Sunday 18 January 2015

Exploring the Darkness

Good morning, all!  My apologies for being a few hours late.  However, I'm quite grateful that my connection issue only lasted a short while.  I think it's getting better!

The long dark of winter has begun in earnest here in New England. Most days are overcast and dull, and a bitter cold has settled in.  Trees creak in the evening wind, as do my bones upon rising each morning.  It's the time of year when my thoughts always turn to my own mortality.  I don't fear these images, slithering and scratching quietly through my mind.  I embrace and explore them.  Time passes for all things and the cycles of life continue, after all.

My writing often takes a much darker turn during this time, as well.. So dark, that in the past, there have been stories I have been hesitant to commit to paper, as it were, fearing them perhaps too frightening to be read.

That being said, before I get to winners and words.  I have a question for all of you.  Have you ever written something you thought too "dark" to publish or show to anyone?  Answering, obviously, is voluntary, but I'd be interested to know.

And now on to the reason we call come here each week:

Our winner this week is Michael B. Fletcher with The Trap:  Michael, the sheer scope of this, conveyed in so few words, amazed me.  Thank you!

Also in the winner's circles is Sandra Davies with A Change of Focus (113):  Sandra, this has to be my favorite installment so far!  I have always loved the relationship between Vanessa and Pettinger, and to me this piece expresses it beautifully.  You have a wonderful talent for both dialogue and action!  Thank you!

The Tome has obligingly brought forth new words for us to play with.

Result
Ivory
Silence

The usual rules apply: 100 words maximum (excluding title) of flash fiction or poetry using all of the three words above in the genres of horror, fantasy, science fiction or noir. Serialized fiction is, as always, welcome. All variants and use of the words and stems are fine.

Feel free to post links to your stories on Twitter or Facebook or whichever social media best pleases you and, if you like, remind your friends that we are open to new and returning writers.

You have until Friday, January 23d.  Winners and words on Saturday January 24th.

The Gates are Open!

48 comments:

  1. congratulations, Michael and Sandra! outstanding writing from you both.
    Let's see if the Captain can stay on course (Ha!) this week and not exclude a prompt by rewriting his entire piece...

    So far I haven't written anything so dark I haven't shown it to the world. Some of them have come close but they've all shown their faces eventually.

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  2. Many congratulations to both Michael and Sandra. Such worthy winners. I think my piece this week be a little lighter than what I've previously posted. At least I intend to begin that way, but we'll see where it ends up!

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  3. Thanks for selecting me as the winner this week. With so many well written stories it is an honour to be chosen

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  4. Toothpick

    The toothpick probed into the centre of a decaying tooth, its owner concentrating in silence as he sought a trapped morsel of food.

    He raised his hand with a flourish, a leathery piece of gristle shivering on the ivory spike.
    ‘Result!’ he exclaimed.

    His dinner companion cringed.

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    1. As I cringed too, Michael, having a bit of a phobia about dentists ...

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    2. I swear Prediction is haunted! I've been right in the middle of typing this comment, three times, and the text box has simply disappeared as I typed. LOL. Hopefully third time's the charm. Having a dentist phobia myself, I must admit that I too, cringed. Great story. Nice use of the prompts. Thank you!

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    3. Arghhhh. The stuff of nightmares -- centre of a decaying tooth (:::insert shiver:::). I appreciate the reference since I have a major dental procedure looming on the horizon. This was very clever. My thoughts would have never travelled along this particular path.

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    4. Believe me when I say that any reference to dentists was purely coincidental. I merely was after disgusting behaviour at a dinner table. :)

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    5. There is something truly unsettling in the horror of perfectly normal actions. This hit a few of my buttons, too.

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    6. found this chilling in its tight writing and focus on that which makes us cringe. Good one, Michael!

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  5. Ivory Silence
    Written by Kerry E.B. Black

    Vanessa desired quiet, but her charges never stilled. Their shrill squeals echoed.
    Vanessa never anticipated such cacophony when becoming governess.
    She clutched her head, pain blinding. Children shrieked, feral despite fine clothing. Vanessa’s prized coiffure slid, spoofing Gibson-Girl’s beauty.
    “Damn changed circumstances landing me here,” she cried, fingers tangled in tresses, extricating an ivory comb, a present for her ‘coming out’ never to be.
    The girl screeched; her brother chased. Vanessa snagged him. The comb pierced. His eyes bulged, blood gurgled.
    The girl screamed.
    Vanessa embraced her, breathing, “An accident.”
    The girl gasped, writhed, slumped. The result - startling silence.

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    1. Welcome Kerry. and what a nasty piece to begin with! I especially liked "feral despite fine clothing". Well done.

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    2. Welcome Kerry. Lovely to have you here! And what a horrific way to introduce yourself! I agree with Sandra "feral despite fine clothing" is fantastic. Thank you!

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    3. Nicely done. Lovely reminder that not all governesses were cut from the same cloth as Mary Poppins! Nice use of "ivory" in both the title and the tale itself. Not sure if you're new here since I've only been on the board for a couple of weeks myself, but if so....welcome. I find this to be a very friendly little group and I greatly enjoy the participation.

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    4. Really good, Kerry. Great use of the prompts and the story leaves a lot of questions in the reader's mind. I'm not sure whether Vanessa is just irritable or something more.

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    5. Nice to have a new voice here! I really like the way this begins and ends with silence, both longed for and attained. Truly a horrific tale, but beautifully wrought.

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    6. Good to see you here, Kerry! Another of 'my' authors! Patricia, Kerry is a Thirteen author too.
      This is a nasty little piece in the nicest horror way, written in the style I am well used to now. Like it a lot.

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  6. Congratulations Michael, and thank you for the pick, Colleen. Prediction being the only place where I'm allowing myself to play at the moment, the comments - this a site like few others! - and commendations are immensely warming. Words look very promising.

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  7. A change of focus [114]

    It wasn’t a bomb.
    Its contents declared who’d sent it as clearly as if she – or her sister – had writ their address.
    For a terrifying twenty seconds following its detonation it seemed Vanessa’s precious vodka had miraculously transubstantiated into goose; the result of her office being filled with flurries of feathers in a multiplicity of shades of grey ranging from ivory to blue.
    Then the whispering silence was rent with Vanessa’s screeching. ‘Blood! It’s raining bloody blood!’
    Wearily, looking at her scarlet-speckled face, Pettinger explained, ‘It’s no more than you’d expect from sisters who’ve practised ornithological evisceration since their birth.

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    1. What really impresses me is the balance of horror and humor in these tales. I may have taken a little more pleasure in Vanessa's discomfort than is warranted, but I'll feel no guilt. Poor Pettinger, surrounded by dangerous and unstable women.

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  8. This is precious -- unsettlingly dark and disturbingly deviant but precious nonetheless. What a picture!

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    1. A solid story with leads to different questions. I did mull (for a split second mind you) over the shades of grey reference, but enjoyed it and look forward to reading more. :)

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    2. Michael, I too stumbled, but the words were necessary. And, I thought, why should whatsername now be allowed to keep all the best phrases!!

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    3. this is good, as always, Sandra. You manage to capture the various 'voices' perfectly.

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  9. Unwelcome information [ Threshold 51]

    Not the brightest of men, the cider-maker frowned at my denial of the child I’d birthed four months ago. ‘They said it was their grandchild –’

    Wishful thinking: Burk a boy who only cared for boys (ashamed, he’d held his silence); my son the result of mating with a man who knew what he was hung for, if little else. ‘Civiliseds abide in ivory towers. Release me unto Ravenscar –‘
    ‘Ravenscar!’
    ‘You know him?’
    ‘Rumour said he passed this way a week ago –‘
    ‘Alone?’
    The cider-maker’s eyes grew sly - was I so transparent?
    ‘Except for a new-wed wife.

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    Replies
    1. Good continuation of the story and use of prompts. Love the subtleties and intrigue.

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    2. And the story continues to weave a fascinating tale. This week's entries are definitely proving to be something like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates. Delicious and surprising.

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    3. Oh, now there's a gut-punch of a final line. I wish I knew how to move a story forward so quickly in so few lines and paint such vivid pictures (both scene and emotion) as you manage.

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    4. clever one, this, saying a whole chapter in 100 words. Brilliant!

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  10. THE THROWBACK
    (By: Foxxglove)
    [100 Words]

    Luigi peered at the squirming and squalling result of Gina's labour.

    "Freak of nature," he muttered sullenly.

    "Birth defects happen," snapped Gina. "Don't be insulting."

    Luigi scowled. "I blame your grandmother. One loose woman, always consorting with those Greek sailors who used to dock here. Do anything for an ivory trinket or jewelled bauble, she would. He's probably a throwback!"

    "At least I can trace MY ancestry," scoffed Gina. "Now just come kiss your son."

    In silence, Luigi acquiesced.

    He supposed the boy was cute in a grotesque sort of way, but whoever heard of a Cyclops with two eyes?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, good. Great twist. Where does this go?

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    2. Superb final question! Following, of course, a lucid and believable dialogue the necessary shift in imagery all the more horrific.

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    3. I actually burst out laughing at the last line. Fantastic! And the tension and derision leading up to it gives us the history of these two that is well-wrought.

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    4. another clever piece! I like this a lot, wondering where it's going!

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  11. Infinity 84.
    The ivory colour to the sky tells me a storm be coming. The silence be oppressive, naught but the creak of the ropes and the sound of the waves. For me that be silence, for others that be a din.
    A storm makes the Creature restless. I will have to find sommat for it, tis a good time to think about losing someone ‘overboard’ into its hands, if they be such things, and feed it for a while. Sometimes a storm brings a result no one be thinking about – but me. If I didn’t, God Himself couldn’t help us.

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  12. Pragmatic as ever! Oh the responsibilities of a Captain.

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  13. What a wonderful description of a ship sailing the high seas of pirate fortune. Creaking ropes brings an amazing image to the brain. I do believe I can taste the salt air, me hearties!

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  14. Reverberation

    His dark hands flitted over ivory keys, giving life to melody long forgotten. Dust motes danced as ladies had, spinning and spun out in lace, now cobwebbed memories.

    Attar of rose lingered longest, a hint clinging to tattered remnants. Odd, it should have been other scents that recalled the day, defined the moment they realized hiding had bought them only time, not coveted results, not escape from destiny.

    He played it like a love song, this requiem for his masters, all bones now, wrapped in the silence they’d asked of him.

    They should have asked him to mind the door.

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    Replies
    1. So very atmospheric, I can see the dust motes, hear the music, but I really, really want to know more of the story. Although I can imagine, from the hints, much of what it was. This is a novel in 100 words.

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  15. This was hauntingly beautiful. What an exquisite use of the prompts. It has something of a gothic feel to it. It almost reads like poetry.

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  16. Adrift

    The fat yellow moon lent a shimmery ivory hue to Vermont drifts. I wanted to talk about our schism, find out if we were still brothers, but Nate side-stepped it by asking about the case.

    “Major storms never hit this little town. Tornadoes turn aside. Blizzards skip on by. They get rain and snow, but nothing that results in destruction.”

    Nate shrugged. “Could be coincidence.”

    “For over a hundred years?” I scoffed.

    “Why investigate now?”

    If I wanted a thousand miles of silence, I’d confess Uncle Jim and I were worried. Instead, I clung to fragile peace.

    “Because Jim asked.”

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    1. A 'case'? Aha, does that change the nature of things? So often these two are side by side, heading for trouble, never fail to entertain - 'If I wanted a thousand miles of silence' resonates.

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    2. The manner in which you handle dialogue is a lesson to us all. This is getting seriously interesting.

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  17. Ignorance Is Bliss

    I wasn’t ready to be spending a lot of time with him yet, but I agreed with Seth that Jim asking for a thing was good enough reason to do it. The result was several hours of speculation about might be causing the “problem”.

    We’d been driving in silence for a little while when something occurred to me. I casually slipped my hand into my jacket pocket and fingered the small ivory amulet nestled there. It was a parting gift from Kaia, and it was ice cold.

    I pressed my lips together hard and kept driving.

    ”Son of a bitch.”

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    1. and what blissful reading ... How clever the ivory amulet, as well.

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    3. This was such an impressive use of the prompts. Antonia is always saying how the prompt word should blend in so well with the substance of the tale and they are not even noticeable. This is a prime example. And that last line....loved it.

      (Had to delete my first reply since I referred to "Antonia" as "Antonio." What a faux-pas!)

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  18. Colleen is snowbound and using her time to set her house to rights, so I am stepping up to close the gates. She will be back later to post winners and words.

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