Tag: fiction (page 15 of 17)

Okay, I know I said something about blah blah blah, only 100 words, but fuck that, this challenge needs the full girth. So, you still get 1000 words. What’s the challenge, you ask?

CLICK HERE.

No, really. Do it. Click it.

That link takes you to 60 completely insane and largely unusable stock photos. They’re fucking weird, the whole lot of them. Which means we need to take a big bite out of that lunacy and spit out some flash fiction.

Pick one of those 60 photos.

Title it accordingly.

Write 1000 words — flash fiction, start to finish — about the photo you chose. Make sure to indicate somewhere what number you chose so we can all play along in our heads (though, I will note that it could also be fun to write a story based on one and then have people try to guess which photo you chose… you decide, I guess).

Challenge begins now.

And it ends next Friday. Since I’m no longer tallying the stories in the post itself (remember to yell at me if you’d prefer to have that practice reinstated), let’s just say you have till the end of next Friday day.

Now, you may be saying, at present:

BUT I CANNOT ENTER A COMMENT, YOU JERK

Which is a fair comment. Here’s the deal, though: I’m moving this website within the same host from one server to a cloud server, and it’s likely that any comments that get put here will go kablooey over the weekend, so I’m not going to open comments back up until Monday (Tuesday at the latest). So, write your stories, but you’ll have to link to them a little later, I’m afraid. I know. Life is hard. Wear a codpiece.

So, that’s that.

Flash fiction based on horrible stock photography.

Go.

Go visit last week’s flash fiction challenge — BABY PULP! It’s easily my favorite, so check out the stories.

Okay, so. See that photo?

When the wife and I were in San Francisco, we stopped in a kooky little antique store up near the Marina. It was truly eclectic, like many are, and particularly like many in the city of San Francisco are, and contained within were any number of strange delights and wonders. But then I found that portrait up there. Now, one suspects that the portrait — which clearly portrays a boy who is not, erm, precisely human — is Photoshopped and isn’t actually a real antique. But let’s be honest: that’s not the most interesting interpretation of that story, is it?

So, your task is:

Write some flash fiction about that portrait. Will you write about the monster in the picture? Or the photographer? Or the poor couple who buys the portrait? Or some other unseen angle?

Is it real? Is it fake? Will you write horror? Humor? Urban fantasy? Noir? Some weird mish-mash of genres that remains unexpected? Fuck it, go nuts.

You have 1000 words. (Though next week’s challenge? I’m giving you only 100.)

You have one week. (Next week’s challenge, you get one day.)

As always, post the stories at your blogs. Link to the stories here in the comments. And, if you’d be so kind, link to here from somewhere within your own post.

Once more, you’ve got till next Friday morning.

Please to enjoy.

See that picture?

There’s your flash fiction inspirado right there.

Once again, you have 1000 words and one week.

Any genre will do.

Don’t forget to drop a link to your story in the comments below.

It’s time to grab a pen and whip open your trenchcoat — flash fiction style.

(Am I right in assuming that you guys are digging these challenges? I hope so. Yell at me if you grow weary of it — though I can’t lie and say I’m not enjoying the breadth and depth of the fiction that ends up here.)

Who Checked In At The Front Desk?

Dan O’Shea, “Circle of Life”

CY, “I’ll Just Take Those Bags Down For You”

Jamie Wyman, “Eat. Prey. Love.”

Stephanie Belser, “The Project”

Abhishek Boinapalli, “From Dreams”

Ben Kirby, “Boy”

Julia Madeleine, “The Hotel”

Madison, “There Is No Om In Hotel”

AB, “My First Post”

Paul Vogt, “First Impressions”

Carmen Maldonado, “People Always Come And Go Like Ants”

Andrea Michaels, “Decay”

Alice M, “Moira’s Bathroom”

Rob A, “End Of The Line”

Tim Kelley, “Sisters In Melancholy”

Shree, “She Watched Herself From Above”

MKS, “The Last Honeymoon”

Aiwevanya, “Missed Connection”

Sparky, “A Break In The Clouds”

Albert Berg, “The Ghosts Of Houses”

Lindsay Mawson, “The Hotel”

Matt, “American Tango”

Letters Bloody Letters, “Strictly Business”

Diane Henders, “Freedom”

Shullamuth Smith, “Mr. Mojo Rising”

Joyce Juzwik, “No Sale”

Dan Wright, “L’Esprit De L’escalier”

Scott Steele, “The Old Hotel”

Boys Behaving Badly, “Amos”

Amber Keller, “Bad Blood”

Hyacinth, “Full House”

CM Stewart, “Rapture At The Hotel”

Anthony Laffan, “The Perg Hotel”

Lauren (Falconesse), “Rendevouz“

The Shackleton’s Scotch challenge was pretty dang cool, and the results were, frankly, fun as hell to read. And a number of you said you’d be interested in more flash fiction challenges.

So, here I am, once more throwing down the gauntlet.

As you may know, I have a short story collection called IRREGULAR CREATURES (buy here), which features nine tales of bizarre-o beasties, mythological miscreants, and mad monsters — the creatures found in that collection (flying cats, Bigfoot, mermaids, mystic hobos, evil sex monkeys, the mesmerizing vagina of a fallen angel) are in many ways like the writer himself: an odd-seeming and often irregular entity.

This week’s challenge, which runs from today till next Friday (3/11/11) at noon, asks you to take those two words — “irregular creature” — and craft some flash fiction around it.

Whatever that phrase means to you, run with it.

You’ve got 1000 words.

Doesn’t mean you need to stay inside the margins of genre — while fantasy, sci-fi, horror and humor are apropos, anything goes in terms of the inspiration you take from that pair of words.

I’ll once more compile them at the end of the seven days.

Well, what the hell are you waiting around for? Get thee to the word mines!

Your own irregular creatures await.

The Results

Karina Cooper, “Looking Too Hard”

Josin McQueen, “Irregular Creatures”

Jamie Wyman, “Step Right Up”

Angela Perry, “Dog Farts”

Wes Robinson, “Irregular Creatures”

CY, “Signing On”

Tim Kelley, “Snowbirds”

Albert Berg, “The Life And Times Of Casey Jones”

Anthony Laffan, “Three Nights ‘Til The New Moon”

Elizabeth Newlin, “Irregular Creatures”

Amber Keller, “Running On E”

MKS, “Irregular Creatures”

Ben, “Coyote”

Paul Vogt, “Attempt #3”

Snellopy, “Dogspider”

Shree, “Daddy’s Girl”

Marko Kloos, “Seeds”

Aiwevenya, “Writing Class”

Tara Tyler, “Irregular Creature”

McDroll, “My Irregular Little Creature”

Stephanie Belser, “Irregular Creatures”

Sroot, “Angels Or Aliens”

Seth, “Three”

Letters Bloody Letters, “The Story Of Dirty Mari”

Michael Montoure, “Control”

Boys Behaving Badly, “The Horologe”

Sparky, “Waiting Room”

Valerie Valdes, “Hiss”

Gary B. Phillips, “Mottephobia”

Dan, “Jake’s Wake”

John Murphy, “Unintended Consequences”

DeAnna Knippling, “The Last Diary Of Doctor Frankenstein“

The other day, I said: “Hey, you. That’s right. You. With the clown shoes. And the iguana. And the faint aroma of spoiled milk. It’s time to write a flash fiction challenge based on Shackleton’s Scotch.”

And somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of you crazy motherfookers stepped out of the shadows and tossed your flash fiction down on the stage and were like, “BOOM goes the dynamite.”

Or something.

Anyway, below I present to you the mighty Shackleton’s Scotch challengers — it’s some good stuff, so do yourself and them a favor, click on over and read away.

Before I present those links, I’ll ask: did you dig the challenge? Do you want more excuses to write flash fiction? Let me know. I could be convinced to do this again.

These Playas Be Ice Cold

(If the fiction had no title listed, instead of going with “untitled” I’m instead listing them with, most frequently, the first sentence of the piece. Also, I’m listing them in the order they were received.)

Josin McQuein: “First You Run Out Of Food, Then Fuel”

Dan O’Shea: “Shackleton’s Hootch”

Albert Berg: “The Stone Saucer”

McDroll: “Whisky Island”

David Blakeley: “Inner Child On Forgotten Scotch”

Levy Montgomery: “That Single Fly’s Foot”

Adam Maxwell: “Bullet Time And The Beer Taxi”

Me Myself And I: “I Don’t Drink Anymore”

John Kenyon: “Endure”

Sparky: “Booze Run”

Billy Prophet: “Shackleton’s Scotch”

CY Reid: “The Best Laid Plans”

Marc Nash: “Drying Out”

Ben Kirby: “Last Case Run”

KD James: “Scotch On The Rocks”

Sean Preston: “Distillation”

Gary E. Weller: “Mackinlay’s Samba”

Paul Vogt: “Gun Nut”

C.M. Stewart: “Snotrunningly”

Aiwevanya: “Jeannie In A Bottle”

Shullamuth: “A Paean To Spring”

Frank McBride: “That Box My Brother And I Buried”

DeAnna Knippling: “A Fly In Amber” (use purchase code QN26W)

Rob Hart: “Stealing Shackleton’s Scotch”

Madison: “Three Men On A Snow Day”

Anthony: “Shackleton’s Magical Whiskey”

Orange Tango: “He’s Not Sure Why He Went To The Bar”

T.N. Tobias: “A Drink At The Edge”

Marian Allen: “For A Few Bottles More“