15 November 2019

Published November 13, 2019 by rochellewisoff

The next photo is the PROMPT. Remember, all photos are property of the photographer, donated for use in Friday Fictioneers only. They shouldn’t be used for any other purpose without express permission. It is proper etiquette to give the contributor credit.

PHOTO PROMPT © Roger Bultot

Hop right up and Click the Frog

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

O MEIN PAPA

Papa belted out prayers with off-key passion. A few small congregations who couldn’t afford real cantors hired him as a ba’al tefillah.

Shabbos mornings, Natty Birnbaum stood close to him and sang. He’d bask in Papa’s approving smile. It was the only time he ever saw it.

When Natty was seven Papa passed away while reading prayers.

Nearly 100 years later, Birnbaum, better known as George Burns, remembered with a wry smile, “After he sang in one little synagogue, the following synagogue, instead of hiring him, they kept it closed during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.”

Natty never forgave God.

Wanna know more? Got 10 minutes? To watch the video CLICK HERE

WHITE NIGHTS

Published November 9, 2019 by rochellewisoff

This week Pegman goes to Guyana, South America. Your mission is to write up to 150 words inspired by this week’s location. Feel free to use the image supplied with the prompt, or zoom in to Guyana on Google Maps and find your own inspiration. Warning, there are not a lot of photo spheres, but the more you zoom around the more you’ll find.

Once your piece is polished, share it with others at the link up below. You may contribute, poetry, prose, or essay–or whatever the location inspires you to write. Reading and commenting is part of the fun!

click the frog. You know you want to.

Thanks to Karen and Josh for facilitating this challenge.

The following is an expanded version of a story I posted 4 years ago in Friday Fictioneers. For those of us who remember…let us never forget.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 150

WHITE NIGHTS

Like a frightened animal, the girl huddled in the darkest corner of an abandoned shack on the beach. I offered her refuge in my winter home in Bridgetown. After much coaxing she accepted.

“Where are your parents?” I asked. “Do they know where you are?”

She fell into my arms, shaking with anguished sobs. “Dead. Everyone’s dead.”

I embraced her, unable to stem my own tears. “You’re safe now.”

“He promised us a rainbow family in Paradise,” she whispered the next day over lunch.

“We saw the bastard on the news. How did you escape?”

“I told the guard Father wanted flowers for the meeting. I hid under bushes all day, ran all night and then stole a fishing boat. I floated a long time.” She licked her blistered lips.

“Scorcher today.” My husband burst onto the patio, pitcher in hand. “Kool-Aid anyone?”

“No, thank you.” She choked. “Not ever.”

DRINKING THE KOOL-AID

WEEKEND WRITING PROMPT – LIMINAL

Published November 9, 2019 by rochellewisoff

A word prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend. How you use the prompt is up to you. Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like. Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise. If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in Sammi’s comment section.

I love this challenge! Today I learned a new word. Thank you, Sammi!

I dedicate this bit of story to my insightful therapist Wayne Witcher who did more for me than I can say. He came to one of my book signings a couple of years ago and two months later he died. As I always told him I’m…

HIS SUCCESS STORY

Wayne peered over his clipboard “What do you hope to accomplish by starving yourself to death, Rochelle?”

“They’ll be better off without me.”

Had it really been twenty years? She wished he were still alive to share this liminal time in her life.

She picked up an imaginary phone. “Wayne, someone important says she loves my manuscript!”

ORIGINAL ARTWORK Rochelle Wisoff-Fields….an illustration from A STONE FOR THE JOURNEY

8 November 2019

Published November 6, 2019 by rochellewisoff

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The next photo is the PROMPT. Remember, all photos are property of the photographer, donated for use in Friday Fictioneers only. They shouldn’t be used for any other purpose without express permission. It is proper etiquette to give the contributor credit.

PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio

I’m not blue but I will be if you don’t click me to join the fun. 😉

Genre: Histrionic Fiction

Word Count: 100

A WRINKLE IN TIME

Elise wound a chestnut curl around her index finger and frowned. “Time for a little Miss Clairol.” Twisting her lips into a wry grin, she tilted her head. “Maybe I’ll just dye it purple.”

After she brushed her teeth, she cleansed her face and applied her foundation repeating the Mary Kay mantra she had learned years ago, “When you pat you place, when you rub you remove.”

The morning ritual continued with eye-shadow and mascara.

She gave her lips a coat of color and studied her reflection over the sink. “How the hell did my mother get in my mirror?”

*

My mother didn’t really look like this. 😉

WEEKEND WRITING PROMPT – INEFFABLE

Published November 3, 2019 by rochellewisoff

A word prompt to get your creativity flowing this weekend. How you use the prompt is up to you. Write a piece of flash fiction, a poem, a chapter for your novel…anything you like. Or take the challenge below – there are no prizes – it’s not a competition but rather a fun writing exercise. If you want to share what you come up with, please leave a link to it in Sammi’s comment section.

PORTAL

“This photo’s always fascinated me.” I turn over the cardboard and study the foreign print. “Wish I could read it.”

Oxana stares at it. “It’s Russian. Very old.”

I flip it back over and gaze at the girl with ineffable awe, wishing I could read her thoughts. “It’s my grandmother Nettie Weinberg and her mother Edith. Great-grandma looks like she walked right out of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’, doesn’t she?”

1 November 2019

Published October 30, 2019 by rochellewisoff

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The next photo is the PROMPT. Remember, all photos are property of the photographer, donated for use in Friday Fictioneers only. They shouldn’t be used for any other purpose without express permission. It is proper etiquette to give the contributor credit.

PHOTO PROMPT © Fatima Fakier Deria

The frog isn’t blue but click him anyway. 😉

Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY

Hibiscus aka Brownie brushed away a tear as she put the finishing touches on her article for the Detroit News. She wrote a good life, but her “Love-Haven” column was fantasy.

A divorced single mother, she became a top saleslady for Stanley Home Products.

However, a bowl made from polyethylene slag changed her life.

“Its burping lid is amazing.” At parties she dropped the full plastic bowl on the floor. It remained sealed, clinching sale after sale.

“Brownie Wise, my vice-president, you could sweet-talk a bee out of its honey,” said inventor Earl Tupper.

Hence, the Tupperware™ party was born.

*

The first woman to ever be on the cover of Business Week, Brownie Wise was a force with which to reckon. Sadly, her story doesn’t have a happy ending. Thanks to Earl Tupper’s ego, her name was expunged from the Tupperware company. While Earl Tupper sold the company for millions, Brownie Wise lived the rest of her life in obscurity, refusing to even own a piece of Tupperware.

CLICK for more.

Earl Tupper showing Brownie the raw slag

Brownie and Jerry Wise

Brownie at her best

SEEKING ASYLUM

Published October 28, 2019 by rochellewisoff

In the spirit of Halloween, Pegman ventures to one of the creepiest places in the United States, the condemned Overbrook Lunatic Asylum in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. A quick Google search will reveal to the writer many horrifying facts about this cursed place, some of which may inspire up to 150 original words to be shared with fellow Pegman adventurers. Feel free to stroll around until you find something you like, then post your work to the InLinks site. Have fun, and happy Halloween!

I’m not sure how original my 150 words are. This story is somewhat out of my comfort zone, which I’m told is a good thing for a writer. 😉 I guess you could say it haunted me.

Many thanks to Josh and Karen for this challenge which is all about location, location, location.

CLICK FROG TO JOIN IN THE FUN

Word Count: 150

SEEKING ASYLUM

My brother kicked a pile of chipped paint and crumbled floor. “What a shame they’re tearing down this old loony bin.”

“Yeah.” Light beamed through a broken window, illuminating a broken-down piano. “Guess we’ll have to find somewhere else.”

“They say it’s haunted.”

I startled. The voice belonged to a girl sitting in a lopsided chair. She skimmed her fingertips across the yellowed keys, a faraway look in her sky-blue eyes. “I don’t believe it for a minute, do you?”

I pointed to her old-fashion nurse’s cap and uniform. “Halloween costume?”

“Tis the season.” She giggled. “Wanna hear some Scott Joplin?”

“Maple Leaf Rag” shook the walls.

When she finished I applauded and turned to my brother. “Is she amazing or what?”

He scratched his head and sent me a puzzled look. “Who?”

I whipped back around to see a tattered nurse’s cap on the keyboard. “Umm…nobody. Race ya home.”

Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple

Growing older is inevitable. Growing up is optional.

Make Every Word Count

All posts in the Make Every Word Count category

15 November 2019

WHITE NIGHTS

WEEKEND WRITING PROMPT – LIMINAL

8 November 2019

WEEKEND WRITING PROMPT – INEFFABLE

1 November 2019

SEEKING ASYLUM

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