I think I speak for all of us here at Odd Prompts when I say the world has gone a little sideways, and is drifting. I think of it like a sailing ship that was riding out a storm at anchor, and the ropes broke. I’m not sure where we’ll go next. But the ride is getting choppy. On the other hand, there is always hope. The clouds will break up, and the sun will shine. We will find a safe harbor. In the meantime? We write. We create worlds full of joy, and hope, and although there are dark shadows in them, the shadows serve to highlight the light. Escape into a prompt with us…
| Prompter Name | Prompt | Promptee Name |
| Cedar Sanderson | It all started with feeding the feral dragon… | B. Durbin |
| Becky Jones | You are at your high school or college reunion. While it’s been great seeing people again after so many years, you notice that a few of them have…changed…what’s different about them now? | Cedar Sanderson |
| nother Mike | When the goth girl bit his arm, all he wanted to know was when he would become a weregoth… | Becky Jones |
| Fiona Grey | “I am both prickly and poisonous,” she said wistfully. | Misha Burnett |
| Misha Burnett | The character was raised in a cult, but removed from that environment in grade school and sent to live with an ordinary suburban foster family. Now, twenty years later, it turns out the cult was right and the Old Gods are returning. | Fiona Grey |
| B. Durbin | That poor Easter Bunny… | Leigh Kimmel |
| Leigh Kimmel | Suppose the songs “Quinn the Eskimo” and “The Ballad of Eskimo Nell” both take place in the same ‘verse. | nother Mike |
This week’s visual prompt is a spare prompt. Anyone want to take up the challenge of… a space rock. Thud.
Spare Prompts! Gitcher spare prompts here and have some fun with them! Take one, take two, see if you can juggle three!
| Spare | Wham! A cream pie hits you in the face! Beware, you have entered the clown zone… |
| Spare | In the middle of the hospital ICU, the unsung Cinderella did her magic… |
| Spare | When he opened his briefcase, there was a little plastic superhero figurine inside… |
| Spare | This is the real story behind those abandoned single shoes on the highway. |
| Spare | A magic shop that doesn’t sell things, instead the proprietor offers customers money for whatever they have in their pockets. After one sale, the customer realizes that she has sold more than she knew. |
| Spare | The lonely town of Miller’s Peak, NW hasn’t had a birth or death in fifty years. Why? |
| Spare | Magic works in the universe, but only outside the gravitational field of planets. How does this change space exploration? |
| Spare | You receive an official looking document ordering you to report to the Office Of Unusual Persons. No one seems to have heard of this Office, but there is a building with that name on the outside at the address specified. What happens next? |
| Spare | When the Space Force reached the rings of Saturn, they were surprised to find the missing socks from centuries of washing… |
See you in the comments. It’s been a fabulous year for writing. Keep that in mind, and don’t let reality get you down.
Header image by Fiona Grey, Sunset in Waikiki, Hawai’i.
More Odds Than Ends 
Beautiful photo, Fiona.
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Thanks! It’s from a DayJob work trip, of all things.
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Over here at OddPrompts this week, my prompt was simple.
“Suppose the songs “Quinn the Eskimo” and “The Ballad of Eskimo Nell” both take place in the same ‘verse.” Quinn the Eskimo? Bob Dylan, and what I remember mostly was the name. Oh, I could sort of hum it. And while I’ve heard about the ballad of Eskimo Nell, I wasn’t sure of the words. So the first step was to visit google…
Quinn the Eskimo
http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/quinn-eskimo-mighty-quinn/
Eskimo Nell
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Eskimo_Nell(Amalgamated).htm
Hum… Deadeye Dick and Mexican Pete… Eskimo Nell headed North…
Obviously, my story should be about the encounter between Quinn the Eskimo and Eskimo Nell? In the land up North?
Let that ferment a bit, and here you go!
What Happened Under The Aurora (590 words)
By Mike Barker
I’ve heard that you are interested in the aurora borealis, the wonder of the northern skies, that light of the night? Well, let me tell you the tale of how the northern lights came to be. You see, once upon a time, the North was always dark and cold, no lights to be seen, just as grim as it could be.
Then, one cold winter night, and remember, the nights are long up there, when the times were at their darkest, the igloos silent, and all seemed grim as grim could be, well, out of the darkness, there was a hearty footstep heard, a-crunching through the snow and ice, and he strode into their lives!
You can read the rest over here at https://mbarker.dreamwidth.org/232864.html
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That is too funny! I love it!
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Prompt: When the goth girl bit his arm, all he wanted to know was when he would become a weregoth…
My brain is feeling fuzzy from all the on line teaching. I usually teach via winging it and this is just not possible when on line. So here we go…
“What the hell just happened?” Zack gasped.
“That crazy goth chick bit you!” Maddy was staring after the crazy chick in question.
“Really? Cool!” Zack was staring at his left arm, turning it to try to see the entire bite mark that decorated his arm just below the elbow.
“What the hell do you mean, cool??” Maddy turned to stare at Zack.
“Well, i’ll probably turn into a goth kid at the full moon. I’ll be goth cool!” Zack was practically bouncing at the thought.
Maddy blinked several time and then rolled her eyes. “You are so freaking weird!” she said in disgust as she stalked off.
+++
That’s it. Off to rest brain by eating chocolate and watching Spring Baking Championship.
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Oh, so *that’s* how my wardrobe ended up all black and charcoal grey…
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Oh, Zack and Maddy! Just wait, these star-crossed lovers will probably fall into each other’s arms after some more trials and tribulations. Especially when Maddy finds out that Zack really is a closet were-goth…
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MIght as well go goth then. Sky’s too bright for good deep sky object viewing at full moon anyway.
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[…] this week’s odd prompts challenge, Misha Burnett and I traded writing ideas. I suggested he detail why someone was both […]
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I’m cooking and baking more than usual, and you might be able to guess what ingredient I had on hand. https://fionagreywrites.com/the-old-gods-return/
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Um…should I worry about the bananas in my freezer?
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Only if they begin to dance the polka.
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[…] My prompt this week, for all that I stretched it out of recognition, was from Becky Jones “You are at your high school or college reunion. While it’s been great seeing people again after so many years, you notice that a few of them have…changed…what’s different about them now?” I prompted B. Durbin with “It all started with feeding the feral dragon…” […]
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Oof. I finished up the story I was doing for a funny chicken anthology, and managed to write the next installment of the Hatrack. Becky, I’m afraid I stretched your prompt a lot! https://www.cedarwrites.com/2020/04/07/the-case-of-the-perambulating-hatrack-part-9/
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I finally have mine up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/726312.html. It’s part of the story that began with “My Old School,” although much later in the story arc. I’ll warn everyone ahead of time that it goes into some dark places at the end.
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Wow, what a scene! Up, up, and away, in my beautiful… no, that’s another song, isn’t it!
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Wow! I’m not entirely sure what happened, but am completely fascinated. Description was very vivid.
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A spare prompt that caught my attention, finally yielded up it’s story: This is the real story behind those abandoned single shoes on the highway.
https://undomesticatedfeline.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/odd-prompts-week-14/?frame-nonce=97f7881eb1&preview=true&iframe=true&revision=3
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