I’m posting this story of mine to test the system and get the party started. https://sixcrookedhighways.com/min-min-weekly-prompt/
Keith turned his gas bottle on and lit the flame under the wok. When his campfire meal was ready, he gave some to his German Shepherd, Arfer. He had just poured himself a glass of cabernet sauvignon when a SUV towing a white caravan pulled up some fifty metres away.
A middle-aged couple emerged and shouted to Keith ‘Great spot you have here’.
Keith looked at them coldly and said ‘Why did you stop here?’ They both looked perplexed and she said ‘Well, we saw strange lights in the sky and it got scary.’
Keith said ‘Just don’t go chasing them or you’ll never come back.’
The man said ‘Come on mate, you’re scaring the missus. There’s no need for that sort of talk.’
Arfer stood up, bared his teeth and growled menacingly. The couple moved rapidly to their vehicle and took off.
Keith picked up his well-worn leather-bound journal, pumped up his lamp and said ‘Arfer, what do you think of this passage? I think it has a sort of timelessness about it but that may be beyond your sense of the aesthetic.’
Keith read the passage in his sonorous voice. When he’d finished, Arfer revealed nothing.
Keith said ‘You’re right, it needs work. Time for bed.’
He turned off the lamp, burrowed into his swag and, as he drifted off to sleep, he noticed the Min Min lights and heard Arfer laughing in his sleep.
Six Crooked Highways 
Hey, I thought there wisnae gonna be a Like button!
Cool tale, I like Arfer, very like a character in my current magnum opus.
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Comes with the InlInkz territory, I’m aftaid. 🙂 I like Arger too; he’s the smartest recurring character in my stories.
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Not to worry, it’s all starting to look almost professional.
But I’ll soon put a stop to that!
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Question for you: will you be posting guidelines for type of comments we’re focusing on?
My tendency on comments & likes is toward the positive (comic), and ignore critique for encouragement (Yay, they’re expressing themselves!).
Cute story, BTW, but an extra ” ‘ ” is buzzing around your title…
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Good idea. Comment however you like, Liz. I was just trying to encourage people to go beyond the Like button and talk with other members of the community. This is all a learning curve. As for the buzzing ‘ Keith’s camping and that’s a bush fly. 🙂
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I need to read your e-mail links but my critique is that I’m a little lost on why the lights drew the other campers and why Keith was so rude beyond wanting solitude.
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Some people are just like that. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of being the only one at a movie until someone else turns up and sits one seat away. 🙂
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😄 nope
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Lucky you. 🙂
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Re the lights, the Min Min Lights are a light phenomenon regularly seen in the Channel Country in parts of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. They are most commonly described as being fuzzy, disc-shaped lights that appear to hover just above the horizon. They are said to hover but recede when approached, not unlike UFO’s. Indigenous people have known about them for centuries. Theories abound as to what causes them but no-one knows for sure.
But they usually frighten the life out of people who see them. 🙂
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You show a perfect partnership here, Doug. Keith and Arfer are well-matched to each other and against the world. Amazing how one word, ‘ well-worn’ , adds such depth to a character.
So pleased you’ve set up this challenge. As you say, let the fun begin…
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Thanks, Jenne, and even more thanks for helping to get this adventure started.
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The lights are a mystery and the story was well constructed. Havi g witnessed some unexplained lights myself, this story was more meaningful.
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I hope they’ve disappeared for good. Keith and Arfer deserve their solitude and their companionable literary discourse. Good luck with this venture.
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I’m sure they’d both agree. 🙂 And many thanks for your best wishes. Looking forward to having you join us.
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I like Keith’s blithe indifference to the fact the couple took off. THEY are already among us!
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… and we all know who THEY are. 😉
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Hey, thanks for the invite!
(Don’t tell anyone, but when I first ‘got here’, I experienced a minor flourish of ‘the butterflies’. But then I ‘saw’ Jenne and your running buddy, cyear and everything settled down)
As to your story.
Dude! You not only wrote a dog into it, you wrote a German Shepherd as co-lead character. “…heard Arfer laughing in his sleep.
I will say there are few things more enjoyable than watching one’s dog dream.
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Indeed, clark. 🙂 Sadly, our current lack of fencing does not allow for a real Arfer to materialise for a while but I dream on, just like him.
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