The Wordsmith's Forge

Thanks to donations from janetmiles, rix_scaedu, Frode Austvik, and Stephen Laird there are 23 new verses in "Stretched."  Aidan coaxes Danso into describing what happened at SPOON, and reassures him that Danso did everything right.  It's a tense conversation, but they make a lot of progress.

Suzette Haden Elgin has passed away. You can read about her work online.  She will be sorely missed in this world, and dearly welcomed in another.

Some time ago I posted a poem about her, "The Languagewoman," summarizing my interactions and her accomplishments.

Here is a new elegy...


"Soulsounds"
-- an elegy for Suzette Haden Elgin (November 18, 1936 – January 27, 2015)


The soul is not substance but sound,
a self made of speech and song.

Birth is the opening of a throat
to cry out in discovery.

Death is the sliding of a voice
from one chorus to another.

When angels weep, mortals rejoice;
and when mortals weep, angels rejoice;

but in God's ear it is all one sublime symphony,
and the Great Conductor never loses track of a single note.

This poem came out of the November 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from rix_scaedu and siliconshaman. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the series Polychrome Heroics.

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This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls, inspired by the "small vices" square in my 9-1-14 card for the ladiesbingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Danso & Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This story mentions censorship in the context of several children's books which can be interpreted in different ways, some of which are distasteful to certain readers.  If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your headspace before reading onward.

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This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls, inspired by this video. It also fills "The Heart of the Jungle/Forest" square in my 12-17-14 card for the genprompt_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

WARNING: This poem contains more violence than typical for this setting. The warnings are spoilers; highlight to read. Some Kraken supervillains on an illegal mission are taken completely by surprise. Out of a five-person team, three are killed, one has unknown injuries, and one escapes with emotional rather than physical injuries. This is what can happen when a critter has superpowers and doesn't realize how much damage it's doing. Support from surrounding characters varies. The PTSD on Hoon's character sheet below the poem is from this incident. Consider your headspace and tolerance for violence before reading onward.

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The Torn World Muse Fusion is running January 23-25.  Drop by and give us prompts, or claim prompts to write about!  You don't have to be familiar with the world to write, draw, or create other stuff for it -- although of course that helps, and there are oodles of articles, stories, etc. to get you started.  Fiction, art, poetry, crafts, demifiction, it's all good.


What I Have Written

"Broken Hopes" is a story about unexpected loss, the freebie for this session.  Northern relationship stuff.

"Brewing Beauty" is a story about Mirulani courting a beautiful young scientist.  F/F fluff romance with flirting and kissing.

A skykitten prompt inspired the story "Little Paws in the Licenses" and is a sequel to "Raining Kittens." Bai and Alikara go to the Licensing Office and find chaos.
1504 words, Buy It Now = $45.12
Now with an adorable illustration by ellenmillion!


From My Prompts

From ellenmillion: "I used The Lost Bead in conjunction with the Thimbleful Thursday writing prompt to get a flashfiction of 200 words: Icing on the cake. It will be publicly available once I give it a polish!"

This poem was written outside the regular prompt calls. It was inspired by this sign, some charming development from dialecticdreamer in her story "Salvaging" Part 2 and by the "hunger / starvation" square in my 11-25-14 card for the hc_bingo fest. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

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This poem is from the December 2, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from helgatwb and janetmiles. It has been sponsored by rix_scaedu. This poem belongs to the Danso & Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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The half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics is now open! 

This poem came out of the August 6, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from chordatesrock and LJ user Kelkyag. It has been sponsored by librarygeek. This poem belongs to the series An Army of One.

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