Here are YOUR submissions:

Option One: Timed Writing

1. When I was a kid…, by Jessie
2. When I Was a Kid, by Becca
3. When I Was a Kid, by Snack BPC

Option Two: Seven Things

Option Three: Pick Three

1. Musings on a Golden Eagle, by Gemma
2. The End of a Flight, by Niebla
3. Urban Warfare, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

Option Four: Can You Picture That?

1. Through the Binoculars, by A~Lotus

Option Five: Poetry

1. Unhallowed Ground, by Melanie BHD
2. Space, by Richard Wells
3. PV=nRT, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

Option Six: Fiction

Happy Writing, and Happy Stargazing

1. Cuppa Joy, by Carl
2. Let Us Have Cake, by Bobbi

1. Anticipation’s Desire, by J.C. Montgomery
2. Café Writing: Anticipate, by Floreta
3. I Swing Closer, by The Lightbearer
4. Anticipation, by Bobbi

1. Bear, by James Steerforth
2. Star Child and Azure Moon, by Lissa
3. My Mama Done Told Me, by Miss Meliss

1. Journey, by Anu

1. Images, by Jeeves
2. Caterpillar Cub, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
3. Bear Haiku, by A~Lotus
4. Café Writing June Project, by Mrs. Shields

1. The Game of the Friend, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

Thank you all for your lovely words. New prompts will be posted shortly.

1. The Sound of Rain, by Rahul
2. Weather Saga, by Jeeves
3. Urban Perspicacity, by sister AE
4. Echoes, by Destinee Weathers
5. To Rain or Not To Rain, by Gemma
6. It Rains on a Spring Evening, by Cavaliere
7. Tiny Sprouts, by Bobbi
8. Weather Means More, by Rebecca Reid
9. National Poetry Month Farewell, by Linda

   Ann Nickerson

* ~ * ~ *
Option Two:Fiction

1. Reformation, by J.C. Montgomery
2. Twilight in the Garden, by James Steerforth
3. The Little Meadow, by Bobbi
4. Alone in the Garden, by The Light Bearer

1. Panoramic View of My Heart, by A~Lotus
2. My Kitchen Garden, by Bobbi
3. It is Written That…, by James Steerforth

1. Seven of my Guilty Pleasures, by The Light

   Bearer

2. Seven Guilty Pleasures, by Ayesha
3. 7 Guilty Pleasures, by Bobbi

1. Garden Writing, by Becca
2. Never-ending Spring, by J.C. Montgomery
3. My Wild Garden, by Bobbi

1. Come On, Baby, by Destinee Weathers

Thank you all for your lovely words. New prompts will be posted shortly.

1. Enough of Love, by Little Wing
2. It’s Not What It Looks Like, by James Steerforth
3. Bang! Bang!, by Bobbi
4. He Was Nice, by The Light Bearer

If I did have an honest — or dishonest — desire to kiss just one or two people, I might — but I couldn’t want to — my mouth is yours.
~Zelda Fitzgerald (in a love letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald)

1. Others, by Ofira Sephiroth
2. L’Agent Provacateur, by Carl Colaco
3. Vessel, by Rob Kistner
4. My Life-Saver, by Bobbi
5. Empty Words, by Melanie

What can I tell you by letter? Alas! nothing that I would tell you. The messages of the gods to each other travel not by pen and ink and indeed your bodily presence here would not make you more real: for I feel your fingers in my hair, and your cheek brushing mine. The air is full of the music of your voice, my soul and body seem no longer mine, but mingled in some exquisite ecstasy with yours. I feel incomplete without you.
~Oscar Wilde (in a letter to Constance Wilde)

1. Sending You a Piece of My Heart, by Amercanising Desi
2. The Consequences, by Jenn

…should I draw you the picture of my heart it would be what I hope you would still love though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have obtained over it,leaves not the smallest space unoccupied..
~Abigail Adams (in a letter to John Adams)

1. For Fuzzy: A Picture of My Heart, by Melissa A. Bartell
2. Picture of My Heart, by Becca
3. My Yellow Heart, by Jessie
4. Finger Paints, by sister AE
5. Eat Your Heart Out, by Floreta
6. The Picture of My Heart, by James Steerforth
7. My Heart, by Bobbi
8. A Picture of My Heart, by The Light Bearer

I don’t like it at all. All the Chairs are staring at me in the most frightful way — And there is a Lady on the Mantel piece who has taken a Great objection to me — and I’m awfully scared —

This is no place for a person with a nice cheerful disposition like me — it looks like those parlors in the Novels where they plot things –
~Isadora Duncan (in a letter to Gordon Craig)

1. 7 Unromantic Places We’ve Kissed, by Bobbi

Do not imagine, because you find these lines in your journal that I have been trespassing. You know I have not – and where else shall I leave a love letter? For I long to write you a love-letter tonight.

You are all about me – I seem to breathe you, hear you, feel you in me and of me.
What am I doing here? You are away. I have seen you in the train, at the station, driving up, sitting in the lamplight, talking, greeting people, washing your hands… And I am here – in your tent – sitting at your table.
.
~Katherine Mansfield (in a letter to John Middleton Murray)

1. Untangling the Past, by Jane Doe
2. Good Things Come in Pairs, by Annie McLennon
3. Ex-Varsity, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
4. Love Letter, by Tamy
5. Rants, by Jeeves
6. Unwritten Loveletter, by Leonard Blumfeld
7. Dearest Love, by Becca
8. On Peace, by This Girl Remembers
9. Love Letters, by Janet
10. Dear, by Dreamer

Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some.
~John Keats

1. Down the Rabbit Hole, by Bobbi
2. Losing Faith, by Jane Doe
3. Frugal Fusion, by Little Wing
4. Untitled, by Becca
5. Nadir, by Paisley
6. Poem in Draft: Somebody Watching You, by Gautami Tripathy

Option Two Can You Picture That?

1. Haiku, by A~lotus
2. Cardinal Totem, by Bobbi

Option Three Poetry

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs.
~William Arthur Ward

1. Peace, by Bobbi
2. Wanted: Contralto Solos, by sister AE
3. I Prayed for Peace, by Pretty Prats
4. A Piece of Peace, by Ginger
5. Grace in Autumn, by diatribalArts

Option Four:Fiction

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.
~Erich Fromm

1. Break of Day, by Medhini
2. The Effort Life Implies, by J. C. Montgomery
3. January Project, by Jessie

Option Five: Timed Writing

Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object, unless it be still fed with fresh discoveries, and kept alive by a perpetual succession of miracles rising into view.
~Joseph Addison

1. Words of Passion by Hand, by A~Lotus
2. A Short-Lived Passion, by Rebecca Reid
3. Ice, Ice, Baby, by Melissa A. Bartell

Option Six: Seven Things

In a mood of faith and hope my work goes on. A ream of fresh paper lies on my desk waiting for the next book. I am a writer and I take up my pen to write..
~Pearl S. Buck

1. My Writing Space, by ell
2. My Writing Space: A List of Seven Things, by Rebecca Reid
3. Seven Physical Spaces of Writing, by A~lotus
4. My Writing Space, by Bobbi
5. Seven Things in My Writing Space, by Mike G.
6. Components of my Writing Space, by Ginger
7. Seven Things, by PinkNic
8. Hiding Space, by SlyGly
9. 7 Things, by Tamy
10. Seven Things, by Janet
11. Seven Things, by Bonni
12. Seven Things, by Becca
13. January Prompts: Fresh, by Michelle
14. Desk Set, by Melissa A. Bartell

There’s so much bad news in the world today, that rather than focusing on individual holidays, the theme for this month is HOLIDAY MAGIC. It will run through the first weekend of the New Year, I think.

(As an aside, if the quotes seem Christmas-heavy, that isn’t meant to push a personal agenda, and certainly I don’t expect your writings to be Christmas-centric.)

That’s the thing with magic. You’ve got to know it’s still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.
~Charles DeLint

1. It’s a Magical World, by A~Lotus
2. Indistinguishable from Magic, by Melissa A. Bartell
3. Seven Magical Things, by Becca
4. My Magic Seven, by Bobbi
5. Seven Magical Things, by Janet
6. Seven Magical Things, by Sister AE
7. Seven Magical Things by Zan

Kindle the taper like the steadfast star
Ablaze on evening’s forehead o’er the earth,
And add each night a lustre till afar
An eightfold splendor shine above thy hearth.
~Emma Lazarus, “The Feast of Lights”

1. Was Jesus Born on Christmas Eve?, by Bobbi
2. Fascination, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
3. Scene on a Winter Evening, by Melissa A. Bartell
4. Hold This Law, by Richard
5. Playing for Pleasing the Moon, by Gautami Tripathy
6. La Vie en Rose, by Lissa
7. Dream or Reality, by Anu

Holiday Project Image

1. The Wonder, The Magic, by Bobbi
2. Oh, Wonder, by Niebla

If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.
~Samuel Smiles

1. My Angel, by Bobbi
2. Haiku, by A~Lotus
3. Living with Angels, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

1. Christmas is Green, by Bobbi

The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
~Francis P. Church, “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus”

1. Unseen Wonders, by Bobbi
2. Unseen and Unseeable Wonders, by Gemma

Don’t forget to comment here with your name, the title of your piece, the selected option number, and the direct link to it.

HAPPY WRITING & Happy Holidays

Option One: Pick Three

Fewer and fewer Americans possess objects that have a patina, old furniture, grandparents’ pots and pans, the used things, warm with generations of human touch, essential to a human landscape. Instead, we have our paper phantoms, transistorized landscapes. A featherweight portable museum.
~Susan Sontag

• Cat Views, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
• What Letters Are Made Of, by A~Lotus
• Brittle Yesterdays, by Gemma
• Jeweled Letter, by Niebla
• Time Tested, by Becca
• Pieces of the Landscape of My Youth, by sister AE

Option Two: Can You Picture That?

• My Three Girls, by Bobbi
• Dancing Through Time, by sister AE
• Something Old, by Melissa A. Bartell

Option Three: Poetry

Let us not be too particular. It is better to have old second-hand diamonds than none at all.
~Mark Twain

• Heirloom Damonds, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
• Like Second-Hand Diamonds, by Gemma
• Second Hand, by sister AE
• Got Holiday Spirit?, by Linda
• Frozen Foods and Filly Friends, by Linda
• Different Kinds of Blood Diamonds, by Richard

Option Four: Fiction

All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.
~Federico Fellini

• Autobiographical Art, by Snack
• Broken Promise, by Medhini
• The Pearl Bracelet, by Rob Kistner/li>

Option Five: Timed Writing

I don’t want to own anything until I know I’ve found the place where me and things belong together. I’m not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it’s like…. It’s like Tiffany’s…. Not that I give a hoot about jewelry. Diamonds, yes. But it’s tacky to wear diamonds before you’re
forty…
~Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s
(spoken by the character Holly Golightly)

• My Grandmother’s Pearls, by Melissa A. Bartell
• This Place, by James Steerforth

Some men’s memory is like a box where a man should mingle his jewels with his old shoes.
~George Savile

• Memory Box, by Bobbi
• Box of Me, by Melissa A. Bartell
• Stranger, by Rob Kistner

Don’t forget to comment here with your name, the title of your piece, the selected option number, and the direct link to it. Also, please note: since the database was destroyed and I’ve had to reconstruct, you’ve ALL become first-time posters again, so your comments will be queued for approval.

Also? There’s still time to submit to this Project. Follow this link for the actual prompts.

HAPPY WRITING

Photo Credit: Jef Poskanzer

• House, Perhaps Abandoned, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
• Lost, by Rob Kistner

Option Two: Poetry

Witch and ghost make merry on this last of dear October’s days.
~ Author Unknown

• Bloody Sue (Reprise), by Rob Kistner
• Reaper Groom, by Rob Kistner
• Of Witches and Ghosts, by Bobbi

Rules? (In Which Jeremy Ignores Them, to Good Effect), by Jeremy

Option Three: Fiction

“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.”
~ George Carlin

• Feral Love, by J.C. Montgomery
• Family Dinner, by Lissa
• #22, by Wine Dark Sea
• The Howling Moon, by Bobbi
• Judgement of the Moon, by sister AE

Option Four: Timed Writing

Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat…
~ Nicholas Gordon

• Rosy Encounter, by Medhini

Option Five: Seven Things

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”
~ Arthur Conan Doyle

• Fear of the Dark, by A~Lotus
• Seven Things That Scare Me, by Bobbi
• Seven Fears, by Medhini
• Seven Scary Things, by Janet

Option Six: Pick Three

A house is never silent in darkness
to those who listen intently;
there is a whispering in distant chambers,
an unearthly hand presses the snib of the window,
the latch rises.

Ghosts were created when the first man
woke in the night.
~ J. M. Barrie

Project words: awoke, chamber, distant, ghost, house, listen, still, whisper, window

• Haunting, by Snack
• White Chamber, by Niebla
• Day of the Dead, in La Paz, by Susana
• Whispers, by Janet
• Haunting, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
• Ghostly Moans, by Bobbi
• White Cats, by Richard Wells
• Scented, by Melissa A. Bartell

A gypsy fire is on the hearth,
Sign of the carnival of mirth;
Through the dun fields and from the glade
Flash merry folk in masquerade,
For this is Hallowe’en!
~Author Unknown

Welcome to the Café.
This edition of the Café Writing Project is a special Halloween edition. If Halloween isn’t part of your culture, you’re invited to open yourself up to the darker parts of your imagination, anyway.

We’ll be running the Halloween theme from now til the 9th of November, which means it also spans the Presidential election in the United States. Appropriate, I think, since modern politics are scarier than any ghosts or goblins ever could be.

For guidelines, please see The Rules. Remember that you should leave a comment with your link, including the title of the piece that you wrote, and the appropriate option number. Also, I would encourage everyone to visit the blogs of CW participants – most of our Regulars have amazing writing on their sites throughout the month.

If this is your first time here, please be aware that comments from first-time posters are held in queue until they’re approved by a live person, and that participant pages go up roughly two weeks after the beginning of each Project, and will be updated until the next Project goes live.

The planned launch date of the next project is November 9th

* * * * *

Option One: Can You Picture That?

Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry.

Photo Credit: Jef Poskanzer

* * * * *

Option Two: Poetry

Witch and ghost make merry on this last of dear October’s days.
~ Author Unknown

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about witches and /or ghosts.
* * * * *

Option Three: Fiction

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
~ George Carlin

Write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving a night when the moon is howling.

* * * * *

Option Four: Timed Writing

Halloween wraps fear in innocence,
As though it were a slightly sour sweet.
Let terror, then, be turned into a treat…
~ Nicholas Gordon

Take thirteen minutes (use all thirteen, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of fear wrapped in innocence.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is acceptable.

* * * * *

Option Five: Seven Things

Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
~ Arthur Conan Doyle

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

So, give me either seven things that scare you OR seven of your favorite horror films.

You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

* * * * *

Option Six: Pick Three

A house is never still in darkness to those who listen intently;
there is a whispering in distant chambers,
an unearthly hand presses the sill of the window,
the latch rises.

Ghosts were created when the first man awoke in the night.
~ J.M. Barrie

Pick at least three of the following nine words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

awoke, chamber, distant, ghost, house, listen, still, whisper, window

Don’t forget to comment on this post with the direct link, title, and selected option for each piece you create. Happy Writing!

Spring scarce had greener fields to show than these
Of mid September; through the still warm noon
The rivulets ripple forth a gladder tune
Than ever in the summer; from the trees
Dusk-green, and murmuring inward melodies,
No leaf drops yet; only our evenings swoon
In pallid skies more suddenly, and the moon
Finds motionless white mists out on the leas.
– Edward Dowden, In September

Pick at least three of the following nine words, and write a paragraph, scene, flash-fic, essay, blog entry or poem using them. It’s fine to change tenses, or pluralize if you want to, but please bold the words you choose.

drop, evenings, glad, mist, motionless, murmur, pallid, rivulets, swoon

1. Knight on Bended Knees, to His Beloved, by Leonard Blumfeld
2. Nine Words, by Janet
3. Carcosan Idyll, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
4. All the Women in the Family, by Melissa A. Bartell
5. Autumn of Life, by Medhini
6. A Rainy Evening, by Sumi
7. The First Drizzle, by Anu

* * * * *

Option Two: Can You Picture That?

Use the following photo to inspire an entry in any form – fiction, essay, poetry…

Photo Credit: Goldmund at iStockPhoto

1. Latter-Day Variant of an Older Story, by Niebla

* * * * *

Option Three: Poetry

silence
seeks the center
of every tree and rock,
that thing we hold closest-
the end of songs
– Michael McClintock, Letters in Time

Using the quotation above as your inspiration, write a poem (any form is fine) about silence.

1. Pleistocene Remnant, by Tiel Aisha Ansari
2. Silence, Take 1 (and Take 2), by Mike
3. Addie Bundren’s Posthumous Sermon, by the scôp
4. Bread Rises, by Richard
5. Fisherman, by Gordon

* * * * *

Option Four: Fiction

She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last.
– Willa Cather

Write a flash-fic, scene, or short story involving either standing in an orchard.

1. The Old Orchard, by Bobbi
2. Herakles in the Hesperides, by Tiel Aisha Ansari

* * * * *

Option Five: Timed Writing

He is outside of everything, and alien everywhere. He is an aesthetic solitary. His beautiful, light imagination is the wing that on the autumn evening just brushes the dusky window.
– Henry James

Take nine minutes (use all nine, but don’t go over), and write on the subject of being outside of everything.
This is a timed exercise and it’s expected that it won’t be perfect. Any format – fiction, essay, verse – is acceptable.

1. Being outside of everything (defined), by A~Lotus

* * * * *

Option Six: Seven Things

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
– Samuel Johnson

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

So, give me seven tastes or scents that define autumn for you.

You are not required to provide any explanations, but it’s more interesting for readers if you do.

1. Seven Tastes or Scents That Define Autumn, by Janet
2. Feels Like Fall, by MissMeliss
3. Welcome, Autumn, by Bobbi
4. Seven Tastes/Scents of Autumn, by Michelle
5. Seven Tastes or Scents that Define Autumn for Me, by Tamy
6. Seven Things, by Sister AE
7. Seven Tastes and Scents of Autumn, by Mike

Don’t forget to comment on this post with the direct link, title, and selected option for each piece you create. Happy Writing!