Friday Fictioneers – Intruders?

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Every week Rochelle offers up a photo that has graciously been donated so we can get our creative juices flowing and write a story in 100 words or less using the photo as a prompt. I managed to do a 101 word first draft which resulted in just a quick alteration.

It is a good exercise to write within the boundaries rather than going over as it gives you a chance to practice editing skills and still retain the story.

If you want to have a go, then click on the Friday Fictioneers image, and if you want to read what others have written, then click on the blue frog.

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The stairs led upstairs, and Barrows quietly crept up trying his hardest not to breathe, not to make a sound. He heard movement, and stopped lest he be heard. He knew the wall lights would give him away if anyone looked that way. He hoped no one would.

As he reached the top, he made sure to avoid the second from top stair, as he knew it to creak on occasion. He made it to the landing and stopped to listen again. The sound still came and he crept very gently forward. He slammed open the door yelling “SLEEP! NOW!”

First Chapter ~ First Paragraph (September 20th 2016)

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I have just seen on Cleopatra Loves Books that she joins in to a weekly book information group. It is the First Chapter ~ First Paragraph of a book that you read or are reading.This is hosted by Bibliophile By The Sea

I decided to take a look at this book after reading another of the author’s books.

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Shadeward: Emanation by Drew Wagar

Prologue
Round 2287, Ninth Pass

          Rain cascaded in sheets, cold dark and heavy despite the eternal sun, whipped into a frenzy by a fierce and fickle wind. It blew one way and then another, battering the slate grey rocks that formed the steep flank of the mountain. Lightning flickered in the grey gloom, giving a brief view of stark and craggy outcrops and terrifying drops into shadowed chasms. Thunder rolled not far behind, hammering the rocks and echoing around the unseen valleys. Smaller debris was dislodged, tumbling down and scattering across a muddy and treacherous narrow track that cut through the landscape like a thin sinuous snake. On one side a steep rocky bluff, on the other a drop into the valley far below.
Toiling up this path at a charge were two heavy-set creatures steaming with exertion, yoked to a battered wooden carriage, illuminated by dimly flickering torches which guttered in the screaming wind. Two black feathered arrows were stuck in the wooden frame on the rear of the carriage, the wood splintered around them.

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I love this book. The descriptions of creatures as if they were the norm to us is well done. I’ve been reading this every chance I get and based on what I have read so far, I have brought the second in the series. It is well worth the read if you like Fantasy fiction. At times it reminds me of Steven Erikson’s Malazan books.

 

Sunday Photo Fiction – The Vandalous Siblings

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Every week a photo is used as a prompt to create a story in about 200 words. If you want to have a go, then click on the Sunday Photo Fiction image, and if you want to read other stories, then click on the blue frog image.

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“What are going to do to it?” Peta asked, looking at the stone contraption in the middle of the crossroads. Her brother, Aran, had an evil glint in his eye as he threw her a can of spray paint. “We’re going to make it look like something spectacular. Whatever this is.”

“Don’t you know anything? It’s a wodjacallit thingummyjig whojikapiv, ain’t it,” Peta replied matter of factly.

“How do you know that?” an astounded Aran asked, standing and looking at her and trying to see if she made this up.

“Saw it on a website, didn’t I? There was a picture of it, and people were asked to write stories, and one guy said it was one.”

“Well, what does it do then?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t say. But apparently someone killed his wife and her lover near one. Someone did say that it is tapped for luck though, and it makes you hear things like drums.”

Aran stepped back from the stone structure and looked at his sister nervously. “You’re making this up. Tell me you’re making this up.”

“I’m not. I read that when alight, it keeps beasts away from you. Hey, come back. Don’t run away!”

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There are references to other stories that have been written this week. A pity I didn’t have the words to include something from all stories.

Friday Fictioneers – The School Trip

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Every week, the lovely Rochelle shares a donated photo so we can write a story in 100 words using the image as a prompt. Not always as easy as it sounds.

If you want to have a go, then click on the Friday Fictioneers image, and if you want to read what others have written, then click on the frog icon.

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© Shaktiki Sharma

Gerry could not stop smiling at the irony. The schoolchildren said “ooh” and “ahh” as they watched the wheat turn to white flour, and then added food colour granules, which turned the flour red. One of the children asked if he used other colours as well, and Gerry replied saying he often used blue and green, and on occasion mixed them all.

The tour came to a finish and the kids waited by their bus. One child asked where Mr Wheatley had gone, and Gerry said “You head back to school with your escort. Mr Wheatley is milling around somewhere.”