26 December 2014

Published December 24, 2014 by rochellewisoff

JUST IN!!! DUE TO THE BUSY-NESS OF THE HOLIDAYS, I’M EXTENDING THIS PROMPT FOR ANOTHER WEEK. IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD TIME TO WRITE BECAUSE OF FAMILY CELEBRATIONS AND WHAT-NOT THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO POST A BARN BURNER FOR THE NEW YEAR.

***STAY CALM AND WRITE***

The next in this line of photos is the PHOTO PROMPT. Is the staircase going up or just coming down? Where does it take you? Tell me your story in a hundred words or less.

My story follows the prompt and the inLinkz blue frog. I appreciate honest comments and constructive crit.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright -Björn Rudberg

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Recently, I woke to find that our internet was down. Cut off from my online friends, a sense of panic flooded me. I felt empty and alone. The what-if’s bombarded me.

Genre: Speculative Fiction

Word Count: 100

EMP

Couched in complacency, we never saw it coming.

The first few hours weren’t bad. We figured the electric company would remedy the problem while we enjoyed sandwiches and chips by candlelight and a break from television.

After a month we were still in darkness and the grocery shelves were bare.

My car with its solid state circuit for a brain is a useless hunk of metal.

Local doctors are at a loss to treat the simplest diseases.

Real books are in demand.

We’re learning to live off the land but the internet is dead and the silence is deafening.

19 December 2014

Published December 17, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The next photo is the PROMPT. I can only imagine what’s going through your mind as you look at it. 😉 I dare you to think outside the box. I double-bug dare you!

My story follows the prompt and the blue inLinkz froggy. I appreciate honest comments as well as constructive criticism.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Douglas M. MacIlroy

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Genre: Hysterical Fiction

Word Count: 100

BUG TUSSLE

“Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin…”

“Dumb show.” Dottie switched off the television. “Bug Tussle. Who’d give a town such a stupid name?”

“Grandpa and I got hitched there,” said Gran without looking up from her knitting.

“You’re kidding.”

“Bug Tussle, Texas.” The yarn strands between Gran’s fingers blurred. “I was only fifteen. Grandpa sure could sweet-talk. Judge Fink officiated.”

“Fink? Don’t tease me, Grandma.”

“James Bates Fink. He’d marry anyone for a dollar.”

“What did your parents say?”

“Well, Daddy lowered his shotgun and hugged us. Your mama came a month later.”

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Bug Tussle, Texas.

© Original Artwork -Copyright Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

12 December 2014

Published December 10, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The following photo is this week’s PROMPT. What stands out? What type of story does it tell you? Tell us in a hundred words or less.

My story comes after the prompt and the blue inLinkz frog. I appreciate honest comments and crit. The artwork afterward is original and used for the sole purpose of illustrating my story. Permission required to use it. Thank you and shalom.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Sandra Crook

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Genre: Memoir

Word Count: 100

GRACE

In the midst of running, swimming and daily calisthenics, all at a frenetic pace, I fantasized about onion rings and fried chicken. Low numbers were all that mattered. One hundred calories per meal. Twenty pink pills to purge them. The scale hovered between eighty-five and eighty-four.

“You like my new jeans?” I asked my friend Linda. “I can’t believe they fit.”

“What size?” Her ice-blue gaze met mine.

“Zero.”

“You’ll look nice in your child-size coffin.”

__________

Now I run and swim at a comfortable pace and not a day goes by that I don’t thank Linda for my life.

Author’s Note: After I made the difficult decision to move on, Linda and I tossed those skinny jeans down the trash compactor in the backroom of our store. I don’t tell this to garner sympathy. It’s something I went through and have conquered with the help of excellent therapy and good friends. Life is all grist for the mill, isn’t it?

5 December 2014

Published December 3, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The next photo is the PHOTO PROMPT. What does it say to you? Tell us in one hundred words or less. And remember to

MAKE. EVERY. WORD. COUNT.

My story follows the prompt. I appreciate honest comments. Thank you.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright Janet Webb

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

IN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER, LONG AGO

“It’s so cold!” Marybeth shivered by the fireplace.

“This ain’t nothing.” Grandma Hattie’s wizened cheeks glistened in the flickering light. “1697, the year I turned twelve, winter commenced mid-November and by the last of March there was no sign of spring. The good Christians of Leonardtown blamed my teacher and friend Moll Dyer.”

“You knew her?”

“To this day I see them with their torches and tankards hollering, ‘witch! witch!’ as they set her hut ablaze.”

“They say she put a hex on the village, Grandma.”

“If anyone cursed them it was their precious God for slaying an innocent lamb.”

And

28 November 2014

Published November 26, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The picture below is the PHOTO PROMPT. There’s much to look at. What do you see? Tell us in one hundred words or less.

My story follows the prompt and the inLinkz blue frog. I appreciate honest comments and crit.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Randy Mazie

*Note: I apologize for any confusion over the inLinkz tool and encourage you to contact inLinkz.com DIRECTLY for help. Also, I’ve been told that the blue frog does a disappearing act from this page for some. I don’t know why this happens nor is there anything I can do about it. If you want to vent about it feel free to email me at Runtshell@gmail.com. I’ll do what I can.

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Genre: Realistic/Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

WE BEGIN WITH THE YOUNG

“What’s this, Opa?” asked Gretchen. “Is it a storybook? I like the pretty gold bird on it.”

Herrick gently took the blue, leather-bound volume from his granddaughter.

“This was given to me a very long time ago.”

“Once upon a time?”

Gathering Gretchen onto his lap, Herrick closed his eyes and remembered the day the youth leader issued him a fresh uniform and the virulent tome. So proud he’d been to serve his country. So fervent.

“Will you read it to me, Opa?”

Herrick fished a box of matches from his pocket.

“Nein, Liebling. I ‘ve a better plan for it.”

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ORIGINAL ARTWORK – Copyright-Rochelle Wisoff-Fields Use by permission only.

21 November 2014

Published November 19, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The following photo is the PROMPT. Whether you spell it ‘tire’ or ‘tyre’ doesn’t matter. What matters is what you see. Step outside the box. I dare you. 😉

My story is after the prompt and the blue inLinkz frog. I appreciate honest comments and crit.

PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Claire Fuller

It has come to my attention through a myriad of enthusiastic and well meaning comments in my comment section that inLinkz is requiring a log in from those using the code. I apologize for any confusion and encourage you to contact inLinkz.com DIRECTLY for help. Also, I’ve been told that the blue frog does a disappearing act from this page for some. I don’t know why this happens nor is there anything I can do about it. If you want to vent about it feel free to email me at Runtshell@gmail.com. I’ll do what I can.

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

PATENT US 5104 A

After weeks of rolling waves and seasickness, Robert William Thomson arrived in America. Banished. A fugitive all because he refused to go to Seminary. Sentenced to apprentice as a merchant with his uncle in Charleston.

The weary boy tried to find a comfortable position in the carriage as it lurched and bounced along the rock strewn road. His back ached with each bump and he longed for his beloved Scotland.

“I couldn’t learn Latin either,” said his uncle with a wink. “What would ye really like to do, laddie?”

“I’d like to take the corners off these bloody wheels.”

.

Click Here to Learn More.

14 November 2014

Published November 12, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The next PHOTO is the PROMPT. What kind of story does it tell you? Tell the rest of us in a hundred words or less. Would your story make sense without the photo?

My story follows the photo and the blue frog. I appreciate honest comments.

PHOTO PROMPT -Copyright-Rochelle Wisoff-Fields

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

FIRST DRAFT

“Can’t you imagine little Harry trying to climb the fig trees?” Ida’s eyes glittered. “He would’ve been three this year.”

“I miss him, too,” Harvey whispered.

Although his heart ached with loss, Harvey still counted his blessings. What could such a vibrant woman possibly see in him, a wheelchair bound invalid thirty years her senior?

“Maybe we’ll have another son. For now we have one hundred twenty acres of prime, undeveloped California land to subdivide.” He brushed a tear from her cheek with a kiss. “What shall we call our little town? Harryville?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Let’s call it Hollywood.”

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Daeida Hartell Wilcox Beveridge “The Mother of Hollywood”

Click here for more info.

Harvey Henderson Wilcox

7 November 2014

Published November 5, 2014 by rochellewisoff

Remember…

*IMPORTANT NOTE -Please use the photo prompt in some way shape or form. Printing “Friday Fictioneers” in your tags doesn’t necessarily make it so.

The next photo is the PHOTO PROMPT. Study it and let it speak to you. My story follows the blue inLinkz frog .

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PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright – Jean L. Hays

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Word Count: 100

IN AN EARLIER LIFE

“Too much studying will ruin you. Carpe Diem. Let’s play catch.” Ted grabbed Douglas’ notebook and pressed a pie tin into his hand.

“Catch? With this?”

“From the Frisbie Pie Company. It’s all the rage on campus.”

For the next hour Douglas forgot about Yale, final examinations and commencement. Tension from late nights hunched over text books lifted off his shoulders and a sense of euphoria filled him as he and Ted flung the whirling dish back and forth.

“This is bound to become a national sport,” cried Douglas.

“Tin Tossing Tournaments?”

“Why not?”

“School’s finally driven you mad, MacIlroy.”

LOGICAL CONCLUSION

Have I gone too far off the beaten path with this one?

Scout’s Honor, I started with the pictured Ford Edsels. In fact, I spent a whole day researching Edsel Bryant Ford, the only son of Henry Ford. While I learned a lot, I just couldn’t eke out a story.

However, the Edsel made its debut on my fourth birthday, 4 September 1957. What else happened in 1957? An online timeline showed that before Buddy Holly and the Crickets went to the top of the charts with “That’ll be the Day” in February, Wham-O introduced the first Frisbee 13 January. For some reason, this piqued my interest.

If you’d like to know more now, click here for the History of the Frisbee.

Aloha!

31 October 2014

Published October 29, 2014 by rochellewisoff

MAKE. EVERY.WORD. COUNT.

Below is the PHOTO PROMPT. Sit a while and study it. Does it tell you a story? Share it in 100 words or less.

PHOTO PROMPT-Copyright-Melanie Greenwood

There is only one PROMPT. Any sketches or photos following my story are meant to be illustrations for it.

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Genre: Realistic Fiction

Word Count: 98

ROLE REVERSAL

“Your stepfather’s in this chair,” says Dr. Rice. “Talk to him.”

“I can’t. It’s empty. He croaked twenty years ago.”

“Try.”

I sit in the chair opposite my ‘stepfather.’ “You filthy pig.”

“Good start.”

“I’m glad you’re dead…Daddy.”

In that moment I’m thirteen. Just as he’s done since I was seven, he slips into my bed. I wrestle from his grasp.

“How did he die, Natalie?” asks Dr. Rice.

“I don’t remember.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I…” My hands sweat and shake. “I used his gun.”

“Tell me.”

“I’d do it again. He stole my life. I took his.”

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Not the Photo Prompt. ORIGINAL ARTWORK – copyright-Rochelle Wisoff-Fields.

Keep it Legal

24 October 2014

Published October 22, 2014 by rochellewisoff

The next photo is this week’s PROMPT. What kind of a story does it tell you? Tell the rest of us in a hundred words or less.

My story follows the prompt and the blue inLinkz frog. I appreciate honest comments.

😀 This week marks my second anniversary as your fearful leader. My first story as facilitator can be found here. Thanks to all who write, submit photos and support me week after week. I’m looking forward to a third great year. 😀

Shalom,

Rochelle