Prognosticating. (Not really. It’s just fun to say.)

Originally uploaded by brookeshaden

Weekly Writing Challenge

One entry this week! There would have been two, but I was a slacker and I have yet to finish mine. Maybe later today? I don’t know. More like… later this year. Ha!

Red

By Bethie M.W.

Excerpt: She didn’t know who she was, where she was, how she got there. A brush with a branch, a shadow flitting by, goose bumps on her arms, a memory. They were all the same to her; vague, abstract things that she couldn’t fit into a complete picture. She was dream-walking. Or maybe this endless trek was real and she’d only dreamt that she had a past, a present… a future. [read more…]

I cannot tell you how much I love this story. I try not to be partial with the WWC stories,but since there’s only one… I’m just going to unleash it all: Bethie is one of my favorite writers. Ever. And this story is my favorite fairytale I’ve read on Fiction Press. It’s good enough that I was inspired to write after reading it. And that doesn’t happen very often!

Writing

Not much to say here. I haven’t written anything with the exception of the beginning paragraph of my WWC entry that never got finished. I really need to break through this lull and start writing again! I miss it.

Here’s a look at what my WWC story will be like… once I finish it…

It was the far country- the old country, they called it- full of aging mansions and gray stands of trees. Stuffy, depressing, cloudy. From the look of the curtains drawn over the windows and the smoke rising from crooked chimneys, no one got out much. There were no children playing in the freshly fallen snow, no dogs barking at me as I drove by, no sign of anyone having crossed the snowy fields.

It wasn’t exactly the kind of place I had wanted to come for a vacation, but when Conor insisted, there was nothing I could do. He had his heart set on exploring the abandoned mansions and delving into dusty attics. Somehow, he expected to find treasures here, amongst the junk left behind by hose who had moved on. For an entire week, we were going to wander around and rifle through piles of unwanted objects. It was his idea of fun.

Flipping open my cell phone, I dialed Conor’s number and listened to it ring. I had sent him ahead of me as I’d had some work left to wrap up before vacation, and now I needed directions. When I got the recorder, I hung up. No doubt he was already knee-deep in someone’s attic and his phone was somewhere where he couldn’t reach it. He may have even silenced it.

And the inspiration for the whole story, aside from the picture:

“She finds ye when ye’re in love,” he said. “And she tries yer face on for her own.”

And:

“I have no face!” she cried aloud. “I have no face,” she whispered.

So yes. I really would love to finish this story. Because… it’s… yeah. Morbid. Like you could have expected anything else from me.

Word of the Day:

Thimblerig: To cheat or swindle, as in the traditional shell game known as thimblerig (A game in which the operator rapidly moves about three inverted thimbles, often with sleight of hand, one of which conceals a token, the other player betting on which thimble the token is under. )

Word of the Week:

Prognosticate: To forecast or predict (something future) from present indications or signs; prophesy. To foretoken; presage.

I just chose this because it made me giggle.

Yeah. Education should always come with laughs. 😀

Wrapping it Up

I’m off to the library to pick up the third season of Chuck. SO excited! I love Chuck. My two current obsessions are Chuck and Doctor Who (I also really, really love Christopher Eccleston as Doctor Who and am sad that he changed at the end of the first season. He’s my favorite. Then again, I haven’t ever seen the rest of the seasons, so I’m a little biased.)

Happy Writing!

Yes. That is a real fur wrap. I found it at Goodwill for $15 and I couldn’t resist. I’m a little afraid to wear it out and about, though, because it’s so… different.