First off, the prompts are up! Randomly assigned prompts are available!
For those that may be new to this, you can email in a short prompt to oddprompts@gmail.com, and then on Wednesday you’ll receive a prompt in return through random assignment. At this point, it’s yours to do with as you will, whether that response is in the form of fiction, poetry, essay, or… have we had art yet? I’m sure it’s coming! The point of the exercise is to kick your creativity up a notch, and to give some gentle encouragement and critique to fellow participants.
Secondly, for those who have been participating in the prompts all year (all five weeks so far!) you are amazing. Honestly, it’s so much fun to see what you come up with every week. I’m looking forward to this week!
| Prompter Name | Prompt | Promptee |
| Kat Ross |  Larger version of image below table. |
Brena Bock |
| Becky Jones | Standing at the top of the stairs going down to your basement, you flip on the light. A voice comes out of the now well-lit basement, “Hey! Turn that back off, I was reading!” | Kat Ross |
| nother Mike | It was a perfectly ordinary wedding, until they asked if anyone objected to this marriage. That’s when the vampire stood up… | Leigh Kimmel |
| Misha Burnett | Two magi’s familiars kvetch about their masters. |
Cedar Sanderson
|
| Brena Bock | I was sitting at my kitchen table when I heard a knock on the door. I looked out the window, but no one was there. When I opened the door I saw… | Becky Jones |
| Fiona Grey | The tunnel is the only escape, and only if you run. You don’t know what’s waiting for you, but you can’t go back. Go. Go now, before you lose the tunnel option too. | B. Durbin |
| Cedar Sanderson | A flock of pigeons, whispering like lost souls. | nother Mike |
| B. Durbin | “According to Milton, the road to Heaven is rocky and narrow. The road to Hell is broad and well-paved. Therefore, we know which way all the engineers go.” (Professor Michael Bonin to engineering student Ron Palmer, attribution not part of the prompt.) | Fiona Grey |
| Leigh Kimmel | Hideous world superimposed on visible world—gate through—power guides narrator to ancient and forbidden book with directions for access. | Misha Burnett |
| A practice funeral? Well, your friend says he wants to be sure everyone knows what he wants for his funeral, so he’s invited everyone for a dry run. However, he didn’t expect… |
| At the local bus station, someone set up a table with a sign announcing this is a free exchange. Please take what you like, but leave something, too! You walk up and see… What do you leave in its place? |
| New technology can give people the personality, approximate skill set, and selected artificial memories of fictional characters. You are the only person at your job who does not have a fictional overlay. Describe a meeting. |
| A satyr walks into a bar… |
| Your smart house develops a personality disorder. What is it, and how does it affect your life? |
The image prompt this week is Second Manassas – Charge! by Kat Ross
More Odds Than Ends 
[…] prompt, (Real life got in the way of real progress. I hope to have it up in a few days) but this week’s prompt practically fell into my lap and curled up to make itself […]
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A bit of fluff, with a touch of wishful thinking. Thanks for such a fun prompt Becky.
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(may be spoilerish — go read https://undomesticatedfeline.wordpress.com/2020/02/05/odd-prompts-week-6/ first, you’ll be glad you did.)
Someone needs to write about the other eight lives of cats… purr….
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I love it! I had no idea where I would have taken this, but as a major cat lady who’s convinced my late greats are still here, this is perfect!
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Thank you. 🙂
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Aw…
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Here’s what I came up with from the image prompt.
===
Jeron knew this was going to end badly, especially for his brethren. Yet no matter how he tried, he couldn’t convince them that the wiser course was to run away.
They were champing at the bit to charge off to glorious destiny, unheeding of the risk.
Jeron knew he was not like other horses. He could reason and consider before acting. Yet in this instance, it did him no good at all.
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Nice. 🙂
So, which one is Jeron?
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I’m going with the one on the right. He’s got the Dad Look down pat. You know, the “what do you THINK you are doing?” look of exasperation, cross-cutting in front of the others to try to give them a good lecture.
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That’s the one my sister said was Jeron. 😀
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Oh, man. Every war needs a Jeron. BTW, I think he’s the one on the right…
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Yes, Jeron is the one on the right looking frustrated.
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It’s about making a connection
Between the west horizon and the corner of your eye
Sketch a line and intuit its direction
Along the transit of the sun across the sky
Where the vultures circle and wait for you to die
An exercise in expanding your perception
Details noticed never seen before
Adding objects to your mind’s collection
The sunlight on the wood grain of your door
Rusty nails dripping with bright gore
You learn to see things that don’t get seen
Pieces of a world not far from here
Beyond, behind, inside, or in between
A world a little odd, a little queer
A world that runs with terror, screams with fear
Once seen, of course, it cannot be ignored
Although you close your eyes and turn your head
The hollow center like an apple cored
You had to follow where the pattern led
And learned that Hell is not just for the dead
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ooooh! oddly, this reminded me of the observations in Bujold’s Penric stories about the Gods being just the other side of perception. Nice!
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Very nice. Wonderful imagery.
You, sir, are starting to make me appreciate poetry. I may enjoy the occasional verse, but rarely have I made a point to read said verse.
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That is precisely my intention.
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Oh, nice! Familiars dealing with things they don’t want to, but have to. I like it.
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I just realized I got things backwards between prompter/promptee. No, I’m not totally crazy…I still like this, Misha.
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And a bit of blank verse, I guess?
A Pigeon’s Prayer?
By Mike Barker
The pigeons whispered like lost souls,
Above the bread crumbs scattered below,
And those who walked along the path,
Scared them away, but not for long.
Back they came, fluttering down,
Fighting over the bread that waited,
Patiently for those beaks that pecked,
Catching up scattered crumbs below.
A humble communion? Well, perhaps,
And yet, for lost souls he gave it all,
Even for pigeons, dirty and noisy,
Who partake of the feast spread for all…
Now lift a drink, water or wine,
Sealing the bargain once again,
God touched this world gently with care,
Even for the pigeons who fly there…
The pigeons who whisper like lost souls…
And lost souls who whisper like pigeons…
Easily scared, fluttering away, and yet…
The bread and the wine still wait.
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I wouldn’t call that blank verse–it’s unrhymed, but the meter is very clear and it progresses from stanza to stanza very clearly. A fine piece of work.
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Blank verse generally has meter. Usually iambic. Shakespeare used blank verse, often not rhyming, but very metrical.
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Thanks! When I’m doing this kind of thing, I often beat it out (literally, hand on hip). Not sure what to call it, but I’m glad you liked it. (Although re-reading it, I want to change one line to “Even for pigeons who fly there…” I always find something to tinker with when I re-read.)
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Here’s my go. This one allowed me to continue from last week’s prompt.
https://profornery.wordpress.com/2020/02/07/breaking-curses/
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[…] prompt this week came from Fiona Grey. “The tunnel is the only escape, and only if you run. You […]
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A little slice of thriller for mine.
I don’t know what it is about the hiking. I just like it, I guess. (Haven’t hiked in that area, but I have been through on the Zephyr.)
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My response is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/695895.html. It probably didn’t help that I was dealing with it while having to pack up everything in my office so we can get some major work done on that part of the house, and then having things go a bit wild when the workers arrived today (although the smell of fresh-cut white pine is wonderful).
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[…] of pigeons, whispering like lost souls.” Both of them submitted their prompt responses in the comments of the prompt post, and I highly recommend a click through to read. Excellent […]
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Nothing like the last minute… life almost got me down to not writing at all. But I managed, and I’m very pleased with this little snippet. https://www.cedarwrites.com/2020/02/11/too-familiar-odd-prompted/
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[…] prompt has stymied me for far too long! I work with a LOT of engineers, and reality kept intruding. B. Durbin challenged me nearly a year ago with the […]
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