One Image, Two Story Ideas: Woman with a Bag
Jen and Tina love writing prompts. Sometimes they turn into stories, sometimes they just get our creative juices flowing. Either way, they’re a lot of fun.
Jen’s Idea
My first thought on seeing this prompt was that the woman looks ridiculous. What is with that scarf and sunglasses and jacket draped over the shoulders? And that giant bag? No one carries a bag like that anymore. We’ve added wheels to bags for a good reason. I decided the story had to be Hollywood glamour or a woman trying to slide under the radar. The story ended up being neither. It was the bag that caught my imagination.
Tina’s Idea
When I looked at this photo prompt, the first thing I needed to understand was who this woman was. Once I knew that, I would know where she was going. While I contemplated it, I thought it might be interesting if no one knew the real woman. That she might be an enigma. And then, of course, I wanted to know how that would play out. I ended up with something I found intriguing and actually not so farfetched.
Jen’s Back Cover
Celeste found the bag when she was closing up for the night. A big old-fashioned tapestry monstrosity that weighed as much as the giant sacks of flour that had been the bane of her existence when she was an apprentice and the closest she got to actual baking was loading flour buckets and washing rising buckets.
t was tucked under a table at the back, right by the door to the restroom. How anyone had forgotten something that big and bulky was a mystery. And it wasn’t like they’d just left a few minutes ago. There’d been only four customers in the last three hours, all regulars and none weighed down by luggage.
In big cities and airports, they were always warning you to be on the alert for abandoned bags. What was that very British call to action? See it. Say it. Sorted. Unlikely someone was planting a bomb here on Vashon Island. Crime wasn’t exactly a thing there.
Celeste eyed it again. There was no luggage tag, nothing with identifying information. She could haul it to the police station and let them deal with it, but she only had her bicycle and she’d promised Susan she’d be home early tonight. They were supposed to be spending more time together now that the summer rush was behind them. Susan had already called twice to ask when Celeste was leaving the bakery. She would flip if Celeste said she had to make another stop. She’d leave it for tomorrow.
But tomorrow comes and no one claims the bag. Celeste—bored with the bakery, uneasy about her stifling relationship, and edgy about the prospect of a winter on the island—finds herself drawn into a mystery around the bag’s owner, its not-so-innocuous contents, and a community that doesn’t want to see darkness beneath its picture-perfect façade.
Tina’s Back Cover
Every Friday, Joanna Poston packs her bags and leaves her penthouse and Sidney, her professor husband. She hails a cab to Penn Station, then she takes a train to a one-horse station, where she orders another cab, this time to bring her to her country cottage in Norwood, Vermont.
When she arrives, she slips out of her heels and cashmere, and slips into jeans and sneakers. She gets the sourdough starter out and prepares a fresh loaf. She picks some fresh herbs from the garden for dinner, humming with the birds in the yard.
Joanna is in heaven. She lives for her three-day weekends. They are a beautiful respite from the city rat race. She feels as if she sheds her skin and becomes a new woman, a fuller, brighter version of herself. She knows she is lucky. She knows very few people have the financial resources to live as she does, and even fewer have the brains to pull it off.
Joanna Poston is a bigamist.
She thought she could live this way forever until one Friday she shows up at the cottage to find Jeff, her photographer husband, on the kitchen floor bludgeoned to death. Once the police arrive, it is clear that she is the main suspect. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Joanna must prove she is innocent of murder, and do it without losing the only other life that remains for her.
Tina’s Response
Love, love, love this! It’s wonderful how Jen focused on that bag and the mystery behind it. I need to know what is in it and what is going to happen to Celeste. This story is a perfect blend of everything I love — cozy, quiet village setting, personal self-discovery, all topped off with a twist. Thanks, Jen, and start writing!
Jen’s Response
Brilliant! Joanna is a woman we should hate, but in just a few words, Tina has me rooting for the bigamist to clear her name. I love this twist on a domestic thriller, where the woman with the double life is the hero, not the victim. Please write this one, Tina!
Photo by Simeon Asenov on Unsplash