I gave her flowers. She’s allergic.
Written for Shweta Suresh’s Saturday Six Word Story Prompt, where the word is “flowers.”
#6WSP — I Didn’t Know!
Day: November 6, 2021
Weekend Writing Prompt — The Throne
“A penny for your thoughts,” the wife of the deposed king said.
“I was looking through the doorway of past mistakes and the tumultuous times that led to being dethroned and to the loss of my empire.”
“You’re putting the emphasis on the wrong thing, my once and former king,” she said. “Your enemies infringed upon your power and left you shitting upon the fragrant throne you’re sitting on now.”
(Exactly 70 words)
Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “empire.” Image credit: Nancy Ohanian.
Also for these daily prompts: My Vivid Blog (penny), Ragtag Daily Prompt (doorway of past), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (tumultuous), The Daily Spur (emphasis), Your Daily Word Prompt (infringe), and Word of the Day Challenge (fragrant).
SoCS — Close Eyes and Point
For today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, Linda G. Hill has challenged us to grab the nearest printed material to us when we sit down to write our post, open it up (if it’s a book, flyer, etc.), close our eyes, and point. Whatever our finger lands on, use that as our prompt.
I closed my eyes, opened up a recent issue of The Week magazine to a random page, and pointed my finger on that page. What my finger landed on was the photo above of actor Alec Baldwin.
On the set of a movie that was being filmed in New Mexico, Baldwin was practicing drawing a prop gun that should have been empty. Unfortunately, and inexplicably, it was loaded with a live round that shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.
I’ll be honest. When I heard about this, the first thing that came to my mind was that some Trump supporter surreptitiously loaded the prop gun with a live round in order to set up and discredit Baldwin, who portrayed Trump in a demeaning manner on Saturday Night Live over the past two seasons. But when I thought about it, I realized that it was unlikely that anyone would really do that to Baldwin and that the shooting was a tragic accident.
And then I just read where Trump insinuated that Baldwin purposely shot Halyna Hutchins. Trump said on a radio show on Thursday, “In my opinion, he had something to do with it, but if nothing else, how do you take a gun, whether it’s loaded or not loaded, how do you take a gun, point it at somebody that’s not even in the movie, and just point it at this person and pull the trigger, and now she’s dead?”
Trump criticized the way Baldwin handled the gun on set and suggested that the actor might have loaded it with the live round. Trump added that while he doesn’t personally know Baldwin, his behavior toward reporters suggests that “there’s something wrong” with the actor.
Now I’m starting to wonder if the first thing that came to my mind after learning about this shooting might have been accurate.
First Line Friday — Plagiarism
“Only the elders remembered a blue sky,” Elliot said, writing that down in his notebook.
“Why did you write that down?” Linda, his wife asked.
“I told you that after submitting my short story to that online magazine, they sent me a letter telling me that my story was solid and they were looking forward to a number of other submissions from me,” Elliot explained.
“Wait,” Linda said. “Doesn’t it strike you as odd that an online magazine would respond to a story you submitted electronically by sending you a letter rather than via email? Are you sure this is legit?”
“Well, the letter also included a check for $100 and a publishing agreement for me to sign,” Elliot explained. “If I can get more of my stories published at 100 bucks each, it could be bountiful for us and I could quit my day job and write full-time.
“Um, did you review the publishing agreement with a lawyer before you sent it back,” Linda asked.
“Are you kidding?” Elliot said. “I don’t want to involve a whole cadre of lawyers. Beside, that sentence about the elders and the blue skies would make a perfect start to a fantastic science fiction story, don’t you think?”
“I suppose,” Linda said. “How’d you come up with that?”
“Oh,” Elliot said, “I found it on the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie blog in the First Line Friday prompt. Good, isn’t it?”
“I think you’re going to need that cadre of layers when you get sued for plagiarism by whoever posted that line,” Linda said.
In addition to being written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie First Line Friday prompts, where the first line is “Only the elders remembered a blue sky,” this post has the following daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (notebook), My Vivid Blog (letter), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (solid), The Daily Spur (number), Word of the Day Challenge (bountiful), and Your Daily Word Prompt (cadre).
FOWC with Fandango — Tumultuous
Welcome to November 6, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “tumultuous.”
Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.
Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.
And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.
This, That, and the Other 