WfW January 3 2023 and IWSG

This meme was started by Delores a long time ago.  Troubles led her to bow out, but the meme was too much fun to let go, and now Words for Wednesday is provided by a number of people and has become a movable feast with Elephant's Child as our coordinator.

  Essentially the aim of this meme is to encourage us to write.  Each week we are given some prompts. These prompts can be words, phrases, music or images.
  What we do with those prompts is up to us: a short story, prose, a song, a poem, or treating them with ignore ...
  We can use some or all of the prompts, and mixing and matching is encouraged.

  Some of us put our creation in comments on the post, and others post on their own blog. This fun meme includes cheering on the other participants.

  And the more the merrier goes here as well, so if you are posting on your own blog then please tell us in the comments, so that all other participants, can come along and applaud.

Sandi has supplied us with Words for this Wednesday, as she will all through January. The Words can be found at Elephant's Child's blog. These words are for today:

Hope
Joie de vivre
Devotion
Forgiveness
Rescue
     And/or
Brioche
Pie
Pi
Duty
Honour
    And the Moonlight Serenade too

These word did not fit any of my ongoing stories. Here is a small scene, that might turn into the beginning of more, or might end up as a one-shot. I love travelling, I love Italy and  well ...

Susan and Knud has gone to Italy hoping to find some books on magic in an old library. The fare in their modest accommodations is less than satisfying from Susan's point of view.

Susan and Knud left the dining room and walked down the stairs from their hotel.

"I can't live from just a brioche and a cup of hot cocoa for breakfast," Susan grumbled. "I'm not an Italian or a Frenchman. I hope for something more substantial to restore my joie de vivre before I can honour the beauty of this old city."

"Take it easy, Susan," Knud said. "As soon as the church next door opens, we can do our morning devotions there, and after that we'll find a nice place to eat some bread or maybe even a pie."

"I love you, Knud!" Susan said. "You're always full of forgiveness and solutions, when this grumpy old hag need rescue from her own self."

After a rosary in the old, Roman church and an excellent meat pie accompanied by a very good cappuccino in the café at the next corner, Susan's normally cheerful self was restored, and she and Knud took the tram to the old library, where they hoped to find some old books on magic for their school.

- - - - - - - - - -

January 4 question - Do you have a word of the year?
Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? For instance, in 2021 my word of the year was Finish. I was determined to finished my first draft by the end of the year. In 2022, my word of the year is Ease. I want to get my process, systems, finances, and routines where life flows with ease and less chaos.
What is your word for 2023? Why?

My answer: That's 3 questions in one 😉 OK I'll answer all three, but in another order. Here we go:

1. Do you have a word of the year?
My answer: For writing I have no words of the year, I always use Jennifer Fullweiler's Random Word of the Year generator to find two words for the year.

3. What is your word for 2023? Why?
My answer: For 2023 I had the words: ASK and KINDNESS.
I like having a Word chosen at random because it brings focus to aspects of my life - and possibly my writing - that I would not otherwise have given much attention to. 

2. Is there any ONE word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year?
My answer: No. ... Boring and too short for an answer? Let me try to expand this a bit more.

2023's words are ASK and KINDNESS ... Is there any way I can relate them to my writing?
ASK: Ask myself "Do I want to become a writer?" The answer to this question is a definitive maybe!
I want to write, I cannot keep away from writing even if I try. But do I want to become a writer? Not if it interferes too much with family life. Not if I have to do too many inconvenient things, like meetings book promotions and so on. In short, I want to write, but all the parts that come after having written a book ... I do not want those.
And this could be where KINDNESS comes in. Treat myself with KINDNESS, tell myself that I do not have to publish that book, or that I could always publish it under a pen name, as my real life name is rather unique. Because I think that it is mostly the idea of all the hullabaloo happening after publishing that keeps me away from finishing a book.
And with this insight, I send very grateful thoughts to the IWSG crew.