2307 Creative Writing Monthly Challenge – Official Launch

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Welcome to the inaugural Creative Writing Monthly. Think of the challenge as an opportunity to write something a little longer than the short flash fiction prompts we all love to participate in daily. Each month Greg’s Blog will prompt the writer with a concept, topic, and/or genre to help jumpstart the creative process. All you have to do is write. The length of your work should end up somewhere between 750 and 1500 words. That falls right on the boundary between a longer work of flash fiction and a short short story. Thus, giving you the opportunity to develop characters and build more elaborate plotlines. Something that is difficult to attain when responding to word prompts, sentence limits and 100-word maximum stories.

I understand longer stories take longer to write, edit, consternate over, rework, stew about, and/or rewrite… As such the inaugural edition of CWM will run for two months, until July 31st and will include a glimpse of August’s prompt. Subsequent challenge posts will consist of the current challenge plus a glimpse of upcoming prompts for the next two challenges. In essence, three full months for those who prefer a headstart. For the rest of us who like to procrastinate, just follow my lead and keep telling yourself you work better under pressure!

The plan is to drop each monthly challenge on the last Thursday of the preceding month. So if you want to try something with more meat on the bones, check back for a new challenge monthly.

I know I published the preview post at the beginning of June but today is the official launch of Creative Writing Monthly. For all of those who posted to the preview, I will ensure your stories are included in the inaugural wrap-up on the first Greg’s Blog Sunday Digest of August. Feel free to repost your link here if you want but know it is not necessary. Thank you for participating.

July 2023 Challenge Prompt:

Write a story about a new beginning, fresh start or new challenge.

Does the protagonist face the new situation head-on, crumble under pressure, or revert to old habits? How does the journey change them and affect those around them? Let the prompt be your guide.

I look forward to reading what you conjure up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.

Upcoming Challenges

MonthTopic
AugustWrite a story about summer camp, a wilderness vacation or a day in the great outdoors.
September Write a fictional story based on a real life moment, event or memory from your days in grade school memory.
Click here for full rules and guidelines

Maybe…

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Image: Unknown

Maybe…

When Ida discovered that she could hear the voices of the dead speaking to her when she tuned into a certain radio station, she decided to change the station.

Well maybe not right away but as she sat in the courtroom listening to the Crown Attorney describe the trail of death and destruction she’d left in her wake it became evident.

“Forty-one injured and 17 dead in all Your Honour. Several were shot where they stood, and others were stabbed waiting for the bus or standing in line at the gas bar convenience. Three more were taken when the accused set that same gas bar alight. All blown to bits in the ensuing explosion including one poor soul whose legs were found sheared off just below the knees, still standing in front of the toilet where he’d been peacefully relieving himself.”

Was this ever going to end she thought but the anger in his voice kept rising as he continued, “Still more, run down in the street by the rust-coloured pickup truck she’d stolen from her ex, a.k.a. victim one. Mostly unaware of their fate as they went about their daily business and she’d have us all believe it was voices…” he paused momentarily before speaking again with greater emphasis. “VOICES OF THE DEAD – that made her do it.”

“Do you have anything to say to this court Ida?” the Judge asked.

Her own barrister counselled her to remain silent but how could she not say something. The families needed an explanation, closure.

“Well, your honour, maybe –” a quiver present in her voice. “Maybe I should have changed the station sooner.”

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Glass Slipper

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Tim Rebkavets via Unsplash

Glass Slipper

“…and on the left is Berg Eltz,” the guide delivers the canned script from rote. His German-accented English spills from the tour bus speakers as he navigates the narrow Elzbach River valley road. “The castle has been owned by the same family for over eight hundred yea…”

Elise’s mind wanders until the even temperament of his voice only fills the background spaces in her head.

Why did she want to see castles, Prince Charming was never coming. Hell at this point the evil Prince would do. She imagined being locked in the highest turret. A plaything to be ravished beneath the full moon, her hungry bones left to wait for the next time. Her mother insisted girls like them were destined for more mundane fates with men who were far less interesting. Men like her Dad who worked his fingers to the bone, sweating blood and tears just to survive.

Unknown

The bus stopped at the end of the long stone walkway leading to the entrance of Eltz. For the next two hours, the historic castle would be her playground. Her travel companions opted for the guided tour while Elise chose to walk the halls and grounds alone. ‘Bleiben Sie hinter der Linie’, ignoring the signs she sat on the edge of the Prince’s bed. A moment later she swung her feet up and lay back. The room was much smaller than she expected but it didn’t matter. She watched the door, expecting him to walk through at any moment, no one came.

As the stopover came to an end she thought of her own smaller castle back in Omaha. Maybe it wasn’t so bad. The thought of removing her glass slippers felt liberating. Pulling them from her feet she set them on the stone wall and walked barefoot onto the bus.

At the next stop Elise sat for a moment, not sure if this was scheduled or if the bus had broken down. As she looked out over the scenic countryside, she caught movement in her periphery. Turning her head and setting her eyes on a tall, dark and extremely handsome man. He was heading right toward her while he motioned with his hands.

Unknown

“Excuse me, excuse me… I think you left these at Berg Eltz.”

She nodded.

“I need to be certain,” he said as he dropped to one knee.

She raised her leg to meet his hand and he slid the slipper onto her foot…

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Four Line Fiction (2326)

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Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.

HP Koch via Unsplash

This week’s image depicts a grey and white cat with a tinge of orange fur on its head sitting on an old bicycle rim and tire. The cat is camouflaged against a grey and white three-panel, rust-speckled background. The background panel at the right of the image is clearly marked with a left-hand print.

Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.

Click here for full rules and guidelines

Five Word Weekly Challenge (2326)

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Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, I will post five random words to Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.

Here are your prompt words for the week of June 26th, 2023:

ballad | double-cross | render | bundle | cacophony

Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading what each of you conjures up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.

Click here for full rules and guidelines

2325 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

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2325 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review

This week has turned out to be a mixed bag. The solstice has come and gone ushering in summer in the northern hemisphere. Now the days begin getting shorter as we hurtle back toward the cold of winter. That said, I will enjoy the warmth for as long as it lasts.

Just as I was getting over a painful couple of months with plantar fascitis in my left foot, I was scheduled to attend training wearing heavy safety boots. My current job doesn’t require that I wear them regularly. However, to re-certify the training must be completed in full uniform. Now after one-half day, the foot is back at square one. It didn’t help that the next two days were spent standing on a baseball diamond.

Greg Glazebrook @ GMGPhotography

That was the good part of the week. The standing didn’t help my foot, but watching my little guy play in his season-ending T-Ball tournament was fantastic. He played well even through normal kid focus issues and a love for the dirt on the infield. Making an out at third and hitting the ball hard. Honestly, all the kids look so damn cute out there.

The beginning of summer had me listening to one of my favourite summer driving songs. The Kings are a great Canadian band hailing from Oakville, Ontario. Literally one town over from where I grew up. They have some great music in their catalogue but only one commercially successful hit, charting in both Canada and the U.S.A. That hit consisted of the first two tracks which are normally played together. “This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide” was taken from the band’s 1980 debut album “The Kings Are Here.” Take a listen and tell me you can’t feel the wind whipping through your hair as you drive much too fast along that lake road or up the coast.

The week in review…

Locked Diary
Revisiting a memory of Paris lifted from the pages of a diary written by Rockstar Girl at Is It Real or Fantasy.

The Calling
Did Dana find salvation? Just because we can’t see it doesn’t mean wasn’t there. A delightful alien (almost) abduction story by Paula at Light Motifs II.

New World Order
Be wary of the man in a fedora preaching a better future.

Patrick Fore via Unsplash

Out of It
Fandango manages to craft a short poem even though he was out of everything.

Grandad, where are the wires?
Sometimes the old ways captured a labour of love that is lost in today’s technological world. Be sure to check out Diana’s take on the prompt on the Writer Ravenclaw blog.

4 Line Fiction
Nicole Smith at Momoetry captures that feeling when you can’t find the words to own up to something terrible you’ve done.

Amazingly, Unexpected Happenings
Dare to dream and you never know what might happen. A success story by Sadje at Keep It Alive.

More highlights from Greg’s Blog…

I Didn’t Do It | A story of heartbreak written for Fandango’s Story Starter and One Word Challenges.

T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday | Another bi-weekly installment of this humorous graphic design segment.

Next week…

Five Word Weekly and Four Line Fiction and the official launch of the Creative Writing Month challenge although the preview for the first month came out at the beginning of June. Have a great week everyone,

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Solstice

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Solstice

Spring, summer, winter, fall, rainy or dry, the seasons are born of a celestial love story.

Theia, travelling cold and alone through Sol’s domain. Oblivious to a fate inexorably tied to the maiden planet set within its path. Drawn towards the fiery sphere’s beauty, racing towards the edge of her influence not realizing he had moved beyond the point of no return. Her gravity pulling him deeper into her well, towards a climax that will devour him and knock her off kilter.

The impact tilted her axis and gave rise to Earth’s seasons. The debris from their joining spilled into the night sky. The seeds of a new life filled the space around her. Coalescing over millennia to birth a child from nothing more than a chance meeting. Their child, forever in lockstep with its mother, gentling shaping and reshaping her shorelines as it circles her.

Theia may no longer roam through Sol’s domain but his legacy lives on in the night sky. Its DNA is embedded in the Earth and the Moon, marking the months as Earth continues her journey around the Sun.

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T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday (2325)

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Welcome to another edition of T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday for June 21st, 2023. This hump day feature is exactly what it sounds like. Every other Wednesday (bi-weekly) I will post a graphic that is funny, poignant, witty, honest, crude, toothsome, with bite, or just plain old ridiculous. Some I’ll have plagiarized directly from a chest near you. Others may not have been spotted in the wild but they probably should be out there.

This one probably works better as a warning sign than as a tee but I get to decide what goes here.

FTR, it’s just humour. I do NOT advocate shooting trespassers. LOL!

Suggestions are always welcome. If you come across something you think is worthy of being pasted across someone’s chest and paraded around publicly jot it down and send me a message. If it makes the cut I will whip up a graphic design template and use it in a future post. Any suggestions used will include a shout-out and link to your blog on the week it posts.

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Four Line Fiction (2325)

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Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.

This week’s image depicts three-quarters of an antique typewriter cropped along the right edge of the image. The aerial point of view shows the typewriter sitting on a darkly stained rustic wood table, its boards filling the entire background of the picture.

Patrick Fore via Unsplash

Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.

Click here for full rules and guidelines

2023-06-19 —  Share Your World

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2023-04-03 —  Share Your World

1. If you could reinvent yourself, how would you like to be?

…and I’d give myself wings. Why not, I think it would be cool to soar above the earth under my own power. Looking down on everyone the size of ants below.

2. Would you like to be a pet in your household?

Considering how often I end up in the doghouse I am not sure I could do it full-time…

…on the other hand, the fluff ball who currently lives with us is treated like a king!

3. How many house moves have you had as an adult?

i) Lived with my girlfriend on Cedarglen Gate in Mississauga.
ii) Broke up with my girlfriend and moved back in with my parents on Dorothea Court in Mississauga.
iii) Got back together with my girlfriend got married and moved in with my inlaws. Actually, they moved in with us on Perivale Road in Mississauga.
iv) Moved into our brand new home on Trudeau Drive in Milton. No inlaws!
v) Separated and moved into a townhouse on Costigan Road in Milton.
vi) Landlord evicted us illegally during COVID but my current wife and I purchased our own home in Waterloo, Ontario before the eviction took effect. We are still here.

Note: The first four were when I was still in school and were not included in the list of adult homes.

4. What was your favourite home?

My favourite house was the property in Milton but my favourite home is the one I reside in now. It is filled with love and family although I wish my two older kids from my first marriage came around more often. I miss and love them both.

Gratitude:

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