Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Year 2, Week 44: Results!

I had a great time reading this week’s entries. Lots of imagination among the lot of you. Well done everyone! Due to time-constraints and health (check my blog for more on that), I’m only going to tell the runner-up and winner what I thought about their stories.

Runner-upBill Engleson with “Once Upon a Time in The Dragonsong Mountains”

LOL! I really enjoyed this piece. Lucille is quite a character.

The semi-colon in the following sentence should be replaced by a colon. (A colon emphases what’s to come, while a semi-colon connects two related sentences.) So your sentence will look like this: “Which, I don’t need to remind most Aircraft enthusiasts, is what the classic Detwiller looks like: a giant dill pickle.” Check out the link below for a great article explaining the use of semi-colons.

Well done!

Winner Y2W44Neha Srivastava with “Warped Reality”

I really enjoyed the imagery in this piece. For a while I thought the main character was somehow able to split herself in two. Great twist!

A few notes: physics doesn’t need capitalisation (see below), the instances of semi-colon use must be replaced with either colons (:) or with commas (,) as shown in the piece below. Check out this article on the correct use of semi-colons. I also removed the extra comma in the fifth paragraph and the extra ones in the last. The words in bold I added – the sentences needed them to be complete. I also moved the last sentence to stand on its own for effect.

All-in-all a great flash fiction piece. Well done!

Warped Reality

"Why aren't you obeying the laws of physics?" I shouted at myself.

I clung to the roof like a ceiling fan with four arms, my four limbs transformed into those four arms, I looked like a creature from the netherworld. But I knew it was me.

A sudden jolt of electricity shook my core, like the motor of a fan when someone switches on the button. Hell, someone had switched on the button. The fan started rotating, first slowly and then at top speed.

Switching on a fan and it rotating is normal business, except this time the fan was me. As the speed increased, I began gasping for breath. My limbs were almost coming apart, my being screaming for help, for someone to switch off the fan, for the rotations to stop.

I wanted to come back to my gross body which lay in the bed below: the vantage point from where I was observing me. As my body on the ceiling rotated, my body on the bed went out of breath. In two places at the same time. Physics could not explain what was happening, but both my bodies wanted the fan to be turned off. Some external force prevented this.

Tired from trying to prevent my limbs from tearing or my heart from exploding, my bodies dozed off. I didn't realize when. Upon waking, I was no longer short of breath. However, my head was heavy and my body lethargic.
The cannabis drink was wearing off.


Thank you all for participating!


Until next Saturday…

Saturday, June 24, 2017

Cracked Flash: Year2, Week 44

Welcome to another round of Cracked Flash Fiction Competition!


Judge this week: Ronel

Word count: 300 max

How: Submit your stories as a comment to this post, along with your name, word count, and title (and Twitter handle or blog if you've got 'em!). One entry per person.

Deadline: 
Midnight tonight, PDT.

Results announced: Next 
Wednesday afternoon.

Remember: Your entry must begin with the prompt! The prompt can be mutilated, but not beyond recognition. (Pictures do not need to be incorporated into your stories: they're for inspiration (and amusement).)
Prompt:

‘Why aren’t you obeying the laws of physics?’




Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Year 2, Week 41: Results!

I really do apologise over the time-zone glitches that sprung up this week – who knew that certain applications will ignore the time you tell them they should be in and decide to take your actual location? Rise of the machines…

Anyhow, thanks Anne and Bill for participating.

Here’s what I loved about your stories:

Bill, your tongue-in-the-cheek global warming take had me grinning from the start.

Anne, I like your portal-fantasy a lot and think there’s a lot of potential there for a longer piece (more about the problem, fleshing out of characters, etc.).

I can't pick a favourite, so let's call it a fun writing exercise.

Until next Saturday…



Saturday, June 3, 2017

Year 2, Week 41

Welcome to another round of CFFC!



Judge this week: Ronel

Word count: 300 max

How: Submit your stories as a comment to this post, along with your name, word count, and title (and Twitter handle or blog if you've got 'em!). One entry per person.

Deadline: 
Midnight tonight, PDT.

Results announced: Next Wednesday
 afternoon.

Remember: Your entry must begin with the prompt! The prompt can be mutilated, but not beyond recognition. (Pictures do not need to be incorporated into your stories: they're for inspiration (and amusement).)
Prompt:
‘Yes, but last week a dragon almost set my hair on fire, so it’s your turn to negotiate.’