Finish The Story | But I Smile Anyway...

Finish The Story 2 – Boardroom Manoeuvres – @Tanmay_and_Jain @darthnid

29 May 2019 15 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Boardroom, Finish The Story, Nideesh Samant, Tanmay Jain

Thanks so much to Tanmay Jain for including me in this collaboration and it’s the turn of Nideesh Samant, with the final prompt of the month.

Prompt – A standard corporate boardroom meeting is underway, but the boss has hidden motives…

Boardroom Manoeuvres

The boardroom was like an oven. It had been a long meeting, and it was about time to wrap it up.
Clive Burnett, the Managing Director, cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention.
“Ahem, right, thank you. That has been a productive meeting, and I’ll be sure to get Mandy to send the minutes out to you all tomorrow. Oh, and one final thing. There appears to be a glitch in the system, and it seems to have muddled up everyone’s contact numbers. I need you all to write your names and your contact numbers on this piece of paper.”
“But Mr Burnett, don’t you have our numbers on your own phone anyway?” Dennis piped up.
There’s always one, trying to be clever.
“Actually, my phone syncs to the system, and I can’t get any of the numbers either. It’s a simple fix, but we just need them all, now, from you, so the system can be corrected. Everyone in the room, please.”
The paper was passed around, with some of the attendees rolling their eyes as they scribbled down digits.
The paper made its way back to him.
“Thank you everyone. I’ll give this to IT and get it sorted ASAP. Thanks again and good evening.” Clive smiled.
He folded the paper and pocketed it. Good job he was the MD and no one questioned him too much. He’d been dying to ask that new girl Alisha for her number, but GDPR meant HR wouldn’t give it to him…

Nideesh Samant

A weaver or short stories, mostly dark ones…
Blog – https://thedarknetizen.wordpress.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/darthnid

Finish The Story 2 – Phone Memory @Tanmay_and_Jain @talesOfsuchita

23 May 2019 16 Comments

by Ritu in #tjshouseholdhaiku, Challenges, Fiction Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Finish The Story, Memory, Suchita Agarwal

Thanks so much to Tanmay Jain for including me in this collaboration and it’s time for another prompt, this time from Suchita Aggarwal.

Prompt – The last thing I remember …

Phone Memory
Leela frantically searched her bag. Where was it?
This was not good. Where was her phone?
Everything. Everything was on there. Her whole life.
Phone numbers, photos, her calendar, address book, her banking.
Oh God! Head Office were meant to be calling her this morning too, about the promotion. She had to find it.
Come on, Leela, think…. When did you have it last?
The last thing she remembered was checking her emails on it at the café, while waiting for her coffee. She used the app to collect her points and put it down…
Not in her bag, but down, on the counter… Jeez! Stupid woman! She’d left it there!
She glanced at her watch. The train was due in 7 minutes. She might just have time to get to the station café to rescue it.
Leela quickly made her way against the throngs of commuters who were headed on the same train as her.
The café was busy. She jostled past the line of irate caffeine addicts, feebly explaining herself as she went, and got to the front.
But there was no phone.
Someone must have taken it.
Her shoulders sagged. That was it. Life was over. What would she do without her phone?
“Leela!” A voice calling her name registered in her mind. Andre, the barista behind the counter smiled at her and held his arm aloft, holding something. “Looks like you left me an extra tip today!”
Her phone! Thank goodness for being a regular customer!

 Suchita Agarwal
A writer and content creator, Suchita Agarwal believes words are where the magic is. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and WordPress. She goes by talesofsuchita.

Blog - Tales of Suchita

Blog Link - https://talesofsuchita.wordpress.com/
Twitter ID - https://twitter.com/talesOfsuchita
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/talesofsuchita/

Finish The Story 2 – Murder Most Ordinary – Flash Fiction – @Tanmay_and_Jain

16 May 2019 10 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Fiction Prompt, Finish The Story, Murder

Thanks so much to Tanmay Jain for not only setting up this challenge, but for giving us the next prompt in the series.

There was something extraordinarily ordinary about murder that people just didn’t get!

Murder Most Ordinary

“I could murder a cuppa, luv. Go stick the kettle on.”
John heaved his weary frame in through the front door, catching a glimpse of Nora’s figure heading towards the kitchen.
Hands washed, freshened up, he sat on the sofa and clicked on the remote, to get his favourite programme on – Garden World.
*
Nora placed a cup on the table beside him, glancing at her husband’s tired face. “Why you can’t just switch off, I really don’t know. Look at you. Exhausted, I’ll bet your back is aching again too, and you still put the telly straight on to the gardening programmes.”
She worried about John all the time. He wasn’t getting any younger, and this new gardening job seemed to really be taking it out of him. More than most, actually. She’d often find him in a world of his own, and her voice would jolt him into action again.
*
He knew she was worrying about him. Natural, he guessed. But how could he even begin to explain the complexities of the new job?
His new employers were important people – though rather unsavoury.
And the reason his back ached so much was because of the rather suspicious bags he was asked to bury, and cover with mature shrubs… If he wasn’t mistaken, they might have even been body bags.
Still his job was not to wonder why… just to dig, cover and plant.
And anyway, all the money was paying for his retirement cruise.
Ritu 2019

Tanmay Jain is a blogger, book reviewer, writer and bibliophile from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He has been reading books since he was a child and hasn’t stopped since. He started his first blog in 2016 and since that, after many unsuccessful attempts at managing a successful blog, he landed on his current and most successful blog, Scion of Society. Tanmay dabbles mostly in fiction writing but sometimes wanders off to poetry, book reviewing and writing tips. He is an editor for his school magazine, X-rays. He’s a teenage writer, aspiring author, and a budding blogger.

Blog Link – www.bookinton.wordpress.com

Twitter ID – www.twitter.com/Tanmay_and_Jain

Facebook ID – www.facebook.com/TheBookintonBlog

Finish The Story 2 – @Tanmay_and_Jain @darling_sascha – Writers Block

11 May 2019 21 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Finish The Story, Writers Block

Sascha Darlington has set the first prompt, for which I have been selected as the first responder!

A New Design - Made with PosterMyWall (1).jpg

Prompt – A non-risk-taking writer has writer’s block, so they decide to do something they’ve never done before to inspire them.

Writer’s Block

Okay.
So, here I am.
Standing on the edge of the world.
Well, it feels like the edge of the world, but really, it’s just a very steep drop off a cliff.
What am I doing, standing here?
I’m afraid of heights…
And I thought I’d face my fear.
They say that if you find yourself stuck, at a dead end, creatively, that you should do something totally different. You know, outside of your comfort zone.
I’ve never had that problem before.
Usually, my fingers fly across the keyboard.
Stories just come to me.
But for the first time, I was up against a brick wall.
Nothing.
No ideas, no bursts of inspiration.
Nothing.
So, here I am, tentatively looking over the precipice.
It all looks rather small down there.
Very far away.
Got to take care not to lean too far over.
My insides are churning.
I can feel my breathing getting more and more shallow.
If I just focus on something…
There.
I see movement in the bushes below. Something causing a ripple in the greenery that sweeps the ground beneath my gaze.
What could it be?
Slowly the wheels start turning as inspiration seeps inside my mind.
Ideas start to fizz and pop in my brain.
Stories, plots, characters…

They were right, you know.
Sometimes you just need to push yourself, and the block will disappear…
Ritu 2019

Sascha is a tech writer and creative writer at Sascha Darlington’s Microcosm Explored. You can find her on Twitter here.
This challenge has been set by Tanmay Jain of Bookinton Blog.

Bookinton’s Finish The Sory Challenge 2

01 May 2019 11 Comments

by Ritu in Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Challenge, Fiction, Finish The Story

I was appproached by fellow blogger Tanmay Jain, of Bookinton Blog to ask whether I would participate in a writing challenge with a difference this month. The Finish The Story Challenge 2. 2 because he ran one similar last year and wanted to extend the challenge to a few more bloggers. It is an opportunity to streach creativity, and share others stories too!

Intrigued, as ever…. I decided to step up, and this is what we are doing.

There are 5 bloggers, myself included, who have submitted a prompt.

Each of us will answer the prompt with a 250 word flash fiction piece on set days.

Let me introduce you to the others who are taking part.

1)Tanmay Jain

Tanmay Jain is a blogger, book reviewer, writer and bibliophile from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He has been reading books since he was a child and hasn’t stopped since. He started his first blog in 2016 and since that, after many unsuccessful attempts at managing a successful blog, he landed on his current and most successful blog, Scion of Society. Tanmay dabbles mostly in fiction writing but sometimes wanders off to poetry, book reviewing and writing tips. He is an editor for his school magazine, X-rays. He’s a teenage writer, aspiring author, and a budding blogger.

Blog – Bookinton

Blog Link – www.bookinton.wordpress.com

Twitter ID – www.twitter.com/Tanmay_and_Jain

Facebook ID – www.facebook.com/TheBookintonBlog

Prompt – There was something extraordinarily ordinary about murder than people just didn’t get!

2)Nideesh Samant

A weaver or short stories, mostly dark ones…

https://thedarknetizen.wordpress.com

Twitter – www.twitter.com/darthnid

Prompt – A standard corporate boardroom meeting is und1erway, but the boss has hidden motives…

3)Sascha Darlington

Tech writer, creative writer and book blogger from Washington, DC

Blog – Sascha Darlington’s Microcosm Explored

Blog – https://saschadarlington.me
Twitter ID – www.twitter.com/darling_sascha

Prompt – A non-risk-taking writer has writer’s block, so they decide to do something they’ve never done before to inspire them.

4)Suchita Agarwal

A writer and content creator, Suchita Agarwal believes words are where the magic is. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram and WordPress. She goes by talesofsuchita.

Blog – Tales of Suchita

Blog Link – https://talesofsuchita.wordpress.com/

Twitter ID – https://twitter.com/talesOfsuchita

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/talesofsuchita/

Prompt – The last thing I remember

And then there is me… who has a HUGE amount written in her bio, and SM Links too, but then you know me… I cannot actually stop talking/writing, and you know I waffle… but if you wanted to read/connect… here you are!

5)Ritu Bhathal

Ritu Bhathal was born in Birmingham in the mid-1970’s to migrant parents, hailing from Kenya but with Indian origin. This colourful background has been a constant source of inspiration to her.

From childhood, she always enjoyed reading. This love of books is mostly credited to her mother.

The joy of reading spurred her on to become creative in her own writing, from fiction to poetry.

Winning little writing competitions at school and locally gave her the encouragement to continue writing.

As a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and teacher, she has drawn on inspiration from many avenues to create the poems that she writes.

A qualified teacher, having studied at Kingston University, she now deals with classes of children as a sideline to her writing!

Ritu also writes a blog, a mixture of life and creativity, thoughts and opinions, which was awarded first place in the Best Overall Blog Category at the 2017 Annual Bloggers Bash Awards.

Ritu is happily married, and living in Kent, with her Hubby Dearest, and two children, not forgetting the furbaby Sonu Singh.

Having published an anthology of poetry, Poetic RITUals, she is currently working on some short stories, and a novel, to be published in the near future.

Blog – But I Smile Anyway

Blog Link – www.butismileanyway.com

Twitter – www.twitter.com/PhantomGiggler

Facebook ID – https://www.facebook.com/butismileanyway/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/phantom_giggler/

Told you mine was long!

And here’s my prompt for the rest of the guys!

Prompt – I saw mummy kissing Santa Claus. I did. Well, not Santa, but some fat bearded dude, who wasn’t my dad…

Soooo … there you have it… for now!

The prompts are going to be answered as of 11th May, and the works are kicking off with my take of Sascha Darlington’s prompt… no pressure!!!

Hope you enjoy reading my efforts, and if you feel the urge, feel free to use the prompts and link back so I can read yours too!