Short Stories

The House…

Out of habit, Miranda, glanced at the vacant house as she walked past.

She was always willing to tell the story of the house and it’s former inhabitants to anyone, of course without missing her highlighted moments of local fame as a witness to a highly publicized grizzly incident.

This is where she grew up and lived all her life. She knew the late Jones’s. Houses in the neighbourhood were close to each other, that everyone knew the other’s business and each wall had an ear listening to it.

She remembered that night when she overheard Jack’s gruff voice as he shouted ‘over my dead body Sue!’

It was nothing new to hear him make such declarations. The Simpsons loved hard, played hard and fought even harder. Their strange shenanigans were noisy enough to give the neighbours a clue.

Tilley, the beautiful Mrs. Jones went missing, her body parts found in different parts of town. The strange thing was that Jack was found with a slit throat and missing ears. The murderer is still at large.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

InLinkz

Thank you, to Priceless Joy for hosting this charming platform where we unleash our stories and Yinglan for providing an innocent photo that brought out my dark side 😉


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Mundane Monday

Look out for the light – Mundane Monday

Mundane Monday Challenge is created to find beauty in almost everything.

The challenge is simple. Find beauty in everyday mundane things, capture the beauty and upload the photographs.

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I stood under the street lamp with three bulbs watching the World go by and probably wouldn’t have paid much mind to it except when one of the bulbs started blinking and sizzling, now that caught my interest. I wonder what spooked the light 😉


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Blog

WHY I CHOSE WP ENGINE. GRAB SUPER COOL HACK FOR DEEP DISCOUNTS

WP Engine, Web Hosting, Web Solutions,Customer Service, Discounts, Hacks, Migration, Site Set Up, Support, Security, Backups, Plugins, Fast Responsive site

Let’s talk about WP Engine 

You have been contemplating starting a blog or moving from managed hosting to self-hosting, but with the plethora of web hosting services out there, you are still debating your choices.

If you are like me you probably spend days, weeks, and months thinking, comparing notes and analyzing the different set-ups that are out there, that you probably end up cross-eyed and confused from reading so many articles on competing services.

Yes, it’s important to do your research, but at times, over-thinking a process could kill enthusiasm and inspiration. I nosed around a bit, read as many articles as my brain cells could accommodate, asked questions from users about their experience with the different services before I made my decision.

A Brief Outline of Things to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider

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Featured Blogs

Featured Posts – Share Your Post Links

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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Do step in and show some love.

Tabs Theatre Thoughts Introducing a new blog friend. Please check it out. Thank you

Midweek Music Some cute meme’s that’ll make you smile and good music to hum 🙂

My six-year-old self Quite an interesting poem. Never thought about this and I probably will now that the idea has latched on. What would you tell your 6-year-old self?

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.

Thank you for your understanding and regards.

‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.


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Guest Posts

Bernadette is a friend to have in this place. She’s a lovely, smart, warm and totally inspiring woman.

I follow a lot of bloggers and interact with most of them as often as I can, but in this blogging journey, there are some people who you connect with and you see the beauty of their soul shine through their work. I read Bernadette’s posts every week and I never leave empty handed.

Her thoughts are enriching and uplifting. She’s supportive of her blog friends and to take it further, she and I (with other volunteers) are starting off ‘Writers Quote Series,’ this November.

Bernadette is a friend to have if you are not following her already. Please check out Haddon’s Musings, join the 52 weeks of thankfulness series or the senior salon 🙂

Thank you, my lady, for granting this interview. I appreciate you and wish you all the best in getting that publication done.

Hello, my name is Bernadette and I blog at www.HaddonMusings.com. Jacqueline has very kindly invited me for this interview.bernadette

My entire marriage my husband has told me I was a writer and encouraged me to sit down and take out the pen and put it to paper. I always demurred and explained to him and there are readers and there are writers and being an avid reader does not make a person a writer. But then about four years ago during my morning walk, I started to feel a need to express my appreciation for all the beauty my small village holds.

So I started to write about Haddonfield and its citizens. Hence the name HaddonMusings. Surprisingly, I became confident in my writing and was fascinated by the fact that anyone would possibly be interested in my scribbles. As I started to meet these fascinating bloggers from all over the world, my blog became wider in scope.

One of the outcomes of meeting so many people was I became curious about how many bloggers were of my generation. I wanted to see and read about their creative journey during the aging process. So, I actively sought out people over the age of 50 and formed a regular column called the Senior Salon.

At the Salon, I have been able to form a warm community of people who are doing many different and fascinatingly creative things during these bonus years. It has been my great pleasure to watch them interact with each other and form new relationships.

Three years ago my granddaughter was born and this led to a rekindling of my feminist ideals. I want her to know about the true strength of being a feminist. I want her to know that a woman can be whatever she wants and she doesn’t have to be strident or dislike men in order to do that. So, I started writing my regular feature called Feminist Friday. I have really enjoyed doing the research for these columns and I have been gratified by the number of woman of every age from all over the world that have supported this project.

This year I started writing another regular feature called 52 Weeks of Thankfulness. I am writing this in response to all the negativity and acrimony that I am encountering on a daily basis in my country. My hope is by refocusing attention to the good in the world, I can help eradicate the rampant negativity.

Jacqueline asks how I keep myself motivated. My motivation comes from reading so many other fabulous blogs and wondering if I can, as a writer, achieve the same quality of writing.

My Muse – Haddonfield

Jacqueline wanted me to share my most challenging moment during this blogging journey. I know that my biggest challenges when I started blogging was learning the etiquette of blogging. I had two very nasty encounters with long-time bloggers’ due to the fact that I didn’t understand the etiquette of this format. If you are just starting out, I would strongly suggest learning those rules quickly.

And yes, Jacqueline, I would very much encourage others to blog. Circling back to the Senior Salon, I think that blogging is a splendid creative outlet and as we age it become more and more important to find new creative enterprises in which to participate. Creativity is important for the mind and the spirit.

Jacqueline asks what is my next goal in blogging and I would say that I have a great desire to publish an online journal featuring the work of my peer group. From the research that I have done so far, the last time a journal featuring the creativity of the senior population was printed was back in the late 1960’s. It seems to me that such a publication is long overdue for resurrection.

Thank you, Jacqueline, for this opportunity.


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Guest Posts

Sublime Scars – From Kavita Chavda

Displaying sublime scars.jpg

She loved moonlight, raindrops and

the beauty of nature around the fields of crops

and as other things that have soul

because she often feels the universe’s call.

All her scars shined bright in the moonlight

when universe asked about her ugly scars.

The things she could not reveal

to anybody but herself

because she bleeds in colours

that this world does not understand.

They said, understand soul?

Soul with ugly scars?

She said it’s the

soul that reveals love.

Soul that reveals purity.

After the years of pleading,

purity of the soul finally shined

under the moonlight

with love shred like raindrops.

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I am Kavita Chavda from India. I am an Introvert at heart, a writer by passion, an engineer by profession, a philosopher, a counselor, a dreamer and an over-thinker. I love relationships at soul-level. Writing is my passion and I talk my heart out through writing. According to me, words are the greatest invention of mankind! They create magic. They make us relive moments. They take us to places we’ve never been.

My blog ‘Playing with Words’ is all about these enchanting words that in some or the other way relates to all of our lives.

You can connect with me on my blog WriteKavita


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Uncategorized

It’s A Blog-O-Ween! Let’s Party!

What are you waiting for? Join the Blog-O-Ween party.

jacquelineobyikocha's avatara cooking pot and twisted tales

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Welcome to my house. I’ll try hard not to terrify you to death 😉

We’ve got Black Magic, Bloody Mary ,Skulls and Bone, Flesh Juice, Crushed Bones, Pickled Veins, Marrow Worms, Boggle The Eyes’ Scary pumpkins etc, etc, Just talk to the ghoul in the house and choose your poison.

Let’s meet & mingle, shake a leg & jingle, connect & interact with other awesome folks in here.

If this is your first-time visit, the house rules of play are outlined below, if you are an old-timer, you know the drill.

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Just some little party rules:

  1. You must mix and mingle with others. Don’t be a wallflower. Go say hello to someone and you can participate in the Tag a poem, a thought or quote below.
  2. Let us know where you are blogging from.
  3.  Please leave your blog link or post link in the comment box below along with introductions.

View original post 230 more words

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

What stays in? Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

I am half-awake, floating in and out of sleepiness with random streams of thoughts parading in and out of my mind in a sporadic fashion. My mind is besieged by many things outlined on my to-do list and I make a mental note to look at each with more perceptive eyes.

What stays in and what gets weeded out or shoved to the bottom of the list?

Arrgh! I feel like opening up the lid of my thoughts to let out some steam and to let in some fresh relief. 24 hours seem not enough these days – once the Sun comes out, the day races past and before you can say Jumping Jimminikins – it’s night time.

I read somewhere that sometimes you should find a spare space where you can scream at nothing and no one, but just to let the pent up emotions out. I think that should be fun.

Now back to my rambling thoughts, work on fresh posts for my new site, write my SoCS, curate photos for the gallery that I’m setting up, cook some porridge beans, socialize a bit online, listen to the news with half an ear, fill out some affiliate forms online, go for grocery shopping, write a chapter in my book, ……endless blah, blah, blah

Nothing that I can chuck out for now, apparently everything stays in.

Oh well, let me go and say hello to my guests at my Blog-O-Ween party. Are you stepping into my party? Come and check it out 🙂

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Linda gave us the prompt of in/out for today’s SoCS and all I could think of are the thoughts dancing in and out of my head. You could join SoCS.


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Blog-hopping · Online Blog Party

It’s A Blog-O-Ween! Let’s Party!

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Welcome to my house. I’ll try hard not to terrify you to death 😉

We’ve got Black Magic, Bloody Mary ,Skulls and Bone, Flesh Juice, Crushed Bones, Pickled Veins, Marrow Worms, Boggle The Eyes’ Scary pumpkins etc, etc, Just talk to the ghoul in the house and choose your poison.

Let’s meet & mingle, shake a leg & jingle, connect & interact with other awesome folks in here.

If this is your first-time visit, the house rules of play are outlined below, if you are an old-timer, you know the drill.

picsart_10-29-01-32-081

Just some little party rules:

  1. You must mix and mingle with others. Don’t be a wallflower. Go say hello to someone and you can participate in the Tag a poem, a thought or quote below.
  2. Let us know where you are blogging from.
  3.  Please leave your blog link or post link in the comment box below along with introductions.
  4. It’s one link per comment, but come back as often as you’d like, that way it’s easier to focus on a link at a time for others.
  5. Please reblog, spread the word of the party like butter, or like, share on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, etc. Tell your family, friends,  blogging neighbours, even your blogging pets.
  6. Have fun, it’s a great way to find bloggers and have them find you.
  7. Please show some love. Reblog this post. It helps all of us! The more people that see and participate in it, the more potential new follows! So, share and share voraciously!

Thank you for coming to my party and supporting my blog. Have a great weekend You rock.

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Tag along a poem

The Bats From Hell and the headless man with an axe

descended on him with bloodcurdling screeches.

He tried to run, but his feet could barely move

terrified and rooted to the spot, he waited for the axe to fall

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Do You Remember?

I’m sure you remember Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller.’ That music scared the heck out of me. What about you?

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Spot The Difference

Image result for halloween spot the difference

What would you like to drink?

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We’ve got some creepy crawlies on offer.

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Say Hello to Mr. Party Bouncer

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Lest I forget, have you been to my new site? You can check it out and let me know what you think. Thank you.

The Daily Post

Transmo What?

For the life of me, Transmogrify is certainly not a word that features in my everyday English so it was a little bit challenging to find photos that would fit into the description “to change in appearance or form, especially strangely or grotesquely; transform.”

Anyway, yours faithfully doesn’t believe in throwing in the towel so easily, so here I am with my offerings.