Going to do a few picture prompts in a row. Feel free to try to weave a story that connects them all or just take each one on its own.
Let us begin with this one:
That's where I do most of my writing on the days I take Max to play school in Oliver. It's the coffee shop next door, a nice cozy corner to settle in and ignore the world while I write.
But, you know, make it whatever you want for the tale you write, obviously.
4 comments:
Pic prompt- cafe corner
Cannes
Montecarlo
Monaco
I looked up at the posters on the wall during a brief reprieve from my writing.
A sip of joe infused me with more ideas.
‘I could write a travelogue’, I thought. I did once. Made a little money off it. It was a good way to pay for the petrol on my jaunts, if nothing else. I was more impressed that someone wanted to buy my pieces for their holiday blog... amateur writers giving their critiques of hotels and such... way before internet surveys, it was.
But... I’d already done it, and I don’t go backwards, so I’d have to think of something else.
A murder mystery? Nah, not my style. A spy thriller or political thriller was getting closer but there’s always a bit of research to do first. I didn’t have time for it.
It’s a cheap copout but I needed to make some income and fast.
“She stood on the shores of the lake and looked ahead. Snow crackled but it wasn’t from her feet making steps, for she was still. She turned around to see who’d stepped on the bridge behind her. Her heart skipped a beat. What was that about not going backwards? She looked into the blue eyes of the blond adonis before her. Her old flame had tracked her down. Was she tempted to open that old can of worms?
Perhaps.”
Yeah, romance for the Mills and Boon crowd might bring in easy money. That’d do.
@Dragonfly Oracle: Someone I know looked into writing for Mills and Boon once, and I believe that they work from a small number of set formulae, so it could be quite a good gig! Plus the travelogue background would make it easy to set them in exotic locales. I have to say though, romance is not my style (I'm sure you'd never guess it from what I write here) so I wouldn't read them, just congratulate you on your success :)
@Marc: that's a nice writing corner! I'm currently back in Malta and spent a lot of yesterday travelling (first off I got to Kiev airport and was told that I was being bussed to Boryspil due to weather conditions, and the day just went on like that), so my apologies on being late to this prompt. Malta is all work, for about three weeks, but the weather is pleasantly warm rather than too hot already.
On the prompts theme I saw this today and laughed so much I thought you might like to have it as a back-up prompt sometime :)
And since @Dragonfly Oracle has started such a nice tale, I'm going to continue the MIlls&Boon story... in a second post. Sorry, I was sure it wasn't too long today :(
Continued...
"Aubergine," he said, his voice deeply resonant in his muscled chest. "You... you ghosted me." There was a twinkle in his eye now -- was that a tear? She could remember when he'd dropped the couch they were carrying on his foot and he'd barely even flinched.
She sighed, warm breath coalescing whitely in the air in front of her. How much of the truth was she willing to tell him?
He took another step forward, the frozen surface of the snow crunching and making her spine tingle. He was approaching her like a hunter approaches a deer. She felt as though she were deliciously in control.
"Adrian," she said, and stopped. There were still too many things tangled up in her mind, too much unresolved. She'd intended to sort it all out when she left, but she'd needed a flat, a job... then her life had built up around that and she'd just pushed him and their relationship to a dusty corner and left it there. It hand't solved itself, it seemed.
"Was it the dog pack?" he asked. His chest looked broader than she remembered, more muscled. She wondered if he still clippered his chest hair short. "I suppose fifteen chihuahuas is a lot to ask of a woman, even one as tolerant as you."
She smiled, a genuine smile that she could have sworn he'd never get out of her. She'd loved those dogs, even though it seemed like you were never alone.
"No," she said. She knew she couldn't keep leaving gaps in the conversation like this. "It wasn't a single thing, it wasn't even... it wasn't even you."
He took another step closer, and then another. His eyebrow quirked upwards and her stomach flipped.
"There was the job," she said, and that was true. She'd been working as a clown, mostly doing children's entertainment, if you could really call making children cry on their birthdays entertainment. Maybe for the parents. It had made her miserable as well. "There was my best friend." That was also true. Cindy wasn't her best friend any more, not even a friend. The scam she'd pulled with the fake cancer and stealing -- yes, stealing was the right word -- over $1500 in charitable donations had ended that firmly. "There was the bed." She stopped.
"The water bed?"
"It made... it made me seasick. I... I thought it was morning sickness at first." She stared at him, into his eyes, terrified. She'd had sleepless nights over this, and somehow it had just spilled out of her the moment he appeared in her life again.
"I got rid of the bed," he said. He'd somehow closed the distance between them without her noticing, and he put his arms around her. He was warm, he smelled familiar, masculine, just a little sweaty. It felt like being home.
"And I want children," he said. "At least eight."
"I'm thirty-two," she half-said, half-whispered.
"One a year then."
Dragonfly - enjoyed the flow of consciousness surrounding the romantic writing. Felt very natural :)
Greg - ah, Malta. I was there... I think it was April back when I was exploring Europe. I recall the weather being a nice temperature then, though there was more rain than I cared for. I hope your time there goes well!
Also: that link is fantastic, thank you :D
Oh my god the details you sprinkle throughout this... the dogs, the clown job, the seasickness from the water bed... it's all gloriously off beat :)
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