Crimson’s Creative Challenge #14

Marsh Road

CCC#14

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)
If you tag it #CCC others should be able to find it by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.

Details of the photo are given, if relevant, below this line


This is an unusual marsh road. Dry of foot. Not deep in mud and impassable puddles. But where does it go? To a drainage mill on the Upton Marshes alongside the Bure river.  (Upton, just outside Acle, is part of the Norfolk Broads)

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge | Tagged , | 37 Comments

Distant Horizons

Camping Constellation by Pexels

Camping Constellation by Pexels on pixabay

Distant horizons call to me.
Beyond the land,
Beyond the sea,
Beyond the clouds
And the day-bright sky,
Distant horizons call to me.

Star-bright horizons call to me.
Beyond the local galaxies,
Beyond Gamma, Iota and Beta Cephei,
And Polaris—Alpha Ursa Minor,
Beyond Alpha Draconis, the Egyptian Thuban,
Beyond Tau and Iota Herculis,
Beyond Vega, the bright star Alpha Lyrae,
Beyond the northern Valkyries, Alpha and Delta Cygni.
Star-bright horizons call to me.

74 words


Written for:

Posted in Poems (Some Silly) | Tagged , , , | 17 Comments

Rest in Peace, Papa G.

The Baths British Virgin Islands

The Baths, British Virgin Islands (from Google Maps)

Mama was such a pretty thing. Born Dorothy (of the Stones of Bath), but Papa G. always called her Dolly. The perfect wife, he often said: a willing bed-mate—she gave him seventeen of us little-uns; Peter’s the eldest, I’m the youngest; supportive, encouraging, she made him smile no matter the calamity. She had only one fault: she wasn’t the best of cooks. Indeed, I once overheard her friend refer to her rock-cakes as ‘Dentists Delights’. But you can see for yourself, our teeth litter the shore.

It was her cooking did for Papa G. Died of severe indigestion. It’s his head over there, left where fallen. Rest in peace, Papa G.


Written for What Pegman Saw.

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , | 34 Comments

Sunday Fungi: Ruby Carbuncles

Yes, it is a fungi. I think it could be King Alfred’s Cakes. Except I’d say it’s too pale. But maybe that’s because it’s wet. Fungi tend to change colour when dry.

IMG_8117 cp

Possibly King Alfred’s Cakes: 13 March 2018

And while I’ve titled the post Ruby Carbuncles, yet to me these weird fungi also resemble kidneys, bloodless kidneys.

Posted in Photos | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Let the Sun Shine In

good as gold #5

Marsh Marigolds: 11th April 2017

Not the photo I was going to post this week, but after a week of dreary grey skies, I reckon we needed some sun.

#2019picoftheweek challenge: Good as Gold


For details of #2019picoftheweek challenge  see MariaAntonia

Posted in Photos | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

CCC13: One Sunny Enclosure

gateintofeild1

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #13

‘Depression,’ the doctor diagnosed. ‘Founded on stress and anxiety.’

I laughed. ‘Nah, I’m not depressed. I’m happy as the sheep in their sun-drenched enclosure—just as long as I don’t open that gate.’

‘Well, there you are,’ said the doctor to me. ‘You can’t stay in the enclosure; you’ve a life to be led.’

Her words rumbled around, dark and threatening as midnight thunder. A life to be led.

Nah, no way. No high-talking herdsman is leading me.


Written for Crimson’s Creative Challenge #13
Words: 78

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , , | 34 Comments

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #13

gateintofeild1

CCC#13

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)
If you tag it #CCC others should be able to find it by ‘Searching’ in the WP Reader (fingers crossed)

Here’s wishing you inspirational explosions. And FUN.

Details of the photo are given, if relevant, below this line

Posted in Crimson's Creative Challenge, Photos | Tagged , | 23 Comments

It serves you …

wool gathering

Wool-gathering in the shade: 31st May 2017

Ouch!’ Laurie yelped and sucked her finger.

‘Wuzz! That don’t hurt,’ said her sister Louisa.

‘Yea? You try stabbing your pinky on a vicious thorn bush.’

‘Well, it serves you, don’t it. Wool-gathering while gathering wool.’


For those not country-bred, when the weather warms before the sheep are shorn, to relieve the heat and the itch, the sheep will rub up against anything rough. In days of yore the local children collected those tiny tassels of wool, gather enough and it might earn them some money.

Written for Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: 36 words.

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , | 21 Comments

His Bitch

His Bitch

Manhattan by Stefan Lundberg on Google Maps

Robert stood back, his job for this morning done, and watched as a doorman materialised to hold open the door. Anxious now … Tessa was new to the business, would she stumble? Embarrassed, would she look to him?

Come on, my girl, you can do it. Stop there, you’ve hit the mark.

Part in, part out of the canopy’s shade, the low sun showed her black locks to perfection. He’d been up since dawn, washing, oiling, grooming that hair.

But look at her. Isn’t she something!

She posed for the cameras. Nothing forced, no pulled-in belly, no pushed-out chest; not like those Hollywood bitches. She pulled her head up, a sleek line from her black nose through her throat to her chest.

Robert smiled to himself. She was his bitch. Contessa, the new Lassie. And though movies were a bitch of a business, together they’d nail it.


Written for What Pegman Saw.

Wordcount 147

Posted in Mostly Micro | Tagged , | 21 Comments

Asaric Tales e-book Update #15

asarictalesupdate15

The Spinner’s Child (WT: Asaric Lies)

At the last update, I reported this (Book One) had now received what I thought was the last of its edits. Ha! Who forgot about the line-edit? Me. But that now is done.

And so, with The Spinner’s Child retitled and locked down, now’s the moment of the big reveal.

thespinner27schildcover3

Design by Lauren Willmore (copyright)

Book Covers by Lauren Willmore

I can praise Lauren for so many things: she’s great as a beta reader and critique partner, and has become a good friend. But words escape me when it comes to her book covers. This first was by way of sample. And she nailed it in one. But I needed five covers, and they needed to show these five books were part of a series. Could she deliver? She did.

While Lauren can still be found at Under One Cloud, she has now launched her own blog, with her second post due to publish today; check her out at LaurenWillmore.com

And now for the next reveal.

Lake of Dreams (WT: Asaric Axis)

This second book in the (retitled) The Spinner’s Game series has now received its last few tweaks and, as with Book One, has enjoyed a deep line-edit.

And so, with the book now retitled Lake of Dreams and locked down, here comes another big reveal.

lakeofdreamscover3

Design by Lauren Willmore (copyright)

Asaric Skies (Book Three)

I have two beta-readers yet to return their comments on the last part of this book (part 5 of 5) and I’m hoping to receive them shortly. Then, as with the previous books, I’ll let that stand for a while, while I ready Book Four for the next round of beta-reading.

So far, this back-burner technique has worked out well. It allows time for the betas’ comments to percolate and where revisions are needed, for those to take form in my mind. On return to the book, the rewrite tends to roll along. With the revision/rewrite complete I shall put that book out for a final beta-read.

By slow steps do we progress.

Asaric Sons (Book Four)

I’ve not had much chance to work on this further since the last update, and I’m itching to get on with it.

To recap, I have double-checked the details, the astronomy, the continuity, and replaced hastily deleted scenes, deleted extraneous words, changed imperfect to perfect wherever possible. I have checked every scene serves a purpose and drives the plot on (though doubtless the beta-readers will still pick me up on something). Also, I have applied Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat! Writes a Novel structure (yep, all measures up).

I now have loads of notes that need processing, some small, some tiny, and a few that are .. big. All of which ought to keep me occupied for the next month or so.


The next e-book update … Sunday 3rd March.

Posted in On Writing, The Spinner's Game | Tagged , , , , , , | 26 Comments