This Week’s Prompts*

1. "You'll grow into it," she reassured me, patting the top of my full-grown, adult man head.

2. The first day of third grade was not the time to have a sour stomach.

3. Write a scene in which a waiter saves a patron's life (but not via the Heimlich maneuver)

4. Each cocktail at the table was immediately set ablaze.

5. "Hold it ... just five more minutes," she willed herself.

6. The ball soared through the air, making a perfect arch, before landing plop on the damp lawn.

7. Efficiency was her most potent aphrodisiac.

*How to Use These Prompts: The italicized prompts let you create your writing entirely from scratch; the non-italicized prompts are intended as your first line and jumping off point. But, at the same time, there are no rules. Write on!

Book(s) We’re Reading This Week

Universality by Natasha Brown
I’m only a few pages into this one, but based on the melange of cult-adjacent squatters, death via gold bar, COVID, and all of it starting out in one compelling news article…I’m giving it an optimistic thumbs up.

_{Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon}

Top (Published) First Line of the Week

Louisa and her father are making their way down the breakwater, each careful step on the heaved granite blocks one step farther from shore.

From Flashlight by Susan Choi

_{Grab it on Bookshop.org (and support local bookstores!)
Grab it on Amazon}

P.S.

Looking for a way to write for a living—and still get paid well? Check out this training about copywriting. If it was good enough for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, and Joseph Heller, it might just be good enough for you, too.