Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Ascension Garden By Stacy Murison The first time, you drive by yourself. You have some idea you are going there, but are still surprised that you know the way, without her, through the turning and turning driveways. Left, left, left, left. Park near the rusted dripping spigot. The wind blows, unseasonably warm for November. You bring the candy bar, her favorite, the one from the specialty chocolate shop, the one with the dark chocolate and light green ribbon of mint. You try to eat yours, but instead, stare at hers, unopened, where you imagine the headstone will go and sob without sound while the wind French-braids your hair just as she would have, and that’s how you know she is here. She is still pushing cicada shells off white birch trunks with her toes, dancing around…
Author: mcullen
Marlene Cullen is enthusiastic about encouraging people to write, even those who think they can’t write. Her series of books, The Write Spot anthologies, features writing that entertains as well as inspires writing. Every story, vignette, and poem in The Write Spot books include writing prompts motivating readers to become writers.
Marlene hosts The Write Spot Blog, a treasure chest of inspirational gems for writers.
Fulfilling her passion for writing and sharing with others, Marlene has created unique writing environments such as Jumpstart Writing Workshops, where participants often experience transformational changes. Her workshops provide essential elements for successful writing.
Marlene is the founder of Writers Forum of Petaluma, a monthly literary event featuring presenters talking about the craft and business of writing.
Marlene's awarding winning short stories and essays have been published in literary journals, anthologies, and newspapers, including Tiny Lights, Building Bridges, More Bridges, Redwood Writers anthologies, and The Write Spot anthologies.
She is a member of the California Writer's Club.
River Teeth, A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative
River Teeth is a biannual journal combining the best of creative nonfiction, including narrative reportage, essays and memoir, with critical essays that examine the emerging genre and that explore the impact of nonfiction narrative on the lives of its writers, subjects, and readers. River Teeth: An Introduction by David James Duncan When an ancient streamside tree finally falls into its bordering river, it drowns as would a human, and begins to disintegrate with surprising speed. On the Northwest streams I know best, the breakdown of even a five-or six-hundred-year-old tree takes only a few decades. Tough as logs are, the grinding of sand, water and ice are relentless; the wood turns punk, grows waterlogged, breaks into filaments, then gray mush; the mush becomes mud, washes downriver, comes to rest in side channels which fill and gradually close; new trees sprout from the fertile muck. There are, however, parts of every…
Dance . . . Prompt #601
Writing Prompt: Dance Write about the last time you danced. Or write about a memorable dance experience.
Chuckstable
Memorable writing that sparks imagination. Lean in. Hear the writer’s voice on the page. Chuckstable By Lynn Levy Dana cracked her gum and then smoothed it against the roof of her mouth. She pushed her tongue through, making that all-important thin membrane that would become the bubble, and Bobby watched, thinking that the gum made her tongue look as pink as the boa she was wearing. Which was saying a lot. There was no explaining, really, why Dana was wearing a boa at all, but Bobby knew her better than to ask. Dana had on a boy’s tank top, cut-off jeans, and Goodwill Kiva sandals with one of the straps broken. She also had a scab on her left knee that grossed out the toughest kid in the neighborhood, and a thin white scar on her right arm from the time she’d fallen out of the big old oak on a dare that…
Descant Literary Journal
A forum for fiction and poetry, descant seeks high-quality work in either innovative or traditional forms. Fiction is usually 5000 words or fewer, poems sixty lines or fewer. We do, however, occasionally accept submissions exceeding these lengths. descant specifies no particular subject matter or style. Submit!
Look on the bright side . . . Prompt #600
Today is a banner day! Celebrating my oldest granddaughter’s twelfth birthday. And my favorite daughter and her husband’s ninth wedding celebration. Also celebrating 600 writing prompts on The Write Spot Blog! I’m taking a moment to take that in. Six hundred writing prompts. How did that happen!!?? One writing prompt at a time. The first prompt, “I remember . . . ” posted on September 24, 2013. And now I invite you to jump in, remember a story, and Just Write! Today’s writing prompt: Look on the bright side!
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 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…
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…
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.