Friday Fictioneers: Why Marnie got fired

September 30, 2015September 30, 201557 Comments

My entry for Friday Fictioneers, October 3, 2015.

Thank you Rochelle for your time and efforts each week to keep our creativity sparked! And a special thanks to Marie Gail Stratford for the featured photo offering.

PHOTO PROMPT – © Marie Gail Stratford

Why Marnie Got Fired

Marnie’s workplace was a yawn. Whoever decided that gray and tan were the optimal colors for this environment had obviously never been chained to a desk for eight hours a day. This lack of color scheme and hard lines had finally put her over the edge.

It started innocently enough with the mouse on her desk. A quilter in her spare time she envisioned turquoise chevrons across its top. That night she spirited it away and worked her magic on it.

Next morning she envisioned fitted slipcovers for the dreadful chairs. Kaffe Fassett would be an eye opener for sure!

~*~

Words: 100

~*~

For the uninitiated:

Kaffe Fassett is a world renowned artist, and fabric designer.

Colorful?

Yes.

Flamboyant?

OH, you bet!

And we love him for it.

**Meet Kaffe Fassett in his own words…**

~*~

For more really great takes on the photo prompt just follow the little blue frog!

Friday Fictioneers: Silent Sentries

September 16, 2015September 18, 201532 Comments

My entry for Friday Fictioneers, September 18, 2015.

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

Thank you Rochelle for your time and efforts each week to keep our creativity sparked! And a special thanks to David Stewart for the featured photo offering.

Silent Sentries

Lowell knew the gate would be worth the challenge for the few extra dollars at the recyclers this week. He had seen it the last time he hit the alley looking for cans and other discards. He watched the house daily to note the occupants schedule and worked out when they were not home. Reveling in his own craftiness, he chuckled as he backed his truck to the gate, then set to work on the hinges. The gate loose he gave it a shove. It fell.

“Whoever heard of silent dogs?” He screamed, as they pinned him to the ground.

**~*~**

Words: 100

**~*~**

For some really great takes on the prompt just click the little blue frog.

Friday Fictioneers: an honorable position

April 8, 2015April 11, 201541 Comments

I haven’t written for Friday Fictioneers in some time. I have just been flat out with everything. That said, today’s image was one that instantly told me a story, and when that happens I have no choice but to share it. Special thanks to Rochelle at Addicted to Purple for her continued service in procuring these images and to Jennifer Pendergast at Elmo Writes for the image!

PHOTO PROMPT – © Jennifer Pendergast

Laurel hated her work. “It is a good job”, her mother told her, “an honorable position in the service of the people.”

Standing alone in the middle of the sick air and breathing through her respirator she mused about the stories her grandmother had told her when she was a child. Tales of blue skies, intense sunlight, and beyond the desert’s great span, she’d claimed, were vistas that shimmered in the heat. She often wondered if Grandma made these stories up.

Today wasn’t so bad; she could see past the road. Turning from the view she cranked up the air scrubbers.

~*~

NOTE: Some of you kindly made some suggestions for improving my story this week. I took them and ran with them!

THANK YOU!

~*~

For some really great takes on the prompt please click on the little blue frog to be magically transported!

Friday Fictioneers: a learned response

July 9, 2014August 4, 201439 Comments

Normally, Friday Fictioneers is a 100 word fiction writing based on a photo prompt. However, today our hostess, Rochelle at Addicted to Purple, has included a video with with her FF entry. I watched it and…

Suddenly I was deep in memory, four again, and living in California…

~*~*~*~

In my youth I had a little friend who lived two houses down from me. We had the best of times playing in the back yard. We spent hours digging under trees, burying treasures, making mud pies and just running and laughing every day. We were four and the world was wide and ready for exploration, discovery and learning.

However, at the sound of an airplane, my little Korean friend would scream and run in terror to dive beneath a table or chair. Inside or out it was always the same.

She was inconsolable.

I didn’t understand.

Suddenly, I do.

~*~

WORDS: 100

~*~

And now, Rochell’s shared video

Pink Floyd – Goodbye Blue Sky (London Blitz)

For more Friday Fictioneers takes on the prompt, please click HERE!

OOOH! an UPDATE

On thinking about today’s post I remembered something my mother said about her terror at the sound of an airplane overhead:

“This is ridiculous behavior. She isn’t old enough to have experienced the war over there!”

So I went to do some fact checking…

The Korean War began in June 25, 1950 and ended on July 1953. So, yes, my mother was correct in stating that she could not have experienced the planes and the bombings there. She and I were only four and born in 1953. This makes it about 1957 when we met.

However, here is a quote on the Korean War that I found on the History Channel’s website:

The Korean War was relatively short but exceptionally bloody. Nearly 5 million people died. More than half of these–about 10 percent of Korea’s prewar population–were civilians. (This rate of civilian casualties was higher than World War II’s and Vietnam’s.)

In consideration of this information, and the realization of the violence her elders endured, I find it quite plausible for my little friend to have reacted in this way.