Flash Fiction: Genre Aspects Mishmash

So at terribleminds last week Chuck Wendig put forth a challenge linked a discussion of “killing genre”. We had three lists to pick something from. A subgenre, am element to include and a theme, motif or conflict. For added fun some folks, like myself, used a random number generator to pick each of our choices from each list. Funny thing is I was the first to post my random results but I’ll probably be one of the last to put in an entry. I’ve written this story in a true flash style over the last hour and don’t have much time for editing, hopefully it hasn’t come out too much of a mess. I’ll tell you what three things I got at the end of this post. For now, here’s the story:

The Scoundrel and The Soldier

The Faraday crashed into The Bell’s Revenge and the sound of wood rubbing on wood became an ever-present noise that ran like a current beneath the surface sounds of men shouting and discharging their Webleys and Lee-Enfields. With the crash the ships swayed and those close to the sides grabbed hold of any part of the ship they could. Captain Daniel Jones found himself momentarily dangling half over the starboard side gunwale of The Bell’s Revenge, and only his quick reaction to steady himself kept him for going over the side. Looking down upon the toy-like trees and ant-like people below he was thankful that was not the case.

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Flash Fiction: The Last Superhero

Ok, here’s another piece of flash fiction in response to a Chuck Wendig challenge at terribleminds.com. We had a list of 8 words and 4 of them had to appear in the story. This one came to me almost as soon as I read the list, thanks to some other ideas that had been floating around my brain recently thanks to a recent interview The Roundtable Podcast did with Matthew Wayne Selznick (website / twitter). You can find that interview here.

The Last Superhero

For a moment the whole country was silent. Every mourner, whether present in person or following along on TV, watched as the casket, covered in an iconic cape, made its way to the place of honour. Their greatest hero had fallen and everyone gathered with who they could to share their grief, and their fear.

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Some Flash Fiction: In Response to a Pick a Setting, Write a Story Challenge

Finally doing another terribleminds.com flash fiction challenge. This one required us to use one of a selection of settings again. I won’t tell you which I chose until the end. I’m calling this one:

Tick Tock

Tick Tock. Tick Tock.

The clicks and clacks echoed through the all too familiar pass and it sounded to Captain Davis like they still had the full regiment with them, instead of less than half. The sound would bolster his spirit in any place but this.

As the soldiers picked their way along the rough path Captain Davis wrestled with Colonel Coleman’s confidence like a hound would a piece of rawhide. How could the man seem so sure of himself? They were retreating at best and routed at worst. And this pass! Davis had done everything he could to turn the Colonel away from it, yet it was Davis’ own successful retreat through the pass three months ago that drove the Colonel to it. The irony chaffed at Davis and he couldn’t stop picking the scab it left.

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A small, experiment of a post

Aside

So here’s a try at a different post format. Let’s see how it works…

I missed the deadline for this weeks #ThrusThreads flash competition but I had an idea for it and couldn’t help but right it anyway. I didn’t want to leave a story, no matter how small, unfinished and I’m counting it towards my story a day goal. It also gives me something to put on the blog today, I’m trying to get a post up everyday this week. I might be back with something later today about the newest title from monkeybrain comics but until then I give you:

Triumph

Phil stumbled through the gilded doors of the audience chamber and collapsed. Across the marble floor sat a white-haired, shriveled old man leaning on a gnarled staff. The Oracle.

The old man didn’t speak as Phil crawled, too exhausted to stand, toward him. When he had made it, his progress heralded by labored breathing and the rattle of the gear which hung off his pack, he let himself fall forward in a kind of bow. With the last of his strength he half-rose and knelt facing the awesome little man.

The Oracle only stared at him.

“I’ve braved your mountain. I’ve been stalked by yetis. I have not eaten for three days and my only water was snow I melted in my mouth. I think I may lose half my toes to frostbite. But I made it. Master I am here. I humbly claim my right to an answer,” Phil said.

The old man didn’t move, or blink, or speak for some seconds that felt like slices of eternity. Finally he gave an unsteady nod. “You know your choices?”

“Yes,” Phil said. “Tell me about my greatest triumph.”

“That is your wish?”

Phil nodded. “I need to know what lies in my future. I need hope.”

The old man just shook his head in sad, side-to-side arcs. “Your greatest triumph began at the foot of my mountain. You faced yetis, hunger and thirst…”

 

Flash Fiction: Time Travel Challenge

So the current terribleminds flash fiction challenge was a call to embrace time travel and give it a prominent place in a story of 1000 words or less. This one proved pretty hard for me. I love time travel stories (huge Doctor Who fan) as a reader or viewer – but I found I really hated trying to write one. I’m really big on maintaining internal logic with my stories. Magic, super science, monsters and other crazy things are all fair game as long as they are consistent with the rules of the story-world you’ve created. Time Travel has a way of always smashing internal logic. Still, that was the challenge and I’ve done my best to answer it. I give you:

Saving the Future

“So you want to know where you come from, eh?”

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A Victory On The Flash Fiction Circuit

So last week I made a post about winning an honorable mention in week 30 of the  #ThursThreads flash fiction challenge. Well, a couple of days later I entered the competition again for week 31 and this time I was declared the overall winner. Very cool.

You can read all the stories entered in the competition here. Pay particular attention to the entries from Robin Abess (@Angelique_Rider),  Cameron Lawton (@CameronLawton) and Rebekah Postupak (@postupak). They were the honorable mentions last week.

This was my entry:

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