This writing prompt was originally posted in 2008, but this picture continues to hang in my living room and uncover stories, so I present it once again for your own telling. (Painting by Rebecca, and drawn from a dream.) This PROMPTuesday, make up a story inspired by the picture above. Include the…Continue Reading
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PROMPTuesday #205: High School
I gave it away in the title, but for the tired or coffee-lacking, today’s writing prompt is “high school.” One of the most heartbreaking high school laments for me is Janis Ian’s “At Seventeen.” And now that I have two daughters of my own, my heart positively bursts at the thought they’ll feel…Continue Reading
My First Job: Not a Bowl Full of Cake
This is a re-post. My daughter asked me about my first job today and I was happy to share all the sordid details. “It’s time,” my mom announced at the dinner table, and I knew just what she meant. For months, she’d insisted I look for a job and that evening over the…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #204: Cause and Effect
Let’s do a classic writing prompt today, shall we? I’ll get us started with a line and you can complete the story: She grabbed my arm as I opened the door. “Will we ever be friends again?” I shook my head when I replied as kindly as I could. “I like you.…Continue Reading
Keep Going
I’ve always known I’d be a writer in some capacity or another, even if only in my head. I’d love to make my living wielding words, and to some extent, I have, but I’m still not quite in the sun-splashed writer’s loft I’ve imagined since the third grade. Every day, I see that nooks…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #203: Autumn
I love fall’s first snap, even in Southern California. It’s a slowing, a storing up, a softening I look forward to every year. The blue skies mute imperceptibly at first, the light looks like an impressionist painting. There’s a barely noticeable chill that lends itself to visions of fireplaces, hot cocoa, good books…Continue Reading
Whole Foods Salad Initiative (Or, My Mom’s Lame Lunch)
My mom packed bad lunches. Instead of Ho-Hos, Twinkies, and soda pop, us kids got granola, bananas, and the ever popular date bread with low-fat cream cheese filling. Sitting at recess nibbling a super lame salmon pattie, I’d covet my friends’ Wonder Bread bologna sandwiches with yellow mustard and feel like the biggest geek on…Continue Reading
Grammar* Dos and Don’ts (Part 1)
Proper usage of words such as “it’s versus its,” and more.
PROMPTuesday #202: Scary
Hey ho! Which is way different than “Hey, Ho!” Speaking of punctuation, what scares you? Nuclear war used to scare me, but now I’ve settled on not dying before I do what I need to do. And finding the thing I need to do so I can do it. …Continue Reading
Hi! And Things.
Well hello there. Where have you been? Especially since I’ve BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME! (I will go ahead and assume that guilt tactic did not work.) Actually, the summer ate my words. Between Two Funny Brains and the blog web series and the kids home and the work and the general melting,…Continue Reading
The Drive-By
Every now and again I give in to an urge to revisit my past in the most visceral way I know how: I drive by everywhere I’ve lived. Given that I’ve resided in a lot of places, and most not in this state, I can spend only an hour or so haunting the exteriors of…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #201: More Music
Do you remember your first concert? Can you describe it? What do you remember? Write it for me? I’d love to hear all about it. A few caveats: 1) Keep it to 500 words or less. 2) Don’t take any longer than 10 minutes to write. 3) Do not edit, censor or…Continue Reading
