A Mother's Love

My story for the Three Word Wednesday prompt this week.

Even though Annabelle was young, she knew she would eventually be a good mother. She was convinced that if she was diligent and learned everything she could on the matter, that by the time the baby was born, she would be fine. Her mother wasn’t so sure.

“You’re only a child yourself. How will you raise one?” her mother had asked earlier.

“You were only 18 when you had me. Almost as much of an amateur as I am,” Annabelle replied. “And you didn’t do a bad job.”

“That’s debatable,” her mother snorted. “You are pregnant at 16.”

“That’s not your fault, Mom.”

“Maybe it is,” her mother said. “I worked all the time. Maybe I didn’t nurture you enough or give you enough attention.”

“No, Mom,” Annabelle assured her. She gave her mother a hug and then added, “I just wanted attention from John as well.”

Her mother laughed. “You certainly got it.”

Annabelle laughed too and mother and daughter held each other close.

Be True to Yourself

 My micro fiction piece for the Three Word Wednesday prompt this week.

Cindy was going to baffle all her father’s guests. She knew they expected her to show up in jeans and a t-shirt, but she had other plans. For once, she was going to be presentable.

“Ok, here goes nothing,” Cindy whispered to herself while she stood at the top of the stairs and looked down on the party. “You can do this.”

The partygoers never noticed how elegant she looked, because half way down the staircase she tripped. Cindy was sure that tumbling down a flight of stairs and ending up with your dress over your head tends to negate any positive image you wished to convey.

“Wear your sneakers next time,” her father said and winked as he helped her up. 

All my 3WW writers please check out this link. I am giving away an autographed copy of one of the Circle8Writers anthologies. Our anthologies contain short stories, flash fiction and poetry. There is sure to be something in them for everyone. All you have to do to enter is go to the Giveaway post and leave a comment with your name. The winner will be randomly selected at the end of the month. Good luck!

Giveaway!

Along with writing fiction for blogs, I am a member of Circle8Writers, a group of authors who collaborate on short story, flash fiction and poetry anthologies. In appreciation of all who read my storyboard blog, I am doing a giveaway of one of Circle 8’s anthologies.

On March 31, 2012, I will use an online randomizer to pick the winner from all entries. If you would like to enter to receive a free, autographed anthology, leave a comment with your name on this post. Whoever wins, can pick the anthology he or she wants from the following 6 Circle 8 Anthologies:

Consequences

Consequences: Crime and Punishment

Dark Christmas

Roses and Thorns

Mother’s & Other Strangers

Apocryphilia

Good luck and happy reading!

Know Thy Mother

My latest piece for Three Word Wednesday. Just one micro fiction story this time.


“You’re such a deviant,” Shell mocked. “As if that minuscule amount of alcohol will send you straight to hell. If you really want to shock your mother, find something less trivial. After all, she is a product of the sixties.”

A Crinkle in Plans

Here are my micro fiction's for Three Word Wednesday this week. Let me know which one you like best.

Story 1:

A crinkle formed on Charlie’s brow as he tried to navigate the busy intersection. A sudden demand from his GPS system turned the crinkle to an outright frown when he came to a stop just before hitting a newly constructed building.

Story 2:

It’s hard to navigate the twisting roads of a relationship. So many demands and mistakes put a crinkle in the love of even the best couples.

Story 3:

“I want crinkle fries,” was the demand Abby made while she and her mom navigated the frozen food section. “They hold ketchup better.”

Outside the Cabin

A friend of mine, Derek Odom, posted Outside the Cabin as a writing prompt on Facebook.  Here is the story I came up with off the prompt. I hope y'all enjoy it.

Shelly heard laughter tinkle in from outside the cabin. It was a beautiful day, sunny with a breeze off the water, and the other kids were out enjoying it. Not Shelly. She was staying inside. Where it was safe.

Shelly knew her mother would be disappointed when she found out, and she always found out. Shelly was convinced her mother had spies at camp. How else would she know everything Shelly did and didn’t do?

If only she would have let me stay home, Shelly thought for the thousandth time. I knew this was a bad idea. But, of course, her mother would hear nothing of it. “You have to go to camp, Shelly. All the other children at the club are going.” Shelly started to ask her mother if all the other kids jumped off a cliff would she want her to as well, but then thought better of it. She had heard somewhere not to ask a question you didn’t really want the answer to.

Things went downhill from the start. Actually, before the start. 

The other kids started tormenting Shelly on the bus ride to camp. 

First, it was the teasing. 

“Did your mom have to pay for two seats on the bus? That’s what they do for people like you on planes.” 

“Now that you’re here, we can reenact Moby Dick this year for the camp play.”

Then it got worse. The poking. “I just wanted to see if you’d pop.” And the ridicule. “Man, something sure does stink in here.” 

Shelly tried to block it all out, to not let it bother her, but she never really could. No matter how big she was, her skin never seemed to grow thicker. 

It had been three weeks now and nothing was better. Every day someone made fun of her. The camp counselors were no better. They made Shelly go swimming with the others, knowing what would happen, and they wouldn’t allow Shelly to wear shorts and a t-shirt. No, they made her wear the swimsuit her mother had sent. Shelly lost count of the number of times she heard beached whale. 

The games were the worst. Nobody wanted to pick Shelly for his or her team. That was fine for Shelly because she didn’t want to play anyway, but, of course, that was out of the question. She was picked by whoever chose last and then the fun really started. 

Shelly couldn’t run, shoot basketball or play any of the other games. Not that the other kids cared. They were only too happy to make sport of Shelly instead. She had more bruises than she could count and ached from head to toe. Shelly wondered if she would survive the next three weeks. 

While laughter flowed over her, Shelly cried. Yes, she would stay inside. It wasn’t safe outside the cabin.

Labor of Love

Here's my piece for the Three Word Wednesday prompt this week:

There’s no way I’ll be able to wear this, Janice thought, staring wistfully at the cute, pink thong Victoria Secret had on sale. At least not until I lose thirty pounds. She cried as she hit the delete button to cancel her order and pulled the elastic waistband of her granny panties away from her bulging tummy. I can’t wait to go into labor, she thought and her tears turned to laughter when she looked down at herself. Thirty pounds my ass. More like fifty.

Family Matters

My newest micro fiction piece for Three Word Wednesday. Hope y'all like this one.

Amber gave no thought to controlling the amount of pressure she applied to the flesh of her wrist with the razor. By that point, she was beyond caring how big a mess she made in her mother’s life.

Perspective

Three stories for the Three Word Wednesday prompt this week. Same plot, different versions. Which is your favorite?



Jarred thought he was ok until he felt a jolt, along with a surge of adrenaline, when he saw the parachute detach from the plane.


___________________________________________

With a jolt, the parachute detached from the plane, sending a surge of adrenaline through Jarred as he gazed at the ground approaching.

___________________________________________

Adrenaline surged through Jarred when he saw the parachute of the guy in front of him detach from the plane. With a jolt from behind, he realized he was next, and suddenly, he wasn’t so sure about this latest midlife crisis of his.

Near Miss

My micro fiction piece for the Three Word Wednesday prompt this week.


 

Jeremy was lucky to walk away with just a sliver of wood from the sled as a reminder of his near death experience. Were it not for a freak twist of fate, his downhill slide would have ended in disaster. Instead, his friends all had a good laugh when he barely clipped the tree and flipped head over heels.

Three for Three Word Wednesday

Here are three micro fiction pieces for the Three Word Wednesday prompt. I hope y'all like at least one of them.


 Heartache

Angie sat in the corner, a sullen pout marring her face where just yesterday a radiant smile resided. When anyone asked what was wrong, she replied, “It’s brutal when trust is broken,” and started crying. 

 Leap of Faith

“Trust me, it’ll be fun.” Mark said before jumping from the plane with a brutal jerk. Jamie held on for dear life, the sullen sky the only witness to her terror. 

 Trust Yourself

Deidre looked at her mother sitting on the front row of the church, a frown upon her face, and remembered the woman’s words from long ago. “The world is a scary, brutal place, Deidre. You have to be smarter and stronger than the rest to survive.” 

Deidre couldn’t remember the number of times her mother had pounded that fact into her head. “Never trust anyone,” was another bit of advice she doled out often.

But Deidre decided to ignore all her mother’s warnings. She demanded that life be fun, exciting and happy. Not that Deidre wasn’t smart…she was. She was smart enough to know her mother’s life had shaped her worldview, and that the sullen mood her mother was always in didn’t have to be life for her. 

Deidre was strong too. Strong enough to place her trust in another person, to give her heart to him. Because Deidre knew that life without love would be brutal indeed. 

A radiant smile covered Deidre’s face as she placed her hand in Micheal's, and she began the next stage of her life. Another quick look in her mother’s direction confirmed that nothing had changed, but Deidre didn’t care. With a deep breath, she spoke her vows and let the chips fall where they may.