Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: You’re in a beautiful outdoor garden and come upon an angel statue. It comes alive and gives you an urgent message about something that has been on your mind. Write a short story about the life-changing angelic encounter.
Inspirational Quote: “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
-Michelangelo
Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: Opening lines set the tone for your story and signals the reader to expect something frightening or funny. Use the scene of two grave robbers in a cemetery to write opening lines for a horror story and a comedy story.
Inspirational Quote: “The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.”
-T.S. Eliot
Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: For today’s writing prompt, I’m borrowing an idea from Saturday’s HeartLa writer’s group presentation given by my friend and fellow writer, Christee Gabour Atwood. In this exercise, you will be creating your inner-writer superhero. Think of superpowers you would like to have as a writer to make your writing successful. For example, a photographic memory allows you instant access to all of your writing research and you have the ability to transfer your words to the computer screen with just a thought. A super imagination can also be a superpower, so let it run wild and claim as many superpowers as you like.
Inspirational Quote: “We all look normal on the outside, but there’s something inside us fighting to get out”
-Christee Gabore Atwood, In Celebration of Elastic Waistbands www.christee.net
Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: You have purchased an antique desk that once belonged to a well-known author. This author can be alive or deceased. You are able to correspond with the author through a secret compartment in the desk. Write a list of questions you would ask.
Inspirational Quote: “You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.”
-Stephen King
Sweater for Mardi Gras
As I was sweeping the week’s worth of cat fur from my two feline companions, I began thinking about all the things I mindlessly throw out. If I save the cat fur for several months, I might have enough for a nice sweater. Cat fur is soft, right? Granted, the pewter gray isn’t pretty, but with Rit red-violet #131 and a few knitting skills, I could have a cozy sweater by Mardi Gras 2013-provided the Mayans were wrong. As for looking like this in my Mardi Gras sweater…I wish!
Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: You have published a best-selling novel and you’re now waiting to go on stage and accept an award from your favorite author who is presenting it to you. Describe that perfect day in your life from start to finish.
Inspirational Quote: I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.”
-John Steinbeck
Muse Mugging Monday
Writing Prompt: You and your pet are waiting to see the vet for a yearly exam. If your pet could talk to you, what would the conversation sound like? Write a page of dialogue pertaining to the upcoming exam.
Inspirational Quote: “If you have a good ear for dialogue, you just can’t help thinking about the way people talk. You’re drawn to it. And the obsessive interest in it forces you to develop it…”
-Robert Towne
Q: What do you, as a romance writer, read?
-Willa G.
A: As a historical writer, I read a lot of history and reference books. I have an extensive library of both that I rely on to make my stories authentic. When I read for pleasure, I most often read romance. Johanna Lindsey and Kathleen Woodiwiss are my all-time favorite romance authors. I also read books by Celeste Bradley, Jenna Peterson, Cassie Edwards, Julia Quinn, and Sabrina Jeffries.
Solace in the City of the Dead
I love a nice cemetery. On my list of the best, most beautiful cities of the dead, Bonaventure, in Savannah, Georgia, is at the top of the list. I find solace wandering among the graves of the dearly departed under the moss-laden oak sentinels. My family thinks my pastime is a bit strange but is it really? I view it as socializing with the bodily impaired. These people lived, laughed, and cried as we all do. Each person had a unique story which is remembered by loved ones and marked with a personalized stone.
Located on a bluff overlooking the Wilmington River, Bonaventure was an 18th-century plantation that was transformed into a private cemetery for the who’s who of Savannah. Eventually, it was open for public burials. Writer, Conrad Aiken, and lyricist, Johnny Mercer are among the residents. Savannahians hold such high opinions of Bonaventure that they say “it’s better to be dead and buried in Bonaventure than to be alive and living anywhere else in the world”.
Of the residents, Corinne Elliott Lawton is my favorite. She had a sad ending as suggested by her morose expression and the victory wreath which slipped from her hand and rests at her feet. There are several differing accounts of her death. The most dramatic and sad is that Corinne fell in love with a gentleman below her station, and was forced to wed a man she didn’t love. She was so distraught that on the eve of her wedding, she drowned herself in the river. Her beautiful, haunting monument was sculpted by Benedetto Civiletti of Palermo, Sicily, and reads: “Allured to brighter worlds and led the way”.
