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-> The Imamother Writing Club
Wolfsbane
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 Wed, May 03 2023, 11:00 am
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Spinoff from the discussion in the Reading Room forum. Let's take a stab at writing some frum fantasty! Anyone have a prompt for me?
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tigerwife
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Wed, May 03 2023, 11:13 am
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Cringing hard from the bombardment of “IYH by you!”s at her younger sister’s vort, Elana, subtly slips out of the Simcha hall but takes a wrong turn in the parking lot. When a mysteriously glowing, petite humanoid stuck under a white Odyssey begs her for help, Elana feels a rush of spontaneous recklessness (which had been subdued until that very moment, judging by her 4.0 GPA at Touro) and follows her into portal that takes her to a world that is more venohafachu than jelly donuts on Yom Kippur.
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sequoia
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Wed, May 03 2023, 11:20 am
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I would like something about mermaids.
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amother
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Sat, May 06 2023, 11:40 pm
When I look back at that trip I wonder how I could’ve missed all the warning signs.
First there was that Uber driver.
The traffic stretched endlessly in front us, never ending.
“I’m going to miss my flight,” I muttered, watching the minutes march steadily forward on his dashboard clock.
“What- what time is your flight, dear?” The driver twisted in his seat, fixing me with a patient smile. He spoke in a chirpy voice with a strange accent.
“In 20 minutes,” I leaned forward and peered at the crowded highway. “There’s no way I’m going to make it.”
He laughed, fingering a long, thin, chain-earring dangling from his left ear. “You-you don’t worry about a thing, dear. We-we don’t want you to miss your flight. No, no.”
I should’ve wondered then who “we” was.
But I just grumbled. “Well unless this traffic clears up, I’ll still be right here on this highway in 20 minutes, not up there,” I pointed to the sky- “on my way to Miami.”
He twisted his earring around his thumb and turned back to the road, a look of concentration on his face.
“No, no, we don’t want you to miss your flight, no, no.”
I sat back in my seat and folded my arms. I should’ve known this trip was too good to be true. Bubby Simi had called me just one month ago, her ancient voice crackling over the phone line.
“You want to what?” I repeated, shifting the phone closer to my ear so I didn’t miss what she said.
“To fly you in! Come visit me in Miami, shayfela. It’s been much too long. I miss you so much!”
My Bubby’s voice sounded older than I remembered it but filled with just as much joy and energy as ever. “And you are turning 20 this week! I have a present for you.” She added with childish excitement.
“I can’t Bubby, I have college.” I told her regretfully.
“College? What do you need to go to college for, shayfela?” Bubby wanted to know.
I laughed at the scorn in her voice.
“To get a job, Bubby. To support my family one day, iyH.”
“You wont need college for that,” Bubby declared. “Not you, Chani. Not my granddaughter.”
I smiled. “I can come in a month, when the semester is over. How does that sound?”
Bubby was disappointed I wasn’t coming earlier. But I wasn't about to throw away an entire semester of college by missing the finals just to get a birthday present from my grandmother.
So there I was, a month later, crawling through Manhattan traffic and about to miss my flight.
“Why can’t she just mail the present?” I wondered aloud.
“Some-some things you cannot mail,” the Uber driver said cheerfully.
I blinked in surprise.
“Look- we are here,” he pointed to the entrance of La-Guardia. “I told you we would make it on time.”
I gaped. “How….?”
“You fell asleep,” he smiled serenely at me and released the earring he had been holding. It hung from his ear now, swinging gently across his shoulder.
“I did?” I glanced at the watch. It was true, a full 20 minutes had passed.
I climbed out of the car and hauled my overnight bag over my shoulder.
“Uh...thank you.”
He looked at me through the window.
“Run. They are waiting.”
With that, he sped off.
The second warning I should’ve caught, was the plane.
It had not taken off yet, for one, even though it was a full hour past boarding time by the time I got through security. Secondly, it was empty.
I was the only one, besides the crew.
“Relax, dear,” a kind woman brought me a coke and a blanket. “Before you know it, you’ll be in Miami. My name is Judy,” she smiled wide. “You tell me if you need anything, ok?”
“Thanks, Judy. Uh…am I the only one on this flight?”
She laughed, a chirping, tinkering laugh. “No, of course not. But most people don’t travel this hour, smack in middle of the day. So it is rather empty…” Then she hurried off.
But not before I saw the flash of a golden chain dangling from her left earlobe...
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Queen Of Hearts
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Sun, May 07 2023, 12:08 am
| amother Sunflower wrote: | When I look back at that trip I wonder how I could’ve missed all the warning signs.
First there was that Uber driver.
The traffic stretched endlessly in front us, never ending.
“I’m going to miss my flight,” I muttered, watching the minutes march steadily forward on his dashboard clock.
“What- what time is your flight, dear?” The driver twisted in his seat, fixing me with a patient smile. He spoke in a chirpy voice with a strange accent.
“In 20 minutes,” I leaned forward and peered at the crowded highway. “There’s no way I’m going to make it.”
He laughed, fingering a long, thin, chain-earring dangling from his left ear. “You-you don’t worry about a thing, dear. We-we don’t want you to miss your flight. No, no.”
I should’ve wondered then who “we” was.
But I just grumbled. “Well unless this traffic clears up, I’ll still be right here on this highway in 20 minutes, not up there,” I pointed to the sky- “on my way to Miami.”
He twisted his earring around his thumb and turned back to the road, a look of concentration on his face.
“No, no, we don’t want you to miss your flight, no, no.”
I sat back in my seat and folded my arms. I should’ve known this trip was too good to be true. Bubby Simi had called me just one month ago, her ancient voice crackling over the phone line.
“You want to what?” I repeated, shifting the phone closer to my ear so I didn’t miss what she said.
“To fly you in! Come visit me in Miami, shayfela. It’s been much too long. I miss you so much!”
My Bubby’s voice sounded older than I remembered it but filled with just as much joy and energy as ever. “And you are turning 20 this week! I have a present for you.” She added with childish excitement.
“I can’t Bubby, I have college.” I told her regretfully.
“College? What do you need to go to college for, shayfela?” Bubby wanted to know.
I laughed at the scorn in her voice.
“To get a job, Bubby. To support my family one day, iyH.”
“You wont need college for that,” Bubby declared. “Not you, Chani. Not my granddaughter.”
I smiled. “I can come in a month, when the semester is over. How does that sound?”
Bubby was disappointed I wasn’t coming earlier. But I wasn't about to throw away an entire semester of college by missing the finals just to get a birthday present from my grandmother.
So there I was, a month later, crawling through Manhattan traffic and about to miss my flight.
“Why can’t she just mail the present?” I wondered aloud.
“Some-some things you cannot mail,” the Uber driver said cheerfully.
I blinked in surprise.
“Look- we are here,” he pointed to the entrance of La-Guardia. “I told you we would make it on time.”
I gaped. “How….?”
“You fell asleep,” he smiled serenely at me and released the earring he had been holding. It hung from his ear now, swinging gently across his shoulder.
“I did?” I glanced at the watch. It was true, a full 20 minutes had passed.
I climbed out of the car and hauled my overnight bag over my shoulder.
“Uh...thank you.”
He looked at me through the window.
“Run. They are waiting.”
With that, he sped off.
The second warning I should’ve caught, was the plane.
It had not taken off yet, for one, even though it was a full hour past boarding time by the time I got through security. Secondly, it was empty.
I was the only one, besides the crew.
“Relax, dear,” a kind woman brought me a coke and a blanket. “Before you know it, you’ll be in Miami. My name is Judy,” she smiled wide. “You tell me if you need anything, ok?”
“Thanks, Judy. Uh…am I the only one on this flight?”
She laughed, a chirping, tinkering laugh. “No, of course not. But most people don’t travel this hour, smack in middle of the day. So it is rather empty…” Then she hurried off.
But not before I saw the flash of a golden chain dangling from her left earlobe... |
I've got the creepy shivery chills...
I'm intrigued!
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shaqued_almond
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Sun, May 07 2023, 9:15 pm
The new teacher is a ghost who still has to pay off her student loans so she starts at a beis Yaakov.
Or, a retelling of the Dybbuk movie.
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amother
Daphne
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Tue, May 09 2023, 9:53 am
The dragons have ruled the skies of the Middle East since before the times of the Shoftim, when they'd been worshiped as gods by neighboring kingdoms and seen as the mightiest creatures on earth.
As the years built up, so did our understanding of the creatures who lit up the heavens. There have been cultures that waged war upon them, who'd nocked their arrows and shot them high, determined to fell even the greatest of beings. Others would seek to capture them, net them with metal that turns red-hot with dragonflame but never shatters, and would parade them in cages through the streets of capital cities as though to say this? this is nothing compared to the might of man. Humans persist in that innate desire to fight, to defeat, to prove their strength above all else. Humans destroy the magnificent, if only because they can.
In the depths of galus, under the shadow of centuries of pain, the Jewish people develop a very different understanding of the beasts. Once mighty, now sparse and weakened. Once safe when bathed in heaven, now surrounded by enemies on all sides. The dragons, considered by many embattled by Crusades and pogroms, must be preserved.
In the ghettos of Renaissance Italy, a young Jewish girl was the first to reach out to a caged dragon and feel it rest its snout upon her hand. On the beach of the Morocco Mediterranean, a Jewish man brought food to a starving dragon. Dragons flew safely above the cold forests of Poland, finding shelter in the burgeoning shtetlach, and dragons carried secret Jews from Spain to safety in Turkey. Dragons brought messengers with missives to the Jews of Yemen, of Ethiopia, of North America. Every community remained distinct, remained scattered within diaspora, but they, all of them, had laid trembling hands upon the scales of dragons and said the quiet words of Perek Shira.
There are few who needed an additional reason to despise the Jews, but here they had it: Dragonlovers, who would treat something as ferocious and feared as the dragon with respect. As man seeks to exterminate the dragons, so it strikes out at the Jew, until there are just the scarcest fraction of each within the world.
Time passes, and minds change.
The Jews endure, through nothing but Divine intervention. The dragons...
Were there ever truly dragons? wonder some, because there have been no reports in centuries. Scientists hurry to explain the anomalies presented in the past, posit about chemical reactions and large eagles and the slow extinction of pteranodons. Ancient people believed all kinds of stupid things, says Chaim's non-Jewish neighbor. Chaim shrugs and stares at the words of Birchas Habayis in a frame on his wall, surrounded by a pair of lovingly drawn dragons.
On the night of his thirteenth birthday, after the festivities have concluded, Chaim looks up to the skies and sees something large and winged pass over the simcha hall, blotting out the stars for an instant with a breath of orange flame.
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Wolfsbane
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Tue, May 23 2023, 6:52 pm
| sequoia wrote: | | I would like something about mermaids. |
The bushes blocked out the sunlight, but it was so humid Kayla could feel the water droplets forming on her skin. She tugged at the neck of her camp t-shirt and slapped a few mosquitos off her forearm. “You better not be getting us lost,” she said.
Sari didn’t even turn around. “I know where I’m going.”
Kayla grumbled to herself, following the swinging pendulum of Sari’s ponytail. “Better be worth the trouble we get in.”
“No one will even notice we’re gone.”
The ground was growing damper, the greenery thicker. Maybe they were getting close to water.
Sari pulled aside a tree branch. “Here,” she said, ducking under the branch and holding it down for Kayla to pass.
The air felt cooler by degrees.
She almost didn’t notice the brook, at first. The water flowed quietly, still and clear as glass; she nearly stumbled into it.
“Wow.”
“I told you.”
“I can’t believe no one else knows about this place!”
Sari shrugged. “As you pointed out, we are technically out-of-bounds.”
Kayla tucked her socks into her sneakers and waded into the brook. She closed her eyes. She hadn’t heard this much silence since camp began. In camp, everything was loud—too much cheering, too many people too close together. Here, she could hear the whisper of the breeze, the sighing of the trees, the trill of birdsong she could have sworn wasn’t there a moment ago.
She opened her eyes. Everything was tranquil. Patches of sunlight dappled the water, shifting slightly with the movement of trees and clouds.
The world outside might not have existed.
A shadow flitted in the corner of Kayla’s eye. She hadn’t noticed any fish, so she crouched to take a closer look, but she couldn’t see anything except the wet, brown rocks on the floor of the brook.
“Kayla!” Sari hissed. She was standing very still, eyes fixed on a tiny island in the center of the water.
At first, Kayla wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be looking at. There was a tree growing out of the island, its wide trunk wrapped in ivy–except the ivy wasn’t wrapped around the trunk, it seemed to be hanging from it and–was that a woman camouflaged against the tree trunk? She had dark hair, curling brown and wild against the tree bark, and a face mottled gray and green. A shift of ivy leaves fell from her neck to her waist–and below that, an expanse of smooth, gray scales, twisting into a long and powerful-looking tail which disappeared into the water.
I’m dreaming, she thought. I’ve dozed off in the bunkhouse. She stood so still she thought she would freeze that way, crouched and part-submerged in the water, the hem of her skirt sodden and clinging.
The creature turned its head and stared into her eyes.
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amother
Holly
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Tue, May 23 2023, 7:48 pm
| amother Daphne wrote: | The dragons have ruled the skies of the Middle East since before the times of the Shoftim, when they'd been worshiped as gods by neighboring kingdoms and seen as the mightiest creatures on earth.
As the years built up, so did our understanding of the creatures who lit up the heavens. There have been cultures that waged war upon them, who'd nocked their arrows and shot them high, determined to fell even the greatest of beings. Others would seek to capture them, net them with metal that turns red-hot with dragonflame but never shatters, and would parade them in cages through the streets of capital cities as though to say this? this is nothing compared to the might of man. Humans persist in that innate desire to fight, to defeat, to prove their strength above all else. Humans destroy the magnificent, if only because they can.
In the depths of galus, under the shadow of centuries of pain, the Jewish people develop a very different understanding of the beasts. Once mighty, now sparse and weakened. Once safe when bathed in heaven, now surrounded by enemies on all sides. The dragons, considered by many embattled by Crusades and pogroms, must be preserved.
In the ghettos of Renaissance Italy, a young Jewish girl was the first to reach out to a caged dragon and feel it rest its snout upon her hand. On the beach of the Morocco Mediterranean, a Jewish man brought food to a starving dragon. Dragons flew safely above the cold forests of Poland, finding shelter in the burgeoning shtetlach, and dragons carried secret Jews from Spain to safety in Turkey. Dragons brought messengers with missives to the Jews of Yemen, of Ethiopia, of North America. Every community remained distinct, remained scattered within diaspora, but they, all of them, had laid trembling hands upon the scales of dragons and said the quiet words of Perek Shira.
There are few who needed an additional reason to despise the Jews, but here they had it: Dragonlovers, who would treat something as ferocious and feared as the dragon with respect. As man seeks to exterminate the dragons, so it strikes out at the Jew, until there are just the scarcest fraction of each within the world.
Time passes, and minds change.
The Jews endure, through nothing but Divine intervention. The dragons...
Were there ever truly dragons? wonder some, because there have been no reports in centuries. Scientists hurry to explain the anomalies presented in the past, posit about chemical reactions and large eagles and the slow extinction of pteranodons. Ancient people believed all kinds of stupid things, says Chaim's non-Jewish neighbor. Chaim shrugs and stares at the words of Birchas Habayis in a frame on his wall, surrounded by a pair of lovingly drawn dragons.
On the night of his thirteenth birthday, after the festivities have concluded, Chaim looks up to the skies and sees something large and winged pass over the simcha hall, blotting out the stars for an instant with a breath of orange flame. |
I LOVE THIS
So much subtext and symbolism!!
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imasinger
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Tue, May 23 2023, 9:11 pm
| amother Daphne wrote: | The dragons have ruled the skies of the Middle East since before the times of the Shoftim, when they'd been worshiped as gods by neighboring kingdoms and seen as the mightiest creatures on earth.
As the years built up, so did our understanding of the creatures who lit up the heavens. There have been cultures that waged war upon them, who'd nocked their arrows and shot them high, determined to fell even the greatest of beings. Others would seek to capture them, net them with metal that turns red-hot with dragonflame but never shatters, and would parade them in cages through the streets of capital cities as though to say this? this is nothing compared to the might of man. Humans persist in that innate desire to fight, to defeat, to prove their strength above all else. Humans destroy the magnificent, if only because they can.
In the depths of galus, under the shadow of centuries of pain, the Jewish people develop a very different understanding of the beasts. Once mighty, now sparse and weakened. Once safe when bathed in heaven, now surrounded by enemies on all sides. The dragons, considered by many embattled by Crusades and pogroms, must be preserved.
In the ghettos of Renaissance Italy, a young Jewish girl was the first to reach out to a caged dragon and feel it rest its snout upon her hand. On the beach of the Morocco Mediterranean, a Jewish man brought food to a starving dragon. Dragons flew safely above the cold forests of Poland, finding shelter in the burgeoning shtetlach, and dragons carried secret Jews from Spain to safety in Turkey. Dragons brought messengers with missives to the Jews of Yemen, of Ethiopia, of North America. Every community remained distinct, remained scattered within diaspora, but they, all of them, had laid trembling hands upon the scales of dragons and said the quiet words of Perek Shira.
There are few who needed an additional reason to despise the Jews, but here they had it: Dragonlovers, who would treat something as ferocious and feared as the dragon with respect. As man seeks to exterminate the dragons, so it strikes out at the Jew, until there are just the scarcest fraction of each within the world.
Time passes, and minds change.
The Jews endure, through nothing but Divine intervention. The dragons...
Were there ever truly dragons? wonder some, because there have been no reports in centuries. Scientists hurry to explain the anomalies presented in the past, posit about chemical reactions and large eagles and the slow extinction of pteranodons. Ancient people believed all kinds of stupid things, says Chaim's non-Jewish neighbor. Chaim shrugs and stares at the words of Birchas Habayis in a frame on his wall, surrounded by a pair of lovingly drawn dragons.
On the night of his thirteenth birthday, after the festivities have concluded, Chaim looks up to the skies and sees something large and winged pass over the simcha hall, blotting out the stars for an instant with a breath of orange flame. |
Will you be my friend? I think you're a kindred spirit.
Not to mention, a fine writer.
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ectomorph
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Tue, May 23 2023, 9:34 pm
| amother Daphne wrote: | The dragons have ruled the skies of the Middle East since before the times of the Shoftim, when they'd been worshiped as gods by neighboring kingdoms and seen as the mightiest creatures on earth.
As the years built up, so did our understanding of the creatures who lit up the heavens. There have been cultures that waged war upon them, who'd nocked their arrows and shot them high, determined to fell even the greatest of beings. Others would seek to capture them, net them with metal that turns red-hot with dragonflame but never shatters, and would parade them in cages through the streets of capital cities as though to say this? this is nothing compared to the might of man. Humans persist in that innate desire to fight, to defeat, to prove their strength above all else. Humans destroy the magnificent, if only because they can.
In the depths of galus, under the shadow of centuries of pain, the Jewish people develop a very different understanding of the beasts. Once mighty, now sparse and weakened. Once safe when bathed in heaven, now surrounded by enemies on all sides. The dragons, considered by many embattled by Crusades and pogroms, must be preserved.
In the ghettos of Renaissance Italy, a young Jewish girl was the first to reach out to a caged dragon and feel it rest its snout upon her hand. On the beach of the Morocco Mediterranean, a Jewish man brought food to a starving dragon. Dragons flew safely above the cold forests of Poland, finding shelter in the burgeoning shtetlach, and dragons carried secret Jews from Spain to safety in Turkey. Dragons brought messengers with missives to the Jews of Yemen, of Ethiopia, of North America. Every community remained distinct, remained scattered within diaspora, but they, all of them, had laid trembling hands upon the scales of dragons and said the quiet words of Perek Shira.
There are few who needed an additional reason to despise the Jews, but here they had it: Dragonlovers, who would treat something as ferocious and feared as the dragon with respect. As man seeks to exterminate the dragons, so it strikes out at the Jew, until there are just the scarcest fraction of each within the world.
Time passes, and minds change.
The Jews endure, through nothing but Divine intervention. The dragons...
Were there ever truly dragons? wonder some, because there have been no reports in centuries. Scientists hurry to explain the anomalies presented in the past, posit about chemical reactions and large eagles and the slow extinction of pteranodons. Ancient people believed all kinds of stupid things, says Chaim's non-Jewish neighbor. Chaim shrugs and stares at the words of Birchas Habayis in a frame on his wall, surrounded by a pair of lovingly drawn dragons.
On the night of his thirteenth birthday, after the festivities have concluded, Chaim looks up to the skies and sees something large and winged pass over the simcha hall, blotting out the stars for an instant with a breath of orange flame. |
Great job!
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amother
Amber
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Wed, May 31 2023, 3:27 pm
| amother Daphne wrote: | | The dragons have ruled the skies of the Middle East since before the times of the Shoftim, when they'd been worshiped as gods by neighboring kingdoms and seen as the mightiest creatures on earth. |
Amother Daphne, this is excellent!! I hope you are a published author, I'd love to read more of your work!
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