Do you have an appreciation of language and like to dabble with the written word? Perhaps you may be interested in writing stories of your life, capturing memories for your children and grandchildren to read. Do you have interesting travel tales to tell or a budding novel or memoir you’d like to develop? Then, the Writing Guild may just be the club for you. Explore your creativity at our monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m. in the La Vista Room of La Hacienda Club. Members are encouraged to read their stories aloud to the group each month. If you feel unsure of a topic to write about and need inspiration, then the group is given a prompt word that can be used to stir your creative juices (see the following excerpt). In addition to the readings, the group will conduct research on various writing topics and fun activities to help improve your writing. For more information, contact Kathie Marshall at [email protected].
The Blue Room
It was a blue room. Not powder blue, not a soft shade of aqua blue, but a big, bold ‘in your face’ royal blue. This blue room was no girly refuge, by any stretch of the imagination. It was upstairs, and Hannah shared this blue room with her middle sister and, often, the sisters marveled at how the room was haunted. They never determined if it was cursed by unknown ghosts of the past or by their own childhood fears. The room had twin beds shoved against opposing walls. On Hannah’s side there was a window that overlooked the neighborhood yards and Rowland Ave., the street where their house faced. On winter nights Hannah loved looking out the window with the arc of the streetlights making a halo on the freshly fallen snow. Down below, the street was deserted and peaceful, but that was the extent of her peace, because across from the foot of her bed was the closet of demons. By day, it was merely a cluttered and overstuffed closet. However, by night, if the door was left ajar, there were strange shadows, ghostly apparitions, and devils dancing in the dark that was the stuff of nightmares for the young girls.
On summer nights when Hannah was very small, she was frightened by a terrifying sound that wafted through the window screens. It was a noise she could not identify. It was a long, haunting whistle accompanied by a thundering sound. Later, it was this memory that became one of the most beloved remembrances of her father. You see, the sound that alarmed Hannah so was nothing more than the forlorn whistle of the trains that rumbled across the tracks close to her home. After so much nighttime angst, their father had a solution. One afternoon, he took Hannah to the train station, and she spent the day on a bench nestled in her father’s arms, watching the trains coming in and out, until her terror became an actual delight, and the train rhythms forever a source of comfort.
—Excerpt from The Blue Room by Kathie Marshall inspired by the prompt “Childhood Room.”