Category Archives: Random Thoughts and Musings

November 7, 2017

Twittering Tale #57– The Roundup

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 based on that prompt in 140 characters or less. 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! I know it can be a challenge squashing an entire tale into 140 characters (spaces and punctuation included), but it feels so good when you are able to make it work…just ask some of these awesome writers below. They’re expert Tweeters!

Twittering Tale #56– The Roundup

Well, I offered you three cool photos and I can’t believe how many of you took the challenge and wrote a tale for ALL THREE! It was soooo awesome to see your creativity blossom with this week’s challenge. I’m going to post the thumbnails for each of your tales so everyone who stops by can experience your tale with the inspiration that helped you write it! Bravo Everyone!

Starting us out:

By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

“Are you a witch?”
She never let on that her toothless grin and scary appearance was not a costume. On this one night, she could be herself.
(139 Characters)

: By Noupload at Pixabay.com

: By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

: By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

From Leena at Soul Connection:
Prfct Halowen Decrtn Fr Hme n Gardn
Mom We R Hme
(Lgts Ot)
Who’s Thr Staring
Haha Mom Dnt Try 2Scare Us
(Phne Rngs)
Hello
Kids M Out.Wl B Lil Late.
(140 Characters)

From Di at Pensitivity101:
I’m going for captions!

By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

Do you come here often?

By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

It was the dog, honest.

By Noupload at Pixabay.com

OK children, gather round and I’ll tell you a bedtime story.

106 caption characters

From Reena at ReInventions:

: By Noupload at Pixabay.com

: By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

: By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

The prince arrived in search of his love. The carriage had turned into a pumpkin, and the witch was back to her original self. Now what?
(136 characters)

From Willow at Willowdot21:
Red or Dead

By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

Her eyes compelled him, he surrendered his soul. When he died his soul was trapped within her red shawl. Look closely you can see his face.
(139 characters)

Beware The pumpkin man

By Noupload at Pixabay.com

Jake wanted them to take a closer look. Joe had heard bad things about this place.
Jake wasn’t listening he left Joe, never to be seen again.
(140 characters)

Pumpkin Dreams

By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

On top of the pile
Carve out your smile.
Have a candle burn your gut.
Be sliced scored and cut.
To make the children scream
Every pumpkin’s dream
(140 characters)

From Jan at Strange Goings in the Shed:

By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

“Je Suis Mort” she says. “I am dead”
Crimson shroud veils all but intense gaze and whispered words
Do we flee?
Face our fate?
Destiny calls
(135 characters)

From Radhika at Radhika’s Reflection:
Lady in Red

By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

After watching the horror movie at night, I went to the bedroom and froze with fear. Lying there with an evil smile, was the lady in red!
Letter count 138

From Kathryn at Another Foodie Blogger:

By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

“I took a pic at the pumpkin patch of these two adorable kids dressed as vampires, check this out!”
“Um, I only see hay bales and pumpkins?”

From Peter at Peter’s Ponderings:

: By Noupload at Pixabay.com

: By PaulBR75 at Pixabay.com

: By Smokefish at Pixabay.com

Pumpkin Mom looked out over her brood, fondly remembering the romps in the hay bales!
Granny, wrapping her stole around, smiled knowingly.
(137 characters)

This week’s prompt, a great photo by PIRO4D at Pixabay. What does this one say to you? Is this the tale of a cyclist, a craftsman or a curiosity hunter? Maybe it’s about an inheritance. Or it could be about getting lost on a bike trail…you tell me! I’m sure you know! Have fun and see you next week!

Twittering Tale #57 – 7 November 2017

Photo: “Saddle” by PIRO4D at Pixabay.com

“How was the bike ride?’
“Painful.”
“Didn’t you wear those padded biker shorts?”
“Yeah. Next time I’m gonna strap a pillow to my ass!”

131 Characters

~kat

35 Comments | tags: 140 characters, Challenge, Photo Prompt, Twitter Tales, twittering tales | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Flash Fiction, Random Thoughts and Musings, Twitter Tales

November 6, 2017

Into Oblivion

By Kat Myrman

‘Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven’.
from “The Cold Heaven”, by W.B. Yeats

never enough, no never
enough, I sense her
monstrous pie-face
leering, spy her bony
hands convulsing, tormented
by her minding-numbing
cackling, tock-tick-tick-tock-
tick…even her minions, those
maniacal demons, strobe
bloody, red in the dark
murky gloam, would that
the sun and moon were
enough, but no, I am in
race with this fiend, a
relentless taskmaster who
tolls every hour, with nary
a second to smell
a wild flower, another
day slips into oblivion

~kat

A daylight savings time fallback protest poem for Jane Dougherty’s A month with Yeats: Day Six Challenge. I woke up a hour too early and drove home from my 9 to 5 in the dark. I do not like this time change…no, I do not! 😨

7 Comments | tags: a month with yeats, Challenge, digital art, free verse, Poetry, verse prompt | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, free verse, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings

November 5, 2017

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 5 November 2017

By Kat Myrman

There is not much more that needs to be said about this week’s ReVerse. It captures the heart and soul of the past week perfectly…excruciatingly so.

We fell back last night; we fell back last week in other ways. On the world front we saw resignations, vain quotations, strained relations, allegations, slimy criminal implications, justifications, celebrations, full moon lunations, desperation, compromising situations, accusations of shady collaborations, domination, Twitter account cancellations, boastful threats of termination…I don’t know about you but I need a vacation!

At any rate, as I mentioned before, this week’s ReVerse needs no explanation. Okay! I’ll stop with the -ations, but I’ve only scratched the surface. Do you know how many words end in -ation? 1,992…well that’s not entirely accurate. There are an additional 1,379 less common iterations of all things -ation. That’s a total of…well, I’ll let you do the math!

I digress. Have a great week. Enjoy that extra hour of morning, if you’ve lost daylight this week. Sleep in if your circadian wiring will let you! You’re gonna need the extra sleep.

Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse – 5 November 2017

fools devour dirt and dark secrets
are you a witch?
all you need a blow torch
…get those needy trolls off your back for good
the flame’s fervid kiss is life
thin, the veil, deathly still,
reeking of smut and glut while poverty lingers
promising each a pittance
it’s passion’s fire that drives men mad
it requires grabbing, then tightening one’s grip
souls lost to the greed of men
dull synapsed grey matter turning slowly to stone
the ebullient boasting
man and beast with tricks comply
breathe in the dawn,
the hour is coming
hauntingly brilliant,
diamonds shining
‘midst restless dreams and tiny deaths

~kat

A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.

7 Comments | tags: digital art, Poetry, Shi Sai, week in Reverse, Week in Review | posted in Essays, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Shi Sai, Week in Review

November 4, 2017

Counting Shleeeph

By Kat Myrman

For the sake of keeping in step with Jane’s Challenge “A Month with Yeats” – Day 4, I offer this silly little verse. I had been working on a lovely, mystical yarn on and off today, and dozed for a second with my finger pressed on the cursor, deleting all but a few words. Gone forever! Of course I couldn’t remember what I had written, and with the day fading, I plunked these lines together to satisfy the task at hand. I’m not as happy with it as I had planned to be…but maybe that is the point of Yeats’ words, in the prompt for today: