Writing prompt – socket

Posted on August 12, 2020 by Judy

Plug socket by Judy Darley Recently we had cause to contact an electrician. The plug socket we use for our kettle was becoming intermittent. Initially I blamed the kettle, but when the empty socket crackled and hissed, I decided it might burn the place down and called in an expert.

He soon discovered the culprit – a teeny, adventurous, but ultimately scorched spider*! He also mentioned that occasionally he’s asked to investigate malfunctioning outside plugs and finds a toasted slug deep inside the electrics.

Can you write this into a kooky story where something unexpected wriggles into a plug socket, with extraordinary results? Perhaps the sneaky something could be resistant to electric shocks, such as a dragon or, um, an electric eel!

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

*No spiders were harmed in the devising of this creative prompt.

Sky Light Rain – Apollo’s Offspring

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Judy

Apollos Offspring
Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few insights into the stories that make up my collection Sky Light Rain. I’ll explore them in the order in which they appear in the book. My seventh story in the collection is ‘Apollo’s Offspring’.

I glimpsed the above scene at Bristol Botanic Garden, and got to wondering about the uncanny qualities of a crow who can seemingly walk on water.

Seeking out myths on the topic, I discovered masses about ravens, and decided to shift my corvid focus for purely artistic purposes. I then catapulted my characters into the present and made my protagonist a perfectly ordinary modern mother fretting over the inevitable guilts of farming out child-care.

Giving the children such old-fashioned names (Mabel and Stanley) reminded me of Ladybird books and their resolutely matter-of-fact prose. I get a lot of pleasure from mixing the mundane and otherworldly. Perhaps because of its utter oddness, this is one of my favourite tales in Sky Light Rain.

The tale begins:

Raven comes highly recommended, but despite this, something about him makes me nervous. That beak, those clawed feet, and his way of looking at Mabel and Stanley with one eye and then the other makes me deeply uneasy.

The children are delighted by their new au pair, however. I haven’t heard Mabel chatter like this since before their father left.

Sky Light Rain is published by Valley Press and is available to purchase here.

Discover the inspiration behind my other Sky Light Rain stories by clicking on the story titles below.

If you’d like to request a review copy of Sky Light Rain or interview me about my writing, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – scooter

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Judy

Scooter by Judy Darley This scooter stands abandoned on the brim of a local park. Who do you think the owner might be? Write a list of ten attributes, including gender, age, size, favourite food, scariest moment so far, and so on.

Now write a list that reflects the exact opposite of each chosen attribute.

Select five at random from each list, mixing and matching to create an original character that you can then build your story around.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Sky Light Rain – Two Pools of Water

Posted on July 30, 2020 by Judy

Twin Blue and Green Lakes, Sete Cidades cr Judy Darley
Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few insights into the stories that make up my collection Sky Light Rain. I’ll explore them in the order in which they appear in the book. My sixth story in the collection is ‘Two Pools of Water’.

As you may have noticed, I have a passion for myths and fairytales. This story is inspired by a local legend of a princess and lowly shepherd I was told while visiting Sao Miguel, one of the Azores islands.

My tour guide took me to a ruined hotel to take in views of Sete Cidades, the twin blue and green lakes. The stark contrast between the rotting building and the extraordinary contrasting pools struck a chord with me. It became the prompt for a story about two sisters, the elder of which, Estella, is trying to protect her younger sibling from the adventures she craves.

Initially I was intrigued by how different the two sisters seemed, but discovered as I wrote that Estella, too, once yearned for escape, and learnt to quell her unquiet nature. In this way, the girls mirror the two pools that appear so unalike, but are far more similar than you might suspect beneath the surface. The question is whether the younger sister will listen to Estella, or instead follow their mother’s example in seeking something more.

An earlier version of this tale was published by Dear Damsels.

The tale begins:

The hotel has stood empty for seven years, or eight. In the humid island air, lichens and moulds bloom along the balustrades. Almost every valuable item, from linens to sinks, has been stripped out by creditors. The carpet remains – squelching under our sneakers. In one en-suite a claw-footed bath still stands; its curve of porcelain laced with grime.

My sister Estella leads me to a balcony. The twin lakes show beyond, half-shrouded in cloud. With the sky overcast, the green and blue are harder to see.

Sky Light Rain is published by Valley Press and is available to purchase here.

Discover the inspiration behind my other Sky Light Rain stories by clicking on the story titles below.

If you’d like to request a review copy of Sky Light Rain or interview me about my writing, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – sneakers

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Judy

Sneakers by Judy Darley I don’t know if this happens in your area, but where I live it’s common for people to leave objects they no longer want on their front wall. It’s a tendency that’s proliferated throughout lockdown while charity shops have been closed.

It drives me a bit bonkers. While it’s good to find ways to prevent objects going to landfill, the items often remain outside for days and weeks, being destroyed by rain and sun. Why not hang onto them a little bit longer then pass them on to charities who can sell them for crucial funds?

Why not turn this into a psychological creep-fest? Dig into the twisted corners of your imagination and devise a dark motive for someone to leave items outside. What trap might the person who takes them home fall into?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Book review – Seventy Percent Water by Jeanette Sheppard

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Judy

SeventyPercentWater cover Jeanette Sheppard’s debut flash fiction collection brims with sensitively perceived, reflective stories that creep beneath our surfaces, reminding us how drops of water can change a landscape, physically, aesthetically and psychologically.

These compact stories embrace big topics. The shifting boundaries of awareness linked to ageing and dementia recur throughout, like ripples spreading outwards, inexorably.

‘Rattle and Spin’ is a beautiful story of a woman who is growing unrooted from her sense of self, yet retains her dignity. The tale flows with steady momentum from line to line, guiding ‘you’ to treat this woman with the respect she has earnt and discover how much more she is than what you take in at first glance.

“Go on, sit in her chair. She will pull up a seat, make you laugh until your mouth swells ready to burst.”

The last sentence is heartachingly tender.

‘How to Enter Another Galaxy’ is another instructional piece. This time, the subject in for exaltation are those annoyingly futile calls to corporations, while you, the caller, have one hand gripping the phone and the other juggling a cat. Naturally, the intergalactic being you need to speak to is never the one on the end of the line.

Continue reading →

Sky Light Rain – Knotted Rope

Posted on July 23, 2020 by Judy

5_Knotted Rope_by-Judy-Darley Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few insights into the stories that make up my collection Sky Light Rain. I’ll explore them in the order in which they appear in the book. The fifth story in the collection is my three-voice tale ‘Knotted Rope’.

I used to live next door to a nursery school that took its tiny charges on daily meanders in the nearby Victorian cemetery – the atmospheric sprawling wilderness that provides the setting for this tale. I’d encounter them occasionally playing amid the headstones or obediently clinging to their strip of rope like the one pictured above.

I think we’ve all experienced that dizzying moment when you realise you’ve mislaid your wallet or door keys. As a child I liked little better than disappearing for a time. I decided to combine the two to examine the plummet of mislaying a child, as well as touch on the tot’s motivations for wanting to be gone, if only momentarily.

An earlier version featured four voices, including that of the tot who’s gone missing.

The tale begins:

Rita and I and our two volunteers count with care on the nursery steps. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen… That’s everyone, isn’t it? A whole flock of little ones. Every child wears a fluorescent tabard and clasps tight to the length of blue rope, tiny hands wrapped around knots tied like memories.

Sky Light Rain is published by Valley Press and is available to purchase here.

Discover the inspiration behind my other Sky Light Rain stories by clicking on the story titles below.

If you’d like to request a review copy of Sky Light Rain or interview me about my writing, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Pandemic prompt – Sky Orchestra

Posted on July 22, 2020 by Judy

Hot air balloons over Bristol by Judy Darley A magical event will soon resonate through Bristol’s skies, as hot air balloons will debut an especially commissioned musical composition.

The Sky Orchestra experimental artwork from artist Luke Jerram (who previously brought us boats in woodlands, a waterslide on Park Street, as well as the moon and the sun), and BAFTA-winning composer Dan Jones is due to take place on an unnamed day, partly due to unpredictable weather conditions and partly to embrace the joy of surprise.

Imagine waking to an extraordinary unexpected air-borne art form. What impact could it have? Or, more darkly, what might it distract us from?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.

Sky Light Rain – Shaped from Clay

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Judy

4_Shaped From Clay Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few insights into the stories that make up my collection Sky Light Rain. I’ll explore them in the order in which they appear in the book. My fourth story in the collection is ‘Shaped from Clay’.

This tale was prompted by the scene above, photographed in a local school playground, coupled with an urge to write something that made my skin creep. That strange white horse just looked so out of place. I needed to know what and who, and why. Personally, I also believe that any story populated mainly by children teeters on the brink of savagery.

‘Shaped from Clay’ explores how communities can turn unhealthily insular, and the way coincidences might string together to suggest something uncannier. Add a couple of outsiders and you have an inevitable hint of love story…

The tale begins:

On the last day of term I allowed the children to bring in toys to play with. As her choice, Ebie brought a bag of whitish clay dug from the river that ran through the village. It wasn’t quite what I’d had in mind, but she looked at me with those silver-blue eyes, and I couldn’t think of a reason to say no. I instructed her to use the area by the sink where we washed our story-time milk bottles, and watched from the edge of my concentration as she began to pound out air bubbles. Her hands dug into the clay, pushing into the flesh of it like it was something she was attempting to throttle the life out of, or palm life into.

Sky Light Rain is published by Valley Press and is available to purchase here.

Discover the inspiration behind my other Sky Light Rain stories by clicking on the story titles below.

If you’d like to request a review copy of Sky Light Rain or interview me about my writing, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Pandemic prompt – rooftops

Posted on July 15, 2020 by Judy

Rooftops by Judy Darley Lockdown has meant that the city-dwellers amongst us have had more than our share of rooftop views lately. Restrictions have eased considerably in England, but can’t take away from the minutiae of everyday weirdnesses we’ve already observed in these times.

Imagine a neighbour whose natural nosiness has become heightened by these circumstances. What oddity might they glimpse?

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud.com to let me know. With your permission, I may publish it on SkyLightRain.com.