MARISSA

Sunday Photo Fiction – July 31st 2016

The idea of Sunday Photo Fiction is to create a story / poem or something using around about 200 words with the photo as a guide. It doesn’t have to be centre stage in the story, I have seen some where the placement is so subtle, the writer states where it is.

Once you have written and posted your story, please add the link to the inlinkz froggy icon below and add it to the collection so we can all have a read.

https://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/sunday-photo-fiction-july-31st-2016/

MARISSA

The vulnerability showed in her eyes as he observed her from the opposite end of the table.  He wondered what had gone on in her life before to give her so much pain.

 

Her husband patted her arm and then removed his hand which disappeared under the table.  Nigel noticed her wincing slightly.

He wanted to put a cloak of armour around her. He wanted to protect her even though they had only just been introduced.

Nigel couldn’t stand the thought of the scared, thin looking young woman who blinked her blue eyes at him, being stuck in that situation.  He asked her to join him on the dance floor.  Her husband nodded his permission, Marissa stood up gracefully and stepped out from the table and on to the dance floor and in to his arms.  From that moment on he wrapped her in a cloak of protection, transferring his strength to her.

Barry beckoned his wife back to the table, she complied immediately and sat primly beside him. He put his arm around her shoulders and squeezed tightly.  Nigel saw his nails dig into her flesh and leave red marks.

This will end tonight.

Word count: 198

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse: July 2016

http://armchairsquid.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/the-cephalopod-coffeehouse-july-2016.html

The Armchair Squid hosts this monthly book meeting and he says: 

Welcome one and all to the Cephalopod Coffeehouse, a cozy gathering of book lovers, meeting to discuss their thoughts regarding the works they enjoyed most over the previous month.  Pull up a chair, order your cappuccino and join in the fun.  If you wish to add your own review to the conversation, please sign on to the link list at the end of my post.

This has been a very good reading month for me, reading several short stories and some longer novels as well. 

My pick for this month is: 

The Oyster Catcher
by 
Jo Thomas

4*
402 pages.

PRODUCT REVIEW FROM Amazon

Dooleybridge, County Galway: the last place Fiona Clutterbuck expects to end up, alone, on her wedding night.

But after the words 'I do' have barely left her mouth, that's exactly where she is - with only her sequined shoes and a crashed camper van for company.

One thing is certain: Fi can't go back. So when the opportunity arises to work for brooding local oyster farmer, Sean Thornton, she jumps at the chance. Now Fi must navigate suspicious locals, jealous rivals and an unpredictable boss if she's to find a new life, and love, on the Irish coast. And nothing - not even a chronic fear of water - is going to hold her back.

MY REVIEW

4*

This novel is set in Ireland and is a well written contemporary novel.

It starts off with a bang and leads on at a nice pace afterwards.  

As a reader who knows nothing about oyster farming it was fascinating without becoming too technical or boring about the oysters. It had good descriptions of the work that goes in to this sort of farming.

There are lots of colourful characters in this tiny Irish village, giving a good sense of a small Irish coastal town running against big city/businesses.  The community pulls together to try and put the village back on the map.

There is also a love interest that isn’t just the same/same love theme which made the book enjoyable.

I did read other commentators remarking on the poor editing and typo’s – usually one of my biggest complaints – but this must be a re-edited version that I downloaded as I didn’t spot any errors.

A very enjoyable read.           

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

I've joined Wednesday Writers, a weekly creative writing exercise hosted by the lovely Deb at her blog Inner Sunshine

http://www.innersunshine.net/wednesday-stories/

Every week Deb will provide a prompt to get our creative choices flowing.

These are the guidelines Deb wants us to follow:

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Anyone is welcome to submit, whether you have your own blog or not.  Please email your story to stories@innersunshine.net at any time.  Entries received by Monday afternoon at 5:00 will be posted on Wednesday morning.  Entries received after this time will be saved for posting on the next Wednesday.

• I hope to post the theme for the next Wednesday Stories each Thursday.   Prompts to center your story around will either be two unrelated photos OR one photo and five unrelated words that are to be incorporated into your story.

• Rough drafts are welcome, as I will be glad to play editor (and of course, give proper credit for each story I receive).

• In keeping with the theme of this blog, violence/abuse/hatred stories will not be posted.

• Stories can be short, but there will be a limit of 500 words.  At first, I chafed at having to restrict myself to 500 words, but soon I found it to be a good writing discipline.  I learned how to tell a complete story in less words.    Another factor is, stories with more than 500 words tend to tire a reader.

• If you have any questions about Wednesday Stories, please email me at stories@innersunshine.net.

This week we have two photos as our prompt.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

 

She never thought her sister would do it.  Leave the city and become a country girl but that is apparently what ‘love’ does for you.   Mary was still amazed that Lynn had met the gentleman farmer, online of all places, for their first date he had travelled in to the city, the second date Lynn had gone back to his village.

It seemed as though Lynn never returned to the city although of course she did.  Mary remembered the conversation with her sister very well.  It was unusual for the two of them to get together mid-week with their really busy schedules, working late in to the evenings most nights but the text message had seemed urgent somehow.

They met at eight o’clock that night, the drinks were ordered and placed before them on the slightly sticky and tacky table in the pub.  Mary had shown her disgust at the state of the place by wrinkling her nose.  When Lynn spoke she was taken aback by her first words.

‘I’ve resigned my job.  I’m getting married next month.’  

The words had come out of her sister’s mouth all in a rush, as she had nervously licked her lips while she looked at Mary for her response.  The laughter wasn’t what she’d expected.

Mary had taken a big gulp of her red wine, shook her head disbelievingly, stared at her sister who just stared back, daring her to contradict her.

‘Of course you are.  What are you going to do when you are married, then?’

Lynn launched into an explanation of how she’d met Alan online, how he farmed in the Yorkshire Dales and how she had found her soul mate. 

Mary had spluttered, ‘but you’ve only known him a few weeks.  How on earth can you be so sure?’

Lynn explained that the weekend she spent in the fresh country air, no car fumes, no noise, well just the sound of birds singing, cocks crowing and being taught how to look after sheep was just the change of direction she needed in her life.  So much so that she was going on a course to find out more about fleecing a sheep and using the fleece afterwards. 

‘What on earth would you do with a smelly sheep’s fleece?’  Mary had ordered a bottle of wine by this time to help her take in her sister’s news.

‘You’ll have to come to my wedding to find out,’ was her sister’s reply.

Three months later, in a field full of grass and daisies, Mary found herself snapping a picture of her sister in her wedding dress.

Mary’s eyes filled with tears of happiness and regrets that she had to return to the big city to continue in the rat race.  Although, Alan had a nice hunky cousin as his best man, so maybe things could be looking up.  After all if her sister could become a farmer’s wife she didn’t see why she couldn’t either. 

word count: 498