Sparks

Journey

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Journey By Pam Hiller The first leg of our trip to Nashville began with a Thursday afternoon flight. As Jon spent the three hours attending to job details on his laptop, I found myself increasingly staring at cloudscapes from my window seat. Snow covered mountaintops appeared to float on a sea of white clouds. Sunset over New Mexico’s red rock formations astounded with light, shadows, reflections, as earth and sky interacted. Dusk’s purple light soothed west Texas plains where vein-like rivers flowed. The night sky, increasing lightning flashes on the horizon, thrilled as our plane was diverted from Dallas to Wichita Falls. A question began emerging in my mind and heart. I felt myself a part of the grandeur, the immense mystery I was observing. On the other hand, it was apparent that an individual life…

Just Write

Just Do It

Do it! Do it in secret or in the open, do it with your heart. Share what you care to share and process the rest into more writing, or painting, or dancing, or living your everyday life. Don’t worry too much about a final product, there isn’t one, even when you call a piece done and, say, publish it. It could always be refined, rewritten. Get on to something and pursue it as many times, in as many ways as it takes it for you to feel done with it—for a while, at least—decide if and what you want to share, when and how, and start a new one. Christine Renaudin lives, writes, and paints in Petaluma, CA. She is also a dancer and performs occasionally in the Bay Area. She likes to mix art forms and makes a living teaching literature, creativity, and performance. Originally published in The Write…

Sparks

Water

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Water By Susie Moses All summer long I yearn to be in water. First choice – A freshwater lake, cool and clear, minerally, soothing to the skin. Quiet, still. Maybe at times a whitecap or two, but no big waves, just gentle undulations, giving the swimmer a sense of massage. A tickle of weedy underwater growth against a foot, a small fish swishing by a shin. Avoiding the mucky bottom.  Second choice – An East Coast ocean, edged by wide white sandy beach stretching for miles along the shoreline. Sweet breezes, bright white pelicans in formation against the stunningly azure sky. Watching them drop like stones into the waves to spear a fish each had been keeping an eye out for. Venturing into the water as it laps onto the hard sand, toes tickled by the…

Places to submit

Beloit Fiction Journal

Beloit Fiction Journal is open to literary fiction on any subject or theme from now to November 16, 2021. Stories up to 13,000 words. Flash Fiction is fine. Beloit showcases new writers as well as established writers. Guidelines & Submissions Due to the cost of maintaining the online submission platform, Beloit Fiction Journal charges a service fee of $3 per submission.

Prompts

I could never . . . Prompt #599

Writing Prompt. Choose one and Just Write. I could never get rid of . . . I could never like . . . I could never go to . . . I could never eat . . . I could never get over feeling guilty about . . . I could never forget . . . Pick one or make up your own:I could never . . . This writing prompt is from “The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing: Discoveries” along with 57 other writing prompts. Discoveries is on sale for $6.99 at Amazon for a limited time. ereader is $2.99 or free on Kindle Unlimited.

Sparks

What energizes you?

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. What Energizes You? By Bonnie Koagedal Energy is everywhere. We are made of life energy. A person can influence their life, health and others by sending energy through thought. I call these thoughts: prayers without movement. Still mindfulness is a prayer. Thoughts are energy similar to words. They carry power and pain. These teachings came to me recently as the pandemic shutdown escorted me into quiet times in one place called home. These teachings were told to me years and years ago. I did not grasp the fullness or capacity of energy through thought until the shutdown. This time was my vision quest. When we can become no thing, no place, no thought as Joe Dispenza teaches we can affect our energy above and beyond our bodies. I was fascinated and obsessed for several months about…

Sparks

Mycorrhiza

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Mycorrhiza* by Patricia Morris I live under the canopy of a grandmother valley oak. It grows in what is now called “my neighbor’s yard,” due to the way we white settlers swept through this what-is-now-called a nation over the past 300 years and took over everything. Massacred people who were living here, infected them with deadly diseases, tried to re-make them in our image. Declared that we “owned” the land, bought and sold it; built structures to live in, structures that got bigger and more permanent as time passed; built fences to delineate MINE. But before all this, there was the valley oak. Like all oaks, it began as an acorn, scrunched into the dirt next to a small seasonal creek. Its roots sank deeper each year, reaching for the water. Its mycorrhizal fungi spread wide,…

Sparks

An Exercise in Barbecuing

Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. This Sparks page on my website, The Write Spot, is, hopefully, a place for entertaining, fun, and enlightening reading. “An Exercise in Barbecuing” by DS Briggs is one of the funnier stories in Discoveries. The Write Spot to Jumpstart Your Writing Discoveries is for sale for a limited time for $6.99 An Exercise in Barbecuing DS Briggs Very recently I leapt into the world of backyard barbecuing. For years I have secretly wanted to learn to barbecue. In my family it was always my Dad’s domain. However, I love grilled foods and got tired of waiting for Mr. WeberRight to BBQ for me. I proudly acquired a very big, shiny new Weber BBQ. It came with a grown-up sized grill width of twenty-two and a half inches. I dubbed my new friend “Big Boy.” Unfortunately, for me,…

Places to submit

Crab Creek Review

Crab Creek Review was founded by Linda Clifton in 1983. The publication is a perfect-bound print literary journal featuring poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Reading period: September 15 through November 15. The editors seek original, unpublished poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Only original, previously unpublished work will be considered. Submission Guidelines Poetry Send up to four poems, no more than eight pages total. FictionSend one piece up to 5,000 words or up to three pieces of flash fiction/lyric prose fiction. We are interested in all types of stories, though sometimes suspicious of those in which genre conventions overshadow literary concerns. Still: please surprise us. Creative NonfictionSend one piece up to 3,000 words or up to three micro-essays (750 words max) per submission period. We’re looking to publish fresh perspectives from diverse voices. We want to read exceptional narratives that illuminate the range of bitter and sweet that is human existence….