Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #32’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

Writing Adventure Group Topic #33: “Rescue Me”.Spendthrifts save money, princes save princesses, we save files, leftovers, and do our best to keep our children from harm. This week, write about saving something, anything, from a horrible fate. (Even if that fate is simply the bottom of the recycle bin.) Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like. No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 10 August 2010.)

Read Step 3 for how to be added to the list below, and Step 4 for how to add the list to your own blog.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.

For the Writing Adventure Group topic: Altered States as well as the #fridayflash group.

“I think I have a fever.” Genevieve gathered up her long hair in a twist to keep it from tugging if she rolled over in the night. The heat behind her eyes and the sweat down her back didn’t worry her though. No, it was the little girl standing beside her bed that gave her alarm. Dressed in a tutu and cowboy boots, she twirled and rocked in prima rodeo style.

“Want me to get you some Advil?” Her husband had just taken off his slippers, but slid them right back on again to go fetch the needed medicine. He couldn’t see the girl, because she obviously wasn’t there. Not really. She couldn’t be. Little girls in tutus and cowboy boots didn’t dance through stranger’s houses, not without people noticing. People like Genevieve’s husband.

Genevieve couldn’t take her eyes off the girl. She tried to act as though nothing was wrong, thinking the image would fade any second.

“Gen?”

“Oh, yes. I think that would be good. Thanks.” She blinked a few times, but the girl didn’t go away. When her husband’s footfalls had retreated down the hall toward the kitchen, she said, “What do you want?” It seemed a reasonable question.

No answer. Just dancing. If it had been a real little girl, Genevieve might have enjoyed the funny, lopsided movements, the pure joy of the moment. But one didn’t just enjoy hallucinations. Of that she was sure.

Her husband returned a few minutes later with two pills and a glass of water. She gulped them down, closing her eyes as she tilted her head back with a jerk, hoping beyond hope they would instantly dissolve the unwelcome spectre.

When she opened her eyes, the girl was gone. Genevieve sighed. “Thanks,” she said as her husband turned off the lights and climbed into bed. “Better already.”

In the darkness, a tiny trill of a voice giggled into her ear. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”

Note: With finishing up the current round of edits on Ordinary Angels and getting it back to my editor yesterday, I completely forgot about the WAG post.  Oops! Mea culpa.

Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers/bloggers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #31’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

Writing Adventure Group Topic #32: “Altered State”. In the past week, I’ve read three different books that had scenes where a main character was either inebriated or taking drugs, and each scene was very different. So this week, either create a character or observe someone (unfortunately it isn’t hard to find someone drunk on the streets these days) who is partaking of a mind-altering substance. Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like. No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 3 August 2010.)

Read Step 3 for how to be added to the list below, and Step 4 for how to add the list to your own blog.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.

Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers/bloggers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #30’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

Writing Aventure Group Topic #31: “Laughter”. There are many types of and reasons for laughter: twitters, titters, guffaws, snickers, snorts, belly laughs and bursts of inappropriate giggles at a funeral.  Laughter can mean many things and be displayed in various ways. This week write about someone (real or fictional) and a moment of mirth. Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like. No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 27 JULY 2010.)

Read Step 3 for how to be added to the list below, and Step 4 for how to add the list to your own blog.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.

For the Writing Adventure Group topic: Broken as well as the #fridayflash group.

Caroline

Caroline’s world wavered as though exposed to intense heat. Events paused in excruciating echoes of plans undone and severed schedules. The fragmentation had begun with the sound of a car’s horn blaring in a panicky plea for fate to, just this once, pass by.  She heard her own heart hammer and instinctively raised a hand, an order from a non-existent traffic cop who might prevent the oncoming collision.

A woman screamed. Or did she? Caroline knew this situation called for a high-pitched human alarm to announce to the world that life had gone awry. As though the wail had called for time to resume its duty, seconds passed, but slowly, as though this event called for a methodical record. She wondered, idly, if there would be a crime scene report. She also considered her sister’s plane, wondering if she had to be interviewed by the police, would Alicia be angry, assuming Caroline had simply not shown up? No. Caroline was the diligent one. Perhaps she would ask the officer if she could step inside for a moment, to leave a message with information desk, knowing that Alicia would be summoned to a white courtesy phone to be told by a soothing feminine voice that her party had been delayed.

As the car, horn still sounding, approached in day-long seconds, Caroline had time to consider the heat of the day, to notice that her foot had slipped and left a black mark on her camel coloured shoe where it had scraped the asphalt. Could she let it slide along the hot, black surface and somehow let the oncoming disaster roll over her, with no more inconvenience than a singe of smoky exhaust? Her back bent in a way she had not moved since her childhood tumbling classes some thirty years before, gracefully arching as she pointed behind her with outstretched hand.

If only she hadn’t looked up, perhaps she could have cartwheeled away from catastrophe. It was the damned horn that forced her eyes to the oncoming blue Pinto. She wondered, as it thundered closer, if it got good mileage.

Something snapped loudly with the impact of the battering bumper, and she flew toe over tired brow, tumbling back into the timeline, until people rushed and whirred and shrieked. Caroline apologised for the fuss. “I’m all right”, she said, but no sound came out.

The sun shone in pale streaks, and glared into her eyes as she stared up from the burning blacktop. She only had thirty minutes before Alicia arrived. She must not delay. Her pantsuit would have stains; marred and marked beyond the hope of even the most conscientious dry-cleaners. A pity she had so recently paid seventy-five dollars and ninety-nine cents for it. Were people fooled by the ninety-nine?

She turned her head to one side, and saw bubbles rising from blistered tar freshly laid. “Get up,” she muttered. Her eyelids clenched closed, blocking out the scenes of some rushing toward her, and others cowering away. “Get up. Now.” She inhaled deeply, and surprisingly, easily. She stood and stretched, dusting off the cream-colored trousers and arranging that which had been in disarray. The terminal loomed in front of her.

With a glance back to the oncoming crowd, she raised a timid finger, trying to pause time that had already been warped enough. “I’ll be right back,” she said to no one in particular. “I’ve got to meet my sister. Just dashing to the desk.” No one looked at her. They all focused on the ground in front of the car. Its airbag had exploded into a protective pillow. The horn had stopped. If this was television, she thought, it would still be sounding.

No one looked at her, that is, except for one young woman, with hair dangling around her face in long curls that shone. Caroline stared at the woman, who leaned against a young maple, crunching on a bright red apple. Something about her said “wayward” in ways no words could adequately describe. It wasn’t her clothes, which were worn, but not shabby, nor her lack of make-up or slightly freckled nose. No, the sense of mischief shone in her eyes. “How extraordinary,” Caroline said and turned toward the terminal. Two steps away, she glanced over her shoulder. The girl waved with the same hand that held an apple core. Uncertainty led Caroline to raise her hand, but not quite move the fingers. Her frown furrowed for only a moment, and then looking back to the hulking construction separating her from her sister, she rushed on. Promises of quick return forgotten, she simply strode past the cars, which slowed so their occupants could crane curious necks at the commotion Caroline left behind.

Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers/bloggers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #29’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

WAG Topic #30: “Broken”. This week write about something broken: toys, bones, hearts: it can be anything that just doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to any more.  Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like.  No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 20 JULY 2010.)

Read Step 3 for how to be added to the list below, and Step 4 for how to add the list to your own blog.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.

I wrote this short fantasy piece for the Writing Adventure Group topic: Habits.

As was his habit, Krel came to his private gallery to think. He walked among the delicate hovering globes and tapped the thin glass with an extended claw. The souls within shimmered as a perfect tones echoed off the stone walls. Each orb would produce a different note, dependant not on its shell, but the timbre of the human life within.

Even he, a reaver, could not identify what characteristic evoked a particular sound, but his knowledge of the fleshy pink creatures was limited to their last moments of life. Nor would the artisan soul-blowers know. He employed only the best of their profession, and they worked only for him, expanding his collection as he harvested new human ore.

The newest of his collection still struggled within their confinement. He stroked the cool glass with the dark green flesh of his palm. A smile played across his gnarled lips. He had not known the female was with child when he coaxed her essence from her body, but another, tiny flicker came with her. The challenge had delighted the soul-blowers: how to encase two as one, and yet still keep the casing thin and the sound clear. It had been tried before, and always with disastrous results. But no two souls were as intimately connected as a mother and child, and the results had stunned them all. He had considered giving this one to the clan warchief, but found he could not part with the pair. They danced and swirled together, blending their blue and golden light, then flying apart in a constant dance. It filled him with pure delight.

The thoughts of the warchief reminded Krel of the decision he had to make. He turned toward the door, grateful for the moment of respite. His heavy boots thudded against the stone floor as he strode with purpose to the stairwell. He knew what he had to do.

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Thumbnail artwork © India Drummond
Join the Writing Adventure Group and read other weekly submissions below.

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A Certain Highlander has the flu. Not a sniffles flu. A can’t-get-out-of-bed flu. Now I’m getting it. I already have such an encyclopaedia of medical conditions that I’m dreading what this damned fever foretells.

Since this blog post alone is just about more than I can do, I’m extending the WAG topic: Habits for another week. You can now submit posts for it through the 13th. Also, to those of you already part of the group and on Twitter/Facebook, please help out by tweeting the topic to encourage more entries. I usually do it myself, but I need to go lie in bed and suffer and moan for a few hours.

Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers/bloggers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #27’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

WAG Topic #29: “Habits”. This week let’s write about habits: yours, a characters, or someone you observe (we’re all such stalkers). It can be anything from the unconscious way someone touches their face when they talk, or a deep-in-their-bones addiction. Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like.  No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 6 JULY 2010.)

Read Step 3 for how to be added to the list below, and Step 4 for how to add the list to your own blog.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.

Join the Writing Adventure Group! All writers/bloggers welcome. WAG Guide here. The full list of WAG #27’s participants (at the bottom of the post).

WAG Topic #28: “The Little Things”. Sometimes a small, unexpected thing has the power to affect big changes. This week write about something simple: a little thing that has the power to cause a big change in events, mood, or decisions. It can be an object, a look from a stranger, an unexpected event… no limits! Your piece can be as long or short as you want, using any form you like.  No Rules! Now Write! (You may add links to this list between now and 29 JUNE 2010.)

How to be added to the “results”:

1. Write whatever you like based on the theme suggested & post on your blog anytime between now and the ending date.
2. Return here, and at the bottom of the post, click on the link that says CLICK HERE TO ENTER and paste the direct link for your WAG post (not just your main blog link, please). IN THE LINK TITLE FIELD, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME.
3. To add the “blog hop” listing to your own blog and allow your readers to find other WAG posts on the same topic, return here, go to the LinkyTools section, and click GET THE CODE HERE. Cut and paste the javascript in the box into the HTML section of your blog. (Some blogs do not allow javascript. If this is the case, you will have to simply link to the Instruction post.) In hosted wordpress blogs, you MUST paste in HTML mode for the code to work. If you have any questions or problems, please write to me!
4. Use Twitter, FB status, myspace, your blog, etc to announce your own writing adventure! On Twitter, use the hashtag #WAG to designate Writing Adventure Group posts.
5. Invite your writing friends to join! All writers/bloggers are welcome.

Note: If you have ideas for topics, please write to me! Also, please visit our Facebook group (link below) and invite all your friends to join! Group members get weekly reminders of the topics and end dates.