Picture Prompt: April Showers Bring May Flowers

Did you have a relaxing Memorial Day weekend? We had plenty of relaxation: going book shopping three days in a row, meeting with someone about a writing workshop, spending time with family, and laying around reading.

See what kind of story this May flower inspires in you. Leave your stories in the comments, and we'll leave ours!

10 Random Words

These 10 Random Words came from Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies.
We closed our eyes and flipped the pages, stopping randomly and pointing at a word. We wrote the word down and repeated the process nine more times, alternating who picked the word. The words don't have to be used in the order they were found, but that is what we did. There are no rules other than using each of the ten words, exactly as they appear on the list. (Example: if the word is "loved", you can't use "love" in its place.)

Have fun, and leave your submissions in the comments!
1. landlady
2. addressed
3. Valparaiso
4. couple
5. the
6. Kurt
7. loved
8. calm
9. were
10. tapped

Kicking Things Off

Welcome to Underpants Publishing! This has been an idea for so long, it should have changed its own underpants by now... but we're kicking things off and couldn't be more excited.

Eventually, we want to share book and media reviews, profiles on authors - both our favorites and up-and-comers, and information about the publishing industry. But for now, we want to focus on the most important part: the writing!

We have some features in mind, especially a variety of writing prompts to get our (and hopefully your) brains churning. We want to start off with our Friday Feature: 10 Random Words. This is one of the most fun writing prompts we've tried. We pick a book, any book, flip through the pages, and point at words with our eyes closed. Those 10 random words have to be used in a story, any kind of story, in any order.

We're going to post the 10 Random Words every Friday so readers can check out the word selection and work on their stories over the weekend. There is no "deadline" exactly, but we'd love to read some of your great stories to perk up our Monday! You'll leave your pieces in the comments, and so will we. We'd like to get some repeat writers and eventually spotlight and interview you guys.