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art, community, delusions, hallucinations, landscape, mountains, photography, poetry, stories, survival, weekly writing exercise, writing
I urge people to join in, comment with your paragraph of fiction to accompany the image. It doesn’t have to follow my story or reflect the same themes. It can be a poem or in a different language (provide a translation please 
). Anyone who wants to join in, is welcome. This photograph will be reblogged under Ermisenda on tumblr and added to the Picture it & Write gallery on Facebook and Pinterest.
Please continue to write however you’re inspired, but add a tag to the beginning of your post if there’s mature content in order to keep Picture it & Write an engaging event for all of our followers.
Floris Van Cauwelaert
I trudged through the snow with my eyes closed. Whenever I’d open them, even the slightest, my retina’s burned with the explosion of light around me. My throat itched with thirst, my feet were raw inside my dirty shoes, and I hobbled with the weight of my rucksack on my aching back.
“Hold up,” I croaked. I was sure the man in front of me hadn’t heard me. I prepared myself to speak again but he turned.
“We’ve been walking for hours,” I began, hoarse. Swinging my arm around to gesture to the crystal landscape around us, I fell. I hadn’t realised just how weak I was.
“We have arrived.” I heard the man speak. I lifted my head out of the snow which scratched my face like glass. He was no longer there. As if a ghost, he had disappeared.
Suddenly, the ground trembled.
– Ermisenda Alvarez
Everyone is welcome to use the button, just link them back to the Picture it & write category or Ermiliablog! Share your love for Picture it & write on your blog with the image below. Be proud, and stylish 
!
The snow was so frozen like a sheet of ice
Wind was so frigid on my skin it did slice
Imagined the snow was sand on a hot desert
Tried to over power the cold but it did not avert
Just over the edge of a dark tundra morn
I knew that I had to let my senses be reborn
Too hot or too cold, in the end it’s academic. Both will kill.
Good post!
Loved the imagery of ‘wind was so frigid on my skin it did slice’. Yikes! That’s cold. Thanks for contributing this week, Tina. 🙂
I like that rebirth of senses. I was outside in -24 °C for a couple of minutes once. I definitely felt like my senses had died.
Love that last verse, nicely done
We must have been trudging for days across the sand. It seemed like forever and although the sun was a blazing white hot, we dare not lose any of our belongings. The desert is a cold bedplace.
But today was different. We could see smoke rising from behind the dunes. Strange how in such a hot, dry place, smoke, that indicator of something even hotter and more hellish, could be a vision of hope. How odd to be parched, cracked, burned and to run toward fire for salvation…
– the wifey
I’m glad someone else saw it as sand!
When I saw it, I wasn’t sure if it was ice/snow or sand. I was more inspired by the snow but I loved your desert interpretation! 😀 Love how you described ‘something even hotter and more hellish, could be a vision of hope.’ Thanks for contributing this week!
And of course it’s not about what the picture is, but what it inspires. Great observation, and then how devastating would it be if the smoke turns out to be merely a mirage?
Here is mine for this weekend!! 🙂
http://gotmeghan.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/picture-it-write-over-the-mountains-and-far-away/
Oh, I’m a real sucker for a hot soup during cold times. There’s nothing like it! A lovely story, Meghan. Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write. 🙂
Pah, who cares? Let them go, let them walk away from me! Titan would make them pay. The harsh reality of this moon would end their dreams. They can walk for days, they can walk for years, but they will never find their way off this damned rock. I tried. I shook my fists at Saturn. I yelled at the sky at night. No reply. No saving grace. No ship to lift me off this god forsaken rock.
A terrifying thought. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to be the last one standing on a faraway world.
I wonder how long you could survive. What a terrible way to die. You did great to communicate the anguish and loneliness ‘No reply. No saving grace. No ship…’ Thanks for contributing this week, Lee-Anne! 🙂
Amazing how a spot on Earth can look so out of this world!
Wow, I love the attitude you wrote this, it seems like you’ve truly captured the bitterness of the forsaken person. Great work!
Both a sad and scary sense of isolation you’ve created here and you really feel character’s bitter anger and frustration. Really nice!
Ours (written by teammate Wanda this time) is a continuation of an ongoing adventure.
http://undeadinthenetherworld.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-frozen-wastes.html
We truly enjoy these prompts!
So glad you enjoy the prompts! 🙂
It was different but I liked the touch of linking the readers with the information about the Leng Spiders. It gives us that extra juicy detail if we’d like to investigate further. Also really enjoyed the conversational voice of the ghost. Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write! 🙂
http://terry1954.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/_picture-it-write-ermilia/
You did a great job at emphasising the need and want to ‘call out’ and to be listened. Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write, Terry. 🙂
thank you so much Ermilia. I always love your comments, advice and knowing I have someone so talented as you reading my post!
Pingback: Picture it and Write: Icy hot | Hot chocolate and books
This is mine! http://hotchocolateandbooks.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/picture-it-and-write-icy-hot/
What a twist. It was terrifying when they took her. It’s a cruel world out there! I really liked this sentence, ‘Many a man had gone insane, the echoes of their screams return in mocking jeers.’ Eerie. Lovely story! Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write. 🙂
Hey, this is my contribution for the great photo:
http://hidingbehindbooks.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/my-mountains-are-answering-picture-it-and-write/
An interesting use of punctuation and the italics. I like how there was always the presence of a ‘second voice’ or something close to it. The poem starts with it being rather hesitant, there are plenty of question marks as if it doubts what has just been said. And then the poem ends with quite a determined cheer. Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write! 🙂
Nice photo! Here’s my bit of oddness: http://starvingactivist.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/picture-it-write-23-june-2013-landing/
I loved that you talked about how the landscape was SO bright that it would leave the travellers blind, or that they feared that it would happen. Fascinating. Especially since in our culture and media we often associate brightness with good things. We seem to fear a total lack of light, and yet it’s really about the EXTREMES. With everything so bright, you can’t see either. A great little survivor (hopefully they survived!) tale. Thanks for contributing this week at Picture it & write, Starving Activist! 🙂
Pingback: Picture it and Write: Prepared | Joe2stories
Here’s my offering for this week
http://joe2stories.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/picture-it-and-write-prepared/
Enjoy
Oh, the horror! Such a dark twist to the story. Loved it! 😀 It coincides with my (Ermisenda) recent post about the carnivorous island in the story Life of Pi. Great story, Joe, I didn’t see that end coming. Thanks for contributing. 🙂
This incredibly beautiful photo is from Harvard Glacier in Alaska. Researching it a little, I got to watch something (new for me) called calving, which is amazing. Huge walls of ice break off into the sea creating giant waves, myriads of avalanches the size of skyscrapers, and of course icebergs. I imagine, if you were standing above (don’t try this at home), the ground would be trembling something fierce! I like that you captured the snow blindness too. I doubt you could look through the lens at this without a filter.
And of course as soon as I say Alaska, my mind’s off to Nepal instead! Here’s Meh-Teh.
Thanks for the background info, Annie. I’ve always wanted to visit a glacier. I think I should add this one on my traveling bucket list. 😀
This was great! I really enjoyed the Yeti tale. Oh, scientists. Of course he wouldn’t be able to NOT take a photograph but it’s true. Only harm would come to such a species. Damn human curiosity! Why can’t we just leave animals alone without having to prod them? Loved this line – ‘Bits of saliva sprayed from its mouth, freezing in mid-air and tinkling off of Jake’s face mask like a tiny hailstorm.’ Thanks for contributing this week, Anne! 🙂
If you’ve never seen glacier calving before, it’s worth the few minutes to catch it on YouTube once. I was really impressed!
It’s impressive but oh so depressing too. The fact that the glaciers are falling apart so rapidly in those videos is NOT a good sign for our earth. 😦
I flunked physics, so I can’t say what causes the increase in glacial decline. I’m pretty sure the Earth is gonna be fine though and it we who are in jeopardy!
I hope this is not too late. I wanted to give it another try.
http://glynisrankin.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/lady-liberty/
Never too late 🙂 You’re welcome to go through the archives and post to any of the old ones. Anything from 2013 qualifies for the 2014 Picture it & Write publication should you be interested.
Thank you for your kind offer.
I will go through them and see what my muse has to say. 🙂
Thought when I saw this weeks picture that I was going to write some sort of epic scene, but turned out instead to be an epic battle to actually write anything at all!
Here’s my contribution this week… http://101keystapping.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/picture-it-write-contribution-sand-storm/
Oh and yes I know the pic is actually of snow but for some reason my mind just saw sand instead! 🙂
I thought this was a GREAT character snippet. It definitely slots into a greater, bigger story. It’s funny how as writers we often have a great plan for our characters (kinda like parents with kids) and then they go on and screw it up! 😛 It was a fantastic story though. Loved this description, ‘above the howling, sand infested wind.’ You captured the anguish and terror of the survivors on this island. Thanks for contributing this week to Picture it & write. 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it 😀 Totally agree with your analogy of a writer being like a parent to their characters. I still find it amazing how a fictional person I created won’t always do do what I want them to do. Its very surreal, haha
It’s been a VERY long time since I posted on here. This picture immediately made me think of Las Vegas, where I currently live. Below is the link to my contribution 🙂
http://heartsmirage.com/desert/
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your articles as long as I provide credit and sources back to your website? My blog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would truly benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thanks!
What is the link to your blog, Danelle?
You really make it appear so easy along with your presentation however I
to find this topic to be actually one thing which I think I’d never understand.
It kind of feels too complex and extremely vast for me.
I am having a look ahead on your next publish, I will try to get the dangle of
it!
Highly descriptive blog, I liked that bit. Will there be a part
2?