Photo Prompt for 100-word Flash #FridayFictioneers

Here’s the photo prompt for this week’s Friday Fictioneer’s. I’m going to make excuses for it right off the bat. My son wondered if I’d use this picture of him and I couldn’t find a graceful way to get out of it so here it is. For me, at least, it’s going to be the most difficult writing prompt I’ve ever used. This kid refuses to read except where there is no other recourse. I’m hoping he’ll want to read these stories since I’ve given in to his incessant plea to post his picture for the inspiration:

I don't know why he's warming his bacon on the heater.

 

Why only 100 Words

100-words isn’t a *rule* and some of us write more than that. My goal is to have The Friday Fictioneers use 100-word stories as an exercise in choosing concise phrases and strong verbs. It’s an excellent way to show your stuff to the world without exposing too much. It’s okay if you use more words, but if it’s much more let us know in the comments so we’ll know how to allocate our time if we’re trying to read all the posts.

Put your best efforts on display for 100 words (more or less) and hop on board tomorrow with links back to your blog so we can all see what you’ve written. If you don’t have a blog of your own you are welcome to post your 100 words in the comment section of my story’s post tomorrow.

If you accidentally post your link here on this page today, you’ll miss out on a lot of the blog hopping because the action will be stemming from links on the story page tomorrow.

How to become a Fictioneer

1. Write a 100-word story (more or less, and it’s okay if you didn’t use this picture for inspiration)
2. Post your story to your blog on Friday (or just link to it tomorrow if you wrote earlier)
3. Comment on my story Friday and post a link to your story.
4. Tweet your link and include the tag #FridayFictioneers if you’re on Twitter.
5. Visit and comment on all the other stories that link to my story. If the comment forms allow, leave your link on all your comments, too so others can find you and us later on.
6. Check back often because participants post throughout the day. (Or as I often have to do, read and comment later in the evening after getting home from the dayjob.)
7. Get psyched up to do this again next week

You can click the tab at the top to read a little more about Friday Fictioneers.

I hope to see your creativity shining tomorrow!

Sliding on the downside

Yesterday I was so high on all the good things we’d done around the house and that I’d done by finishing my synopsis.

Today is the downhill trip, I guess. Last night I forgot to leave the water running hard enough to keep it from freezing in the lines on the mountain.

So guess what? No water this morning, neither cold nor hot. And the pessimism must be contagious because when I read over my finished synopsis… I hated it.

Sigh.

It’s going to be one of *those* kinds of days and possibly the rest of the week if there’s splits in the line due to freezing. If you don’t hear from me it’s because I don’t have anything nice to say.

 

***

later that morning…

Okay. Now that I’ve had a little distance from this morning’s irritation, it doesn’t feel like such the huge deal it was when I woke up. The job, if there is one to be done, isn’t that big. I’m trying to do all the homesteading things right while Rob is away on his job and it makes me frustrated when I mess up something so easily avoided. These are things I *can* handle on my own. I’m grateful nothing too big for me and the kids to do on our own has come up yet.

But I still hate my synopsis