We hope you’re enjoying your Saturday!

This week’s prompt was:

Just as your flight takes off, you discover a shocking note under your seat.  (Prompt courtesy of getfreewrite.com)

 

 

Today’s story is from Cheryl Mahoney, making an unusual foray into the modern day to write a stand-alone short story.

*****

I had tried to deny the situation to myself.  Told myself that I didn’t know how many seats there were to a row, that maybe, just maybe, seat E could in fact be on the aisle.  But once I was standing in the aisle, looking at my row, there was no more deniability.

Two seats by the window.  First aisle.  Five seats in the middle.  Second aisle, and two more seats.  Placing seat E, my seat, squarely in the center of the row.  I was going to be cramped into a tiny seat with two people on either side.  Two sets of knees to climb over if I wanted to stand up.

I sighed, and set to stowing my bag in the overhead compartment.  It was going to be a long ten-hour flight.

Continue reading “Stonehenge Story Starts: Surprises in Flight (Results)”

Welcome to Stonehenge Story Starts, a biweekly writing prompt and story sharing opportunity.  Every other Sunday, we post a writing prompt: an opening line, a concept, a plot hook, maybe an image.  Two weeks later on Saturday, we’ll post again with the writing the prompt inspired.

This week’s prompt is: Just as your flight takes off, you discover a shocking note under your seat.

(Prompt courtesy of getfreewrite.com)

The deadline to submit your story is Friday, October 4, and we’ll post result on October 5th.

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!

 

We hope you’re enjoying your Saturday!

This week’s prompt was:

Write a story about revisiting one’s childhood home.

 

Today’s story is from Cheryl Mahoney, writing a follow-up to her story about finding something hidden, one enchantment and 100 years later.

*****

Rose was back at the castle for many days before she returned to her old bedroom.  She wouldn’t have visited today, if Edward hadn’t suggested it.

He stopped her outside of a council meeting.  “I understand I’m living in your old rooms,” he said, smiling.  “I appreciate that you haven’t demanded them back—but I’ve been meaning to ask if you’d like to visit them?”

She hesitated.  She didn’t trust Terrence’s brothers, not even this one, who smiled more than the older two.  Was it merely chance that he’d happened to remember to make this invitation at a time when Terrence wasn’t around?  She let her eyes drop, and murmured, “I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”

Edward’s grin only grew.  “It wouldn’t be an imposition at all.  I only feel bad I didn’t invite you sooner.  I knew you’d be interested to see the place.”  He took her arm—but politely, unthreateningly—and steered her down the corridor.  “It’s right this way—well, you know that, of course.”

She could have said no.  She could have yanked her arm away, and she thought she probably would have, if he had gripped it any tighter.  But it was a polite, even courtly hold, and she wasn’t entirely certain she didn’t want to see her old bedroom.

“I quite like the place,” Edward remarked as they walked.  “So quiet, so removed.  Gives me plenty of room for thinking, you know.”

Sometimes she had liked the quiet.  Sometimes she had wondered why so many stories put princesses away in a tower, all by themselves, and why her own life had to conform to that particular narrative.

Continue reading “Stonehenge Story Starts: You Can (?) Go Home Again (Results)”