At Willowside (Flash Fiction)

by Carol8 Comments
At Willowside by Carol 350 words Oran kept walking, didn’t look back at the village. Claire was dead, buried yesterday, an accident. How could it have been an accident? The best archer in the village missing his target by yards? Even in the slight wind, Oran found it doubtful, but with no proof he couldn’t accuse the man, and even the elders had been afraid of Claire, of her visions, especially her last one. Claire had told the council about invaders from the north. She saw them, swords at their sides, riding into the village on horses as dark as coal. She had naively told them, too, that in her vision the intruders had met with the council, which was, Oran believed, why she had been killed. He had no evidence nor did he  have Claire’s gift, but he had a foreboding feeling the elders knew the invasion was coming, were anticipating it. Oran knew them to be crafty men, eager for power, not...
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Friday’s Tale: Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird, and the Gray Wolf

by Carol3 Comments
Isn't that bird gorgeous? Lots of threes in this story. A tsar, with three sons, has a magnificent walled garden, full of rare trees, including an apple tree whose apples were made of solid gold. One day, the tsar notices each night one apple goes missing. He sets guards to watch the garden and they reported that every night there came flying into the garden a bird that shone like the moon, whose feathers were gold and its eyes like crystal, which perched on the apple tree, plucked a golden apple and flew away. The oldest two sons fail in their attempt to catch the Fire Bird, and on the third night, the youngest, Ivan, only succeeds in grabbing a feather, but after that the bird doesn't return. The two older brothers go out to retrieve the bird, but give up when it became difficult and pitched their tent in a pleasant area and relaxed. When they don't come back, Ivan begs until he...
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Bacon

by Carol25 Comments
My daughter is a meat-lover through and through, and her favorite is bacon. I don't understand it myself. While I find bacon too salty and greasy, she would eat it every day. Sadly, in her opinion, I only buy it once in a great while, partly because I just don't think it's that healthy and partly because I may the grocery list, so usually it consists of mostly things I like. Bacon is one of the first foods she learned to cook herself  - the microwave makes it easy. And it's not just for breakfast. She also asks for those little round steaks wrapped in bacon, one of my least favorite meals. When we went to Packs and Dogs a while ago, she ordered a hot dog covered with bacon and devoured it. Potato soup apparently needs crumbled bacon on top, as do potato skins. For the record, though don't buy bacon-flavored microwave popcorn. Thanks to my brother she got three...
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Review: Caught by Harlan Coben

by Carol13 Comments
Caught is a quick read. It grabbed my attention in the prologue and kept me reading. That's not to say it was a great book, but it never let up. There was twist after turn and a batch of characters to keep track of. Wendy Tynes is a reporter who tracks down sexual predators, sets up sting operations, and exposes them on national television. Dan Mercer is the latest pedophile who she catches. He gets off on a technicality, helped by a flamboyant lawyer who only makes one appearance in the book, but Dan's life is essentially ruined. Wendy starts to wonder if he was ever actually guilty, though. Meanwhile, a teenage girl in the neighborhood, pretty, talented, a good girl, has been missing for months and the police have exhausted all their leads. In addition to the missing, potentially kidnapped girl and a falsely accused man, there's a murder, a vigilante, an embezzlement scheme, a group of unemployed middle-aged men, four...
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