Brought to book by Kevin Murphy

Kevin's response to the trigger 'book'

Ginny Lynn sat in the light and airy atrium, which is the waiting hall of her city’s new law court. She was hugging her hessian shopping bag, knowing that the look on her face was a smug smile. She was proud of herself.

On New Year’s Morning, admittedly many months ago, but that was Covid’s fault, not hers, Ginny was alone in the house and thought the noise she heard might be one of the family sneaking guiltily back in. Her ears alert, she heard no more. No spoil sport, she didn’t want to reinforce any pangs her children Will or Amy may feel about staying over at his or her girlfriends’, so she stealthily donned her mules and crept out to the landing and peered over the banister. 
No one in the hallway below.
Ginny stole down the stairs taking a stretch over the known creaky step and peeped through the glass-paned lounge door.
Her hand went to her throat. Her new Christmas table cloth was spread out on the floor in front of the TV. She froze, only her eyes exploring. Will’s new virtuality goggles were peeping out of their box, and Amy’s fancy new hair rollers were sitting on top of their box. Was that her own new coffee machine behind it?
There was a movement under the Christmas tree. 
A pair of legs.
Ginny tip-toed towards… but froze again at a clicking of plugs and Bill the Burglar let out a quiet gasp and tried to extricate himself from behind wires and unopened twelfth-night presents. His rustling allowed Ginny to look around for some defence. She saw her Dad’s family bible, long in need for purpose and clutched it with the firmest grip.
The deep-pile of the new Axminster, allowed her to silently hover as Bill turned to hear ‘Die Bill!’ and see the white and gold tome flash into his face.
It was the last thing he saw.

‘Mrs Hyman,’ said the voice of her new best friend, PC Hamed Johnson. ‘Your big day. Thank you.’ 
He offered her a hand up, but she handed him the bag and sprung herself to her feet. 
‘So this is what saved the day,’ he said, realising the significance of the bulk in the bag.
‘Yes, Hamed,’ she said. ‘Not the Koran, sorry.’
He chuckled as he steered Ginny towards the courtroom. ‘My Mum might regard it as less blasphemous. But I see it as our saviour.’ He took the Bible out of the bag, placed it on the bench back in front of them. He stroked the white leather, traced the gold lettering, his finger stopping beside a small maroon stain. He looked across to the accused hanging his head in the dock.
Ginny saw both and nodded. ‘Yes, it’s his blood. Just a drip - like him. Something to tell the grandkids. Proof, eh?’
‘Indeed. How Dai Bwlch was Retford’s most elusive cat burglar and their brave grandma saved the day and brought him to book.’

New year, new prompt!

Not written anything in 2021 yet? Well… shame on you! I know, I know, its all been a bit trying over the last, well, last year really, and Christmas was absolutely no exception (hope you managed a good one somehow or another despite restrictions). But come on now, brace yourselves, lets get this show on the road and get something down on paper. It really doesn’t matter what you write, nobody else needs to see it, just get writing.

Personally, I love a free-write. That is to say, write for a set number of minutes (I usually give myself 20 mins) starting with a particular subject, no punctuation, no lifting the pen (or your fingers if you’re typing), and no stopping to think. Just write the junk that spills from your mind – a bit like word association. It’s amazing what connections you can unexpectedly (and often, unexplainedly (is that a word?? ’tis now…) come up with, and they’re more often than not a good kick-start to a cracking story, poem or piece of creative non-fiction.

With the current lockdown now firmly in place, I thought ‘Lock’ might be a good starting point. Some of the things I’ve come up with are:

What is locked ? Doors; cupboards; trunks; wardrobes; diaries; hearts; personalities; minds; err…. lockdown (of course)….

Why are they locked? How do you open them? Where is the key? If you open them, what’s inside? Do you need another key? Are you locked in, or locked out?

Well, I could go on, but I’m sure you’ll come up with plenty of other ideas. I’d love to see the resulting work, so get writing….. Write Now!!

Prompt of the week

There are certain things in life that it is pretty much guaranteed we’ll all experience at some point or another – first kiss, passing exams, first job, falling in love, then out again….. they could all be described as ‘rites of passage’. The Collins dictionary has a couple of definitions of rite:

1. a formal act which forms part of a religious ceremony
2. a custom that is carried out within a particular group

Now, not being of a religious bent, I know not a lot about religious ceremonies, but, I do recognise that I indulge in lots of customs within my family, especially at Christmas. From watching ‘Carols from Kings’ on Chrismas Eve, to mince pies and bucks fizz for breakfast amongst the wrapping paper on Christmas morning, and noisy board games in the evening, the rites of Christmas day are set in stone (there are plenty more, but I won’t bore you). Of course, this year things may be different, we’ll still have those ‘rites’ but they may be postponed until we can get together… that might be Easter the way things are going…! I’ll record Carols from Kings just in case.

Anyway, I expect you’ve guessed what all this nonsense is leading to? Yep, this week’s prompt is:

Rite

Let’s hear about the customs/traditions of your family, or one of your own ‘rites of passage’, or perhaps a wedding or baptism, diwali, hanukkah, Wesak or Yuan Tan or any other religious festival that I haven’t thought of (sorry, I told you I know nothing..). As always write in any form you like – poetry, prose, fiction/non-fiction, give it a go. Actually, come to think of it, this site is getting a bit poetry heavy, a bit of flash fiction or some such would be most excellent! Can’t wait to read your pieces.

Object Challenge

This week, instead of a prompt, I’m going to set you a bit of a challenge! I have to be honest, I’ve pinched this idea from Peter Sansom’s excellent book ‘Writing Poems’ (available from Amazon and other bookshops (if they’re open…)), in which he has a whole chapter on ‘Workshops and Writing Games’. For this one he suggests writing in the voice of an object and gives various suggestions, including writing as:

A vacuum cleaner in shop window
A wardrobe in a hotel bedroom
A spoon in a bedsitter
A motorbike in pieces on a kitchen floor
A safety match in a box in a cardigan pocket

There are several more, but you get the gist, and of course you can think of your own examples.

Although I’ve filched these ideas from a book about writing poetry, I’m pretty sure you could use them as a starting point for a piece of fiction too. As always, use your imagination, let the pen fly across the page (or fingers across the keyboard), and just start writing. Can’t wait to see your work!

Prompt of the week

Ok, so I was searching for a suitable prompt for this week when I came across this picture. Out of the 100s of pictures I was scrolling through it was this one that really instantly sparked my imagination, and I wondered if it would do the same for you too.

I liked the idea that you could be watching (see what I did there!) something through your watch. In fact, the tech is probably out there already, I’m sure James Bond has got it. But watching something surreptitiously has something of a sinister edge to it, so could make for an excellent poem, flash fiction, short story or even novel… go for it!! Of course, you may take something completely different from this picture, in which case, I’d love to see your interpretations. So I’ll leave it to you, but I’m off to write a dark ol’ poem!

Prompt of the week

Ah, the blame game…. we’ve all done it. It’s so easy to point the finger, either at oneself, or others, when things go wrong, and to be honest, I don’t know which is worse. Goodness knows there is plenty of blame, rightly or wrongly, being bandied about in the news now! So this week’s prompt is, of course:

BLAME

How about writing a story or poem based on when you’ve got it wrong? It happens to the best of us, we lay blame at someone’s door, then find out the situation was more complex than we thought, or worse still, it was our own doing after all. Go on, brace yourself to cover a difficult topic, it’s often where the best writing lies. We look forward to reading your pieces.

Prompt for the Week

Hey You!

Yes, you… you up for a writing challenge? Of course you are, you’re itching to write a piece using this week’s prompt:

YOU

But, woah there, hold your horses, rein in that imagination for a mo’… This week we’re asking you something a little more specific… to write about an event that happened to you, but write about in the second person. Yep, we’re asking you to address yourself. Question yourself, tell yourself off, laugh at yourself, let yourself be the star! We’re really looking forward to reading about your escapades through your creative non-fiction stories and poems, so don’t forget to share them with us. Have fun!

Prompt of the week

Many, many years ago, before even electric typewriters were a thing (yes, I am an ancient relic!), I learned to touch type. School girls at rows of desks thwacking the keys to make sure they hit the tape cleanly, not allowed to look down at them. I remember the noise of the typewriters, and the teacher yelling at us above it! It took a while, but eventually, my fingers worked pretty much automatically, finding the letters without my even thinking about it. All these years later, I’m still touch typing away (though not bashing the keys in quite such an aggressive manner – my laptop wouldn’t like that at all!) faster than ever with the help of the newfangled keyboards.

Our fingers are amazing tools really, aren’t they? How, without even looking, we know the texture of things, the heat, the size….

Doesn’t have to be fingers either… when I was learning to ride I was told that my leg resting against the horse’s side should be ‘like the gentle holding of a hand, the lightest touch’, so that the horse knows you’re there and would react to the slightest squeeze.

So there you go, two different interpretations. See what you can come up with using the prompt:

Touch

As always, write in any format you choose. Hey, why not try writing some prose and editing it into poetry? Use a light touch – don’t be heavy handed!

Prompt of the week

YooHoo, hi there, helloeeee….

I hope you’re waving back! I’m sure you are, you can’t help yourself when someone waves at you, can you?

Yep, you guessed it, this week’s prompt is ‘Wave’, though of course, it doesn’t have to be a hand wave, it could be a wave upon the shore, a lock of wavy hair, a wave of nausea even…ick! As usual, it’s up to you to use the word as inspiration, decide on interpretation, as well choosing the presentation (hey, look at all those ‘tions’!) – short story or poem, or maybe this week you’ve got an experience you’d like to share as creative non-fiction? Keep it real, or make it up, it’s really up to you, that is the joy of creative writing.

p.s. don’t forget to send us your work, we’d love to read it!

Prompt for the week ‘end’

See what I did there…Week ‘end’… weekend…. well, you get the gist! Yep you can talk about the weekend if you like, or any other sort of end you can think of (rear end…!) but keep it clean please! Of course, this was prompted (gosh I’m on form today) by the tiny little light at the end of the lockdown tunnel, but we know of course, that everything, good or bad, must come to an end someday. Sometimes the end is a relief, as in the end of conflict, but often endings are sad times, so I’m sure this is a word ripe for storytelling/poetry or any other form of creative writing you care to embrace. I look forward to reading your work. Take care.