Tonight we read our group Halloween story at Wordier Than Thou’s open prose night at Studio@620 and it was a great time! It was full of witches, danger, and evil. Who could ask for more? It’s an honor to be a part of the talented, amazing people of the Inkslingers and to hear the great stories of the other brave souls that faced the mic. Great job everyone!
On 30 September 2015, these three words were chosen:
I stared at the golden idol from across the booby trapped floor. It was the treasure of a lifetime and I had come so far to get to this point. But why was I hesitating? Deep down, I knew why. Rumors of the curse that would fall upon those that would dare disturb the idol had been plaguing me since I heard them. Forcing out the voice of warning swirling in my head, I moved forward dexterously avoiding a false floor plate that would surely send me to my death. To my surprise, I did not see the one just after it and I fell but manage to catch myself on the lip of the floor and pull myself back up to safety. Flustered by my close call, I took a deep breath and continued. It seemed like another hour before I came face to face with the idol. It staring me down as much as I it. I removed the idol from its resting place and half expected the temple to fall down around me, but nothing happened. I laughed aloud, relieved and pleased by my success. On my way back to town, my mouth started to bother me. It felt sore, but I chalked it up to the fact that I hadn’t had a drop of water for what felt like days. It wasn’t until the next morning, that I knew what was really going on. My mouth had become a cankerous cesspool. I pulled the idol out of the bag and it now looked at me as if it were laughing.
Well, I did it. I took a big step and put myself out in front of an audience and read, out loud, an excerpt from a short story I’ve written which will be published in the Ink Slingers Guild’s fall anthology. It was super scary, but I had amazing supportive people there to help me get through it. End of day score: Me: 1, Fear of Public Speaking:0!
Check out these great writing exercises we did last week.
We used the below words to come up with some fun stories in eight minutes.
Ruby woke up rubbing the sleep out of her eyes although it felt like she just got to bed. “Morning already?” she asked out loud irritated. Most of the night she spent tossing and turning. She remembered feeling like her face was on fire, what a weird dream she had she thought. Grudgingly, she slid out of bed and made her way to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. She felt around the sink for the towel she knew was there, patted her face dry, looked in the mirror and let out a blood curdling scream. Her face was covered with warts with hair sprouting out from their centers. Desperately, she reached for the cream she purchased a couple of days ago. The salesman promised that it would bring out her amazing complexion. She picked up the bottle and read the fine print, “Warning. Not to be used by witches. Brings out blemishes”.
So, Erika Lance tagged me in the “7-7-7” challenge, which is to post seven lines starting at the seventh row of the seventh page of your current work in progress.
Below is an excerpt from my yet untitled work due to be out late next year, which is based on Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey.
“God. There is no God in these circumstances and that thing was certainly not of God’s creation,” she shrank back from the waves of rage that rolled off me. Tears ran down Eleanor’s face, but I knew what I must do and she would not stop me. We embraced and reluctantly she released me so I could walk over to the doorway that was the harbinger of my future.
Tentatively, I tapped the space occupied by it with my finger which rippled in response to the contact. My finger seemingly unharmed, I was emboldened and inserted my hand. At first, there was some resistance like breaking the surface of a pool of water, but then nothingness
On 16 September 2015, these four words were chosen:
I sat at my desk mindlessly stirring the honey in my tea, lost in thought. “How did this happen? “ I said aloud holding my head in my hand. The spell seemed so simple, so easy, a baby could do it. Once again, I proved that being supernatural wasn’t the fun adventure that movies often depicted. No, upon reflection, all I’ve succeeded in creating was terror. The screams outside at least seemed to have subsided. How could I have known? All I wanted to do was make the leaves of the trees turn color. I missed the fall so much. But instead, the trees took on a life of their own and they were not happy. All day they’ve been chasing my neighbors up and down the street. The worst part, my parents were going to be home from their trip to the monthly coven meeting, and boy are they going to be pissed.
