The bent wood rocker is brown with age, and the thin arms are lighter than the rest of the wood where human arms have rested upon them. The back has five wooden rungs that are attached to two long round pieces of wood that stretch three inches above the highest rung and all the way…
Tag: timed writing
Flash Essay Prompt: A Stolen Cross and the Lesson that Comes with It
Jesus is hanging on a metal cross. This cross is part of a stand so it is freestanding rather than designed to hang on the wall. The metal is silver and Jesus is silver and the nails that are attaching him to the cross are silver. The cross and stand are about a foot and…
Nothing Like an Award or Two to Brighten Up My Day!
Much thanks to my fellow bloggers for two awards for my blog, 20 Minutes a Day. Thank you susanwritesprecise for the Lamplighter Award! This is for a blog you find that brightens the world. This award can be passed along as many times as you like and the recipient either accepts or declines and that’s…
Flash Fiction Prompt: Foot, Jacket, and Silence
The day was cold. Camille pulled on her jacket and trudged outside for a cigarette. Damn these new laws that made standing by the dumpster behind the building the only acceptable place to smoke. And what a social pariah she had become. Almost everyone in the call center glared at her when she left, and…
Prompt: The Word “Encounter”
Encounter is a word that conjures up mystery. Encounter is not just a meeting, but something more fleeting. An encounter suggests movement, as if both parties are on their way to somewhere else and they briefly come in contact. One can imagine an encounter in a stairwell, where two people pass and glance at one…
Flash Fiction Prompt: A Shift in Perspective
The sky was light in the east, and the world had just begun to stir. Calista sat at her kitchen table and thumbed through the LA Times. Where was Brian and why hadn’t he come home last night? He usually called if he wasn’t going to make it home. The dog barked. Calista knew this…
Prompt: Reading and the Recession
Beloved. I need to read Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Rachael has asked me to help her with one of her college essays on the book, plus one of my high school students will be writing about it in his AP English class and asked for my help. I’m happy to read it; I’m delighted to read…
Flash Fiction Prompt: Apricots, Lilacs and Lilies
I am not an apricot kind of girl, all small and soft; squishy and sweet. No, if I had to choose an orange fruit to characterize myself, I would have to pick a cantaloupe: a rough exterior, but sweet once you find a way to break me open. This exercise we’re doing in group therapy…
Early Sunday Morning and Changes in Life
The sky is gray today and I can see the leaves of the bushes bouncing in the wind outside the window. Traffic is light this morning; our usual busy street only sporting the occasional car. Cordelia, our corgi, is stretched out on the couch beside me, her head resting on a pillow. She was up…
Ten Things Age Has Brought Me Since I Turn 59 Today
Today is my birthday. I am 59-years-old. That’s one year from 60 for those of you with less than stellar math skills. Dear Lord in heaven, how did that happen? The 60 part, not your math skills. It’s crazy this aging thing. The part that nobody mentioned (all those OLD people like my mom and…
20 Minutes a Day 