by Mayumi-H | Oct 17, 2012 | Short Stories
“DETOUR” was the prompt for this week’s Five Sentence Fiction challenge, from Lillie McFerrin. We don’t have to use the word itself, just write a five sentence story using that word as inspiration. (I’m cheating a bit this week, as I originally wrote this one for another prompt. But, I think it fits better, here.)
This one is for all the people out there who don’t always go where they want to go, but get taken to where – and with whom – they need to be.
“In a Word”
There had been other men, of course, before him: the deliriously brilliant swashbuckler who’d spoken of strange and ancient mysteries; the handsome, charming defender who’d nearly swept her off her feet with flattering want; even the wise but wicked gentleman who’d wondered with her what could have been.
He wasn’t as brilliant, handsome, or as wise as them, nor delirious, charming, nor wicked.
But, he was strong and warm when they held each other, tenderly passionate when they kissed, and he filled her with such joy when he made her laugh. And, sometimes, when she least expected, he could be stately, like a gentleman, and as courageous as any knight, and even as exciting as a daredevil…in his own sometimes silly, sweet way.
He was, simply and in a word, her husband.
Yes, yes, I know: I’m a sap. But, I write what I know, which makes me a happy sap.
What DETOUR did your characters take, with this prompt?
by Mayumi-H | Oct 1, 2012 | Fearless, Short Stories
Contributed to the Five Sentence Fiction prompt DEVOTION, from Lillie McFerrin’s blog.
My Fearless story may be about Ross and Amber, but their supporting cast is just as important. In some ways, I think supporting casts offer some of the real meat of a story. They can provide back story where necessary; they can offer contrasting views of a situation; they can help create necessary conflict – or resolution – for or between the main characters.
Neville is, without a doubt, my favorite of the Fearless supporting characters, but I’ve enjoyed creating the back stories for the others, as well….
“Onward”
She loved this tiny village by the sea, with its cool, breezy nights and crisp, sunny days; she loved the way her husband had stories to go with its every old name and hidden corner, and the way her daughter was making stories of her own, to go with every new face and open break of beach and field.
But, as much as she loved the odd eccentrics and familiar friends of this village, she loved more who she was, the purpose she knew she had. Which was why it almost broke her heart to broach the subject she’d kept secret for too long, and told her husband she had to move on, to where she could do the most good, away from here.
He paused for but a moment. Then, as though he’d only been waiting for this, he smiled, and said, “So, when do we leave?”
Which of your supporting characters do you love – or hate? Why?
by Mayumi-H | Sep 26, 2012 | Short Stories
Another double-up of prompts, mostly because I’m too tired to concentrate on each without combining them (it’s been a long week).
Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction prompt is “ZOMBIE” and Julia’s 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups prompt is a picture:
I’ve taken a fair amount of liberty with these prompts, but we write how we’re inspired.
“Last”
Palm pressed to the terminal, she paused, briefly, as the data jumped between synapses – maps, securcam feeds, personnel records, everything was open to her.
“Think you can find your friends?” the soldier asked, startling her concentration.
Pulling her hand away, she opened her eyes, empty black replacing the wild torrent of information, and frowned: how could people shuffle dead-eyed and dumb through their own world? The Institute’s doctors had said she was special, if alone – the last of her kind – and, now, she understood why.
“I may not see,” Imien said, “but that doesn’t make me blind.”
Some technobabble, but I liked getting into Imien’s head a bit, here; she’s one of the Stowaways I haven’t really examined.
What five sentences or 100 words did you write, this time?
by Mayumi-H | Sep 19, 2012 | Short Stories
It’s time, once again, for another 100 Word Challenge for Grown-Ups, courtesy of Julia, who prompts us with
…as the apple fell….
We’ve got to incorporate the prompt, which means we get a total of 104 words with which to work. For me, I’m examining a character in the rough.
“Rot”
He crunched, teeth ripping through red flesh, and sniffed at the dumb, shuffling forms below. Worms, they were: dim drones bred for labor and submission.
Not that he was better. Soldiers followed orders; the behavioral inhibitors wired through his central nervous system made certain of that.
But there had been a time…a time when he’d reveled in the rush of freedom, the flush of passions, and the squeeze of tiny fingers around his thumb….
He crunched again, then grimaced, at the wriggle of greenish, half-eaten pulp.
As the apple fell, he aimed his rifle and sniffed again.
Worms. That’s all any of them were.
Dark, perhaps, but it’s where my mind’s at, these days of rain and storms.
by Mayumi-H | Sep 17, 2012 | Fearless, Short Stories
It’s a double-whammy this week, as I’m incorporating both Julia’s 100-Word Challenge for Grown Ups (week 57) prompt of “…returning to the routine…” and Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction prompt “AWKWARD” into the same post. Actually, it’s a triple whammy, since I’m also using Monday’s Fearless post to coincide.
To catch you up, Julia’s 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups gives writers a phrase or picture prompt, and we have 100 words (give or take; see the link for details) to write a story around it. Lillie’s Five-Sentence Fiction gives a one-word prompt, and we’re to write a flash fiction piece, consisting of only five sentences, that corresponds to said prompt.
I didn’t think I’d be able to participate at all this time around, as my schedule has been so hectic…but the pieces just fell together right, for me. (Maybe you disagree.)
“Hope In You”
![By Zelda F. Scott (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://mayumi.amorphous.press/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2012/09/256px-ballet_flat_in_the_westpark_in_bochum.jpg "Ballet_flat_in_the_Westpark_in_Bochum")
The bar turned slick beneath her hands, and her arms quivered all the way to her shoulders as her foot slid over the mat. It wasn’t from any thought or impulse, though, but mere weight, and that more than any pain or effort made the tears well.
Graceful, darling dancer: she’d never be that again, not if simply returning to the routine of standing on her dumb, labouring legs was this hard.
Spitting a plea for rest (and hating herself for it), she transferred to the chair, feeling weak, broken, hopeless.
Until she thought of him, and his smile, and pushed herself up again.
Julia’s prompt is a bit easier to recognize, here, than Lillie’s is, but hopefully you can see how I related this to both.
What awkwardness – or return to routine – did you describe, this time around?
by Mayumi-H | Sep 10, 2012 | Fearless, Short Stories
The prompt for this week’s Five Sentence Fiction from Lillie McFerrin is MEMORIES.
Once again (and keeping with my posting schedule), I’m using it to tackle some backstory for Fearless. Part of this is an effort to get back on-track…and part of it is because I think the conflict is an interesting one to examine.
“What It’s Not”
At four, he simply hadn’t known; “love” was but the smell of Christmas roast filling the kitchen, or cold ice cream sliding down his throat, or the rush of seawater between his toes.
By the time he was twelve, he’d come to understand it a bit more, though still not very much: Mum’s warm embrace, and his sisters’ gentle teasing; the joy of rolling waves to ride, and the blow of ocean air against his face.
By sixteen, though, he knew, he understood, even if he wished he didn’t. Because love like in stories was glorious and loud, full of honesty and trust, not hushed and hidden and kept secret in his breast, whispered only to the wind and the soft goose feathers stuffed in his pillow; it wasn’t a wicked laugh and a crooked smile, nor the shine of golden hair and sun-drenched flesh stretched beside him in the sand day after day. It was Antony and Cleopatra, Tristan and Isolde, Paolo and Francesca…not this, not them, not him: Neville, and the beautiful, oblivious boy who filled his dreams.
A bit of a tortured Neville, here, but teenagers tend to be filled with angst.
What MEMORIES did you take a look at, this week?
“DETOUR” was the prompt for this week’s Five Sentence Fiction challenge, from Lillie McFerrin. We don’t have to use the word itself, just write a five sentence story using that word as inspiration. (I’m cheating a bit this week, as I originally wrote this one for another prompt. But, I think it fits better, here.)
![By Zelda F. Scott (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://mayumi.amorphous.press/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2012/09/256px-ballet_flat_in_the_westpark_in_bochum.jpg "Ballet_flat_in_the_Westpark_in_Bochum")
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