Sitting at my desk in the dining room, I was quickly scrolling through the album covers provided by Mish in her post. I’d already decided on a cover but was ensuring I was missing out on a better idea by being my usual hasty self.
TC, aka hubby dearest, came up behind me and stared at the screen. “What are you doing?”
Oh no, I thought, caught in the act. TC loves music, bands, and cover albums.
“I’m just picking a top 100 album cover to write about. It’s for a poetry prompt. But I’ve already decided on the cover I’m going to use,” I reply.
I knew I had no chance of being spared a long music conversation.
“Let me take a look. I’ll help you choose,” he said.
And so, we spent 90 minutes looking at every cover in the top 100. TC told me about the band and his favourite songs and even made some comments about some of the cover artists. It was a lovely bonding session, and I might even remember some of the songs.
My cover remained the second one on the list. No 99:
Fire engine red
Fire engine red
First blossoms of September
Whispering of warmth
Tiny hearths burning brightly
Dispelling winter’s cold grip
***
Joy uplifts my heart
As spring welcomes her first guest
Fire engine red
Anointing slim limbs stripped bare
Miracle of renewal
***
Photographer tries
To capture cheerful splendour
Fire engine red
Creating bright memories
To inspire another day
***
Thoughts of Noddy toys
Moulded plastic car and hat
Fire engine red
My children’s fantasy play
Inspired by tiny figures
***
Fire engine red
Harmless playset of childhood
replaced with real car
Symbol of independence
Oldest son embraces spring
Colleen wrote a post entitled: What is a Rensaku? You can find it here: https://tankatuesday.com/2024/10/09/what-is-rensaku/. My poem isn’t a Rensaku (or it could be as I didn’t read the instructions very carefully), but it is inspired by the idea of a repeated line in a series of tanka poems.
This is the tree which inspired this poem:
Picture caption: Flame Tree
Thursday Doors
Staying with the ‘red’ theme, a few more doors photographs from the Rijksmuseum and some red inspired paintings.
Picture caption: gates to the tunnel past the entrance to the RijksmuseumPicture caption: The door into the Rijksmuseum from the lobbyPicture caption: Middle part of the painting: The Battle of Waterloo which isn’t clear in my YT video below.
Picture caption: Portrait of Martinus Alewijn by Dirck Dircksy van SandtvoortPicture caption: Isaac blessing Jacob by Govert FlinckPicture caption: Isaac and Rebecca, Known as “The Jewish Bride” by Rembrandt van RijnPicture caption: The Wardens of the Amsterdam Drapers’ Guild known as “The Syndics” by Rembrandt van Rijn
Picture caption: Tour banner for the Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow by WordCrafter Press
About Midnight Garden: Where Dark Tales Grow
Picture caption: Cover of The Midnight Garden featuring an owl on a bench
17 authors bring you 21 magnificent dark tales. Stories of magic, monsters and mayhem. Tales of murder and madness which will make your skin crawl. These are the tales that explore your darkest Midnight Garden… if you dare.
Three lucky winners will receive a digital copy of Midnight Garden in a random drawing following the tour. All you have to do to enter is follow the tour and leave a comment at each stop that you visit.
If you miss a stop, you can go back and visit through the links in the schedule below. (Links won’t work until the stop goes live).
Schedule
Monday – October 7 – M.J. Mallon: Interview & Reading from “The Seagull Man” – Writing to be Read
Tuesday – October 8 – Danaeka Scrimshaw: Inspiration for “The Fae Game” & Denise Aparo: Reading from “Jack Moon & the Vanishing Book” – Roberta Writes
Wednesday – October 9 – Joseph Carabis: Reading of “The Last Drop” & Inspiration for “Striders” – Paul Martz
Thursday – October 10 – Paul Martz: Reading & Inspiration for “The Blackest Ink” – Writing to be Read
Friday – October 11 – Molly Ertel: Inspiration for “Antipenultimate” & Abe Margel: Inspiration for “My Balance” – Kyrosmagica
Saturday – October 12 – Paul Kane: Inspiration for “Drip Feed” & Joseph Carrabis: Reading of “Grande Ture” – Undawnted
Sunday – October 13 – DL Mullan: Reading from “Kurst” & Ell Rodman: Inspiration for “The Drummer” – BookPlaces
Monday – October 14 – Joseph Carrabis: Reading of “The Exchange” & Inspiration for “The Tomb” – Writing to be Read
The book trailer for Midnight Garden introduces the themes and authors.
Inspiration for “The Fae Game”, by Danaeka Scrimshaw
When I heard about the submission opportunity for Midnight Garden in early January, I set it aside. I was going through a divorce and had stopped writing three months prior to this opportunity, due to both the stresses of the divorce process and my own lingering depression. As January turned into February and I had been going to therapy, I started to wonder what happened to us. How could someone I thought I married be so different now? Or was I just that oblivious? I felt like someone switched them to someone nefarious with their own hidden agenda.
That idea percolated for a month until my critique group started talking about the impending deadline for the submission. I had started feeling better in March and was dabbling in writing again because it was the only thing that had been keeping me sane for the last five years and I didn’t want to lose it. The ideas about switching led me to the old stories of the fae switching babies at birth or taking over adult lives, but I wasn’t sure how that would play into a unique short story. And then I recalled from my childhood, a time when my best friend and I played a game with his little sister. She had always insisted on playing with us, but we were three and five years older than her and not interested in her games. One day we came up with this game of pretend, where we blindfolded her and described a portal to another world. We walked her through a fantastical underground world by the sea. She ate up every word and believed it wholly, and we were having too much fun to think about playing with a little kid.
That game was not scary, but I saw the potential to mash together both the idea of a world beyond traveled to via a child’s game of pretend, and nefarious fae switching. The Fae Game was born from those ideas.
Picture caption: Promotional banner for The Fae Game by Danaeka Scrimshaw
About Danaeka Scrimshaw
Picture caption: Author picture of Danaeka Scrimshaw
Danaeka Scrimshaw has been writing for six years in the speculative fiction genre. They have two short stories published and are a finalist in the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Literary Contest for a YA portal fantasy, Worlds of Fire and Glass. The story is a funny, riveting tale about a young, hard-of-hearing girl trying to prove to herself that she can save her best friend from evil mages in parallel dimensions. They live with their three Boston Terriers in Castle Rock, CO. Find their author page on Facebook.
Reading Excerpt of “Jack Moon and the Vanishing Book” by Denise Aparo
About Denise Aparo
Picture caption: Author picture of Denise Aparo
Denise Aparo is a New England native, born and raised in the clockmaking city of Bristol, Connecticut. She lives with her husband, Joe, and they have five grandchildren. She is also a freelance writer who spends her time working on her novel and writing short stories. She also spends her time gardening, crafting, and crocheting.
Denise likes to write Paranormal Fiction, genre of Historical Fantasy. She recently completed her first novel, Crossbows. She has a Masters of Arts in English and a Fine Arts/Creative Writing with concentration in Fiction from Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and a member of Sigma Tau Delta, International English Honor Society, and The National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Alpha Pi, with SNHU.
She is a member of the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association (CAPA) and the author of a new WordPress writing blog, The Write Voice, The Write Voice | The write voice at the write time, a blog that boasts, “Like multiple genres, there are many cultures – each with an individual voice.”
Denise’s story, “The Pines” is featured in the 2023 Midnight Roost: Weird and Creepy Stories anthology from WordCrafter Press.
Picture caption: Front entrance of the Rijksmuseum in AmsterdamPicture caption: Back of the RijksmuseumPicture caption: The Canal by Pieter Gerardus van OsPicture caption: Forest Scene by Barend Cornelis KoekkoekPicture caption: Monk Meditating near a Ruin by Moonlight by Frederik Marinus Kruseman
Sunflower Tanka Journal
Colleen Chesebro and I are editorial partners for a new Sunflower Tanka Journal. You can find the details here:
Punam is hosting Tuesday’s Fall (in) love d’Verse poetry prompt. We are tasked with writing an a poem about the fall. In South Africa fall is called autumn and we are now in spring. I am a seasonal writer so this is a poem I wrote in April when it was fall here.
Photo caption: Our local dam during the autumnPicture caption: hartebeeste standing in the autumn grassPicture caption: Young zebra in the autumn grassPicture caption: Young lion in the autumn grass. Such great camouflage
I had the splendid good fortune to see a rare brown hyena during our recent trip to Madikwe. Seeing a brown hyena has been on my bucket list for years so I was beyond excited. I got some good shots, although they were at a distance because brown hyenas are very shy and solitary. I am sharing about them today so you can share my joy.
I am very excited to be hosting my good blogging friend, Craig Boyack, today with a peep into his new book, Tracks of Infinity. I have read several of Craig’s supernatural fantasy books and love them.
Take it away, Craig!
Guest post: Tracks of Infinity by C.S. Boyack
Thanks for the invitation, Robbie. I don’t get out much these days, but have a new story to tell everyone about.
If you know anything about me (Or even if you don’t), I always require something weird in my stories. I write science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural tales. This one is no different, but is a bit harder to pigeonhole. If I have to call it something, I suppose science fiction is the closest.
Years ago a dear friend named Staci Troilo taught me about mystery boxes. I tucked this into a far corner of my brain and always wanted to try it as a story method. I never wound up with the right plot until this one showed up.
This style requires a question to be asked, and the answer reveals an even bigger question. Readers can follow this trail of mystery boxes to a fairly exciting story. That is what I did with this plot.
In that regard this is also a mystery. We make covers and blurbs for a reason so let’s drop those here.
Picture caption: Cover of Tracks of Infinity by C.S. Boyack featuring a fascinating footprint
Blurb
Jenny’s life is in upheaval. Her only child, Cody, is getting on with his young adult life, and has a girlfriend Jenny is unsure of. Her career at the news station is in jeopardy in a push to get more diverse and younger at the same time.
She wants to be an investigative reporter, but it seems they’ve been relegated to the Stone Age. Gossip, celebrities, and local interest is the order of the day.
In desperation, she accepts an off-camera job to retain her paycheck at all. This is when she discovers that mergers and acquisitions over the decades have left the station with a long history of old news tales in the basement. Could a cold case be something she could focus on in her spare time?
She and her son glean through ancient manila envelopes to find something of interest. Cody needs to make a drive in the country to pass college geology, and decides they might as well go to the location in one of the old stories. Mother and son make a day of it.
What they discover isn’t something either of them expected. Who can she turn to for help and guidance in the dying art of investigative journalism? Will Jenny be able to market a story like this at all? Who are the strange thugs that seem to be tracking their every move, and what are they up to?
The answers to these questions and more are revealed in Tracks of Infinity.
The weirdness in this one comes from the question of whether there are aliens out there, and whether they have been on our planet. What is actually out there when we look up at the stars at night?
Aside from that, Jenny has to figure out how to market a story like this one. The deck is stacked against her.
I hope your fans will give this one a chance. I also hope we get some fun comments today. I’ll be checking them sporadically for the next few days.
My thanks to talented author, Stephen Geez, for host me with this post about The Abbot’s Kitchen, Glastonbury Abbey. One of the short stories in my short story collection, And the Grave Awaits, starts in this kitchen.
roberta-writes.com 