Happy Valentine’s Day or Galentine’s Day or Friday or whatever your preference is.
I’m afraid the holiday has caught me a bit by surprise. I usually like to do a little holiday-themed decorating, but this year the assortment of random sized and colored hearts never even made it out of the storage box in the garage. To be completely honest, there are still a few random Xmas decorations up around the house. Guess I’ll just go directly to Marci Gras or St. Patrick’s -whichever comes next.
Though I don’t have any Valentine’s decorations around the house, I do have my writing notebook and pen ready and waiting for me to put them to use. I think I’ll start with today’s writing prompt and/or random words..
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 random words and writing prompt will catch your creative fancy.
Ready?
Note: Today’s story prompt and random words come to us from a comment Kay made on my Wednesday love story post. I hope you have fun with them.
What if: “Your character takes Valentine’s Day into his/her own hands?
Feel free to interpret the “What if” any way you choose (or ignore it completely) and include any (or all) of the following random words:
murder cook poison smother
feckless police chocolate rose
boyfriend finally strawberry pillow
husband smack frozen champagne
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 had to do this, because, hey, I inspired the alternative Valentine’s Day sentiment. But then, as I was writing, Things Changed…
A Valentine’s Day Surprise
Olivine Beeks leaned back in the warm bath, champagne and a rose-colored plate of chocolate strawberries at her elbow, the pillow behind her head. It was finally time to think about how to murder her feckless husband in such a way that the police would never figure it out.
Or at least, figure out that it was she who had done the deed. She’d pin the crime on her equally feckless boyfriend, who deserved what he got even more than that frozen-in-time husband. The man who poisoned everything he touched.
That gave her an idea. Poison, that was the ticket.
She could cook his favorite meal: a doughnut burger and ambrosia salad, a terrible combination of jell-o with whipped cream and marshmallow fluff. She’d been feeding him this meal for a month, but so far, he hadn’t succumbed to heart failure or cholesterol overdose. Tonight she’d add some poison to the jell-o. Yeah, that would work. He’d never taste it there.
And then, if the poison didn’t work, she could smother him in his sleep. After a hearty meal of doughnut burgers, he always fell asleep in front of the TV. That would work. He’d never know what hit him.
Unless she smacked him upside the head with the frying pan after she made the doughnut burgers! That would work. He’d barely feel a thing.
She ate one of the strawberries. It tasted funny, but maybe that was the chocolate. They probably had to heat it up too much, and it changed the flavor. Yeah, that was probably it.
It sure tasted funny, though.
Oooh. .. . I love what you did with the words, Kay. Especially that ending. Now the only question is: who made those strawberries?
As for that ambrosia salad – I’m pretty sure I had that once or twice when visiting relatives back in Minnesota/Wisconsin 🙂
That ambrosia salad is a real thing. I never much liked Jell-O myself, but I sure did see a lot of it when I lived back there. How can anybody call something like that a salad? Dessert is one thing, but salad—-no.
LOL! That is GREAT! I was going to say, “You know, Olivine, when everyone around you is feckless, you might have to consider the possibility that YOU are the feckless one.” The ending is such cosmic justice!
Yeah, as I went along, I thought she was cruising for a bruising!