{"id":13576,"date":"2012-04-13T07:16:46","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T11:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/?p=13576"},"modified":"2012-04-27T07:46:03","modified_gmt":"2012-04-27T11:46:03","slug":"flash-fiction-challenge-death-is-on-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terribleminds.com\/ramble\/2012\/04\/13\/flash-fiction-challenge-death-is-on-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Fiction Challenge: “Death Is On The Table”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Behold last week’s challenge: “Just The Opening Line<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So, in less than two weeks now, my debut original novel — Blackbirds<\/strong> — enters into the world. Hopefully with a mad flutter of wings and not the thud<\/em> of a dead crow hitting the windshield of a parked car, but that’s a thing that’s out of my control. The book aims to be a sharp-toothed tale about fate and free will, featuring a girl who can see how you’re going to die just by touching you. (Let me add, in a moment of self-promo whorishness, that if you pre-order the book now from Amazon (US)<\/strong><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0 Amazon (UK)<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, or B&N<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and you email me proof of said pre-ordering to terribleminds at gmail dot com, I will toss you my short story collection and the first Atlanta Burns novella. For free, in PDF or MOBI format.)<\/p>\n

What all this means is, today we’re talking about death.<\/p>\n

The Big “D.”<\/p>\n

Demise. Dirt-Nap. Stick a fork in me, I’m done<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You have 1000 words to write a short story that prominently features death. What that means is up to you, of course. And genre is also in your court.<\/p>\n

But a death — or the concept of death, or an exploration of death — must be front and center.<\/p>\n

I’ll pick my favorite before Blackbirds<\/strong> releases on April 24th, and I’ll send the winner an e-book of my novel from either Amazon (MOBI) or B&N (ePUB).<\/p>\n

You’ve got 1000 words.<\/p>\n

Post the stories at your blogs or online spaces — don’t post here in the comments as the stories are too long to live at Casa Terribleminds. I’ll delete stories that post here. I’ll bring the hammer down.<\/p>\n

Deadline is — well, given that I’m traveling next week, let’s short the deadline by one day.<\/p>\n

Your new<\/em> deadline is Thursday, 4\/19, by noon EST.<\/p>\n

EDIT:<\/p>\n

AND WE HAVE A WINNER.<\/p>\n

*pant, pant, pant*<\/p>\n

Man, took me a while to go through these — I thought I’d have time traveling but I suspect I underestimated how many of you would enter.<\/p>\n

Some really great stories here. The game has been upped. I found myself having to pick apart entries based on tinier details to count them out.<\/p>\n

Spritzing death with a douche-spray? Death’s ride? Red and the Wolf? Many many good entries. A couple-few that were hard to read (blogs with images behind the text are unpleasant at best). But mostly top notch.<\/p>\n

I’m calling the winner for:<\/p>\n

A De\/composition.<\/p>\n

By Ilona Rose.<\/p>\n

It’s short and strongly written and struck me in a very sad way.<\/p>\n

A De\/composition<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n