Flash Fiction Week 11 Entry

Our fearless leaders provided this photograph as our Week 11 prompt.  These eerie chairs inspired the following Flash story. 

“How can you not see it?!” Mitch shouted.  “Its right here in front of us.”  He pointed to the wooden chair that had appeared before them in the fraction of a second he took to blink.  It was the only other feature on the large grassy field they had been crossing after school.

Megan just stared at him confused.  He looked her right in the eyes.  “It looks just like one from our English class!”  He turned back to the mysterious chair, to find a second chair had appeared. Blink. A third. Blink. A fourth.

Megan did not react to the multiplying chairs.  More appeared on the grassy field each time Mitch turned his head.  As the population increased, his heart raced.  Who was doing this? Did she know?

I wooden chair popped out of nothing right in front of Mitch.  It was... looking at him, somehow.  Taunting him.

“Okay! Okay!” He shouted, in defeat “I’m sorry, Megan! I turned in your report with my name on it! Now make it stop.”

Flash Friday Week 11 Entry

 For Week 11 of the Shenandoah Valley Writers' Weekly Flash Fiction Contest we were told to write a murder mystery in 150-400 words.
We had a choice of weapon:

And location:

I resisted the urge to say Colonel Mustard in the Library, and instead wrote the following flash story.

The small room would work for now. It was his, he’d decided.  He deserved it.  The Cardinal was a very busy man, and was going to get busier now that the other’s had handed down their decision.

No doubt, there were many groans being issued across the City at that moment.  He didn’t mind.  If anything, he relished it.  He imagined those who had argued against him gritting their teeth when they heard the news.  “He’s too young” “His faith is insincere” “He’s too busy with the Inquisition” “He’s too worldly”  They had tried, but in the end, the majority had spoken.

Those who had advocated for him were probably scouring the grounds, trying to share in his victory.  He would emerge from his hideaway when he was good and ready.  The miniscule room had once been used for something, possibly the same purpose for which he now claimed it.  When he had first opened it he found a small table with an empty wine bottle.  He had his own drink and food placed upon it next to the bottle.  He refused to move it.  It looked too elegant with the cork in place holding up draping spider webs.

He watched the light from the small window glint across the web as the glass of wine did its job.  Tomorrow he would become the leader of the world, at least all the parts that mattered.  This afternoon he was going to enjoy his solitude.

As he was bringing the glass back to his lips to try to shake the final drop free, his inebriation was joined by another sensation.  The glass suddenly felt heavy in his hand.  He put it down with more force than intended and stood up.  He grasped the table to steady himself as his head spun.

The Cardinal made it through the entrance to the hidden room and cleared four stairs before his legs failed him.  He fell straight forward, throwing  him head-first into the wall of the spiral staircase.  The blood was the color of the wine he had spilt on his white shirt sleeve.  What was it? he wondered just before the blackness enveloped him. The wine slipped to him by a conspirator, the small black spider crawling out of his stained sleeve, or the prayers of his enemies echoing across the City.

Flash Friday #26!

This week, I had the privilege of judging the Flash! Friday Contest.  Rebekah unforgiving gave the writers a 500 word maximum, but their engaging stories held even my fickle attention.  The prompt was this photo:

It sparked a lot of interesting and emotional stories.  I deliberated and submitted the results posted here:

Flash! Friday #26 -Winners!

Thank you to the Hosts and to all those who participated!

Flash Friday Week Five Entry

I posted a story to the Shenandoah Valley Writers' Weekly Flash Fiction Contest on week five.  The  story had to be around 150 words and end with "Quietly, she began to sing."


She had made it four weeks, hours shy of a month.  Like a skilled predator, the shadowy organization had swiped her from her life and locked her away.  That life had been rather mundane, office work mostly.  But, secrets did pass over her desk.  She hadn’t even realized that her desk, in her particular department had acted as a nexus point for so many sensitive transactions.  The group, known only as the 20/20, had bided their time and chosen her carefully.  She was the one who would know the most, yet would have the least resistance.  Even so, she had made it four weeks.  Now, she wished only to return to the superficially mundane world these people had stolen. Just shy of a month, the abuse reached a threshold.  Their patience paid off and she could not hold the secrets back any longer.  Quietly she began to sing.

Flash Friday Week One Entry

In December, I started participating in Shenandoah Valley Writers' Weekly Flash Fiction Contest.

The first round was a 100 word story that started with "On Friday, everything changed".

This was my entry:

On Friday, everything changed.  Its no exaggeration when you are referring to the emotions of an interplanetary civilization with 150 billion inhabitants.  On Thursday (Sol standard date), those 150 billion had unparallelled hope.  The Institute had given them a promise. They claimed all tests indicated it would work.  A new era, poised to begin. 

On Friday, the test vessel failed.  It wasn’t the first time a colony had undergone explosive decompression.  Previous orbital colony failures had resulted in more casualties.  It wasn’t the failure of the colony.  It was the vessel.  Humanity  now had to accept faster-than-light travel was impossible.

Here We Go: My Goals

Welcome to Future History, Fictional Reality.  With this new blog I hope to achieve the following:

-Combat my chronic procrastination.  While I love developing interesting characters, settings and plots, sitting down and putting them to paper (or word processor) has always been a struggle.  Still I've managed to write more in the last six months than in the last six years.  The main reason being- accountability.  I participated in NaNoWriMo this year and it galvanized my writing.  I had goals to reach and I had a community to share them with.  I’ve stayed in contact with members of that community and they’ve helped me keep up the stamina (somewhat).

-Shameless self promotion.  With this blog I hope to generate interest in my work and my writing.  I’ve been living in fantastic worlds, inside my own head for years.  Now that my writing is becoming for prolific, I’m ready for others to start exploring these worlds with me.

-Networking.  NaNoWriMo and the community I’ve since joined have been invaluable.  I hope to use this blog to connect further with that community.

-Archive my work.  I will post writing here that I have posted on other blogs.  These flash stories are often posted as replies or comments, so I will post them here so they can be found in one place.

I am passionate about science fiction and most of my work will be in that genre, as you might have guessed from the title.  However, I do try to branch out when the spirit moves me.

If you like what you read, please comment.  If you don’t like it, please comment.  I am very interested in getting feedback.

I would like to thank Rebekah Postupak and Susan Warren Utley, co-founders of Shenandoah Valley Writers, for their support and encouragement.