Sunday Writing Prompt #235 “New Year’s Resolutions”

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Michael

2018

It was New Year’s Eve and the most surreal of feelings. Around him people were planning their nights, selecting which location to go to in order to see the fireworks bringing in the new year.

This year there seemed no point. The Doctors had given him three months. What was the point of a resolution when the odds were so highly stacked against him.

In previous years like all his friends, he had resolved to work harder, study more diligently, be more affectionate to his wife and mother of his children and try to grow as a human being.

None of them lasted as his wife would rub him the wrong way and set him off and they’d be at it again in each other’s face defending their respective self-centred opinions.

But this year was different. There was in his mind literally no tomorrow apart from the chemo which was sucking the life out of him as it was.

The treatments were not working, the cancer had spread, there wasn’t a lot anyone could do but “make him comfortable” as he heard the doctors say to his wife.

Being ‘comfortable’ was about zonking him out. He knew that a lot of the time he was out of it and his family preferred him that way. He wasn’t a good patient, and he knew that was the case.

The only resolution he could think of was to reach out to his wife and try to make her time more bearable. He had a lot he needed to say, and at a time like this humility, not something he’d demonstrated much of up until now, was something he felt he needed to show. After all, Mr Show-off had nothing left.

He had to give it to her as she was always at his side. He understood if now she found him too much to bear and needed to walk away.

Tonight, as the world celebrated the beginning of a New Year she had chosen to be with him. The kids were with her mother. It was just the two of them.

He opened his eyes and looked at her and she at him. He realised he was with the beautiful girl he married all those years ago. He felt his fingers entwine hers.

“Let’s talk,” he whispered.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/sunday-writing-prompt-235-new-years-resolutions/

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Music Challenge #19: “Ordinary World” — Green Day Ft. Miranda Lambert #amwriting #musicchallenge #MLMM

Posted on December 31, 2017 by Michael

 

When the old couple met after years of saying they wouldn’t as they feared upsetting the other’s world there was a time of adjustment.

There was no doubt they enjoyed each other’s company, and they spent a lot of their time travelling about looking at things uniquely Australian.

The old lady sat close to him whenever she could, she loved to listen to him wax on about where they were and the history of the places they were present in.

She wasn’t all that familiar with geography but trusted he wasn’t leading her astray and knew where he was at any one given time.

His house was old, and he didn’t have many of life’s mod-cons but what he did have was a love for her that she basked in. She was forgiving about the changes to her life style, so long as he was there to hold her hand.

She knew well before she met him in person that he didn’t have much, that he was an ordinary bloke in an ordinary world, but he was who he was, and that was all that mattered.

Together they had what each had so long desired, a love and a commitment to take each day as it came by, to care and nurture the other, laugh as much as they could and keep up the chat they had craved for so long.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/music-challenge-19-ordinary-world-green-day-ft-miranda-lambert-amwriting-musicchallenge-mlmm/

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Saturday Mix – Same Same But Different, 30 December 2017

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Michael

Same Same But Different
Your ‘Same Same But Different’ task is to take the five challenge words and NOT use them in your writing.

 

  1. party
  2. new
  3. goodbye
  4. resolution
  5. hope

They assembled as faithfully as ever to celebrate the arrival of the next twelve months. It was farewell to the old and despite the traumas of the previous twelve months they had all resolved to make the next year a better one.

There was an expectation that the fireworks would herald the bringing in of a year that had to be better than the previous one.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/30/saturday-mix-same-same-but-different-30-december-2017/

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Weekend Writing Prompt #35 – End of Year Challenge

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Michael

new-years-day-2910931_960_720

He wasn’t a man to make resolutions for the new year. But on this occasion, he was challenged by his friends to do something new.

He decided that in the days before the year ended and the new one started he would try to be more socially aware and kinder to his friends. After all, he needed as many as he could get.

And so, he set out to achieve what for him would require concerted effort and self-discipline. His friends were surprised and thought he had turned over a new leaf.

But as predicted it lasted barely into New Year’s Eve before his obtuse self emerged and there before them was their friend as disagreeable as always.

“It’s no good,” he wailed, “you say things that get my gander up and before I know it my mouth has fired up, and you are all looking at me in the disgusting way you normally do. I think I’ll retire for the night and leave you to celebrate without my negativity bringing you all down. After all, a leopard doesn’t change its spots, does it? This is how I am.”

It was generally agreed the challenge was a big one for him and in many ways unfair as they for their part needed to accept their friend for the obnoxious character he was which they all knew was no easy feat.

But despite all that he did have one redeeming feature. Generosity. If there was a problem anywhere, he was first to offer help, give money urge others to assist as well.

The enigma of him was as much a challenge to his friends as to himself.

 

Written for: https://sammiscribbles.wordpress.com/2017/12/29/weekend-writing-prompt-35-end-of-year-challenge/

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December 28: Flash Fiction Challenge – Wishing Star

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Michael

working-template-for-ff-challenges24

December 28, 2017 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about a wishing star. It can be central to the story or used in a different way. You can have a character interact or not. Go where the prompt leads.

 

The old couple sat at their back fence looking out over the farm watching the last of the year’s sunset. It was a typical muggy New Year’s Eve, and they wanted to see in the new year watching the fireworks from across the town in the distance. Just then a star shot across the heavens.

“Gosh,” they gasped.

“Make a wish,” said the woman staring up at the stars.

“You think all this will last,” asked the man wistfully.

“No, but we have now, and that’s what I live for.”

“Good thinking,” he replied as their hands gripped tightly.

 

Written for: https://carrotranch.com/2017/12/28/december-28-flash-fiction-challenge/

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#LyricalFictionFriday – “Cowboy Casanova” #fictionfriday #marquessachallenge

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Michael

lyricalfictionfriday1

He looks like a cool drink of water, but he’s candy-coated misery…“

To look at him, you’d say butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He was a fellow with the most angelic of faces. He knew it too and played on it all the time.

But beyond that lay a demon.

An indulged child and adult he was used to getting and having his own way. People in his mind were there to be used, and as he grew up, he left in his wake a trail of the broken and shattered.

He knew he had the looks to attract women and he did.

It didn’t take him long to develop a reputation as a womanising bastard. “Use ‘em and dump ‘em,” he’d say to his friends.

His friends, of course, were a bunch of sycophantic males who saw him as a free ticket and the constant source of entertainment in a world they were too frightened to indulge in.

Using and abusing he saw as his right. He believed he was immune from any sort of legal responsibility.

So, when he befriended Sally a young lady working at the bakery to help pay her way through University he saw her as another of his life’s conquests. It wasn’t hard for him to lure her in, lavished her with gifts and take her to expensive restaurants.

But Sally sensed the falseness within him. She challenged him in his beliefs, she asked him questions about himself which he was only too happy to supply the answers he wanted to give but when pressed further grew irritated by her.

He saw her more and more as a conquest and wasn’t going to allow any young woman to show him up in any way.

That was when the violence began. A shove gave way to a push, then he hit her then one night punched her so badly she needed surgery to correct her broken nose.

She was finished with him, but he wasn’t with her. The papers were filled with his relationship news. When interviewed he spoke of her clumsiness, falling down stairs, bumping into door frames and of his concern and care for her when in the hospital. Photographs appeared of her hospital room adorned with flowers all of which he provided.

But to his surprise and confusing she pressed charges against him. The police made a very public arrest. He denied all charges saying she was just after his money. Secretly he did offer her large amounts of money to shut up and go away.

But she stood up in court and told her story, never flinched when cross-examined, stuck to her story and laughed when confronted with the images of her hospital room and the evidence of expensive jewellery being lavished upon her.

Soon other women came forward and told their story, it wasn’t long before the truth came out, and a truth that was believed.

He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

 

 

Written for: https://marquessamatthews.com/2017/12/28/marquessachallenge-cowboy-casanova-fictionfriday-music-prompt/

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Thursday photo prompt – Blue #writephoto

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Michael

light

They both felt blue.

So far away and so close it hurt beyond belief for them to be apart at this time.

She was stuck in her world and he in his but always they thought of possibilities to break free and change the dynamic of their respective lives.

Christmas should have been a time for them to be together, but distance and circumstance played against them.

As another day dawned the distance was nothing more than a physical obstacle, one that could be overcome, one that once eliminated would bring them love and happiness, a shared world where the touch of the other would renew the lives they currently felt stymied and stagnant.

 

Written for: https://scvincent.com/2017/12/28/thursday-photo-prompt-blue-writephoto/

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Tale Weaver Fairy Tale # 152 – 28th December 2017– the Troublesome Princess.

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Michael

climbing-a-tree

Princess Kerosine was trouble and troubled. She knew it, and everyone else did as well.

It stemmed originally from her name. Her mother insisted her name was pronounced, Ker-sone-ee. But that didn’t stop the jibes Kerosine received as she grew up. It didn’t help one little bit that she attracted the nick-name ‘Dynamite’ as well. That was more to do with her explosive character as when she reached puberty she discovered her identity and rebelled against all and everything.

Within the Kingdom of Nod, the Princess was expected to perform various Royal duties such as accompanying her parents to official visits in and around the kingdom.

But Kerosine preferred to hang out at the mall. Here she could dress as she liked, preferably in black, and sit with like-minded young people and discuss the sad state of society and in particular the Royal family.

For her parents, this was a terrible situation. Their only daughter and heir to the throne was behaving like a street urchin, and they were hell-bent on preserving the kingdom and insisting that Kerosine tow the Royal line of behaviour.

It all came to a head when during a protest calling for the end of the Royal line Kerosine led the group who ripped off her clothes and led the protest naked to the gates of the palace. In the melee that followed where there were multiple arrests for indecent exposure, no one noticed Princess Kerosine being carted off by the palace guard.

She was brought before her parents who were disgusted by her behaviour and knew only one course of action. Kerosine needed to be taught the hard way, the ins and outs of being a Royal. Overnight she was whisked away to a finishing school for wayward girls.

Her mother was heart-broken over the action they had to take but remembered a time when she too had rebelled, and a similar action had happened to her.

Some years later Princess Kerosine returned, a refined young lady ready to accept her royal duties but still with a rebellious twinkle in her eye.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/tale-weaver-fairy-tale-152-28th-december-2017-the-troublesome-princess/

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Photo Challenge #194 – The Painful Truth

Posted on December 28, 2017 by Michael

snow_white_and_the_hunstman___revanna_early_concep_by_jeffsimpsonkh-d528p7m

Image: Jeff Simpson

They said she was a level-headed dancer

Given to exaggeration and deceit.

Aloof and indecisive

a woman of mystery

a puzzle to us all.

She spun us tales of wonder

Of expeditions and exploits

She liked nothing better

Than a crowd of adoring fans.

Her dress was all pretence

The black she wore for show

She didn’t know nor understand

Such things as grief or social mores.

She sat upon a plastic throne

With a pretend crown and a false hope

That her people would love her

For all the love, she never gave back.

They spurned her and spread rumour

Most of it true, they simply magnified each fact

To embellish the painful truth.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/26/photo-challenge-194/

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Bonus Wordle “Holidays 2” The Cook Tradition.

Posted on December 27, 2017 by Michael

bonus-x-mas-2

This week’s words: Morii- The desire to capture a fleeting experience. Drop Florid- reddish, rosy, ruddy, excessively ornate, flowery, showy  Tussle  Ribbon Song Preparation Dawn Solstice  Poinsettia Perforate  Wine

 

With the arrival of the summer solstice, there was the thought that from that day onwards the days would grow shorter. For the Cook family, it was a day of significance. They met as one and decorated their house with poinsettias, so it appeared to add a more than florid reddishness to the experience matching the ruddy faces of the family after they’d had one or six strong drinks.

For the Cooks, a state of morii was a desired place to be, the thought that each December they got to experience not only the commemoration of the solstice but allowed themselves to become shit faced in celebration. For the Cooks morii was a sense of being as one with the world around them and the daddy Cook’s wine cellar.

The day began at dawn and after much preparation which usually involved a lot of sampling of wines which then gave way to the excessive nature of the day.

Each family member arrived dressed as ornate and flowery as they could manage which usually gave way to the grotesque which once the day had begun seemed to matter little.

As was becoming the custom within the family, Rosy Cook was soon in a tussle with her cousin Ima over which of the two should conduct the annual perforation of the last goon.* The honour usually went to the last one standing, and the two drank every drop with deliberate precision while singing the family song: Rip the Ribbon from the Last Goon, baby.

Needless to say, it was a night to be remembered, if anyone could, as the next morning the rising sun and heat forced them all to pack their respective belongings and after goodbyes, begrudgingly given, they all left wondering what scandal they left behind.

 

*Wine is contained in a plastic bladder typically with an air-tight valve emerging from a protective corrugated fiberboard box. It serves as an alternative to traditional wine bottling in glass with a cork or synthetic seal. It is sometimes called goon or goon bag in Australia.

 

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/bonus-wordle-holidays-2/

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