Tag Archives: Joan Fontcuberta

#Writober Day 18: The Uni-Pega-Monkey

writober day 18

image by Joan Fontcuberta

Of course, this image makes me think of

The Wizard of Oz, the most horrifying nightmare of them all, pushed on young children as some joyous fantasy. Tornadoes and Kansas are real, you crazy adults!
But this monkey is even worse than what that every-holiday haunting movie professes. This monkey is horned. Is it unique like The Last Unicorn or is it part of an invasion about to swarm?

#vss very short story

Vestsious, the leader of The New Monkey Continuum, perched on an Easter Island statue to admire his kingdom. Soon he would conquer the world.

#OctPoWriMo

Everyone Went On Eating:

I feel like my previous palindrome was my best attempt so I’ll go with the theme. It’s a great theme. I wrote albums of songs about awkward family gatherings. Most of them had to do with Selective Memory. However, none of them had to do with flying monkeys with narwhal horns, so let’s see what happens:

The Horned Flying Monkey In The Room

When it flew into the room
You had just said, “That hurt my feelings”
She said it never happened
He wondered when you would get a real job
He shoved his mouth so full of mashed potatoes
he couldn’t answer any questions
and the baby hit his sister, hard
On purpose

When it flew into the room
You were staring at your empty plate
She was serving pork and steak
He was asking about the bank
He was chiding you for your tastes
And the baby threw his food on the floor
On purpose.

When it flew into the room
You were fighting back tears
She was poking at your fears
He was pushing Roth-IRAs for later years
He put his steak on top of your salad
And the baby was kicking the table
On purpose.

By the time anyone noticed it was in the room
You stared at it curiously
She said she didn’t see it
He threw his plate at it
It swooped down and pierced his neck with its horn
And landed on the baby’s head
On purpose.

 

#FlashFicHive

flashfichive day 18

graphic by Anjela Curtis

I hope author Diana Rose Wilson answers my request on Twitter. I can’t wait to see what prompt she gives me. I hope it goes well with Uni-Pega-Monkeys.

It does! It does! Diana got back to me right away with the prompt: How did you get that scar? So perfect. Horned flying monkey is a great scar story.

Bonus Inspiration from Wattpad

Wattpad’s Mystery Headquarters is having a Trick-or-Treat story contest. They offer 2 prompts:

  1. Trick or treat! It’s Halloween. You’re home alone. The doorbell rings. You open. What happens next?
  2. Trick or treat! It’s Halloween. You’re out trick-or-treating and you knock on a door. Somebody or something opens. What happens next?trick-or-treat

Stories have to be between 1,000 and 2,000 words and published on Wattpad with the #halloweenmystery by 11:59 GMT on Halloween night.

I started a trick-or-treat story to go with this image from last year’s #Writober. I might take a look at it and finish it for the contest. Of course many of this year’s #Writober images would also work well with these prompts.

So many fun stories to write.

Happy Reading and Writing!

#Writober Day 15: The Hill Has An Eye

An altered photograph of an eyeball looking out of a hill.

Joan Fontcuberta

This image, as my title suggests, made me think of the horror classic The Hills Have Eyes. It also makes me think of the wonderful faux documentary Troll Hunter and that super creepy mind-altering underground man-eating mushroom X-files episode Field Trip (Season Six episode 21).
How would your character or characters react to coming across a giant eye in a hill, in the ground, in the forest? Or is the hill with an eye your character?

Wanna try your hand at pairing some isms with this eye? Join me over at #pessimisticmoustache.

#vss very short story

Today was different. Today, Earth’s eye had opened and she did not enjoy her view. The ground began to quake and the oceans boiled.

#OctPoWriMo

Theme: Fighting The Urge To Vomit

The suggested form for this provocative prompt is a storytelling poem. I think this could probably work with our visual prompt. One might feel the urge to vomit when they encounter a disembodied eye in a hill. I really enjoyed the storytelling poem The Croft and Dalton Cats. I’ll use it as inspiration for today’s poem.

The Eye

The earth quivered with a sigh, when
From the hill emerged an eye, then
It moved to stare at me and
I stood still as a tree.

It moved slowly without sound, when
I felt a signal through the ground, then
I thought I knew its voice and
It said I had a choice.

It warned me of a comet, when
I fought the urge to vomit, then
The eye became the hill and
The wind tickled wild dill.

The choice the monster gave, when
It emerged from deep its grave, then
Showed me all life’s fate and
Sunk away to mitigate.

Was to join it in its bed, when
All life on earth was shed, then
Repopulate the earth and
Eternally give birth.

Or watch as the comet comes, when
Life’s destruction total sums, then
Be no more of eternal matter and
I clearly chose the latter.

I am so glad I’m doing #OctPoWriMo. I wasn’t sure how I was going to write a poem with Fighting the Urge to Vomit, but with my #Writober image and the inspiration of Edward the Killer Carney‘s storytelling poem, I came up with something unique and fun. Thank you everyone for all the inspiration!

#FlashFicHive

flashfichive day 15

graphic by Anjela Curtis

This is a great prompt to get some words out into the world. For those of you that have been reading these #Writober posts, you know I write a #vss very short story for each of the picture prompts. I post most of them on twitter with the hashtag #vss but there are other places to post your #microstories as well.

is posting his tweet-long stories at #vss365 with a word prompt. Today’s word appears to be “signal”.

Here are some more you can try:

#microfiction        #140novel        #tinytales        #microtales        #nanotales

I hope you’ve found some inspiration for today’s writing.

We’re already half-way to Halloween. Got your costume ready?

Happy Reading and Writing!

#Writober Day 3: Cheritas, Parageusia, and Flying Elephants-Oh My!

Black and white layered photography negatives create images of flying elephants

Joan Fontcuberta Aerofantes 1941

Disney’s Dumbo aside, I think flying elephants would be terrifying. The encompassing shadows they would cast; the constant fear of “droppings.” A world with flying elephants would be a scary world indeed. Are these angels down from heaven with an ominous message? What story does this picture tell you?

#vss: very short story

The new hybrids of the flying, alien elephant and the domestic breeds were much larger than expected. Life on earth became unpleasant.Most humans lost the sense of smell.

#OctPoWriMo

Today’s prompt: Taste of Metal

A metallic taste in your mouth is a type of taste disorder known medically as parageusia. Common causes include new medications, pregnancy, and food allergies. In rare cases, metallic taste can be a sign of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. – from Google

Form: Cherita

Cherita (pronounced CHAIR-rita) is a linked poetry form of one-, two-, and three-line stanzas. Cherita is the Malay word for “story” or “tale” – from Poets Collective

 

With the preconceived notion that an elephant never forgets,

Would her parageusia be misdiagnosed
As a peanut allergy?

Ignoring the possibility of Alzheimer’s
How would she report, or debate upon contort
Winged elephants think all things taste like metal.

 

#FlashFicHive

Backstory show & tell: protagonist

Day 3 fic hive

In my poem, I made the Mama flying elephant my protagonist. Will she be the protagonist in your flash fiction story? What is her backstory? How will that backstory affect her baby?

Feeling inspired? Happy Writing and Reading!