Photo by ON MY BLUE JEANS on Unsplash
Crowded highways gave way to rural roads, and she walked onward. Roads became dirt trails, and then a narrow path nobody followed. The vista beckoned, and she walked onward.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Called
Source: Weekend Writing Prompt # 200 — Vista
Objective: Write a poem or piece of prose in exactly 29 words
Photo by Vitto Sommella on Unsplash
Title: Perspective
Source: Weekend Writing Prompt # 195 — Gargantuan
Objective: Write a poem or piece of prose in exactly 96 words
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“It’s too much.” My words floated between us and wrenched the remaining oxygen from my lungs. The acrid taste of anger lingered on my tongue, and I sunk deeper into grandpa’s wooden kitchen chair.
He patted my knee, crooked his finger, and I followed. He led me to a magical land where massive tree trunks, 100 feet in circumference, supported treetops that played among the clouds.
“Sequoiadendron giganteum,” he whispered. “They have lived here since prehistoric time, and these are three thousand years old.”
I contemplated everything the trees had seen, and my gargantuan problems disappeared.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: The Lay of the Land
Source: Weekend Writing Prompt # 166 – Hinterland
Objective: Write a poem or piece of prose in exactly 87 words
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The story repeats in predictable fashion. A hopeful soul blazes through the pristine wilderness, searching for his breakthrough discovery. With luck, his reward is exotic birds, diverse species of rare orchids, and unique animals. Excited, he shares the wonder.
Tiny frontier towns sprout in the hinterland to provide the curious with accommodations while they conduct their research. A steady stream marks the beginning of an erosion that culminates in a deluge. In time, they conserve the endangered and priceless treasures in an isolated park of utopian hell.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Bosco Verticale
Source: Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story to show what it is to protect nature around us.
Word count: 99 words
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Stefano lifted the heavy portfolio in his hand and swiped his forearm across his sweaty brow. A city bus whooshing past momentarily offered a welcome breeze followed by the acrid aftertaste of hot exhaust. Concrete, glass, and steel, absorbed, intensified, and reflected the summer heat.
As a child, Nonna told him tales of long-ago country summers. Tree leaves danced in gentle breezes, birds sang, and the earth cradled soft blue skies.
He featured urban forestation and nature in his architectural designs. Trees, shrubs, and perennials festooned every design, and he proudly wore the title of The Baron in the Trees.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: A Losing Battle
Source: Friday Fictioneers sponsored by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Word count: 100 words
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Be wary, my dear creative friend, when you say you wish to explore the seductive call of the arts. If your conviction is not solid, if your resolve is not resolute, if your ethics are not steadfast, clear, and true, then my advice to you is to run. Run, before it is too late.
Once you dip your brush, your pen, your sword, your soul is forever colored, consumed, altered.
Oblivion lurks at the bottom of a paint can, time becomes malleable, and insignificant thoughts recede.
Art has left me desperate and my car keys have been missing for weeks.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Undercurrents
Source: Weekend Writing Prompt # 167 – Nuance
Objective: Write a poem or piece of prose in exactly 52 words.
Photo by Tom van Hoogstraten on Unsplash
Our boat perched upon the quiet, mist-shrouded lake.
“Don’t expect to feel the colors, to see nuance,” the ancient fisherman’s surreal voice matched the monochrome scene.
“Sunrise fractures innocence. Only then will you appreciate the beauty we’ve lost.”
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Attaining “High Flight” and “Slipping the Surly Bonds”
Source: Friday Fictioneers sponsored by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple
Word count: 100 words
PHOTO PROMPT © Jean L. Hays
I identified the target. No one noticed the woman with a stroller. The device in my pocket would disrupt any surveillance cameras, but I still needed a diversion.
Stalling, I cooed to the baby. A panel van heading toward me promised the perfect cover for my heist. Timing was everything. I resumed my walk, activated the disruptor, and counted. The truck and my stroller converged at the package.
With payment confirmed, I dropped the package in the black sedan’s trunk. Safe from prying eyes, I removed my mask, hat, sunglasses, and wig. Since the virus, disguises were so much easier.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Lofty Undertaking
Source: Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story about justice for all.
Word count: 99 words
Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash
Skyscrapers defined the canyon walls of Anders’ world. Imposing shadows modulated light and dark and framed his existence. He marched predictable paths that left him stuck in mechanized monotony.
Searching for more, his friends convinced him to kayak a Norwegian fjord. Landmasses dwarfed anything he had ever seen. The guides told stories of massive sperm whales, sixty feet long and weighing eighty tons, that ate giant squid who swam four thousand feet below his kayak’s thin fiberglass shell.
Anders imagined he was the whale, diving deep, he hunted dark waters. He breached the surface, reborn, and ready to soar.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Attaining “High Flight” and “Slipping the Surly Bonds”
Source: Friday Fictioneers sponsored by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields-Addicted to Purple
Word count: 100 words
PHOTO PROMPT © Ronda Del Boccio
“You’re full of hot air.”
“Who do you think you are?”
“You can’t.”
“You’ll never—”
Eyes closed, I clap my hands over my ears, hum to drown the sound of their echoing fear, and search for the quiet cry.
Creativity, inner voice, muse, true self, she answers to many names.
Squashed, derided as child’s play, and nothing more than popsicle sticks, school glue, and glitter, she retreated.
I had rejected false experts, and I resolved to change. I hitched my life to Creativity with a capital “C,” vowed to prove the naysayers wrong, and I floated towards the stars.
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Title: Take It All Back
Source: Flash Fiction Challenge
Prompt: Write a story about justice for all.
Word count: 99 words
Photo by Samuel Castro on Unsplash
It should have been a simple assignment. A modest portrait of his patron’s daughter. While he didn’t like children as his subject, the commission promised to launch his budding career.
Except, when she showed for her appointment, she wasn’t a child. She was no blushing bride-to-be, but a temptress with a siren’s song. Engaged, another man’s prize, she exchanged the poor artist’s heart with her own. Forbidden love blossomed.
There was only one solution.
“I cannot do her justice,” he declared, “For all our sakes, take these godforsaken sketches, and I will try to forget I ever met her.”
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Keep on writing.
Jo Hawk The Writer
Jo Hawk 