Terribleminds : FLASH FICTION CHALLENGE: 200 WORDS AT A TIME, PART ONE

“Omega squadron…welcome aboard the T.A.Corvette-Niblack. I’m Commander Harden. We’ll have a formal briefing tomorrow at 0830. For now get acclimated to the Niblack.  I’ll have my X-O escort you pilots to the mess hall…we rescued eight slaves from the Altair 7 mining colony…they are helping out in the mess hall until we can transfer them to a colony.

     “One last thing …all you new pilots…when you finish your meals; raise your hand…do not… leave …until a steward clears your plate…no talk or eye contact with them…If they ask for your forgiveness…you nod your head… again; don’t… leave… until they take your plate. “ The Colonel chewed his lip, and wiped his eyes. “Or I’ll flush you out of a airlock.”

     “Why forgiveness, Sir?”

     “They were mining slaves on Altair 7…most of their families died of starvation…they’ll sit down and finish your food for you. But…the waste…they are ashamed… of the hate they feel towards you… Squadron dismissed!”

     Commander Harden flipped the intercom switch and walked over to the nav. Station. He was reviewing the course projections when Col. Markson of the newly arrived squadron walked over as well.

     “Altair 7 was a mechanized mining operation.”

     “It reduces waste.” Harden replied.

Janet Reid...flash fiction contest 11-22-13 runner

Friday, November 22, 2013

I love writing contests alot!

I love my alots.
I love my alots a lot!

The alot is the creation of Allie Brosh whose new book Hyperbole and a Half generated a fist fight here at FPLM when one copy turned up early and we all wanted it.

And I know you all will want a copy too cause it's, after all, alot of book!

So, let's have a writing contest!

Usual rules:
Write a story with 100 or fewer words. (Every word counts, including the title if you use one; you don't have to)

Post the story in the comments column of this blog post when the contest is open.

The contest opens at 9am Saturday 11/23 and closes at 9am Sunday 11/24.  All times are Eastern Shark time.

[Make sure your entry appears!  There should be no lag time between posting your entry and seeing it appear. If you do NOT see your entry, tweet to me @Janet_Reid and I'll try to help you.]

Do not post anything BUT entries in the comment section, ok? If you want to offer kudos or observations, wait till the results post on Monday. (your comments will just get deleted and you don't want that)


Use the following words in your story:

lot

heroic
caring
alert
flammable

So this is my entry....sorta based on the book concept Runner...by Patrick Lee. (I loved his Breach trilogy)

No one chooses their lot in life… it’s a genetic crapshoot.

The five man squad flanked her. They herded her with flashlights mounted on semi-automatic rifles. She dodged their lights… like she was flammable, protected by darkness.

The girl; weak but alert… was a delicate porcelain figure in a blackened landscape, scrambling for her life.

He watched… thought of his wife and daughter that he couldn’t save last year.

Without caring about his safety… wasn’t heroic just instinctive, he swept down.  He felt the caress of angel’s feathers, as he took the girl under his wing.

Then they ran.

Runner

Another Janet Reid blog flash fiction contest

Friday, November 15, 2013

The paint yourself into a corner writing contest

Yes, the painting continues.
Yes, I'm out of my mind.
Yes, I've repainted one wall...one ACCENT wall...six times.
Yes, this is getting out of hand.

When things get out of hand it's time to have a writing contest.

Usual rules this week: write a story with 100 words or fewer.  Post the entry in the comments column of this blog post. Comments will open when the contest does: 7am Saturday 11/16/13. The contest will close at 7am on Sunday 11/17/13.

Use these words in the story:
straw
butterfly
wing
sage
peach

You must use the entire word but it can be part of a larger word if you elect:

Strawberry is ok; SS Trawler is not.
Butterfly is ok, butterflies is NOT

Bonus points if you know what the common thread is for those words.

If you need a mulligan, delete your entry and repost. Only ONE entry per person is allowed.

Questions? Tweet to me @Janet_Reid or ask on the Facebook page where the contest is posted

Results:

(5) french sojourn 12:35pm

“Elmer, you can’t un-ring a bell.” Lloyd said.

“Say I was to go back… like twenty years, and yank out them strawberries by the sage bushes over ta Fred’s backyard. And… perhaps I planted a peach tree they-ah.”

“Well there’d be a fuckin peach tree they-ah, it’s called the butterfly effect Elmer.”

“Then I could change history...wouldn’t have to worry bout the possibility of a time line paradox?”

“Elmer…Einstein’s Closed time like curve wouldn’t allow it.With all due respect to your Appalachian American heritage…there ain’t no way you can wing it back to your prom night… and un-kiss your sister.”

The contest submittals are getting better as I feel my writing is improving...but there are so many great writers out there. Real fun to now look for some of the regular contributors.

The Gone Fishin' Writing Contest

The Gone Fishin' Writing Contest

Vacation!
Yes indeed it's time to hang up the Gone Fishin' sign and retire to reading books instead of manuscripts, turn off the phone, and put a padlock on the email inbox!

To celebrate the start of a week off, let's have a writing contest!

Usual rules:

1. Write a story using 100 or fewer words.

2. Use the following words in the story

beautiful
downtown
queens
rental
cat

You must use the exact letters of the word in order, but the word can be part of a larger one:

So I messed around for awhile and submitted the following:

french sojourn said...

NASA projected the point of impact to be downtown Cairns in Queensland, Australia. Unfortunately the asteroid flattened its trajectory and lit up the atmosphere like aurora borealis on crack… one last beautiful sunset for humanity.

When the asteroid broke into thousands of guided meteorites, the results were catastrophic…all the major cities were razed. Then… they attacked...hell bent from above.

Mortally wounded, Mother Nature capitulated… giving up her parental obligations to a godforsaken planet.

Eve and I escaped to Red Rock One and watched, on the lone satellite feed, as they harvested everyone, except us.

Then they left…so we’re starting over…again.

8/24/13, 11:18 AM

And here are the seven finalists:

(3) French sojourn 11:18am

NASA projected the point of impact to be downtown Cairns in Queensland, Australia. Unfortunately the asteroid flattened its trajectory and lit up the atmosphere like aurora borealis on crack… one last beautiful sunset for humanity.

When the asteroid broke into thousands of guided meteorites, the results were catastrophic…all the major cities were razed. Then… they attacked...hell bent from above.

Mortally wounded, Mother Nature capitulated… giving up her parental obligations to a godforsaken planet.

Eve and I escaped to Red Rock One and watched, on the lone satellite feed, as they harvested everyone, except us.

Then they left…so we’re starting over…again.

And a writer I recently have been communicating with submitted the following:

(7) Myra King 6:06pm

I live downtown next door to an extreme cleaner. OCD, not commercial. Sadie Badenoch. Sadbad we called her at school but she wasn't bad. And before the gunman came she was cat sleek beautiful.

My rental-room looks into her kitchen. Six a.m. I see her cleaning to Queen's music. Mercury rising. Her house gleams like the stars.

Ten a.m., safe behind my impenetrable screen, I watch her prepare for outside. Living in the real world.

Keys jangle. Her hands dart round, up and down her front door's frame. Her ritual protection. Takes two hours before she leaves.

Wish I could.


And the winner is Myra King 6:06pm. One of the things I love about this entry is that it works on several levels.  I read it at least five times and each time found something new to admire.


Myra, drop me an email (janet @ fineprintlit dot com) and we'll figure out what kind of prize to send you.

Thanks to all the writers who took time and creative energy to enter the contest.  I loved reading what you wrote (even you Lenny!)

Congrats to all the winners.


This is the last contest of the summer.  I've got a week's vacation coming up, and then it's back to work for the fall season.   

My first time as a finalist, real happy. There were 72 entries and they were all incredible, happy to get a shout out.  

Cheers Hank

Another fun Janet Reid Flash Fiction Contest

8-16-2013

Usual rules:

1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer.

2. Include the following words in the story


Degrees
Chum
3
Bucket
Pants 

french sojourn said...

Old Chum:

I got your re-writes, great dialogue… really sings. Speaking of which, I noticed on your notes you wanted to use Doris Troy’s 1963 hit “Just one look” as background music, in bar scene: 3.

Background!

You want her… fine...but the scene better be two mimes. No one’s gonna listen to dialogue, while she sings. I don’t have any music degrees, but she hits every high and low note in the bucket. Christ… I even hear her smiling as she sings.

Are your pants around your ankles… are you balancing cashews on your dick?

Because you’re fucking… nuts!

Background?

8/17/13, 10:39 AM

My wife Cindy was shown this after I had entered and said. "You sound F&@#-ing nuts for sending in an entry that could be offensive........

Special recognition for entries with lines that really stand out:

French sojourn 10:39am

Are your pants around your ankles… are you balancing cashews on your dick?
Because you’re fucking… nuts!

Cheers Hank.

So Janet Reid held another Flash fiction contest, see below;

     So Janet Reid held another Flash fiction contest, see below;

The Dangerous Fiction Writing contest

I couldn't resist  a book with a literary agent protagonist.  Barbara Rogan's A DANGEROUS FICTION started as lunch reading.  Got home and could NOT stop (except for brief moments to catch my breath!) until I finished reading at midnight.

When I tell you one of the plot points is my worst fear, you'll know that the only thing to do now is have a writing contest with the book as a prize.

The usual rules:

1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer

2. Use these words in the story:


fiction
slush
spade
hear
262 

So after monkey-ing around: My entry.....

California: 1928

     The Desk Sargent wanted nothing to do with this Nob Hill jezebel. He knew, as soon as she spilled her dirty laundry, she was trouble.

    

     “So you’re tellin’ me, your boyfriend took off… after transferring some of your slush funds into a fictional account in Boston?”

    

     “If my husband finds out… I’ll have nothing… he can never know.”

    

     “Lady, that leaves us out … you need a private eye.”

    

     “A gumshoe?”

    

     “Heard of Sam Spade, his office is at 262 Sutter Street.”

    

     “Is he good?”

    

     “If he can find a bird… it’ll be a piece-of-cake finding a rat.”

Not bad,

Special recognition for entries that were not quite a story but still enticing:

French sojourn 10:11am

But I wonder if I should have said.

"If he can find a falcon....it'll be a piece-of-cake."   

Reference to the "Maltese Falcon"

I was hoping I wasn't being to obtuse. 

A new flash fiction writing contest I was turned on to by Janet Reid.

Fun concept;

So this is where the contest comes in.

Want to win an ARC of REALITY BOY? All you have to do is follow 3 little rules, and you're in. Go crazy. You have two whole weeks. 

CHALLENGE:

1. Your story MUST start with this sentence: Janet was early. **
2. Your story MUST end with this sentence: Of course, she didn't.
3. Your story must be 100 words or less.

DEADLINE: Sunday August 18th at 11:59PM EST
PRIZE: A signed Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of REALITY BOY.
Please leave your entry in the comment area of this blog and don't forget your email address! 




So I entered this after an hour of writing; upon reflection I would call it

Romeo and Juliet - Harpswell, Maine 1977.  (but then again who would name a 100 word f.f. entry?

     Janet was early. The tide….well the tide was running late.

     She fired up the old diesel, un-cleated the Mary Lou, and took off after her husband. Jack was old school; he had placed a dozen palm sized rocks down his hip waders.

     We learned our lesson from Lonzo Gilbert. Why, it must have been twenty odd years ago he was swept over the side of his lobster boat. They fished him out a half an hour later, after the seagulls had at him.

     Jack’s boat went down this mornin’,

     I wonder if she forgot the rocks.

     Of course, she didn’t. 


Nice fun story. Cheers Hank.