Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 22

Asian taxi in autumn forest: picture prompt

Continuing with picture prompts this week, and another short one.
Have a little fun with this contrasting image.

She had never wanted to go to Asia. She hated the food, the noise, the stinks, the crush, the sweating heat. She sat in the tiny taxi, jolted this way and that as the smiling, chatty driver – hands barely on the wheel – slithered their way through the throng of honking traffic. The diesel-laden air had given her a headache, nausea roiled in her stomach.

She lay back in t...

Girls in the rain: picture prompt

Picture prompts this week and it’s nice to be back. Keeping it short and sweet for today, but getting the words down is an achievement after my nearly two weeks with Covid.

Enjoy, and look forward to reading your responses to this stormy image.

Clementia should have listened to herself.

Yet again, she’d agreed to take the long-suffering pups and join in one of Tempesta’s so-called picnics. Her natural compassion made it impossible for her to refuse these requests, so now she huddled un...

Novel writing tips from a master

I’m a strong believer in learning writing craft. It amazed me when I first took up writing how much there is to learn, and that it’s not a case of throwing the words on paper and checking for typos. (Honestly, it really isn’t!) It’s why I rewrote all three books of Guardians of the Forest: I’d learned so much after a few years my pride wouldn’t allow me to have them out there in their original state.

Craft fascinates me, which means I enjoy researching for the Writer’s Corner in my monthly n...

Saint Peter’s Knickers E V Faulkner

A novella

I read this on a coach from Heathrow to Gloucester and never lifted my eyes from the page. I wanted to take Piety home, I was terrified what might happen to her little brother, and in a nutshell I was totally drawn in to this little girl’s life.

Piety has an old head on young shoulders, and takes life as it comes. And it does come, with some ups and a lot of downs, and how Piety deals with these held me in thrall. Evocatively told, with many snippets of (often heart-wrenchin...

I picked up my clock. Three ten.

Writing prompts this week courtesy of Maggie O’Farrell’s My Lover’s Lover – my book of the month reviewed in my September 2023 newsletter.

Keeping the child theme going, as this is the last week before the close of the local young people’s short story competition I’m involved in.

That parenting stage of exhaustion had set in. Two months after Daisy’s birth, he had returned to work, futilely hiding his glee at the daily escape. I understood. Adults might be just as irrational as babie...

I picked up my clock. Three twenty.

Writing prompts this week courtesy of Maggie O’Farrell’s My Lover’s Lover – my book of the month reviewed in my September 2023 newsletter.

Keeping the child theme going, as this is the last week before the close of the local young people’s short story competition I’m involved in.

That parenting stage of exhaustion had set in. Two months after Daisy’s birth, he had returned to work, futilely hiding his glee at the daily escape. I understood. Adults might be just as irrational as babie...

The new dress hangs on the outside of the wardrobe

Writing prompts this week courtesy of Maggie O’Farrell’s My Lover’s Lover – my book of the month reviewed in my September 2023 newsletter.

Becky’s eyelids flutter open. There’s a heavy feeling in her gut, and her head aches like the harbinger of the mother of all hangovers. She didn’t drink last night though, deliberately staying off the flowing champagne for all kinds of reasons.

She rolls over in the huge bed, pulling the duvet closer, wondering if she can sneak another hour of unconsciousn...

Girl with toy lion picture prompt

Pretty sure I have the right prompt today. If I haven’t, enjoy this little tale anyway.

‘All you had to do, Lion, was growl.’ Dotty bent over Lion, slumped on the bed. Behind her, scattered toys and books remained as relics of the battle she’d had to conduct all on her own.

‘You’re a big coward, Lion.’ Dotty screwed up her face and glared with slitted eyes, arms folded across her chest. ‘How could you leave me to face that … that …alone.’ She couldn’t bring herself to say the word. Instead sh...

Woman among clouds and bookshelves picture prompt

It was the library’s fault. She’d asked numerous times for that particular book and every time she’d been told, No problem, we can get that in for you.

Every day after work, she went out of her way, tired, hungry, just wanting to be home – curled up with a good book – and every day it was the same. Bundles of apologies, glitches in the system, the book was out of stock, they were trying inter-library loans and they would have it for her soon, very soon, they promised.

Increasingly it seemed their ...

Dog with woman and child picture prompt

Picture prompts this week. Have fun with them, whether writing or just reading.

I lounged on the riverbank, basking in the evening cool and taking in the tranquil scene. The heat had been stifling all day, not a breath of wind, and I’d been glad to come to the river to cool down. Thermos of iced tea in my bag, a rug and a book, I had lain on my stomach idly turning pages and half taking in the frolics of the family sharing my space.

They’d arrived in a well-used rowing boat, which the father ...