Week 9 Wrap-Up

Confession.

I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I wrote last week's prompt. I think I had some notion of genies or evil fairy creatures being shoved into perfume bottles and sold as novelty gifts by small children on the side of the road in Tijuana . . . (hello my name is Jennifer and yeah, my mind goes there) . . . or stories about someone who keeps ending up in the emergency room with bottles stuck to bodily appendages because they have an addiction to some kind of new age massage therapy involving bottles. I also spent some time contemplating the Bonsai Kitten Hoax. Of course, Trisha reminded me that the prompt could easily be interpreted as beyond the confines of PG-13, and yeah, my mind went there too.

So if you spent some (or all) of last week looking for hard objects to bang your head on, I'm very, very sorry. (Note: No, that is not usually* how I get my ideas.)

Anyway.

Last week's prompt was:

"Why would you keep doing that? Of all the things you would stick in a bottle . . ."

• Trisha gave us our Friday Feature about a very tiny woman trapped in a very transparent hell.
• Jes, one of our newest members, was our Saturday Feature. Her story not only made impressive use of the word 'recondite,' but highlighted some considerable world building.
• Madeline contributed our Sunday Feature about a murdered woman's memory of her killer and his quest to mentally dominate her. Very one hand clapping.
• Jesimarie, our other newest member, wrote about a jinn who lives in a bottle of gin, but the consequences of making three wishes . . .
• Michael gave us the first of another hilarious Caitlin saga. There are penguin zombies. Enough said.
• Brooke wrote a lyrical tale about a man's compulsion to send one last gift to his beloved who had been taken by the sea.
• Me: I drew on my random experiences with the crazy Santeria practitioners in my neighborhood and wrote about the process of making a hot sauce that is so powerful that it can stop death. The only problem is that even Severus Snape couldn't stand the heat of this potion.

See you all tomorrow with our answer to prompt #10!



*If you're going to bang your head on hard objects for inspiration, please be responsible and wear appropriate safety gear. The Chrysalis Experiment will vehemently deny responsibility for that part of your creative process.