Friday Fictioneers – In the Keukenhof Gardens

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

This week, I’m afraid my link to the prompt is tenuous. The picture is of a place in Holland, I think, so I’ve written a story set there.

PHOTO PROMPT © BRENDA COX

In the Keukenhof Gardens

I walk, gravel scraping beneath my feet, and a gentle breeze stroking me like the tender fingertips of a lover. Scarlet and golden blooms murmur beside the dark lake, their scent glowing.

Faint music hangs like wood-smoke in the air, luring me onward.

The music swells, raucous dance-music on a mechanical organ rasping in a harmonious dissonance, while people laugh and applaud.

All the world’s emotion shrills through those organ pipes.

I sing.

I dance.

My tears flow warm and comforting as I see my part in the dance of life and rejoice that it holds so much of love.

Inlinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Icon

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

PHOTO PROMPT © LISA FOX

Icon

As soon as Miles had parked the Harley and removed his helmet he heard the chanting, a thread of sound drawing him to the open door of the church.

The interior was dim, and fragrant with incense. The singing reverberated, thrilling him with reverence, as he drifted towards the glow of a hundred candles illuminating an icon.

The eyes of the icon seized his attention.

“Feed my sheep,” said a deep voice.

Miles blinked. “Pardon?” he said.

A white-bearded priest spoke to him about Jesus. Within two years, Miles had sold the Harley, and enrolled in a seminary.

Inlinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Getting Started

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

PHOTO PROMPT © TED STRUTZ

Getting started

Arun counted his savings. He borrowed from his grandmother. He sold the gold ring left to him by his grandfather (he didn’t tell his grandmother), and he bought a moped with panniers.

He went to the fish market and bought some fine fish, which he sold door to door. By evening he had fish left, but he was out of pocket. He shrugged and had a fish dinner. Which fish had sold well?

Next day he did better, and the day after better still.

The motorbike only lasted two years – but by then he had a business and a van.

InLinkz – click here to join the fun!

Friday Fictioneers – Short Growing Season

Every week, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (thank you, Rochelle!) hosts a flash fiction challenge, to write a complete story, based on a photoprompt, with a beginning, middle and end, in 100 words or less. Post it on your blog, and include the Photoprompt and Inlinkz on your page. Link your story URL. Then the fun starts as you read other peoples’ stories and comment on them!

PHOTO PROMPT © JENNIFER PENDERGAST

Short Growing Season

Jo sighed as Ruth finished helping with her cystic fibrosis exercises.

“Mom, I’d so love a garden.”

Ruth snorted.

“Jo, this is Alaska.”

But Jo and her dad, Mike, looked through catalogues and ordered some bulbs. As soon as the bulbs arrived, they planted them in the front yard.

“The snow will protect them from freezing,” explained Mike.

It wasn’t long before the ground was covered with one hundred inches of snow, and when the late spring came, the snow melted and the bulbs bloomed gloriously.

Even with a short growing season you can enjoy life and colour – and beauty.

InLinkz – click here to join in the fun!

Book Review – The Enchanted April

Book Review – The Enchanted April, by Elizabeth von Arnim

Title – The Enchanted April

Genre – Literary Fiction

Author – Elizabeth von Arnim

First published – 1922

Edition reviewed – 1986 (Virago)

Enjoyment rating – 8/10

There are no spoilers in this review

*       *       *

Do you like sugar? You’ve really got to like sugar if you’re going to enjoy this novel. I might try to excuse this on the grounds that the writing is light and refined, but so is the sugar in candy floss…

Too, some passages are repetitious; we are told certain aspects of people’s characters several times in the course of a few pages. They’re important, but do we really need them hammering home?

So why do I give it an enjoyment rating of 8/10?

First and foremost, it’s a good story well told. The author has plotted it very carefully; indeed it’s as carefully plotted as an Agatha Christie murder mystery. There is no murder, of course, but the same attention to detail is used to highlight the way the different characters think. We are also led to see how these character differences which were miserable in London, were of little or no concern in the romantic setting of the castle of San Salvatore.

Which brings me to my second reason for enjoying the novel; I found the characters both sympathetic and credible. There is tension between them; they are different types of people. The author has taken a lot of trouble to ensure they are consistent. I cared about the characters, which is one of the best possible hooks for holding your reader.

The descriptive writing, especially about the flowers surrounding the castle, is a delight, evoking both the sumptuous visual impact and the gorgeous scents of the flowers.

There is comedy, too. One scene had me giggling at the mental image conjured up by the author.

And throughout the plot, the characters and their development, the descriptive writing and the humour, the author is gently nudging us to consider our prejudices. And it is that element that takes this out of the romantic fiction genre and places it firmly in the literary fiction genre. It has the long aftertaste of a good wine.   

All in all, while this is quite a contrived novel, and very much of its period, and (I can’t stress this too much) it’s sweet, nevertheless it is both an enjoyable read, and a novel which asks questions of the reader.

I can recommend it.