Writerly Wednesday Flash Fiction Picture Prompt

Mrs. Chicken

After two nasty roosters, attacking anyone in site, ended up in a stew, badgers killed the chicks, no matter what we tried to protect them. A neighbour’s dog killed the hens save one.

One day, I looked out back and saw Mrs. Chicken racing around the side of the house, dog right behind. I grabbed my husband’s air pistol that resembled a forty-five revolver and ran to the front of the house, yanked the door open, jumped into the stance with gun aimed, my eyes scanning the right of the front yard. Nothing. I swung my body to the left, still in shooting stance, gun aimed and ready.

There stood a customer for our home-based business, flattened against his car in fear.

After explaining the situation minus one hen or dog to prove it out, he shook his head and laughed.

“You sure have an aggressive sales technique.” 

*** 

Flash Fiction Picture Prompt Provided by: 

http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-1192016#comments

 Visit me at my Facebook Author Page Here.

WRITERLY WEDNESDAY PICTURE PROMPT FICTION - GAME OVER

Good morning everyone. Wednesday again. The summer is just flying by. Soon it will be September 1st and my third book of The Georgia Series will be released. More on that next post. Meanwhile, hope you enjoy my story for today. It is really a true story not fiction, based on my memories of raising my son.

GAME OVER

I arrived to pick up my twelve-year-old from his first job; babysitting a boy after school until his mother arrived from work.

A difficult kid but my son handled him well. Whenever his mother showed, his charge acted out.

Cleaning up the playroom, my son stooped to pick up darts on the floor. In a tantrum, the boy threw a dart as he stood. It  wedged in my son’s back beside the spine. My son hit the floor, turning white. “Mom, I can’t feel anything in my back.”

The kid’s mother smiled at her son, telling him he shouldn’t do that. Furious, I took mine to emergency. The dart penetrated a muscle, causing a spasm that left him numb. Otherwise, all good.

Driving home, my son said: “I’m sorry, Mom but I’m quitting my job.”

I smiled. “Good call.”

I wonder whatever happened to that Social Worker’s kid?

***

Writerly Wednesday Flash Fiction Picture Prompts Provided By:

http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts

Visit me on my Facebook Author Page HERE.

WRITERLY WEDNESDAY PICTURE PROMPT - BITTERSWEET

BITTERSWEET

Watching them, my soul’s warmed. He’s a great father. I couldn’t find a better guardian for our son.

My husband is smart, witty, and a great provider. I think of the first time we met in the grocery store. I knew he was following me.

Him: “Excuse me ... can you tell me where the bread is?”

Me: He’s kidding right? “Uh ... if you avert your eyes to the left. Ta da!”

He turns red and smiles: “I’m so blinded by your beauty, I can’t see.”

Me, groaning: “That’s a terrible pick-up line. Does it ever work?”

Him, laughing: “This is the first time I’ve used it. You tell me.”

I stare at him now, a protective arm around our son. I smile. It did.

I feel a pull.

Time to go. You don’t yet know that I’m dead. A car accident two blocks away.

Goodbye my loves.

***

Flash Picture Prompt Provided by:

http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-6152016

Visit me on my Facebook Author Page HERE.

WRITERLY WEDNESDAY PICTURE PROMPT - ELECTION BRIDGE

ELECTION BRIDGE

Callee grew up admiring her larger-than-life neighbour to the south. She loves sophisticated New York City, the easy lifestyle of San Francisco, Waikiki, the Eagles, Bob Dillon, and Joan Baez.  A prideful people who believed in the land of the free.

But now? She was glad she lived north of their border and not south, where one candidate refers to Mexicans as drug smugglers, rapists, bad people, but some, presumably, are good. Callee watched her grandchildren playing, feeling grateful she didn’t have to explain his words to them.

Her heart went out to her US neighbours who face a tough decision come November; vote to support their party or vote strategically to keep an egotist from power he will assuredly abuse.

The election is the best reality television game show on air. The American people are hostage to a national bridge tournament. 

I hope they won’t be Trumped.

***

Flash Fiction Picture Prompt Provided By:

http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-682016

Visit my Facebook Page HERE.

Writerly Wednesday Flash Fiction Picture Prompt - Born to Sing

Happy Wednesday to you all. I missed last week, but here I am again sharing my piece. For those of you who would like an ebook of the first ten stories I wrote, I have a book on Amazon, Nook, and Kobo for FREE. I put these stories together as an offering to readers who don't follow my blog to introduce my writing style, and perhaps want to purchase my novels. So if you have friends or family that you think would enjoy my short ditties, by all means download the book. It is free on Amazon.com if you are in the US. Other sites will follow suit soon. And it's free on Nook and Kobo. Here's the link for Amazon. 

 https://www.amazon.com/Snap-Shots-Life-Bites-Book-ebook/dp/B01G5VDMM0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464816804&sr=8-1&keywords=june+v+bourgo

Hope you enjoy today's story.

Born to Sing

The stage grip handed her the microphone. She stood in the wings listening to the host, paralyzed with fear, her hands sweaty. Hope I don’t drop the mic.

The M.C. was talking about her but she didn’t hear the words. Why am I doing this?

She heard her name and forced her legs to move. Her eyes scanned the audience. Omigod ... so many people.

The piano man played the intro. Panic engulfed her. This isn’t my song. She turned and he mouthed ‘sorry’. The horn player blew a ditty, turning it over to the piano man who began again.

She stared into the spotlight above the audience, waiting for her cue. She lost herself into the melody and the passion of the jazz piece.

When it was over, she bowed to a standing ovation.

Of course I want to do this. I was born to sing.

***

Flash Fiction Prompt provided by: 

http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts

Visit me on my Facebook Author Page Here

WRITERLY WEDNESDAY FICTION PICTURE PROMPT - BUCKET LIST

The weeks fly by and another story is hatched. I find it amusing how my shorts are influenced by childhood memories or events in my life. The process of creating these vignettes on a weekly basis are so stimulating and show me that writing is what I should be doing. Enjoy!

Bucket List

 We left Santa Rosa, New Mexico, heading west on Route 66. I hit the  CD track to play our ritual song; marking the start of another day on  the road. We sang along belting out the final line, ‘Get your kicks on  Route 66’.

 Retired and carefree, this trip was on our Bucket List. We started in  Chicago, making many stops along the way and were getting closer  to Los Angeles, California.

 I stared at the semi-arid landscape lost in thought. My Route 66  obsession began at age twelve when the television show aired. It was  more a teenage obsession with George Maharis during his time spent  on the show.

 I looked sideways at my partner. Always attracted to dark-haired  brooding men, my husband was no exception. He wasn’t Hollywood  handsome but he was my George Maharis.

 He glanced at me. “What?”

 I giggled. “Love ya, honey.”

 ***

Flash fiction prompt provided by:

 http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-5182016

Visit my Facebook Author Page and like HERE.

WEDNESDAY WRITERLY PICTURE PROMPT - SEXY MANNEQUINS

           SEXY MANNEQUINS  

I HATE THEM.

Don’t get me wrong. Dressing windows satisfies my creativity. Exploring the use of fabrics, accessories and colours to show a product line at its best is truly art.

When I set up my business years ago, most were headless, torso and legs, and t-bar mannequins; androgynous one-size fits all.

Now they’re full-body with all the attributes of the female body. You have the Madonna, the Marilyn Monroe, and ...

 P-LEEE-ASE.

We live in a visually dominated world, people. Dressing idealized statuettes, complete with make-up and wigs, I am reminded on a daily basis of my short, stocky body with saggy arms, and facial wrinkle concealer.

At day end, driving home, I crank up Christina’s song and sing along as loud as I can.

                  We are beautiful no matter what they say     

                      We are beautiful in every single way

                       So don’t you bring me down today.

Visit me at my Facebook Author Page HERE

Flash fiction prompt provided by http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-4132016.

WRITERLY WEDNESDAY PICTURE PROMPT

The weeks seem to fly by and here we are, Wednesday again. Just to update you on my other writing endeabours. I'm in the final chapters of Missing Thread, The Georgia Series, Book 3. I expect to finish it and have it sent off to my publisher by mid-April. Yay!

Meanwhile here's my 150 word flash fiction for this week. 

LADY

She sat in a field behind my parents house. She’d seen better days but I love that car.  My Dad’s pride and joy, he’d bought her as a fixer-upper She was all that, with no back seat. In those days cars didn’t have seat belts, so for the first couple of weeks, we three sisters sat on little stools, so low to the floor we couldn’t see out the windows. When Dad went around a corner, we were too short to reach the ‘oh shit handles’, and we’d slide off the stools onto the floor in a tangled mass of giggles. Dad would glance over his shoulder and shout: “You girls stop that fooling around.” Like we’d planned the whole thing.

We named her Lady, from the movie, Lady and the Tramp. She may have lost her looks but not her style or her memories.

She was still Lady.

Flash fiction prompt provided by http://www.writerlycorner.com/writerly-prompts/writerly-wednesday-462016.

SHORT STORY - SHADOW OF SMOKE

Hi everyone.

If you enjoy crime/suspense stories, I have a short story on Amazon. It was available for free but that promotion is over. It is available as an ebook for .99 cents.

Sage Brooks is a strong, indepedent woman working on a project with a deadline. She takes time away from the office to finish her work. What happens next is far from the tranguility she's seeking. This is a thrill story of crime and suspense that ends with a twist.

Yesterday it hit amazon's Top 100 list for Fiction and Literature #43, Crime #85, and Mystery, Thriller and Suspense #19. So exciting.

Don't miss the samples at the end of the story for my novels, Winter's Captive and Chasing Georgia, of The Georgia Series.

Click HERE to purchase your copy now.