Radio FreeWrite

The Cru have become subconsciously enamored with Dune , which worms its way into a few of this week's tales. Virtual reality, fantastic worlds, and French Toast all make an appearance.  From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:   Hole in the Wall.  A dark and dingy place, especially one difficult to find.  The name also exists for a number of restaurants, some of which are quite supe...

Echidna was the mother of monsters in Greek Mythology, and her children- including the Lernean Hydra, Nemean Lion, Cerberus, and fearsome Chimera- are all fair game for tonight's prompt! It's The Lotus' night off, but the rest of The Cru chat about J.R.R. Tolkien and attempt to write pieces inspired by his style and his work. One member  doesn't care for Tolkien; the other two...

The Cru continues their dive into the monster world by hunting an Ethiopian... deer? An invisible deer?      Yes. An invisible deer. And it's terrifying.      ...watch out for the shadows.    From the Medieval Bestiary:  The parandrus is a beast from Ethiopia that can change its appearance, so that it can conceal itself by taking on the appearance of its surroundings. It is colored like a bea...

The Cru struggles to turn a beast that is a metaphor for Christ into a horrifying monster. Krispy debates whether written words can actually be "scary;" refuses to believe they can; then writes a terrifying tale. More than one bottle of wine is consumed.  From  The Medieval Bestiary:   The caladrius is an all-white bird that lives in the king's house. If it looks into the face of a...

Let spooky season commence! The Cru mixes it up a bit this week by writing after coffee and breakfast instead of later in the day. We discuss how the time and setting can affect the process of writing. Then we kick off our spook-tacular month of monster prompts with: Mandrake: The mandrake is a plant; its roots grow in human form, male and female, and shriek when torn from the ground. It is of gre...

Is it still cannibalism if it's a potato skin?  The Cru continues to ponder the Big Questions in this week's episode.  From  Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Couch potato. A person who prefers lounging at home watching television to engaging in any purposeful activity, especially if it involves and physical effort.  The expression is of US origin and appears to pun on the &a...

The Cru gets a wee bit saucy with this one.  Murph shines with lubricious limericks that showcase the raunchiest of WWII postal codewords.  Be warned: you'd best listen with headphones. From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:   NORWICH. An acronym based (phonetically) on the  initial letters of ‘(k)nickers off ready when I come home’,  one of the more lubricious of such initialisms...

The Cru discusses a prompt from Annie Dillard's  The Writing Life , then proceeds to explore death via one of his more popular personifications.    From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable :   Grim Reaper, The.  Death, often depicted, like Time, with a scythe. Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening dis...

Horrifying hoarders! Transcendental experiences! Neighborhood ruffians! Weird sexy things we only know about thanks to Cards Against Humanity!  The Cru tackle all of these topics and more on this week's episode.      From Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable:  Slubberdegullion: A base fellow; a nasty oaf. 'To slubber' is to do things carelessly, in a slovenly way, and '...

The Cru engage in some mischievous behaviour in this first official episode. Prompt: Monkey business: Mischievous or meddlesome behaviour, like that of monkeys.  There is an excellent Marx Brothers film of this title. ~Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a...

Meet the Cru- WebEater, Murph, The Lotus, and Krispy. Learn a little bit about what we do. Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!   Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you writ...

The Cru discusses one of their favorite playwrights, attempting to imitate Oscar Wilde in this week's episode. Jitterbug. Originally a swing music enthusiast in the late 1930s, with the name probably coming from Cab Calloway's song 'Jitter bug' (1934), in which a 'jitter bug' was a person who drank regularly and so 'has the jitters ev'ry morning'. The n...

The Cru confronts a mythical creature. Jabberwocky (jab' er wok' i), the eponymous  central figure of a strange, almost gibberish  poem in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-  glass. It contains many significant "portman-  teau words," as subsequently explained, to  Alice by Humpty Dumpty.  Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to ou...