Tag: Writing

First Kiss

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

Prompt cards from Storymatic this time were “firefighter” and “first kiss.”

I kind of like the idea I came up with, but feel like it was too inexpertly plopped down. With a little research, it could probably be something longer and more touching. But the bare bones of the idea is nice, and as mentioned before, my goal with these was to force myself into flash fiction and quick stories.

          Justin stared down the aisle as the music began, feeling himself flush. The heat crept up his neck and was probably turning his ears red. Maggie always made fun of him for that, and when she did he’d call her by her full name – Magdalena – because she hated it. People were shifting to get a look at her as the procession of bridesmaids and grooms slowly made their way to the front.

          Their first meeting had been dramatic. He had been a new firefighter at that time, still quite fresh to the job. He could see Jim, her father, walking her down the aisle, and he reminisced over the first time he had seen the man. Soot covered, coughing, screaming that his daughter was still in the house.

Justin hadn’t been the one to save her from the fire, though he had helped bust out the window to the room she was in. She wasn’t breathing when she was passed into his arms through that window, and after carrying her a safe distance away, he had immediately begun CPR. In fact, she had been the first person he had to perform the kiss of life on – he had been that green around the gills, still bumbling and nervous and anxious. But his training always kicked in, thankfully, had kicked in at that moment.

          He could remember the way that time seemed to slow down for him. He didn’t think it was working, had a moment of panic wondering if she was too far gone. Her coughing groan, her eyelids fluttering open to reveal those sparkling emerald irises – everything about those few seconds was burned into his brain. The first life he had saved.

          The music faded as she stood in front of him. He reached forward, his hands strangely steady despite the thumping of his heart, to lift the veil away. His breath caught as he stared into those vividly green eyes, that knowing smile she always seemed to have. It all blurred from there.

          The vows were spoken. The rings exchanged. “You may kiss the bride.”

          He leaned forward and kissed her, his mind wheeling back to their first kiss when they started dating, and that first kiss of life when they had met. Here was another important first kiss, the moment emblazoning itself in his mind, as important as any of the others.

          The first kiss of their married life.

Bigfoot Part 2

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

The Storymatic cards for this week were “bigfoot” and “neighborhood is changing.” One pretty big neighborhood change is someone moving in, and I had written the little stupid bigfoot exchange before, so I decided to do a follow up on that. So here is another stupid conversation between Tim and Greg about Bigfoot.

“Hey, Tim. Remember that time bigfoot left his luggage behind here at the airport?”

“That wasn’t bigfoot. But I remember you bothering me about that, yes.”

“Well, the empty house across the street finally sold. And I’ve seen the guy that bought it recently, and…”

“You’re not going to tell me it’s bigfoot, are you, Greg?”

“Tim, I shit you not. It’s fucking bigfoot.”

“Shut the fuck up, Greg.”

“No, no look at this pic I took. He was walking his dog-“

“Bigfoot has a dog.”

“Yes, but look at the picture. Just look.”

“… Okay, so that is a very hairy dude. But it can’t be bigfoot.”

“Tim, it’s fucking bigfoot. Look at the size of those flip flops! He has to custom order shoes that big. They look like a fucking joke, they’re enormous.”

“That doesn’t mean-“

“And look at how fucking hairy his feet are. If he were tiny, I’d say hobbit, but he’s got to be about 7 or 8 feet tall…”

“Listen, Greg, you can’t go around taking pictures of your neighbors because you think they’re sasquatch.”

“What’s a sasquatch?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

“Tim… wait, Tim come back! I’ve got more pictures! Look!”

Sidequests Week 18

On By MaryIn SidequestsLeave a comment

My sidequests for this week included doing a puzzle, warming up a blanket in the dryer and getting cozy, and evading responsibilities to have a self care day. I will admit to a little shuffling because the weather was quite rainy and cool this weekend, and I originally pulled a cold shower challenge. I didn’t shuffle it too far back though – it’ll be next week. So spoiler alert? I guess?

The warm blanket was easy enough. I have a smaller throw blanket I recently bought and have been keeping on my bed, and I decided to go ahead and wash it. Then as soon as it was out of the dryer, I curled up in it. Of course, the warmth got zapped out pretty quickly, but it was nice and relaxing while it lasted.

The evading responsibilties card wasn’t too bad either – I had asked for this entire weekend off owing to nerdiness (Star Wars day, have to have your nerd holidays off). This week was a little bit of a bummer, owing to a variety of reasons. I had found a baby bird outside and was keeping an eye on it (I left it outside so the parents could watch it) but it still died. Also I had originally planned to drive to a Ren Faire, but the weather got very rainy and overcast, and I didn’t want to spend the day soggy. The weather also messed with my lawncare plans, and Dinnerly’s delivery messed up and didn’t arrive. On top of a couple of other more personal things, spending an entire day moping and indulging in escapism via books seemed in order.

So on Star Wars day, I had a good sleep in, spent most of the day curled up in bed or on the couch reading, and ordered out instead of cooking. It was relaxing, and I do feel recuperated and ready to tackle the next week thanks to it.

The last one was to do a puzzle. I ordered one of the Unidragon wooden puzzles, since they have really fun designs and the pieces are made of wood and have different shapes than a typical puzzle. I’m not really a puzzle person – they actually frustrate me to some degree. I kind of lack the patience to work on them. But I persisted, and managed to finish it! This doesn’t happen a lot, so I’m kind of proud of myself.

I belatedly also ordered an adhesive mat that they make specifically for their puzzles so that they can be hung. That should come in a few days. The adhesive portion can get cut down to size, and from the description of it, there is enough material to fit a few of their puzzles, so if I have a lot left over I might order one more. Because frustration is fun? Or because the designs are really neat? Hmm.

Sir

On By MaryIn Poetry, WritingLeave a comment 
Darling boy
Everything about you would destroy
Everything about me and yet
And yet
I desire that destruction.
Make me your toy.

And we have reached the last day of April, and finished the poetry challenge! I got lazy here at the finish line and am using the last of my built up lee-ways that I wrote before April started. The other two lee-way poems were April 16th’s “communication” and April 23rd’s “The Game.”

Strangely, up until this week, it hasn’t been too hard to write any of the poems. I don’t typically consider myself a “poetry person,” but I’m thinking I might start cycling it into the rotation. Although I have been awful at keeping up with my story prompt cards, I would like to start getting back into that. And I keep telling myself I need to get back into painting too. Ideally, I would like to do the following things every week: the Sidequest update, a prompted response (either from one of the daily prompts or flash fiction from the storymatic prompt cards), a poem, a painting, and perhaps a serial story. But, I am fairly lazy and I doubt I will do all of that every week. We’ll see if I can at least do a few though.

Regardless of what I intend, things may get a bit quiet after this. Now that we’ve been done with the 2023 Writing Challenge for a month and have had some time to sit on it, my friend and I are going to compile the chapters, exchange feedback, and work on rewrites, with the goal of slapping the polished products on Amazon’s self publishing by 2025. So no serial updates of any sort this year as we finish that out. But once we’re done with that, we can start a 2025 writing challenge.

sealed

On By MaryIn Poetry, WritingLeave a comment

i saw it in a movie once.
the best place for a secret –
go deep into the mountains
whisper it into the hollow of a tree
and seal it with mud.
leave it behind you.

why do we do this to ourselves?
harbor these things
and wish to share them?
throwing unspoken desires digitally
anonymously to strangers
in the form of unsent letters
postcard secrets, poems
missed connections, music
and indulging in the idea
that maybe they will see…
or maybe it is the hope.
that maybe you will see
where your secret reached for you?

don’t do this to yourself.
no one is reaching for you.
it is time to let go.
find a hollow to whisper into.
let it out. seal it.
and leave it behind you.

(Non poem related addendums, the movie is In The Mood For Love and it’s fucking beautiful, and I just googled it and can’t believe PostSecret is still running, and every time I sign up for reddit I get sucked into reading Unsent Letters. There is something compelling and beautiful about the things we can and can’t let go of.)