EC, I hope Sandy bites the husband...twice!
DeleteSandy should get him neutered! The husband, not the dog...
DeleteHere's to her and Sandy escaping!
DeleteThank you so much Sue for the WEP Valentine's Day shout out. Sorry but my blog is hogged, so can't do Words for Wednesday at the minute but it looks like so much fun! And you know how I love a writing challenge!
ReplyDeleteDenise :-)
Denise Covey: You are a tad busy this month (which is an understatement), so your absence is totally understandable. Some other month?
DeleteThat's quite the varied lists you have there. I like the phrase.
ReplyDeleteRiver: I look forward to seeing what you create.
DeleteYou always come up with something brilliant. =)
DeleteI like the stories put up here quite a lot, some great efforts there.
ReplyDeleteRiver: There are, aren't there.
DeleteAnd here is my tale for today....using both words and phrase.
ReplyDelete"The old CWA Hall situated NEAR Traveston, a rural area on the southern outskirts of Gympie had been host to many country balls, dances, functions, meetings and many other types of events.
When the organisers of the dances ran out of rosin, which was quite often, they’d lightly sprinkle a coating of SAWDUST over the floor to stop it from being a DANGEROUS CHALLENGE; to stop it from being slippery.
A BILLION feet had glided across the polished timber floor throughout the years from its construction in the early days of the gold rush in the 19th Century. Thousands of little children had purposely, gleefully slid up and down from one end of the hall to the other in between dance breaks.
Molly had memories filled with mixed emotions from her childhood when, under Miss Gidley’s stern eye during her ballet classes, she danced across the floor pretending she was a prima BALLERINA.
Molly remembered vividly the times she played truant preferring to ride her pony across the paddocks with the blowing freely through her hair, than practicing endless pirouettes.
Miss Gidley secretly favoured her above her other students knowing that one day Molly would be acclaimed dancer even if Molly, herself, wasn’t aware yet of how good she was.
With a twinkle in her eye, Miss Gidley took Molly aside one day after she’d failed to appear for another lesson. Miss Gidley quietly said to her:
“ABSOLUTION MY CHILD, IS NOT LIKE THE BUS PASS. IT DOES NOT RUN OUT: however, my patience might if you continue to keep up with this reckless disregard to your lessons!”
Molly never forgot those words uttered by Miss Gidley. From that day forth she turned up, dutifully, for every ballet class in the ancient CWA Hall.
The old building played a very interesting CHAPTER in the history of the area. It stood as a SYMBOL of times gone by.
For many years an ARCANE rumour had been passed around mysteriously between only a few. The truth behind what had supposedly gone on was all very hush-hush. Mainly because some descendants of those caught up in the event, on all fronts, were still alive and living in the area.
The whispered hearsay behind closed doors was about a tragic event which occurred in the mid-1800s, a century and a half ago. An escaped CONVICT had taken two hostages and holed up in the hall for nigh on a week before the troopers stormed in bringing the stand-off to a bloody CONCLUSION; one wherein one of the hostages was saved. The second hostage and the convict ended up in the GRAVEYARD."
Lee: I love it - and am all too familiar with stories which are kept quiet because there are still relatives around...
DeleteThanks, EC. :)
DeleteIf only those walls could talk eh? The tales they'd tell would blow your mind.
DeleteOOooo, a cliffhanger; love it!
DeleteI'll try to come up with something and publish it on (my) Friday. Hope you and the Skinny One... and the Furry Ones... are all well.
ReplyDeleteJacquelineand...: Looking forward to it. I hope your bathroom issues are being resolved.
DeleteI'm looking forward to your story too :)
DeleteWell shuckydern! Picture me blushing.
DeleteGood tales by your followers.
ReplyDeleteCan't think of a thing - mind is blank!
Margaret-whiteangel: Me too.
Delete'Absolution, my child, is not like the bus pass. It does not run out.'
ReplyDeleteI wish I could believe that. You have repeatedly given me absolution in the name of our Father. Can I trust you? Do you really know what he would do? And how can he possibly forgive me when I cannot forgive myself.
Brilliant and mysterious in it's brevity!
DeleteYou've used the phrase well, EC....you've painted a clear image with the words.
DeleteEC, what on earth have you done that you cannot forgive yourself for? Surely nothing is so bad. If something was done unintentionally, you should have no guilt over that.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I couldn't find a way to use the phrase, but my story will be up on my site on Friday. Had to work a bit harder for this one.
River: It is a fictional snippet - just told in the first person. Mind you, I do find forgiving myself difficult. Looking forward to your story.
Deletepicture a group of ten year old kids...
DeleteI always enjoy reading the various ways the words and phrase can be turned into so many different unrelated tales. I especially like the phrase.
ReplyDeleteMason Canyon: The different directions the same prompts take people is amazing isn't it?
DeleteI may wish I had taken this challenge instead of the 29 Faces challenge. I am drawing a new face every day for the month of February. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteGranny Annie: I couldn't even begin to attempt the 29 Faces Challenge. Loving yours.
DeleteSo many talented souls here. I love to watch. Ohhhh, word voyeurism.
ReplyDeleteSonya Ann: I too am a word voyeur. Are you going to play next week?
DeleteThe sun warmed her shoulders as she sat at the graveyard reading, her back against a freshly cut tree, sawdust at her feet. Turning the page, she started a new chapter and frowned when she saw the symbol on the header. It looked familiar. She glanced at the headstone near her and saw the same symbol. As she stared at it, a dangerous languor seeped through her. As if in slow motion, the book dropped from her hand and her body slumped.
ReplyDeleteSandra Cox: Ooooh. Love it. And want to know more.
DeleteEerie...and great use of the words and the reader wants to read further.
DeleteI love this...use of words almost making the words invisible!
DeleteOoooh! I love this and would love to read more.
DeleteYou clever people who can do such things! I'm recovering from a miserable cold/ Strange how bad the common cold can make one feel.....I hope you have been feeling well!
ReplyDeleteCloudia: I am so sorry. A cold makes a person feel vile out of all proportion to the severity of the illness. I hope you are feeling much, much better every day.
DeleteBlimey, that's a bit of a challenge for someone who does not possess the skills of a nimble ballerina but the stealth of a convict. A billion-year-old conclusion could be that my body feels far too arcane to rise up to this challenge. :-)
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
*Applause!*
DeleteA Cuban in London: Applause and cheers from me too.
DeleteWell done! I almost didn't see the words in there.
DeleteHa! Great job!
DeleteSorry I don't have a contribution now, EC. A Cuban nailed it, though.
ReplyDeleteBe well.
Rawknrobyn: Next time perhaps - and you are right about A Cuban in London's contribution.
DeleteThis challenge sounds fun!! I'm not quite sure how the rules go about though..
ReplyDeleteI was once a tiny ballerina. I'd practice my twirls in the basement as my dad cut wood. Where later I'd secretly play with the sawdust. Learned the hard way how dangerous it was after splinters!
- Harlynn
mindyourmadness.blogspot.com
Harlynn: Welcome. You nailed this. I remember playing with wood off-cuts too.
DeleteI imagine these kinds of exercises are so fun and welcome for the writers. They are fun to read too.
ReplyDeletemail4rosey: It is a fun game for lots of us. Writers, readers and dabblers. And you are right, they ARE fun to read.
DeleteHi EC - great to see you posting .. and I'd love to do this Challenge - but for now am swamped with my little journey which has to be finished shortly! And I'm giving a talk on Rembrandt .. that's taking up a bit of space ... but one day a space ahead will occur and I'll settle in for a bit of fun ..
ReplyDeleteI love the stories I've read - wonderful different takes on life and words ... Absolution ... ah well! Cheers Hilary
Hilary Melton-Butcher: Some other time we would love to see you play.
DeleteAre we going to see/read your Rembrandt talk? I hope so.
I'm doing WEP this month! I've got just a spark of an idea right now, but hopefully it turns out ok!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to stare at your prompts for a minute and see if anything comes of it. I like these sorts of challenges. It feels sort of like a word problem.. I don't know. If I do, it'll go up on my blog!
Madilyn Quinn: I saw you were playing WEP - and am really looking forward to reading your take.
DeleteI've added my name to the WEP list, not sure how the link works to publish on my own blog, but that's where my story will be.
ReplyDeleteRiver: That is wonderful. I am so pleased.
DeleteMine is now done and up... it turned out to be a very strange little tale.
ReplyDeleteJacquelineand...: I will be over shortly.
DeleteWhat interesting sets of words. I will be mulling them over a bit and if I come up with something that makes sense I will pop back over and share. :) Such a fun idea!
ReplyDelete~Jess
DMS ~Jess: It is a fun challenge, and I hope to see you back again.
DeleteLots of people worked their magic with the words this time around. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the birthday wishes for my hubby. It's been a terrific day. :)
Susan: They did didn't they? I am so glad that you and Smarticus had a wonderful day.
Delete