Tag Archives: Flash Pulp

Spotlight: Ingrid Prohaska

30 Nov

November 30, 2011

Sit back and relax, Dear Readers. If you are reading this on your phone or mobile device I welcome you, but I also suggest that you find a place to sit down and get comfortable for a while. In fact, before we go on, go ahead and bookmark this page. When you get to the end of this post you’ll see why. In fact, let me give you some advice. Don’t.

Don’t get to the end in one sitting.  Take your time, come back to this over a few days. Pause. Savor it. Find that quiet and comfy spot and prepare to stay there for a while. But you’ll be there in body only. Your spirit is taking a little trip.

A trip to Vienna….

“Hi, my name is Ingrid and I’m very happy to be a mobster.

My main work is writing poetry and short stories; to publish my precious pieces I run a blog – “DancingElla’s Words“.

Some of you might know me as a legend teller on FlashCast. The idea came up when I read a blog post by JRD Skinner and almost at the same time he told me about his interest in Vienna. This reminded me of my old love in these legends and so I’ve started to transform the Austriagerman originals into English. You can find them all at “Viennese Legends“.

Finally a huge thanks to bmj2k for his invite!
I hope you’ll enjoy the selected potpourrie of my work and you’ll have an entertaining time.”

  • Legends

A legend about a junker, his vices and how to get a magical coin …
“The Heckthaler”

A bone house is the location of this creepy legend …
“Revenge of the Dead”

In ancient times three little devils played their mischievous tricks on the Viennese in and around St. Stephen’s church …
“The Three Little Devils”

  • Poetry

“Broken Mirror”
by Ingrid Prohaska

The mirror broken
a smash on my soul
a chapter closed

Scars on my face
a tear
just one
the last one

Then she turned into stone.

Copyright © 2011 Ingrid Prohaska


the original post >
http://dancingella.blogspot.com/2011/07/broken-mirror.html

“The Fall”
by Ingrid Prohaska

Dark sides
dark impressions
dark poetry

I feel that I fall
and I fall
I fall

Hands are reaching out for me
offer me their help
but when I try to take them
I have to see
these hands are bones
of dead
or undead
I feel the cold
and I’m scared

So I fall deeper
and deeper
deeper
into a universe
where the sun doesn’t shine
and no flower can bloom
where tears freeze into sharp stones

An unknown land
without any light
where one can’t see
and hardly breathe
dark feelings are stronger than ever

My inside cries

But in my scream
there hang the words
for me to hear

I will survive!

Copyright © 2011 Ingrid Prohaska


the original post >
http://dancingella.blogspot.com/2011/09/fall.html

“About a Break”
by Ingrid Prohaska

  • Short  Story

A story about light and heavy bags …

“On the Terminal”
by Ingrid Prohaska
I got out of the train on that big terminal. I had a lot of bags; my baggage had become very heavy during the long lasting journey. I felt tired, somehow burned out, hopeless and nearly desperate. I didn’t know, where my journey would go when I was going to leave the station again, but I was sure – I didn’t want to take all these heavy bags with me any more.

I carried my baggage into the station hall and looked for a silent place. Finally I sat down on a bench in a low frequented area. I thought about what I could do. I watched the passengers carrying their suitcases and bags. Some of them carried very heavy, others seemed almost to dance with their light bags. “I wish that could be me; dancing through the life only with light bags, carrying only things I really need.”

I had lost some of my light bags with things I was missing now. And somehow I was already used on the heavy bags I carried with me; this made it so difficult to dump them. Sometimes I asked myself, why it was so easy to lose light bags, and seemingly not possible to get rid of heavy ones.

While I was lost in my thoughts, my eyes fell upon a sign “Lost & Found”.

“Hey,” I thought, “there are the experts!”

I took up all my bags, carried them towards the sign, walked into the agency and looked for a friendly face. A middle-aged man with a blue working-coat stood behind the desk. He had a boring face without any expression.

“Can I help you?” he said expressionless with a monotonous voice.

“Yes, I really want to get rid of my heavy bags. Could you please give me an advice?”

“Never heard about someone who wants to lose something,” he answered still monotonous, “Normally people come to us because they want to find what they have lost.”

“Well,” I said, “I also lost a lot of things during my journey. So, maybe you can help me in this way?”

“Yes,” he said and gave me a form, “fill it out, make a list, describe your bags and bring it back. Then we will see, if someone has found your things.”

I took my pen and wrote down a list: love, time, joy, humor and hope.

I gave him the list and a smile crossed his face.

“Yes Lady, these things are often lost. Our backroom is full of these things. These are light bags. People rather lose light bags than heavy ones.”

He opened the door to the backroom, so that I could have a look into it and I was really surprised.

“And nobody comes to get back what he has lost?” I asked.

“Seldom,” he said. “Although many people miss their light bags, they don’t take the time to find them. Others even don’t notice what they have lost. So, we’ll have a look for your bags.”

He went into the backroom and while I was waiting, I felt hope coming back. And really how I had felt, he brought me the well acquainted bag of my hopes. Suddenly I felt joy. I had tears in my eyes when he brought me my bag of joy a short time later.

I left the “Lost & Found” agency again with my bags of hope and joy. And anyhow – my heavy baggage seemed lighter. I sat down again in the station hall. I cried and laughed the same time.

“Hey Lady, is everything alright with you?” An old man had sat down beside me. I told him my story about getting back my hope and my joy.

“But I still wish to lose my heavy bags.” I ended my story.

“What is in your heavy bags?” he asked.

“Well,” I sighed, “I had a lot of bad experiences, hurts, guilt, doubts, fears. – Do you know how to get rid of them?”

He smiled. “Losing heavy things is not so easy, eh? They are often connected with the fear of forgetting and forgetting bad things is often connected with the fear of happening again. Right?”

I nodded.

“Love helps,” he continued.

“But I have lost my love.” I answered sadly.

“Okay,” he said, “and what’s about your self-love? I’m pretty sure you have some, otherwise you wouldn’t wish to change your baggage.”

I looked around, “Could be I have a little bag self-love anywhere.”

“So take care of your self-love, let it grow. This can be a way to lose your doubts and fear and guilt. I’m sure you won’t miss them. And love will heal your hurts. And love,” he said, “will become more and more, if you take care of it and you will be able to give love and so you will get love.”

I felt that this man was right.

“And – do you also know, how I can find my lost time and my lost humor?”

He smiled again. “Time,” he said, “is lost. It is past. But take care of your future moments. Try to enjoy every moment in your life. And humor,” he said still smiling, “humor, you’ll see, come back alone.”

Before I could thank the old man for his advice, he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. But he was right again.

After I had left the station – with my light baggage I had decided to walk except of taking another train – I found a bag of humor. I laughed and I danced and then – I wrote down this story.

Copyright © 2007, 2010 Ingrid Prohaska


the original post >
http://dancingella.blogspot.com/2010/12/on-terminal.html

  • Links

DancingElla’s Words > http://dancingella.blogspot.com/


Viennese Legends > http://vienneselegends.blogspot.com/

DancingElla’sWords on facebook > http://www.facebook.com/DancingEllasWords
DancingElla on twitter > https://twitter.com/#!/dancingella
 —
DancingElla’s Words, where my stories are at home

Spotlight: New York Minute: A New York Legend (5)

21 Nov

November 21, 2011

Mob Week officially kicks off on Wednesday but this is part of it too. The New York Minute is just one of the contributions to the Flash Cast podcast. JRD Skinner, Jessica May, and Opoponax started the podcast (and of course the Flash Pulp audios) and graciously opened it up to a diverse group of contributors, myself included. Many of the contributors will be spotlighted here this week as well as a few folks from outside the Flash-Verse. So to give Mob Week a soft opening, here is the last of my regular features you will see for a while.

Hell Gate. Execution rocks. This is New York. And this is your New York Minute.

When you think of New York, especially this time of year, I’m sure many of you think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, skating at Rockefeller Center, and of course the famous Christmas tree. You know, all the Bright Lights Big City stuff.

Not me. I think you know that by now.

New York is full of cool history if you know where to look. And your atlas is a great place to start.

You do own an atlas, right?

Execution rocks is not a part of New York City. It is located in the center of Long Island Sound at the entrance to New York Harbor and is much closer to New Rochelle than NYC. It also boasts a very cool lighthouse that dates back to 1850 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. I love lighthouses.

Let’s stop for a second and recap. 1850. Lighthouse. Execution Rocks. Want to bet it’s haunted? C’mon, how many episodes of Scooby Doo am I describing?

The legend goes that during Colonial times the British, wishing to avoid public executions that would inflame the revolutionary spirit, would carry out secret executions there. They would chain the condemned to the rocks at low tide and the rising water would eventually drown them. Some stories say that the skeletons were left chained to the rocks as a warning for future trouble makers.

According to lighthousefriends.com, The ghosts of the condemned had their revenge. A shipload of British soldiers, sent to pursue Washington on his retreat from Manhattan to White Plains, foundered at the reef. No redcoats survived.

The legend of the executions had such hold, that when light keepers were assigned to Execution Rocks, they were under a unique contract. No light keeper was to ever feel chained to the reef. Instead of stating a set length of duty, their contract read that their length of service was for as long as they were willing. If for any reason, they requested a transfer, it was instantly granted.

Of course, other sources say that the name Execution Rocks comes from a more mundane reason, that the name for this outcrop was chosen to reflect the historically dangerous shipping area created by the rocks’ exposure during low tides.

Guess which story I prefer.

Hell Gate is a narrow part of the East River near Queens and it is spanned by the Hell Gate Bridge. How cool is that? Wouldn’t you love to say you cross the Hell Gate Bridge to work every day? And what about the end of the day? “Yep, I’m crossing Hell Gate and going back to the wife.” Marriage is fun that way.

Anyway, Hell Gate comes from the Dutch word Hellegat, which could mean either “hell’s hole” or “bright gate/passage.” It is actually a fairly common name for hazzardous waterways in this part of the world.

By the late 19th century, hundreds of ships including HMS Hussar had sunk in the strait. In 1851 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began to clear obstacles from the strait with explosives; the process would last seventy years. On September 24, 1876, the Corps used 50,000 pounds of explosives to blast the dangerous rocks, which was followed by further blasting work. On October 10, 1885, the Corps carried out the largest explosion in this process, annihilating Flood Rock with 300,000 lbs. of explosives. The explosion sent a geyser of water 250 feet in the air; the blast was felt as far away as Princeton, New Jersey. The explosion has been described as “the largest planned explosion before testing began for the atomic bomb.”

The rocks at Hell Gate are also said to be the site of British executions, but if you believe the old legends, every place was. History is written by the victors.

This has been your New York Minute.

An audio version of this legend first appeared just last week in the amazing FlashPulp website. Check them out for awesomeness and goodies!