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Memoir: My First One in Real Life
I was twenty-two years old, and about eight stone wet through. I was wearing a home-sewn wrap-over skirt – small brown and white flowers and green leaves on a black background, the hem finished off with cream broderie anglaise. The top half of my skinny frame was covered by a sleeveless v-necked t-shirt, over which…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: N is for Needle
Plenty of variety on this subject for you to have a go at. What sort of needle is it? Sewing needle? Hand sewing, machine sewing, upholstery needle?Surgical sewing or injections? If it’s any of those, are you on the receiving end of it, or is it you that’s using the needle? For what purpose? Then…
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Song: You Can’t Call It Music
It’s something special, I know, and I don’t want to bore, But I guarantee that you’ve heard nothing like me before. But I have a talent – unusual thing – ‘Cause everyone shudders when I start to sing… I can scatter a crowd; People pray that I don’t sing out loud.
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: M is for Music
95% of us enjoy music. It’s all around us. It’s rare to go a day without hearing music. Radio, TV programmes, films, adverts, ice-cream vans, ringtones, passing cars blaring out favourite tunes at top volume… So, for the purposes of your story or poem, here are some ideas to get you going if you need…
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Short Fiction: The Washerwoman
The men do not take the trouble to get to know me, but they are fascinated by me. They bring their easels and brushes and colours and stare at me as I work. If they want me to stop so they can catch the light from the water as I heave a sodden sheet from…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: L is for Laundry
Something we’ve all got to do with alarming and depressing regularity. So, let’s make it exciting. What is it that’s being washed? Why? What’s on it that needs to be washed off? How did it get mucky? How important is it that it gets washed? Who’s washing it? Why are they washing it? Are they…
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Poem: Eat Your Heart Out
When we planned our kitchen, my husband said to me: ‘Get it how you want it – it’s the only chance there’ll be…’ I took him at his word and let my credit card run free And now I have a kitchen which teems with gadgetry… My kitchen’s the equivalent of my old man’s garden…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: K is for Kitchen
Give us a story or poem or some piece of writing about the kitchen. They say the kitchen is the heart of the home. What happens in the kitchen? Is it about the cooking? Maybe the stress of cooking for guests – who’s coming, what’s the occasion? Why is it so important? What’s going wrong?…
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Poem: This Is The Jewel
This is the jewel you held to the light To waken its soul for a wide-eyed young child; You kept me enthralled with your tales of its travels Through kingdoms fought over by warriors wild. This gem had been kept in a cave by a wise witch And countless the times it was borrowed and…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: J is for Jewellery
Jewel/Jewellery/ Jeweller Some ideas to get you started: Is it a single piece of jewellery, or a lot? Is it a single gemstone, or a bagful of gems? Is it real, or fake, or costume jewellery? What’s the story associated with it / them? Personal or professional? Personal – whose is it / was it?…