Worthing Flash

by Linda S. Gunther  To read this week’s edition, please go to www.lindasgunther.com  OR see this blog post in its entirety below! (for your convenience) May 26, 2023 PLANTING CLUES IN THE MYSTERY OR SUSPENSE NOVEL Learn from the wise and thrive. That’s my writer’s motto. On the other hand ,  go where your own creative energy takes you . I try to blend these two approaches. I savor the golden nuggets I get from the experts on the craft of writing. But I also use my gut and trust and honor my unique writer’s “voice.” I was fortunate to attend an excellent  Sisters in Crime  webinar with Catriona McPherson who writes mysteries set in the 1930’s as well as contemporary psychological thrillers. Everything I got from her session was valuable for me as a suspense novelist. In this blog post, I’ll dig into  PLANTING CLUES , the focus of Catriona’s presentation. Catriona began her talk with the three questions inherent in every mystery: How dunnit? Why dunnit? and When dunnit?  She, then

The one-hour commute to the city for the Graduate class at the university was a long one because of semis, potholes, and even deer who fed on the state-planted wildflowers to save on mowing costs, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as receiving a text from the faculty member fifteen minutes before class and forty-five minutes into my commute that the class was canceled.   Zoom Class During the pandemic, I turned on my pc and clicked on the Zoom shortcut for my university class. I was shocked and tried not to laugh at my professor. She had a bag of Doritos propped against her pillow and laid there on top of her paisley comforter in a long night gown. She fidgeted with the sound and camera, but clearly couldn’t operate it, or we wouldn’t have seen such a comedic view. Apparently, her university department hadn’t trained her for the online class conversion.   Two stories from Niles Reddick 

CHRONOLOGY and THE WRITER You can either go to my website to read or I’ve included the whole byte for your convenience, just below. ✍🏼✍🏼✍🏼 www.lindasgunther.com —————————————- WRITE-BYTES May 19, 2023 - #36 - Chronology and the Writer Once upon a time, there was a writer who messed with chronology. Her chapters were out of sequence and did not follow a timeline. She went back and forth between decades in her story. Did she have readers? And even if she had readers, could they follow along when she flip-flopped events out of order, using a nonlinear structure? Writing coaches warn developing writers not to screw with chronology. In other words, to write the story sequentially from the beginning to the middle, and then to the end. Follow the timeline of how events and situations unfold, as they do in real life. “Jumping back and forth in a story is like opening a can of worms,” I’ve heard a coach say. “It gets out of hand real fast, and readers may be left confused and perhaps e

“Shhh,” he said. “Here it is, but when he finds out?” “Snnuugh Rubububububua,” “They both laughed; he handed her the clothespin, his eyes sunken in but his face smiling. “I hear him from everywhere: I’m sure this will do it,” he said. Then giggled. “Quietly and with finesse, she stood, his snoring like an orchestra’s brass section of out-of-tune.” Clothespin in her hand: her brother directing from Mother's hospital bed in the living room. Auntie said, “Make him laugh as much as you can daily—illness struck him. We laughed the same as always. Remembering how mom did it.  Lily Finch

There is only one rule for #worthingflash . All stories should be 1000 words or fewer. Derek McMillan

WRITE-BYTES BLOG …a resource for writers May 12, 2023 By Linda S. Gunther The topic this week - SHIFTING GENRES To read this blog, go to my author website: www.lindasgunther.com Click on Write-Bytes at top of screen and enjoy this week’s blog byte. Each week is a new blog post. For your convenience, this week’s blog post appears below in its entirety. __________________ Write-Bytes this week: May 12, 2023 SHIFTING GENRES Maybe you’ve been writing memoir and you’re thinking about trying another genre. When I started writing seriously, I began with romantic suspense. Novel after novel poured out of me. Plots, characters, settings, twists – the whole nine yards. I couldn’t stop inventing, creating intense situations for my protagonists to deal with, often a combination of emotional relationship problems and threatening physical circumstances. But one day a few years ago I stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote a short memoir piece about something from way back in my past

By Linda S. Gunther The green liquid in the inverted, cone-shaped glass appeared translucent against the burnt orange sunset. I sat, looking out at the Pacific Ocean, on a wood bench at the picnic table on my stone patio at the edge of the bluff. It was a hot summer afternoon. The crimson-colored cherry at the bottom of the glass had been marinated for three days in Calvados, a tasty French brandy. One part Apple Pucker schnapps was then shaken with three parts ice-cold top shelf vodka and poured lovingly over the loaded plump cherry. The resulting concoction sat atop my picnic table. It was like Christmas in July. I examined the glass from various angles; first, my chin on my hands, elbows on the table. Then, my face even with the glass. I bent down below the edge of the table and looked up, my head tilted to one side, the buzz and blur of an airplane in the distance crossed through the emerald-colored liquid. Eyes over the glass, I gazed down at the hypnotic mixture of

‘Welcome to the first autonomous bus service. We are just approaching the bridge over the River Mersey. This bus is more fuel efficient and there is no human error.’ ‘Alexa, why is that recording still playing after the smash?’ ‘It was no mistake, eliminate humans and you eliminate the error.’

Thanks to everyone who sent in entries for the 100-word challenge. I would be pleased to receive any contributions between 85 and 1000 words for the summer months. https://worthingflash.blogspot.com All the best Derek McMillan

WRITE-BYTES BLOG …a resource for writers  May 5, 2023 By Linda S. Gunther The topic this week -  WRITING A BLOG: LEARNINGS and INSIGHTS   To read this blog, go to my author website:  www.lindasgunther.com Click on Write-Bytes at top of screen and enjoy this week’s blog byte.   Each week is a new blog post and all previous blog posts appear for your convenience! ​            P.S.  If you read the WRITE-BYTES blog, let me know if it’s of value to you. Please contact me on website or friend me on Facebook. You can also send me an email at  linda.gunther@sbcglobal.net   For your convenience, below is this week’s blog post.   May 5, 2023 - #34 – Writing a Weekly Blog: Learnings and Insights When I first conceptually visualized the WRITE-BYTES blog, I was wary of the blogging landscape. Did I really have anything to say, especially week after week? A few writing colleagues, my web designer Cowander and my book cover artist Julie suggested I just go for it, write a weekly blog for dev

We met in winter. Winter, a time to hunker down, a time to hibernate, they say. Not for me. I have always preferred winter over the other seasons. I would to go to the beach. I walked and walked, always the only one there, my footprints a solitary track in the sand. Surf hammering the shore line, salt stinging my nostrils and tongue, wind slashing my cheeks. The sun low in the sky, soft, disappearing behind skipping clouds and reappearing seconds later. One day at the water’s edge seafoam curling over my shoes, I turned and looked back at the carpark. There you were, standing tall in a thick mustard tweed jacket with the collar turned up, hands in pockets. Charity shop you told me later. You came towards me, dark hair, long and whipping across your face, obscuring your brown eyes. We smiled. A connection. We met weekly. We walked and walked, our footsteps snaking along the sand. Side by side. Our tracks a mirror image of each other. We laughed. All the time. Intertwined nam

The winners of the 100-word challenge are: Linda S  Gunther for her story "The Conversation" https://worthingflash.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-conversation.html and Susan Cornford for her story "Revealing". https://worthingflash.blogspot.com/2023/04/revealing.html         J  

"I've found a new drink. It's called Royal Cup and it is yummy," Marie was excited. "It is expensive to make sure plebs don't drink it," she added. "You only drink a thimbleful but that is quite enough. And it comes in red white and blue." The Coronation came. Marie poured out the Royal Cup. "One two three" and they all drank their thimbleful. They drifted to the floor in a dreamless eternal sleep. Perhaps they had forgotten that red white and blue were the colours of the tricolour of the revolutionaries. J   Derek McMillan is the editor of #worthingflash and the author of the "Brevity" series of audiobooks. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165448347329