Third Campaign Challenge – Hannah’s Tomatoes

 Campaign, Writing  31 Responses »
Oct 182011
 

It’s time for R. Harrie’s third campaign challenge and here are the rules:

Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show:

  • that it’s morning,
  • that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach
  • that the MC (main character) is bored
  • that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting
  • that something surprising happens.

My piece is just under 300 words. YES! Check it out:

Hannah’s Tomatoes

Hannah sits on a bench; knees bent, feet firm on the seat. Sweat drips down the small of her back as tiny wet beads form on her upper lip. She brushes them away and breathes in the sticky air. There is a smell; familiar, but pungent. A dead rat maybe? Ah, the joys of North Avenue Beach. She coughs and unscrews the cap from her bottle. The water rushes down her throat, a short relief from the heat. Sweat drips from her hands. She presses them against her head and slicks down the loose strands of hair. She picks at a piece of skin hanging from her fingernail as a slight breeze presses against her body. He is walking towards her, the blur of a boy folded into the distance of the hazy sun. The closer he gets, the harder her heart beats. When he is near, she stands up. He paces towards her disturbing the morning dust with each step.

They walk off the concrete walkway into the sandbank. Her toes sink in. The gritty grains brush against the pads of her feet. Dirty, orange-colored mountains form along the sides of her heels.

They set their towels down and run towards the edge of the pier. She crashes into the water. Bing. The clasp of her bikini top flies open for all the world to see. Her face reddens like a tomato. Now two tomatoes are hanging out. She pulls her top shut trying to push one side of the clasp into the other, but it’s pointless. The thing is busted. With a hand across her chest, she runs from the water, leaps down, snatches the towel from the sand, and wraps it around her body. She shouldn’t have done that cannonball after all.

Thanks for reading!

I am #46 on the linky list if you feel so inclined to vote for me. You can place your vote for any of the entries at Rachael Harrie’s Third Campaigner Challenge blog post.

 

Share

Second Campaigner Challenge

 Campaign, Connecting, Fun, Writing  41 Responses »
Sep 222011
 

It’s time for the second campaigner challenge via Rachael Harrie’s blog.

Here are the rules:

Write a blog post in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, but the blog post should include the word “imago” in the title and also include the following words: miasma, lacuna, oscitate, and synchronicity. For an added challenge (to be included in the word count) make reference to a mirror. For a greater challenge, make your post exactly 200 words.

Here is mine:

Her Imago

A gasp of air, a beating heart, and a flushed face; these are the signs of a broken girl.

She crashed onto the floor. There was a buzzing in her head followed by silence.

They met when she was a child. She’d known him her whole life. The lacuna between them was immense and uncomfortable. Most days she would dream about the father she wanted, but today all she could focus on was the floor needing a good scrub; a hands and knees job.

She tried to ignore the past, but the miasma was too much now. It was time to go.

There were rules she had in order to keep herself sane: a sharp focus on logarithms, the latest Hollywood gossip, and exercise. They always calmed her down.

Her bedroom was a prison. She looked in the mirror and oscitated. The phone rang. It was her mother asking her to move back in. The synchronicity of events amazed her.

Tomorrow she would leave. In a few years, she would be out of her house too and under her own rule.

She crawled into bed and fell asleep counting down the days towards freedom.

Thanks for reading!

Share

Ten Random Facts

 Campaign, Chicago, Connecting, Fun, Life  17 Responses »
Sep 132011
 

I got tagged by Allie Wilde to provide ten random facts about myself. Thank you Allie! So without further ado, here they are:

1. I am Polish and Puerto Rican, but I don’t speak Polish or Spanish fluently.

2. My first real rock show (without my parents) was as @ The Metro in Chicago when I was fifteen. I saw Face to Face and I’ve been addicted to music and shows ever since.

 

3. I lived in Krakow, Poland for a small period of time in my twenties. I miss hot wine in barrels and random conversations around the square.

4. I got married at The Society for Arts, a Polish gallery on Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago to one of the coolest, most interesting people I have ever met.

5. I believe that Puerto Rico is paradise on earth.

6. I want to live out the rest of my days with my husband and son in Barcelona, Spain.

 

7. I sometimes have violent, end of the world dreams. When I wake up, I have to look out the window just to make sure everything is as it was the day before.

8. I am a serious coffee person. I like to drink it hot or cold at all hours of the day.

9. I haven’t eaten a hamburger in over fourteen years.


10. I can’t write unless my house is in order. It’s a focus thing.

That’s me in a nutshell. Thanks for reading. 🙂

I want to thank Allie for tagging me, and now I’m going tag a few fellow writers of my own.

Tag, it’s your turn to give some random facts about yourself: Kathleen Isaac aka Grillyfish, Beth Kemp, Katharina Gerlach, and T.B.McKenzie.

*Please note that with the exception of the Barcelona pic which I took, none of the other images belong to me. I have linked the images back to their original owners.

Have a great day everybody. 🙂

Share
 Posted by at 12:50 pm

First Campaign Challenge Submission

 Campaign, Writing  51 Responses »
Sep 062011
 

It’s Rachael Harrie’s first campaign challenge. Here are the rules: Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “The door swung open” These four words will be included in the word count. If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), use the same beginning words and end with the words: “the door swung shut.” Also included in the word count. For those who want an even greater challenge, make your story 200 words EXACTLY!

Here is my entry, which is exactly 200 words btw. Check it out below:

The door swung open. She was surrounded by the most beautiful things. Rows upon rows of books with classic spines lined up against each other, standing on dark wooden bookcases affixed to the walls behind them. There were four tables in the middle which formed a perfect square and in the center, the marble bust of an unknown man. A bulbous pencil sharpener sat in the corner and on each table was an orange colored lantern, which brightened up the space on the dullest of evenings. It was the most wondrous library she had ever seen. It was the room in his house she wished she owned, but felt blessed to be invited to.

His world consisted of this newly inherited house from his mother who recently passed, of leather bound books with golden pages, of luck. She let her hand pass against the hardbacks, smooth, then lumpy until she found a thin one with a red, leather spine; The Velveteen Rabbit.

She flipped through it. The scent of old passed through her nostrils, of experience, of regret. Oh yes, she was in heaven.

“Lunch?” he called out.

As she made her way towards the exit, the door swung shut.

–

Thanks for reading!

 

Share
 Posted by at 3:38 pm