Always, always she sang along in her big, lusty voice, unabashedly sharing the talents with which she was blessed. Met with joyful strains of organ music and hearty vocals spilling from the house, we'd hurry inside because we knew Grandma came over, whether or not her big old whatever-it-was (an Impala?) stood in the drive.
My Grandma Neves' style of music differed from my Grandma Haskell as much as did their personalities. She had been more classically trained, but like Grandma Haskell, provided the foundation of a stage band at various points in their lives. They were natural born entertainers.
Grandma Neves also could play on the piano anything asked of her. More still, she kept us rambunctious, unruly hellions occupied with a particular game we loved. She would sit at the piano and the child would plunk out three notes. Then, Grandma would compose on the fly, using those three sequential notes as the theme to her music. Even as I write, I hear her jaunty tunes and see her hands bouncing up and down the keyboard, the wry smile on her face when she eyed us as she played, as if saying, "You'll have to do better than that to stump me." (Sorry. I just can't make my Grandma Neves say "Is that all you got?!") Even when we'd jump all over the keyboard with our note selections, Grandma came through. Some of her funnest music came as a result of her grandchildren's discordance.
There is actually a literary point to this little excursion down memory lane, besides to tell the world how wondrous my grandmothers were. I'm learning to love flash fiction as an important exercise in writing only the bare essentials. My goal is to be confident enough to submit my stuff to FridayFlash.org, a writing community that shares and encourages flash fiction. The problem is, I can't come up with anything to write about. So, I thought I'd take a lesson from my grandma's theory book, but I'll need your help.
It goes like this: in the comments below or on my Facebook page, give me three words, a noun, a verb, and a place. If you like, toss in an inanimate object and a adjective, e.g. rushed or harried. Then, I'll take your words and create a story comprising of 250-750 words and leave them as a response. Then, if you're really inspired, try writing a bit of flash fic for others' comments. I'll publish the best on Flash Fiction Friday. Here's a fun link I just found to provide even more inspiration.
So, dive in! Here's where you can leave a comment with absolutely nothing to say. Pull the words out the either or a random pointer in a book or a web page. Sounds like fun to me. Don't forget to follow the the comments to see if you have stumped me.
6 comments:
Furby, sing, St. Louis.
Did I do it right?
Royal Canadian Mountie, masticate, public restroom, oblong, crescent wrench,
Fantastic idea! Have fun.
Ring, tripping, Scotland, astounding, picture frame
I'm excited to see what you come up with!
Cranium grinning Denver
Beagle, Norway, meditate, elusive, picture frame
You guys are too funny! I'm going to set all my writers on these and see what they come up with. Thanks for the inspiration!
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