Short Story...

She had steeped the tea for two hours. Strained the water three times. Mixed in a cup of sugar. Reduced it on the stove for another hour to get an Earl Grey Tea syrup to use in her cupcakes. Every step took so long. Sure she could have just bought a box of cake mix and made those but with the thunderstorm raging outside she might as well do them the right way. Today she would bake, yesterday she had found the text messages and told him, "Get out of my house." This morning she had started to wonder if that had been a mistake, if she should have waited. But he would be back, he needed to get his things. And he couldn't resist her cupcakes. Taking the time to make them this way he would never taste the poison. 

Dana sent me a list the other day:

Write a scene in a novel, using these words:
1. Cupcakes
2.Wonder
3.Earl Grey Tea
4."Get out of my house."
5.Thunderstorm

I smarted off that that wasn't from a novel that was just a paragraph. And apparently my head has been thinking...hmmm...ever since. So today you got the paragraph.

And of course it was poison and death. I mean Dana knew when she sent it that it wouldn't be Betty Crocker. And the last two items to include in your scene kind of lead you that way anyway. Or at least me.

I haven't really gotten back into the swing with fiction lately. I can feel the starts back in my head though. I'm hopeful that some salt water and sun will get them to the surface. I'm also thinking about doing poetry month for April again. That was one of the hardest challenges I've ever done with my writing. It really makes me think in different ways. I'm not a great poet, but I'm not a great fiction writer either and I do that anyway. 

Skippy, you can just take a month and work with your horses. 

I'm not sure I'll do it, but I'm tossing the idea around. 

This next week in Hawaii is going to be time for all of the ideas to settle and form and get tossed around and resettle. We have fewer things planned than normal so a lot more time to sit and watch the waves. And to swim. And to feel the whale song in my chest. 

Let's hope it's as rejuvenating as I want it to be.