If you’re reading this on Friday the 1st, are you celebrating National Wear Red Day?
Celebrated annually on the first Friday during the month of February, National Wear Red Day is a holiday in which men and women wear the color red to raise awareness about heart disease. It’s also a day in which women are encouraged to find out their five most important health numbers: Total Cholesterol, HDL Cholesterol, Blood Sugar, Blood Pressure and BMI (Body Mass Index). By knowing these numbers women can find out their risks for developing heart disease and take measures to prevent it.
I’m sure I’ll be red-in-the-face after I finish my workout at the gym – I wonder if that counts? Maybe I better wear the red-sneakers, just in case.
Since I already know my Five Most Important Health Numbers, I think I’ll focus on writing instead. Once I finish with work, the gym, and dinner, I’m going to give today’s “what-if” and random words a try.
Care to join me?
For those of you working away on a story (whether a first draft or a polished version on its way to publication), if you’re not feeling random, we’d love to hear a bit – whether it’s a scene, a paragraph, or even a phrase that you are especially pleased with and would like to share.
If you don’t have a story in progress, or just want to work on something new, I hope today’s story prompt and/or random words will catch your creative fancy.
Ready?
What if: “Your character found a magic lamp?”
Feel free to include any (or all) of the following random words:
dreamless cocoon eyetooth forest
guilt halfway stun key
mad academic hot queen
blame cuddle treasure flamboyant
I look forward to seeing your stories in the comments. If you’re not feeling in the writing mood today, or don’t have time, feel free to post suggestions you might have for future “what-if” prompts. Ideas are always welcome.
Happy writing to all!
Eight Ladies Writing 
I couldn’t get in “dreamless.” I almost got in “nightmare,” which I thought could be a suitable alternative, but…didn’t get that one in, either. Here we go!
The Snow Day
“I’d give my eyetooth to be out of the polar vortex,” Aubriana said to her sister Starla. The family had a penchant for flamboyant names, which Aubriana secretly loved but always said she didn’t.
The girls lay on their beds eating Oreos. It was Wednesday, and school—as well as sound nutritional choices—had been called off through the weekend because of the cold and snow.
“You’re mad,” Starla said, biting into her fifth cookie. “No one can blame us for not going to school. And we don’t have to feel guilty about it, either.”
“A sound academic background is the key to success,” Aubriana said, mimicking her high school guidance counselor, Mrs. Fisbee.
“Poo,” Starla said, rolling over onto her stomach. “I want to be queen of the universe, mistress of all I survey. I’ll get there, too.”
“You’re halfway there right now,” Aubriana said. “Since all you can survey is the bedspread. And a piece of the carpet.”
Starla rolled her eyes, snatching the cookies away as she cocooned under her blanket.
“Seriously, Oh,” she said. “Don’t you want to have adventures? Walk naked through forests? Swim with dolphins and cuddle cuttlefish? Search for hidden treasure? Wear stunning clothes and date hot guys?”
“Seriously?” Aubriana said. “I want—”
“Hey! Goofballs!” yelled Griswold, their older brother. He was a senior, so of course he thought he was a big hairy deal.
“Ignore him,” Aubriana advised.
“As if I’d do anything else,” Starla agreed.
“Mike and Logan and I are going to the toboggan run,” Griswold hollered. “Mom says I have to ask you brats to come along.”
Mike Perry and Logan Swinborne were the two coolest guys in school. No question.
“We just have to put on our boots!” yelled Aubriana.
“Let the adventure begin,” Starla said.
“Let the adventure begin”.
Fun story, Kay. Nothing like the opportunity to hang with the two coolest guys at school to make heading into the polar vortex appealing.
That’s what I thought! And only *very* cool guys would go tobogganing in the polar vortex. 🙂
In retrospect, I realize this story has some serious POV issues, but I take the “sprint” thing to heart—I try always to finish within an hour or less. It’s fun, but challenging. And results in POV issues and who knows what other problems. The idea is to have fun, right? (That’s Starla speaking.)
(-: Starla is a star! And Oreos sound like such a good idea . . . we didn’t have a snow day, but I sure wished for one.
Fun, fast and topical–I really enjoyed that! POV issues, like school and sound nutritional choices, can take a back seat 🙂
Can’t believe you write these things in an hour or less. I know they’re meant to be sprints, but even at racing speed I’m more of a tortoise than a hare.
I never go back, I always start without knowing where I’m going. I just pick a name and begin, and try to get a key word in every sentence, or at least every paragraph. It’s weird that I can do that for the sprints, when I can’t do it in my books.
Hadiz hadn’t seen an old-fashioned lamp like this in nearly three hundred years. It was stone, not bronze, and the seal was impressed with enough magic spells to imprison fifteen djini. He was tempted to toss it back into the forest, but the guilt got the better of him. He sighed, drew a circle on dirt trail, and put the lamp in the middle. Then he released the seal.
Smoke poured from the lamp and resolved itself into a flamboyant queen from Hadiz’s mother’s era. He recognized her from the scrolls that were under his mother’s fainting couch – Andromeda the Great, born Cyrus the Peasant. She was a black beauty in white shining samite, with a ruby in her left eyetooth. And she was mad and looking for someone to blame.
“I swore I would kill the person who released me!” she screamed, then bounced off the wards that Hadiz had set.
“Calm down, Andie,” Hadiz said. “You won’t be killing anyone today. I’ll let you free if you promise that.”
“Oh. You’re a djinn.” She pouted and twitched her long sleeves to the side. “Well, of course, I wouldn’t kill you.” She took a closer look. “You’re too pretty.”
Hadiz could feel his cheeks turning red, but he remembered the stages of release. Anger. Horniness. Next would come denial. “Why were you imprisoned, Andie? Who did this to you?”
“*I* did nothing. It was that lousy rat of a stage manager. I wouldn’t pay him the extra gold he demanded, and he cast me into the nearest stone lamp for all of eternity.”
“That’s an awful lot of wax and magic for ‘nothing’, Andie.”
(And then the chime rang, and I ran out of time, and now I don’t remember what I was writing. But . . . it was fun while it lasted!!)
Fun start, Michaleline. I love the stages of release bit. Anger. Hormones. Denial.
Thanks for playing along today.
Yay, Hadiz!! It’s been too long 😉
More, please!
(-:
I miss Hadiz, too. What a fun start! Maybe they’re in that park in Tokyo, and someone is playing the ukulele….