About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a photo prompt. Your mission, if you choose to accept the challenge, is to tell a story in 280 characters or less. When you write your tale, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.
A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.
I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. And if for some reason I missed your entry in the Roundup, as I have occasionally done, please let me know. I want to be sure to include your tale.
Finally, have fun!
And REMEMBER…you have 280 characters (spaces and punctuation included), to tell your tale…and a week to do it. I can’t wait to see what you create this week.
NY Times Best Selling Books
Starting us off…
“Lean In”
The valley was still, softly draped in mist. Rayna leaned against an old tree, her thin frame wasted from disease, breath frail, fading.
It was just as she had planned.
“I’m ready,” she whispered her last, smiling, as mourning doves softly cooed nearby. And the mountain echoed.
(276 Characters)
From Reena at ReInventions:
The Fourth Wheel
The wimpy kid leans in on the 3rd wheel, seeing a painless Heaven. The 4th wheel refuses to budge, as the doctors say,
“There’s still hope.”
He wants happiness – not hope. Shades of grey gather. It’s the end of the inferno, and the mountains echoed.
Jesus Calling…. 4th wheel moves.
(279 characters)
From Martin at Martin Cororan:
He woke up and it was all a ludicrous dream that he later wrote up into a best-selling novel…
…For his crimes against humanity Dan Brown found himself on a blackened island at the centre of a sulphurous lake. Amidst noxious flames demons whispered that the pope was out to get him and that a sacred manuscript had been secreted somewhere deep inside his colon…
From Jane at Jane Dougherty Writes:
Gatsby Said…
Fifty shades of grey Jesus, calling for proofs of heaven, searching in the diary of a wimpy kid. Lean in, Gatsby said, the inferno beckons. And the mountains echoed—Happy, Happy, Happy! Oh, the places you go, Gatsby smiled from his seat at the end of the pier.
From Jannat at Be Happy:
Happy, happy, happy
It’s time for the sleep
Baby, baby, baby
You better go to sleep
A proud new mama turned her baby bliss into a sweet lullaby. This sweet night ritual with its slow rhythm promotes a state of drowsiness. She thinks her son is a sweetest little part of her destiny.
From Fandango at This, That, and the Other:
Booking It
I honestly can’t remember the last time a read a book. Well, a physical book, that is. A hard cover book or even a paperback book.
It’s not that I don’t read books. I read maybe a dozen or so a year. But I always download the books onto the Kindle app on my iPhone.
It’s what I do.
(279 characters)
From Hayley at The Story Files:
Proof of Heaven
I don’t know what started it. A feeling or thought, maybe? Then the dreams came followed by the visions and I knew it was real. The angels arrived next, blazing light and whispering. Why had I been chosen? I didn’t know but I knew I had to spread the messages.
From Di at Pensitivity101:
Mummy was cross and Emily didn’t understand.
She had found Mummy’s colouring book and was trying to find fifty shades of grey in it.
132 characters
From Jan at Strange Goings On in the Shed:
Hot and Bothered
Her past was Diary of a Wimpy Kid, yearning after romance
Her reality is Fifty Shades of Grey, a forbidden palette and gallons of espresso
Lean In she implored And the Mountains Echoed with their laughter
Surely this was Proof of Heaven? Getting hot and bothered
How the Inferno rages
(280 characters)
From Willow at WillowDot21:
Fifty Shades of Grey
Lean in, I willed him to look closer, to be astounded by my choice of reading.I wanted him to be impressed by my collection of prize-winning books. He’d never know that I had not read any of them. I was just like my bookcase all show. Fifty Shades of Grey no colour, no substance.
(280 characters)
From Anuragbakhshi at Jagah Dil Mein Honi Chahiye:
It’s Tough to Say Goodbye
I looked at the books on the shelf fondly. I would miss these the most.
But now, it was time to move on. My family was not safe here anymore.
The exterminators were on their way, and I’d heard the human mention on the phone that they specialized in cockroaches.
261 characters.
From Radhika at Radhika’s Reflection:
The Inferno
Initially a small flickering flame, the fire soon developed into a raging inferno, blazing with all its fury, sparing none in its path, hungry, fiery, intense, exploding, scorching, on a rampage, choking the air, bellowing dark smoke in fifty shades of grey!
Letter count : 256
From
Karthik and
Vinaya at
Wellness is Your Birthright:
Ways to Reach Heaven or Hell
People need a Lean In to be Happy, Happy, Happy. Some hear Jesus Calling and find Proof of Heaven, while some experiment with Fifty Shades of Grey only to find an Inferno.
Character Count: 167
From
Lena at
Soul Connection:
“Happy Happy Happy”He Screamed,Pckd Bag n Ws Abt To Go
Rm Mate,”Whr R U Heading To?”
Angry He Ran 2wrds Rm Mte In Aggrsn
Rm Mte,”Sorry”
He Calmly Said,”I Found Proof Of Heaven“
“What!”
“Jesus Calling”He Jst Rpld n Ws Gne.
“Mad Chap.One Day His Fifty Shades Of Grey Wl Kill Sm1 For Sure.”From
Life at 17:
The Man
And the mountains echoed her voice, as she screamed,
In front of her eyes was the man,
The man who pushed her down the hills,
The man she had loved,
The man who stood there kissing another woman.
194 characters
From Isabel at Isabel Caves:
The Last Battlefield
She was happy, happy, happy. That’s what she told herself every day.
She refused to give in to sorrow. She refused when they razed her village to the ground. She refused when they killed her father and took her brother.
She had no bullets left to fire – her smile would have to do.
(280 characters)
From Peter at Peter’s Pondering:
Gatsby was feeling great!
Jesus was calling round and they were going to visit Dan Brown’s new nightclub, Inferno.
He was leaning towards going for a Wimpy burger first and rounding off the evening seeing Fifty Shades of Grey.
Oh, the places you’ll go to feel Happy, Happy, Happy!
(280 characters)
From Tena at Jottings and Writings:
Ohh how she wished she could write… Like that of the authors of her favorite books. In her mind were all sorts of stories and adventures. But as she sat down to write, pen in hand, those stories seemed to vanish into thin air. Disappearing into a sea of nothingness.
{271 characters}
Thanks to everyone who participated in our book title challenge! Be sure to visit your fellow tweeters. This week’s interesting photo comes to us from PIRO4D at pixabay.com. It appears to be a letter, but it doesn’t need to be. It could be a clue for a scavanger hunt, a list, the first or last page of a manuscript. You might even write a story that doesn’t have anything to do with that piece of paper, focusing instead on the bench or the rock or the ground below. Whatever you decide there are just a few rules… have fun! and use 280 characters or less to tell your tale. I hope to see you at net week’s Round-up!
Twittering Tale #70 – 6 February 2018
Photo by PIRO4D at Pixabay.com
The Race
Jon and Sue were first to find the final clue: a riddle.
It has a mouth but never speaks, a bed but never sleeps…
“Think Sue,’ Jon pleaded. “the others are coming!”
“The river!” Sue exclaimed, “It’s the river!”
At river’s edge, they claimed their prize…freedom from the island.
~kat
279 Characters
I look forward to this little exercise of looking back each week. Though I write each day with no thought of this grand summary at week’s end, I am always amazed by the result.
I created a collage of the things I love most about the eclectic valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains that I call home. The quirky, the sprawling city with a small town vibe, the artsy culture, the mountain views in every direction and the century old neighborhood where I live….I’m quite fond of my home town. It’s a pretty cool place, and my entry for this week’s 
