Take the week off and enjoy the spring!

Glenn Ricafrente steps up to the microphone to challenge you:

Friends, Romans, Countrymen…write me a story! Write a story that includes an inspirational, rally-the-troops speech. Think Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech (“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”), or Mel Gibson’s exhortation in Braveheart, or any number of half-time speeches in sports movies or shows where the team is behind and the prospects for coming back are looking very grim indeed.

Prompt: Write a story with an inspirational speech spoken from the point of view of the underdog
Word Limit: 1,200
Genre: Open
Deadline: Wednesday, April 27th at 9:00 p.m. ET
Instructions: Please post your story name and a link to it in the comments of this post.

Thanks again to Glenn for the prompt! Here are our two doubles’ stories:

Glenn Ricafrente brings: Blasé

Mike Young is: Finding Danny

New prompt tomorrow!

What did they dig up? Let’s read and comment, shall we?

Michael Webb tells us it’s: Way Past Joking Time

Susan Blake returns with: The Legacy

Stephen Crowley brings it home with: Skulls

And Dyer Wilk spills: Bones

Let’s enter the portal…

Glenn Ricafrente gives us two choices: Stepping Through and Rejoinder

Zachariah T Baer sends us: Out the Back Door

Stacey DC goes: Through the Door To Change

Mike Young offers: The Portal

Mrs. JeckllHyde gives us: Chasing Greekboy

Please read and comment!

Thanks again to Glenn Ricafrente for moderating! Please read and comment on this week’s submissions!

Mike Young offers: After Life

CM Stewart introduces: Praise A. Diva

Robert Burns presents: Forms

MrsJekyllHyde gives us: A New Chance

Glenn Ricafrente tells: The Stories of Your Lives

Dexraven gives us: In the Mist of the Mind

There are passageways everywhere, quietly waiting to let us pass. Some just lead to other rooms right next door. Others stand guard between us and treasure or danger. What’s behind that door? Is it the bathroom or a path to a different world? Let us in…

Prompt: Write a story where a door figures prominently in the plot
Word Limit: 1,000 words
Genre: Open
Deadline: Wednesday, February 20 at 9:00 pm ET

Thanks to Glen Ricafrente for this week’s prompt!

The hauntingly elegiac 1998 Japanese movie ”Afterlife” depicts a way-station where production crews re-create the favorite moments of people who have passed on – and then freeze that moment for them for eternity. In his book ”Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives,” neuroscientist David Eagleman describes a wide variety of different and mutually-exclusive afterlives: from a place where God lets everyone (sinner and saint alike) go to heaven – and everyone agrees they’re all in hell; to an existence where the souls of the dead become bit players in the dreams of the living; to a reality where microbes are the only ones who pass on to the next world – because God is a microbe.

And then there are the traditional versions of afterlives from established religions: the heaven and hell of Christianity and Islam, the endless cycle of rebirth of Hinduism. But it does seem that literature has tried its hand again and again in coming up with different, creative, and varied descriptions of the life beyond this mortal plane. Now here’s your chance to do the same.

Your challenge: write a story that includes an afterlife. Bonus points if you create a totally new and original version of it. And remember, it should be a story – with characters, where something happens – and not just a description of your imagined next life.

Prompt: Write a story set in or that includes an afterlife
Genre: Any
Word limit: 1,200 words

One thousand apologies for the lateness of this post. I was very sick and am just now getting back into the swing of life. Please take some time this weekend to read and comment on our submissions. By the way, I am working my way through the time travel stories…I want to leave comments for everyone who adds a story here. I plan on posting your Friday prompt today too.

So, let’s find our marooned protagonists!

Meadhbh leaves us: Stranded

Dexraven is: Gone, Gone, Gone

Tom Elias sends us: Floater

Glenn Ricafrente also leaves us: Stranded

And newcomer Mrsjekyllhyde tells us: Explore and Escape

So, right now, I’m your sole moderator for Flash Fiction Friday. It’s ok; I’ll be all right. I will continue to add prompts as long as you want to continue to write. I want to thank Joyce and her family for so much gusto and dependability as they carried us through to the holidays. But other duties call for them and they are moving on. I wish them the best and buckets full of success.

I also want to thank all of you who participate in this community by adding stories here under the gun. We have quite a collection here that we should all be proud of.

Thank you to the readers as well…for leaving comments and tuning in. You are why I am here. You also can probably write and should feel free to jump in at any time. That’s an open invitation. If you don’t feel up to a story yet, why not add a prompt? Just click the “Suggest a Prompt” tab at the top. It sends me an email and I’ll likely use it.

Also, if anyone wants to moderate, send me an email and we’ll talk. (GREENPEARL at yahoo dot com). I’ll be glad to share my duties.

In the meantime, we still have stories to write. My inspiration comes from the show Red Dwarf or rather it’s theme song. You can check it out here (advance to the one minute mark to hear the lyrics):

Your prompt this week is to write about someone stranded, on their own, more or less. Is he completely alone? Does she have a companion or two? Are they in space or on an island? Alone in a crowd maybe?What resources does your protagonist have to find the way home or get rescued? Or will they perish?

I can’t wait to see what happens.

Prompt: Write a story about someone stranded
Genre: Open
Word Limit: 1,400
Deadline: Wednesday, February 6 at 9:00 p.m. EST