Ohhhhhh Stacey, you are amazing and wonderful!
THANK YOU for this, thank you thank you, and mea culpa, how did it take me six days to find it? Where have I been? What else could have consumed my attention????
Your first freewrite is AMAZING.
I should have expounded on just how great it would be as an opening to a novel, or a novella, or a short story only - you (as always) convey so much in so few words.

The little dog, the sunset, the poet looking to fit in in the word "pierce," the truck hidden in the woods - so much mystery and tension and suspense - and a sense of moving on after a major loss: her first dachsund was a fighter, and would have defended her from coyotes. Now she's defending this dachsund (a role reversal). And now I keep thinking Jimmy! Jimmy! Jimmy!!!!

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The first call of a coyote broke the reverie. Maia had been writing a poem about hawks, trying to fit in the word “pierce”, when the eerie sound came.... two miles from her car, in the woods at dusk with her trusty dachshund, a nice meal for a coyote.

WHY DO I LAUGH AT THAT

The sun was setting, turning the hedgerow that fantastic red that only happens at dusk in the winter. ... the truck. It was hidden in the trees just inside the wooded area, near the narrow bridge that she had no choice but to cross. It hadn’t been here when she came this way earlier, and there was no sign of the driver.
She longed for her last pooch Solimar. This dachshund would be no help at all in an attack!

Did you ever add to the story?
I love Maia and [Jimmy? you didn't name him here] and the immortal Solimar.

This story illustrates so well the sheer joy and wonder of #freewriting.
The unexpected, often hilarious, or darkly comic (possibly tragic) twists and turns of the imagination - you were born too freewriting!

THANK YOU again for this. I can never thank you enough. You have been my lifeline -

since 2019!!!! It's been that long!

You have hosted so many contests, awarded so many prizes, inspired and entertained, enlightened and informed, so many people. You're so generous with your time and talent.

Thank you (and all) who have welcomed me back after all the times I've fallen away.
Down the slippery slope.
Into the abyss.
But you're the light at the top of the trail, or at the proverbial end of the tunnel.
Ok, off to do Easter things all day, but you're on my mind and in my heart. :)