Notebook Writes. May 3rd

It’s Day 3 of my Notebook writes series. Because May is my birthday month I am offering daily prompts and colour coordinating with outfits. I found a shiny red notebook in my unfinished notebook stash and it was fun matching it to some of red clothes I’ve had for years with a touch of black thrown in.

Today is International Dawn Chorus Day and I went out at 5.00 am down the lanes to catch the first songs. Several blackbirds at full warble, always perched on the apex of roofs. Lots of other birds and many songs I didn’t recognise.

The prompt today is to write a story based on a time when you were up at dawn, maybe recently, maybe a long time ago. Include a word or words from the list and one or more items from the table. I’ve placed ‘The Roster’, by Debra A Daniel, the novella in flash highly commended in the 2019 Bath Flash Fiction Novella in Flash Award, on the table as it has a nice splash of red on the colour. And it is a very good book. You can read more about this in the interview with Debra on the Bath Flash Fiction Award website. And there’s some lovely songs her husband wrote, inspired by the book linked there too.

Remember that if you write a story inspired by this prompt or any of the others already posted, and get it published at any time, let me know and I will give you a free entry to Bath Flash Fiction Award (for another story).
As an added bonus for the rest of the day (I am posting this in the afternoon) here’s another challenge. I’ll give a free Ad Hoc Fiction anthology to the person who guesses the number of marbles in the yellow vase ( to the nearest amount).

I am running my trial Zoom writing class on Tuesday 5th May from 10.30 am to 12.00 pm. If you haven’t yet got Zoom fatigue, do have a go. It is suitable for beginners and experienced writers. During the class I’ll offer more prompts and feedback and we have Alison Woodhouse dropping in to talk about writing a winning drabble (100 word story). Contact me on my email asap.