EKPHRASTIC EXPRESSION & END OF MONTH ROUND-UP

Boo! Argh!

We might be going a little bat-crazy

Raine’s Bat Cave. Illustration by Raine Lore © 2023

Fiction

I love Halloween, although I’m not a great participator — these days.

There was a time when I bought loads of cheap, rubbishy lollies, bunged them in a big plastic pumpkin, donned my moth-eaten witch costume and waited excitedly for some visitors.

Until last year when it all changed!

My doorbell bing-bonged steadily, inciting me and my pumpkin to respond; me excited to see the costumes and dish out rubbish to the neighbourhood youngsters. I don’t know how Pumpkin felt about it.

At six pm, the young un’s came, cute as buttons in their ghost and witch costumes, “twick and tweating”.

“Say thanks to the nice witch,” prompted the accompanying adult, already trying to surreptitiously divert my gifts into a garbage bag.

A few little noses wrinkled at the prospect of a handful of rubbery dollar-shop candies but they muttered phrases of gratitude, then ran excitedly down my pathway.

Hopefully, the old girl next door would be more lucrative.

“You look so cute!” I called after them in an attempt to salve their bitter disappointment.

One little monster turned and secretly offered me an extended middle finger.

I figured he was practising being monster-ish.

With nightfall, the bigger kids started arriving. The ones with attitude; happy to grab free loot but too old to graciously dress in “stupid costumes for stupid Halloween”. But dress they did, with fangs, blood running down their noses and axes sticking out of foreheads.

“Trick or treat, hag?” mumbled the gang leader.

I grimaced at the misfit little collection of ghouls, and emptied the contents of Pumpkin into Leader’s large shopping bag.

He glanced at the spoils and turned to his friends.

“It’s a trick!” he announced sullenly.

“Hooray!” chorused the replies as rotten eggs and loo paper were thrust at my garage door.

“I don’t suppose chocolate would fix the problem?” I asked tentatively.

“Got any Tequila?” queried my nemesis. 👻🎃🦇

Not Fiction 😊🙋🏻‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️

Hi everybody, it’s end of month again and many of us are involved in some sort of Halloween celebration. Jaylee and I hope you all have a spooky time and enjoy the events of the creepy season.

You may have noticed that my story was quite short this time and therein lies a segue to some announcements for The RvR.

Jaylee and I have decided to ask our wonderful writers to limit their submissions to 300 words or less. We don’t want to be rigid about this request. Headings, photo attributions, a quick explanation and/or tagging of other stories at the bottom of your work will not be counted. We will not be slashing a handful of words if you just happen to stray a little over the word count for the sake of story integrity.

We love our writers and to honour the time and effort you are all putting into your submissions for The RvR we are, at least temporarily, closing the door to further requests for authorship.

We have just a few further requests.

Please keep your content politics-free and religion-free. There is so much going on in the world right now that we want to revert to our original idea for the pub, that is to call for articles and stories that bring joy, laughter, happiness and escape from the direness that is spreading throughout the globe. We appreciate that it is important to discuss these issues but there are plenty of publications happy to accept like submissions. Just not here at The RvR.

So, how about gifting us with uplifting stories and poetry of nature play, life, love, and humorous anecdotes, awesome photographs, and fun drawings. Please help us to keep shining our light into the troubled world.

Why are we making the changes?

Both Jaylee and I feel the need to step back just a little and devote some time to our ongoing projects. Please understand that we love our little community and are very keen to keep supporting you all and sharing your amazing work. We just want to pop back into our caves a tiny bit and reconnect with our personal creative muses.

Jaylee’s Bat Cave. Gif by Jaylee Reign © 2023🌿დ

October’s Awesome Contributions:

Our Playful Prompt Responses

John Hansen The Snowman Who Gave May More 💜 Tales Fuzzy Felt Fun: No Pigs Available Patricia Jeanne Disastrous Pairings of Disney Movies & Characters

Our Other Valued Contributions

Randall Snyder The Worldwide Society of the Profoundly Gullible Patricia Jeanne Lizzie Goes to the Hospital and Loses Her Glasses and Freedom David Rudder Colours Brighten

Thanks for reading and being a huge part of our caring, creative community. We love and appreciate you all.

Raine 💙💦& Jaylee·˚🌷დ