Last Day of Summer Spot

It is said that a "picture paints a thousand words."

Sometimes the words don't actually fit the story. lol

The last day of summer... We took the dogs for a ride to a nearby park. The weather was gorgeous, trying to fool us into thinking that summer will linger and winter may never come. But Dave and I have lived far too long to be fooled into believing such things. Not that our hearts aren't willing... :-)

As we rounded a bend coming up the hill from the boat launch, the frame of trees, sky, and water was unavoidable, begging for a camera to be pointed its way. All it needed was something to tug at the heart. Two old people sitting on the bench, holding hands.

Well, since there weren't any old people around (wink wink) Dave and I had to do.

He sat on the bench, holding the dogs' leashes. I put the camera on the roof of the car and set the self-timer for the longest possible setting--10 seconds. Sounds like a long time, huh?
When I pushed on the shutter button, I'd yell, " Okay!" Then as I ran to beat the band toward the bench, Dave counted out loud, "Ten. Nine. Eight..."

Five photos later, along with one photo of a woman's retreating silhouette, and one photo of the same woman who could have just as easily been playing baseball--hanging onto the right side of the bench as she is rounding first heading full-tilt for second, there are only photos of Dave, alone on the bench.

We traded places. I guess I'm not the sprinter I used to be. Wait...I mean I'm still not the sprinter that I never was. ;-)

Dave must have worn his running shoes. Two photos later, we got this shot.

Weekend Writing Warriors September 11, 2016

Hello fellow Warriors (and Snippeteers)! :-)  September 11...

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly bloghop.  Each week, participants sign up HERE at wewriwa.com, then post 8 to 10 sentences of their work, published or unpublished, on their own blog to go live before 9:00 AM Sunday EST. (We check signups and remove links when we don't find a wewriwa post-- to save our participants from clicking on empty links--so please have it live by 9:00 Sunday morning--eastern USA) Then we visit each other and read, comment, critique, encourage--all those things that do a solitary writer's heart good. Snippet Sunday group from facebook--not us, but many of our participants do both, can be found  HERE.               

This week's snippet: We're back to our main character,  Lily, and her dog Jobe, in a holding cell on an alien ship. They've met up with other humans, all from France. Jean is one of them. The alien who abducted her (Dev Areen)has just begun recruiting prisoners (for what??) by promising them extra food, better food. An enormous creature  volunteered. Last week's snippet ended with this: "Metal bracelets graced its ankles and wrists; broken bits of chain dangled from each."

We continue from there... Please forgive creative punctuation.

Dev Areen’s men raised their weapons, but it had no effect on this one. Lily silently cheered when the guards took several steps back to avoid contact with the huge thing. She crossed her fingers that it would crush Dev Areen right where he was holding his pompous court.

It was not her day. She could have lived with that, but then it really turned out to not be her day.  Blue-black pointed at her and said, “You will come.”

Her knee-jerk reaction was to tell him no, but if he just left Jobe alone she could bear nearly anything. She turned to Jean and asked in a hushed voice, “Please keep Jobe. This bastard has promised to kill him, and if I don’t come back, please take care of him?”

That's it for this week. What works and what doesn't? I'm grateful for every bit of feedback you share.

From Flight 93 Memorial: Note* "and unborn". That broke my heart.
Humans...capable of such beauty, such kindness, generosity and love.

Humans...capable of the vilest expressions of evil...

 

Weekend Writing Warriors: September 4, 2016

 

Hello fellow Warriors (and Snippeteers)! :-)  Hope everyone in the states is having a good Labor Day weekend. And I hope everyone else is having a good early September weekend. :-)

Weekend Writing Warriors is a weekly bloghop.  Each week, participants sign up HERE at wewriwa.com, then post 8 to 10 sentences of their work, published or unpublished, on their own blog to go live before 9:00 AM Sunday EST. (We check signups and remove links when we don't find a wewriwa post-- to save our participants from clicking on empty links--so please have it live by 9:00 Sunday morning--eastern USA) Then we visit each other and read, comment, critique, encourage--all those things that do a solitary writer's heart good. Snippet Sunday group from facebook--not us, but many of our participants do both, can be found  HERE.               

This week's snippet: We're back to our main character,  Lily, and her dog Jobe, in a holding cell on an alien ship. The alien who abducted her  has just begun recruiting prisoners by promising them extra food, better food. An enormous creature just volunteered. Last week's snippet ended with this: "The guards drew weapons, slowing down the behemoth."

We continue from there...

In the bright light, Lily could see it from head to toe. She might have been a little more careful in the dark if she’d gotten a good look at it before now. Thick hair covered from the top of its head to its feet.  Shoe-less and in ragged clothes, it looked like someone had caught a Sasquatch and tried to domesticate it.

Dev Areen’s words yanked Lily from her thoughts. “Anyone else?” He stared at another large creature, naked skin in large rolls flopping on its frame. It stood and ambled his way, the single eye on its forehead never breaking contact with the alien in charge. Metal bracelets graced its ankles and wrists; broken bits of chain dangled from each.

That's it for this week. What works and what doesn't? I'm grateful for every bit of feedback you share.