Welcome to Five Minute Friday!Â
If you’re new here, we offer a weekly blog link-up where we invite writers and bloggers to free write for five minutes flat on a one-word prompt.Â
Click here to learn more about the link-up and how it works.Â
This week’s Five Minute Friday writing prompt is: DISTANT
I chose this writing prompt this week in celebration of the release of Shawn Smucker’s new book, Light from Distant Stars:Â
I’ve had the privilege of meeting Shawn in person a few times, including the opportunity we shared on an author panel at Baker Book House in 2018:Â
Shawn is the real deal. Sincere, genuine, down-to-earth, and a masterful writer. In fact, I just posted this recommendation for writers on Instagram this week:Â
In my humble opinion, @shawnsmucker and @aliajoy are the King and Queen of metaphor. If you’ve read either of these books, you’ll know what I mean. If you haven’t, you’re missing out. I’ll be returning to both of these books throughout my writing life, simply to study the craft. I often recommend books about writing to fellow writers, but I personally more often turn to books that are written exceptionally well, and hope that a little bit of their excellence will somehow rub off on my own work someday. So if you’re looking for a book on how to write, start by studying these two.
ORDER LIGHT FROM DISTANT STARS NOW
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We have the privilege of hearing from Shawn this week in a special edition FMF guest post on the prompt, DISTANT.
Ladies and gentlemen, Shawn Smucker:Â
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Want to hear more from Shawn?
Be sure to catch my video interview with him here from earlier this year:
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Shawn Smucker is the author of the award-winning young adult novel The Day the Angels Fell and its sequel, The Edge of Over There, as well as the memoir Once We Were Strangers. He lives with his wife and six children in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Find him online at www.shawnsmucker.com and on Twitter and Facebook.
Join us with your own five minute free write on the prompt, DISTANT, below:Â
The nights of distant thunder
and the horizon-orange-flashing
bring me back to days of wonder
when the giants were a-clashing.
We could not hear them from the dirt
as they roamed free the skies
but someone was in a world of hurt;
if it’s under Buff, it dies.
Two thousand pounds of tritonal
within each mark one-eighteen
make for good disposal
of folks who won’t come clean.
I kinda miss those simple days
before ROE’s became a maze.
A short glossary –
– Buff is the nickname for the B-52 bomber, standing for Big Ugly Fat…uh, ‘fella’.
– The Mk-118 is the garden-variety 3000-lb bomb, carrying just shy of 2000 lbs of tritonal explosive
– ROE stands for Rules of Engagement, which tend to be used as legal plasticuffs to tie the hands of the guys at the sharp end
My copy of Light from Distant Stars arrived today! I’m so excited to read it.