Brand New Start

01/14/202101/16/2021 / Liz H-H / 16 Comments

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

She set the timer on the tea for three minutes and considered the slow colorful cloud that drifted its way to the bottom of her clear glass mug. She had a need for a healing raspberry tea after that visit to the emperor’s office, with her four-year-old son, Toby, in tow. Continue reading →

The Romance of the Rails

12/03/202012/09/2020 / Liz H-H / 5 Comments

(Photo by Otto C. Perry, courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Dept.)

In TUFF Love, Carrot Ranch’s Charli Mills asked participants to revise an original western romance through a 99-59-9-99 word process with each step requiring a different craft twist. This event is an exercise of inspiration through to editing. I didn’t enter this one because it turned out to be more about discovering heart’s desire of Self, than traditional Romance. But I still like it, so I share with you all.

Original 99-word Draft: Molly Rides the Rails

Molly rode the rails these days. Cities had sprung up, like oozing boils, over the open prairie she loved. With the spread of progress came the spread of stifling rules.

Forced by her father to shed her buckskin, don heavy skirts with tight collars, binding her hair from the wind’s caressing fingers, she appeared the perfect little miss. Continue reading →

The Wild, Wild West

12/03/202012/14/2020 / Liz H-H / 1 Comment

Original 99-word Draft: The Wild, Wild West

Anton shrugged out of his jacket, kicking off his boots,and with them, the urban muck of cow shit and cheap whiskey. Padding into the foothills in bare feet, he wrinkled his nose, drawing his lips back from canines that glinted moonlight. Continue reading →

Honoring My Gothic Present

11/21/202011/24/2020 / Liz H-H / Leave a comment

Norwegian Forest Cat

As part of my studies of Gothic fairy tales I offer up this quick write from our Carterhaugh class today today, all in the service of learning and expressing and using NaNoWriMo to focus in on what needs to be. As it is written, so mote it be…

Honoring My Gothic Present

I am the old woman you meet in the woods, dressed in shapeless, comfortable black, salt and pepper hair tucked under the hood of my green, woolen shawl as I follow the deer paths through the darker parts of the Wood. My boots are sturdy, laced over the ankle and meant for hiking, but if you look closely at my chicken legs, you’ll see that my boots are a deep burgundy color. Continue reading →

Face at the Window (FlashNano Day 12)

11/14/202011/14/2020 / Liz H-H / 1 Comment

Image: Chippewa Valley news in WI

It was strange, that face, so familiar, yet not quite what he’d grown accustomed to seeing night after night. The nose was long, almost touching the sharp chin. The mouth was a straight slash, except where it turned down at its edges. And lately, it had been turning down at its edges more often than not. Continue reading →

Waiting for Spring (6-Sentence Story)

11/13/202001/16/2021 / Liz H-H / 18 Comments

The task is to write a story in 6 sentences, no more no less, and if you’d like, share your creation or just visit and comment, with GirlieOnTheEdge, Diana. The prompt is ‘Clip”, and here’s where you join the party: Six Sentence Story on “CLIP”

She’d hoped to make the rounds before the storm blew in and kept her indoors and isolated for the next week and a half. She started out with the usual chores–library, groceries, pet supplies for the cat, liquor store, quick visit with her mom—but wanted one final hike at the State Park, taken at a fast clip, with its rolling hills, pine forests, and sparkling creek. Continue reading →

First Love (FlashNano day 7)

11/09/202001/16/2021 / Liz H-H / 2 Comments

So here’s a light-hearted short, for a change of pace. For the 2020 FlashNano challenge (https://nancystohlman.com/flashnano/ )

I don’t know that he was my first love, but I’m pretty sure I was his. Tall, dark-eyed, dark-haired, with a rambling, knuckle-dragging masculinity, he did capture my attention when he swung by the theater. He grunted a greeting, gazing at me from under his heavy unibrow. He wasn’t much of a one for words, but I could tell his intentions by a certain animal shyness in his demeanor. Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged him. The fact that he was chained up and behind bars should have given me caution, but sometimes you just have to flaunt respectability and go with your heart. Continue reading →

	Cale Caron on Watcher Doings 34 and 35
	Liz H-H on Watcher Doings 34 and 35
	Cale Caron on Watcher Doings 34 and 35
	Liz H-H on Watcher Doings 34 and 35
	messymimi's meanderi… on Watcher Doings 34 and 35

Valley of the Trolls

Fantasy