Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 29

Recovery would be slow

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The third for this week.

Recovery would be slow

The ship had sunk in calm seas in 1715. She left the Far East port in March, docked briefly in Bombay, and was never heard from again. Her Plymouth berth lay empty. Her owners grieved her fate – the ship, the crew, the cargo.

Nicknamed ‘Dragon Hoard’ for the gold ingots and caskets of precious gems she carried, the curious and the greedy searched for her for 300 years.

Every nautical mile of her expe...

Skeleton Smoke Useless: use these three words

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The third for this week.

Skeleton Smoke Useless: use these three words

The dragon came at dusk. We watched from the deck, the hot boards roiling gently on a lethargic swell. Our sails hung damply limp in the breezeless tropics; notions of escape were useless.
The crew stared into the cloudless haze, weapons ready. ‘The cannon?’
‘Only if the bugger flies low.’

The dragon’s giant wings beat the air in a rhythm to match the ocean’s rise and fall, idling al...

‘It followed me home’

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The third for this week.

‘It followed me home’

‘Is it for dinner or to play with? Or both?’

Mother breathed out fire which licked towards the terrified two-legged creature I had found half-frozen at the edge of the lake. I’ve no idea how it got there, but it appeared sweet and harmless and I had gently warmed it with my own breath – which I’d recently learned to control, and was very proud of this –  until it opened its eyes.

When it found a dragon sta...

The Magic Carousel K.L. Small

A delightful pacy read to captivate young and old.

Russell can never do anything right. Not since his disastrous seventh birthday party. His once best friend now bullies him and he’s failing his grades. His life ambition is to be a fireman, but he knows he’ll never be brave enough, that he’ll mess that up too. To add insult to injury, he’s also expected to take his grandfather to ride the carousel in the park every afternoon, as if Granddad was a little kid.

But when Granddad insists one ...

Tumbling iceberg: picture prompt

Welcome back to the daily prompts. Day 2 and second for this week.

Tumbling iceberg: picture prompt

Afterwards, Bobby denied it all. But Veronica couldn’t get the image out of her head. Over the years it faded, so the sky was more washed out, the silhouettes of the trees and the snow-peaked mountains across the lake faded to grey. It all became like one of those old colour photos, pre-digital, where the brightness dissipates and the detail sinks into the paper.

Except for the ice creat...

She is falling

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The first for this week.

She is falling

Her heart races, pulse thudding. Through the silvery arch a pale blue sky beckons. He stands, framed in the opening. His mouth is open, speaking, but the words are pulled away by the wind and she hears nothing. He shakes his head and this she understands.

She is failing.

Failing herself, her parents. Him.

She takes a shaky step forward.

He smiles, beckons.

A smile to give her strength. He is willing her on. He ...

Searching for Sandra Jane Harvey

This third book in Jane Harvey’s Hummingbird House series engages us even more deeply in the lives of Betty and her diverse ‘family’ of tenants, both then and now.

Harvey’s world is filled with wonderful characters for the reader to love, smile at, or be furious with (not talking about anyone’s mother of course!) In my review of the second book, Buttercups in the Basement, I said ‘Jane Harvey brings us a story of complex, relatable characters and their relationships with each other – and with the...

Her eyes gleamed like …

Welcome back to the daily prompts. Day six and the last for this week.

Her eyes gleamed like …

Katie loved the sea. As a toddler, hanging tight to her father’s hand, she had relished the cold sharp sting of waves against her ankles, the shimmering glare of noon heat, the dry smoothness of sand sifting through her fingers. As a young girl, she delighted in the bouyancy of floating on gentle swells, eyes closed, the sun drying the salt on her burnished skin. And, later, the rush through stre...

‘What if we don’t …?’

Welcome back to the daily prompts. Day four – bit of a horror this one.

‘What if we don’t …?’

Not yet summer and Santa’s elves were already grouching and grumbling at the workload.

‘Kids want too much these days.’
‘What happened to the orange and a colouring book stuffed in an old sock?’
‘I remember when kids were happy with just one present – one!’
‘Yep, can you imagine it now?’
‘Why do we always have to remember batteries?’
‘You mean chargers, these days.’

Over their honeysuckle tea break,...

Clapping Field Energy: use these 3 words

Welcome back to the daily prompts. Day four – bit of a horror this one.

Clapping Field Energy: use these 3 words

They hadn’t intended to skive off school. A hot summer sun bathed the field in golden light and the summons was too much to resist. They paused on the country lane, mid-trudge, eyed each other and grinned. Satchels safely hidden in a hedge, packed lunches extracted, they climbed the gate and meandered along the path edging the head-high corn. Tall stands of Queen Ann’s lace, hog...