Week in and week out, there are prompts. Some of them lead to wondrous things, others go nowhere. How will you package up yours, carefully creating from it?
| Preparation | Delivery | Destination |
| AC Young | The imperial eagle had three heads. Supposedly one was for seeing the past, one for seeing the present, and one for seeing the future. | nother Mike |
| Fiona Grey | “It must be good. It’s found in jellyfish.” | Cedar Sanderson |
| Becky Jones | The sound of waves accompanied her into sleep. | Leigh Kimmel |
| Leigh Kimmel | And out of nowhere the idea ambushes you and won’t leave you alone | AC Young |
| nother Mike | Dragonflies hovered over the pond, shimmering in the setting sunshine. | Becky Jones |
| Cedar Sanderson | This is the time of year where we have to hyperfocus | Fiona Grey |
Didn’t send in a prompt? That’s why there are spares! Grab one and do it up brown for us. Post it in the comments and we can all admire your work.
| Spare | The mountain lion yawned, exposing… |
| Spare | “I’m sure she’s just *acting* like a zombie.” |
| Spare | The Event let an entire generation skip forward. |
| Spare | Rock and roll keeps you in a constant state of juvenile delinquency, and I like it like that! |
| Spare | Watch out for falling centaurs, and other mythological debris |
More Odds Than Ends 
My return parcel is ready: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/the-idea
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My response is up! https://cedarlila.substack.com/p/its-got-legs
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[…] This week’s prompt from Cedar Sanderson on hyperfocus struck a little too close to home! It was a trade – check out what she did with jellyfish over at MOTE! […]
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And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1591160.html. It’s a dark story, but it’s an exploration of the earlier life of the antagonist in a story I’m writing for a very special submission opportunity, which calls for a look at the darker side of things.
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AC Young unwrapped the package of…
The imperial eagle had three heads. Supposedly one was for seeing the past, one for seeing the present, and one for seeing the future.
[Unfortunately, the three heads never agreed on what was important. Peering into the past, the head on the left would start to say, “Hey, back in…” and the head in the middle would sneer, and say, “Who cares! Right now…” which is when the head on the right would start to interject, “ You idiots! The vision I have of the future clearly shows…” and then they would peck at each others necks, and nothing meaningful ever got said… hum, that might work…]
The magician smiled at the young boy. “Do you have an eagle?”
The boy smiled back, and dug into his pocket. He handed the magician a bright shiny silver eagle, the coin of the realm.
The magician looked at it, and held it in front of the boy. “Do you know why the eagle has three heads?”
The boy shook his head.
The magician grinned. “Well, let me tell you! One is for the past, the why that lies behind us, the causes of everything! Another is for the future, the consequences that follow, that fill our visions. And finally, the head in the middle, that’s for the present, the now when we do things. Before, after, and right now. Okay?”
The boy smiled and nodded. That made sense.
The magician tilted his head, and looked at the boy out of the edge of his eye.
“Now, I will teach you a secret. Do you want to learn this secret?”
The boy gulped, and nodded. He leaned closer.
The magician took the coin, and with a flip of his wrist and fingers, set the coin spinning on the counter between them.
“Now, look closely, and tell me what you see!”
The boy leaned forward, and gasped. “I… I see the middle head, but the other two are gone!”
The magician chuckled. Then he caught the coin and handed it back to the boy.
“That’s right! When we take action, when we do things, past and future disappear, and only the now is here. So, don’t worry too much about before and after, concentrate on the now, and you can’t go wrong.”
The boy looked at the coin in his hand. All three heads were there again. Then he looked at the magician and slowly nodded. “I will remember!”
Then he turned and walked off into the crowds, all celebrating the New Years holiday.
[well, it’s a start, anyway. And who knows, maybe the magician’s words will stick with our young friend? Anyway, time to post…]
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Once again, spaced linking my response here.
https://professorornery.substack.com/p/refuge
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