The year grows near its end, and how on earth did that happen? Have you yet taken stock of your writing successes and failures, and tried to learn from both? Or have you looked forward to next year already, and hoped for something different? Regardless of what you’re planning or thinking, there are prompts this week. Onto the trades!
| Bomb | Toss | Boom |
| Parrish Baker | In the attic, they discovered a collection of shadows that had been carefully folded and labeled. | Padre |
| AC Young | Only the second sons of nobles were considered for the role of battlefield messengers. | Leigh Kimmel |
| nother Mike | The dry cleaners was owned and operated by fairies. | Cedar Sanderson |
| Becky Jones | The rain howled and the wind came down in buckets. | nother Mike |
| Leigh Kimmel | Well, that was a disappointment | Becky Jones |
| Padre | What did the shipping company deliver? | AC Young |
| Cedar Sanderson | Bang through all of it at the last minute | Fiona Grey |
| Fiona Grey | “It’s just a squid.” | Parrish Baker |
Forgot to sent a prompt this week to oddprompts at gmail dot com? New to more odds than ends? Need an extra-extra challenge? Snag a spare!
| Spare | The one I think will impact is… |
| Spare | “If you’re going to say it’s notable, you at least have to explain why it’s important.” |
| Spare | The birds were surrounded by a fairy ring of citrus fruits, gleaming golden under incandescent lights |
| Spare | “I can’t find the cannon!” |
| Spare | They couldn’t explain how the young travelled those distances under the ice. Then they filmed the adults blowing bubbles under the ice pack. |
| Spare | “Wait. Y’all do this [crap] SOBER?” |
Finally, let’s have an image prompt. How about this fine fellow?
That’s it for this week – see you in the comments!
Images rendered by Fiona Grey using Midjourney.
More Odds Than Ends 
https://urnasemper.substack.com/p/gorgona
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fishermen always have such wonderful tales to tell! Usually about the one that got away, but I suppose when the fishermen get away, that counts too!
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It’s the best story of all!
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Mine’s up: https://acyoungauthor.substack.com/p/introducing-the-teddybot
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raised by a teddybot… hum, I hope it works out!
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Just a short snippet. https://professorornery.substack.com/p/kaboom
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and wait until the aliens start watching those reruns! Kaboom!
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Becky Jones tossed out…
The rain howled and the wind came down in buckets.
[hum, read carefully! So the rain was howling, while the wind is coming down hard? But in buckets… I wonder what happens when one of those buckets of wind hits you? I know, I know, it’s not literal, but what if it was…]
The Boy Scouts all grumbled when the storm started. Then someone yelled about synesthesia, and Harold blinked, squeezed his eyes shut, and looked again. What was wrong with him? He could swear… well, the rain howled and the wind came down in buckets! What… he was hearing what he felt, and seeing sounds? But where did the buckets come from?
Then there was a loud crack of lightning, and seconds later, the thunder lit the night with a bright flash.
Harold shook his head. No, that couldn’t be right. What…
The other scouts screamed and shouted as the storm continued, with all the bits and pieces mixed up. The buckets full of wind hit the tents, and tore through some of them. Meanwhile the rain howled like a chorus of death, punctuated by the loud crashes of lightning, lit with the flashes of thunder overhead.
By morning, when the horizon dropped and the sky shone light down on them, they had all realized that whatever was going on, it wasn’t their individual senses getting mixed up. No, the world really had gotten strange.
Of course, that’s when Gerry started laughing, and told them all, “Aren’t you glad you have me with you, a grand master of dungeons and dragons? Hey, we’re on a quest!”
[huh, that almost sounds like a setting or something… and what happens to the scouts in their mixed up world?]
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Parrish Baker prompted me with, “In the attic, they discovered a collection of shadows that had been carefully folded and labeled.”
“It’s always the quiet ones, the ones that you never suspect. It’s always in the quiet neighborhoods with the blue picket fences, the well-manicured lawns, the places that seem safest.” George tossed the shot of whiskey back, closed his eyes, and sighed, before carefully setting the shotglass down onto the bar.
“Another bad one today?”
The person next to him was one of the usuals, one of customers that was there on a weekly if not daily basis. They didn’t talk much, but George knew him by sight.
“Yeah. We finally got a break in a case we’ve been working for months. Someone has been cutting deals across the barrier. Taking advantage of their naivete and cutting bargains with the poor souls on the other side. They don’t know what they’re doing and… Well, it’s bad.”
“What happened?”
“Someone was trading magic and knowledge for shadows. The victims would get what they thought was a good deal and some type of power. And in return, they would lose their shadow. Trading a piece of their soul, of themselves, for simple tricks.”
“Well, we finally got a break today. I sent my team in to check and they found the stash. They tossed the house and were about to leave, when one of them noticed a hidden trap door in the ceiling that led to a hidden attic, buried in a pocket dimension that we couldn’t see from the outside. And in the attic, they discovered a collection of shadows that had been carefully folded and labeled. The perp, of course, was long gone. We are able to get them back to the victims, but how much more of this is out there? There are too many sick people in this world.”
The man next to him nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad you do that job and not me.”
George nodded and grabbed another drink.
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Mine is up now: https://cedarlila.substack.com/p/cleaned-out
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raising the half fae! Hey, maybe you could do a collection of shorts about raising half kids? Might make a good kids book, actually…
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[…] My prompt went to Parrish Baker – check out what she did with a squid, over at MOTE! […]
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oh, the dreaded studying for exams crunch! Fun!
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And now mine is up on my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/1631504.html. Not as developed as I would’ve liked, but this past week has been nuts. I’m hoping things will begin to calm down soon and I can begin to catch up on all my to-dos.
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