A Friday Fictioneers’ Welcome to
SEBASTIAN JOSHUA PENDERGAST
Born 4 November 2012
to our own Elmowrites -Jen
THAT’S SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT!
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Now to the business at hand. If this is your first go at Friday Fictioneers, here’s how it works:
Every Friday authors from around the world gather here to share their 100-words and offer constructive crit and encouragement to each other. This creates a wonderful opportunity for free reading of very fresh fiction! Readers are encouraged to comment as well.
Writers:
- Depending on your preference, leave your blog link in the comment section or use the linkz tool (or both ;)). My story follows for those who’d rather not read it before writing their own.
- Please make sure your link works. There were a couple last week that didn’t. If you find that you’ve made an error you can delete by clicking the little red ‘x’ that should appear under your icon. Then re-enter your URL.
- If your blog requires multiple steps for visitors to leave comments, see if you can simplify it. If you can disable CAPTCHA –that wavy line of unreadable letters and numbers– please for the sake of our writerly nerves, disable it. It’s frustrating to have to leave a DNA sample, your blood type and your shoe size just to make a comment. (So I exaggerate. But hopefully you get the picture).
- Challenge yourself to keep stories to 100 words. (There’s no penalty for going over or under).
Copyright – Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
THE ICE QUEEN
In Rowena’s thirty-eighth year the flashbacks started. One by one, memories from her childhood surfaced like debris in a whirlpool. Among them were the uncle who molested her and the neighbor who raped her then threatened her with worse if she told. Both happened before her twelfth birthday.
To punish her body for its betrayal, she starved it. Reduced to bone and thinning skin, her defense against pain became her prison.
“What are you feeling?” asked her therapist.
“Nothing.”
“Does it help?” He pointed to her scarred arms.
“No.”
“Do you really want to die, Rowena?”
“I’m already there.”
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Click the following link for song.
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple 
Ice Queen – an apt title of your story.
This is very sobering and heartfelt.
I like the song too. Nice guitar.
For reasons entirely unrelated, I like the title of your post too.
Happens to be my birthday. 😉
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Happy Birthday, Parul! Enjoy!
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Happy Birthday Parul!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PARUL! Hope you’re doing something special for yourself. Thanks for your kind comments.
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Yeah, I am off on a vacation this weekend. Hope it’s a good break! Thanks 🙂
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Happy birthday, Parul! Glad you have some time off to enjoy it!
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Sad and painfully real for some… You captured this very well.
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Oh my, I can identify in my own way. In the midst of my own childhood trauma my grandmother, peevish that I would not respond warmly to her affection, referred to me as a “cold fish.” If that’s what it takes to survive!
Well done!
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I’ll admit there’s a lot of fact in my fiction this week. All too many of us can relate to Rowena.
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Rochelle, an excellent story but very depressing fare!
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Thanks, Janet. There are those time that the dark side calls me and I have to answer. 😉
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I didn’t hit the “like” because it’s so hard to say you like reading about the feelings of someone suffering so so much. You did a great job capturing it, especially in those last few senescence, terse and to the point.
“What are you feeling?”
“Nothing.”
“Does it help?” He pointed to her scarred arms.
“No.”
“Do you really want to die, Rowena?”
“I’m already there.”
She not only starves herself but cuts herself. You have obviously done your homework here, too in condensing the history of girls who suffer like this.
Randy
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Dear Randy,
Thank you for your kind words. I suppose you could say I’ve done my homework first hand…and have moved on.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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So sad. Also, very well written.
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Well, that was a cheery one, Rochelle. So sad, but so true everywhere on this earth it seems. I could only imagine that pain. Interesting photo… I struggled for a bit. I’ll be back Friday.
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Good story — how sad that it is true for many women in the world.
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A very powerful and poignant story, Rochelle. And I love the photograph. I didn’t even notice your title before I titled mine “Ice Princess.” 🙂 Titles are similar, but stories are different!
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Very visual and emotional. So sad, but thought provoking. Great job!
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Sad story but well written
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This is well written. The sadness and despair come right off the page and melt my heart.
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I thought I’d join the Thursday Fictioneers… http://tedstrutz.com/2012/11/08/friday-fictioneers-thieves-in-the-light/
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Maybe we should call it WednesdayThursdayFridayFictioneers, eh?
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Very sad, and I’m sure very true in many a case where one punishes themselves for the hurts and pain inflicted on them by others, particularly those one has known well, or a family member. You show well the pain she suffered with vivid images. Did you ever get the last comments I left from your last two or three stories? I was late reading them and commenting on them after my trip, but got into them and read them, then left comments, but they were good ones too. I will see if I have time to get one ready for this one.
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As one who’s lived it, it’s a hard place to recover from and in looking back I see all too well how much it hurt those around me.
Yes, I did get your comments, Joyce. Hope you can join us this time around.
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So sorry that this was true in your case too. God brought you through it. We praise Him for that.
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Here’s a go at this week’s picture:
http://ravinranting.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/cold-words/
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Rochelle – it saddened me to read that this story comes from your own painful experience. But thankfully, you found the strength and resolve to overcome it. And bouquets to the people in your life who loved, cared and supported you through it. Lora
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And I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to thank them. The operative in all of this is that I’m no longer there and life is good!
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So terribly sad, Rochelle. It’s a very powerful piece and will give strength to those who read it. I’m sorry it’s not entirely fiction, but then so much of what we write isn’t. You captured the pain well here.
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That’s my hope, Amy. To offer strength and understanding to those who read. It bears repeating that recovery is a process, not an event. Thanks for your kind comment.
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So much pain in so few words!
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A very powerful scenario, Rochelle, and a great title. Well done.
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You’re right – I think our characters are in the same place. Yours is very detailed and powerful in so few words.
My link is posted, but for those who want it, it is located here: http://erinleary.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/flash-friday-fiction-15/
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Good day, my friends.
http://thebradleychronicles.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/flash-fiction-friday-promises-kept/
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Yes, I thought “Ice Queen” is a good title for that one. Sad story, but well-told Rochelle and I’m glad although you’re writing from experience that you’ve moved beyond that place in your life.
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Terrifying! I can hear her flat, emotionless voice as she says that last line. (And now that I’ve read the earlier comments and your replies, Rochelle, I’m so sorry, and so glad things are better for you now!)
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Thanks, Sharon. Emotionless is a good description. It’s freeing to be able to write about these things and not hurt. Of course the actual perpetrators are fictionalized.
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This is my first attempt. Crossing my fingers. And my toes for good feedback. Thank you.
http://rendezvouswithrenee.com/2012/11/09/friday-fictioneers-echos-down-corridors/
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More brutal realism from the Mistress of Flash Fiction. I can’t say I liked it, but that’s not the point is it? It’s a slice of an unpleasant life laid bare for us to see. Brave writing, and carried off well.
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I didn’t much like it either, Pete, but am a stronger person for having faced the demons (with help).. Thanks for you kind words.
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Turning experience into fiction results in learning for the reader. A powerful way to use a difficult past to affect a positive future. Well done Rochelle.
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Tragic. Perfect title. I wonder what might gush out when that layer of ice cracks.
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Years of pent up, cleansing, healing tears, Keli.
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You quickly devastate the reader with flashbacks and reinforce the devastation to the end. Very sad situation…
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Powwerful on its own, so much more so knowing it is based on personal experience.
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I am reading this is based on truth and personal experience.
I am so sorry.
Scott
Mine: http://kindredspirit23.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/friday-fictioneers-1182012/
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No worries, Scott. It’s a part of my life that has been dealt. Unfortunately my experience is far from unique and my hope is that this little story brings understanding and compassion for those still stuck in that self destructing place.
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Dear Rochelle,
I’m sorry for the time you spent there and i’m glad you’re back now. There are no words that can assuage the pain that must remain, closeted, compartmentalized, shut away until a picture, a careless word, a thoughtless act brings it flooding back to the surface.
I can only say the world is a richer, better place for your presence in the here and now. Thanks for enduring and using the pain as a mirror to illuminate the darkness. Keep writing. (And drawing:) You bring light to the world.
Aloha,
Doug
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Dear Doug,
You are one perceptive individual. The residual pain has lessened over the years. But as one of my therapists pointed out..I had the opportunity to face the past and move on with the future. He said if I didn’t face it I could end up in my 90’s never understanding why I reacted to things the way I did, ie, the starving, the cutting, rage and other forms of self abuse, etc etc. At the time I took little comfort in his “encouragement”.. I really thought I’d die in the process…and wanted to.
There. I said more than I intended but I’m leaving it in case someone else finds themselves in a similar predicament.
Thanks for your sensitive comments.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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A devastating story, and I am glad I read through the comments to see that even in cases like this there is a way out into the light. Very strong. Thank you for the picture and see all the ideas it could give.
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Dear Björn,
I’ve known success stories such as my own but, sadly, I’ve known those who succumbed to the Beast. I’m grateful for my life.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Shoot. I thought I was on to something and then I read this. So powerful. “I’m already there”! I guess it can’t be helped. Great minds think alike.
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Rochelle,
Having the courage to face your past shows your inner strength. To be able to not only face it but turn it around is remarkable. These 100 words are not fiction alone they are a piece of your life. To allow others to glimpse at it in the hope that you can bring light to others shows how far away you have moved from the pain. While the pain of such things never truly goes away being a survivor and knowing you have moved forward gives me great joy and hope for others who have gone through similar things. I hope light continues to rain down on you. I am in awe of your courage.
Tom
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And I’m in awe of your comment, Tom. Thank you.
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This story really coincides with the hopelessness of this pic. Great job. An so sad.
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Boy, this one doesn’t leave you ready to go out dancing on the town! Very chilling when you mention the scarred arms. But why do the flashbacks start at such a late age.? How was she before? I guess these are things we just have to wonder about.
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Hi Perry,
I was told by more than one professional that mid to late thirties is a common age for buried memories to surface. Before the flashbacks Rowena had a violent temper, a passive aggressive nature and self destructive tendencies but didn’t know why. .
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Hmm…I read this earlier, but must have forgotten to comment!
Enjoyed it!
Scott
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Your story communicated the pain that Rowena suffers. Sorry you had to endure the pain but thankful that you are free enough of it to write it. Insightful inclusion that she felt her body had betrayed her.
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your stories really are beautiful and haunting all at the same time..
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