The 5 sentence story - Prompt #5

8:50am:  It's day five (and the last day) of my 5 sentence story week!  Got 15 spare minutes? Please participate with me!  It's a great exercise for your brain, even if you aren't a writer.

Today's random prompt is below. Feel free to post your story in the comments or on your blog (just be sure to post the link) because I'd love to read it.

Later this afternoon, I'll update my post with my own 5 sentence story. Be sure to come back and check it out...

Task--
    Write a 5 sentence story with the following:

• Place:  a sidewalk
• Character:  a bank robber
• Object: three rubber bands
• Weather:  hot and muggy

Good luck!


7:00 update!  I'm super late on adding my story today! and it's not my best, but it's better to write bad than to never write. Right?

Silver looks over her shoulder for the tenth time, checking to make sure the security guards aren't following her. Sweat drips down her back and covers her face and neck, but that doesn't stop her from clutching the purse tighter to her chest. It had been a risk taking the three wrapped piles of hundred dollar bills from the vault table with her boss just on the other side of door. But she hadn't had a choice - there never is one when a child's life is on the line.  And now, reaching the end of the block and knowing she's almost in the clear, she can almost smell his freedom.

The 5 sentence story - Prompt #4

9:00am:  It's day four of my 5 sentence story week!  Got 15 spare minutes? Please participate with me!  It's a great exercise for your brain, even if you aren't a writer.

Today's random prompt is below. Feel free to post your story in the comments or on your blog (just be sure to post the link) because I'd love to read it.

Later this afternoon, I'll update my post with my own 5 sentence story. Be sure to come back and check it out...

Task--  (today's is futuristic!)
    Write a 5 sentence story with the following:

• Place:  in a motel room
• Character:  a hospital nurse
• Object: two wedding rings
• Time: spring, year 2025

Good luck!

UPDATE 4:30 - I went with a dystopian feel! (imagine that) And this time I followed the character name rules :)

“It’s highly unlikely anyone’s discovered this yet,” the balding archeologist, Zia, said, kicking up sheets of dust while stepping over the recently demolished wooden planks on the old motel room floor.

“Well, we’ve never come across a room so barred,” Xandria replied, poking her head around the door and watching Zia as he approached the two figures on the bed, both reduced to bones except for a few scraps of dingy white fabric. In her best medic voice yet, she added, “It’s as if they knew the destruction was coming and planned the best way they knew how."

Zia allowed his fingertips to graze over the two wedding rings on the deceaseds’ still-enjoined hands. “Or it’s as if they knew it was the only way they could live together forever.”

The 5 sentence story - Prompt #3

10:15am:  It's day three of my 5 sentence story week!  Want to participate?  I've put the prompt below and I'll come back and add my story later this afternoon.  If you write one too, leave me a comment to link to your blog post...I'd love to read it!

Task--
    Write a 5 sentence story with the following:

• Place:  a hockey game
• Character:  a baker
• Object: a yellow raincoat
• Time: autumn

Good luck!
 
4:30 update - I got to admit...this one was tough! And I admit I had to take some liberty (and creativeness) to remain at only 5 sentences but here's what I ended up with...

A glimpse of bright yellow darting through the cloudy autumn mist – that’s all she was. She could have been anyone leaving the Anaheim Ducks game; luckily it rained just before the faceoff otherwise Daniel may have never seen her.  His friend, Chip, won’t stop yammering about the last minutes of Ducks’ miraculous win over the Sharks, and frankly he’d agree it was amazing, but Chip’s words are nothing compared to the eyes that belong to the girl in the yellow jacket. 

“I’ll be right back,” Daniel says, cutting Chip off mid-sentence before pushing through the throng of fans. Weaving in and out, almost stepping on the foot of a little old lady, he finally reaches her, can see alarm set in her brow as she searches through the window of a local bakery, until the moment she sees him – not Daniel, but the brawny man with the flour-covered apron – and her smile powers through the mist and crushes Daniel’s heart.

Need Writing Advice?

...Well then, I am NOT the one to give it.  But here are a few funny posts you might enjoy by the lovely Kiersten White, author of the Paranormalcy series, on the Rules of Genre and the Basic Plots of YA stories.

By these rules, I tend to stick with either:

1. Horrific/Urban Fantasy Road Trips where the end is near and we will probably die, but first we must make out! ... OR 
2. the Best Friend Romance where the person isn't actually a best friend but they have to go to the Big Dance anyway and of course there is kissing and stuff! ...  OR 
3. I delve into Dystopian weirdness, completely foregoing all set rules of character names and kissing and family plays a big role, not a boy. (Wait...does that mean I'm not writing YA?)

Check out her post - it'll make you giggle.

The 5 Sentence Story prompt #2

8:30am:  It's day two of my 5 sentence story week!  Want to participate?  I've put the prompt below and I'll come back and add my story later this afternoon.  If you write one too, leave me a comment to link to your blog post...I'd love to read it!

Task--
    Write a 5 sentence story with the following:

• Place:  a beach in Mexico
• Character:  a calico cat
• Object: a wool blanket
• Smell: Peppermint

Good luck!

2:00pm  Here's my story!  A little boring, but it'll have to do for today! Come back tomorrow for Prompt #3.

Did my owner seriously just drop me off in this feline-forsaken sandy wasteland?  After I took such care to fertilize her potted plants and de-fluff her overstuffed couch cushions, she just up and deserted me. What a desagradecido *****!  And why the hell did she give me a bath first? Now I smell like a furry peppermint, have nothing to eat, no where to sleep except maybe on that blanket over there…oh wait, is that a human I see?

The 5 sentence story - #1

FACT: I am a single, full-time working, mom of 2 rambunctious boys.

FACT: I'll be living at the soccer fields 4 nights a week for the next 3 months.  (!!)

FACT: I have about 1 hour a day to myself during the work week, that only comes after I've cooked, done the dishes, cleaned up the junk, and put the kids to bed.

FACT: One hour a day is not enough to de-stress, watch TV, talk on the phone, keep up a blog, read a book, get immersed in my writing, or you know, in general...relax.

FACT: Despite these things, I have to get back in the groove. The writing groove that is. A few weeks ago, I got the BEST PACKAGE EVER!  My first critique notes on Project MM from the super duper fantabulous DT!  And she was so flippin helpful (and I might add, quite nice to me considering the bi-polar-ness of my characters).

FACT: I've been sitting on those notes since then, having read through them twice, but unsure of how to start editing. The problem is called..."I'm out of practice."  I've been lazy, folks.  I'm not doing what a good writer should do...and that is WRITE!

So with all that in mind, considering my time crunch issues and need to move forward instead of staying stagnant, I will attempt to write a 5 sentence story every day for the rest of this week. The prompt comes from an App on my iPhone that I adore, called (amazingly) "Writing Prompts". And if it goes well, I may just make it a weekly thing.  Let me know what you think!

FIVE SENTENCE STORY #1

Prompt: a rickety old shed, a news reporter, and a manilla envelope.

RJ Corman jumped into his beat up car with the envelope in hand. He tried to ignore the pounding rain on the front windshield; it only reminded him of how the old shed fell just as he passed through its doorway. After taking three deep breaths, he lifted the closed flap and peeked inside. His shivering ceased at what he saw.  Reliable lead, my ass.

50 Books to Read before Kindergarten

It's hard to believe but my baby starts Kindergarten 

in only five days!  

I've been trying to prep him as best I can and the first place I started was reading. I picked up the below list  from my local library's children services. We haven't read them all yet, but we made a good dent and added many of our own favorites. What additional books do you think should be added?  I personally love The Ravenous Beast by Niamh Sharkey!

1. Anno's Counting Book by Mitsumasa Anno
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
3. Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
4. The Mitten by Jan Brett
5. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
6. Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
7. Freight Train by Donald Crews
8. Llama, Llama, Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
9. Bark, George by Jules Feiffer
10. In the Tall, Tall Grass by Denise Fleming
11. Corduroy by Don Freeman
12. Is Your Mamma a Llama? by Deborah Guarino
13. Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
14. The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins
15. Peter's Chair by Ezra Jack Keats
16. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
17. Swimmy by Leo Lionni
18. The Arnold Lobel Book of Mother Goose by Arnold Lobel
19. Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel
20. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
21. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr and John Archambault
22. Anansi the Spider by Gerald McDermott
23. Goin' Someplace Special by Patricia mcKissack
24. I Stink! by Kate and Jim McMullan
25. Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
26. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff
27. Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann
28. Uncle Nacho's hat by Harriett Rohmer
29. The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
30. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
31. Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
32. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess
33. A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
34. It Look like Split Milk by Charles Shaw
35. Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
36. Too many Tamales by Gary Soto
37. Joseph had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback
38. Whose Chick Are You? by Nancy Tafuri
39. Alexander and the Terrible, horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Vlorst
40. Owl Babies by Martin Waddell
41. Mouse Paint by Ellen Stohl Walsh
42. Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells
43. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
44. Knuffle Bunny by Mo Wilson
45. Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood
46. A Chair for my Mother by Vera Williams
47. Bear Snores On by Audrey Wood
48. The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear by Don & Audrey Wood
49. A Number of Animals by Christopher Wormell
50. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen

 What books do you think should be on the list?