Ok kiddies, here is the word list for September along with the names of those to blame. Please use these, all of them or as many as possible, and write a story between now and our next meeting in October. Post a link below to your stories when they are done. Have fun!

Val – antiquated, reliance, apparent, non-compliant, furtively
Laurel – shadow, suitcase, hindrance, casualty
Ysa – hilarious, promise, measure, rose, axe
Karen – marble, seal, mahogany, electrum, quicksilver
Paul – cartography, speculative, bathysphere, ethereal, crepuscular
Ria – gauntlet, mortified, tremored, manifested, exhibit

For April’s meeting, each participant was given a photograph to inspire them and requested to write flash fiction at the meeting for 45 minutes, though editorial may have been done after the meeting. This time, they were to write a story as though they were somehow related to one of more of the subjects within the photograph.

We have had a great deal of fun at the meetings with these exercises. Thank you to all of of our participants. Please post your stories below as a comment or, if you post them on your own site, please post the first paragraph and a link to where we can read the whole story.

Images: If you have the image and know how to post it you can. If you only have the title and artist’s name, please put it in [ ] brackets at the end of your post and I will insert the image into your post.

Disclaimer: All content remains the property of the individual author. Reproduction in whole or in part by digital or analog means is prohibited without the express written permission of Word Whimsy.

Starting Rule: For this month’s Fractured Fiction, everyone was told to write one sentence then fold their page down before passing it to the next; how we normally do it. The twist for this month was that, since we met in a coffeehouse this time, everyone had to write about a “beverage” (drinking, making, somehow involving) in their first sentence.

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Fiction One

She gulped orange juice from its jug as Tony hovered over the stove scrambling eggs. My clumsy self just reared its ugly head as I am now one with my beverage, covered with drink and shame. Historically he knew that this was a mirror, he decided it would be best to avoid suspicion. For her sake he didn’t yell, though the urge to do so was almost overwhelming. The empty boat bumped against the wharf, turned a lazy circle and drifted away with the current.

Fiction Two

Miriam sat in the cool shade of the curve of the stairwell, sipping from a frosted highball glass that smoked slightly as she tilted it. A fierce wind scattered the pages of his sketchbook among the rose bushes. I am certain there is more to life than this blasted town and endless display of inadequacy. A deluge of impairment washed over her, momentarily and briefly she dodged a mental urge to run screaming. It had been a good day, despite everything, and he looked forward to what would come next.

Fiction Three

He sipped at his coffee, its bitter taste barely registering, as he stared out the window at the oncoming storm. All five children jumped into the pool at the same time, sending a wave of water washing under the cocktail tables. The roar of the waterfall growled in her ears while she desperately held her breath under water. Drawing from the moment, I decided it is beast to ignore those nearby and endure the quest at hand. Without delay, there were too many reasons for her not to finish there, and move down to the next place.

ModNote: This one seemed to have a general theme, water, which was interesting since none of our conversations during the meeting had led to it and there was no visible outside influence (like rain) to inspire it.

Fiction Four

Stewart sat upon the stool, the barley malt fogging his thoughts of worry. It was too cold, but he didn’t seem to care, his mind was elsewhere. The big, black dog lunged against the fence, fangs bared, his booming barks echoing off the walls. After cheerfully locking the door, he held up the silver key like a trophy before tossing it out the two-story’s window. How could life take such an interesting twist, yet bring me closer than ever to clarity.

Fiction Five

The sun begins to kiss the sky with its welcomed “good morning; my soul is lifted and my thirst is quenched as I sip on a cup of hot organic tea and enjoy this intimate rising. There were no words, she thought. Shaking her head, she stood from the table to follow her first instinct.
     ”It’s nothing serious,” he looked down at the floor to hide the disappointment in his eyes, “just a casual get-together.”
Sunlight winked across the mirrored lenses of the man’s glasses, blinding her. After a near devastating winter, the blueberries emerged victorious with their plump and sweet goodness.

ModNote: Reading this one during the meeting was funny. Story, story, story, blueberries…(tangent) SQUIRREL! hehe

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Participants (not in order): Smokie West, Laurel Mathis, Val M. Selvaggio, Karen Dillon, Ysa and Ana Maria Seaton.

Copyright Notice: All content remains the property of the individual authors and is not to be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written permission of the publisher.

Here is the word list for April, along with the names of who to blame. :)

Laurel – cranberry, iconic, crevice, ghastly, emerald
Karen – barter, trim, manpower, mural, stucco
Ria – inspired, mindless, vapor, kindred, organic
Ysa – wonder, happy, funny, family, bug
Val – enduring, contemporary, instill, grandeur, encompassing
Smokie – forlorn, probable, mimic, offspring, vivid

At today’s meeting, I decided to do something a little different. Instead of pulling images from the file I had in my bag, for our Artfully Inspired exercise, I came up with something on the fly as a challenge that I plan to hit everyone with occasionally…just when you think I am not going to make you work. When given this challenge, sit down and write for one hour. No more, no less. You can edit later, for now just get it out.

Today’s challenge:

Antique Store

Yup. That’s it. Write for an hour and somehow involve an antique store. You can either be in it, around it, seen it first hand or in the news, on TV, you work there, you shop there, it burnt down in a fire, your grandparents owned it, you own it, etc…any approach.

When you are done, post your stories here below as a comment if you would like to participate.

Get ready. Get set. Go!

Our word list for the month of March along with the names of those who are to blame:

Ria – perception, intuition, concept, duende, soup
Laurel – yesterday, deist, sealed, coronation, tailored
Ysa – magnificent, stupendous, dog, suitcase, organ
Karen – pine, rare, bag, siren, shepherd
Val – grandiose, fervor, torpor, municipal, waned
Logan – bastardized, engineering, soluble, normalcy, subjugate

Final drafts for your stories are due by the April meeting!

Here is a small HTML primer in case you need help inserting images and formatting your posts.

Indents

For a five space indent, type the following into your post in front of the sentence you want to indent:

The “nbsp” stands for non-breaking space, the “&” symbol tells the computer that what follows is code. Make sure you use a semi-colon not a colon when you use this.

Inserting Images

When you want to post an image into your post, like I did here, you will need to copy and paste this into your post on the left side in front of the sentence you want it to show next to. Anything in () brackets you need to customize with a link to the image.

Need help?

If you are in need of a copy of the image you used for an exercise we did at one of our meetings, drop me an email and I will send it or embed it for you.

January’s meeting saw the beginning of one of our new exercises, Artfully Inspired. For February, each participant was given a photograph to inspire them and request to write flash fiction at the meeting for 45 minutes, though editorial may have been done after the meeting. This time, they were to write a story about what they felt was taking place in the photograph; unlike our January exercise, the participants were not involved in what was going on in the photograph.

This has been a fun exercise and I have been really impressed with everyone’s contributions. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do! Thank you to all of of our participants. Please post your stories below as a comment.

Images: If you have the image and know how to post it you can. If you only have the title and artist’s name, please put it in [ ] brackets at the end of your post and I will insert the image into your post.

Disclaimer: All content remains the property of the individual author. Reproduction in whole or in part by digital or analog means is prohibited without the express written permission of Word Whimsy.

January’s meeting saw the beginning of one of our new exercises, Artfully Inspired. Each participant was given a painting to inspire them and request to write flash fiction at the meeting for 45 minutes, though editorial may have been done after the meeting. They were to write as though they were somehow involved in the painting, either as a participant or an existing character in the piece.

This has been a fun exercise and I have been really impressed with everyone’s contributions. I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do! Thank you to all of of our participants. Please post your stories below as a comment.

Images: If you have the image and know how to post it you can. If you only have the title and artist’s name, please put it in [ ] brackets at the end of your post and I will insert the image into your post.

Disclaimer: All content remains the property of the individual author. Reproduction in whole or in part by digital or analog means is prohibited without the express written permission of Word Whimsy.

Here are the words from our February meeting’s collaborative list, along with the names of the people to blame. Our next meeting is less than two weeks from now so we all have our work cut out for us; just like last time, rough drafts please!

Ria – accumulative, biopsy, clerical, wasted, pinnacle
Shannon – mischievous, infamy, exhausted, revolting, shoe
Syntillie – crystallizing, helium, cantankerous, fisheries, shanty
Smokie – pillar, breeze, forthright, draft (or drafty/draftee), smoke
Laurel – purple, pyramid, jungle, gold, barbaric
Val – zealous, compatriot, stipend, swiveling, elevation
Jason – dolor, amble, catch, masticate, tested
Karen – blossom, post, shovel, edge, leaf
Logan – destiny, reconnoiter, catastrophic, hallucination, diatribe