Bye Week

Sorry all, this is a bye week for the Flash Fiction Challenge. [For those unfamiliar, a BYE WEEK is a sports term for when a team has the week off. The challenge will be back this weekend. Please also keep in mind that IU is run by ONE person, so sometimes these things happen. Thanks for your patience!]

Here’s a photo for you, though, if you want to just write something with no competition for this week since it’s short notice. If you do want to have the competition anyway, just let us know in comments and I’ll make it so. I hope you are all well and safe and happy on this last day of February!

Aurora borealis in ne washington state KS Brooks

Author: K.S. Brooks

K.S. Brooks is an award-winning novelist, photographer, and photo-journalist, author of over 30 titles, and executive director and administrator of Indies Unlimited. Brooks is currently a photo-journalist and chief copy editor for two NE Washington newspapers.  She teaches self-publishing and writing topics for the Community Colleges of Spokane, and served on the Indie Author Day advisory board. For more about K.S. Brooks, visit her website and her Amazon author page.

7 thoughts on “Bye Week”

  2. I really want to continue writing this week and onwards.
    What is the prompt title?

    Are you short staffed? Is some one ill? Are there glitches in the computers?
    Do you have new volunteers in training?

    Thank you.

    1. Hi Margarida – short staffed? Absolutely, it’s just me running the whole blog for the past 5 years.

      A BYE WEEK is a sports term for having the week off. I will better clarify in the post that it’s just one week off.

      Thanks, Kat

  3. Rendezvous

    He’s been watching her for several weeks now. She takes pictures of the pretty lights in the sky, and he takes pictures of the pretty lady. Little does she know what is in store for her.

    She pulled out of the parking lot, right around the time he thought she would. There’s nothing like punctuality and a routine. He has the lights in the sky to thank for her routine. Night time is always the best time.

    He knew she would be headed to the hills, and he set up a tent to welcome her. It might come in handy.

    There was very little traffic on the road leading to the hills. He didn’t need his headlights and followed at a safe distance. He had considered his many options on how to greet her. Some of those put a big smile on his face, considering what she would do under the circumstances. Tonight, was their night.

    *.*.*

    It was no surprise to her that the mystery man was following her again. Tonight, was the night she was going to introduce herself to him. She knew enough about leverage and take down moves, and he would not be expecting her attack.

    *.*.*

    Three hours later she was no longer interested in the man who had begged to be let go. She took many photos of him in his embarrassing condition, and left her business card suitably placed.

    Smiling, she still had time to take the pictures she really wanted.

  4. Aurora

    When I was a kid, I always wanted to see the Northern Lights. Grandpa had done a tour of duty at Thule, back when he was in the Air Force, in the waning years of the Cold War. He’d tell me of the months-long winter night when the sun never rose,. and he’d walk outdoors into the noontime darkness lit only by ribbons of colored light in the sky.

    But we lived too far south to see the auroras, even during the solar maximum, when sunspot activity was at its highest. And somehow there never were any auroras on our trips up to Minnesota amd our family cabin on the lake.

    As I grew older, things started changing. Not just the personal ones of growing up and getting a job. Our country changed, and not for the better. Some of us tried to fight the change, but it wasn’t easy. Too many people would rather go along to get along, or took a ticket to the Moon to get away from the conflict.

    And then came the day when the auroras blazed in the night sky, even down here in Houston. The Sun had tossed a hairball, and it was just enough to tip things in our favor. The lunar settlements had better shielding, so they threw their weight on our side.

    Now we have to rebuild the nation I remember from my childhood.

  5. It Broke Again

    We were content in our happy full bellies, safety, secure location and overall sense of well being. Around the evening fire in warm clothing and snuggled in fleece blankets we joked, told stories and watched the sentries pass each other against the shimmery river. The gentle click of knitting needles and crochet hooks mixed with a cacophony of toads’ deep guttural sounds, night bird calls and the susurrus of wind through brittle leaves.

    Midnight lay contently across my shoes, a warm cosy living footwarmer.

    All was good with the world. We were swiftly forgetting what brought us as a group to this sweet life.
    Perhaps some of the group members were hoping to retire on this picturesque island dominated by the Bakery and Kay. Kay the matriarch, who had enough spirit and maternal feelings in her to care for us. As we say, man plans and God smiles!

    Midnight suddenly sat up, ears swivelling to the right, to the left and back again like a radar antenna receiving information. Swiftly on her feet, black nose anxiously sniffing the air. Then she was off like an arrow shot by a meticulous marks man. Swift, soundless,supple.
    BOOM and the earth shook. Autistic poison ripped the sky apart. Sickly greens were shadowed by violent reds. An alien invasion?

    With one thought and one mind we all slammed our bodies to the ground. Sobs filled the air stressing that our peaceful world was gone once more.

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