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No Tears

/ Liz H-H / 19 Comments

cartoon PigThe challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your own creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “MELANCHOLY”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories

Without a doubt, that was the last straw.

His casual comments about strangers with unflattering hairstyles, alien colored locks, clothes worn too tight or too loose, the ugliness of sparse whiskers on extra chins, jiggling rolls of belly fat, too much makeup or not enough, had escalated over the past month, and his gimlet eye had turned to me though he hadn’t yet uttered his scathing commentary…yet. Continue reading →

Relentless

/ Liz H-H / 13 Comments

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (06/30/23). No more than 250 words in length.

Humans mill about the street, hot feet shuffling over sharpened sand. Dirt blows into every crevice of eye and between the toes. Sweat-stippled breasts of nursing mothers unable to comfort babies who don’t know why they cry. Geographically-darkened dress shirts of men, loosening their ties attempting to feel like they have it all under control. Continue reading →

Solo Farewell

/ Liz H-H / 16 Comments

Oblong close scattering of stones, described in text

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt. The Unicorn Challenge (06/23/23). No more than 250 words in length.

(And no, this is not murder, but death by  cancer)

The last rock is placed. She stands back to evaluate her work. One hundred stones, enough to trace an outline. It’ll do. Her father’s body had become wasted, crumpled like a…a croissant! A little repose, in straightening out this depiction of his form. A little humor to remind her to breathe.  Continue reading →

Time to Replant

/ Liz H-H / 3 Comments


Glass block terrarium, as described in poem

A friend’s gifted garden moss becomes dry and flat in its simple cup,

Wire butterfly perched on curved handle.

Too much time wasted, waiting.

Envision an enclosed glass world, layered:

Lake Superior red sand;

Rocks harvested from long-ago summers

(pale girlie feet wavering white under icy waters);

A sneeze of dirt, for the moss that yields tiny, white blooms;

Additional plants to be identified;

A snail or two, sweet company?

Budget store clarifies: Re-use from home. 

            Window well pebbles;

            Superior rocks only;

            Drainage moss;

            Dirt from the cup;

            Hollow glass block: the world.

Vision realized: on time, in budget.

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2023)

Carrot Ranch  Prompt (06/20/23): In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about grains of sand. Where are these grains and what importance do they hold? How many ways can you think of to use sand? Who interacts with the sand and why? Go where the prompt leads!

Strategy: Punt and Run

/ Liz H-H / 31 Comments

The challenge? Write a story in 6 sentences, no more & no less, and if you’d like, share your own creation or just visit and comment on others’ ideas, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Denise. The prompt is “CAROUSEL”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Stories

She’d retreated to the kitchen to escape the cacophony of what had become weekly shouts and belches that took over the living room, to get herself together and decide the next big thing she needed to do.

She would start with something easy: bake a sourdough loaf, with its usual white-whole wheat mix, and add dried fruit and nuts, with a scattering of spices of indeterminate mixture; nothing calmed her like creating something with her hands that no one had ever tasted before (not that these over-enthused sports nuts her husband had gathered would be able to appreciate the craft that brought her calm). Continue reading →

A Cup Untouched

/ Liz H-H / 12 Comments
Two pitchers, one blue & one white, against a backdrop of green trees and open skies

© Ayr/Gray

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt. The Unicorn Challenge (04/14/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

“You realize that you’ve likely ruined the kettle, right?” She gazed beyond the electric tea kettle and pitcher of thick milk that perched, cooling, on the apartment’s veranda rail. Green trees and blue skies spread languorously, but the sharp, slightly fishy scent of the ocean nearby intruded at the will of the wind. She’d hoped for a walk through town down the hill – they were new to the area – but the scent was making her nauseous.

“A morning like this deserves a bracing cup of coffee!” the second enthused. “Rinse the kettle thoroughly and it’ll be good as new.” Continue reading →