H.M. Holten's Blog, page 7

Writing prompts

Do They Work?

Poisonous Rose

A while ago, I visited a prompt generator online and, among several incentives, got: The poisoned Rose and The Mysterious Yacht. I’ve forgotten the rest. Couldn’t find anything else that was remotely interesting. It made me wonder if some of these sites are condescending and expect that you’re unable to think for yourself. The issue here is that if you’re uncertain about what to write, it’s seen as a failure. There is a difference though. For me, it’s easy to figure out what my novels are about – there was always this urge to write and explore the flawed family theme. You may ask why. But the answer won’t be to find in this essay.

With short stories and especially flash fiction, the situation is different. It’s a media that I tend to see as a playing ground. Sometimes the ideas come easily. At other times, I draw a blank. Tonight is such a night. No matter, the search for prompts made me think about writing. There is an endless theme.

What strikes me about writing prompts is that getting three random, or seemingly random, words works better for me. It’s probably because three words that don’t have a superficial connection urge my brain to make associations. Voila, the start shot reverberates through my mind. Free association is a psychological tool that works for scientists (Psychiatrists) as well as musicians (composers, songwriters) and authors. Looking back at the two prompts I noted, they appear closed in on themselves. Should one mix them up though, the situation might change. We won’t use ‘the’ but mysterious, rose, yacht, and poisonous. Perhaps one adjective is enough.

Rose/Poison/Mysterious/Yacht? Is that better? Let me see. Free association brings up Belladonna. A rose is a flower, A foxglove is a poisonous flower and the poison you get from it is belladonna. Bella Donna is Italian for a beautiful lady. A beautiful lady can certainly be called a rose. A beautiful lady could be rich too. It isn’t a must, but a rich lady could possess a yacht. There: we’ve connected rose/poison/yacht. What about mysterious? How to bring that into the equation?

There is something mysterious about beautiful ladies. Is that enough? That is an interesting sentence. It could be spoken by a man thwarted in love. Of course, he could be rich and possess the aforementioned yacht. Would our lover be thwarted badly enough to become murderous? Would he take the pretty woman out on his yacht and make short work of getting rid of her? How? With poison, and a stone to weigh her down? Might he do this kind of action often? If so, he has evolved into a serial killer.

We have a story growing with hardly any effort. Indeed, being thwarted in love doesn’t necessarily make you a serial killer. Not even of beautiful ladies. On the other hand, there could be a mystery hidden in this idea. A genetic fault that our serial killer doesn’t know about. A childhood trauma that is buried deep in his subconscious. That would open an avenue for a psychologist or a criminal profiler to solve the case. It’s up to the writer to make this plausible and bring it together in a coherent plot. Without these jumps through several mental hoops: no story.

We’re far away from a logical plot, but it’s just a matter of letting the ideas mature. Don’t force the issue. Let the concept simmer for a while. The essence will generate a story. Sooner or later. This is a game, but it helps to stimulate the creative muscles.

Next up is writing the story. Come to think of it, this idea is so complex that it could be fleshed out into a mystery novel or a thriller. If it must be a short story, it might be sensible to discard part of the associative ideas. Leave out the mystery and you have a revenge story. Leave out the beautiful lady, and you could write nonfiction about poisonous flowers. Not so appealing maybe, but people need to know about nature’s dangers. There are many vegetable poisons. All in all, you don’t need a speckled band to traverse a small hole in a wall to create suspense.

Mysterious Yacht

© HMH, 2022

August Designer

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Was it premonition        

Or artistic transgression that

Made him paint his future wife as Iseult?

The assault on her senses could have forced the result.

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Did he want a foreseeable quintessence?

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Perhaps the intention, barely apt

Gave her a wished for, natural route

To make an elusive and feisty conclusion.

A greater gift than a home and a child

Allowed her to find and possess

A love nest, affording retreat

From the marital drought.

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Diverse personalities join

In a changeable triangle

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Socialism became the chosen refuge

From wedlock’s hasty ensnarement,

Inborn tradition, and watered ideal,

Allowing him to gather and seek ways to heal.

Fused in congruent principle, outright fantasy

With stark cherished certainty

Observed forever in beautiful tapestry

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Patterns, within patterns, within nature, within swirls.

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© HMH, 2022

Yellow Rose

Digital Painting

As I worked on this digital painting, it occurred to me that the rose could also present a woman’s head in half profile. She turns away from the viewer and her hair or had or hair-ornament takes centre stage. As the sketch is still available, it is my plan to work on it again to see if I can bring out this shy woman. The best thing about working with digital art is that you always have an option to develop your work further and maybe take it in a different direction.

© HMH, 2022

More Reviews

Lally Brown, The Countess, Napoleon, and St Helena

Fact and Fiction Mixed with Memoirs

‘The Countess, Napoleon, and St Helena’ is a strong minestrone. This kind of soup is a good opportunity to get rid of scraps and it can make a delicious dish. The question is if it works in literature.

Honestly, I’m not entirely convinced, even if there were some interesting points. What stroke me at first was the discrepancy between the countess’ and Ms Brown’s reaction to St Helena, specifically the nature. The reason might be to find in their different situations. Countess Françoise Elisabeth (Fanny) Bertrand saw this as a prison for her as well as l’Empereur. Did she want to go? Did she have a choice? Probably not. This wasn’t a period when married women had an option to declare their wishes.

Nobody wants to go past the Cape of Good Hope, but that was the situation for Napoleon and his entourage.

Ms Brown wanted ‘to bring history alive’ and she did that through the media of Fanny’s diary. This certainly gives insight into Napoleon’s character. His rages and his frustration, his gardening venture, and his amorous escapades. The fictional diary also presents dry shopping lists and gossip, as well as housing problems and childbearing agony.

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John Anthony Miller, The Widow’s Walk

Tentative Love story with a Mystery Attached

Newly divorced, Audrey Taylor feels that her life is out of sync. Her job as an editor is the only thing that keeps her going. Then she inherits a run-down Victorian mansion in a small coastal town. That is her chance to get away and make a new start. She takes it, even if she is reluctant. Her employer allows her to establish a home office, which allows her to move.

The Mansion needs a lot of work, and thus a treasure map falls into her hands. Apart from that, the unusual setting makes her feel that the house could be haunted.

The mystery that unfolds goes far back in time, and it whets Audrey’s interest. Through her research, she meets new people and forms unexpected friendships and acquaintances. Will she find the treasure? Is it worth looking for?

It is easy to like Audrey and feel with her through disappointments and hopes, tentative feelings, and her attraction – sometimes to the wrong persons. Miller takes his readers captive from the first words to the end of this romantic mystery.

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S L Baron, The Scarlet Destruction

Myths of the World, Creation and Destruction

Fiona Albright enjoys her life and chosen path as a barista. She doesn’t want life to change but it has something in store for her that she’d never believe if somebody were to tell her.

Gabriel LaCroix enters her life and does exactly that. He points out that she suffers from amnesia and that it endangers her as well as the world they share.

Fiona must go through a difficult path to understand her position and accept her duty. Will she, or won’t she?

SL Baron rolls out a world that is suffering. A world that could be perfect, only the people who live in it are out to destroy themselves and one another. The violence is overwhelming, and Baron brings her vision home to the reader. Clad in Mythical features, it is easy to grasp the allegory. We need only to throw a glance at what’s happening in this world. A warning voice that tells us to beware of the destruction we could trigger. This is another superb book from the hands of SL Baron.

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Jennifer Irwin, A Dress the Color of the Sky

Addiction Can Destroy but May Also Give Insight

Self-loathing may be the hardest thing to overcome as it prevents healing. Prudence Aldrich has a history of abuse and is married to a self-centred alcoholic. The worst possible combination for a vulnerable soul. Her wish is to go back to what she perceives as an idyllic past when she first met her husband. To facilitate this wish she enters rehab.

Ms Irwin confronts her readers with the stark reality of abuse in flashbacks that shows the various phases of and reasons for Prudence’s problem. The therapy sessions are woven into the bleak past to show the reader as well as Prudence a way forward.

Will she take that path, and will she heal?

Years of abuse must be dealt with, and it is a painful journey with many pitfalls. Ms Irwin aptly shows the stark reality and clarifies many theories about abusers and their victims. This is done in impeccable writing that plays on the readers’ emotions. A Dress the Color of the Sky makes a strong impact, whether you are unfamiliar or familiar with the reality of addiction.

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SS Bazinet, Living Takes it out of You

Survival in a Time of Plague

In the second instalment of The Madonna Diaries, we dive deeper into Dory’s tormented mind and find the many reasons for his suffering. Between him and his brother Milton looms their father.  Unlike a certain biblical brother, Milton will do everything to save Dory.

SS Bazinet rolls out toxic family relations that go far back and can create difficulties for both brothers. At the same time, there are healing forces to reckon with. Will Dory and Milton go under in a Miltonian hell, or will they survive? Is it possible to heal old and festering wounds? Remember, there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

Ms Bazinet brings across her vision in her memorable and thoughtful prose. Living Takes it out of You takes you on a spiritual journey that is both scary and visionary. It is amazing to realise that the two first parts of this trilogy were published before the current pandemic broke out. The fear and the irrational reactions to the Madonna Diaries’ virus tally with what we see in the current situation. In other words, Ms Bazinet has a deep insight into human psychology.

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Eva Pasco, Etta’s Fishing Ground

Contemporary Nineteen-Seventies: At the End of the Rainbow

Etta’s fishing ground has more to offer than the random smallmouth bass. It has a gallery of vivid characters and gives the reader a many-faceted insight into the fifties and the seventies without ever moving away from Foster, Rhode Island.

It is nothing new that love can derail the best-laid plans. Neither is it surprising that false impressions can derail the closest relationships. Ms Pasco manages to give an age-old story new twists and make the life and love of ordinary people extraordinary.

That alone is enough to blaze a trail and immerse any reader in a human drama of depth and psychological insight. Add to that Ms Pasco’s crisp and inventive prose and you have a whirlwind of a book that keeps surprising and enchanting the reader.

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Maureen Turner, Amy, Nephilim Freedom Fighter

What Makes a Nephilim Freedom Fighter?

With Malchediel kidnapped, Amy is distraught. Her last hope of seeing her beloved again is crushed, and she cries herself into a stupor.

Enter Ruby, a Nephilim and member of the NFF. She invites Amy to visit the headquarters in Bath. Amy accepts and eventually joins the NFF, hoping that she might have a better chance of seeing her lover again.

Added to the mix are demons, deaths, and worldwide destruction. All that creates a perfect action movie to play out in your mind. The tension rises as Amy must use her newfound skills and confront her worst fears.

Will Amy and Malchediel meet again? To find out, you’ll have to read the second part of the Wings Unfurled trilogy.

Ms Turner knows how to write a thrilling and colourful fantasy. The biblical theme adds to the excitement: there’s nothing like the fight between good and evil, heaven and hell.

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SM Revolinski, Undercover Actress

Beware of Showing your Acting Skills or the FBI Might Get You

Deborah Barnes has landed her first good role on Broadway, but the fates, in the shape of the FBI, have other ideas.

They think her acting skills are so impressive that she’d be perfect to infiltrate the mob, terrorists, and the criminal underbelly of Las Vegas.

To find out if she has the stuff to do so, you must read Undercover Actress.

Revolinski, a multi-genre author, clearly enjoys spinning a tale. His pen creates hardboiled mobsters (some with a heart), gruesome terrorists, nuclear scientists, spies, prostitutes, Middle Eastern heroes and villains, as well as brave detectives, and, of course, his protagonist, the beautiful and sexy Deborah Barnes.

A trilogy, full of thrills, a crime and terrorist caper to while away a few hours of wacky escapism.

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©HMH, 2022

Nightscape

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The sky erupts in crimson petals

Velvet thoughts and zephyrs fill the air

Silky rose petals form strange contours on the horizon

As Helios the divine retracts his beams

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Slowly, on an eternal arc, rises Luna

The inscrutable

Changeable

On her mysterious arc

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Constellations blink and glisten

Rigid and possessive

Glittering stars

Fill the night

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Scarlet dew

Pulses

Heralding

The dawn

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© HMH, 2022

Urban Trees (Two Versions)

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Sometimes, it is difficult to decide when to stop and which version of a digital painting works best. So, here are two versions of the same painting for your perusal. Let me know if you have a favourite.

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© HMH, 2022

A Mystery

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Life works its magic underground. All the trials, all the pain, all the misery; the fights, and the tribulations happen for a reason. Perhaps. It is possible. Of course, we can’t be sure of it. We can’t be sure of anything.

Still, it looks like something, or someone, deals us a hand. We have no choice but to play. If we refuse to play, we refuse to live. What we do comes back to us in some shape or form. That can invoke gratefulness, or it can be disastrous.  If that happens, we have only one choice. Make the best of it. This is the only way to change a disaster into something less painful. If things go well, we can be grateful, but sometimes we don’t see the good that happened for what it is. It is up to us to figure out what’s what. At the end of the day, if we go the distance, there will be something to be grateful for. Maybe not what we hoped for or dreamed of. It could be something better, and that could make us grateful every step of the way. It should.

Strange though. A small kid has certain dreams. This kid works towards a goal, and it turns out that that goal was nothing but a mirage. The child becomes a woman, or a man, and travels through all the difficulties, always aiming for the same goal, never noticing what transformations take place.

We may learn that a goal can’t be reached, but that it pushed us to do better. Whatever happens, encompasses our experience. We may see unexpected results and be pleasantly surprised.

Life often hands us something that didn’t fulfil our dreams. What life sends our way is much more than the sum of a childhood dream. The adult might look back and wonder how it all came to pass.

Why was the road serpentine? Was there no direct route?

Maybe there was, but a scenic route is interesting – and it is beautiful. It may look terrifying and harsh, but every bend on the path gives a new viewpoint and teaches a new lesson. Isn’t that better than a straight and uneventful highway? Is it even necessary to ask? A wealth of experience gives every person a chance to understand the works of the world. That is a gift. More than that, it’s a blessing.

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© HMH, 2022

Storm, Poem

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Quiet

Deathly quiet.

Not a leaf stirs.

A bird scolds as it flies.

Dust rises for no reason.

The milky sky darkens,

Brown and yellow colours swirl as clouds draw up beyond the horizon.

A single drop hits the pavement.

The air is still.

Waiting.

Far away rumbling drifts and dies.

Silence.

Oppressive calm

Sinks on the waiting world.

A single flash breaks from the clouds.

Rustling and crackling, droplets strike and turn the soil black.

A lightning bolt breaks from the darkness.

Then another flashes, blinding you.

Thunder answers

Roars its ire

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© HMH, 2022

Storm

Digital Painting

© HMH, 2022

What Will Happen Next?

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First came the pandemic and now Ukraine is at war against invading Russians. It hurts to think about it, but such thoughts are also unavoidable. It is bad enough that we have a rampant maniac sitting in Kremlin, ordering Russia’s military to invade an independent country, but that isn’t all.

These last years have been insane. Worrying and devastating. Have we humans driven everything too far out of sync? It is possible. We have riddled the world with destruction, pollution, war, and general mayhem. How is that possible? Is the only reason that we could? Are our animal cravings stronger than any philosophical or religious dogma? Yet, animals don’t destroy the world. They live and fight to live, but they don’t invent weapons, warfare, or greenhouse gasses. Yes, they leave tracks, but nothing compared to the destruction humans produce.

Shame on us. Life could be beautiful, simple, if we weren’t obsessed with power and money. With all the inventiveness that brought benefits to humans, how is it possible that we never learned to appreciate nature? How did we go so far away from a simple and balanced way of life? Why can’t we, why couldn’t we foresee that too fast a pace would lay much beauty to waste? How did we become mass-destructing maniacs? Perhaps we succeeded too fast and too widespread.

Would a slower development have saved us from becoming greedy? Maybe not. Greed is inherent in people who’ve suffered shortages. Is that so? Could it have more to do with singular personalities? There were always people who could see their way to gain power over others. These people often felt disdain for their less ‘gifted’ contemporaries. Is that where it all started? Did it start the moment the first human being grabbed a stone and smashed the skull of another human? How does competitiveness begin? Why is our ability to work together so neglected? Look at our inability to prevent catastrophes, misery, upheaval, and ruin. Vae victis.

There are no easy answers, and I can’t even try to solve this riddle. It just seems necessary to stop and think about life, about this planet, and about what we do to it.

What can we do to avoid destroying ourselves? Is it still possible to learn to live in harmony with one another? Can we find a way out of this labyrinth of destruction? We may live in hope but that isn’t enough.

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© HMH, 2022