Chuck Wendig: Terribleminds

Flash Fiction Challenge: A Drink With A Story, A Story With A Drink

So, when I was doing some promo for The Cormorant, I had some fun over at Cabin Goddess and got to make up a Miriam Black cocktail — the “Miriam Negroni.” Which is:

1 oz dark rum

1 oz. Campari

1 oz. sweet vermouth

The juice of a blood orange.

You could go old school and just use gin. While rum fits the part of the book where Miriam descends to Florida, the book also is set around Christmastime and one cannot deny that gin sometimes tastes like liquefied Christmas tree.

To be really authentic you should probably also lacquer the edges with cremated human remains or cigarette ash.

Or just drink the whole thing through a human skull.

And I thought, that was kind of a fun challenge.

So, this is that challenge, modified.

It has two parts:

You will:

a) Invent your own cocktail (and give us the recipe!). It can be real or fictional — meaning, it can be something we can make ourselves or a cocktail purely made from fictional ingredients (“Betelgeuse Tequila and bitters made from Slarm glands”). Name the cocktail, too.

b) Then write a short story with the name of your cocktail as the name of the short story. The story should be tied to the cocktail in some way — some plot or character-hook, or maybe the cocktail is front and center in the plot.

Any genre will do.

Let’s say you have 2000 words this time around.

You still have one week — due February 7th — WAIT IS IT FEBRUARY ALREADY? Crap on a stick.

Ahem. Due in one week, by noon EST.

Post at your online space. Link back here. Same drill as usual.

Bonus: I’ll pick one random participant (sorry, you gotta live in the US for this) who will get an ART HARDER flask, as seen in this image below:

(Available from Zazzle if you click the image. Or from the Merch link.)

That’s the deal. Now go: invent a cocktail, write a story.

terribleminds

155 responses to “Flash Fiction Challenge: A Drink With A Story, A Story With A Drink”

« Older Comments

  4. Chuck- you sir, have reached into my soul and tapped out my true passions!

    Here’s my drink. Fate-

    2 oz Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey
    2 oz Jack Daniels Honey
    2 oz Irish Cream Liquor
    1 Golden Orb (to reveal the truth, of course)

    And yes, I do plan on trying this out. I actually came up with a second drink and story to go along with it, but I haven’t finished it 🙂

    http://www.miramichelleday.com/flash_fictions_and_short_stories/fate_the_cocktail_challenge/

    Reply

  14. Spaaaaace cocktail. Enjoy! (http://sczerny.blogspot.com/2014/02/spaaaaace-cocktail.html)

    Ursa Tonic: a popular drink among the inmates of an Ursa-class space prison.

    3 oz. Urju: a spirit distilled from the fermented juice extract of Ursa Corp’s patented oxygen-recycling algae.
    4 oz. recycled station water, pumped full of CO2 by the cafeteria carbonator.
    3 drops synthesized quinine. Usually obtained by bribing a guard to fab it in the chemprinter.

    Shake and serve in a prison-issue stainless steel mug, for that signature metallic aftertaste.

    Reply

    • Forgot the part where the drink name was supposed to be the title of the story. Almost forgot to give it a name at all. “Strong Drink” might be the best name for it in any case.

      Reply
« Older Comments

Speak Your Mind, Word-Nerds

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: