Cheryl Burman's Blog: Blog posts for readers and writers, page 35

The view from her window …

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Use the prompt however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over as many as you like.
The view from her window …

Pauline bought the house for the view. Its condition was secondary. The peeling weatherboards were rotten in places, the original window frames soft and warped, floorboards missing. The kitchen and bathroom last saw new plumbing thirty years past, which matched the age of the fittings.

She was tackling all of it, over time. Her ...

Suppress Fish Cool

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Use the prompt however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over as many as you like.
Suppress Fish Cool: use these three words

‘Fish again?’ The child turns up his freckled nose.

Meryl dollops a spoonful of mashed potato onto the plate. ‘Good for your brain,’ she tells him. ‘Peas or salad?’

‘Yuck, salad.’ There goes the nose again.

In her years as a dinner lady, Meryl has witnessed many upturned noses. She thought herself immune. Someh...

Day three: picture prompt

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Use the prompt however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over as many as you like.

The picture had hung on the wall all my life. A scene from another era, another place – the fantasy of the vast expanse of water, the gracious white floating creatures with their small dark cousin in the background. The only familiar item there was the huge white moon. We had two of them in our bare, uncluttered skies.

When I was old enough to be curious, I ...

Dark Eyes Nina Romano

For lovers of historical fiction, romance, and a dark thriller. Nina Romano takes the reader effortlessly to 1950’s Stalinist Russia, where we are soon caught up in a twisting and dangerous search for the truth behind two, apparently related, murders. The depth of Romano’s detailed research shines through, with immersive descriptions which have you shivering in the cold, tasting the authentic food – and feeling the fear.

Anja’s dreams of being a ballerina have been destroyed by a bullying th...

‘Where does a child hide …?’

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Use the prompt however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over as many as you like.
‘Where does a child hide in a small town like this?’

‘You shouldn’t have shouted at him.’

I paused briefly in my hurried walk along the footpath to stare at my husband striding beside me. I was furious. And uneasy. It wasn’t normal for Andrew to shout, or even to be angry.

‘He wouldn’t listen to me.’ He was truculent, worse than the four-year-old could be....

The far off waves

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

This week, I’m responding to each prompt individually. Use the prompts however you like, one at a time, or pen a short story over as many as you like!
The far off waves

Gulls screech in the fresh morning air, diving for their breakfasts. Elisabeth stands at the water’s edge, eyes shaded against the golden brilliance of the rising sun. Her gaze goes far, to a place beyond the sun, to the far off waves of the Eastern seas.

Will he come today? Will it...

As he fell he waited for

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Day six and the last of this week’s challenge. The story starts here.
As he fell he waited for …

… go to her father’s grave? Colin rubbed his chin, stunned. Exactly like Julie?

Eve lifted her raincoat from her chair and slipped her arms into it.

‘Tonight?’ Colin said.

‘Yes. It’s not far, I’ll take a taxi.’ She nodded at the computer. ‘I’ll come back later, and finish this.’ She gave him a smile he didn’t trust. ‘One way or the other.’

‘I’m coming wit...

She decided to go to her father’s grave …

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Day five of this week’s challenge. The story starts here.
She decided to go to her father’s grave, to ask his advice

‘Eve!’

Eve jumped, twisted her head around. What was Colin doing here, wild-eyed, and gabbling? She wished he’d shut up before she lost the thread. She’d been deep into the game, burrowing into the old, buried code for where the knights had been captured. If she found that, she could free them, and her wondrous game could continue. ...

Adventure Dance Bucket

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Day four of this week’s challenge.
Adventure Dance Bucket: use these three words

‘Hello, hello?’ Colin shouted into his phone, shook it, held it high. Useless. It wasn’t his phone which had lost the signal.

He had no clue where Eve lived, and would it help anyway? The wind battered his window, setting the frames shuddering. The storm appeared to have intensified, leading all those not tucked at home a not-so-merry dance in the flooded streets. And...

Day three is a picture prompt

Today’s writing prompt and my response.

Day three of this week’s challenge.

Eve’s narrow hall, with its bright runner, untidy bookcase, and modern prints lining the tasteful cream walls, had gone. As had the floor beneath her shaking legs. Eve stood on a rocky ledge within a wide, grey stone tunnel. A rush torch blazed in a brazier to one side, but that wasn’t the main source of the dim light.

The tunnel opened into a cavern hung with glittering stalactites from which  – and this...