Newsletter from Flint & Steel

Sparks №36: Did You Vote Yet?

A bi-weekly roundup of Flint & Steel articles and writing prompts across Medium-land

Hey everyone! I’m going to make this editor section short and sweet!

Thank you to the writers who submitted their excellent work in the Two-Part Writing challenge. Charlie Cole, Terry Barr, Kaori Mitsui, Amanda Laughtland, Jennifer Dunne I appreciate you all so much!

Please take some time to vote (thank you to those who have so far!).

Voting ends tomorrow, May 25 at 8am, CST.

The winner will be announced on Thursday, May 26th!

View all the entries here along with the voting form (voting ended at 8am, CST on May 25, 2022):

I hope everyone has an inspiring week and long weekend ahead!

✨ Ellie, editor Flint & Steel

🎉 Featured Writer 🎉

Let’s celebrate Marilyn Flower!

“One day I’d never heard of Medium, and the next day I was hooked, and have been reading, writing, clapping, commenting, stats checking, you name it, on it daily ever since.” — Marilyn Flower

I’m so glad you discovered Medium, Marilyn. Your work is always inspiring and like you, I’m addicted to writing prompts, too.

Watch in the next week’s newsletter for the feature on Terry Barr!

🎉 Will you be the next featured writer?

Read over the guidelines to find out more about being featured.

✨Your Articles ✨

As always, take time to support your F & S writers! Stop by their articles and share your thoughts, claps and highlights.

Those marked with a✨next to their name mean it is an Editor’s Pick!

View all the Editor’s Selections

Responses to Poem on Your Pillow Prompt

Jennifer Pierce wrote,

“Punch drunk happiness laughing a swing and a miss! some fights are bitter but this was pure bliss.”

I love this…a poem for Jennifer’s pillow. Once was and what is.

Your May Focus Articles

Yean Foong (M.Ed.) wrote,

“It is already May, and I am sick of this chaotic life. Let’s focus on things that matter.”

Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles wrote,

“May will be a month of work, time with friends visiting, connecting with yet others to make plans for trips, lots of spring cleaning at home, fitness, reading, writing, and much more.”

✨Dennett wrote,

“I want to be gentle with myself as I grieve the distance between me and “them”, and I want to float into summer, not be pushed like frosting through a pastry bag.”

Sorina Raluca Băbău wrote,

“I want to embrace my vulnerable side and although it’s one of my biggest challenges at the moment, I know it has to be done to allow love to come into my life. And to be able to reciprocate it.”

I related to so much Sorina touched on in her article.

I find myself facing that same type of energy, of the need to open up, feel free to be completely vulnerable with the relationships in my life and online.

Angie Mangino wrote,

“I sincerely want my writing to grow and to find readers, believing that this growth is in my hands.”

✨E. Katherine Kottaras wrote,

“I have learned that, in order to keep my writing life healthy and the flow steady, (whether I am writing for sustenance or not), I have to apply this mindset of experimentation, exploration, delight, and allowance, to my creative life.”

Penny Grubb wrote,

“But here’s the thing. I want to tell you all about MABLE, but if I can’t find time for family, where will I find time to write? Silly question — Ha! You know how it is with writers. There’s always a snatched corner of time for the pen.

Penny, I want a shirt, poster and coffee mug with that line, “There’s always a snatched corner of time for the pen.” And THANK YOU for sharing about Mable; can I be in love too?!?!

All other topics

✨ Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) wrote,

“and for me to grow enough such that if someone else sets a boundary on their energy that I also do not fall apart.”

I struggle with this too, Lucy. It’s such a delicate line of being “hyperindependent” mixed with understanding how important others are in our lives.

Shanice Lawton wrote,

“It was faster for me to pick up the ones that had fallen to the ground. I made sure to only pick up ones that managed to not get a bruise or I’d get a bruise on my butt if mama saw.”

I love stories in small packages, otherwise known as microfiction. Thank you for sharing “Sweet and Tired” with us. I love the last line!

Anne Bonfert wrote,

“This is where I find peace. Between the valley where butterflies are dancing and pink blooming magnificence.”

Are you feeling overwhelmed with what feels like an uncontrollable world around us? Take some time to check out Anne’s stunning photography of the world around her and then go do the same. Take a walk. Breathe the air. Maybe share with us too, if you wish.

and by Anne ✨

“Wherever you go, you’ll find contrasting landscapes, behaviors, and opinions. Which is good. In my eyes, at least. If everyone and everything would be the same, life would be pretty damn boring.”

You will not find anything boring in Anne’s study in contrast, photos taken in her yard. Stunning, as always.

Karen Schwartz wrote,

“Maintaining friendships hasn’t always been easy for me. Becoming close was simple; staying connected, not so much. But I learned later in life, we might not always know where we stand.”

E. Katherine Kottaras wrote,

“he invites the questions: what have you inherited? what have you perpetuated, knowingly or otherwise? what can you transform? where can you love? how can you see more broadly, settle into spaces of comfort, expand your lens of empathy, set compassionate boundaries where they are needed, while also listening and learning and giving space to the pause?”

Excellent prompts for your writing!

and

(Today) Could we close our eyes and breathe into these physical spaces where tensions pull and pain resides? Could we breathe and breathe and breathe and then try and try and try not to think but to feel to invite in and allow for release?

Could we choose to flourish? —

✨ Susan Alison wrote,

“Another ‘new-old’ photo — contrasting a new TV standing on a chest from 1697–21st century technology looking right at home on 17th century workmanship,” in response to Anne Bonfert’s contrast prompt.

Loved Susan’s photos showing the contrasts in life. Go ahead and take a walk today and see what you can find!

Eira Braun-Labossiere 🌻 wrote,

“My sister and I, obsessed with chocolate, would make our own homemade chocolate sauce to encompass large scoops in even larger bowls.”

A warning! Be careful reading Eira’s article, you may not be able to resist ice cream temptations! 😊

The Collection of Flint & Steel Articles

✨ Welcome To Our Newest Writers ✨

Indra Raj Pathak, Ash Moonlight, Jesse M Hawthorne, Denise Darby, Laura Jevtich, Eira Braun-Labossiere 🌻

Calls for Submissions

I welcome writers to share their own freewriting exercises, writing prompts, and writing contest alerts here at Flint and Steel. You can write short-form or long-form posts.

You can find submission guidelines on our Be a Writer page.

✍ Freewriting Friday

In the latest Freewriting Friday post, the focus the stories that stem from snapshots.

📣 Around Medium: Calls for Submissions, Writing Prompts, and Challenges 📣

Check out the previous newsletter for more writing prompts and challenges.

And all our newsletters for even more writing inspiration

Tips

As always, review each publication’s guidelines for their prompts. Many prompts do not have a set deadline.

Make sure when you are responding to a prompt, you credit where your inspiration came from, like a link to the prompt article.

Many of these prompts could fall under nonfiction, poetry, and fiction so don’t limit yourself. There is no right or wrong. Use these prompts as a springboard to your writing.

⌚ = time-sensitive writing prompt!

Trista Signe Ainsworth, with Thank You Notes, posted the latest writing theme, “Do you remember a special afternoon in your life? What did you appreciate about it? We look forward to your poems, essays, and articles about this wonderful topic.”

⌚ Mary Chang Story Writer, with 6 Word Photo Story Challenge, posted the May/June prompt: Nature Art. The last day for submissions is June 30, 2022.

Marilyn Flower, with Middle-Pause, posted their latest prompt asking, “What are you powerless over? And/or when are you at your most powerful? Feel free to explore the paradoxical land of both/and in your life.”

Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), with The Brain is a Noodle, shared their latest #WritingPrompt: unreliable narrator.

Liberty Forrest, Author, with Hope, Healing and Humour, posted their latest theme, “Have you ever played small and hidden your beautiful light? How did it feel to be there? What did it take (or what would it take) to allow you to come out of hiding show everyone all your colours?”

⌚ David Montgomery, with Snapshots, shared their May challenge, “A Story Without Words.”

Sahil Patel, with Lifeline, posted their latest poetry theme of nature, asking “If you were a part of nature, what element would you be? Why? Write a poem inspired by any element of nature?”

Subscribe to the Sparks Newsletter

If you would like to subscribe to the Sparks newsletter, visit the newsletter page. You can also find past newsletters for more writing inspiration.

— Ellie Jacobson, editor

📣 Attention Medium publication editors 📣

Have a writing prompt, challenge, or a call for submission you want included in an upcoming Sparks Newsletter? Feel free to leave a comment in the latest newsletter, email me at [email protected], or tag me in your prompt article and I’ll include the info in the next newsletter. Newsletters go out weekly on Monday.

Please include a link to the article that summarizes the prompt/challenge/call for submission and if there is a deadline. I will link to the article and to your publication in the newsletter. I also tweet the newsletter throughout the week for added exposure.

💖 Thank you to all the Flint & Steel writers 💖

Sahil Patel, Shirley Jones Luke, Samantha Jensen, MA, MAEd, Trista Signe Ainsworth, MIGHTY MISCELLANY, L Burton, Heathere CW, Kaori Mitsui, Penelope Mayfield, Pierce McIntyre, Pene Hodge, Yean Foong (M.Ed.), Elin Melaas, Sarah Minnis, Mindy Morgan Avitia, JM Heatherly, Nikki, Andria Kennedy, pockett dessert, Dennett, Diana Lotti, Ronald C. Flores-Gunkle, Mulan, Amanda Laughtland, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Penny Grubb, Sorina Raluca Babau, Prashansa Chandekar, Will Hull, Ravyne Hawke, Jane Grows Garden Rooms (Jane Frost), Mimi Bordeaux, Adrienne Beaumont, Karen Schwartz, Divina Grey, Sangeetha Shankar, Ellen Andaya, Barb Dalton, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), Beverly Annette Little, Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她), Beverly Annette Little, Aabye-Gayle F., AliciaMarie Belchak | Master Life, Build Dreams, Danielle Hestand, Rick Allen, Jennifer Pierce, Tamil, Amy Rosie, Jennifer McDougall, Susan Poole, Adrienne Parkhurst, Chelsea Marie — Charlie Cole — Katie Michaelson — Sandra B — Buse ermen — E. Katherine Kottaras — Bingz Huang — Winston — Stephanie Stephenson — Marilyn Flower — Kris Bedenian — Kathy K — Nick Stockton — VerityAlways — Makena Darya — Umme Salma — Călina Mureșan — Anne Bonfert — Jennifer Dunne, K-kun Writes!, M Cher, CARMEN F MICSA, Annette Liron, Sam Finlayson, Ian Hanson, LM, Elizabeth Kasujja, Sandi Parsons, Veronica Haunani Fitzhugh, BichoDoMato, Jules Starley, Jordan Richardson, Angie Mangino, Obinna Uruakpa, Shanice Lawton, Barbara Radisavljevic, Gaurav Jain, Terry Barr, Christine Graves, Randy Runtsch, Susan Alison

. . . and our 207 followers! 💖

About the Writer

Ellie is a freelance writer and editor from Minnesota. She is writing her first novel, a psychological suspense novel, while finishing her MFA at SNHU.

Need writing inspiration? Check out Sparks, Ellie’s newsletter filled with Medium writing prompts to spark your creativity.

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✍ Written by Ellie Jacobson, @2022 all rights reserved.