Welcome to Stonehenge Story Starts, a weekly writing prompt and story sharing opportunity.  Each week, we post a writing prompt: an opening line, a concept, a plot hook, maybe an image.  The following Saturday, we’ll post again with the writing the prompt inspired.

This week’s prompt is visual:

Our writers will be writing for the prompts, but anyone is welcome to participate!  Just come by on Sunday to see the week’s prompt, write during the week, and send any writing you’d like to share to StonehengeCircleWriters@gmail.com by the following Friday at 8 pm.  On Saturday we’ll post participants’ writing (with credit to the author, of course).

Write as much or as little as you choose: a paragraph, a flash fiction piece (less than 1,000 words) or a short story.  (Note, for long writing, we may choose to post only a selection.)  You are encouraged to be as creative as possible with the writing prompts.  Try to do something unexpected, or explore a particular genre like science fiction or historical fiction.  Take the prompt literally, or decide it’s a metaphor.  Your only limit is your own imagination.

Happy writing!

 

If you like to plan ahead, next week’s prompt will be: a story using the words “thunderous,” “solemn” and “strings” (Prompt courtesy of @writingprompts)

Welcome back to another week of writing!

This week’s prompt was:  “The floor tasted like…” (Prompt courtesy of eadeverrell.com)

Three of our writers took this as an opportunity to further explore characters from larger pieces.  We have two very short flash pieces, and one longer short story.

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Karen Blakely has another piece featuring the heroine of her upcoming novel, Red.

My shoulder hit the floor with a resounding thud, my head banging against the painted concrete a moment later. Up close, the dusty red and black paint was the color of pain. I could feel it throbbing behind my eyes and in both temples. Beating in my blood.

The floor tasted like…what? Humiliation? Anger? Disgust?

The entire room had gone silent, waiting to see what I would do next. And I decided I wasn’t going to do anything next. I was going to lay here and pretend today hadn’t happened. That my co-workers hadn’t humiliated me as I was leaving.

Calling me soft. Calling me useless.

Calling me a monster-lover.

I took my job as Paranormal Species Control Officer very seriously. I was willing to put my life on the line to protect the public from the unknown. From the monsters that wanted to harm them. But not all paranormals were monsters. No matter what Nick and his sycophants said. I’d just made the mistake of reminding them of that.

I knew better. We’d had that argument too many times before, and I knew there was no way I’d ever change their minds. What had possessed me to try today?

Maybe it was that last conversation I’d had with Elli in this very bar. The one where she’d accused me of disliking all paranormals. I remembered my words to her “They aren’t like us. That’s the first thing they teach you in the Unit.”

And her response had been echoing in my head ever since. “I don’t understand what’s wrong with inter-species relationships.”

At the time, I’d been horrified. But I’d felt guilty about that conversation ever since, though I couldn’t pinpoint why. Unfortunately, I was pretty sure that whatever was making me feel guilt and remorse was what made me start that useless argument with Nick.

It was probably the same thing that had driven me into my favorite bar tonight. And made me sit here alone, pounding back beer and tequila shots for the last several hours. So many that I’d lost count, as my knees loosened and my head began to swim, while I contemplated the mess I’d made of everything.

Continue reading “Stonehenge Story Starts: Meeting the Floor (Results)”

Welcome to Stonehenge Story Starts, a weekly writing prompt and story sharing opportunity.  Each week, we post a writing prompt: an opening line, a concept, a plot hook, maybe an image.  The following Saturday, we’ll post again with the writing the prompt inspired.

This week’s prompt is: “The floor tasted like…”

(Prompt courtesy of eadeverrell.com)

Our writers will be writing for the prompts, but anyone is welcome to participate!  Just come by on Sunday to see the week’s prompt, write during the week, and send any writing you’d like to share to StonehengeCircleWriters@gmail.com by the following Friday at 8 pm.  On Saturday we’ll post participants’ writing (with credit to the author, of course).

Write as much or as little as you choose: a paragraph, a flash fiction piece (less than 1,000 words) or a short story.  (Note, for long writing, we may choose to post only a selection.)  You are encouraged to be as creative as possible with the writing prompts.  Try to do something unexpected, or explore a particular genre like science fiction or historical fiction.  Take the prompt literally, or decide it’s a metaphor.  Your only limit is your own imagination.

Happy writing!

 

If you like to plan ahead, next week’s prompt will be an image:

Welcome back to another week of writing!

This week’s prompt was: You got on a bus and woke up in a strange town where things seem a little wrong (Prompt courtesy of Reedsy.com)

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Cheryl Mahoney:

I know as soon as I wake up that I must have got on the wrong bus.  I lift my head off of my duffel bag and sit up to peer out the window.  We’re on what appears to be the main street of some little town that would fit in beautifully on The Twilight Zone.  Or The Andy Griffith Show.  You know, one of those stereotype 1950s small towns where everyone sits on their porch Sunday afternoon and, depending on the show, sings a folk song or meets aliens.

“Maybe this is just a stop on the way,” I murmur to myself, even though the bus has that sagged feeling of a vehicle that has stopped and isn’t moving again for a good long while.

Like a confirmation to my irrational gut feeling, the bus driver bawls out, “Final destination!  Everyone off!”

The bus is almost empty—evidently a lot of people got off while I was asleep, I suppose at previous stops—but a couple passengers shuffle along the central aisle towards the door, bleary-eyed and silent.

I grab my duffel and make my way up to the front, stopping at the driver’s seat.  “Excuse me, but this isn’t Greenwich Village.”  Despite myself, my voice is rising in alarm.  “This is definitely not Manhattan.”

The driver squints at me.  “This is Greenwitch Village.  Isn’t that where you wanted?”

“No!” I cry.  “I definitely asked for a ticket to Greenwich.  Gren-ich,” I pronounce carefully.  I’ve only been dreaming of coming here—there—my whole life.  I know how to pronounce the place.

Continue reading “Stonehenge Story Starts: Strange Travels (Results)”

Welcome to Stonehenge Story Starts, a weekly writing prompt and story sharing opportunity.  Each week, we post a writing prompt: an opening line, a concept, a plot hook, maybe an image.  The following Saturday, we’ll post again with the writing the prompt inspired.

This week’s prompt is: You got on a bus and woke up in a strange town where things seem a little wrong

(Prompt courtesy of Reedsy.com)

Our writers will be writing for the prompts, but anyone is welcome to participate!  Just come by on Sunday to see the week’s prompt, write during the week, and send any writing you’d like to share to StonehengeCircleWriters@gmail.com by the following Friday at 8 pm.  On Saturday we’ll post participants’ writing (with credit to the author, of course).

Write as much or as little as you choose: a paragraph, a flash fiction piece (less than 1,000 words) or a short story.  (Note, for long writing, we may choose to post only a selection.)  You are encouraged to be as creative as possible with the writing prompts.  Try to do something unexpected, or explore a particular genre like science fiction or historical fiction.  Take the prompt literally, or decide it’s a metaphor.  Your only limit is your own imagination.

Happy writing!

 

If you like to plan ahead, next week’s prompt will be: “The floor tasted like…” (Courtesy of eadeverrell.com)

Happy Saturday!  Our writers have provided some fun, sometimes creepy, reading for your Saturday morning.

This week’s prompt was: You open your neighbor’s mail.  What do you find?

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Karen Blakely:

 

I’d known there was something not quite right about my next-door neighbor. Oh, she was always perfectly polite. She waved when we saw each other in our neighborhood. Maybe that was part of it. She was always perfectly polite. Like she was following some script for being a good neighbor. But that, by itself, wouldn’t have been enough to make me suspicious.

And it wasn’t just that she came and went at odd hours, disappearing sometimes for days at a time. Never for too long. She never asked the post office to stop her mail, and she always made sure to get back before her mailbox became too full.

It wasn’t really the fact that no one ever came to her house. Though I did think it was strange that she apparently had no family or friends whatsoever. And when I tried to offer her my friendship, she politely but firmly rejected it.

It wasn’t even that she lived alone but drove a huge SUV with extremely dark windows in the back. I’d tried to glance inside once, wondering what she could possibly need such a large vehicle for, but the darkness of the interior was impenetrable.

It was all of those things, and none of them. There was just something off about her.

Continue reading “Stonehenge Story Starts: Tampering with the Mail (Results)”