jenne49

The Unicorn Challenge-12/08/23

© Ayr/Gray

A magical new weekly writing opportunity from me – Jenne Gray – and him – C. E. Ayr.
Visit this blog every Friday, read an amazing story from each of us, and then post your own even better effort in the comments below.
Or on your own blog and stick the link down in the comments.
The rules are:
Maximum of 250 words.
Based on photo prompt above.
That’s it.

24 comments

    • Cara Jenne.
      I snapped a photo while out walking today; perhaps you might consider it for an upcoming challenge. Where would be the best place to send them? If you want to contact me privately, my email address is somewhere on my Elephant’s Trunk site. Ciao, ciao!

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  14. I’m glad to have discovered your challenge. Your photo prompt has helped me to break through an extended writing drought, and I’m feeling very happy about that. So here’s my first contribution.

    Clean-up day

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  17. Apologies – I’ve exceeded the 250 words this week but only by 13!

    TREASURE TROVE?

    There was no use trying to put it off any longer. With her father dead and her mother now in a nursing home, the family home had to be cleared.
    Margaret started in her father’s “den”. In the first box, she found a pair of roller skates, hers she realised. They were 50s chic and she had had so many hours of fun on them – and so many scraped knees.
    Why her father had them stored in his man cave was beyond her. Nor could she think of any use for the electric knife.
    Then came the photographic equipment – empty reel for the projector, splicer, even a roll of film. She slipped it out its box and held it up to the window, trying to see what was on it. Most of the shots featured a woman; some included Margaret’s father. Others showed a baby. It couldn’t be her, Margaret thought. Her mother was nowhere to be seen.
    After a few hours of sorting through yet more boxes, Margaret decided to call it a day. On her way home, she dropped the roll of film off to get it developed.
    A week later, she picked up the photographs. Sure enough, there was her father, probably in his forties. She remembered him looking exactly like that. There was the baby, anonymous as babies tend to be. And there was the woman, smiling, laughing, posing for him and looking totally in love. With her father? Were those scheduled business trips really for business? The plot thickens, she thought, brow wrinkled, deep in thought.

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    • Oh dear, happy families starting to look less likely now.
      Well-built story, Angela, if, as you say yourself, somewhat verbose!
      As a character in my fabulously thrilling novel ‘Beginning of After’ says repeatedly, ‘There’s only one rule’!

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  18. You really show the build up of pressure on this woman.
    She has everything to deal with and now the possible – probable – overturning of a family story she had taken for granted – I feel the burden on her.
    Nicely done, Angela.
    As to the extra 13 words, they’re not a big deal and the Unicorn will let you off – this time!😉
    But there is just the one ‘rule’!
    I regularly have to lose 50 – 100 words to meet the limit!
    The editing is helping me tighten up, find more compact ways of saying things and recognise the superfluous words – it’s actually good fun.

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    • Thanks, Jenne. And thanks to the Unicorn for letting me off with a warning! Worry not, I usually have to lose a few words or, in the worst case, a few lines. I think I’m not posting my efforts in the right place, though. I put them in Comments because I can’t see how else to post them to look like everybody else. What am I doing wrong/not doing at all?

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