Lisa Barker

Story Seeds

Photo by **Suzy Hazelwood** from **Pexels**

My hundred word challenges aren’t always stories. They are emotional snapshots that often are the seeds of a new story. A messy life; the promise of healing.

I share them with you because you can relate in some way. Because you like to see characters heal. Because you are curious where my ideas come from.

I share songs reflecting my current mood that are also seeds for stories.

I share book reviews of my own novel and those I have written for others.

I choose images that support those posts.

I hope you enjoy my blog.

Stories matter.

Again

(100 Word Challenge)

She approached him to share a simple everyday thing.

He, annoyed: Are you talking to me?? I can’t even hear you.

She repeated herself. His expression? Whatever.

Brokenhearted. Again. Why did I choose him? He is like my mother. I am an annoyance.

A simple plan. A simple dream. A quiet new home with just her thoughts and her cats. Peace and quiet, blossoming joy. Visitors that are happy to see her.

She’d never spoken to him that way. She entertained the thought of starting. It was not her way. She loved him too much. Why?

To each his own.

It’s Coming!

Here Comes The Sun

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, it’s been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
And I say it’s all right

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo, here comes the sun
It’s all right
It’s all right

Read an Ebook Week Sale Underway – Discover Over 50,000 Deep-Discounted eBooks!

The 12th annual Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale kicked off Sunday, March 7 and runs through Saturday, March 13.

Discover over 50,000 deep-discounted ebooks from thousands of authors and publishers before these incredible deals disappear.

Visit the sale now.

Read an Ebook Week is an international celebration of ebooks, and it’s the longest running annual sale at Smashwords.

Under the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale tab on the home page, you’ll find these shelves:

Book Review – Later by Stephen King

Interesting premise (a boy can see and talk to the dead/solves a crime) and the writing style idea (a novice writer tells/writes his story and improves his writing as he goes). I was hooked because the book is written in small segments and I was able to continue reading, though I might have put it down and never finished reading otherwise. I was bugged that the narrator used slang that set the novel in the 60s/70s, sometimes earlier than that, though it was supposed to be set in the late 90s/2000s. I kept hoping that at the end of the novel this would be explained, but it never was. I was hoping it was part of the plot.

For all that, it was a decent horror story, a fun read, and typical Stephen King in that there was plenty of supernatural and the relationships between the main characters showed a bonded mom and son (“me and you against the world”) that often reminded me of The Shining, but was nowhere near as well written. I did not think this was Stephen King’s best, but, naturally, I was drawn in and read the novel in a few hours-it’s by Stephen King, after all.

Promise

Photo by **Cup of Couple** from **Pexels**

(100 word challenge)

“I’ve been thinking about what I said about not being able to love you the way you love me. I can’t love anyone like that and I hope that makes you feel better.”

“I don’t care about feelings anymore. But I am glad that you are feeling better.” We are still separating.

He thought they’d stay together; she was not the person he wanted her to be.

Later, he yelled at her. She declined to yell back this time and imagined her own place, smiling. No one would yell at her there. Ever.

Life opened to life. She grasped it.

Single-minded

(100 word challenge)

“You’ll find someone perfect for you!” Katrina clasped Heather’s hand and gave it a squeeze as they walked the densely populated beach together.

“But you don’t understand the violation that is. I like who I am. I look forward to grad school, to writing, to my own place.”

“I didn’t mean – I guess I was self-projecting.”

“No worries. A new partner is what you’ll find when you are healed. Healthy attracts healthy and he will be a good man. As for me, I am single-minded. I really am happy.”

They hugged, both facing a new beginning.

“Cheers,” they whispered, smiling.

Change

Someone You Loved

By Lewis Capaldi

I’m going under and this time I fear there’s no one to save me
This all or nothing really got a way of driving me crazy
I need somebody to heal
Somebody to know
Somebody to have
Somebody to hold
It’s easy to say
But it’s never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you numbed all the pain

Now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you’re not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

I’m going under and this time I fear there’s no one to turn to
This all or nothing way of loving got me sleeping without you
Now, I need somebody to know
Somebody to heal
Somebody to have
Just to know how it feels
It’s easy to say but it’s never the same
I guess I kinda liked the way you helped me escape

Now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you’re not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

And I tend to close my eyes when it hurts sometimes
I fall into your arms
I’ll be safe in your sound ’til I come back around

For now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you’re not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

But now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you’re not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

Still I Stand

I forgave. Everything.
I thought I expected nothing in return.
But acceptance and respect I have never received.
The dismissing, the mocking, the insults remain.
These things you feel I deserve.
I am not a joke.
I am a human being, that forgave as I once had been forgiven.
My decision has been made. You speak as if we will continue on.
What you said to me a year ago, and have never apologized for–as if you could–remains foremost in my mind while I consider. I am more than the list of your grievances and criticisms and insults.
I am.

Dandelions

(100 word challenge)

She picked the dandelions and made a bouquet because they were hearty and beautiful, just as she was.

“Silly woman. Those are weeds.”

“In the eye of the beholder.”

“Everyone knows they are weeds.”

“It does not matter to everyone. Only to some.”

“They make me sneeze.”

“Deal with it.”

The discord, deeper than a shallow grave, sprouted dandelions. She picked them because she chose to embrace them. No corpse would generate “weeds” that she could not harvest and make something beautiful.

“Nonsense as usual,” he said.

“Beautiful nonsense. Authentic, beautiful nonsense that mystifies and makes perfect sense to me.”