Month: July 2025

#CreativePerspectiveChallenge Seven Results! #writingcommunity #poetry #flashfiction

Here is the amazing result link, followed by Sue Wickstead’s poem, and my response.

Yvette Calleiro: https://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com/2025/07/futuristic-dreams-tankatuesday.html

A Poem by Sue Wickstead

‘I woke up one day and I was on the moon.’
All around me there was grey dust and hollow craters.
There was an eerie silence, and I felt myself shiver. How did I get here?
My movements felt slow and heavy.
The sunlight in the distance shone on the silver-grey surface casting long shadows across the land.
Looking out into the distant blackness of space I could see a million twinkling stars.
And there in front of me was the blue green planet earth.
My planet!
My world!
Shining and slowly spinning.
I could see the richness of the sea and the land and the white clouds swirling. It certainly was a peaceful calm vision.
A beautiful sight, a silent world slowly turning in the darkness of space.
How calm it looked.
You could not hear the bustle of busy people dashing about.
You could not see the fighting nor the damage we were doing.
But, most of all you could not sense the fear of the pandemic as it spread from person to person.
Here you could look down and see only the beauty, not the ugliness and not the fear of ‘covid’.
Here I could stand in my bubble on a distant moon safe from everything.
But I don’t want to be alone.
I want to be in my world on my earth no matter how ugly it can be.

Sue Wickstead (2021)

LAST CHANCE

D. L. Finn

This was their last chance. Success was imperative for their survival. They were supposed to go to the farthest planet in their solar system as they slept. Their mission was to locate precious minerals needed for their planet’s survival. The youthful military crew of six, Jacob, Adam, Michael, Leah, Ruth, and Evelyn, were to be awakened when they arrived, but when they woke up, it wasn’t their solar system. The self-propelled engine was down to five percent and had lost the ability to replenish from its source, their sun. The training and repair manuals didn’t cover this scenario.

Jacob edged into the icy waters to test them. At least this water didn’t sizzle against his suit like the acidic water had on the last planet they thought was to be their new home. That planet may have had water and oxygen in its atmosphere, but it was also corrosive and would have eventually destroyed the ship and them.  As Jacob stooped to collect his sample, Leah was running tests on this planet’s atmosphere. He hoped she would have a positive report since there was no hope of a rescue mission. He capped the water and headed back to the ship.

So far, they hadn’t seen any sign of life, but the ship’s radar picked up other life forms right before they plunged onto the sandy surface. What lived beyond those mountains or deep in the water? Would his group be prey or predators?

Exploring planets

had been a great adventure

learn what was beyond

their wars, greed, and corruption

here on Earth, they’d try again.

There will be no new blogs until August 5 as I continue on my July break. My internet will be spotty for the next month, and I’m waiting for a repair person for a dead landline and in and out of DSL. I’m told our new underground optic cable (to bring rural areas safe communication) will be installed in a few weeks! Can’t wait!  Countdown 🙂 D. L. Finn (Denise)

#CreativePerspectiveChallenge Seven! #writingcommunity #poetry #flashfiction

Welcome to the Seventh Creative Perspective Challenge! I’d love for you to participate with a poem or a flash fiction piece. Just post your blog link in the comments or email it to me, and I’ll include it in the results post next week and promote it across social media.

Because it’s my birthday month, and they walked on the moon for my seventh birthday, I thought we’d head to space with this one:

I look forward to your responses!

Note: I’m playing catch-up in different areas of my life this month. I will try to visit blogs, but I may not get a chance on many days. There’s a vacation in the mix, too. I decided not to skip the Creative Perspective Challenge this month or my book reviews. I will be back in August, ready to go, plus, I have a book coming out September 24th. More on that soon.—Denise

 

July Book Reviews! #willowwillers #danantion #PTLPerrin #DawnPisturino #bookreviews #whattoread #writingcommunity

Here are the great books I read in June that were four stars and higher. Click on the book titles for the Amazon link.

Poetic Justice: A Rascal Todd Mystery Featuring Brody Thompson (Book 2 of 2: Rascal Todd Mystery)

by Dan Antion (Author), Willow Willers (Author)

Best-selling mystery author Brody Thompson is asked to help solve a real-life murder. Curious, Brody agrees to help Trevor figure out who killed his father and soon finds himself not only searching for a murderer but also in danger. After Trevor is attacked, Brody becomes more determined to find out what is going on. He runs across a character that held my attention or The Poet, who has been in hiding for years. The Poet communicates and leaves clues through poetry. Brody was a strong character who interacted with familiar characters from the past and met new ones, like Trevor’s mom. Journalist Rascal has a backup role in this story, but she is still there, along with her demanding kitty and the newsroom. The setting is woven nicely into the story, along with many delicious-sounding meals. I now want a pastry from the story. I found myself rooting for Brody and eager to find out more about The Poet. This can be a standalone read, but it’s nice to already be familiar with past characters. An engaging whodunit that had me guessing until the end.

Ancient Voices: Poems About Ancient Egypt

By Dawn Pisturino

“Ancient Voices” is a unique collection of poetry. Set in Ancient Egypt, each poem gives a glimpse into the lives of those who lived there. I could tell there was a lot of research that went into this collection and appreciated it. The fascinating setting provided both entertainment and learning. It’s hard to capture the essence of this book in a short review but here are three examples from the collection: “Love letter/buried in the sand/inscribed on stone/for eternal bliss…”—LOVE LETTERS, “Send me to my tomb with a blue lotus in my hair./My heart will dance with joy as I run through the Fields of Reeds,/Free of pain and disease. Limber as fallow deer, I will run,/Ecstatic in my youthfulness…”—THE BLUE LOTUS, and “I set out to write/The most beautiful poem in the world./Consulting the stars,/They quickly aligned/Into perfect letters of stardust/and cosmic dew…”—MOST BEAUTIFUL. A collection to be read more than once and one I can highly recommend.

Sanctum: Dragon Guild Book 1

By P.T.L. Perrin

I read and loved the Tetrasphere series and was thrilled to see the story continue with many returning characters set at a later date. Reading the previous series isn’t necessary as the author does a good job of bringing the readers into this world with beautiful settings and strong characters. Gabri, who was a baby at the end of Tetrasphere, is now almost sixteen years old. Something is after Gabri that her family and friends can’t protect her from, and is kidnapped and removed from all she loves. She finds herself on an unknown world imprisoned in a cold, damp cell by the enemy she calls the Shadow. Here her special abilities are gone and all she wants to do is go home. In the darkest of her moments, she gets unexpected help. This is an exquisitely described place where dragons co-exist with intelligent plants and there’s an ongoing battle between good and evil. Some questions are answered while others remain, and I can’t wait to continue the journey in the next story! A well-written YA fantasy that I can easily recommend.

Next week is the Creative Perspective Challenge Seven!

Embrace your inner child by reading a fantastic book! D. L. Finn (Denise)