Celebrating Independent Authors
Dick Waters is the readers’ choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge.
The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.
Without further ado, here’s the winning entry:
Every December, for the last twenty years, I have had to drive up to the central office to get my performance review from old Mr. Detweiler.
The drive takes over an hour. The weather is always frigid. Detweiler drones on and on about how much better I could do if I applied myself.
I only half-listen. My attention is on the poster behind his head. I love that beach. I can see myself walking along, the sand warm on my bare feet.
I must have stopped nodding at the right times. Detweiler slams his fist down on his desk. Now he’s talking to me about my lack of focus. He says he expects more from an employee who has been with the company for such a long time. he says I am lucky to have this job. Times are hard.
I have been with the company for a long time. Maybe too long. I may be the only employee left who knows about the safe behind the poster. That safe is where Detweiler keeps the money he skims from the company.
That beach looks pretty good…
In 250 words or less, tell us a story incorporating the elements in the picture. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. Continue reading “Flash Fiction Challenge: The Last Review”
Jon Jefferson is the readers’ choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge.
The winning entry is rewarded with a special feature here today and a place in our collection of winners which will be published as an e-book at year end.
Without further ado, here’s the winning entry:
For whatever reason, the general put a lot of stock in the old wizard. I was never one for ancient superstitions and parlor tricks.
To me, battles are won by strategy, force of numbers, and iron will.
But the general would not even begin a campaign without the wizard’s counsel.
He had persuaded the general that the weather would favor our victory. On this assurance alone, we had proceeded into Thrax territory in the late fall. Now the water kegs are frozen solid and the horses are dying.
I heard Captain Manx crunching through the brittle, thin snow behind me. “Looks like you were right. It was too late in the season to begin a campaign in the North,” he said, through chattering teeth.
I could not keep the bitterness out of my voice as I replied, “Being right is cold comfort to a dead man.”
But the gods play funny tricks with both weather and war…
In 250 words or less, tell us a story incorporating the elements in the picture. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.
Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level.
Use the comment section below to submit your entry. Entries will be accepted until Tuesday at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. Continue reading “Flash Fiction Challenge: Cold Comfort”