Now that Spring has sprung for most of us, except for people in Colorado and Minnesota, and various other places still nipping with Winter weather, here are a couple who shook off Spring fever presenting us with stories of Spring.
Zachariah gives us “The End.”
While Glenn shares a “Fever.”
Thanks and enjoy you good weather.
The chill is abating and flowers are peeking up through the gray-brown soil. Animals brave scurrying about and the smell of skunks returns. It is also the time that people’s thoughts turn to love. So, let’s capture amore in a story…give yourselves a chance to exercise that big love-muscle called the brain and make it sore in parts of it that you didn’t know you could flex.
Prompt: Write a springtime story about love using these words: Kiss, breeze, kite, skunk and mud.
Genre: Open
Word Limit: 1,300
Due Date: Wednesday, April 10th at 9:00 p.m. ET
Instructions: Please post the title of your story and a link to it in the comments of this post.
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!
Glen Ricafrente has come through with another prompt…thank you, Glenn!
We all like to think we are unique, but how many times has someone said to you “You remind me of…” or “You look just like…”? With more and more humans on the planet, it does become increasingly probable that out there is someone who is nothing short of your exact duplicate (even if you aren’t an identical twin). In fiction and folklore, this notion takes on many forms, such as stories of mistaken identity, evil twins, clones, body doubles, shapeshifting aliens or demons, surgically altered spies, and paranormal doppelgangers.
Let’s come up with our own take on the concept, shall we?
Prompt: Write a story in which your protagonist encounters some sort of double or doppelganger.
Genre: Any
Word limit: 1,200 words
Deadline: Wednesday, March 20 at 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week we asked you to take the found item pictured to the left, a simple business card that says “Boris – Good Guy” and “Need Help?” and wrap a story around it. I must admit when I first saw this card I thought immediately of the show “The Equalizer” and various permutations of the clandestine do-gooder found on TV. There’s just something about the idea of a white knight to watch after you.
My second thought was of the person using this card hoping for a do-gooder only to get a goodhearted handyman and the plot quickly devolves into a comedy.
Mike Young saw it a little differently with is version of “The Good Guy.”
And Zachariah T. Baer has a solution for our “Family Man.”
Both were good stories, but if this were a contest and I had to choose a winner, Zachariah had good parts of white knight and comedy.
Thanks Mike and Zach for putting in stellar efforts.
On an off F3 topic, I’ve opened submissions for the next Shotgun Honey anthology. If you write crime fiction and want to take a stab at submitting, we’re happy to read your stories.
Former Flash Fiction Friday moderator, Darren G. Miller, posted the photo above on his Facebook page and tagged a few writerly types, like myself 
, commenting that this would make for a great Flash Fiction prompt, and he’s right. This card was found at a local restaurant, probably submitted for a free lunch or dinner just sitting there in a bowl hoping to be drawn for said meal. Or was it there for some other reason? Who is Boris? What kind of good can he do? What does this card mean and what does it mean for the person who found it? You’re that person, so take a moment and devise a story around this found object.
Please note this is a real card, so don’t call Boris. I’d hate to read a story finding out just how “good” Boris is, if you catch my drift.
Prompt: Write a story using the photo of the business card above as your inspiration. What does it mean? Who is Borris? What do you do?
Word Limit: 1000
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense or any turn you make of this potential tale.
Deadline: Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 9:00 p.m. ET
It seems all the time in the world has passed, but only three were brave enough to wander into the past. With thanks and gratitude, let’s take a moment to read these time telling tales.
Mike Young takes us through the “Portal.”
Zachariah T. Baer is “Mapping the Heavens.”
While Glenn Ricafrente makes us “A Hostage in Time.”
A question for you to answer, what is your favorite time travel story, show or movie?
Mine, if you haven’t guessed is Time After Time staring Malcolm McDowell. It had time travel and the grit to combine the sudden end of the Jack the Ripper killings. A close second is Time Machine starring Rod Taylor. And of course I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since Tom Baker, watched in on a black and white 13 inch TV using rabbit ears hoping to pick up PBS.
Hey folks. Thought I’d step in an give Flannery some help, resume some duties and keep your minds teeming with possibilities. Joyce and Flannery have been doing a great job. With Joyce gone, I figured it was about time I offered to help.
As linear creatures, time has long held our fascination, or rather how we can beat time. Conquer time. Become it’s master, for once not be bound to its whims. It has been an obsession in fiction from H G Well’s THE TIME MACHINE to BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE to most recently LOOPER staring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis. Not to mention Doctor Who. And time travel theorems change to fit the story from quantum entanglement to worm holes in space.
As much as I’d like most of where I am today, a part of me wonders about the possibility of going back and telling my younger self to do or not to do something. Minute changes in the past flapping butterfly wings to the future like a deadly tsunami.
This week I want you to write a story where time travel is your MacGuffin. Explain how you envision time travel and its consequences in your story.
Prompt: Write a story about someone time traveling, describe as best as your narrator can, whether he’s a common man or a brilliant scientist, the experience.
Word Limit: 1,600
Genre: Sci-Fi with a mash of whatever you like.
Deadline: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 9:00 p.m. ET
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology (Kindle)