Another week, another prompt!

Debb's is up for the Writer Wednesday blog hop photo reveal this week, so take it away Debb ...

Hello all! It's already my (Debb's) turn to host the blog hop again...where does the time go? 

In my immediate neck of the woods, even the bottom leaves of the oaks and maples have turned into their beautiful, gorgeous colors. It's sad, though, because with the heavy winds lately, half of the leaves have already fell onto the ground. 

October is my favorite month of the year, but it is hastily moving on. So what am I doing? I am going to lighten up a little and see if I can choose two photos to make this a really fun blog hop. It's fun for me to look for two very unrelated photos that would yield the most curious stories. :)

Let's take a look at last week's stories. Settle back, relax...and be truly amazed at the abilities of the writers.

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning by Josh Bertetta

Playing Emergency by Karen Knapp

The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia by Debb Stanton

Waking Up to a Mess by Tena Carr

Would you like to add to the fun and submit your own story for next week's hop? Everyone is welcome! 

Here are the rules:

• Use the photo(s) and prompt provided to write a 500-word story; all elements of the prompt must be a feature in the brief story you create. We aren’t counting, but for the fairness of the readers please, no 1000+ word entries.

• The two photos must be visible in your unless the blog hostess has determined that it will be a 1 photo/5 words theme. If this is the case, the photo and 5 words MUST be clearly referenced in your story. Variations on a word are allowed within reason (for example: adding s, ed, ing to the word to be grammatically correct); but creating a new, unrelated, word is not. (To see an example of a “1 photo/5 word” story see Faith, Hope, Love, and Pink by one of our hostesses, Debb Stanton.)

• Photos are the property of the hostess for the week, unless otherwise mentioned. Please Do Not share photos and/or prompt words as your own.

• In order to honor the community-purpose of the blog hop, we ask that you please reference the blog hop (not one of the hostesses) in your post so your blog audience and the blog hop community may all be connected.

• Link your story through the blue froggy at the bottom by the following Tuesday (direct link to story, not your whole blog, please). 

If you have any questions or need any help don’t hesitate to contact one of the hop hosts: Leanne, Debb, Tena or Heather. 

And now, the moment I have been waiting for. I get to choose the prompts! I welcome your comments on what I chose: 

 

Have you joined in yet? Maybe today's the day!!!

Hello folks, and welcome to your mid-week dose of writing inspiration.

I don't want to upset anyone, but it's only ten weeks until Christmas now. Can you believe that?! Already! That means there's only eleven weeks left to get those New Years resolutions sorted out, and I know how we all love to have a good list of those to work on when January comes around ;-)

If one of your resolutions is going to be writing orientated, then why not make the Writers Wednesday blog hop part of your new weekly routine. Or bi-weekly, or even monthly, we don't mind. Whatever you can fit in is fine by us, we all understand how busy and demanding the rest of our lives can be.

 

As a refresher, here is a little of what the blog hop is all about:

• Use the photo(s) and prompt provided to write a 500-word story; all elements of the prompt must be a feature in the brief story you create. We aren’t counting, but for the fairness of the readers please, no 1000+ word entries.

• The photo(s) must be visible in your blog post and where 1 photo/5 words is the theme, the 5 words MUST be clearly referenced in your story. Variations on a word are allowed within reason (for example: adding s, ed, ing to the word to be grammatically correct); but creating a new, unrelated, word is not. (To see an example of a “1 photo/5 word” story see Faith, Hope, Love, and Pink by one of our hostesses, Debb Stanton.)

• Photos are the property of the hostess for the week, unless otherwise mentioned. Please Do Not share photos and/or prompt words as your own.

• In order to honor the community-purpose of the blog hop, we ask that you please reference the blog hop in your post so your blog audience and the blog hop community may all be connected.

• Link your story through the blue froggy at bottom by the following Tuesday (direct link to story, not your whole blog, please).

If you have any questions or need any help don’t hesitate to contact one of the hop hosts: Leanne, Debb, Tena or Heather.

And now those pesky rules are out of the way, to the fun part and the stories based on last weeks prompts!
Please head over and have a read, you won't be disappointed, and some commenting love is always appreciated :-)

Oh, the Wonders! by Debb Stanton

The Adventure by Sally Stackhouse

A Weekend Together by Tena Carr

For the prompt this week I'm going for one picture and five random words:

Gang, sunrise, breakfast, tablet, plug

Please make sure all of these components feature somewhere in your story, and don't forget to link up with the linky frog.

Have fun!!!

A new winner on WWBH day!

Alright folks!

It's Wednesday! It's the first of the month!  Which means of course ...

Well, to a lot of people it means IWSG day, and for my post please go here. I'm not having a good time at the moment, so my IWSG moment is something of a plea for encouragement :-)

But, besides IWSG, it's also WWBH time. Yay for all the acronyms, hey! 

It's exciting today, we get to see who the latest winner is for our featured blog hop author space.

There have also been some slight additions to the rules for this here bloggy hop, so please cast your eye over before submitting your fabulous stories.

Today Leanne is in charge, so here we go!

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"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." ~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables 

Welcome to October! I love October for many reasons, but the main reason is because I was born this month--on the 5th to be exact. :) 

Today is pretty special in its own right because it's Wednesday AND the first of the month, which means we have an extra reveal for you in addition to a fresh prompt. May I introduce to you our featured blog hop author for October: 

Morgan Kellum!

Congratulations, Morgan! Above is her button that you can display on your blog to support her blog. We pick a new winner each month--all you have to do is submit a blog hop story at least four times and your name goes into the hat! 

We love encouraging our writers in storytelling and encouraging our community to get to know one another--so be sure to head on over to Morgan's blog to say hi and check out some of her other work!

 

Next up: Here are the stories birthed from last week's photo prompt. Read 'em and show a little comment love to the authors. They all did a fantastic job!

You Just Have to be Patient by Lyn C.

The Hounds of Well by Love Happy Notes

Mad Dogs by Scott Taylor

The Whole Kit and Caboodle by Debb Stanton

Preparations by Sally Stackhouse

Okay--real quick, I am going to post the longer detailed version of the blog hop "rules," just as a refresher since we have some new folks joining us. Welcome to our new participants!

1) Use the photo(s) and prompt to write a 500-word story; all elements of the prompt must be a feature in the brief story you create.

2) When 1 photo/5 words is the theme, the 5 words MUST be clearly referenced in your story. Variations on a word are allowed within reason (for example: adding s, ed, ing to the word to be grammatically correct); but creating a new, unrelated, word is not.

3) We ask that you keep your story to approximately 500 words (give or take). We aren't counting but, please, no 1000-word entries.

4) In order to honor the community-purpose of the blog hop, please Do Not share photos and/or prompt words as your own. We ask that you please include the photo(s) and reference the blog hop in your post so your blog audience and the blog hop community may all be connected. Photos are the property of the hostess for the week, unless otherwise mentioned. Thank you so much for understanding! Let us know if you have questions on this. :)

5) Link your story through the blue froggy at bottom by the following Tuesday (direct link to story, not your whole blog, please). If you are unable or need help, contact your hop host: Leanne, Debb, Heather, or Tena.

6) Have Fun! Take your writing seriously, but let those creative juices flow! Don’t fret/panic/pass out/hyperventilate/lose sleep/run in fear over the blog hop, instead let this be an exercise in letting the imagination run wild while staying within the discipline of flash-fiction—short and compelling!

 Without further ado; your photo and 5 words for this week:

 

Mandatory words:

blister

grease

frock

pirate

bishop

Caught by the blogging blues - An IWSG post

 
Hello to all! I hope the first day of this new month finds you all well.

I've not been doing too badly of late, but I'm floundering a little when it comes to the bloggy world. I seem to have lost the drive and enthusiasm right now, and I'm not entirely sure how to get it back.

Friday will be the third anniversary of this here blog of mine, and I was determined not to let it just fly by like last year. But here I am again, not really venturing out into the world and the date is upon me once again. Where does all the time go?

I've grown rather despondent, and not just in regards to my blog, but lots of other life stuff too.

I've tried not to mention too much about it, but when I had my baby daughter at the beginning of June my life was turned up on its end, and in more ways than usual with a new baby. 
She was born with a serious defect that could have claimed her life at the time, had it not been for a wonderful consultant at our hospital who saved her for us.

She is thriving now and, despite continued hospital visits and one more scheduled operation, she is in no danger. However, the whole experience has left me feeling very strange. 
At times of crisis, your body just takes over and you get through it because that's what you need to do, but now the dust has settled, all the emotions are creeping up on me. I feel very spaced out a lot of the time if I'm honest. I've felt like this isn't really my life at all, and I'm just going through the motions of what needs to be done every day.

I feel so flat all of the time, writing and blogging are the last things on my mind, and I'm teetering on the edge of giving up on it. It's things like this hop that have kept me hanging on by my fingertips, but I'm struggling to get back into the same groove that I've been in before.

Self-doubt and low self-esteem are the dominant forces at work in my mind right now, and some words of advice and encouragement would be hugely welcome. Tell me I'm not the only one who's been caught in this pit of seeming despair ...

Love and hugs xxx 

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For more information on the amazing entity that is the Insecure Writers Support Group, click on the link and head over. Here you will find everyone else participating and it's well worth a browse to see what everyone's insecurities are. Trust me, you're not alone, there are plenty of us on the same wavelength.

 Happy IWSG Day!

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