Taking a Break?

Hi Folks, I have taken a break..well..from writing. I have gone through a whirlwind of changes in my life, lately. I have gotten a new job! I still have my old one , so I am trying to hang on to both. One for benefits and the other for the better pay.

I have to give myself a pat on the back though, because even with all this stress, I have remained positive, only lost a small bit of my hair, only gained a few pounds and only had one breakout of shingles. So, all in all, that is good for me!

I miss writing and I know I will take it back up as time allows.

All of the experience that I have had on WP and the people who I have met, were a true blessing and exactly what I needed, at the time.

Right now, I will have to stay focused on my career and will probably be taking a break from this blog.

Or maybe not..who knows what tomorrow will bring?

Peace and Love to you all!!!

and you all keep writing! I must have something to read on my off days!!

A Bird’s View: FFfAW

I do not understand these creature things called people.They constantly rush around looking down at a gadget of some sorts in their hands.

They hardly acknowledge or even speak to the other people in their flock. They rarely travel together.

I have watched them in their well-built nests, but all they do is sit and look at some bigger gadget on their wall. The only thing good about that is sometimes, I see them looking at beautiful pictures. But these pictures are not real. Why don’t they simply go outside and experience the real thing?

I understand that they do not have wings, as I do. And even if they did, they are way too heavy to fly very high. But they can stroll along these beautiful waterways and look up and see the blue skies and the majestic mountain peaks. They can walk along the sandy beaches and go in the middle of the lush green forest, just as I do.

No sir, I do not understand these creatures at all.

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175 words

To read  about the weekly photo challenge, follow this link below:

FFfAW

To read more stories about this photo click on the blue froggie.

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Home On The Suburbs: Monday’s Finish The Story /April 13

The neighbors were not happy about my choice of artwork. However, I am a collector and this piece was a gift that I couldn’t refuse. I agree, it is out-of-place in this neighborhood of manicured suburban lawns. One cannot simply turn down such a gift.

The story starts 20 years ago when I was a truck driver. My job always took me through a small town in New Mexico.The statue sat in front of the American Indian museum in that town.

The museum just happened to have my favorite bar next door to it. After having too many beers one night, I went out and climbed on the buffalo for a photographic opportunity. Just then, a female security guard showed up.” Sir, you have ten seconds to get down off the buffalo!” she shouted.

I told her that I only wanted one picture. But, by then I had drawn a crowd with my little episode. They were all cheering me on!

The security guard, with her arms folded, said, ” You must be from Tennessee?”

“How did you know?” I said

“Because, we get all kinds of truck drivers in here. Most, just want their picture taken beside the statue, Only the ones from Tennessee think they have to ride it. ”

We all had a good laugh.

So, every year, I stopped and “rode” the buffalo. Suprisingly, when the museum shut down last year,  they called and asked me if I would give the old Indian and the buffalo a good home? Otherwise, it would be destroyed.

So, as you see, I could not let them destroy it. It was like part of the family.

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Please feel free to upload your story by clicking on the little blue fellow below to add your story to the list!

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My Aunt Sue’s: FFfAW

It had been 20 years since I had been to Aunt Sue’s house. As me and several cousins sit on the front porch sipping iced tea and reminiscing, I realized that every single memory that I have of being at that house when I was growing up, was a good memory.

From my Uncle Joe always laughing to my Mama and my Aunt Sue in the kitchen pulling taffy. They would get so tickled that they would have to get someone to relieve them on their end of that taffy while they ran to the bathroom.

My family has been cursed with tragedies and bad memories. In every direction that I turn, I will see something that reminds me of those memories.

A drive along the streets where a lot of my family lived, is very depressing when I realize how many people are now gone.

However, here, things stay the same. With the rocking chairs, porch swing and the wind chimes making sweet music, it is as if time stands still in Aunt Sue’s house.

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175 words

Writing challenge week 8. The goal is to write a story between 100-150 words (give or take 25 words) based on the provided photo.

To add your own stories please click on the blue froggie

The Crash: Monday’s Finish The Story

Once upon a time far, far away, a young girl lived on a remote island with her small village of people. The seas were crystal clear and the skies were blue. On a regular day, anyway.

When she awoke that morning, things looked strange to her. The water was a funny red color and the sky was blocked by..fog? We never have fog!!

She tried to sit up to get a better look. She couldn’t move her legs. Pain shot down her back and she realized that something bad had happened to her.

The last thing she remembered was getting on the private airplane going to the big island. Her parents, her little brother and Cory. Where was Cory??

Then she smelled the fuel and the smoke and realized that they had crashed. Just then, she heard a helicopter above her. She looked up and saw a chopper with a big red cross on the side. Then she passed out again.

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164 word

Thanks to Barbara W Beachman for starting Monday’s Finish the Story.
Monday’s Finish the Story provides a picture along with the first sentence for us to create a flash fiction with 100 -150 words based on a picture.

Please feel free to upload your story by clicking on the little blue fellow below to add your story to the list!

A Tragedy

In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Three Letter Words.”

the challenge was to write a post excluding Three Letter Words! This is harder than I thought it would be.

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On a Sunday morning in July, my birthday, actually, we were looking forward to some swimming in a neighborhood pool. At about 10:03 AM when I heard my phone ring, I thought, “Ah..someone calling to wish me a Happy Birthday?”

Casually, I answered my phone. Instead of hearing a cheery Birthday Greeting. I heard screaming. I recognized my sister, Kate’s, grief-stricken voice. Something terribly must have happened. After several minutes of screaming. I heard something that I never wanted to hear. Kate told me that Jenny, my niece, finally committed suicide.

Jenny talked about doing this quite often. We never took it serious.

Every event that unfolded from that morning, sounded strange. Nothing matched up to what we were being told.

There seemed to be many versions of what actually happened..

Some shoddy investigation by a local sheriff’s office along with Jenny’s questionable past, made a quick conclusion easier to believe.

Many false truths were accepted as facts.

Kate, Jenny’s mother, accepts what I know is wrong information.

I have dedicated three years of my life, trying to prove a more truthful version.

I almost gave up, because nobody cared, nobody wanted to hear what I knew.

I know some details of what happened. I know that some people have many secrets.

I know some people should be very afraid when Karma comes knocking.

I know that a mother should never have to bury a child.

I know that a mother should never keep secrets about a person’s death.

I know an aunt that isn’t going to give up.

Jinx The Clown: FFfAW 4/1/2015

The traveling carnival was in Bay City this weekend. The main attraction was the Fun House with Jinx, the Clown. Jinx wasn’t one of the scary clowns that so many people encounter. He was silly, happy and always giving out balloons and letting the kiddos ride his giant tricycle.

Jinx was definitely the star. “But Clowns are supposed to be the distraction, not the main attraction” said Leo the Lion Tamer.

“Well, not in this show”, said The Bearded Lady

But, they were all one big happy family, so there was no hard feelings.

At the end of a very successful week, Sandy the Snake Handler said “Jinx, get out of all that clown make-up, we are going out to celebrate!”

But there was a problem that no one knew, except Jinx.

The make-up didn’t come off.

That was his real face and his real hair.

He was born that way.

As all the other entertainers wait for Jinx to come out and join them, he sits and stares at his reflection.

A tear rolls down his colorful face.

This story is my submission for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers Weekly Writing Challenge. We are challenged to write a story using 100-175 words based on the photo that we are given. I hope you enjoy my story.

Everyone is invited to participate in this weekly challenge. If you would like more information, please click on this link:

FFfAW

Perfection : Monday’s Finish The Story

“Pizza anyone?”

Those were the last words that she heard before her world changed forever.

Standing in front of her, the most magnificent creation that God had ever made.

He was looking straight at her and it seemed no one else was in the room.

She knew that her life would never be the same as he walked toward her.

He stopped within inches of her face and she inhaled the intoxicating smell.

She was starting to perspire and her heart was racing.

In his hand, he held the key to her heart.

Hot, bubbly, cheese, with pepperoni, mushrooms, sausages, black olives with a light golden brown crust.

Her eyes fixated on the perfected concoction and he said, “Will there be anything else, ma’am?

” No, thank you .” she managed to grunt as she took her first bite.

It was perfection.

And that pizza boy wasn’t bad either.

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147 words.

Thank you to Barbara Beacham for our photo prompt.

Barbara Beacham hosts the weekly challenge, Monday’s Finish the Story. She gives us a photo and the first sentence to base our story on and challenges us to write our story in 150 words or less. If you would like to scratch your creative itch, click on this link:

Monday’s Finish the Story

Sarah’s Secrets, Happy Endings: Flash Fiction For Aspiring Writers

After two years of devoting every second of her life to trying to prove that Clyde’s death was murder, not suicide, Sarah was exhausted. She sold everything. The bookstore, the apartments and the motels and moved to  San Francisco. It had been her dream to live close to her parents. She found a house on one of the city’s quaint sloping streets. Money was not an issue, since she had inherited Clyde’s fortune and with the profits of the property that she had sold. But this was where she knew she would be happy and could live quietly.

So with her cat, Axel, in hand, she left the past behind. She had completed the list of requests that Clyde had instructed for her to do in the event of his death. Even though they were divorced, Clyde had left everything to Sarah. She had even went through with his request of burying his ashes along with their son’s and having it concreted over with a tennis court. She thought it a strange request but she never thought that she would have to actually go through with it. But a promise was a promise.

Clyde’s death was still in the hands of the investigators that she had hired. They all suspected Jake of killing Clyde, but they had no proof. Sarah’s theory was that Jake had befriended Clyde when he realized that Clyde was worth millions and was planning on tricking him into turning it all over to him.

He did this by drugging Clyde so that he would sleep all day, so he could snoop around in his belongings . He even went so far as to try to drive Clyde insane by haunting him with the ghost of his and Sarah’s dead son. That was a very low blow that almost got the best of Clyde. Jake would call and taunt Clyde during the night about him seeing his son’s spirit in that old haunted house. This went on for months without the local town people ever knowing anything. They all thought that Clyde was the strange one and that Jake was just a nice guy who owned the bookstore. He had them all fooled, except for Sarah.

When it all backfired and Clyde was catching on to his ways, Jake just got scared and shot Clyde, making it look like suicide. Even down to leaving a fake note, saying that he just couldn’t go on without his son and Sarah.

Jake had meant to stick around to see if there was still a chance that he could get part of Clyde’s money, but when Sarah showed up immediately and he realized that she was in control now, he skipped the country and no one has heard from him since.

One thing for sure, he did not leave with Clyde’s money and he will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Sarah plans to live out her life peacefully. Away from all the drama of the small town. The only friend she ever needs now is Axel. He sits in the sun on the windowsill and he appears to love the new house as much as Sarah does.

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This is probably the last story of Sarah’s Secrets. I didn’t want to drag it out too long. I have no idea how many words this post has. My word counter seems to be on the blink. Although, I am sure it is over my limit. I am hoping that you all will forgive me, since it is the end of Sarah’s story?

FLASH FICTION FOR ASPIRING WRITERS Week of 3-25-2015

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers

Sarah’s Secrets Part V: Flash Fiction Aspiring Writers

Clyde tried very hard to get his life back after the loss of his son and his divorce from Sarah.

He moved to a new town and made new friends. These friends were younger and their sense of adventure was more than Clyde was accustomed to.

One night they visited the “haunted mansion” out in the country. Something strange and sinister happened to Clyde that night in that house. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it. But the leader of the group, Jake, thought it was a little too funny. He laughed a little too long at Clyde’s reaction to this spooky place.

Although Clyde tried to end his relation with these new friends, Jake was insistent. He would never speak to or approach Clyde during the day, but every night he would call him in the middle of the night and with his mocking laugh say. “Hey Clyde, wanna go to the haunted house tonight? I hear there are a few ghost that would like to meet you.”

Clyde would hang up immediately.

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This story is being submitted for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers, Week starting March 17, 2015. We are given a photo prompt and challenged to write a story, based on the photo, of 100-150 words or less (give or take 25 words). If you would like to participate in this writing challenge, we would love to have you, please click on this link:

Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers