It's November, Again

by Michael Seese

It's November. No, this is not a simple PSA to remind you to flip your calendar page. Dedicated fans of my blog (as well as people with too much time on their hands) might recall that in October 2013 and October 2014, I pledged to use the month to submit something, somewhere, every day. (The former even earned a shout-out from agent Janet Reid.)

This year, I made no such promise to myself. Mainly because I had a few hot irons in the fire.

• There was a MASH flash fiction piece, which I always enjoy trying my hand at.
• I bookended the month with stories written specifically for two open calls, one by Cantina Publishing and one by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing.
• Just days before the deadline I heard about a cool-sounding contest in the UK. Did that.
• And I closed out the month by putting a little polish on NIGHTMARES, in preparation for putting it in front of an agent. (Yes, I've got high hopes for that one.)

So despite not "trying," I still managed to submit 14 "somethings," plus 5 Flash! Fridays, 5 Three Line Thursdays, and 1 Janet Reid 100-word flash. 

Not too bad, considering I wasn't trying.

And the best part is, out of the 15 somethings, only 2 have been rejected thus far. Keep your fingers crossed. 

So now it's November, and many of my fellow writers are knee-deep in NaNoWriMo. Though I don't formally participate, I am going to focus on my current WIP. All I will say is that it's a kind of spy thriller, but with a twist; sort of a Disney-Aeon Flux mashup. That one will be fun.



 

Winner! Winner!

by Michael Seese

In a post the other week, I touched upon a few of the things I had written of late.

- a 500-story to MASH stories. (Rejected)
- a 3,400-word update of a classic to Crossroads In The Dark. (Still pending.)
- a nifty little piece (piling up the favorites) to Three Line Thursday. (The eventual winner.)  

This week was pretty good, too. My Three Line Thursday entry from a week ago took second place. To save you the trouble of hunting for it (but here's a link, if you want to) I'll post it below. 

Here is the photo:

 



















And my three-line response:

a pastel lake

seems like a nicer place

to drown 

Then to cap off the week, my Flash! Friday entry "Monkey See" was named the WINNER! My fourth crown. 

These are the judge's comments. (I'll admit I'm a complete whore for praise.)


J – The inescapability of the scenario was made just that much worse by the tiny flicker of hope which in the end trapped the narrator more securely than any lock. Let go of the key, let go of hope…hold the key, Sheila dies. This was an effort in futility from the very beginning and such a brilliant approach to the prompt, absolutely stunning in the execution… no pun intended and a well-deserved win.

IR – Oh the curse of our poor narrator! Much like J, I found the claustrophobia, echoed with the bleak stripped down layers of description, to bring to the fore the inertia of our would-be hero. In particular the shift from fractured torment into the realisation that we are in the midst of some dystopian game show was deftly executed without losing focus on the fear of our protagonists. The theme of catch 22 perfectly captured, the photo prompt delivered to the proverbial T, a worthy winner.

And here, should you still be awake, is my winner's interview.

Let's see if I can keep the string going, either with Three Line Thursday or Flash! Friday this week....

OR BOTH!

Flash! Friday: A Brother's Love

by Michael Seese

Another Flash! Friday that I can be proud of. 

Quick aside: My Three Line Thursday entry of last week was named the winner. 

Back to F!F, this week I had a little trouble getting started. But once I did...

Here was the photo:

And here is "A Brother's Love."

Frail hands flipped the page. A pause to remember, to reflect. Then a faint voice brought to life the characters in the faded photograph.

"That's me in the middle, of course," Nikolett said. "I'm standing with your grandfather."

"Who's that other man?" asked Anna, blue eyes brimming with a six-year-old's curiosity.

"That's Papa's brother, Patrik."

"Did I ever meet him?"

"No. He died in the war."

"That's sad."

"It is. But he was a brave, selfless man. The Germans conquered Magyarország without firing a shot, then set their evil plan in motion. I remember Patrik's reaction when he first heard of the trains. Clouds formed in those beautiful eyes, which otherwise held the skies. He used his foreign business connections to spirit our people out of the country. The Nazis executed him. But not before he managed to save perhaps 1,000 lives.

"He sounds like a hero. I wish I'd met him."

"As do I."

Nikolett secretly wished Anna were old enough to hear the full story of both brothers' heroism. Some day she would be capable of understanding the kind of sacrifice not meant for the history books: that of allowing another man to further your bloodline, when you cannot.

Some day, perhaps. But not this day.

Thoughts? Good / bad / ugly?

Flash! Friday: Feeding Time

by Michael Seese 

A busy week on the writing front. I submitted a 500-story to MASH stories, a nifty little piece (piling up the favorites) to Three Line Thursday, and a 3,400-word update of a classic to Crossroads In The Dark by Burning Willow Press. I have to say, I was rather amazed at the latter, considering I didn't even start it until Tuesday. And I still had time for Flash! Friday. (BTW, last week both of my stories earned honorable mentions.)

We had to use this photo today.

And set the story in the kitchen. Of late, I've been trying to focus on the picture first. I seem to get better results, though occasionally have to cobble on the text prompt. But this time, the setting of "a kitchen" worked perfectly. 

Below is "Feeding Time." 

Mealtime is the highlight of my day, I say, feeling quite the gourmand.

Succulent greens comprise the first course. Tender, tasty, often sweet. They're a rare treat, and always the first to go. Any morsels not consumed quickly wilt, shrivel, and get tossed into the trash.

Next comes the main course. What a spread! A glorious feast of flavors, bordering on bacchanalian. Each day, something new and exciting graces my plate. I gorge. Leftovers here are as scarce as hope.

Many steer clear of the nuts. Fine, I say. More for me. Shell thickness matters not, as pressure is one of nature's irresistible forces. I squeeze, squeeze, SQUEEZE until that first fissure appears. Then I ease up a touch, and WHAM! The sound as they crack, in and of itself, is satisfying.

What I find fascinating is that all of them – the green ones, the hard ones, and the rest – look the same as they are driven through my gates. They may think they're wrapped with different labels; but they aren't. They're all garnished with fear.

I can see it.

I can taste it.

I lick my chops.

Feeding time!

I will eat them all, spit out the remains, and floss my fangs with the razor wire.

What do y'all think?

Without Sin

by Michael Seese

So you know the drill with the Janet Reid contests. Write a (at most) 100-word flash using five key words. This week, the words were:

signal
hour
crane
collapse
homer

I made a conscious effort to try something different... to use the words in unexpected ways. As Janet always explains.

You must use the whole word, but that whole word can be part of a larger word. The word must appear as that whole word however.

Example: Signal/signals is ok but crane/cranberry is not. 

So I looked to see what I could do with "hour" and found the word houri, which Merriam-Webster defines as:

1:  one of the beautiful maidens that in Muslim belief live with the blessed in paradise
2:  a voluptuously beautiful young woman

From there the story fell into place. Here is "Without Sin."

She was a singular beauty, what the locals call a "houri." Even the great Homer would have been at a loss for words.

A crowd had gathered. They were cheering. I craned my neck for a better look. I should not have. But I succumbed to a baser facet of human nature.

Voyeurism.

I couldn’t understand a word of the man’s rabid invective. His stone was the first, and signaled that the orgy of violence could begin. She collapsed in a heap.

I wanted to say something. To stop the madness. But I dared not. For I am equally guilty.

If I may blow my own horn, I'm pretty proud of this one.

Also, I just learned that my entry for Three Line Thursday was named the winner.