Writing Alchemy--Spinning Three Words into 100

Chuck Wendig's flash fiction challenge this week is to take three words out of a list of five (Ivy, Bishop, Lollipop, Blister, Enzyme) and write a 100-word story. I chose LOLLIPOP, BLISTER, and ENZYME.

LIFE SUCKS

Amy sucked on the enzyme lollipop and contemplated the holographic game board. She moved a piece and the AI moved three for the win.

“You cheat,” she accused and threw her lollipop through the board image, which popped like a blister.

The maintenance sensors dispatched a robo-scrubber to clean up the sticky mess.

Amy knew she needed the enzymes to thrive, but the candy tasted like ass.

Still, her parents hadn’t gone to all the trouble to therapeutically kill her in 2012 only to have her new doctors label her “non-compliant” in 2042.

Amy sighed and unwrapped another lollipop.

Toxic Reality coming soon!

My second collection of short fiction, Toxic Reality, will be a reality within weeks. Joy Sillesen of StonyHill Productions is currently designing the cover and layout, and I'm going through the final edit and selection process,. killing my children with wild abandon. (Read Sandra Seamans' blog on the process she's going through prepping her as-yet-unnamed collection for Snubnose Press here.)

Late one night a few months ago I'd been toying with the idea of writing a title story for the collection and I came up with the story below. Well, not really a story so much as a splat of words that after a good night's sleep I realized should never, ever see print. But it kind of amused me to collect my anxieties in one big rant, so I'm posting it here.  Complete with the groovy font-playing that seemed such a great idea at one in the morning.

Acid rain  

A

Bees dying

Cancer clusters

    C

Deforestation

E-coli

          E

Famine

Genital mutilation

Hole in the ozone

Icebergs melting

    I

John Galliano

Kabul

Love Canal

             L

Mercury poisoning

Norwegian extremists

Oceans dying

   O

Pandemics

Quadriplegia

Radioactive breast milk

        R

Superbugs

Terrorism

   T

Urban blight

Vanishing species

Whale stranding

Xenophobia

                        X

Yeast infections

      Y

Zero-sum mentality

Autism on the rise

BP oil spill

Capital punishment

Ethnic cleansing

Fukishima meltdown

Greenhouse gases

Habitat destruction

Improvised Explosive Devices

                          I

Job losses

Kudzu vine

Lyme Disease

Malaria

Neutron bombs

Overpopulation

Piracy

Q Fever

Road rage

Sun damage

Traffic jams

     T

Upside-down mortgages

Vehicular homicide

War

Xenodermia

Yellow fever

Zombie apocalypse

ACEIL ORTZYIT

TOXIC REALITY

The Smallest of the Summoner's Bells--in French

The multi-talented Joy Sillesen of StonyHill Productions has done it again. She created this beautiful cover for the French version of my story, "The Smallest of the Summoner's Bells."  The translator is still twiddling with the front matter, but the story should be available by the end of the month.

Zombiefied Gets a Release Date

Cue the shameless self-promotion!
My story "Dead Letter" is included in this Sky Warrior Books anthology. The ebook version will be available on October 1st (more info later); with a print version following. Here's the cover to whet your appetite (for brains!!!)

And since we're talking about zombies, have you been reading the great zombie stories on Eaten Alive?  All zombies, all the time, with stories from Col Bury, Chris Rhatigan, R.S. Bohn, A.J. Hayes, Jimmy Calaway, Richard Godwin, Kenneth James Crist, Michael J. Solender, Michael Moreci, and me...

And of course, you've bought your copy of Peter Mark May's excellent undead anthology Alt-Dead, right?  More zombie stories than you can shake a stick at, from both sides of the Atlantic.

Food. Wine. Mystery. Romance.

I don't know Christina Dodd's books but just stumbled across her fantastic website (thank you Twitter). It's so inviting and so inventive and low-key in the way it introduces a visitor to her world and her cast of characters that I want to go out and buy her books.  I also want to live in her fictitious Bella Valley and drink wine and eat food. Check the site out.

Ready. Steady, Write.

Every time I sit down to work on THE NOVEL, a bunch of really interesting short fiction challenges and contests and calls for submission seem to pop up.  Focus.  I struggle with it.  But in the meantime, here are some people who want to see short stories...some for glory, some for pay.

NPR is back with their three-minute fiction contest. Submissions are open until September 25 for stories no longer than 600 words. The theme this time--leaving town, arriving in town. Full details here

Chuck Wendig of Terrible Minds continues to entice with his weekly flash fiction challenge. (Last week's 100-word "Revenge" challenge scored triple digit numbers of submissions.) This week the challenge comes with a photo prompt. For details on "The Torch" go here

Then there's Paragraph Planet, a site that posts 75-word stories--one paragraph, one micro-story. I sent them a snippet story on a lark and they're publishing it Monday.  (Notice how I slipped in that bit of shameless self-promotion?)  Here's the site..

For Haruki Murakami fans, there's a really interesting fiction challenge being sponsored by his publisher to promote his latest book, 1Q84. The challenge is to use this sentence from the book as the opening line of a story of your own:. Carrying a single bag, the young man is travelling alone at his whim with no particular destination in mind.' Word limit is 1500.  The winning story will be published on Random House and Foyle's websites and a complete cache of the author's backlist.  Here are the details.

And finally, consider submitting to Omnium Gatherum's Detritus anthology. They want stories about your collections--your secret obsessions. Stories up to 5K, deadline is October 15. (The cover is very handsome.) More information here.


 




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Chicken Salad for Mayonnaise Haters

I know, that's not the most appetizing headline ever, but that's really the best way to describe this.  My friend and catering partner invented it on the spot one night when nibbles were running low and the cupboard was bare. It's great on crackers or bread, or even topping a salad.  Best of all, the mayonnaise is so minimal that even mayo-averse types like me can chow down.  Both my parents were from the south but split along culinary lines when it came to mayonnaise. My mother and brother ate it with impunity; my father, sister and I refused to touch it. (My sister's aversion was pathological and eating out with her was often a trial.)  And seriously, who invented coleslaw?  Raw cabbage soaked in mayonnaise.  Shudder.  Even Ina Garten's version with bleu cheese doesn't do it for me. But I digress.
Here's the recipe:

1 large can of chicken, drained and shredded with a fork
Lemon pepper to taste (don't be shy--shake it on)
1 forkful of mayonnaise (just enough to make everything sort of stick together)

That's it.  Enjoy.