warning

Writer’s Workshop — It’s Wild World

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For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompts. I am responding to two this week:

  1. Write a post inspired by the word wild.
  2. Write a post in exactly 10 sentences.

The night of graduation, Emma sat on the front porch swing bench, her high school graduation cap still dangling from one hand. Her father leaned against the back of the swing bench, the glow of the porch light carving deep lines into his weathered face.

“First off, I am so proud of you, sweetheart, and I know your mother, God rest her soul, is looking down at you from heaven with a broad smile on her face,” he began. “But she’s not here and it falls upon me to tell you that it’s a wild world out there. You’ll meet people who will smile at you with kindness and compassion and others who will smile just to take advantage of you.”

Emma listened, her chest tight, knowing he wasn’t trying to scare her, just to prepare her.

“There will be nights when the road feels endless and no one is there to guide you,” he said, tenderly reaching out and brushing a strand of hair from her face, the gesture softening his words. “But bravery is born in the messy, unpredictable places and you mustn’t let fear keep you still.”

She nodded, clutching his hand, feeling the weight of his years pressed into her palm. And in that moment, Emma understood that his warning was really a gift of love disguised as caution.


Badge by Patty, http://anothercookieplease.com

Image conjured using ChatGPT.

Fandango’s Story Starter #214

Fandango8 Comments

It’s time for my weekly Story Starter prompt. Here’s how it works. Every Tuesday morning (my time), I’m going to give you a “teaser” sentence or sentence fragment and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to build a story (prose or poetry) around that sentence/fragment. It doesn’t have to be the first sentence in your story, and you don’t even have to use it in your post at all if you don’t want to. The purpose of the teaser is simply to spark your imagination and to get your storytelling juices flowing.

This week’s Story Starter teaser is:

The city’s traffic lights started blinking in Morse code, spelling out a warning almost no one could understand.

If you care to write and post a story built from this story starter teaser, be sure to link back to this post and tag your post with #FSS. I would also encourage you to read and enjoy what your fellow bloggers do with their stories.

And most of all, have fun.

Six Sentence Story — Good Arm, Kid

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The crowd hushed as the Thomas Edison High School senior Jimmy Dolan toed the mound, gripping the ball like it held all his teenage dreams.

His father, a former minor league legend, sat in the front row, eyes hidden behind sunglasses that didn’t hide his judgment.

Jimmy wound up and let the pitch fly, a perfect curve that kissed the strike zone like it was a homing pigeon.

The batter froze, the umpire called strike three, and the home school crowd erupted.

Jimmy smiled, his no-hitter finally earning the nod from his hard-to-please father, who stood up and clapped.

But as he walked off the field, a man in a sharp suit and a shady look approached Jimmy and said, “Nice arm, kid, but if you know what’s good for you, your pitching arm at next week’s City High School championship game against West Main High will be a little too sore for you to take the mound, you know what I am telling you, boy?

Written for the Sunday Six Sentence Story prompt from Girlie on the Edge, where the prompt word is “pitch.” Image created using ideogram.ai

WDP — Law Breaker

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Have you ever broken the law and didn’t get caught, if so how?

I am, for the most part, a law abiding citizen. That said, outside of quiet neighborhood streets where I always stay within the posted limits, when I’m on highways or freeways, I am heavy-footed and tend to drive anywhere from 5 to 15 miles over the posted limit.

So technically speaking, when I drive above the speed limit, I am breaking the law. But seriously, who doesn’t, at times, exceed the posted speed limit?

Have I ever gotten stopped for driving above the speed limit? Yes I have. Twice. But I’ve never actually been issued a moving violation (speeding) ticket. Both times I was stopped, I managed to talk my way out of a ticket and to get off with a warning.

Hence, I can say that I have broken the law on numerous occasions but have yet to get caught.

FOWC with Fandango — Warning

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FOWC

It’s October 10, 2022. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “warning.”

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. Please 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. Show them some love.

MLMM Photo Challenge — Looky-Loos

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The weather report was calling for unusually high winds and rough seas along the coasts and meteorologists warned people to stay away from beaches and the low lying areas around the coast.

Naturally, warnings like that were like shit to flies, and thousands of people, the looky-loos, headed to the coast to witness the weather phenomenon. One of the best views was at the lighthouse and, by mid morning, around three or four dozen onlookers had gathered to watch the giant waves breaking on the rocks below.

What none of them knew at the time was that about fifty miles offshore, deep within the ocean, an earthquake occurred about 30 minutes earlier, sending a giant wave toward the coast.

Because of the speed at which the mega-wave raced to shore, the gawkers, not only at the lighthouse, but all along the beaches and the coastline, were engulfed. It was a horrific tragedy, and the headline in the local paper the next morning read:

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge. Photo credit One Big Photo.

A Bumpy Ride

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This showed up on my newsfeed a little while ago.The Times article references a terrorism bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warning all Americans that:

“Information suggests that some ideologically motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.”

Here is a copy of that DHS terrorism bulletin. Released today, the bulletin remains in effect through April 30th.

This situation is due to the crazy rhetoric of former-president Donald Trump, as well as his sycophants in the media as well as the GOP members of Congress who keep repeating the BIG LIE that Trump actually won the election in a landslide and that due to widespread voter fraud, Joe Biden stole the election from Donald Trump, the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.

But here are the facts

  • Trump did not win
  • There was no widespread voter fraud
  • Joe Biden did not steal the election
  • Joe Biden, not Donald Trump, is the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election

And yet most Republicans in both the House and the Senate refuse to refute the BIG LIE. They refuse to tell their constituents, in no uncertain terms, that Joe Biden won a free and fair election. They refuse to take any steps that could help to defuse these potentially dangerous threats from Trump’s army of MAGA-maniacs. And some GOP members of Congress continue to reinforce the BIG LIE.

And as Trump is about to face an impeachment trial in the Senate, most Republican senators will vote against conviction, an action that gives further credence to the BIG LIE and further incites Trump’s MAGA-maniacs to violence.

How do they live with themselves?

You Belong In The City

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55579248-5C20-45E9-BD52-772259318475Wow, the timing of Jim Adam’s Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Music Challenge couldn’t be more prescient. Jim focused on a song by Glenn Frey, the late singer and cofounder of The Eagles, “You Belong In The City.” Is Jim trying to tell me something with that choice of song?

Earlier today I wrote a post announcing that my wife and I are moving out of the city and into the ‘burbs to be physically closer to my son and his wife, who are expecting their first child.

It’s been at least two decades since my family has lived outside of a “real” city (i.e., one with NFL, MLB, and NBA teams). We lived in the suburbs when our kids were younger so that they could go to the best public schools. But when they went off to college, my wife and I, as empty nesters, took up residence in an urban environment.

But now, with our first grandchild on the way and with grandparenting duties in the offing, we are heading out of the city and into the suburbs.

So, Jim, if by choosing the song “You Belong In The City” for this weeks music challenge, you were trying to send me a message, you’re too late. It’s pretty much a done deal. If anything bad happens to me out yonder, I’m blaming you for waiting so long to say something.

Three-Line Tales — The Walkaway

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“Don’t you dare turn around and walk away from me,” Trish said as Charles headed into the cold fog that was rapidly descending over the waterfront.

Trish reached into her purse and pulled out a pistol, aimed it at Charles, and fired.

As Charles turned around in shock and disbelief, Trish yelled out, “my next shot won’t miss, you bastard.”

Written for Sonya’s Three-Line Tales prompt. Photo credit: Philippe Mignot via Unsplash.

MLMM Saturday Mix — B&B

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D4B36CCB-6344-4622-AF98-0A0574AE1BAEThe fire alarm sounded the warning for all the guests at the quaint Bed and Breakfast to leave the building. The B&B’s host, Mr. Stevens, made sure everyone was out of the house by the time the fire department arrived.

Fortunately, it was a grease fire that was limited to a small part of the kitchen in the back of the large, old house and the firefighters were able to get it under control before it did too much damage.

Still, the B&B’s kitchen would be out of commission until the damages could be repaired. So being the good host that he was, Mr. Stevens contacted a local caterer and arranged to have both solid foods and liquid refreshments delivered for his guests to enjoy. He also told them that they would not have to pay for that night’s stay at his B&B.

This post is a twofer. It is written for both today’s one-word prompt, “warning,” as well as for today’s Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie’s Saturday Mix Opposing Forces challenge using the two opposite pairs of words “guest” and “host,” and “liquid” and “solid.”