Annika, the Shoemaker’s Daughter Written with my Thursday writing group with the prompts: forbidden, midafternoon stop and go pattern, cracking into the present, escaping into the future, stared and waved, towels dropped over her, cheese paddle, song, shoemaker’s daughter, she was a cheap exhibitionist, with the sun in her eyes, if you want to learn the … Continue reading Annika, the Shoemaker’s Daughter
Written with the prompts: a game you see, celebrate, shut it down, pleasure, beans for dinner, friends of friends, especially the pants, jumped into Gary’s lap, if you start now, this old lamp, stranger with no hat, she had two sons, good girl with bad habits, as the door opened she knew, Mommy’s candy, green bird … Continue reading Two Suns
Maya wears dove gray ballet flats as she glides across a glassy smooth hardwood floor. In another country, her sister Mary is barefoot, piecing her way across a black sand beach littered with broken sea shells as sharp and painful as shards of glass. She is headed toward a granite mountain, its slope as … Continue reading Flats and Sharps
Because it was my birthday this week, I decided to re-publish one of my very own favorites. Meow. . . After midnight the day-old loaves of bread in the bakery turn into slumbering cats. Some are brown and toasty, some white and fragrant, some calico dotted with black, brown and golden patches that used to … Continue reading Bread Cats
As a Valentine treat, I’m reviving a little romantic tale of an amorous, adventurous couple. Charlie was a regular guy living a regular life. Then he met Mabel and he slipped over the edge. Mabel was a force of nature, a combination Earth Mother/Ruth Bader Ginsberg no-nonsense intellectual feminine feminist who believed the world was a place … Continue reading Charlie and Mabel
Nothing Halfway Written with my Thursday group with the prompts: overmedicated, turkey, she shook her head, walk, boring little houses, ice breaker, on top of a picnic table, Monday morning, Happy Donuts, I got angry, he had a hand on her shoulder When Mandy regained consciousness, she was already walking. Disoriented, wandering in fog—except it … Continue reading Nothing Halfway
It was a pretty simple prompt the other night: in the tradition of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, give your story an enticing three-item title. Sorry to sound like an ad for Canon, but I’d just bought a new printer so it was on my mind. The bigger reason I’m including the brand … Continue reading The Poet, The Coyote, and The Canon Wireless Printer
Written with my Thursday night group with the prompts: soaking it all up, whose feet would you wash, aren’t you hungry, do not listen to that person, not ready to sleep that sleep, prior work was painting fingernails, do not believe the news, should, time moving like a wave, the feel of spandex, man orchid, Gertrude the … Continue reading Princess Gertrude the Goat
I'm needing a bit of a break so I thought I'd run a few of my greatest hits here. Maybe next week too, not sure yet. At any rate, here's a fan favorite that I hope you'll enjoy. After midnight the day-old loaves of bread in the bakery turn into slumbering cats. Some are brown … Continue reading Bread Cats
Years ago I had a student named Joseph who was deaf and mute and on the autism spectrum. He was 9 years-old, with big brown eyes, and sandy hair. I loved him and I knew he trusted me. When it was time to come in from the playground, he could not hear the bell, so … Continue reading Wagons
