Begin a story with the word 'because:'

"Because is not an answer!"

The words resonate in Emilie's mind but she can't do anything to make it stop because she promised. Being grounded for the night without music or even a book to read hurt but come tomorrow her Daddy will say he's sorry because tomorrow is his birthday. Miss Higgins is a beautiful woman who not-so-secretly loves her Daddy and helped her make his present and keep it hidden for her so he…

It was the biggest cock you’ve ever seen.

Probably the first, and I think it surprised you, shocked you even: you hadn’t expected the red fleshy bits, certainly I felt you flinch. You buried your head in my thigh – I felt you quivering, and assumed it was fright. …

"I just wanna say that I'm thankful for having you in my life."

Strong man that he is over the last twenty-one minutes, nope twenty-two, he feels himself weaken to the point of tears and now with this last song, he can't help but reach for the phone.

"Deborah, thank you so much."

"I love you, Daddy."

Eight hundred miles away but joined together through the power of technology we restart the video, sitting in silence over the phone for twenty-three minutes and…

Everything is so dark and every morning when I wake it seems to be getting worse. This doctor is no better than the neurologist that said I was having pseudoseizures. Why would I be making myself blind? I told myself my 'seizures' were aggressive panic attacks but there is nothing I can call this other than blindness. Damn therapist said it won't get better until I face the past. Well I confronted that bitch and now I'm going blind.…

Prompt #1:  Muddy Me

List six not-so-great, or secret, or embarrassing things that you or one of your characters want a potential new significant other to know before going any further into the relationship.  Ex:  I have quit shaving under my arms or I hate for someone's feet to touch me or cut flower arrangements make me sad.  Be creative because this prompt could be fiction.

Sweetness, there's a few things you have to realize about me that…

Prompt #2:  My Space

Describe your ideal writing space.  Compare/contrast it with your actual writing space now.  Are there steps you could take to get closer to your ideal?  Be descriptive, make us feel where you'd love to dwell as you create your pages. 

The field is empty with a zephyr blowing in such a way to move my dark brown curls across my cheek but not enough to curl the pages of my notebook.

The sakura block out enough…

Challenge: Write to either or both prompts below.  Two prize packages will be awarded, one for each prompt, and trust me when I say the prize packages are WORTH entering.  The judging panel consists of three readers who will read blind.  I am simply the facilitator.  If you will be at HoW4, I will award your prize then, and yes, you can win twice.  If you will not be at HoW, I will mail your prize.  Challenge begins now and runs through Friday morning, April 19, 8am PST.  Put the prompt…

"Sorry kid," Syringe says to 1ml/Vial when she hisses at the puncture she's been made to endure.

"S'ok," she says reminiscing on how relieved her friends are that she'd been chosen, realizing how soon she will end up in the trash, non-reuseable, and envies how Syringe will get to have the pleasure of puncturing another woman tomorrow.

Depo ProVera interrupts Vial's thoughts by saying, both to her and Syringe, "It was an honor to be inside you," as he thinks about spending the…

Jack finds the vapid one-sided colloquy taxing and wishes there was a snooze button to his date’s mouth.

Quaffing another shot of bourbon allows him to survive the exacting task of appearing to care while he images her lips an open zipper just waiting to be closed cutting off her air supply.

Unconsciously bruxing, consciously wishing for ganjah, a sudden zephyr draws his attention to the restaurant’s door where the former love of his life, whose tranquil presence now seems…

‘So will she be able to deliver me here?’ then immediately, before her mother had chance to answer, stooping over a second contraction, suddenly feeling a lot happier than she had done, wanting things to begin now rather than wishing they’d go away.

‘I’ll phone her and ask her to come and have a proper look, but…

She’d been home nearly a week before she had reason to go into the room, and it was a couple more days after that before she remembered what had struck her as odd:  ‘What on earth is that sheet doing on the bed in the spare room?’

A brief puzzlement then he said, ‘Oh, it was some daft idea I had, that I’d find it easier to sleep there than…

They won't leave me alone. I keep the audio going so I can have a moment's rest. Sometimes even that isn't enough and I am haunted by memories years, decades, old. When I read my journals about eighty percent seem to have been implanted by some stranger. All I can do is think, I've been to heaven? Why is it I can only remember hell?

It's not genophobia (fear of sexual relations/intercourse), schizoid personality disorder, or due to some post-traumatic stress disorder of having been sexual assaulted.

Call it a demon because it is a torment when only 1% of the world understands and is similar to you.

He wants to know if I'm married.

She asks to go on a date because she has never seen me with a man.

I always say 'No' because at thirty-one I'm tired of…

Within the great epic we share, my small chapter has ended.

The final word is love.

A voice sings Na Laetha Geal M'oige, a sound soft as white plumes gathering lost days and nights, memories tucked between life's pages as one would say goodnight to a lover or a child.

I learned that too often we live to prove things to ourselves, run marathons, lift weights to test strength or build muscle by repeatedly tearing and repairing, suffer frostbite…

Dear husband, as I lay here dying, I'm running through the laundry list of things that you'll need to take care of after I'm gone and...ooh, add laundry to the list, and don't forget the fabric softener!

First, be sure to hug and kiss our boy at least once every day for me, and be sure to tell him it's from his mama.

Second, don't leave Sagey to fend for herself with those crazy people (and no, I don't mean my parents)!

Third, but seriously, speaking of my parents,…

I always knew I'd be dying alone and it suits me I guess because I can go with style listening to Evanescence and won't get  caught up crying because, well at least I would hope, all of you'd be crying  for me.

Daddy look at it this way, no more cock fights.

Latasha, you've been a manipulative bitch to me most of my life, using me only when it would do you good or when Dad ordered you too, so now I hope you realize what you missed.

Tiara, do right by yourself and realize…

"What would you say if you were about to die alone and could only write six sentences to the world?"…

It was his favorite of all Veggie Tales songs. He always crooned on the road, kicking the back seat in rhythm as he thrust his arms up towards God in triumph. At the kitchen table he'd serenade his prize, "You are 'my' cheeeeese burrrr-gerrrr."

One morning he ran after his soccer ball. An asshole too involved with his cellphone ran a stop sign. Two years and still the mere whiff of beef turns my stomach.

If I had a penis, I wouldn't be able to leave it alone, its energy aroused by the slightest brush of cotton or silk, by the vibration of my car engine, by my own heavy steps and excellent imagination.

I would still have the same soul, an overactive conscience, so no matter how much I wanted to sleep with a beautiful woman, I would question whether I wanted more than that, would feel conflicted, for about a minute.

I wouldn't wear a shirt on weekends at home,…

The Elementary/Middle School Years:

According to my father it's never too early to learn that a real man: holds a spatula with as much skill as a rifle - learning to cook fine cuisine with all the nutrition necessary for a healthy family, has a starched collar as well as a crease in your blue jeans, and keeps a home so tidy you can eat off any surface whether the floor or whatever you threw against the wall (not that a real man ever would).

Since I'm a boy I whine and…