Here we are, the third Friday of the month, time once again to meet a blogger who prompts others to write. Denise Farley is the current helmsman for the Six Sentence Story ship, a fun prompt that I have participated off and on with for about two years. It is my pleasure to present Denise here.

Denise, how d’ya do?

Hey, D. Avery. Thank you for having me at your blog today and hello everyone! My name is Denise Farley author at, creator of, GirlieOnTheEdge. Originally from Rhode Island, I presently live in Northern VA, in the D.C. metro area. Despite its name, the Edge is a laid-back place, housing an eclectic mix of posts, music, and musings. Search back through the archives and you’ll see there’s a little bit of everything. I’m huge into music so there’s no lack of music videos. It’s also the weekly meetup spot…

Do you have a burning need to write? What lights your fire? Are you inflamed by writing prompts?

Recently I started an interview series here at my blog to show my appreciation for bloggers that offer writing prompts to those of us who might need that spark of inspiration. Thinking about prompts led me to thinking about the fire triangle.

The three elements of fire used to get taught in school; apparently it has been upgraded to the fire tetrahedron so that the inherent chemical chain reaction is represented along with oxygen, fuel, and heat. But I digress, probably because this is unprompted and there are no word count restraints.

Recall that the presence of these three elements sustains the reaction that is fire. Fuel is the combustible material, sufficient heat raises the material to its ignition temperature, and oxygen sustains the combustion. Fire.

We all have fuel to…

Welcome to the first ever interview in the new How D’Ya Do blogger interview series!

I am pleased to introduce Freya Pickard to you as my first interviewee in what I hope is a continuing series, to be posted the first Friday of every month. My intent is to feature bloggers who regularly host prompts and challenges for the rest of us prompt challenged writers. I have plenty of people in mind for this but if you are interested and maybe have a particular time that you would like to be featured, feel free to contact me. Expect the questions to be similar but not exactly like Freya’s as I would tailor them according to what I already know or what I would like to know.

Without further ado, Freya Pickard, how d’ya do?

I am Freya Pickard and I blog at https://purehaiku.wordpress.com and at https://dragonscaleclippings.wordpress.com

You can also find…

Come by ShiftnShake this Friday (12:01 A.M. EST) to read the first ever interview in the new How D’Ya Do blogger interview series!

If you are a blogger who regularly hosts prompts and challenges for the rest of us prompt challenged writers, feel free to contact me to schedule your interview. Otherwise I will start knocking on your doors, in no particular order. I am encouraged that Freya Pickard did not shut the door on me and has agreed to take part in my inaugural interview.

Come by to see Freya this Friday.

It’s funny because it’s true. If you agree it’s because you know.

If we were to talk about the elephant on the page, what color would it be? The funny truth so succinctly portrayed is that writing is a consuming obsession.

The man in the picture may have at least two obsessions, two powerful habits that impact his life and perhaps those around him, but why is it that only one of them is generally acknowledged as a bad habit? Only one of his habits has a tried and true twelve-step program that has been adapted and adopted by other quitters of other bad habits and depravities. Yes, he can find support and counseling for his addiction to alcohol and even his compulsive gambling. But his compulsive writing? All bets are off.

His inclination, (he might say destiny) is to seek other writers, (some might say enablers). Unlike the group…

On the left is the gift that keeps on giving.   (On the right is a freeloader)

I started this blog almost two years ago simply as a place to post the flash fiction and occasional poetry written in response to prompts at other sites. ShiftnShake is a place of literary art. I write, but not my thoughts or feelings or what I had for lunch. I don’t post cat pictures. So what’s this?

No, that’s not a cat picture. It’s a picture of my sourdough starter that’s next to a cat. That sourdough starter is the other organism that lives in my household now, one that last weekend competed for my time and attention with the characters in my head who wanted me to write; it won. Or maybe it wasn’t a competition, but complementary parallel play. Maybe, like some of my insistent and chatty characters, that glob of dough…

By D. Avery

Their colors are those of Tibetan prayer flags, but these squares are not yet whispering in the wind. An unassuming plastic wrapped cube; they appear to be ordinary post-it notes. These are not ordinary post-it notes to be used for mundane purposes. This five-colored cube is composed of post-it notes destined for a special purpose. They will remain in their pristine packaging, neat and orderly until I’m ready to apply them to their designated task. For now I am inspired by their contained order while the story they will eventually help shape and organize swirls free-form in my head.

Ha! I happened to notice the word count (opening paragraph) — exactly 99 words. That’s seriously funny. And if there had been a prompt with “prayer” or “flag” or “post-it” those 99 words would suffice, no more, no less. 99 words come more easily since my early days…

D. Avery has a new release just in time for Christmas… A short story collection Ever After: Little Stories for Grown Children.

About After Ever

Big stories come in small packages. Told with the sure-footed brevity of fairy tales, After Ever is a collection of stories that explore dark depths and uncertain endings, flash fiction that often leaves room for interpretation and speculation. These are stories in which the grim tragedies of life befall characters of all ages. There are no happily ever after fairy tale endings, but there are flashes of resilience and hope. The heroes of these short stories are ordinary people who recognize the mystery, beauty, and small wonders contained in their ordinary lives.

Sample and savor each story individually or as a banquet of offerings both dark and light, tales of lives tragic and magical.

What the early readers are saying;

An interesting and eclectic…

The book is out.

That is, a book is out, my latest, and my first public display of fiction. My struggles with publishing this collection have been as much with myself as with formatting and editing. I won the struggle, but not easily.

Earlier I wrote about vacillating between “pride and paranoia, delight and dread”. The self-questioning continued when a friend asked me what it was I wanted from publishing. I didn’t have a ready answer. Other friends were encouraging and reminded me that my words had “a right to breathe and populate the page”. Agreed, but why publish, why make my words public when I treasure my privacy? Is publishing an act of bravery or of vanity? Maybe it is more an issue of identity.

Because I am private and respect the privacy of those I serve, I haven’t posted much about being a teacher. That word, Teacher…