Author: Minraed

Roots

/ Minraed / 20 Comments

Created for the Monthly Simlit Short Story Challenges hosted by Lisabeesims. We are a little story telling community that would love to see new writers joining in. Get more info and read the other stories at the end of the month HERE.

She sips her wine while pensively gazing out of the picture window at the old, gnarled and essentially dead tree with it’s single living branch bearing three diseased leaves clinging to life. She sings along to the lyrics that speak to her, even though she cannot discern their metaphorical meaning with any certainty. Somehow this song always feels deeply relevant.
The dying tree, the family tree; infected from the roots up. It has been there long before she was alive. She let it die, walking away from the lost cause that it was, but now there was no question that it needed to be cut down. She would have to call in an arborist for the job, otherwise she would risk those roots spreading disease through her now thriving garden nearby.
Ruminating about roots is a common occurrence for her; odd since she denies having or even needing them. But, she cannot help herself as she imagines herself a ghostly figure travelling back in time to the furthest known histories documented of her own family tree with curiosity and fascination.
As the beast of a tree is felled she wonders what nurtured this sprawl of once-living branches? When did the infection begin? Was it always there only to grow stronger with each new branch? Or did it arrive on the wind to weave its way into the parent plant’s tissues? Did the ongoing procreation and regeneration spread the disease or did the disease mutate the future growth? Nature or nurture? Environment or genetics?
The garden is bright now, no longer permanently shaded by the repressive gloom of the dead overhang. Blooms and colour come alive again. Birds and critters joyfully return. The tree is gone, but not without leaving one hopeful seed behind. She will plant it and call it her own. With care it will weather storms and hot searing droughts despite living in this confined space.
It will not reproduce; bear neither fruit nor seed. It will not burrow in deep roots of its own; that would be too risky with elements of the infection surely remaining deep down in that soil. But, these new roots are enough to bear the weight of growth as it reaches towards the sky to soak in the sunshine.

Murktober Kickoff

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RECIPIES

I will take photos of my food and drink to share here. In the meantime you can check out the recipes if you want to join along. There will be a space in the discord to share your concoctions.

Food of Murky Origin
Black Mac – a secret Mad Mud recipe exclusive only to Murklanders HERE
Mad Mud’s Cheesy Eyeballs – HERE
More fun ideas can be found HERE if you want to make your own snacks.

I will share my cocktail recipes once I get them finalized.
Mad Mudder – gin and pink grapefruit something
Murky Mahem – gin and ginger with a special twist
Stuck in the Murk – pear vodka based something
Bloody Bellini – recipe HERE

Mocktails as a special shout out to Brennachan
Salamander Sal – I recommend this one HERE or any green mocktail
Banished Bellini – recipe HERE except use lemon, berry or other bubbly water flavour in place of procesco

Sat/Sun, Sept. 25+26

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First redemption was for Faerieheart who requested a lookbook for her sim Vincent.

Rehd Zetro a.k.a. _Zetro_ in the gallery, shared their writing with us; a portion of a piece that is a work in progress. We have a talented writer here so I hope to read more of this aspiring author in our midst. From the written words I put together a set design, that really doesn’t do justice to the writing, but it was fun to be inspired by something created by someone else. I can’t publish the words, but you can hear me read it on the stream vod if it is still around.

Rehd’s descriptive writing brought the ambiance to life; cold blustery wind, bare feet on cold floor, an era where there was a market trip with a wicker basket full of delights for the icebox, and a deeply visceral description of freshly brewed coffee. It makes me hope for more. I want to know more about the seamstress who lives in the apartment below the shop.

Simselves – Gratitude

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Created for GLovely’s CAS challenge #GLovelysQCC – Memory Lane theme where we could choose any of the past themes that we did not do or wanted to revisit. Since it is almost Thanksgiving I choose the Gratitude theme. Greetings and well wishes to you from me and my husband represented here.

Sat/Sun, Sept. 18+19

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the word of the week brought to you by Brennachan
Sunday’s flash fiction read was this one from @reflexfiction on Twitter
click the pic to read it

Wheel spin both days drew the Edison Deck journal prompts.

The highlight this weekend is the three CAS submissions who will star in our community created stories that are posted below.

Sims created by Elinor_Astrid, divanthesimmer, and Onyeka001 – find them in the gallery #minraedminis
SPECIAL NOTE – the little “horses” were created by Pugowned 🙂

And last but not least here are three videos that came up in discussion, just for fun.

Sat/Sun Sept. 11+12

/ Minraed / 3 Comments
I would love to see a few of these alleyways as set designs. We will use them for photos and for story ideas.
PLEASE tag #2kalleywaychallenge first and check out JenBuilding24 on Instagram. But also tag #minraedminis so I know which are coming from our group.

I absolutely LOVE alleyways. I travel most often to places of old history and culture. Old cities are full of alleyways so here in the alleys I think many stories can be born. What is your vision of an alleyway? There are endless possibilities.

Sunday’s Flash Fiction reading was a metaphorical beauty of a read.
Click the pic to read it for yourself over at Reflex Fiction.
  • Harbour street bar by Onyeka
  • Harbour street bar by Onyeka
Some photos from our explorations today.
This flash fiction story was a collaboration done on stream by the community. It was a first for us, and I hope we do it again.