Crimson’s Creative Challenge #44

Posted on September 11, 2019 by crispina kemp

CCC#44

Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN

Here’s how it works:

Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE

Here are some suggestions:

  • An answering photo
  • A cartoon
  • A joke
  • A caption
  • An anecdote
  • A short story (flash fiction)
  • A poem
  • A newly minted proverb, adage or saying
  • An essay
  • A song—the lyrics or the performance

You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:

  • Your creative offering is indeed yours
  • Your writing is kept to 150 words or less

If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it
If you include Crimson’s Creative Challenge as a heading, WP Search will find it (theory)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , , | 48 Comments

A Golden Opportunity

Posted on September 10, 2019 by crispina kemp

Beaker Pottery Museum of prehistory and early history, Berlin Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3. License: Alfons Aberg

Just as the previous contract was about to end, I saw a position advertised at the local museum. Here, in Wessex.

Okay, so it wasn’t paying much but that was expected; a small museum, a pimple compared with the V&A. More relevant, the museum housed a good portion of the finds from the Royal Barrows of Salisbury Plain. The gold was amazing. But it wasn’t just that. The Beaker pottery, the Grooved Ware, the polished stone axes, the flints. I get as excited about that as most women would get about a new lover. My fingers trembled as I updated my c.v.; I could scarcely control the pen as I completed the application form. Oh, and I so wanted my writing to be immaculately tidy. In a job like this, it matters.

I was short-listed for interview. And, gosh, when I remember, I was tight with anxiety.

147 words for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

An excerpt from Priory Project, a Sci-fi/Fantasy posted weekly back in 2015

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , , , | 25 Comments

What Pegman Saw: The Merlion

Posted on September 9, 2019 by crispina kemp

Image by Randolfo Santos on Google Maps

The winds howled. Fierce lightning flashed through the sky.
In their fright, the moon and stars hid behind the inky clouds.
The waves crashed higher, higher.
The fisher-folk of Temasek, terrified, prayed harder, harder.
And from the southern waters rose a gigantic shining beast.
Part-lion, part-fish, the Merlion roared.
Long was the battle twixt beast and nature, all through the night and into the dawn.
The winds died. The waves calmed. And a rosy sun lit a new morning sky.

80 words, written for What Pegman Saw: Singapore.

The Merlion represents Prince Sang Nila Utama’s founding of Singapore (lion-city) upon the ancient fishing village of Temasek. According to legend, this magnificent beast was making its annual visit to the island to guard the Lion City when a violent storm erupted.

An ancient myth? Or like the statue, one constructed in modern times?

 

 

 

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 40 Comments

The Spinner’s Game e-book update #22

Posted on September 8, 2019 by crispina kemp

September update… and the question remains: Will I be ready to publish The Spinner’s Game quint at Christmas?

While it is possible, the time out from writing these past two months don’t inspire great confidence in reaching that target. After last month’s family commitments and medical appointments, I now have IT problems. Twice the machine has been to the menders. But now, I’m assure, I have a clean machine. Oh Yay! Now the problem lies outside of me, with glitches in Google’s performance and my internet provider. Hours waiting for pages to load, timed out, start again. It all eats up time when I could be forging ahead with the editing. However… stop whinging.

Book Four: Lady of First Making

Oh Yay! Oh Yay! Oh Yay! It is done. The revisions, the rewrites and the deep-down editing. And so, as promised, the book cover reveal.

copyright Lauren Willmore

Another of Lauren’s wonderful designs. And doesn’t it look good in the series.

Bs 1 and 2 and 3 cp

copyright Lauren Willmore

Book Five: (working title Asaric Sins)

This is still out with my beta readers, particularly since one was late in starting it. But as I said last month, the feedback to date is overall good. Oh yes, there are amendments needed, and additional material to be inserted. But that waits till the last comment is in.

In the meantime, I continue to edit the previous three books. I sing the praises of Pro-Writing Aid, but wish I’d not discovered it. For I thought those books done, and this little add-in app shows me they’re not. Oh, but the difference it makes! That extra edit has my writing fair gleaming.

And that’s all for now folks. The next e-book update will be… Sunday 6th October (and now the butterflies begin!)

 

 

Posted in On Writing, The Spinner's Game | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Sunday Picture Post: Late Summer Berries

Posted on September 8, 2019 by crispina kemp

This Sea Buckthorn hangs heavy with berries

Sea Buckthorn: 28th August 2019

And what wonderful colours, the pale blue-green of the foliage, the deep orange of the berries. Collect them and squeeze them, they make a fruit juice high in vitamin C. Though you might need to add a sweetener.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 21 Comments

In Touch with the Sun

Posted on September 7, 2019 by crispina kemp

The title given is Silhouette

The oak and the Sun: 12th August 2019

And this day the sun answered it perfectly. Don’t you just love that pink-blush? And no, the photo isn’t in any way altered; it’s how it came from the camera.

For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge see MariaAntonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 34 Comments

Hello Hello

Posted on September 5, 2019 by crispina kemp

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #43

“Ello, what’s this then?”

“A hiker found them this morning, Sarge.”

“Missing persons?”

“One, Sarge. Angela Betts. Aged twenty-two. Blonde. Petite.’

The sergeant turned to look at the jackets strung from the gate. And nodded.

“The inspector been told?”

“Not yet, Sarge.”

“And why not?”

“Not in his office.”

“His mobile?”

“No, Sarge.”

“At home? Come on, lad, what is it?”

“His wife is distressed, Sarge.”

“The inspector’s marital problems are none of our concern.”

“Yes, Sarge.”

“So…?”

“He didn’t come home last night, Sarge. Something about running away with a blonde.”

92 words written for Crimson’s Creative Challenge #43

 

 

 

 

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 44 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #43

Posted on September 4, 2019 by crispina kemp

CCC#43

Welcome to my weekly challenge—open to all—just for FUN, FUN, FUN

Here’s how it works:

Every Wednesday I post a photo (this week it’s that one above.)
You respond with something CREATIVE

Here are some suggestions:

  • An answering photo
  • A cartoon
  • A joke
  • A caption
  • An anecdote
  • A short story (flash fiction)
  • A poem
  • A newly minted proverb, adage or saying
  • An essay
  • A song—the lyrics or the performance

You have plenty of scope and only two criteria:

  • Your creative offering is indeed yours
  • Your writing is kept to 150 words or less

If you post a link in the comments section of this post I’ll be able to find it
If you include Crimson’s Creative Challenge as a heading, WP Search will find it (theory)
by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge | Tagged , | 91 Comments

Affley Jumped Out

Posted on September 3, 2019 by crispina kemp

image by Mufid Majnun on pixabay

Zikes! Affley dropped amid a flutter of leaves and landed hard with a jolt.
Yikes! She ducked and dodged the cascading water.
She danced. That water was scalding hot.
Swirled around, knocked and scraped against the tannin-stained walls, she’d had enough.
Ne-erh! Affley jumped out of mother’s teapot.

48 words, written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , | 11 Comments

What Pegman Saw: Naga-Loka

Posted on September 2, 2019 by crispina kemp

From Google Maps

Little Mimi sits on the bank, sucking her thumb and looking glum.

“Little One,” says the monk who sits beside her, “have you lost your coin?”

She shakes her head. “No. I’m praying.”

The monk looks behind him at the temples there, and back at the girl beside Mekong River. ‘To whom do you pray?”

“To the seven-headed naga.”

“Oh?” The monk thought he understood her reason. “You want for someone to take you across the river? Then your prayer is answered; I’ll readily do so.”

But the girl shook her head. “I want the seven-headed naga to take me to naga-loka.”

“You wish to die?” The monk was amazed.

“No,” said the girl. “I wish to see all the gems and gold and other treasures there.” And she sighed.

130 words, written for What Pegman Saw: Vientiane Laos

It is said that a seven-headed naga told the prince Thattaradtha to build a new city on the banks of the Mekong. That city was, eventually, to become the modern Vientiane.

Nagas are found throughout Hindu and Buddhist mythology; semi-divines, or a race of half-human half-serpent beings, they reside in naga-loka, an underground realm filled with gold and gems and all precious things.

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 37 Comments