WAG has some truly talented and imaginative writers!
We posted these three visual prompts in January and asked members to submit stories—500 words or less, any genre—in response. Here they are:
Jenny Dearinger chose photo #1 (Double Exposure 1965):
CHOICES
by Jenny Dearinger
I stood in front of the veil, my fate determined. Emotion swept through me like a fire raging through a forest. Anger singed the backs of my eyelids with burning tears. I’m only seventeen! Too young. The distorted shadows of friends and family, of people that once were, beckoned to me through the glistening, shifting curtain. Horror gripped my stomach, spilling bile into my mouth, as the phantoms on the other side of the veil shimmered in an out of translucent reality. The terrifyingly resplendent wall of inevitability inched toward me. A waterfall of resignation washed over me, releasing the tensed muscles. There was nowhere left to run; no one left to ask for help. Determined to meet Fate on my own terms, I turned my back and picked up my guitar. Like a swan pierced by an arrow mid-flight, I chose my last chords carefully.
This poignant, atmospheric story made us really look at the picture again and see it anew. So wonderful!
An innate love fo
r the color and action in children’s books, an elementary education degree from Florida State University, and years of teaching have led Jenny on a path to writing children’s books. She has been writing children’s books since 2018 and has self-published 11 books. Her latest book is R-R-Respect, written with Gator football player Wayne Fields. Jenny receives a lot of support from her WAG Children’s Book Writing Pod, the Creative Cronies. She is also a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Jenny is WAG’s current President and is enjoying interacting with WAG’s members. She is always happy to talk about the children’s book writing process and the importance of joining a writing community like the Writers Alliance of Gainesville.
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Michelle Marcotte chose photo #2 (Coca-Cola 1945):
MILLY
by Michelle Marcotte
Milly stumbled down the stairs from her apartment and banged the tavern door open just before noon. She stood still for a moment taking a look around, pulled up a stool, lifted her satin-covered breasts, and plopped them down on the bar. She pushed her sunglasses down her eyes to nod at the bartender.
He slid her a coke.
“What was last night’s take?”
He told her.
“Not bad.” She finished the coke and banged her hand on the bar.
The bartender slid her another one.
She looked around. “Place stinks. Spray something, will ya?”
“Sure,” said the bartender. He took a spray bottle from under the bar and headed for the toilets.
When he returned, the tavern’s back door was open. Milly was smoking a cigarette on a chair in what passed for the back yard of the clapboard house converted into a tavern. He tossed the garbage in the cans a few feet away from her, where the stink wouldn’t bother her. He unlocked the front door to let in the lunch drinkers.
Milly never bothered with the lunch crowd. She didn’t bother talking to anyone until after 9:00 at night, when she, and the tavern, seemed to come alive. By then she was dressed in a too tight, wrinkled satin dress with perspiration stains under her arms, and still no bra. She flirted, served drinks to the regulars, kept an eye on the troublemakers. All she had to do was point and the bartender would bounce the guy to the curb and tell him to stay there if he knew what was good for him.
Every once in a while, if she felt up to it, she would stand on the bar and sing a few songs while the regulars looked up her dress, way up those long, bare legs to heaven.
At 3:00, after closing, after telling the night cleaner, “Clean this shit up and make damn sure you lock the door when you leave,” she unlocked the door to her apartment upstairs, flip-flopped her fur-covered slippers up the stairs and slept alone.
In 1945 she changed that routine to entertain the beer delivery driver upstairs. For eight miserable months she said they were married, but everyone doubted it. One night, she pointed to him and looked at the bartender. The bartender bounced the beer delivery driver to the curb and told him not to come back.
My grandmother was born in 1946. Milly and her daughter moved to the clapboard house next door and Milly’s routine resumed. The daughter never saw the inside of the tavern and no one from the tavern ever visited Milly’s home.
In 1977, Milly sold the tavern, the clapboard house next door, and the other three houses she owned on the block to a developer. When she died in 1983, she left my grandmother, my mother, and me an estate valued at an astounding two million dollars.
We love where Michelle took this story: multiple generations and bringing us right up to the present. And she created this whole world in less than 500 words! She’s made the woman in this photo come alive. (Would we have enjoyed a drink with Milly at her bar? Yes. Yes, we would.)
Michelle Marcotte (https://www.michellemarcottebooks.com) is the author of Will Evie Ever Lay an Egg? and Chase That Polar Bear Out of the House! She is co-author and illustrator of ABC Vegetables—Abécédaire Des Légumes, an English and French flip book for both child and adult language learners. If you are an author of books for kids or teens and would like Michelle to post a video review of your work on her YouTube channel, “Great Book Reviews for Kids by Michelle Marcotte,” you can contact her at marcotteconsulting@gmail.com.
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Carol Mosley took an even more creative approach. She wrote: “After seeing the prompts for Flash Friday, I couldn’t resist submitting this little poem. I think it actually could go with either of two photos.” And we agree! We laughed so hard when we read it in relation to photo #2—and then laughed even harder when we read it in relation to photo #3, “Minnie Mouse”:
A HOW-NOT-TO-GET-A-DATE DATING PROFILE
by Carol Mosley
I’m not much for vanity
and I’m clinging to my sanity.
So I’ll give it to you straight
since I’m not really looking for a date.
I’m speckled and spotted,
freckled and polka dotted.
I’m lumpy and bumpy
and I’ve been known to be grumpy.
Some body parts are loose and sagging.
Even so, I’m prone to bragging.
I have a good mind and I’m a feisty old gal
who’s not lookin’ for a partner, just open to a new pal.
Sex is definitely not what I’m after.
It’s been so long I’m sure it would be a disaster.
But I’m big on hugs and friendly affection.
You’re my kinda person if that’s also your election.
My favorite company is actually my own.
I’m the most entertaining person I’ve ever known!
But, I’m also interested in new views and perspectives.
If this all sounds like you, consider yourself selected.
I just can’t be bothered with flirting and infatuation.
Especially since my jet propulsion comes from flatulation.
In case you haven’t figured it out I’m in the home stretch of my life.
While I’m always happy to make new friends, don’t call me if you’re looking for a wife!
Carol Mosley dwells in rural Bradford County, Florida, far from the hectic paces of larger places. She is a social ecologist and former environmental educator, co-founding non-profit organizations Bridges Across Borders and Bradford Environmental Forum. Most of her writings are non-fiction and ecologically political in nature, but, as a legacy from her mother, Carol enjoys dabbling in “memoir style” rhyming poetry, often customized for friends. You can email her at earthweaver@gmail.com. Check out her blog at https://mostlymosley.wordpress.com and her Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/carol.mosley.73.
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Now, to announce the randomly selected author to receive the $50 gift card of their choice…
Plot twist! We are going full-Oprah on this one: you get a gift card, and you get a gift card—you’re all three getting a gift card!
If you have any photos or artwork you’d like to have used for the next quarterly prompts on 26 April, send them along.
And Happy Writing!
(P.S. No WAG funds were harmed in the making of this blog post. Thank you again, Anonymous!)
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