Smorgasbord Blogger Daily – Tuesday October 1st 2019 – #Challenge Special – Colleen Chesebro, D.Wallace Peach,Charli Mills and Carol J. Foster

Today I would love to encourage you to delve into the world to online challenges and have some to recommend. Not only is it great writing practice but it also pushes a few creativity buttons, especially when it is outside your comfort zone.

The first is Colleen Chesebro’s Tuesday Tanka Challenge and I have two links for you. The first is the announcement of the poet of the week plus honorable mentions from yesterday and the second is this week’s challenge.

Poet of the week and Honorable Mentions – with links to last week’s participants.

Congratulations, and many thanks to all the participants! Please visit the challenge post comments HERE and HERE where you’ll find the links to everyone’s poetry. Stop by and say hello!

The Poet of the Week

This week, I’ve chosen H. R. R. Gorman as the Poet of the Week for his Haibun/Cinquain poem featured below. I see he followed the Haibun directions to a tee! Here are my observations.

Haibun poetry must have a title. Structure your prose with short descriptive paragraphs written in the first person singular. Remember, when you write a Haibun the experience must unfold as if you are observing the occurrence before you.

The poetry portions should never repeat what you’ve already stated in your prose. The poetry should reflect another aspect of your prose. The two pieces are different – yet somehow connected.

The American cinquain is an unrhymed, five-line poetic form—the first line has two syllables, the second has four, the third six, the fourth eight, and the fifth two (2-4-6-8-2).

I also think a Haibun pairs well with any other syllabic form, except a Haiga, which should standalone – Just my opinion. 😀

Head over and read this lovely poem by H.R.R. Gorman and those of the honorable mentions (I am one!): https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/09/30/colleens-2019-tanka-tuesday-poet-of-the-week-honorable-mentions-no-146-synonymsonly/

And find out about this week’s challenge, which is Poet’s Choice, where we can choose our own prompts: https://colleenchesebro.com/2019/10/01/colleens-2019-weekly-tanka-tuesday-poetry-challenge-no-147-poetschoice/

The next challenge is the Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction inspired and curated by Charli Mills and each week the participants follow a prompt with 99 words no more no less. Here are some of the submissions for last week to give you an idea of the amazing stories in the challenge.

Between the big moments in life, there are interludes. Like the sweet piece during an orchestra’s intermission or the pause between acts in a play, these interludes set a different pace. Perhaps the temporal episodes add up to characterize more than a transition. They can even become more important than the significant markers of life.

What will writers make of interludes? You can count on variety and enlightening ideas.

The following are based on the September 19, 2019, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story about an interlude.

PART I (10-minute read)

Sweet Interlude by Ritu Bhathal

Sophia leaned against the headboard, taking a drag of her cigarette.
She smiled at her reflection in the mirror; hair messed up, lipstick a mere stain left on her lips.
She watched him pull his pants back on.
“Hurry, Sophia!”
Marco slipped his shirt on, still buttoning as he left.
Voices. Her supervisor was coming.
She flushed the cigarette down the toilet, changed, and flung the door open.
“Oh Sir, these guests, too much! Smoking in here. Smell it!”
She bustled out, to the next room waiting to be cleaned, wondering when her next interlude with Marco would be…

🥕🥕🥕

A Woman Scorned by TN Kerr

It was early morning when Enrique crept home. Treading softly and turning his key slow; he eased the door inward. He started when a heavy glass ashtray bounced off the wall and shattered. Mesmerized, he watched as pieces of glass scampered across the dark blue tile floor. It brought to mind ‘la galassia via lattea’ it was beautiful. So was the dark-haired fury who came in quick and attacked.

“Ma il mio amore, eravamo in pausa.” Enrique shouted as he tried in vain to dodge her blows.
Marida continued to pummel him. Her fierce countenance set and forbidding.

🥕🥕🥕

Head over and read the other submissions: https://carrotranch.com/2019/09/25/interludes/

This week the challenge will morph into a contest for October with a judging panel and prizes and you can read more about that in last week’s challenge post: https://carrotranch.com/2019/09/27/september-26-flash-fiction-challenge/

And the third challenge that I personally have been participating in is the monthly speculative fiction originally on the blog of Diana Wallace Peach but due to commitments the baton has now passed over to Carol J. Foster.

In the form of a photo prompt, the challenge give you the freedom to write within any genre that you wish, poetry etc without word restrictions. Keep your eye out for October’s challenge and here is a little bit about Carol Foster.

Carol Forrester is a writer trying to be a better one. She’s currently working on her first novel ‘Darkened Daughter’ and attempting to put together a collection of poetry in the hopes of submitting to publication in 2020.

She has a 2:1 BA degree in history from Bath Spa University, enjoys judo at least twice a week, and tries to attend poetry events around the Midlands when she can.b4b80-chiaroscoru

Her flash fiction story ‘Glorious Silence’ was named as River Ram Press’ short story of the month for August 2014 and her short story ‘A Visit From The Fortune Teller’ has been showcased on the literary site Ink Pantry. Her poems ‘Sunsets’ and ‘Clear Out‘ were featured on Eyes Plus Words, and two of her poems were included in the DVerse Poets Pub Publication ‘Chiaroscuro’ which is available for purchase on amazon.

More recently her poem ‘Until The Light Gets In‘ was accepted and published at The Drabble and her poem ‘Newborn’ was published by Ink Sweat & Tears.

She has been lucky enough to write guest posts for sites such as Inky Tavern and Song of The Forlorn and has hosted a number of guest bloggers here on Writing and Works.

She hopes that 2019 will be the year that she finally sees herself as a proper writer.

Find out more and join the challenge: https://caroljforrester.com/2016/08/13/about-the-writer/

Thanks for dropping in today and I hope to see you during one of these challenges or all of them… a great opportunity to share your writing skills and keep you out of mischief!! Thanks Sally

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