Wordy Wednesday: Potential!

Since I usually pre-feature the blogger before the story, I will thus toot my own horn a bit, if you don't mind. And if you do, just scroll down to below the line. I won't be at all offended. I promise!

Today's word prompt (by me) is "Potential". I know why I chose this word. It's simple really.

Potential was my favourite word in my 20's when I started reading self-growth, self-development, or "self-improvement" books. or books on what I term potentiality.

And, well, you can do so many things with the word potential can't you? After all, it is about the potential of the word isn't it? ;)

My initial blog post had potential at least of a different kind. Not long ago, my bio read along the line as follows:

Elly is the founder and artistic director/facilitator of Children's Co-Creative Choir. She sang harmony as a child with her sisters, harmony as an adult in church and community choirs, currently with Burstin' with Broadway. She is a certified Expressive Arts Therapist having trained and/or worked with various modalities such as sound, movement, visual art, clowning, psychodrama, mask-making, clay, poetry, and fairytales. Elly's educational background also includes AD(H)D, counselling, bereavement, and children's programs. With her thirst for knowledge and inquisitive mind, she has also participated in numerous workshops ranging from art-making to singing. She has participated in two intensive bootcamp retreats being tested physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Ok, with all that potential in (the back of your) mind, let's move on shall we?

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Stacked marbles (picture from Pixabay)

"See this marble?," asked Sally? Her brother David looked up from where he sat beside her in the living room.

"This," remarked Sally emphatically, "is Earth!" as she outstretched her hand having picked a marble from a stack of them.

"No it's not!" exclaimed five-year old David.

"Oh yes, it is! Look! Look carefully! See all the blue. Those are the oceans. And see the green. That is the land."

"No!" yelled her brother this time, shaking his head vigorously.

"You just have to use your imagination!" Sally responded in a bit of a huff. "This marble has lots of potential!"

P.S. I am relatively new to fiction and if you were paying attention to my previous Wordy Wednesday posts, this is my first fiction with conversation in it. So I challenged myself in using speaking as potential in developing the story.

Though a short story, I would love your feedback. Do you prefer this style or my previous non-speaking Wordy Wednesdays? (Just do a search on the side bar.)

Wordy Wednesday: SCREAM!

My story today is a word prompt challenge (https://blogarhythmblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/wordy-wednesday-and-blogging-tip-1-june-2015/)

Today's word prompt is "Scream." 'Scream' makes me think - pardon the aside - of the following childhood rhyme: "I scream. You scream. We all scream for ice cream."

I'm going to take the liberty and morph "scream" into SCREAM! (in all caps and with an exclamation mark). I hope you don't mind though I am sure you can understand why, right?

This word prompt was submitted by B-A-R (Blog-A-Rhythm) member, writer, and blogger Inderpreet Kaur Uppal (http://inderpreetkaur.blogspot.in/).

I have come to know Inderpreet through Blog-A-Rhythm where I have read some of her Indian book reviews which sound rather intriguing. She also writes reviews on American, Australian, and European books as her travels take her around the world. Her other writings include fiction based on blog prompts and non-fiction for articles such as www.womensweb.in where she writes as "indywrites."

You can check more about her writings here: http://inderpreetkaur.blogspot.in/p/writing-for-you.html.

Now, onto my story ...
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She moved recently. Was it two or three weeks ago, already?!

At first she thought it was the crackling of the new thermostat-controlled electric baseboard heaters she had in her new studio suite, two steps below ground level of a house. Then she thought it might be the rain outside, strumming against the window panes and cement pathway.

One night there was no rain and no heater on. Yet there it was. The distinct sound of something. Something rustling. In the nook acting as storage were a number of boxes filled with various items, some with brown wrapping paper, bubblewrap, and the like. Somewhere in there. Over there.

Oh NO! Oh dear! What was it?! She let out a blood-curdling SCREAM!


Note: This is based on a true story of me except that I actually didn't scream. ;)

Wordy Wednesday: Footprints

Today's word prompt is "Footprints" submitted by B-A-R (Blog-A-Rhythm) member, writer, and blogger Shilpa Halwe: http://shilpaview-ideas2.blogspot.in/.

My story today is a word prompt challenge (https://blogarhythmblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/06/wordy-wednesday-1-may-2015-prompt/).

I decided unwittingly to write today - still Wednesday - as a pantser in the same spirit of Shilpa's writings, fiction, still a relatively new genre for me. In only about five minutes I wrote the following piece below.
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She snuggled in her father's arms and dreamed whilst he read her a story. Her eyelids drooping heavily from a fun-filled day of playing around in the snow, building a snowman, tobogganing, having a snowball fight, and the like. It was after all the first day of snow!

How could she not when her playmate was her beloved father whom she adored and worshipped. He was her idol, one whom she trusted and admired with all her heart. Her mother died while she was quite young and her father chose to raise his little girl by himself.

As time continued, the stirrings in her heart remained and yet it also changed. Though it wasn't spoken of as yet, the desire to do something great and be someone admired and respected like her father dawned upon her.

She decided she wanted to leave a mark, her mark in the world. It was her footprints which she left behind that mattered the most to her in her life.

Wordy Wednesday: Essential!

Ah, this is a fun challenge thanks to B-A-R (Blog-A-Rhythm) member, writer and blogger Roshan Radhakrishnan, whose word prompt for today is "Essential." I couldn't resist not partaking in this! How fun! ;)

Other than what is going on in my life right now, I would say that what comes to mind is...oh wait a minute, not so fast! Let me back up for a moment.

Have any of you seen the commercial years ago, I think an American Express card with the tag line, "Don't leave home without it!" This refers to the credit card.

The following commercial isn't the best that I've seen; however, it will give you a sense:



Well, for me I use that tag line verbally out loud from time to time for something I consider extremely essential on any given day, whether hot and dry or cold and wet. It is small enough you can stick into a pocket or a purse.

Guess what it is? Oh, you'll probably never guess. It's chapstick! For me, it's of the natural kind like Burt's Bees.

Wouldn't you agree, this is essential, maybe even more so?! ;)

NaBloPoMo: Make...Dinner?

Today's NaBloPoMo prompt is, "What is your favourite thing to make for dinner?"

Years ago, after learning how to make this from one of my sisters, lasagna with meat used to be my favourite, albeit it was time-consuming to make. Then I stopped buying non-organic meat, thus stopped making it. (I know I could have made vegetarian lasagna, but for some reason never did!)

The look of shredded beef is so unappealing both in look and in smell, especially when cooking! Does it make you feel squeamish inside like it seems to for me?

Stir-fried rice with veggies and/or sometimes with added cooked eggs like you see in Chinese rice dishes became my preferred dinner years later.

The past few years however, I combined the use of two of my favourite appliances (which I blogged about on November 21, 2014, during the previous NaBloPoMo challenge): my crock pot and rice cooker, both small and cute. The crock pot was meant primarily to save time and the rice cooker for an expected outcome of perfectly cooked rice (as opposed to me overcooking it, i.e., think burnt!).

I think my favourite became organic beef made into a stew over or rather, mixed in with rice, sometimes with loads of veggies, other times not. (The photo above that I took features cilantro which I used to hate, now love, as well as rice that just happens to have lentils and split peas in it.

Truly, I could experiment with the crock pot to make simple or creative dishes, though I haven't just yet. Perhaps my next preferred dinner will become the result! ;)

What is your preferred dinner? And do you happen to know of a simple - a few ingredients - and healthy crock pot dish? If so, please consider letting me know.

This post is linked to both #NaBloPoMo and also #WordyWednesday, written in part as a word prompt from B-A-R (Blog-A-Rhythm) member, writer and blogger, Aditi Kaushiva for Wordy Wednesday. ;)