Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 30

A shadow of remembrance

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The third for the week, and I had to get in a word I only just learned…

A shadow of remembrance

Balancing her morning coffee in the crook of her arm, Hannah pressed the key code on the alarm, turned the knob and pushed open the gallery door. She turned, re-locked it. Opening wasn’t for an hour yet and she needed the time to get organised, that is, drink her coffee and eat the pastries squashed in her overstuffed handbag.

She walked across the shining ...

Rope wedge sandals: picture prompt

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The second for the week, and I really did own a pair of these – in red.

Rope wedge sandals: picture prompt

‘Look, they fit me perfectly.’

I look, heeling the vacuum cleaner’s off switch, to see a familiar pair of shoes poised on the bottom step.

Three inch rope souls, black canvas with a satin ribbon tied around the ankles.

Their first time round the height of fashion when I bought them, matched with hipster jeans and a tie-dyed floaty top for the ...

Impossibly tiny trophies

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

Impossibly tiny trophies

They were displayed in a glass cabinet set on the wall. The room itself was a well-used space with overflowing book cases and a desk crowded with inkpots, odd pieces of paper, maps and a globe. Frayed upholstered chairs were testament to frequent, long use. Heavy patterned curtains pulled tight resisted any assault by a weak wintry sun, the light provided by guttering candles and a steadily burning coal fir...

Impossible tiny trophies

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

Impossible tiny trophies

They were displayed in a glass cabinet set on the wall. The room itself was a well-used space with overflowing book cases and a desk crowded with inkpots, odd pieces of paper, maps and a globe. Frayed upholstered chairs were testament to frequent, long use. Heavy patterned curtains pulled tight resisted any assault by a weak wintry sun, the light provided by guttering candles and a steadily burning coal fir...

No off-switch for the light

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The fifth and last for the week. Back on Monday.

No off-switch for the light

Miranda held the single Yale key in the palm of her hand. Tomorrow she would have two more cut, give a spare to her mother, keep one hidden inside the flat.
The flat. Her flat. Excitement bubbled through her. The mortgage was massive, and the payments left little over for things like, well, food. But she started her new job with its salary increase in two months’ time and she coul...

Swamp Glass Theatre: use these three words

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The fourth for the week.

Swamp Glass Theatre: use these three words

‘An unusual name for a theatre,’ I said, cocking an eyebrow at my young guide.

We were in one of those American towns which get lost in the middle of the desert. The type which spread themselves wide because space is what they have, and not much else. This one boasted a gas station, where earlier I’d spotted a fancy pink convertible filling up. A leggy blonde was being chatted up by a kid ...

A breath upon rising

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

A breath upon rising

Anna swims from sleep’s depths, brain and limbs sluggish. A golden summer dawn edges the heavy curtains, shooing night’s shadows into their daytime retreats. Her eyes blink open into the warmth of a pillow, and she lifts her head to seek the flowered wall beyond the bedside table.  

A book, crumpled tissues, an empty wine glass. She frowns at the glass, momentarily, before the frown clears and her lips lift...

A pier with the moon rising

Welcome back to the daily prompts. The second for the week.

A pier with the moon rising: a picture prompt

The throb of the bass followed me to the esplanade, pushing me along like an insistent hand at my back. Past midnight, and the holiday-makers had long exchanged their sun-drenched drowsiness on the sand for livelier frolics in dimmed bars.

The wide concrete walk took me to the pier where the bass yielded to the lazy slap of water against barnacled wooden piles. A blue and silver mo...

Sunrise without singing

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

Sunrise without singing

Yesterday there had been song. She had rolled onto her stomach in the bed, wrapped the pillow over her head and groaned as the radio blared its wake-me-up music from the kitchen. She had stretched out a hand, touching the warmth he’d left as consolation for waking her.

Lifting the pillow away, she had squinted towards the window where a golden glow scorched the thin curtains.

Sunrise. The best time ...

Farm, Travelling, Contagious: use these three words

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

Farm, Travelling, Contagious: use these three words

‘I hate visiting the farm.’ Josh stamped his foot, crossed his arms, and scowled his worst scowl. The one where he screwed up his whole face  – nose, eyes, teeth bared.

He’d been practising in the bathroom mirror, hoping it gave him a scary pirate type face to scare away the school bullies.

They’d laughed and told him they hoped whatever disease he had wasn’t contagious....