Life in progress

Category Archives: short fiction


by 29 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 31st – “Candy”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Janet http://scr4pl80.wordpress.com/ and Jim https://jimadamsauthordotcom.wordpress.com/ for their prompts. I completely ran out of time, so I’m combining the suggestions.)

Bored with watching the circus perform, a white rabbit named Olive went up to the concession stand and asked for a diva muffin.

“We have none of those,” the lady behind the counter said. She a name tag; her name was Alice. “And why are you not watching the circus? I believe the clowns are coming on soon.”

“I was expecting rabbits,” said Olive.

“The circus used to have them, but they got stepped on by the elephants.”

Olive gasped. “That’s terrible!”

“It was,” said Alice. “I was rather fond of them. Would you like some cotton candy?”

“If you don’t have any diva muffins, I suppose that will do.”

Alice turned to spin some cotton candy. Over her shoulder, she asked, “I’m having a costume party in my trailer later. Would you like to come?”

“That would be nice,” said Olive as she took the large floof of candy from Alice. “How much do I owe you?”

Alice smiled. “For a white rabbit like you? It’s on the house.”

“Thank you.”

“Come back here in an hour and we’ll walk to my trailer together.”

“I’ll see you later,” said Olive.

She turned to go just as a man with a pitchfork stepped up to the concession.

“Hey, Alice,” he said. “Are you still doing the rabbit stew tonight for the party?”

“Shhhh!!” said Alice.

Olive dropped her cotton candy and ran home so fast, her little rabbit body flew like a streak across the sky.

THE END

(The prompts were Janet’s: Olive, circus, streak across the sky; and Jim’s: If you are looking for a name, you could go with any one of Frank Zappa’s children, Moon Unit, Dweezil, Ahmet or Diva Muffin. A setting that might work well, would be Wonderland where Alice went. I think that a costume party would make an interesting situation.)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 38 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 28th – “Beach”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Anita http://anitashope.wordpress.com/, Kim http://inkonapage.com/, and Cath http://cathdeancom.wordpress.com/ for their prompts. I’m running out of time, so I’m combining the suggestions.)

Dr. Caroline Sams, while walking down the beach, trying to formulate her diabolical plan to create a Covid anti-vaccine for her ex-boyfriend, looked down to find her doggo, Buster, holding something muddy yet shiny in his mouth.

“Good boy,” she said, bending to retrieve the treasure. But as fast as she grabbed it, she dropped it. For it seemed to be screaming, “Help me!” in a tiny voice.

Caroline crouched down to peer at the bottle-shaped object. She reached out cautiously and rubbed off some of the mud, and there, standing on the bow of a ship was a man, waving frantically.

“Help me!” he cried.

“How did you get in there?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” said the tiny man. I was caught in a storm, and the next thing I knew, I was being bounced around in this container. All I could see was a tongue and two rows of teeth. I thought I was a goner!”

“Do you think you’re a genie?”

“No! I’m Brayden, captain of this fine crab ship!”

Caroline tried rubbing the glass container just in case, but when she looked inside again, Brayden was standing with his hands on his hips and an I-told-you-so expression on his face.

“Would you like to try three wishes?” Brayden asked sarcastically.

Not to be made fun of (and just in case it worked), Caroline said, “I wish Covid didn’t exist.”

Brayden cocked his head. “What’s a Covid?”

“It’s a disease.” But that was a bit of a stupid thing to try to wish on, because how could she know it worked? “Never mind,” she said. “Okay, how about this: I wish for a million dollars.”

And poof! a million dollars appeared, luckily in bound stacks so it didn’t fly into the sea.

“Ahhh!” Caroline exclaimed. “It works! So theoretically, if I make one more wish, you’ll be out of there.”

“Especially if you wish me out of here. AND,” he added hastily, “my regular size, please.”

“Hmm,” Caroline said. What to do? The diabolical plan to allow her ex, Jim, to get Covid wasn’t going to happen if Covid was no longer infecting the world. Should she find another way to get rid of him? Or should she rescue this little man who, despite is sarcasm, probably deserved to be rescued?

“Come on, I haven’t got all day,” Brayden said.

Caroline frowned. “What do you think, Buster?” she asked her doggo. “Should we rescue the little fisherman or should we do away with Jim?”

“Woof!” said Buster.

“Or, should I wish for a pickup truck to carry all this money home?”

“I’ll help you carry it!” said Brayden.

“Okay, fine. I wish Brayden and his ship could get out of the container they’re in and be regular sized again.”

And that’s how diabolical Dr. Caroline Sams got crushed by a crab boat on dry land while walking her dog and thinking up a plan to kill her ex.

And everyone else lived happily ever after, Covid-free.

THE END

(The prompts were; Anita’s: How about Dr. Sams or nurse Sams where they have finally got a vaccine for Covid at their hospital but they don’t want anyone getting well so they contaminate it; Cath’s: Caroline is walking her doggo in the woods as usual when doggo trots back to her with something muddy but glittering in her mouth. What if it’s a lost treasure?; and Kim’s: How about Brayden for the name, on a crab ship as the setting, and what if a freak storm sent them into another dimension?)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 20 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 28th – “Storm”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Anita http://anitashope.wordpress.com/, Kim http://inkonapage.com/, and Cath http://cathdeancom.wordpress.com/ for their prompts. I’m running out of time, so I’m combining the suggestions.)

Brayden knew, deep down inside his old fisherman’s heart, that there was a storm brewing. But the forecast was clear, and he needed to pay off a debt or get his knees broken.

So he went out on his crab ship, though all the other boats on the pier were locked up and deserted for the night.

An hour out to sea, Brayden started to think he’d been crazy to think there’d be a storm. He’d never seen a sea so calm. But the whispering of a wind began at midnight, and by twelve-fifteen, the sea churned like a water trough in the back of a pickup truck on a washboarded dirt road. Try as he might, he couldn’t keep his vessel straight. Tossed from port to starboard and back again, he wondered if he should have just taken the broken knees, for he was sure to end up with a few broken bones and only half his usual catch anyhow.

The lightning crashed around his ship as he tied himself at the wheel, and just as he thought that maybe he’d get out of it alive, a giant wave hit the boat. The last thing Brayden saw before he blacked out was the hand of the devil come to scoop him and his boat from the sea.

(To be continued.)

(The prompts were; Anita’s: How about Dr. Sams or nurse Sams where they have finally got a vaccine for Covid at their hospital but they don’t want anyone getting well so they contaminate it; Cath’s: Caroline is walking her doggo in the woods as usual when doggo trots back to her with something muddy but glittering in her mouth. What if it’s a lost treasure?; and Kim’s: How about Brayden for the name, on a crab ship as the setting, and what if a freak storm sent them into another dimension?)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 27 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 26th – “Shutter”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Judy Hendrickson, awesome newsletter subscriber, for the idea for the story. This is Part 5 of the story. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here and Part 4 is here.)

It took Lavender two days to brew the right potion to correct Trigger’s eyesight. In that time, she’d discovered that his real name was Tehtholonli Smith, and that his mates had nicknamed him Trigger because of his proficiency with a gun. That certainly wouldn’t do.

So she began calling him Smithy. He didn’t like it. Then she tried Tehth, but he asked her why she kept spitting on him. Finally she attempted to call him Lonli, but he corrected her, pointing out that he had Grant to keep him company. All the while, Grant laughed at her, even as she rubbed a salve on his sore foot so he could walk comfortably. Ungrateful beast.

At a loss for anything to address him by other than “hey you,” she added a little something to the potion.

Finally, after two full days of picking up broken vases that had fallen from tables her visitor had stumbled into and one awkward moment when he’d changed into Lavender’s britches, thinking they were his own, she sat Tehtholoni Smith down at her kitchen table and handed him a steaming cup of potion.

“Drink this,” she said.

“Are you quite sure it will work?” the man previously known as Trigger asked.

“I am,” Lavender replied.

So he did. He drunk it all the way down and sat with his eyes clamped shut. When Lavender asked him why he didn’t open them, he said, “Because I’m deathly afraid of disappointment.”

“But if you don’t open your eyes, you’ll never know that it worked and that you can see perfectly.”

“Perfectly? Do you really think …”

He opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, and shouted “Eureka!”

And then he saw Lavender’s face and his jaw dropped. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve even seen!” he cried.

“Well then,” she said with a smile, “being that you’re the best shot in the land, maybe you should take my picture, Sh—Sh—Shutter.” Yes, that will do for a name, she thought as she handed him a camera.

And lo and behold, he was and excellent photographer. He took crisp, focused, unblurry photos of Lavender, and pictures of Grant, and the trees, and the rich, lush mountainside.

And Lavender and Shutter the sharpshooter and Grant lived happily ever after in their quiet, cozy cabin.

THE END

(Judy’s prompt was “Lavender Quill, a solitary witch that is into crystals, candles, herbs and crochet (hidden spells she weaves for friends and family), is alone at the cabin after her parents both died three years ago.  She finds a man out on a trail, hurt and unconscious.  Grant is a marine sharpshooter who saw too much and wants to find solace in the quiet mountain, but someone is after him and he managed to get away after a desperate chase.  She uses her skills to patch up his wounds and he slowly comes around.  With her visions and other gifts, she assists him in getting to the truth and forms a bond with him, as he gets under her skin and awakens her soul.  Together, they get the bad guys and help each other heal on the mountain.”

This would make an awesome novel! Me being me, and keeping it a short story, I turned the idea on its head a bit. Hope you don’t mind, Judy! *waves to Judy*)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 21 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 25th – “Specs”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Judy Hendrickson, awesome newsletter subscriber, for the idea for the story. This is Part 3 of the story. Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 is here .)

On the way back to Lavender’s cabin, Grant the horse explained to her that Trigger (not Mr. Trigger) normally wore eyeglasses, and thus, he couldn’t see where he was going. Since the man was carrying the horse (much to Grant’s delight), Lavender devised a way for Grant to guide Trigger, using his back leg to nudge the man when he wandered too far to the left, and his front leg to nudge him when he strayed to the right of the path. In this way, they made good time. Trigger himself didn’t speak—he was likely too winded from carrying a horse across his shoulders.

By the time they arrived at the cabin, night was beginning to fall. Lavender left horse and man outside and went in to tidy up a bit while Trigger caught his breath. She made coffee and brought a cup out for the man and a bucket of water for the horse.

“Are you badly injured,” she asked Trigger.

“No, not really. I have a bit of a bad back—”

At that, Grant rolled his eyes.

“—but the only thing that’s actually wrong with me is that I can’t see. I seem to have broken my spectacles in the fall.” He pulled a pair of bent and cracked eyeglasses from his pocket. They were, indeed, broken badly. “I don’t suppose you can fix them, young lady?”

“No, I don’t think so,” she replied. “But I might have a potion that can fix your eyesight, so you won’t need them.”

“Jolly good!” Trigger cried. “Then I shall be able to go back to my work!”

“And what is that?” Lavender asked.

“Why, I’m a sharpshooter.”

Lavender stared, her heart suddenly in the pit of her stomach. A sharpshooter. “That means … you kill people?”

“Well of course!”

Rather than say what she was thinking—that killing people, or animals, or insects was against everything she believed in–she clamped her mouth shut and went back into the cabin to think about what she was going to do.

(To be continued.)

(Judy’s prompt was “Lavender Quill, a solitary witch that is into crystals, candles, herbs and crochet (hidden spells she weaves for friends and family), is alone at the cabin after her parents both died three years ago.  She finds a man out on a trail, hurt and unconscious.  Grant is a marine sharpshooter who saw too much and wants to find solace in the quiet mountain, but someone is after him and he managed to get away after a desperate chase.  She uses her skills to patch up his wounds and he slowly comes around.  With her visions and other gifts, she assists him in getting to the truth and forms a bond with him, as he gets under her skin and awakens her soul.  Together, they get the bad guys and help each other heal on the mountain.”

This would make an awesome novel! Me being me, and keeping it a short story, I plan to turn the idea on its head a bit. Hope you don’t mind, Judy! *waves to Judy*)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 27 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 24th – “Trigger”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Judy Hendrickson, awesome newsletter subscriber, for the idea for the story. This is Part 3 of the story. Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.)

Lavender followed Grant the horse down the side of the mountain for a minute before he stopped and looked around. “My rider fell off somewhere around these raspberry bushes,” Grant said, “but he’s gone.”

Grant continued to limp along on his sore forefoot, more cautiously now. Just as Lavender began to create a recipe in her head for fixing a sore horse foot, Grant stopped again.

“Hoy! Who goes there?” called out a rather British-sounding man just ahead.

Lavender stepped around Grant and found there a tall, muscular man, walking in their direction with his arms out, feeling around as though he couldn’t see.

“Answer me, or I’ll shoot!” the man said.

“What’s his name?” the witch asked the horse out of the side of her mouth.

“Trigger,” answered the horse.

“Mr. Trigger! ‘Tis I, Lavender Quill of the mountains. I’m here with your horse, Grant, and I’ve come to take you to my home to heal you.”

“With Grant?” the man said incredulously. “How do you know my horse’s name is Grant?”

“Don’t tell him you can hear me talk,” Grant whispered to her. “He’ll stop trusting you and we’ll be stuck out here in the middle of nowhere forever.”

Lavender cleared her throat. “Um … er … It was a wild guess,” she said as confidently as she could.

“Jolly good,” Mr. Trigger said. “Let us be off then.” The man felt his way forward with his arms still outstretched, causing Lavender to dodge this way and that so as not to be grabbed in an inappropriate place. When he got hold of Grant’s reins, he made to get on the horse.

“Perhaps you should walk,” Lavender suggested. “Your horse has a sore foot.”

“A sore foot?” Mr. Trigger said, aghast. “Then I shall return the favor so bestowed upon me by my gallant steed.” At that, he turned and bent at the knees, picked up Grant like he was a giant scarf, and said, “Lead the way!”

(To be continued.)

(Judy’s prompt was “Lavender Quill, a solitary witch that is into crystals, candles, herbs and crochet (hidden spells she weaves for friends and family), is alone at the cabin after her parents both died three years ago.  She finds a man out on a trail, hurt and unconscious.  Grant is a marine sharpshooter who saw too much and wants to find solace in the quiet mountain, but someone is after him and he managed to get away after a desperate chase.  She uses her skills to patch up his wounds and he slowly comes around.  With her visions and other gifts, she assists him in getting to the truth and forms a bond with him, as he gets under her skin and awakens her soul.  Together, they get the bad guys and help each other heal on the mountain.”

This would make an awesome novel! Me being me, and keeping it a short story, I plan to turn the idea on its head a bit. Hope you don’t mind, Judy! *waves to Judy*)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 31 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 22nd – “Limp”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Judy Hendrickson, awesome newsletter subscriber, for the idea for the story. This is Part 2 of the story. Part 1 is here.)

Lavender hurried down the path lined with red roses and through the small gate to the narrow, almost overgrown laneway at the foot of the hill and there she saw it. A large glistening-black horse with a shaggy mane standing with his forefoot off the ground. The horse wore a saddle and bridle. Lavender looked up and down the laneway, but there wasn’t a human in sight.

“Hello there,” Lavender said to the gorgeous beast. “What’s your name?”

“Grant,” said the horse.

Lavender, who was about to approach the horse, stopped in her tracks. “Did … you just speak?”

The horse’s eyes opened wide. “Did you hear me?”

“Why, yes. I did. Where is your rider?”

“He’s back there,” Grant said, tossing his head in the direction he seemed to have come from. “He’s hurt.”

“Can you show me where to find him?”

The horse rolled his eyes. “I suppose I can limp back there.”

Lavender gestured down the lane. “Lead the way, Grant.”

With a deep sigh of the overworked, Grant turned and began to limp slowly down the lane.

(To be continued.)

(Judy’s prompt was “Lavender Quill, a solitary witch that is into crystals, candles, herbs and crochet (hidden spells she weaves for friends and family), is alone at the cabin after her parents both died three years ago.  She finds a man out on a trail, hurt and unconscious.  Grant is a marine sharpshooter who saw too much and wants to find solace in the quiet mountain, but someone is after him and he managed to get away after a desperate chase.  She uses her skills to patch up his wounds and he slowly comes around.  With her visions and other gifts, she assists him in getting to the truth and forms a bond with him, as he gets under her skin and awakens her soul.  Together, they get the bad guys and help each other heal on the mountain.”

This would make an awesome novel! Me being me, and keeping it a short story, I plan to turn the idea on its head a bit. Hope you don’t mind, Judy! *waves to Judy*)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


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#JusJoJan prompt the 21st – “Spell”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Judy Hendrickson, awesome newsletter subscriber, for the idea for the story.)

Lavender Quill was crocheting a spell into a slipper for her sister-in-law who always had cold feet, when she heard something odd outside her cabin. High up in the mountains where only the birds, the mountain goats and the occasional wild cat or bear kept Lavender company, this particular sound was strange indeed. For it sounded like the whinny of a horse. And she’d seen no wild horses in all the years she lived here in the mountains.

She donned a knitted shawl that she’d woven a protection spell into and slipped out into the chilly autumn sunlight to search for the source of the noise.

(To be continued.)

(Judy’s prompt was “Lavender Quill, a solitary witch that is into crystals, candles, herbs and crochet (hidden spells she weaves for friends and family), is alone at the cabin after her parents both died three years ago.  She finds a man out on a trail, hurt and unconscious.  Grant is a marine sharpshooter who saw too much and wants to find solace in the quiet mountain, but someone is after him and he managed to get away after a desperate chase.  She uses her skills to patch up his wounds and he slowly comes around.  With her visions and other gifts, she assists him in getting to the truth and forms a bond with him, as he gets under her skin and awakens her soul.  Together, they get the bad guys and help each other heal on the mountain.”

This would make an awesome novel! Me being me, and keeping it a short story, I plan to turn the idea on its head a bit. Hope you don’t mind, Judy! *waves to Judy*)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


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#JusJoJan prompt the 19th – “City”

(FICTION) (Thanks to Carol Anne at http://therapybits.wordpress.com/ and Dan at  . http://nofacilities.wordpress.com/ for the idea for the story.)

Carol Anne took one last glance at the city walls and headed for home. The sky, heavy with snow clouds, weighed upon her shoulders as she trudged down the deserted highway. But nothing weighed more heavily on her mind than the ruined city. Pushing the button had been a last resort, inevitable in the end.

It took her an hour, three blisters, and two fingers numb with the cold to reach the dirt road that ended in the dark forest that surrounded her home. Fresh snow blanketed the ground where the trees were thinner, and she wondered if she’d find anything to eat in the cupboard.

Thank goodness the light is on, she thought as the cabin came into sight. Someone was home. She wasn’t the last person left on earth after all.

But they’d have to fight over whatever food was left in the cupboard, if there was anything at all. As a last resort, there was always the button.

(Carol Anne’s prompt was “Carol anne is the name, what if there was a big snow storm?” and Dan’s prompt was “I’ll pass on the name, but I’m picturing a dirt road ending in a dark forest.”)

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!


by 31 Comments

#JusJoJan prompt the 18th – “Wish”

(FICTION) (This is Part 5. Part 1 of this story can be found here, Part 2 can be found here, Part 3 can be found here, and Part 4 can be found here.)

The sun was rising in the sky and Mrs. Smith was beginning to sweat—which couldn’t be good for a snowman—by the time the lady came back outside.  When she spoke, she addressed little Susie.

“You reminded me with your song that I haven’t called my mother lately, so I went in to do that.”

“Your mother is alive?” Susie Smith asked. Mrs. Smith also wondered, since the lady was very old.

“No,” the lady replied. “Anyway, we were chatting and Mama told me I should come out here and change you all back to my neighbors.

“Yay!” Susie said.

Mrs. Smith waited for a “but,” and she wasn’t disappointed.

“But,” said the old lady, “there are conditions. First, you must make me a promise to never come caroling here again, and if carolers come to you, tell them not to visit me.”

“We can do that,” Mrs. Smith replied.

“Mmhmm,” little Susie agreed. “What are the other conditions?”

“I will grant you each a wish, as long as it does me no harm and you don’t sing.” She gave a side eye to Mr. Smith Sr., who was still silent by necessity. He had no mouth.

“Okay!” little Susie said.

So one by one, the old witch approached each member of the Smith family of snowmen and ensured they had a mouth to make their wish with. Mr. Smith Sr. promptly wished to keep the buttons for his mouth and continued grumbling while the others spoke their wishes.

When the lady got to Mrs. Smith, she wished for a cup of coffee but then realized what she’d done and amended her wish to state that she’d wait until she was no longer a snowman.

Finally, the old lady stood before little Susie Smith.

“And what would you like, little angel,” the old lady asked.

“I’d like for you to love Christmas carols. Especially ones sung by carolers.”

“Gah!” cried the witch, and she turned them all back into the real Smiths and stomped back into the house.

And so the feud continued, for the Smiths never went caroling at the witch’s house again, and they told everyone who caroled in the neighborhood not to go to the witch’s house.

Even though she loved Christmas carols. Especially ones sung by carolers.

The End.

Here are the JusJoJan Rules:

1. Just Jot It January starts January 1st, but it’s never too late to join in! Here, we run on the honour system; the “jot it” part of JusJoJan means that anything you jot down, anywhere (it doesn’t have to be a post, it can even be a grocery list), counts as a “jot.” If it makes it to your blog that day, great! If it waits a week to get from a sticky note to your screen, no problem!

2. I’ll post prompts at 2am my time (GMT -5). The prompt will be the word in quotation marks in the title of my 2am post. You don’t have to follow the prompt every day, but that will be where you leave your link for others to see. You’ll get a prompt for every day except Wednesday, when the prompt is simply my One-Liner Wednesday and on Saturday, when your prompt will be the Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS, which will appear at about 9:30am Friday. Each prompt post will include the rules.

3. Please ping back or link to the daily prompt. To ping back, just copy the URL from the daily prompt post, and paste it anywhere in your post. Check to make sure your link shows up where you want it to, and go back occasionally to see other bloggers’ entries – the more you visit others, the more they’ll visit you! Note: A) The newest pingbacks will be at the top of the comments section. B) Ping backs only work if you’re blogging on WordPress. Everyone else must paste a link manually.

4. Tag your post JusJoJan and/or #JusJoJan.

5. Write anything! Any length will do! It can even be a photo or a drawing – you’re going to title it, right? There’s your jot!

6. If your post is NSFW, do not ping back. Please leave your link in the comments with a warning.

7. If you’d like to, use the JusJoJan badge so that others can find your post more easily.

8. Have fun!