Wednesday's Words on a Friday

 

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over by a moveable feast of participants when Delores had computer troubles. Sadly, Delores has now closed her blog forever due to other problems.

The aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to mind.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please let us know so we can come along to read it and add a few encouraging words.

This month the words/prompts are supplied by David M. Gascoigne and can be found here

This week's words/prompts are: 

1. illustrator 

2. judgement 

3. insignificant 

4. friend 

5. creative 

6. married 

and/or: 

1. myriad 

2. quilt 

3. product 

4. lip-service 

5. assemble 

6. bask

Here is my story: 

As an illustrator of children’s books, Kaylene often sat in judgement of her own work, tweaking this and that, in her quest for perfection. Continuity was the least insignificant part of her work. Children had sharp eyes, and details such as colour and settings must be the same for every page.

The myriad ways to draw a fairytale scene were kept in her creative mind in sections, much like the precut colour blocks of a quilt, and Kaylene drew upon these as necessary, pulling this style and that colour in order to assemble the final drawings. When one of these came together easily, Kaylene would complete the drawing and bask in its beauty.

Her new boss, Charles Ingram “the third” as he kept reminding everyone, didn’t have a clue when it came to the illustrations. He wanted the books, which he called “the product,” completed faster, into the shops faster, to sell faster, he liked seeing his accountant marching in with big smiles each week. Charles paid mere lip-service to Kaylene’s skills and she began to wish for a darker fairy tale to appear so she could take out some of her anger and misery in the drawings.

Stormy skies, dark trees, rocky grounds, wild and surging seas with flashes of lightning as the fairies waged war with their enemies, wielding swords and battleaxes like miniature Vikings, driving back the trolls, reclaiming their sunny lands. Kaylene imagined the colours, deep purples, shadowy blacks, grey rocks, with the golden shields and swords of the fairies slashing at the trolls, who all seemed to have faces just like Charles Ingram “the third.”

Breathing deeply to calm herself, Kaylene decided a coffee break was just what she needed, with a chocolate iced donut too, if there were any left. As she added milk to her coffee, Charles entered the break room and seeing Kaylene, introduced her to “my friend Arthur, and my wife, Christina.” Kaylene gaped briefly, snapped her mouth shut and smiled as she shook hands, then quickly left the room. Charles was married? To an actual woman? Christina had seemed happy, likeable even. Perhaps Charles was a different person at home than he was at work.