For the Terribleminds flash fiction challenge, Five Words Plus One Vampire. The cockroach scuttled across the insulating layer of dust on the floor. David frowned as he swept his flashlight across the gatehouse interior. The castle had apparently been abandoned for the better part of a century, according to the locals. Nobody seemed to want… Continue reading Flash Fiction: David and Victoria
Tag: terribleminds
Flash Fiction: Burn
Because Chuck wanted a brand new monster… I don’t remember much beyond the tank. Floating in some odd solution, tubes hanging out of me, the mask on my face giving me air. I don’t know how I got out, or why I was there in the first place. The first thing I remember is running… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Burn
Flash Fiction: Another Three Sentences
Brevity is the soul of this latest challenge from Chuck Wendig. The protagonist has reached this point through trial and error (mostly error) but the goal is now within reach, allies close by and enemies poised to strike. The audience is expecting a resolution to the conflict, be it a happy ending, one involving varying… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Another Three Sentences
Flash Fiction: Enter the Bishop
Over on Terribleminds I’m playing The Numbers Game. He’d fought his way through her fortress, her brainwashed goons slapped aside as gently as possible. They were innocent, blameless. The silent plague they’d caught had done this. He entered the throne room at last, finding her on the wide dias, sampling ripe grapes. “You did this.”… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Enter the Bishop
Breaking That Damn Block
I know for a fact that writer’s block doesn’t exist. It’s a phantasmal construct, a conjuration of minds desperate to make words appear on pages but struggling with an inability to do so. Every writer, from the best-selling novelist to the mommy blogger to the spinner of rhetoric deals with it now and again. The… Continue reading Breaking That Damn Block
Book Review: Revenge of the Penmonkey
You know those books about writing out there? Novels and Groupies for Dummies? The Idiot’s Guide To Being The Next Stephen King? How I Did It by Stephenie Meyer? That’s amateur hour. Kiddie stuff. On the battlefield of serious writing, where the freelancers struggle every day to make something happen, to feed themselves through words,… Continue reading Book Review: Revenge of the Penmonkey
Flash Fiction: The Torch
Terribleminds made me do it. The news was the same as they walked into the restaurant as it had been all day: rumors of some sort of natural disaster followed by talking heads alternately saying everything was under control and everybody was doomed. Linus shook his head as he removed his wife’s fur coat. “I… Continue reading Flash Fiction: The Torch
Flash Fiction: Scratch
This week: 100 words on the subject of revenge. The knife was his world. With every move against the stone, his memory also sharpened. Scratch. Town hall meetings, talks with police, phone calls with councilmen, all aimed at making the streets safe. Scratch. Arguments from talking heads and neighbors, saying they were products of their… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Scratch
Flash Fiction: The Haunting on Rue de Berri
Plucked from the pages of history indeed. “Thank you for coming, Mister Franklin.” “It’s nothing.” The printing mogul and statesman leaned on his walking stick as he looked around the room. Like so many Parisian homes, it was as ostentatious as taste and budget allowed. A black cat looked up at him from the fainting… Continue reading Flash Fiction: The Haunting on Rue de Berri
Flash Fiction: Walking After Midnight
For the Terribleminds flash fiction challenge Sub-Genre Tango Part II, here’s a mix of cyberpunk and sword & sorcery. “Man, I don’t know about this. We’re static if we get caught.” Van looked over his shoulder at Anton. The shorter youth’s outburst had been no louder than a hiss, but it sounded a bullhorn at… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Walking After Midnight
