Sue Spitulnik

Who’s Strutting

I like to people-watch. It’s fun to imagine stories about the humans who cross your path. I was at the mall today and couldn’t help but notice the woman strutting down the corridor in front of me. I thought she was putting a lot of effort into that walk with no one to appreciate it. When she stopped and turned to look at a window display, I could see she was very pregnant. I almost laughed out loud, not at her, but at myself, for not being able to tell the difference between a strut and an uncomfortable waddle.

Written in response to Charli Mills April 9, 2024, prompt at Carrot Ranch Literary: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about someone (or something) strutting. What has caused the overconfidence? Is it arrogant? Foolish? Legit? How does strutting shape a story? Have fun and go where the prompt leads!

04/15/2024 4

Let’s Travel on Eclipse Day – BOTS

It’s one week before the total solar eclipse that is going directly over our city in Western New York State on April 8, 2024. My phone rings about 10:00 AM and it’s my son calling. Often that timing means something is not quite right in his life, but this time he fools me. The news is he and his girlfriend of 13 years have decided to get married.

Cool! Amazing! When?

During the eclipse!

What? In a flash; we are pulling a wedding together in six days. It’s a pot-luck and I get to make the wedding cake. Yippee!

04/08/2024 3

Beer as a Food

Ya know that old adage? “Don’t fret when your child moves out. They always come home again.” After a breakup, my son returned for a few weeks. We told him he wasn’t intruding, but he would come home from work, grab a beer, and escape to the patio to talk on his cell and pace.

Upon his departure, we noticed the grass between the fence and patio was a lush dark green. We asked if he could explain. With the look of a guilty child, he replied, “That’s where I peed.”

My husband mumbled, “Beer is a complete food.”

Written in response to Charli Mills March 12, 2024, promo at Carrot Ranch Literary: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about leaving a leak. What (or who) is leaking? How can you use the leak to create tension? Expand the idea of leaks. Go where the prompt leads!

03/18/2024 1

The AI Invasion

The new writing group member was fearful. “I think AI is going to ruin the writing industry. All you have to do is tell the program your characters, location, and plot, and the thing writes the story for you.”

The response from a tech person. “That’s a half-truth. What it actually does is take “tokens” of information from what already exists and creates a piece. Thus, it could be plagiarizing, and it only understands facts; it can’t add voice or emotion.”

“Well, I’m never going to use it.”

“Do you use Grammerly?”

“Yeah.”

“Hate to tell you. That’s AI.”

Written in response to Charli Mills February 27, 2024, prompt at Carrot Ranch Literary: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about artificial intelligence. Use any genre. What is unfolding or has the situation existed for a while? Who shows up, AI or a figure of imagination? Go where the prompt leads!

03/04/2024 4

Saturday Night at the BSide

The dinner hour show at our favorite bar is a single blues guitarist. Gordon picks, sings, and adds his own harmonica. A few songs into the set, Rick joins him, adding a bongo or some raindrops. What a difference. The main event band leader comes in the door as we talk about him. To the stage Joe goes with his harmonica. A support. A comrade. The sound takes another step up and onward. Live music fills my soul and eases pain from negative emotional events. I’m in a cosmic bowl of soup that emanates life, dreams, reality, and friendships.

Written in response to Charli Mills February 20, 2024, prompt at Carrot Ranch Literary: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a cosmic egg soup. Is it something new on the menu or the deep horizon? Who is making the soup and why? Who will it feed and how will it change the story? Be inventive, imaginative, or playfully serious. Go where the prompt leads!

02/26/2024 1

Growing Pains

The ten-year-old girl got off the school bus with tears in her eyes. She went to her mother in the house, “My friend Toby has been mean to me lately. And he’s started swearing a lot. Why would he do that?”

“Isn’t he the oldest of his siblings, and their father left them?”

“Yeah. So.”

“I would guess that’s a mask of bravado because he hasn’t figured out how to be ‘the man of the house’ and still be a kid. He’s trying to be tough.”

“Oh, I guess I understand, but I liked him better before he changed.”

Written in response to Charli Mills February 13, 2024, prompt at Carrot Ranch Literary: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about an intolerable mask. Who is wearing the mask and why? What is so intolerable about the mask? Is there empathy for the one behind the mask? Go where the prompt leads!

02/19/2024 0