Thank you, editor Francine Witte,  for publishing three of my short works today.  What a welcome that is, to Flash Boulevard, a fantastic flash journal that operates under the umbrella of George Wallace’s legendary Poetry Bay. If you’d like to jump to the three stories, here’s a link.

Two of the stories (“Elis, Queen” and “You Sexy Thing”) are responses to songs, and “The Cat Maiden” is a clip from my novel-in-progress.  I’m too busy today to write an essay about all three stories, so here are some thoughts on “Elis, Queen.”

My writing friend Gay Degani offered the prompt that generated this story.

This prompt–Music on Loop–is from The Authors Publish Compendium of Writing Prompts by Emily Harstone:

Choose a song. It needn’t be one you love but it should be one that doesn’t drive you crazy. You might prefer a song that doesn’t have any lyrics or one without overly complicated lyrics but the choice is yours. Set the song you select to play on repeat. Set a timer for 15 minutes and start writing. Often, writing done this way will pick up the tone or mood of the song you are listening to while writing. Aim to write up to 500 words.

So, what song was I listening to? Well, “Aguas de Marco,” a.k.a. “Waters of March” which is quite lovely, both for the lyricism of the musical composition and the warmth of Elis Regina’s voice. I love writing things that respond to other artists.

If you’d like to see Elis Regina, hear her, and fall in love with her like I have, here is a clip:

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you’ll read not only “Elis, Queen,” but “You Sexy Thing” which is also a song-influenced response story, and “The Cat Maiden,” which is a scene from my novel-in-progress. Here is the link to all three.

And here is the song referenced in “You Sexy Thing,” just for fun.

C O N T A C T