creativity

Microflash on Fire

/ Liz H-H / 13 Comments

cat behind a cauldron

About a year ago, these three were accepted for an anthology that disappeared in the wind. The prompt word was FIRE, the constraints to 1. Write a story (beginning + middle + end) and 2. Write the story in exactly 99 words. Creative challenge…I share to show how easy and fun it is, and that it’s a great way to warm up for longer projects. Hope you enjoy!

First Flame

Cora nestles her belly into black granite, stretching to catch the sun’s heat. Her legs scrabble amidst a low sizzle as leathery wings unfurl. A perfect pearl hardens under her curled tongue. She is scarlet, precious, and utterly alone.          Continue reading →

Unicorn

/ Liz H-H / 22 Comments
Boy sitting with his white dog, looking out over a shipyard, mountains distant

© Ayr/Gray

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (12/29/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

Summer’s last sigh had arrived too soon. It was time to return to school and be constantly reminded that he was different. He gazed longingly over the concrete and steel shipping yard. His half-grown puppy leaned warm against his side, panting.    Continue reading →

Right? Right?!

/ Liz H-H / 18 Comments

 

Graffiti-covered tunnel, stairs curving upward into light

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (07/07/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

***  

Inspired by subterranean graffiti below the family’s old Victorian, he lived in the basement, coming up only to grab some food for himself, or cook a meal on the rare occasions when his parents were home. His sisters fled to school and beyond, and when his parents became housebound, the girls’ annual visits dwindled and ceased. An uncurious caretaker watched over his father, keeping him fed and bathed and toileted.

And Charles finally, mostly free. Continue reading →

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 →

Taking Stock of Things

/ Liz H-H / 8 Comments

Norwegian Forest CatNorwegian Forest Cat


We write because it feels good,

Like after a long, exhausting hike

When you sit on your front steps

Watching the cat paw

For fresh grass under the snow.

And also because

We feel itchy and awful when we don’t…

© Liz Husebye Hartmann (2023)