Short Fiction: The Naughty Elves

Short Fiction

The Naughty Elves

Isabella by John Everett Millais

“I found the tracks in the deep snow between the trees.” Jonathan said breathlessly to the sherif….That’s how the post should have begun…unfortunately some quirk in my brain had it begin:

“Pass the basil would you?”  or was it in my mind?

The other morning I was sitting in the Akashic library with Sekhmet and Bastet having a meeting to see which prompts we’d be working on this week.  Sekhmet had asked Santa’s elves to run off a few copies of the various weekly prompts. We were shuffling through them trying to decide what to write and photograph when Sekhmet shouted to get our attention.

“Ah…this one is just great!”  said Sekhmet enthusiastically. “I do so love this traditional Genoese dish!”

Sekhmet usually goes for a more action packed sort of adventure…if we do epic or wax indignant, you can be sure it’s a Sekhmet inspiration.  So I was delighted to see her interested in something as tame as “Pesto Alla Genovese”.   Since they’d pulled me out of bed at the unholy hour of 3:00 am, I just took Sekhmet’s word that indeed this post was to begin: “Pass the Basil would you?” and jotted off a sort of recipe post.

We did hear the elves tittering in the back of the reading room, but then elves are always tittering this time of year, and tippling too!   It was only after I’d actually posted the story, linked to the linky thingy and had gone on to do a couple of haiku, that we learned something was askew! Indeed, ’twas thanks to one of our visitors to our blog, a semi-goddess from Texas, Lilith Colbert who’d written a story for the same prompt for her  “5 Degrees of Inspiration” who warned us!

“Loverly write, but the sentence is wrong….

*Your piece must include the following sentence as the FIRST line: “I found the tracks in the deep snow between the trees.”*

don’t smite me!!”

With an almighty scream Sekhmet got my attention! I went to the second post indicated to me by dear Lilith and saw the true prompt!  I pulled the post immediately, that is, I changed the title and took it off the linky thingy and removed the Speakeasy badge, tags etc, then put Speakeasy on hold…that is until now.

Got to watch out for those silly Christmas Elves people…especially at this time of the year when Loki is full of Christmas cheer…you do know that he and elves often hangout together at the pub right and that they can be just a naughty as he?

A gif from Blu! Click to see the action!

For Speakeasy #140!

This time with everything I’m at a 446 word count 😉

Just a Note: September 2, 2013

Hello world!

As I’m running late this morning, let me just jump right into this note!

Awards!

This week I was nominated by Canadian Travelbug’s for three awards!  They are: The best Moments Award, Reader Appreciation Award, and Semper Fedelis Award.

Her nomination for me read: for poetry and a weekly photo challenge she sets. She also posts some great photos.  You may also recognise her from putting me on her Saturday Close Up

She also gave a description behind the meaning of each award!  let me quote her here:

“The Best Moment Award… This award is given to a blog that has a literary piece defining a specific moment that is thought-provoking, creative, honest, and or inspiring.

Reader Appreciation was created by my blogging friend Jennifer at My Sardinian Life for people who read and commented on her blog and gave a worthwhile contribution by doing so.

The last one Semper Fidelis shows appreciation for fellow on-line friends who you consider part of your ‘wolf pack’ (that is their words not mine )”

I’d already received the above awards except for the Reader Appreciation award, so I’ll just show you this award, which I appreciated very much!

Thank you so much for you expression of appreciation!

And as always, I’d like to dedicate these awards to my faithful readers!  It’s great to have a lot of followers, but what is really special is to have faithful readers and commenters, like Canadian Travelbugs!  So for you who read, here’s a warm hug and award.  Thanks for existing!

Publishing:

As those of you that read me on Saturday discovered Sahm King from We Drink Because We’re Poets finished editing and published the first anthology which also encluded 10 of my poems!  I’ve already written a whole post dedicated to this, for me, wonderful event.  You can go and look at it here!  On both pages you can find the link to Smashwords where you can download your free copy!  Yes, it’s free…this one is an introduction to our different voices in poetry.  Go get your copy and tell us what you think!

Blogging:

I had a melancholy week, only to be expected when the season begins to change, as you can see from Bastet’s Pixelventure’s 27 August 2013.  The middle season, can be a time of great inspiration, but alas it can also be a moment melancholy reflection.

However, in my lifetime I’ve faced melancholy over and over again, and I’ve found what works for me is accepting that it’s there and then move on.  So, I’ve decided to participate in a daily Haiga challenge!  Here’s the first Haiga:

The initiative has been taken by The 19th Planets Art Blog 210/2013 if you want to participate go to the link and get the instructions!  This is the second prompt, which you may or may not want to use.

I was so very happy this week, when one of my favorite writers participated in Wordless Wednesday with her photographs!  Cranky aka ME McMahon related her fantastic adventure trying to photograph her first progressive sunrise…I think it was fantastic!  Have a look: “Shh…It’s Wordless Wednesday!” and as any great writer would do on her other blog she wrote of the adventure it was to get those photos “A Wacky Walk“.  Take a few minutes if you haven’t done so yet and have a look.  You’ll love the Wacky Walk 🙂 !

Well, I actually have lots of stuff to tell you, but not much time left, as I woke up late this morning!  I’d just like to indicate a few great bloggers that i think you might like to read and follow:  Cubby did a great blog on the Ghazal, which has inspired me to try another of those great poems.  Ese’s Weekly Quote and Shoot Challenge is another inspiration, and its through her I discovered the Haibun at The Ligo Haibun Challenge!  Have you ever wondered what would happen if a famous poet or author were to be edited in our day and age…I do often, this is a very funny post: “What if Emily Dickinson Attended a Writer’s Workshop?” some food for thought!  And, as we’re all getting ready for autumn, I thought that this blog kind of puts everything in a Zen perspective: Spring from My Dogablog, Monty reminds us that in Australia the seasons are really very relative!  And last but not least a special word for the 13th Floor Paradigm…there are some pretty interesting workshops that have recently opened up, go have a look into writing sonnets and mythology, just to name two…oh and I do something from time to time about Japanese Poetry and Literature 😉 .

Have a nice week everyone and see you in blogosphere!

Bastet (via Georgia)

Just A Note! Special!!! The First Round’s On Us is now available!!!

Hello World!

I’m dancing and prancing
Just generally chanting
I’m jubilant so happy
And feeling real snappy
After a week of despondency
Good news! the Anthology
That I participated in
has been
PUBLISHED

That’s right, the We Drink Because We’re Poets a few months back annouced that they would be publishing an anthology entitled: “The First Round’s On Us! An Anthology of Poetic Musings”  Not so long ago we saw the cover design that Sahm had created.  Now we can download that anthology for free!

The First Round’s On Us! An Anthology of Poetic Musings

You’ll Find:

Sahm King : writes poetry and fantasy and fiction as well as the creator of this anthology. His mission: Bring Poetry Back to The World.
Charles Yallowitz: author of the Windemere Series and Poet
MT Blu:  great artist and also manages the We Drink Facebook fanpage
Falicia Lujan: poet, archivest, artist
Trenton Lee Tiemeyer: poet
Lilith Colbert: writer and poet
Rara:  with her winning poem “It’s So Cliché” from the We Drink Because We’re Poets Championship of the Ages Poetry Contest
and
Bastet: Well, that’s me.

We are all bloggers.

Just a Note: August 26, 2013

Hello World!

As the White Rabbit said:  “I’m late, I’m late for a very important date!”

I must say, that last week was a very interesting week as far as emotions go.  I feel I wouldn’t be honest if I do not at least give a nod at this very sad occasion.  Feather’s flew and tempers flared as a tasteless act of spectacularism came to the my attention and to that of many of my fellow bloggers.  I won’t speak of the episode though in detail, suffice it to say that it nearly cost us a dear poet, who worried by his reaction, had contemplated not writing anymore.  I personally flare slowly and briefly, and the aftermath for me is saddness…I wrote this poem for the occasion:  Senryu: First Light.

This week I began working on my anthology of short stories.  I’ve opened a private blog where I have 10 readers who help me by reading what I’ve written and give me some tips that may permit me to eventually publish my work, first through e-zines and magazines, then eventually as a complete work.  I find that it’s easier to just throw my things together for the blog and publish.  However, I also realize that publishing is a more time-consuming and meticulous job.  I’ll keep you updated.

I also published two of my “drawings” with Haiku, or Haiga.  I wrote them in English and Italian.  I try to doodle off a drawing in my free-time…the purpose?  I wish to publish a sketch book of Haiku in Italian and English.  Here are the examples (and I’d enjoy, and need real feedback here, not just: “Oh how nice!” which makes my ego happy but doesn’t help creating quality work!)  Haiga 1: Willow and Wind and Haiga 2: Butterfly.

TJ Therien, reintroduced me to a form of poetry that I had forgotten about.  The Arabic Ghazal, favorite form of Hafiz and the great Rumi and Sufi poets.  My first Ghazal was all wrong and thanks to Lilith Colbert I was able to make the necessary corrections, but having fumbled so badly, I decided to write another: Ghazal: Fences of Segregation.

I also discovered that there are oodles of wonderful photo challenges about that had somehow escaped me.  This week I participated at Cee’s Which Way Challenge and Ese’s Weekly Shoot and Quote Challenge.  They were great fun and I especially enjoyed the Shoot and Quote.  I participated with a quote of Oscar Wilde’s. Not to mention, the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge and my own Pixelventures sponsored by We Drink Because We’re Poets.

I’d like you to have a look at the 13th Floor Paradigm, it is a growing blog and I’m sure you’ll find something that will interest you!  I also find that another post is very fun and useful: Friday Fictioneers. I’m waiting anxiously for Rochelle to give us the new prompt for next Friday!

I’d like to thank all you wonderful people for your support and comments and a special thanks goes this week to a wonderful poet, Cubby at Reowr!  And you’ll all find out why during the upcoming week 😉 .  And take a look at this reblog…someone speaks of the Warrior Goddess Sekhmet, wow, was she a Goddess, I’ve just come across this blog and can’t talk to you about it yet, but I’ve got the feeling it specializes in Vampires!

Again, I must excuse myself to the majority of you whom I follow.  I’ve done a little better this week, though.  I have decided (didn’t I say something like this last week?) to really make and follow a schedule.  Wrote that in black to remind myself to do so.  I’m having a little problem by the way with my Daily and Weekly notifications on my e-mail reader as I’m not receiving them any more.  I’ve tried doing instant notifications then to keep up-to-date of those blogs I follow most, but my e-mail is becoming unmanageable (even worse than before!) some of us are really prolific bloggers (she said blushing).

Have a great week folks and keep having fun writing, photographing or whatever it is you do to keep making this world a little better.

Goddess Prompt: No Oddities Here

Goddess Prompt:  what odd occurrence has kept you from falling back to sleep? Write me a limerick, a sonnet, a short story, anything that tickles your fancy.

No Oddities Here

Ah…the goddess,
she would wonder
why I do not slumber
in the early hours
but alas!
The truth is quite
another
it’s got to do with
habit
the oddity
would be
if I slept
’til half past eight!

Lilsawarian Dectet 11: CPUs and crinoline

Lilsawarian Dectet 11:

The dectet is an 11 stanza poem which follows the following rhyme scheme:

aabbccdddda

CPUs and Crinoline

You’re a marvel
ideals sometimes larval
CPUs and crinoline
creating conflict within
you’re constantly in conflict
your childhood raising stripped
of meaning
but believing
that through screaming
there’ll be a redeeming
but I only see energy dispersal!

Just a Note: Monday 12 August 2013

Hello World!

Impression

Another week has flown by!  It seems to me I’d just finished my last Just a Note and here I am again trying to make a summary of my “week that was”!  I think the reason is because these weeks are so full of wonderful things happening…one of which is the rebirth of enthusiasm.  So, let me get this on the road!

Awards:

This has been a voice that’s been missing over the past two weeks…alas, a kind of calm before the storm!  This week Bastet and Sekhmet have been nominated by three people for some great awards.

At the beginning of the week, Richard Danker of richardankerswrites nominated me for The WordPress Family Award..with a lovely note attached…first of all I’d like to thank Richard, a fine poet by the way whom I think everyone should go and visit, and congratulate him on his fine blog!

Then, in the middle of the week Sweetness 6645 from Chronicles of a Public Transport User surprised me with a lovely bouquet of awards! The ABC, Inner Peace, Most Influential Blogger, Sunshine and Most Versatile Blogger awards!  Thank you so much for these fine mentions!  Everybody, if you like to laugh this is the place to go…having myself been a Public Transport User over the years, her blog tickles me as they tickle my memories of travelling on buses, trains and metros all with a photo she’s shot to illustrate her blog!  She also participates in the photography challenges and what little works of art she produces…go have a look!

 

And then…to my complete surprise…Sahm A. King, that talented force of nature nominated me for yet another award, this time the Versatile Blogger Award with a fantastic mention:

“Bastet not only takes photos, but she writes poetry using a variety of forms (to include even freeverse).  It doesn’t stop there.  She’s also a moderator on We Drink Because We’re Poets, and she has the Pixelventures photo prompts there, on top of featuring photographers!”

I’d really like to thank Sahm for his glowing words.  You’ve all read me write about Sahm over the months…I met him in March at his Arkside of Thought where I’d read one of his famous 5 Points in Sarcasm posts about poets.  I’ll admit, I didn’t understand where he was going to until the very end of the post when, voilà, I realized I was reading sarcastic irony at its finest…through him I visited We Drink and participated using their daily poetry prompts, and began to write poetry again after very many years of never putting word to rhyme!  If today I can call myself poet, it’s thanks to Sahm King.  Go have a look at the Arkside of Thought and We Drink Because We’re Poets…you may become inspired!

This week has been a week where I’ve seen “following” pop up very often and so I’d like to dedicate these awards to the new friends of Bastet and Sekhmet and welcome you to the community!  Take your pick, choose an award and say Bastet nominated you!

Blogging:

I have felt very inspired by a group of poets/writers that I’ve been meeting with recently in blogworld.  Their single names are yet to be publicized, but if you’re following my posts, you’ll see that we are 13…sometimes we mention each other’s work…we prompt (this one’s from the lovely Lilith!) and follow each other’s prompts.  I wrote a poem in dedication to the group called Bard’s Song and invented a new poetry form which I’ve dedicated to them called “The Group Effect” the link will take you to the second poem I wrote using this form, but I presented it the first time at We Drink for the Thursday Poetry Prompt.  Working and collaborating with fellow bloggers is a great experience…something that I think we should all try.  I think I’ll be talking more about The Group in the future.

I don’t write only poetry as you know…I also dabble in short stories.  I’m not publishing many lately, mostly because I’ve been very busy in other directions.  There is also another reason why I hesitate now to post my stories.  I’d like to publish them some day outside of blogworld, and it seems that once posted, many e-zines and magazines consider the work published and won’t accept the work as original!  This and other little important bits of news into short story publishing I’ve come across through a very interesting post “A Dream Come True” sister post of “Granny Says” by M.E. McMahon aka Cranky.

Since I’ve known her she’s been encouraging me to publish…I’ve hesitated, believe it or not, I’m not really sure of all of this newly discovered faith that you’ve all shown in my writing and photographic skills.  To me it’s just stuff I’ve dabbled with in one form or another over the years and I’d never expected to go beyond friends and family with any of it.

So, I’m thinking…maybe I’ll write some password posts with a series I’ve in mind of short stories…which I will then try to publish, once shaped up into saleable material…thanks Cranky and Blu (though you may not know why) for the idea.

Thoughts for Ionia:

Many of you have read Ionia, many have had the privilege of having her comment your work…Ionia is another of those talented forces of nature that inspire and stimulate us all.  Today, Ionia is going to go and “kick cancer’s ass” and I would like for all of you to put your best foot forward in the realm of positive thinking…let’s help Ionia…keep her in your thoughts. My special thanks to John W. Howell for his wonderful blog (and this idea) for Ionia…you’ll be able to read it clicking the link on positive thinking above.

Well…as the closing song of an old 60s TV show went: That was the week that was…it’s over and it’s gone…now the work begins for the new week!  What new adventures are awaiting, what new inspiration, what new stories, poems and photographs!

Have a great week!  Bastet.

Silly Poem for Lilith: Goddess Club!

Goddess Club!

Should any man just waste our time
thinking that they can just rhyme
using herbs like rosemary and thyme
goddesses will put them in the brine
as a warning and a sign
to upstarts who’ll write a listless line

A Goddess Prompt

Just A Note: Monday 8th of July

Hello World!

Well, to say it was a busy week would be understating the case!  There has been so many things going on that it almost seems like a year has come and gone.

Awards:

This week I was nominated for the Semper Fidelus award by Petitemagique who also wrote a Haiga for me!

Here’s the award: And here is the Haiga:

Thank you very much Patty!  Bastet has never looked better! 🙂

I’d like to nominate in this occasion all those glorious bloggers who have blogged through thick and thin and are still here to tell their tales!

Blogging World:

Which leads me right into the Blogging World!

There’s a new blog in the world (well probably oodles of new blogs in the world actually) and it’s been opened by The Cranky Caregiver!  She’s become a published author folks and to celebrate, she went and opened a new blog!  Poor Mrs. Gulch though, her old avatar, found herself ousted our, rather unceremoniously…well not really.  What happened is that it seems one can’t have two different avatars…so as Mrs. M.E. McMahon had to have (heaven’s forbid!) a real life photo for her more serious blog…out went Mrs. Gulch!  Here’s the story and the follow-up is on her next page…lovingly funny as always!  Her new Blog is called: A Dream Come True…by the way the second link will take you not only to her blog but to the story she dedicated to me!  😉

Over at my favorite pub, We Drink Because We’re Poets Lilith began writing her bi-weekly feature dedicated to music!  Her posts are on Tuesday and Thursday, the second being a prompt dedicated to the musical artist she introduces on Tuesday.  This week we met a Japanese artist, Miyavi whom she describes as “Guitar Samurai”  go have a look!

Yesterday I reblogged two posts that I feel are important to us all…the first is entitled:  Hello? I have posted. Is anyone out there? from my thoughts on a page…a great poem, it’s theme…well read it and you’ll quickly see, I’ll give you a hint…read the title 🙂

The second is on a different note, it’s entitled: 10 ways to tell if you are writing with confidence from Writers Write. Take a look, it’s very interesting.

Bastet and Photography:

Well…now I’ve been experimenting with what I can do with Picasa 3 ™ trying to do new things with photos.

Just let me say here, photography is not my chosen artistic medium, I like to take pictures, I like to fool around with them, I like to use them with my poems and stories, and now I try to challenge people into creating and maybe using their own photos with their work! Ergo I work with the We Drink Because We’re Poets as their “photo editor” putting out a weekly challenge and writing an article about photographers or photography.

In order to do that, as I said I’ve been experimenting.  First of all, I started using the “Gallery” option from the “Add Media”…and found that I like how the slide shows work when adding multiple photos, for example when I participate in the Daily Prompt Weekly Photo Challenge or when I do my weekly Sunday Walk.

I did my first collage this week too with Picasa 3 ™ … and wrote a post showing each passage I did to get the end photo…not an exceptional work of art, but it has an interesting potential for future use I think…

I learned about Haiga from Sahm King from the Arkside of Thought…he loves this form of art and has tried his hand at it from time to time with pretty awesome results. This is one of the things he liked about the photographic element over at We Drink.  On Saturday, I made my first attempts at Haiga…I posted my first attempt called Haiga: Embrace asking for feedback from the readers and some actually gave me that needed feedback!  Permitting me to make a second and finally third Haiga, until I came up with the two final posts: Haiga: Water Lily  and Haiga: Wisteria. I’ve discovered I’ve mixed feelings about Haiga, you need a particular sort of photo in order to come up with something really awesome…so I’m thinking I won’t be doing too much of that sort of thing, unless I find something really inspiring, one should never burns bridges!  I don’t mind pictures with my Haiku and Senryu (another term learnt from Sahm King) but I’m not sure I want them superimposed…

Now apart from the results…which do not completely satisfy me, as I think you gathered, another thing popped up…I discovered that I want to learn more about the WordPress editor…for this particular experiment it would have been a good thing to be able to use the “poll option” for example.

Bastet also published her first Trilogy…shades of Tolkien here, people!  It is a series of three poem to three different elaborations of a photo I did last week while experimenting (hell I’m using that word a lot recently!).  I called it:  The Desert Water Lily Pond!

I also published an article about the great and only Leanne Cole…I can’t say that I really wrote it as most of the stuff in the article are things she herself wrote and permitted me to publish on the We Drink blog…let’s say I retooled and edited it with some of my own comments thrown in for good measure… 🙂

Stats and all that Jazz:

A couple of weeks ago…I got 202 views, that was in my 21st week of blogging and that week I received 901 views from 297 visitors…wow I said…and then the views plummeted or so it seemed.  In fact, the next week, I was away from home and Sekhmet (my main computer) alas, my daily views dropped down from that 202 top to 50.  I couldn’t post very often and I couldn’t comment my reader.

Bastet and Sekhmet now has over 430 followers…but readers…ah, there’s the rub says the Bard…there are about maybe less than 30 regular daily readers, they are the “Semper Fidelus” to whom I referred to above.  Many have never said a word to me…they just read and like what Bastet does.  Others comment and give encouragement.  They’re all great people and I love to see them in whatever way they choose to visit!

We WordPress bloggers have a thing for stats…it can become a really painful experience if we’re writing for stats.  Bastet’s opinion is:  don’t get caught up in the stat’s game…it does nothing for your blogging nor does it do much for self-esteem.  Mirrors are a fine thing…but I think you should take them in small doses…expecially at my age!  Just do what you do to the best of your ability…and be happy and serene knowing that you’ve done a great job.

Conclusion:

On this note…hopefully uplifting and wise coming as it does from the Akashic library…you all have a wonderful week and keep on blogging!
O
/|\
/ \

hmmm…i’m a bit fragmented here…

Just a Note: My Favorite Pub!

Good Morning World!

Yeah, it’s not Monday but I just needed to give you some of the news from my favorite pub: We Drink Because We’re Poets…yeah, I’ve been letting the heat bake my brain and let this piece of news slip past me without a word…but no more!

If you’re following this fantastic site, you know that there is yet another new addition to the places where we can sit back and let our hair down.  There is now a We Drink Musicc room!!!!  Music Lilith Writes To.  Here, in her own words is what it’s all about:

“I’ll be launching two new bi-weekly features on my other passion, MUSIC! I will be showcasing some of my favorite artists and composers to write to, as well as a writing to music prompt like the last one, as I was SO impressed with the efforts put forth. I am always excited to introduce people to artists that may go unnoticed or undiscovered due to the climate of the music industry nowadays (especially in the States), so the opportunity will feed my desire to share the artists I so love and adore.”

Back on June 5th, Lilith inspired us with a fantastic Prompt from a great piece of music…it was epic…here let me link that for you so you can go and have a look for yourself…Wednesday Short Story Prompt #6, the musician she introduced us to was:  Trailerhead … as you may all know…there are no deadlines for the prompts at We Drink Because We’re Poets…we can click back to them at anytime and get inspired!

Let me just give you a taste of her first feature:

Miyavi, Guitar Samurai

So…missed something…been away…the heat got your brain (oh that has happened to me quite often lately!)…just go to the header page of We Drink Because We’re Poets and pick your passion…we drink music, we drink photography, we drink poetry, we drink short stories and of course featured articles!

By the way!  While this was going to press…Lilith came out with her first new music prompt dedicated to Miyavi! Haven’t seen it yet…now’s the time to do so!

And now for an announcement:

I am taking a couple of days off from commenting, not writing just commenting…then I’m going to the lake to cool my brain down…well maybe I’ll do just a little commenting…ah…yeah, maybe I’ll just visit the reader for half an hour…mmm…well…maybe…

You have a great day everyone and happy 4th of July to you Americans especially to Papi Z 😉 !