Sometimes a door opens to a new adventure we never saw coming. And sometimes, if you let yourself walk through that door, really good things can happen.
But this story is only partially about me. The focus now shifts to the work and soul of my dear friend, Jill Freeman.
Jill Freeman, Artist
Jill is one of the sweetest, kindest people I have ever had the good fortune to meet. She and I were college roommates, fellow dancers and theater partners.
Over the years she has shared her many talents with me and with the world in numerous ways: singer, songwriter, librettist, lyricist, musician, band member, writer, artist, illustrator. And, lucky for those around her, supportive friend.
Last year I became aware of a shift in Jill’s creations into the world of Abstract Art. Her work hangs in galleries, wins awards, and sells!
A while back Jill invited me to a gallery exhibit opening where her artwork was being shown. I was delighted to attend. The very first moment that I laid eyes on the first painting in her exhibit I knew instantly what world was living inside that painting. And I knew that I needed to write that story.
With Jill’s permission, I have chosen 24 of her paintings and, inspired by the titles she has chosen, the colors, the shapes, the dimensionality and the living movement she builds into her artwork, I have written 24 short stories to partner with these paintings.
My stories fall under the category known as Flash or Micro Fiction. The shortest of my stories comes in at 27 words. The longest, 896.
Coming To Light – Page Preview: 27 word Flash fiction
I wrote this book as a Thank You to Jill Freeman for all she has given me and for all the ways she has made the world a better place. It is my hope that those who flip through my book will see the life and vibrancy in her work and want to see more.
Please visit my Author’s Page on Books.By and, if you choose to spend time with the paintings in this book, you are invited to step into your own interpretations of what you see. If you are moved to share what speaks to you in Jill’s artwork, I will welcome your vision of what these paintings offer to you.
Tara’s Author Page can be found at Books.by/Buttons-Whimsy
In the newly awakening wilderness that has been his home since his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam sits beneath the budding branches of an ancient Willow tree. His eyes grow wide with surprise and delight as he sees green leaves and long trailing garlands reaching for the earth.
Since the time of their exit from the Garden, Adam has struggled through the long, dark winter working to provide for his wife and two infant sons. His constant companion has been the dread of what life will be like for his children in a world without sunlight, without growth, a world defined by the heaviness of a dull winter’s sky.
His own participation in the events that caused the looming darkeness weighs heavily on his heart. Is he responsible for creating the all-encompassing, desaturated world that will define their fate?
But today the ground has thawed. The sky has lightened. The thing that he did not expect has happened. The sun has returned. The skies have cleared. New life reaches up from the earth to greet a new season.
As he begins to feel a sense of welcome from Mother Earth, an understanding begins to emerge within him. The darkness that had imprisoned them is not static. It ebbs and flows and, eventually, fades as the new light presents itself to the world.
The first Spring has arrived! And, with great relief, Adam breathes softly into the gentle breeze that washes the sun-filled air.
As he ponders this transformation, Adam begins to know that he, like the darkness, is carried by an inner ebb and flow that guides his vision. And now, after watching the sun rise, he sees a path forward for his children. A path that he knows will be filled with hills and valleys, spring rains and frozen roads, bountiful harvests and fallow fields. It will be a path that contains the dancing partnership of both the darkness and the light. For the first time he sees the continuity of Nature’s cycles, and, for the first time, he feels a new thing growing inside of himself – Hope!
And then, a greater truth appears in the depths of his spirit. This will also be true for his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren and their children. And, astonished at the reach of his own epiphany, he sees his progeny many generations hence spread across the earth, all of them struggling through the dark nights that feel endless.
Overwhelmed by the need to present these thoughts to generations still unborn, Adam transcribes these words to be delivered to those who live on after him:
“To the Children of the Future,
I am Adam. The first man to be alive. The first man to question the world. The first man to pay the price for his unknowing actions. The first father to search for ways to raise his children with the resilience to see past the darkness to the seemingly distant but inevitably approaching coming of the light.
As you read this note I will have lived my life a very long time ago. You will know more about the Earth and her seasons than I have had time to learn. But, even now, I can foretell that, often, as you wander through the twists and turns of your life’s journey, you will feel the road closing in on you.
For those times I offer you the realization that Winter is a changeable place. Life may be hibernating, but it will surely break through the heavy blanket of stagnation that holds you down and, slowly, the streams will begin to flow. The wildlife will come out of hiding and show you how to begin again.
I promise you, my children, every year, in every chapter of your life, after each dark Winter, the light of Spring will open its arms to you.”
There is, in WordPress Land, a marvelous source of inspiration for writers, authors and poets. Her name is D. Wallace Peach. I offer this entry into her fantastically wonderful stories and to the opportunities she creates for the community of writers who connect with her through her blog called Myths of the Mirror.
To move us forward into the New Year she presents this challenge:
Write a story or poem about your TBR pile.
This is familiar territory for book lovers: TBR = “To Be Read”. The books that sit on your shelf waiting for you to get around to reading them. I have many such stacks and collections. So, even though I have never attempted a writing challenge, I felt compelled to jump in and add my voice. Thank you, Ms. Peach for providing the diving board!
A Reader’s Dilemma (with apologies to Dr. Seuss)
Books in baskets, Books on shelves, Books in stacks of tens and twelves
Books piled high in every room. Books that shimmer in the gloom
Enticing me with cover art just begging me to make a start
Books around me everywhere! Books are waiting here and there
Books of interest, Books of stories, Books of many categories
Offering a chance to learn. A chance, I fear, I’ll have to spurn
Books recalling ancient times. Books of prose and books of rhymes
Books I’ve owned for many years, highly touted by my peers
Alas, I cannot find the time to launch this effort’s mountainous climb
As I lay me down to sleep this couplet in my brain does creep:
Books behind me, Books ahead. Books are calling To Be Read
This post is directed to all the writers out there who may have an interest in sharing your vision for a world that has found its way through the Climate Crisis. AND there is prize money involved here, folks! Grist is accepting submissions through April 12, 2021 (11:59pm US PST).
Grist was founded in 1999 as one of the nation’s first online-only publications, covering serious topics without taking ourselves too seriously. TIME magazine calls Grist the Colbert Report of climate change … except with real reporting and analytical journalism.”
And here is their Media byline:
“A non-profit news organization for people who want a planet that doesn’t burn and a future that doesn’t suck.”
Well said!! OKAY, so. Here is what Grist is offering via FIX, their Solutions Lab:
“All 12 final stories will be published in a digital collection on Fix’s website, and the authors will be celebrated in a public-facing virtual event.”
Here are the rest of the details and submission guidelines:
“Welcome to Imagine 2200 — a new climate-fiction contest by Fix, Grist’s solutions lab. What we’re seeking: short stories that envision the next 180 years of equitable climate progress. What we’re offering: $8,700 in prizes, publication, and a reason to stay hopeful.
The world is crazy right now, and the stakes are high: just, you know, our entire frickin’ future. Our newsfeeds are full of denial, delay, and doom that make us want to scream into our pillows. But that’s just the old story. At Fix, we are telling the new story, of a path to a clean, green, and just future, and the people who are driving it. Our mission is to make the story of a better world so irresistible, you want it right now.
With that goal in mind, we decided to launch our first foray into the world of hopeful, forward-looking fiction — to inspire visions of the future that haven’t even been dreamt up yet, and welcome more voices into the climate conversation. Join this uprising of imagination, and help us turn the page on earth’s next chapter.
Nuts & Bolts
Entry is free!
The contest is open to writers anywhere in the world.
Authors must be 18 years or older at the time of submission.
Submissions must be short, fictional stories, between 3,000–5,000 words.
No previously published, multiple, or simultaneous submissions accepted.
Submissions will only be accepted through Submittable — click the “submit” button at the bottom of this page when you’re ready! If you need accessibility accommodations, please email the team at imaginefiction@grist.org
Stories will be judged by a board of literary experts, including authors Adrienne Maree Brown, Morgan Jerkins, and Kiese Laymon.
The first-prize story will be awarded $3,000; second prize $2,000; and third prize $1,000. Nine additional finalists will each receive a $300 honorarium.
All 12 final stories will be published in a digital collection on Fix’s website, and the authors will be celebrated in a public-facing virtual event.
Worldwide copyright and ownership of each story remains with the author.
If a story is accepted for publication, Grist retains the first serial rights of the work to publish, produce, reproduce, distribute, and market.
All other remaining rights revert to the author upon publication.
Find more information about the contest at Grist.org/fix
(When you are ready, click the SUBMIT button at the bottom of the Portal page.)
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Please let me know if you decide to submit your story. And, by all means, share this opportunity with any other writers you know.
I will end with one more quote from the Grist web site:
“Climate, sustainability, and social justice are the most important stories on the … well, on the planet right now. The stakes are high: just, you know, our entire frickin’ future.”
So write your hearts out and use your vision to inform, educate and enlighten, well, everybody you can so we can create a healthier world that, as they say on the Grist site, doesn’t suck.
Would a heaping dose of hope-in-the-future help you right now? How about someone in your circles who might be looking for some inspiration?
A whole lot of us are finding just that in a newly published book from my dear friend Barbara Caplan-Bennett. If you have been feeling the weight of all the crises happening in our world, if you are not sure how to find hope in the face of your daily struggles, this is a book worth your time.
Check it out for yourself and then please help spread the word.
NOSEWORTHY, A Memoir
“Noseworthy is a memoir about a woman who faced a difficult choice when diagnosed with melanoma — lose her entire nose or very possibly lose her life. Her year long journey to obtain a prosthetic nose is filled with big challenges and small victories.”
This is a real-life story of courage in the face of great trauma (or as Barbara likes to call it, “the shit show”) and, ultimately a triumph over a life-changing course of inescapable events. Barbara has been a bright spot in my life for many years. I have always been awed by her ability to keep smiling through the tears and to welcome whatever life throws at her.
I watched her face this battle and come out on the other side with her moxie, her sense of humor, and her love of life still intact. As a writer she has a natural gift for making her readers comfortable and the skill to tell her stories in her very authentic, likable, honest voice.
The electric fan sits on the floor by the window. It protects me from the heat and humidity that plagues modern society. In my youth I lived in world where my goals were achievable and my task list was short enough to complete by the end of the week. Here in Los Angeles it was almost always pleasantly warm and dry. And I didn’t have to fight the weather to make space in my brain to tackle daily goals and dreams. I don’t remember having so much to fight for and certainly not so much to fight through.
Now I feel the encroaching world press in on me in ways I never expected. And on top of all the daily challenges, the aches, the tasks piling up around me, the demands of a world grown altogether too connected to handle in any rational fashion, I have to fight through the physical discomfort of an environment grown so hot and sticky that it produces another, previously unexplored, struggle: distraction. Distraction of a physical nature that Just. Should. Not. Be. There.
But there it is. It frightens me to think I may have grown so old that my body can no longer survive in its environment. And it frightens me to think that we may have so deeply destroyed our environment that we, as a species, may not survive the very effects we have loaded on our planet and our own backs.
But, I have never been one to sit in my fears for very long. No pouting, pity-party for me! So, kick up the level on the fan. Take a drink of cold water. Take a deep breath. Focus on what’s next. Focus. Ignore the ache that sits at the back of my brain that screams at me, “You could lose this time.” Just put one foot in front of the other for as long as you possibly can and – focus. Say a prayer of gratitude for the cool air coming at me from the fan by the window enveloping me like a Cone of Silence. (Yeah, you have to be “of a certain age” to understand that reference!)
Just keep fighting to move forward. Enjoy the cool air and ….. Focus.
I have long been a fan of the short story form. In fact, the short story form is far harder than longer forms of writing. Making your intention clear in a limited amount of words is not an easy task. There is a long line of authors whose work I enjoy but top of the list in this regard has always been Harlan Ellison. There are many reasons I am a life-long, die-hard Ellison fan, but chiefly, my admiration is for his ability to select just exactly the right word for every moment in his stories with never a word wasted.
Here’s a favorite example:
“A foot was planted between my shoulder blades and the fist let go of my shirt, and I was booted forward onto my suitcase, which slid a few feet, carrying me as on a raft.
I fell off, rolled over and tried to sit up. Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Death were staring down at me.”
Quoted from All the Lies That Are My Life by Harlan Ellison
There is no need to give the reader any more detailed description of the four guys who are about to beat up our protagonist. The phrase “Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Death” tells you everything you need to know.
Another master at choosing just the right words is Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, who sums up this thought beautifully:
“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”
And another famous author offers clarity on the subject. When asked his opinion on cursing Mark Twain had this to say:
“The English language is a poor enough means of communication as it is. I figure we ought to use all the words we got.”
Notice here that he did not advise using MORE words than needed at one time but choosing the RIGHT words for what you are trying to convey at that moment.
Words matter. They can offer great kindness but also great sorrow. They can build relationships or tear down entire communities. Words have weight and meaning and sometimes great consequences.
When you are attempting to evaluate someone’s character listen very closely to the word they choose to use. Their choices are not casual. They are a result of a lifetime of attitudes and perceptions and are evidence of the state of their inner psychology.
The speaker is telling you something about who he is and how he chooses to participate in this thing called Life.
She calls it “Digging the Well”. Ms. Brown creates an environment that allows you to mine experience and imagination that you may not have known was available to you. I found myself writing from the heart in ways I’ve never felt able to access before. This experience shows me that there are possibilities to explore, not only in writing my non-fiction projects and my songwriting, but in other areas of life that I choose to pursue that I had once thought beyond my reach. I have seen a very personal, specific example of how many of our imagined limitations are self-imposed. I will always be grateful to Ms. Brown for that insight. May your 2010 be a year full of exploration and discovery.
fight the weather to make space in my brain to tackle daily goals and dreams. I don’t remember having so much to fight for and certainly not so much to fight through.
Tara's Thoughts 