“It was a glorious day.”
Here’s what the sentence gives the readers …

and makes us …

An opening line must make our readers feel …

How are we doing with our opening lines?
Daily Word Prompt: Glorious
Here’s what the sentence gives the readers …

and makes us …

An opening line must make our readers feel …

Daily Word Prompt: Glorious
I just want to take a moment to thank you, all my blogging buds, for the time you have spent looking at my posts and for following me. For a writer, there is no greater compliment. (I know I ramble about all kinds of things)
I also thank you for your postings. They make me laugh, cry, think, learn, and fill me with inspiration. Looking forward to more!
—Carolyn D-W
—also known as Me-Maw 
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.

Daily photo prompt: Sting

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
Photo credit
Flavorful is not the chip in front of me.

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

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

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

It is the insightfulness I discover when she speaks to me

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

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

Daily word prompt: Flavorful
I’m glad. Who knows? I might need them when the time comes. I also happened to notice a lot of cigarette butts on the steps. Guess some folks listening to Led Zeppelin wanted a last smoke before entering through the pearly gates.
As you can guess, I didn’t climb the stairs. I still have a lot of blogging to do. 🙂

I learned of this quote years back during a yoga class. It’s stuck with me and I wanted to share it. That’s how I came upon this curious “wow” moment.
So here’s what happened on the way to this post. I looked for photos of “people sitting alone in a room.” Know what I found in those “empty” rooms?
-→ People sitting in corners slumped over in depression.
-→ People on their computers or cell phones.
-→ People reading books or engaging in some other kind of activity.
-→ People staring out the window.
-→ People with their heads tipped to their chins.
-→ People with hands over their ears.
-→ People with their faces buried in their hands.
-→ If they were outside, they were more likely to look peaceful, contemplative.
But in the inside shots, NONE of the people could effectively sit quietly in a room alone.
Except for this one:

Please let me know if you can find another non-depressing photo of someone sitting quietly alone in a room so I can share it with anyone who may want to try (or continue) to do so.

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
photo credit

