spider – Facts, Fictions & Fantasies

Can You Tell a Story in 50 Words?

May 22, 2025May 22, 2025Fandango8 Comments

For her “Can You Tell a Story In…” prompt today, Esther Chilton has challenged us to tell a 50-word story using the words vendetta, cool, dough, wheeze, spider, and reflexology.

Marla ran the reflexology salon with cool precision, her vendetta simmering beneath lavender oil and soft music. Each foot she touched, she judged. One client, a mobster with a doughy body, didn’t recognize her. When he began to wheeze, she smiled, knowing the poisonous spider bite had done its job.

Image created using ideogram.ai.

My Last Photo — September ‘24

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024Fandango14 Comments

Brian, aka Bushboy, posted his monthly Last on the Card prompt, where he asks us to…

Post some of the last photos from our camera’s SD card or the last photos from our phone taken in the month of September.
No editing — who cares if it is out of focus, not framed as you would like, or the subject matter didn’t cooperate?
No explanations needed — just the photo will do.
Create a pingback to Brian’s post or link in the comments.
Use the tags “The Last Photo” and “#LastOnTheCard.”

Tarantula mating season began in my neck of the woods in late August and runs through October. In my backyard, there are at least a dozen tarantula burrows, but until Saturday, I hadn’t actually seen any tarantulas outside of their spidey-holes wandering around on the ground.

Well, on Saturday afternoon I saw this bad boy walking across my patio and I quickly snapped this photo.

These fascinating creatures are mostly nocturnal and hunt for prey after dark. During the day, they typically remain hidden in their burrows to avoid predators and to conserve energy. While male tarantulas may venture out during the day in search of mates — like the one in the photo above, this behavior is not typical for the species.

I’m likely to see a few more of these spiders this month, and if I’m lucky, I’ll be able take their pictures and share them with you. And please don’t freak out looking at pictures of tarantulas. Yes, they are big and hairy, but they are docile and mind their own business, which is looking for their soulmates. And isn’t that a very human thing to do?

As a reminder, the photos posted herein were taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max, and have been resized (shrunk) to make them load more quickly and take up less space in my WordPress media folder.

One-To-Three Photo Processing Challenge — June, 2022

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022FandangoLeave a comment

For this monthly prompt from Kate at The Squirrel Chase, the idea is pick a photo you want to play with and process it using three different methods. The photo I’m featuring today is an itsy-bitsy spider that was sitting on the faux-wood plastic bench of a Little Tikes picnic table we have on our back deck for when our grandkids come to visit.

All processed photos were made using apps available for the iPhone or iPad at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).

Which image do you like best?

Spider!

October 30, 2020October 30, 2020Fandango16 Comments

It’s the next to the last day of October and tomorrow is Halloween. I have not participated in any of the numerous Halloween prompts, including Tourmaline’s Halloween Challenge, because, when it comes to Halloween, my overall feeling is “meh.”

However, her Halloween Challenge prompt word today is “spider,” and a few days ago I took this picture of a spider that had the audacity to be crawling up my bathroom wall. I’m not a fan of spiders and I don’t like it when they come into my house and invade my space. But I also don’t like killing them, either.

I managed to coax this spider onto a piece of paper and to carry him, her, or it out to my backyard where I let it walk off the paper on its eight spindly legs and presumably to see, with its eight freaky eyes, another day. But I did warn the spider that, should he/she/it darken my doorstep (or my bathroom wall) by venturing into my humble abode once again, I may not be so forgiving.

And now I can also brag that I did, in fact, respond to at least one Halloween-themed prompt.Too little, too late?

#6WSP — Spider

May 17, 2020May 17, 2020Fandango14 Comments

F35F490D-589E-4949-BE6A-C21A9677110E

An artist and an engineering marvel.

Written for today’s Six Word Story Prompt from Shweta Suresh. The word is “Spider.” Photo credit: Robohub.org.

FOWC with Fandango — Spider

October 17, 2019October 22, 2019Fandango26 Comments

FOWC Welcome to October 17, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “spider.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.

Friday Fictioneers —Bedtime

September 6, 2019September 5, 2019Fandango19 Comments

3573A064-EE88-4AA1-BDB0-6BF512F57005 “No, I won’t,” Howie said, folding his arms defiantly across his chest.

“Honey,” his mother said, “it’s just for tonight. Your aunt made the room ready especially for you.

“I won’t sleep in this room tonight,” Howie said, stomping his right foot on the floor.

His mother followed Howie’s gaze to the plant on top of the bookshelf. She reached up, grabbed the plant, and took it out of the room. When she returned she asked Howie again if he would sleep in the room.

“Thank you, Mommy,” Howie said, “for saving me from the giant spider. I love you.”

(100 words)

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: Penny Gadd.

Friday Fictioneers — The Game of Chess

November 2, 2018November 1, 2018FandangoLeave a comment

3B86664A-789A-4487-A8EC-B9B09CC5F099 Danny sat at the end of the table, his eyes almost level with the chessboard. Looking at the chessmen lined up on the squares, he watched his father and uncle alternately move their chessmen around the board, trying to grasp the strange manner in which each piece moved.

His father moved one of the pieces across the board and said “Checkmate!” He smiled and looked at Danny. “What did you think of that?” he asked.

Danny continued starting at the chessboard, saying nothing.

“Danny?” his father said. “I won!”

“Shh,” said Danny, intently watching a small spider crawling across the chessboard.

(100 words)

Written for the Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: Jeff Arnold.

#FTS — I Don’t Believe In That, Part 2

October 17, 2018FandangoLeave a comment

Teresa (aka, The Haunted Wordsmith) has the “Finish the Story” prompt where she gets a fictional story started and then tags another blogger to write the next installment.

The other day she asked other bloggers to indicate whether they would be interested in participating in her FTS prompts and I, of course, responded affirmatively. Naturally, Teresa tagged me for her latest FTS prompt. Be careful what you ask for, right?

Anyway, let’s start out with what Teresa wrote and then I’ll pick it up where she left off.

9C2B0A9C-CBF8-47BE-B63C-45188307F378 It was opening night of the Grim Reaper Haunted House in town and it seemed like everyone in town was waiting in line. Brandon, Alex, and Josh showed up right after school so they could be first in line, but they ended up in the parking lot.

“This’ll be great!” Alex bounced with excitement. “I hear they brought in actors from Hollywood.”

“Liar!” Josh gave Alex a friendly shove into the cheerleading squad in front of them and laughed. “It’s all about where they chose to put it that’s important.”

Brandon sighed and shook his head. “You don’t really believe that nonsense, do you?”

Alex and Josh shot him the ‘shut up’ look they had perfected over the years. Brandon was the realist…the matter-of-fact…the one boring, stick-in-the-mud friend that everyone seemed to have. But, his logical thinking and rationing had kept them from getting themselves killed on many occasions, so they kept him around. Not to mention he was the one who always had the money to do cool stuff.

“Yes, someone was killed –“

“Gah! Someone? Someone? Get it right Brandon! Five people were killed…no, not just killed…slaughtered in this house.”

“Josh is right, man. Five people were mutilated by their own hired hand. Sometimes I wonder about you.”

Brandon sighed and shook his head harder. The line moved fairly quickly, which surprised everyone until they got closer to the ticket booth. People were only spending a few seconds in the house before running back out the front door screaming.

Alex looked at Josh and grinned. “SWEET!”

Brandon paid for the trio and marched stoically in front of them toward the entrance. “I don’t believe in any of that crap. They are just stories created to prey on the weak minded.”

The Grim Reaper Haunted House company set up a series of jump scares and costumed volunteers to line the enclosed black-light path from the ticket booth to the front door of the Flatly House where the murders took place so many years ago.

The screaming, laughter, and pushing and pulling from Alex and Josh quickly got on Brandon’s nerves.

“Knock it off,” he said, reaching for the door. “I told you already how fake all this stuff is, so stop being babies!”

The old iron knob was icy cold under his palm and he could see his breath as he turned the knob. As he opened the door ….

Okay, now here’s where I take over.

As he opened the door, a large, black spider dropped from the ceiling of the foyer, causing all three boys to jump back. Brandon swatted at the papier-mâché spider. “What a piece of phony crap,” Brandon said.

“You almost shit your pants,” Alex laughed, lightly punching Brandon on his arm.

“Yeah, you jumped higher than either of us,” Josh teased.

“Whatever,” Brandon sighed. “Let’s get this nonsense over with,” he said as he stepped forward into the corridor. As the other two followed Brandon, they could hear him muttering words like “bogus” and “lame” and “sham.”

“Get in the Halloween spirit,” Alex said.

“Yeah, go with the flow, Brandon,” Josh added. “Stop being such a Debbie Downer.”

“This is such a total waste of ….”

Brandon was cut off in mid sentence when someone — or something — stepped out in front of him.

Okay, now it’s time for someone to take it and run with it. I’m going to tag my blogging buddy, Jim Adams, who’s focus lately has been posting about songs and the artists who write and sing them. Let’s see if I can distract him long enough to get him to write the next part of the story. And no, Jim, your response can’t be the Bobby Pickett song, “Monster Mash.”