I a local writers group they often share prompts and when I can I like to have a go at writing whatever it sparks for ten minutes maximum. Today's spark was to write either a poem or piece of flash fiction or observation that included something that was fractured or broken in some way. If you feel you'd like to have a go at the ten minute prompt too, feel free! If you'd like to share I'd love to read how you interpret it. Remember, no editing, just see where the writing takes you, it may be a surprise! This is what I came up with. I think I'll be using the character to develop a longer short story in the future. I keep a Google Doc of all my pieces inspired by prompts which I turn to for inspiration when The Muse has a day off... "There’s a fracture across the glass in the hand mirror, I see it as I turn it over on its dressing table stiff cotton mat. Dust rising as I do so. How had I not noticed it before? But then why would I even remember, it’s been thirteen years since I last sat on this pink velour topped stool before I needed to be cared for. I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye. The spider is evidently disturbed by my arrival into what has become her domaine, where once it was mine. I look into the mirror and see the fractured glass break my own face into even more fractious angles than it already is. Time and pain has left me riven with deep lines and furrows. I close my eyes and make a wish, just one more image of who I used to be with you, I ask. Opening them again, the cracked glass is unbroken and the smooth face of the young women - freshly joined up to the RAF in 1940 - smiles back at me. I smile too now, comforted that when the time comes she’ll be waiting to guide me home."

For paperbacks. How do you take note of the page you are reading when you have to put a book down? Bookmarks - if so what do you use, or do you turn down the page corner, or leave the book open face down?

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