City Raccoons

642 Things to Write About: Write a story from the point of view of raccoon. What is the city like at night? Why do you knock over garbage cans? Do you get along with other raccoons?

Fortunately, I belong to  small tribe, the City Racs. It's easier that way. The lonely ones receive no help, they stick out and become loathed. They give raccoons a bad name, knocking over cans, causing commotion, mayhem, and awareness.

In a group you can create a raccoon ladder, quietly climb up the fury bodies of your fellow raccoons and remove thrown away food in a quiet and more dignified manner. Not that all is swell in the City Racs group. There are a lot of squabbles over scarps and fights to earn more stripes.

Not all are cut out for city life, either. It's busy and crowded. There's a lot of struggle for territory and a constant need to feel part and protected by and in the group. I wasn't always part of the City Rac group. I know how it is to be a loner out there. That's why I'll do anything to stay here, among the group. I'm the bottom of the ladder, I'm the bandit of the bunch.

The Girl Who Saw the Universe

642 Things to Write About: you meet a girl who, when she closes her eyes, can see the entire universe. Tell us about this girl.

She hovers over the ground, toes pointed down, skirting the floor. Sparks, like stars, sprinkle in her wake. When she closes her eyes her body goes still and her lids light up purple and blue, rapidly swirling and morphing from one color to another. She opens her mouth and lets out a breath filled with spiraling galaxies and clouds of stars. Her eyes twitch under her colorful lids and her cheeks turn rosy.

She opens her eyes. She smiles and stars fall to her feet, floating above the ground with her.

She is the girl who can see the universe.

Magnetic

642 Things to Write About: One morning Jessica wakes up and realizes she is magnetic.

Fingers tingled again. All of Jessica's skin buzzed with something she could only describe as electric. Why did she keep waking up with such a strange feeling? When she reached for her metal framed alarm clock, always a hair's width too far to reach, it seemed to jump into her hand with a cold slap.

Well, that didn't happen the previous morning. Jessica turned the alarm off and shook it out of her hand. The buzz stretched out from her fingers like an electric shock from too much friction.

When she walked down the stairs, her mom humming in the kitchen, the keys on the walkway table rattled, fell to the floor and skidded to her feet.

"What the...?"

Jessica kicked the keys away and ran to the kitchen, only to have her stomach smacked by a spoon. Her mom turned around to see Jessica pulling it away and it stick to her fingers.

"I see it's started," her mom said with a glee, a smile wide on her thin face.

Things of 2013 (not really accomplishments....)

I usually do an 'Accomplishments' list at the end of the year. But, given my accomplishments are low, I thought I would do more of a 'things I did/things that happened' this year...

• Visited the Smoky Mountains!
• Kiri passed away
• Saw Potted Potter
• Bought a recurve bow (then my husband did and we love archery)
• Adopted Luna!
• Visited Grand Rapids (twice)
• Had an in-depth tour of a TV station
• Wrote a novella
• Started the third edit on my novel
• Lost 20 pounds
• Began going on walks again (in woods etc)
• Didn't re-read a single book
• Wrote a lot!
• Paid off our car!
• Continued writing group
• Joined a book club
• Married for 3 years
• Started this blog
• Started and wrote many Peculiar Girls

Our little Kiri monster, poor girl had a brain tumor

The Beautiful Smoky Mountains

I mean look at them! And, this is from the view of our cabin.

Archery! My wonderful bow! Even though I am craving lots of snow so I can go snowshoeing, I am also looking forward to spring (already) so I can get shooting again!

One of many adorable pictures of the new kitty, Luna. She's a big sweetie, loves to cuddle!

Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots.... of writing.

My brother's birthday gift to me, and to James. It happened to be on the day Kiri passed. It wasa very conflicting day. The show was great, and distracting. 

A Day of Ice

Peculiar girl would have loved it outside today. She would have loved walking in the woods, the trees and every little bit of twigs and stuff covered in ice, like cystals, always with the impending danger of the weight of the ice causing giant branches and whole trees to snap with the force. At any second she could be crushed. There would be a thrill, for her, amidst the silent white of the icy world. 

Pancakes

I made pancakes for the first time today.

It was from a pancake made in Michigan! Fun.

I put chunky applesauce in, and apple sauce, strawberry and strawberry syrup on top.

Of course, sausage and mimosa on the side! Husband and I thought it came out good, woo!

Good Ole Days

Suddenly and without warning, it slips into your mind as you touch a long forgotten book or CD. You try to ignore it, avoid it from occurring but it pushes in until it has drenched your mind. Eyes blur as you look to the past of a life you know was yours but feels foreign, like it belonged to someone else and you only read it in a book. You remember some parts and forget others. You wish you could remember it all. Who were those people? What were those things you did and said and loved?

You try to change the station and leave this surreal feeling behind. Tears well as you crave for the time you knew. Fear of the unknown future clenches your heart. Stuck in a time, a limbo of in-betweens.

Press on, this feeling almost over. A draft in your heart. Drowning in nostalgia.

It’s always going to be the good ole days.

© Ash Huntley

Deadly Sins: 7 unique dictinarys

I have this fun dictionary for all words related or pertaining to wrath. It's fun looking and helpful! I hope up have the whole set one day.

The Peculiar Girl and Porcupine Bones

Porcupine skeletons danced on moon streaked ice, propelled by fishing line stretched over the lake and to the hands of a girl. She twirled her fingers and flicked her wrists, watching the ghosts skitter and hop, joyous in their lively endeavor.

Fissures ran along the surface, chasing one another as they bounced beams like twinkling Christmas lights on a decked home of cheer. She imagined smiling faces shining through the window as laughter spills like smoke up the chimney and ribbons spin around the tree on red and green foil boxes.

This was not the girl's first time. Her peculiar interests left her alone and isolated. The time she spent in public was time spent with people giving her side long glances, where skittish whispers followed her shadowed footsteps, leaving echoed impressions in the snow. Reactions that only pushed her further away from furrowed brows and turned backs. It pulled her deeper into her strange hobbies, allowing her to have solace in the only friendships she ever had.

As a little girl, roaming the dense woods with a butterfly net she collected small bones of small beasts. She dreamed of bringing them back to life. Grateful to her, the beasts would never leave her side, trailing her wake as faithful furry friends.

The closest she came was watching them prance from afar, an illusion she was happy enough to indulge in.

The floating bones gleamed and paused. The girl threw the lines to the ground, something swelled in her chest like a balloon until she couldn't breathe. A wind charged over the ice, pressing and pushing the snow off branches to fall heavily atop her head. Wrapping her arms around herself, she shook with an urgency to stay warm as tears spilled on her cheeks and a forced breath steamed from her frozen lungs. Joy

© Ash Huntley