Tag: fiction (page 11 of 17)

“The Torch — last week’s challenge — is large and in charge and demands your eyeballs.

Here’s a number’s game for you.

I’m going to give you five words.

You must choose three of these words and incorporate them into a story.

That story may not be more than 100 words long. I didn’t say 1000. Rather: one hundred.

The five words, chosen by Random Word Generator:

Enzyme.

Ivy.

Bishop.

Blister.

Lollipop.

Again, you have 100 words only.

You may post your story directly in the comments if you so choose. Alternately, feel free to deposit them in your own post and drop a link to said post in the comments. Your call, Cochise.

You have until next Friday, September 23rd, at noon EST.

I will pick three of my favorites. Those three will get my short story collection IRREGULAR CREATURES (with thirty-nine 4- and 5-star reviews at Amazon) in either Kindle or PDF format.

Choose your three words. Spin them into 100. BTFO, emmereffers.

EDIT — WINNERS:

I can’t do it.

I can’t choose just three.

Thus, I pick… er, five.

Shut up.

The winners:

SUE ANN JAFFARIAN

BRIAN LINDENMUTH

CHRIS MACKEY

YOJIMBOJAPAN

JO EBERHARDT

You all need to contact me at terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com.

Uhh, holy shit. Last week’s 100-word-story contest had over 100 entries…! Go check out the entries. I’ll pick a winner by the end of this weekend. Keep your grapes peeled.

See that photo?

That’s your challenge. Take a good long look. Think about what you see. And leaping forth from the flames you will find a story inspired by that photo. Whatever story it is, whatever genre you find it in, write it.

Let that image be your narrative guide.

You’ve got 1000 words.

Post it online at your blog.

Then link back here.

Then drop a comment below and point us to your story.

That’s all you gotta do.

One week to write it. By Friday, September 16th, noon EST.

“Plucked From The Pages Of History” is the prior week’s challenge, and I ask — nay, demand! — you go check it out. Right now. No, no, I’ll wait.

Revenge. Powerful topic, innit? To strike back. To give what they got comin’.

To pay a debt that burns deep in the heart like a smoldering coal.

So, that’s what I want you to write about.

Revenge.

Here’s the trick, though — it is such a potent subject, and yet I want you to increase its potency by compressing the story’s density like the aforementioned coal until a sharp and deadly diamond is formed.

You do not have 1000 words.

You only have 100.

And again, we’re talking a complete story in 100 words, not a poetic exercise, not a vignette captured in time, not the beginning of a story or just its ending. The whole kaboodle. An entire tale.

Doesn’t matter what genre. Crime is an easy one, but don’t feel married to that. Fantasy? Sci-fi? Erotica? Whatever you want, throw it at the wall, see what sticks.

From that bunch I’ll pick a favorite and that winner will get a copy of my newest writing-related e-book in PDF format. REVENGE OF THE PENMONKEY. Chock full of inkslinging goodness.

I still prefer you post the 100 words at your own site, but if you don’t have one, you can deposit the tale in the comments below. Make sure to link to your story if posted elsewhere.

You’ve got the usual week. September 9th, by noon EST.

Now, get to sinning. It’s time to enact your vengeance.

EDIT:

AHEM.

I have chosen.

Not one, but five favorites. As always,a hard choice, but that’s life in the big city.

The five (all of whom need to contact me to procure a free copy of ROTPM):

Bob Bois

Samantha Mathis

Jess Hartley

CY Reid

Amber (she of “Raising The Stakes”)

Hit me at terribleminds [at] gmail [dot] com or use the Contact form above.

Thanks, peeps!

The prior installment of the flash fiction challenge — “The Sub-Genre Tango II” — is large and in charge for your reading pleasure.

Over at his site, author Dan O’Shea is writing a novel day-by-day for all of you to see. It is the first draft and you can see it as it is written, tracking a new chapter every 24 hours.

The novel is titled ROTTEN AT HEART but the first thing you need to know about it is that it places Shakespeare into the role of shamus to solve a murder — which makes Shakespeare the protagonist.

A genius turn. And that’s what you’re going to do with your flash fiction.

Well, no, not necessarily take Shakespeare as your main character. What I want is for you to choose a famous person from history — be it Mark Twain, Babe Ruth, Nikola Tesla, Hannibal, whoever — and use that character as the protagonist in your short fiction. Bonus points for spinning it in a cool way: Shakespeare-as-detective, Nero-as-witch-hunter, Tesla-as-secret-alien, etc.

Once more, the plan remains the same. Up to 1000-word story. Any genre. Post at your blog, then link here and drop a note in the comments so we know where to find your story.

No prizes or incentive this week other than, “This is an awesome challenge, why not try?”

Choose your champion.

Let’s see some stories.

This past week’s Frankie Bill-themed challenge — “Must Love Guns” — is ready for your perusing.

It’s time again to smash a bunch of genres together and see what we get. Had fun last time. Will have fun this time. If I’m not having fun this time, I’m going to disintegrate one of you with my orbital laser.

Oh, stop. I don’t really own an orbital laser.

I lease it from a bunch of high-tech Somali pirates.

Anyway.

You will pick two genres from this list of sub-genres I give you. You will mash up those two genres into a piece of flash fiction, ~1000 words long. Easy like Sunday morning.

Here, then, is the list:

Southern Gothic

Cyberpunk

Sword & Sorcery

Femslash

Black Comedy

Picaresque

So, will we see Picaresque Femslash? Southern Gothic Cyberpunk? A Black Comedy S&S tale?

Mix and match, kids.

I’ll offer a prize yet again — I will do a critique and edit of up to 3000 words of your work. A slice of a novel, a short story, whatever. I’ll give it a look-see and add my comments.

That’s what’s on the table.

You’ve got a week. Friday the 26th by noon EST.

You know the drill.

Start dancing that tango.

Do check out the stories from last week’s challenge, in which writers torment their protagonists.

This week? I’ve got a book to give away.

An actual, honest-to-Jeebus physical book.

I know! Those do still exist. I may even decide to send it in a package made of dodo bones.

Anyway, this week, I’ll pick one story that I do love oh so very much, and the writer of that story will earn the above book — CRIMES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA, stories by Frank Bill. Let me be clear when I say that these stories represent a ragged, saw-toothed collection of mean-ass crime fiction — country noir set in the Heartland. Frank’s prose is equally gnarly, and represents a very distinct voice. Writers this good don’t come around all that often, so trust me when I say, you want this collection.

This is an advanced copy, too. Isn’t out until next month.

That should juice your trousers.

(Though be advised, I can only send it to folks in the US of A. That’s not to say international peeps can’t still contribute fiction, only that they ain’t up for the book.)

One thing I noticed when reading this collection is, HOLY SHIT, GUNS. See, I’m a bit of a gun nut. Sure, sure, I may be socially liberal, but like it or no, I’m a gun guy. My father was a gun collector, a gunsmith, and a gunseller, and as a result I grew up around guns. Mostly long-arms with the occasional pistol. Hell, to clear out carpenter bees my father loaded CCI .22 shotshells into a piece of shit Italian .22 revolver and had me shoot the bees one at a time as they swarmed up around our barn. There I was, 12-years-old, executing bees with a .22 revolver in our driveway.

Probably not legal. But whatever. Those were good times.

Anyway, on damn near every page of Frank Bill’s collection: guns. 12 gauge. H&K .40. A .38 snubnose. Another 12 gauge. Again and again: gun porn. And I like me some gun porn.

So, that’s your job.

GUN PORN.

Well, really, all I ask is that you write a piece of crime fiction that features — and c’mon, this is so easy — guns as a feature. That’s like a present to you, from me. Mmmm. Guns.

You have 1000 words.

Short flash fiction. Not a vignette but a complete story.

Due by Friday, August 19th.

I’ll pick a favorite in the week after.

Post at your online space. Link back here. Direct us to your tale in the comments of this post.

Crime + Guns = Awesome.

Get to work.

EDIT:

Whyooo!

We have our winner.

Some good stuff, here. Tricky, though, because some stuff a) wasn’t crime or b) was over the limit. Further, I’ll still note that it’s hard to read some stories because of the blogs — in particular, busy backdrops hiding behind white text. Had to copy/paste into a WORD doc just to read without getting headachey.

Anyway. Winner?

CM Stewart.

For this disturbing and well-written gem:

http://cmstewartwrite.wordpress.com/2011/08/19/kiss-the-gun-a-flash-fiction-tale/

Kiss The Gun.

Or what I would call, “Harvey Gets The Shot.”