The First Line: Annie

It’s been a while since I posted.   There haven’t been any Chuck Wendig prompts since June and it sounds like there aren’t going to be any more, at least not for a while.  As a result, my blogging has been sparse since mid-Summer.

I sent in a story for August’s The First Line deadline.  The First Line is a journal that publishes four times a year and, each quarter, provides a prompt in the form of a sentence that is to be used as the first line in your story.  There are no restrictions on genre or form, but every story in each issue opens with the same first line.

I have been submitting to TFL for several years now and have yet to be published.  I usually post my story when (ok, ok, if) it is not accepted.  They didn’t accept this one, so I am now publishing it here for you to read.  I actually meant to publish it in September and just never got to it.  It’s just over 1,000 words long.  The first line for the quarter was The window was open just enough to let in the cool night air.  The day I wrote this, our next door neighbors lost their sweet dog of 12 years, and I suppose that was on my mind that night when I sat down to write.

I missed the November submission (my first one to miss since November 2016), for a number of reasons.  I want to write about that, too, in sort of a “writing year in review” piece.  Look for that sometime before the end of the year.  In the meantime please to enjoy “Annie”.

Chuck Wendig: Wormhole

So really, this is last week’s Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge. I thought I had missed my first one in more than a year and half but then, wonder of wonders, he didn’t put one out for this week. I’m saved! The theme for this one is Pop Culture Mash-Up Edition. This is the one where he gives us two lists of movies/TV shows/whatever, and tells us to pick one from each list and mash them together. I’ve done a couple of these already. A couple of years ago I mixed Jurassic Park and World War Z and also did a mash-up of The Princess Bride and Hamilton.

This time I tried to do less of a pure “fan fic” style story and get more into blending the spirits of the things, and I really love the story that I can up with. It’s a mix of Alice in Wonderland and The Matrix (which I will admit, is a little on the nose, but I couldn’t resist). It’s exactly 2,000 words. I hope you like it as much as I do. Please to enjoy, and as always, please feel free to comment.

Chuck Wendig: The Bridge and the Rose

I’m coming in just under the wire with this one.  The theme of this week’s Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge is A Random Scattering of Fresh Titles.  As the name implies, Chuck just gave us a list on ten titles and told us to pick one and go for it.  I chose “The Bridge and the Rose”.  It’s right at 1,500 words.  I decided to make it a Western, and used the eponymous character from my Stolen Titles/Stephen King story from earlier in the year, “The Colorado Kid”.  I started off trying for the same goofy vibe that story had, but it wound up being more quirky than goofy.  Not sure that makes sense, but you’ll see what I mean.  Give it a shot, and read the other one as well for comparison.  I’d love to know what you think of them.  Please to enjoy!

Chuck Wendig: Cold

This week’s Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge is called Thy Name Is Vengeance.  1,000 words on revenge in any form.  I used exactly 1,000 words and wrote a sequel to a story I wrote earlier this year, which was called “Three For The Road”.  That story was a little light-hearted and cheerful.  The sequel takes it to a darker place.  Please to enjoy.

Chuck Wendig: Make Me An Offer

The theme for the Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge this week is Real Estate.  It’s an easy one.  Up to 1,000 words that somehow interpret’s real estate.  I used all 1,000 and tried to make up for the way I interpreted space opera last week.  Please to enjoy and leave comments if you are so led.