Missing You – 100 WCGU #63

 I finally got my act together and hopped in on

this one!  The prompt this time is:

“and winter will bring”

Should you like to read more entries or participate, you can click the picture above and it will take you to the list of stories, etc.

Missing You

The chilled air settles into my bones
and pinches my longing heart.
The once crisp orange-gold cloak
upon the ground has turned dead-brown.

It’s nearly winter,
and winter will bring
empty holidays with mere
echoes of your laughter
joining with ours.

And winter will bring
snow – a kiss of your angel breath
upon my cheeks;
and the rosied noses of children
will wink at me as they
make a row of angel Lizys
across the lawn,
and I’ll smile, though my heart falters,
wishing you were here.

And winter will bring
the hope of spring mingling
with my tears, making the
lilies grow.

Just a Bit of Silliness

I love writing games. 

Of course, I love writing.

My favorite writing game is the one where you write a little bit and fold the paper covering everything but a one or two word lead in. The results can be absolutely hilarious.

Friday night Paul and I were on one of our famously fun dates.

Only, it wasn’t as famously fun as usual because we forgot to bring a card game with us.

We almost ALWAYS play a card game or something on dates – especially when we’re eating out –

but we’ve been known to play just about anywhere…

waiting for a movie to start…

waiting in a really long line for something…

waiting for contractions to kick in and get that baby outta there…

Just about anything that takes any amount of waiting requires a card game

which results in LOTS of LAUGHS

and strange looks from many people – which make us laugh even harder.

Only, Friday night we forgot the game.

BUT

I had a pad of paper and I found out that my Husby likes to make up stories – write stories

We’ve been married 14 years and I did not know this!

Shame on me.

(Apparantly he said he doesn’t mention it because he has no time to give it a whirl, so I’m not COMPLETELY lame – just partially lame)

Anyway, that got me thinking about my FAVORITE writing game…

and I remembered I had a pad of paper in my purse.

Well, of course I pulled out that pad of paper and we got to writing….

The resulting story had us laughing so hard we were in tears and I decided it HAD to be shared…

It’s very short (hey, the notebook has to be small enough to fit in my purse for crying out loud)

My part is in PINK with the lead in words in GREEN

Paul’s Part is in BLUE with the lead in words in GREEN

Remember, we don’t see anything that the other person has written except for the lead in words.

Alice stood on the porch railing trying to balance herself.  She grabbed the toothpick and broke it in two. Now he had nothing to poke into her nose to get the rock out. She pressed one nostril and blew. The stone flew across the grass and hit John square in the forehead. He laughed at the attempt to keep him restrained. Nothing could stop him now. His goal was in sight and she gasped in dismay. The love of her life disgraced forever. What could she do? He ran his fingers through her hair and realized it was too late to stop her. The deed was done. Forever would they live lives of love lost.

We decided that we had so much fun with that one we had to do another one. It turned out completely warped and rather funny too…

The sun was setting as Randy strode into the yard. He could not believe the luck he had. His bag burst open and twenty frogs escaped. Desperately he tied his donkey to the hitching post and headed for the house. His mind raced as he tried to think of the place where he had stabbed her big toe. The scar blazed white against her skin, marking her as an undesirable. She had now way to hide her deformity. She must never know the truth. Her life and that of their son depended on his ability to walk on lava. He would never succeed in breaking the curse and bringing equality to the land. He shook his head and took her back inside. As they entered the house he thought he heard a distant rifle shot. It might already be too late. Now she had no choice.

Personally, I just like the idea of John being restrained by a nostril flung pebble….

that’s just pure

AWESOMENESS

right there!

Dad 100 WCGU #59

This week we received a picture prompt. It reminded me immediately of my Dad (though he would never sit at the edge of a precipice like that). He loved the mountains and spent numerous summers living in lookout towers. He love to hike and instilled that love in his family. This post is dedicated to him.

To read other pieces or to participate, click on the logo. 🙂

Dad

The wind runs it’s tendril fingers through my hair

and presses it’s chilled lips upon my cheeks.

I close my eyes and pretend it’s him,

squeezing me tight and whispering

it’s going to be all right,

that I can make it through another day.

A single tear traces a

cool track down my face

and lands with a soft splotch.

The mountains are synonymous with him.

There was never one without the other.

I stand, dusting grainy dirt from

my jeans.

“Give her a hug for me,” I whisper

and know the words are carried to heaven

on the breeze.

A Bushel of Trouble – 100WCGU #58

This week’s prompt is “…as the apple fell…”

Feel free to click the 100WC icon to read other stories or participate.

 

Alice leaned against the side of the weathered stone bridge and peered into the creek. John loved to goad her into a temper. With a sigh, she turned, pulled an apple from her pocket and polished it on her sleeve. Gentle voices from the base of the bridge caught her attention. She looked over the side and spied John and Felicia, their fingers entwined.  Her hands slackened in shock. Time slowed as the apple fell and knocked  John on the head. Alice gasped, and dropped to the ground, pressing her back against the rough stones, but not before she met John’s startled, impish eyes.

Picking up the Pieces 100WCGU #57

The 100 word challenge is back!

Ok, well, it’s always been there, but I haven’t participated for quite a long time.

The prompt

“returning to the routine” – I did change it to “return” so it would fit better.

seems especially fitting for a multitude of reasons…

 

 

 

My heart lies shattered.  I feel like an eggshell full of tiny spider web cracks. The slightest disturbance could send me cascading to the floor in a myriad of pieces, too tiny to reassemble. I close my eyes against the pain and wish myself into an unfeeling blackness. A tiny hand pats my knee, young arms wrap about my neck, and tears soak into my shoulder. I kiss their soft cheeks and bury my face in their hair.  Responsibility nudges me – chores need doing and dinner needs making. The tears subside and the pain ebbs as I return to the routine of life.

 

 

 

Feel free to click on 100WC picture above to learn more, participate, and read other entries.

My daughters participate in the original 100WC (created for kids) – you can read their entries here: Three Bugs in a Rug

We Do Hard Things

One of the hardest things for me since Lizy passed away has been writing.

I love writing – I write middle grade and young adult books (no, I’m not published yet – maybe some day – I just love to write).

Lizy was one of my biggest writing fans.

She eagerly listened to all of my insane plots.

Begged me to read her my books

and became insanely upset when I told I was going to completely revamp my Belinda book

until I told her the new ideas.

On our mommy daughter date before her accident I had told her all about one of my books she hadn’t read and I was supposed to give her a copy to read in the next couple days.

And she always firmly believed I’d be published.

She also loved to write. She’d attend my writing groups and write short pieces of her own.

I strived to keep that love for writing alive in her and my other daughters.

But ever since she passed away I’ve avoided it.

At first it was because I was too distracted to concentrate.

And later I think it became too hard. I lost my desire to write and didn’t feel motivated to do it or encourage my girls in their writing.

So, today I made a decision.

I need to write, whether I want to or not.

For Lizy

for me

and for my two other girls

and the rest of my family.

It’s hard. I’m supposed to be editing my book tonight (editing counts as writing 🙂 ). I’m avoiding it.

I suppose it all comes in babysteps.

1 page today

2 tomorrow.

And before long I’ll be working on that Belinda book she loved so much.

I tell my kids all the time,

“We do hard things.”

Well, I figure I better get started. 🙂

To a Special Dot, Love Lizy

Lizy loved to write. She’d often write little poems about all sorts of things.

One day, a couple months after Lizy passed away, we were cleaning up the basement and found a folded up piece of paper. “To a Special Dot” was written on the outside.

Dot had been a having a rough day. Missing Lizy and difficulties with siblings, and she was feeling rather down.

A funny look came over her face and she opened up the note.

“To Dot
Even though the sadness rings
It is all so fun to sing
with a loving sister
even with the blisters
The sun will always cheer
the sadness. Can you hear?
Singing through the rafters
is the trio singing sisters.
Love,
Lizy

Cheer up! I will always love you!

I will always love you
In rain or shine
With old or new
with lemon or lime
with love no one is gone
with love you’re happy
I love you, Dorothy. ”

It was like a little message from Lizy sent from Heaven. Dot doesn’t remember ever seeing it before and we thought it must have gotten lost in the couch before she got to read it.

Receiving it when she did, was a miracle. The words carried more impact than Lizy could have ever imagined when she wrote them. Dorothy cried as she read it and marveled that she found it when she most needed a Lizy hug.

And I was so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed her with finding that note when she needed it most. And that Lizy was thoughtful and loving enough to write it in the first place.

Wow!! Wow!!! WOW!!!!

At the beginning of the year I decided to enter my Young Adult novel into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Last year, I forgot to remove my name from the manuscript and it was eliminated. It stinks when you don’t follow the rules – I some how missed that one and just submitted the manuscript I had prepared for professional queries.

This year, I submitted it again. Last month I found out my pitch got me into the top 1000 entries (from 5000) and I was excited.

Today I found out that my excerpt catapulted me into the next round with 249 others!

I received 2 wonderful reviews from the contest expert people which sent me into heaven.

I may not make it any further, but I am just thrilled to have made it this far! I never dreamed I’d make it.  Well, okay, I dreamed, I just didn’t think it would ACTUALLY happen.

The next cut is down to 50, so we’ll see what happens.

The excerpts are available to read, and I mention this because I’ve had numerous people ask me about reading the book.  There are some formatting problems and hopefully they’ll fix them eventually (everyone is having this issue – it’s mainly substituting strange characters for the apostrophes & quotation marks).

You do need to download it, but it’s free – if you don’t have a kindle and want to read it, you can download the kindle for pc app (free as well) and then my excerpt.

If you read it, please feel free to drop a review on the amazon page – I’d love to know thoughts (and be honest, please – not just nice).

The Heart of the Castle (Excerpt)

And now,

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!

I’m off to go do some more happy dancing! 😀

Stranded (100WCGU #30)

Time for another 100 word challenge! Yay! This weeks prompt was: “it wasn’t my fault”

It never crossed my mind that something had gone horribly wrong until my fiancé dumped my body unceremoniously in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I suppose the correct term would be EX-fiance. I lay flat on my face. The gritty dirt left me feeling like I’d been licking a cast iron pot. A strange whistling sound faded in and out- a rock had lodged in my left nostril. I couldn’t remember what I’d done, but I was sure it wasn’t my fault. It’d be a hundred years before I’d be discovered. I wondered what they’d classify me as… homo sapien idioticus crossed my mind.

*Check out the other entries! And my kids will be participating in this one too (eventually).

100 Word Challenge #25

This week we are writing from the perspective of the girl beneath the arrow in the picture below.

The task was supposed to be a simple one. Slip the transmitter into Mai Lin’s purse and get out. Only I wasn’t a cool super spy. In fact, I wasn’t a cool or super anything. First gum, and now pigeon poop. If  the shwop of my sticky shoe didn’t alert her, my smell would. I pursed my lips and leaned in, failure wasn’t an option. My heart thumped against my ribs as the crowd pressed and jostled me. She didn’t even turn, just laughed at someone’s bad joke. For once I was grateful for my uncanny ability to be invisible.