In the northern hemisphere, the leaves are bursting into color, a dash of boldness amongst the green, with a brief flurry of beauty before succumbing to the inevitable end and floating crunchily to land on unforgiving ground. Change is constant, but only sometimes is it evident as well, especially at first. Sometimes a good jolt out of the norm is what we need.
So how about a creative prompt to get you started with something new? If you’re feeling up to a trade, send an idea into oddprompts@gmail.com. Post your submission in the comments – calligraphy welcome, of course, though I’m afraid WordPress doesn’t allow photographs in the comments section.
| Prompter | Prompt | Prompted |
| AC Young | No sooner was one report finished, than another had to be written. Would the paperwork never end? | nother Mike |
| Fiona Grey | The cow fortress was suspiciously vacant. | Cedar Sanderson |
| Becky Jones | The clouds suddenly broke apart revealing a delicate glass tower. | Leigh Kimmel |
| Leigh Kimmel | She knew the roads were getting in bad shape, but she hadn’t expected… | AC Young |
| nother Mike | He was shocked when he reached into the closet and grabbed a real fairy tail (not a typo! This fairy had a tail!) | Fiona Grey |
| Cedar Sanderson | If I had to choose between kith and kin… | Becky Jones |
Have an idea but too little time? Not sure you want the pressure of an extremely laid back group of creative odds eagerly awaiting your input? Send in an idea marked “spare” in the subject line, or pick one up if you prefer. (Seriously, there are no rules. I mean, be kind. You can’t go wrong there. Probably. We could find a way, I’m sure. But otherwise, no rules.)
| Spare | She’d never heard anyone extoll the virtues of a pie at full volume before. |
| Spare | “Fish brains for dinner,” he squealed gleefully. |
| Spare | The man with antlers darted across the meadow, chasing a woman draped in fur tails and fringed leather. |
| Spare | There was a small bottle of cranberry jam tucked into the back corner of the refrigerator… |
| Spare | The dead man had two keys in his wallet… |
May it inspire change in your world. See you in the comments.
Header image by Fiona Grey, Sugarcreek Metro Park, Ohio
More Odds Than Ends 
In this week’s prompt cycle, I received the offering of Leigh Kimmel: She knew the roads were getting in bad shape, but she hadn’t expected…
—
Sophia drove up the valley. She loved walking in the mountains, and was making her way to the hotel she had stayed at every summer for the last five years. She was looking forwards to another bout of holiday exercise.
The road hadn’t been in particularly good condition when she’d last visited the previous year. But the last winter had done a great deal of additional damage. The surface was frequently cracked, and there were potholes around every corner.
She really was looking forwards to reaching the hotel, and saying goodbye to driving more slowly than she would like in order to protect the suspension. She drove around the next corner.
“O For Crying Out Loud!” she involuntarily screamed at the sight in front of her.
She had expected to see a lovely hump-backed bridge, for here the road crossed a tributary of the river running down the middle of the valley. But the bridge had collapsed. The road was now impassable. Sophia couldn’t continue on as she had intended.
Sophia braked to a halt and considered her options. Reversing all the way down the valley to the next junction was not really an option. But the road looked to be too narrow here for a three-point (or five-point) turn. It had narrowed around the last bend.
Sophia put the car into reverse, and reversed around the last corner. To her great relief no-one else was coming up the road behind her to make things more difficult.
She was right, the road was wider. She thought that she now had enough space to turn around. And there was a stretch of road that was long enough without a pothole.
It was a seven-point turn, but now she was facing in the right direction again. Next she needed to find another route to her destination.
If there was one thing she could be confident of, it was that there would be no cars approaching from her rear. So she put on the handbrake, turned off the engine, and got out the atlas.
Fifteen minutes later, Sophia thought that she’d memorised her diversion. She set off again. The extra time it would take her to go the long way around was very irritating.
Only looking forwards to the long walks through the hills kept her going.
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[…] quick snippet this week, from nother Mike at MOTE. My prompt to explore the cow fortress went to Cedar […]
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Oh, Percy’s tail! You don’t mind if I have a friend, do you? I enjoyed that!
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[…] You can read all the prompt responses and join in the challenge yourself over at More Odds Than Ends. […]
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Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Yay!
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And mine is finally up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1038359.html. I wanted to write more, but Indiana Comic Con ate my whole weekend and then some. (At least it was profitable, but now that it’s under new management, we may not be doing it any more).
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Aha! Riding the celestial horse, be careful what you do or wish for… nice!
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(Blah. This week has been my regular fall allergy attack, so I’ve been spending time blowing my nose or flat on my back… still, I had a thought…)
AC Young warned…
No sooner was one report finished, than another had to be written. Would the paperwork never end?
Slightly twisted, but…
The author groaned. No sooner was one story finished, than another had to be written. Would the paperwork never end?
Meanwhile, the fans cheered! No sooner was one story finished, when another was ready to be read! They prayed that the paperwork would never end!
Hum, actually, that’s not too far off from a description of this group called More Odds Than Ends, and their practice of Odd Prompts…
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Some more odd than others…
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