How NOT to start a novel

“It was a glorious day.”

 

Here’s what the sentence gives the readers …

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and makes us …

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An opening line must make our readers feel …

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How are we doing with our opening lines?

 

 

 

Daily Word Prompt: Glorious

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A Priceless Photo

For my mom, on the right, having family over on Sundays took the sting out of being an only child. (photo taken in the early 1930’s) No doubt, after the women made a hearty lunch, the men drank homemade German beer and smoked cigars while they played poker.

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Daily photo prompt: Sting

Love for the Evil One

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If that clock didn’t tell her the time so accurately, Sofie would have taken a hammer to it long ago. Why else would she have kept it?

But she needed the clock. It gave her the idea.

She pulled Meta’s box out from under the bed and opened the lid and removed the papers as carefully as unwrapping an unsolicited gift given by a macabre client. She placed them on her writing table.

Sofie inhaled the scent of moth balls Meta had placed inside in what seemed like ages ago. Those spherical balls of cedar had kept her bonnets, kerchiefs as well as her revealing words from being eaten and destroyed by those tiny winged creatures, the ones who did not distinguish between good or evil longhand.

Regardless of the pungent smell of cedar, regardless of the desertion she felt, Sofie could still take in the scent of Meta’s lilac-fragranced soap on her young, thin hands, could still imagine Meta’s right hand dipping the pen into the ink in order to recreate the unusual bizarre events of her young life.

Sofie looked down at her hands, still somewhat youthful for being eight years older than Meta and still attractive. But she felt old at almost twenty-eight, old due to the wear and tear of her insides from the constant thrusting and prodding of too many men. At least her so-called clients were transparent. They wanted one thing, a warm twat to comfort themselves, or if they were worried about disease, a warm and wet mouth to surround their growing phallus. Such control she had over that one simple bodypart.

But she was tired of that now. Only if she was in great need of money or a favor, would she sucomb to pleasing one of the hairy oafs. Besides, it was Meta who taught her about love. But it was also Meta who had done those awful things.

Excerpt from The Edges of Two Fields, an unfinished novel.

 

Daily word prompt: Recreate

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The “Feeling” of Flavor

Flavorful is not the chip in front of me.

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It is seeing the knowledge in my great-grandmother’s eyes as she looks down

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It is the power of her fingers holding up my whole arm

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It is knowing that, in touching her hand, I feel a lifetime of experiences

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It is the insightfulness I discover when she speaks to me

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It is the feel of a tongue that speaks words of wisdom

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Flavorful is the kiss from her lips that says, “I love you.”

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Compared to these things, the chip has no flavor at all.

 

Daily word prompt: Flavorful

 

UNHINGED

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There she was, the unbuttoned girl who didn’t know right from wrong, who always took the path over thorny ground. Demented in heart and void of conscious. Squeezing the life out of my bordello one person at a time until she did it to herself.

And I never saw it coming. Never saw her falling into the depths of insanity. I did what needed doing. I protected my business. I had her transported to Southwestern Insane Asylum and never told a soul except Reba. And not once did I visit her.

I made a pact with myself. No regrets for what I was about to do.

 

Excerpt from The Last Bordello

 

Daily word prompt: Thorny

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Flawed or Innocent?

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Why couldn’t wives see the similarities between themselves and a whore?

“He’s a client,” Sofie continued. “But watch, when he sees me, he’ll turn away. So will his wife.”

The man looked away, just as she thought.

“You can’t speak to him?”

Innocent Meta. “Never.” “Speaking to them in public would only break Miss Fannie’s Code of Silence. It goes with the territory. Besides, if we broke Fannie’s trust? We’d be out on the street nothing flat. Folks have tried to buy her black book of customer names but nothing doing. When the Wild Bunch stayed with us, she wouldn’t even give them up to the great Mr. Pinkerton.”

“I’m sorry, what does she call it again? A code of…”

“Silence. A code of silence.” Curious how Meta seemed more fascinated by Miss Fannie’s code than with the Wild Bunch. The bank robbers were the guests of honor at the going-away party Miss Fannie gave them two years after she arrived. The wrongdoers, pleasant and entertaining, the lavish event stood out in her memory with fondness. Perhaps she had a penchant for those who could smile at their criminal endeavors when they never  get caught.

Excerpt from Naked, She Lies by C. Dennis-Willingham

Daily word prompt: Penchant

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Judgment in disguise

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If told to cast the first stone

do you think that I’d obey?

Scar another person

just to please the crowd’s melee?

Those who dress in daily judgement

long in tongue, they criticize

and peel the souls of others,

while cloaked in self-disguise.

Is there any single person

who has never romped astray?

No, I did not think so.

And no, I won’t obey.

A creek with flowing water,

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a place to sit beneath the Oaks

A better use of stones.

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Author’s note: Photos taken and words written while waiting for my husband to come out of eye surgery. (He’s fine) 🙂

 

daily prompt: Disobey

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How to show you care

Play a soothing, encouraging song – like this one

 

Give a sad smile

 

Offer a shoulder to lean on

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Reach out and hold a hand

Sit closer  –

Listen –

 

Give a warm hug –

Unless we lost someone or were there on 9/11, we will never be able to completely empathize with the victims nor their families. All we can do now is to remind them that …

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Sympathy– Daily word prompt

 

 

 

A Power Punch of Memories

Some say it’s peculiar that I remember so much of my first few years of life. But things like the burning of a hand, or the birth of a little sister, stay with you forever. I remember helping to pin Delma’s cloth diapers around her butt, and, later, pulling her toes to make them pop. I’d smile and say, “They ain’t long enough yet, Sis. I’m gonna he’p ’em grow.”

I remember putting a pot on my head to make Delma laugh when I thought she was dying.

And that pocket knife Ike gave me when I was two?  It came in real handy in first grade.

This train has its rhythm going now and the passengers have settled in. Most are trying to sleep just to make the time pass. I lay my head up against the hard window and watch as San Antone starts to slowly slip by. I close my eyes to see if I can nod off like everybody else, but it’s only an idea. Sleep is knocked out by that presence in the seat next to me. More memories keep nudging me, crowding me up against the ropes, where none of my boxing defense skills seem to work. No, these are stronger opponents. They jab my chin, then power punch me in the gut. It’s more painful than a broken nose. They make me remember.

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Excerpt from No Hill for a Stepper by C. Dennis-Willingham

 

Daily word prompt: Peculiar