week 7 winners

Second time judge @verucadarling had eleven gorgeous entries to read this week. 

Here are her winners:

FIRST PLACE... @katiewinkles

I fell in love with this one the second I read it. The description of the little moments that would've gone unnoticed by everyone else were really everything to these two people. 

Theirs was a stolen moment beneath twinkling lights; eyes that met across the room for half a heartbeat.

Her brain said wait. His heart said look again.

A look was all it took.

The tiny space inside her chest could barely contain her heart as it took flight, a hand fluttering to her chest, her fingers meeting flushed skin and a trembling pulse between her collar bones.

Her lips parted, the corners lifting, and across the room the curve of his mouth answered; I know. I feel it too.
Nobody turned to look at them; no one even noticed a thing. But for them – time stopped. And in that moment it was like the world fell away, and all that was left was the burn of his gaze and the thunder of her heart.

Her feet said go, move, every cell of her body reaching for him.
But it was he who moved first, unable to stop his legs from carrying him to her.

It wasn’t epic. They would never write books about it. In years to come they would forget exactly how it happened.

In the end, a dozen heartbeats and two smiles was all it took.

SECOND PLACE... @CrackedFic

Nicely done conveying the scene strictly through dialogue. Not knowing anything about Scully and Mulder, since I"ve never seen a single episode of The X-Files, it didn't matter. The tone and imagery was set up perfectly through the characters' speech. Really loved the originality.

"They're fireflies."

"Fireflies?"

"Yup."

"Lined up like that? In perfect rows?"

"Yup."

"That's ridiculous."

"Yup."

"But how?"

"No one knows."

"No, I mean how do you know they're fireflies."

"It's obvious."

"Enlighten me."

"If you don't see it, you won't see it."

"You're infuriating."

"Yup."

"I'm staring at this thing and all I see are strings of Christmas lights."

"That's what you would see. You're you."

"Quit talking in riddles, dammit."

"I see a photograph taken on May 13, 2011, from a street in Melbourne, Australia. Look at the date imprinted on the back."

"OK. I'm looking. And?"

"Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury were aligned that day. It was visible only from the southern hemisphere."

"And?"

"You don't find it odd that these fireflies chose to align into ellipses nearly identical to those the planets travel in on the very day those planets were aligned?"

"You haven't proven this picture shows fireflies. It still looks like Christmas lights to me."

"That, Scully, is because you have no imagination. Zoom in on the picture. Keep going. More. That's it. Now what do you see?"

"Fireflies, Mulder. I see fireflies.”

THIRD PLACE... @magtwi78

The details are so lovely yet still leave room to the imagination. Also, tell me what happens next, please!

The cool breeze tickled her bare legs like the kisses that stole her sleep the night before. With her toes pressed into her party shoes and her shawl wrapped tighter, she stood, silent, under the artificial-starlit sky. In the open-ceilinged room full of people, she let the wall’s shadows hide her from the oppressive air of celebration that swam all around her—but never quite reaching her. She caught smiles from the party-goers, throwing an occasional one in return, and watched them tip bubbles down their throats.

Never had she felt so alone.

The fever in the air grew closer as the hour did. The twelfth chime and the falling of the sparkle-studded sphere this time would signify so much more than just a page turning on a calendar.

Twisting her own transparent stem between rose-tipped fingers, she held the glass aloft to see the shimmering lights distort through the golden liquid. The people around began to chant; the reverse mantra of a kindergarten class. She whispered a silent toast to herself.

When she lowered her glass, the cheer was rousing.

And there he was. Her next toast was lost in his kiss.

HONOURABLE MENTION... @CallMePagliacci

Hot, freshly-wet asphalt,
Rubber and dust.
Sweet summer rain.

A dance and a drink.
Twirl me about and twirl me ‘round.
We smile, you laugh,
And you lean in.
Lean in.
Lean in...
Our lips touch.
We’re the only two people in the world.

We stumble through the streets
Drunk on spiked sweet tea and new love.
Mardi Gras swirls around us
Revelers
Buzzing cacophony.

I can’t get you back to my apartment fast enough.
Your hand is clammy, solid in my own.

I pull you down the sidewalk,
under the year-round Christmas lights
in a part of town where it’s not tacky.
My tipsy cottony mental fuzz
The lights unfocus and
Blur.
They shine
Like sparks
Like the sparks that fly when your lips meet mine again in my doorway.

“I love you.”

Congratulations @katiewinkles!

I look forward to seeing the prompt you choose have chosen for next week's #fanficflashfic.

Thank you to @verucadarling for judging, and to everyone who participated.

See you all next week.

P.S. Speaking of... why not pester your friends to write for #fanficflashfic next Thursday.

week 7 fanficflashfic

Week 6 winner @darlingveruca has selected this week's prompt, and it's gorgeous.

I'm excited to see what it inspires you to write.

Remember to check the rules. 

Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 1:00am Friday, US EDST.

We want anything and everything: poetry, prose, fanfic, OF. 

JUST GET WRITING!

Leave your entry as a comment - include your word count, and your twitter handle if you have one.

FYI - entries that exceed (or are under) the word limits will not be considered by the judge.

week 6 winners

Before we announce the winners, let's meet our judge @spanglemaker9. I asked her my random questions...

1. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve been given? It's not advice, really, but it's my favorite quote by an author about writing and it pretty much sums up how I go at it.

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”- Jack London


 2. The first and last books you fell in love with? The first? Ummm.....probably Black Beauty or The Black Stallion. I was very into horses as a girl. The most recent book to really grab me was The Fault In Our Stars.


3. What's happening outside the nearest window? I live on a quiet street in Brooklyn, so not much. Someone might be parking their car.


4. If you could delete one word from the English language, which one would it be? Moist. I've never ever found a place in writing where only that word will work. There's always a better way to say it.


5. Suppose you could travel to any place in time and history. When and where are you going? Oh no. WAY too hard! I'm a history buff and a travel junkie and naturally curious, so you could drop me pretty much anywhere in history and I'd find something of interest. Maybe the execution of Anne Boleyn or the storming of the Basteille in 1789 or the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 or the liberation of Paris in 1944... I could go on and on.

*drumroll*

FIRST PLACE... @darlingveruca

He’s not sure if she’ll show. They only met the night before, after all. His company got the word they were going home - the war was over. Thank God, they were finally going home.

The club, filled with smoke, clinking glasses, had this mood that lifted you up, held you high on its shoulders. Then there she was, like something out of a black and white. Boy, was she pretty.

It’s getting late. He needs to report back within the hour.

He figured, why not? “Hello, ma’am,” he said, and she gave him this look that made him go warm inside.

They danced until her feet hurt – she said as much. He said, “Stand on mine. I’ll do the work.” Because damned if he wanted to stop holding this special girl.

He’s pretty certain she’s not coming. Strangers smile and nod. He returns their gestures half-heartedly.

She kissed his cheek and he was positive she was the one. His brother would call him crazy for falling in love in one night.

He smiles because there she is running down the sidewalk, to him, and he knows she feels it too. She says, “Come back” and he says “Oh, yes.” 




SECOND PLACE... @Aleeab4u

"Life is uncertain."

That's what you said when we met and I asked, "Who do you love? What will you be?"

I smiled at your answer, because for me everything was certain.

You were meant to be mine.

And for a while you were. Blissfully so. Days of laughter and soft as air kisses. Nights of touch, and oh, and yes, please, where you lifted me to the stars and held me there, suspended and trembling.

"Life is uncertain."

That's what you said when the war began, and you were drafted within hours.

You held me close and whispered nonsense into my hair.

"Be strong. Don't cry."

As if either were possible.

I kissed you goodbye, held your taste on my tongue for as long as I could.

Sporadic letters gave way to months of silence and then, finally. . . you came home.

I watched you walk to me, handsome in your uniform, though I could see in your eyes the change in you, the weight of things never undone or unseen.

You slid your hands around my waist and sighed, and I knew as I held you.

'Life' is uncertain.

Never us.

Welcome home, love.




THIRD PLACE... @sandyquill

“I’m leaving,” he told her, posture erect.

She stopped next to the gate that led down to the train. “Today?” With an embarrassed look that encompassed his uniform, she jerked her head. “Of course. Well, you know I wish you only the best.” The awkwardness of their entire... acquaintance... suffused her voice, making her words quiet, stilted. She tried to meet his eyes.

He took in the white knuckles that gripped her gloves, the unyielding lines of her body, and felt his heart crash. “May I write to you?”

Relief flared in her gaze. “Of course.”

Marshaling courage that seemed overdone for a city street, he swallowed. “And may I, just this once, kiss you?” At her hesitation, he grew bold. “Please. Just in case.”

Pain folded her in cold arms. “All right. Just this once.” He’s off to war. He could die. She reminded herself of these things and nodded her permission.

Expression solemn, he touched her waist. Their lips met, a swift caress on a street corner, before he nodded and thanked her.

His step was slow as he walked down to the train.

She didn’t move for fifteen minutes, her bare fingers pressed to her mouth.




HONOURABLE MENTION... @quietdrabble

“Tell me again.” The childlike wonder lit in her eyes as I tugged the blanket up under her chin.

“We met in a small cafe …” I began the story as I did every time. I’d repeated the words so many times, I easily transitioned to the film reel inside my head: his piercing eyes, tracing my every movement that first night, his warm hands as they held my waist and we danced for the first time. Our first embrace, our first kiss, the first time we made love, each memory embedded deeply in my mind. Not a moment passed without thoughts of my love. Sending him off to war with one last kiss, I carried our unborn daughter inside my womb.

“…then your daddy kissed me. His parting words …”

“I’ll be seeing you,” her small voice rang out.

“Yeah, baby.” I brushed her cheek.

“Daddy was handsome.” Her chubby fingers traced the picture I clutched. “Mama, do you think Daddy would have loved me as much as he loved you?”

“Oh, I’m absolutely sure of it, sweetheart.” I kissed her forehead goodnight.



“I’ll be seeing you.”

I heard the ghost of a whisper on remembered lips echo through the night.






CONGRATULATIONS to second time winner @darlingveruca.

Thank you to @spanglemaker9 for judging, and to everyone who participated.


See you all next week.

Week 6 fanficflashfic

Our Week 5 winner, @spanglemaker9, has picked a fantastic prompt to get you writing this week.

Here it is:

Remember to check the rules. 

Have your 100 - 200 words submitted by 11:59pm Thursday, EST.

We want anything and everything: poetry, prose, fanfic, OF. 

JUST GET WRITING!

Leave your entry as a comment - include your word count, and your twitter handle if you have one.

FYI - entries that exceed (or are under) the word limits will not be considered by the judge.

Week 5 Winners!

I asked last week's winner, @hummingbirdFF, a few of my silly questions ...

1. What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve been given? 
I honestly don’t think anyone has given me any specific advice when it comes to creative writing. However, I think some advice that I’ve gotten in terms of professional writing that has been very useful in my creative writing is this:

If it’s not necessary, don’t include it. Don’t write for the sake of filling up empty space. Sometimes you can say something much better in 200 words than you can in 2000 ;)

2. The first and last books you fell in love with? 
First book… probably a book of Afrikaans fables that my dad read to me at bed time when I was younger, until I was old enough to start reading it to him :D

The last, I think, was The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers. It’s an incredibly emotional and thought-provoking book. It deals with the aftermath of a rape resulting in a pregnancy.

3. What are you listening to right now?
My Yiruma playlist (he is a pianist/composer)

I actually found him thanks to Twilight! I was looking for Bella’s Lullaby on YouTube and found many references to his piece called “River Flows In You”. Many people believe this piece inspired Bella’s Lullaby!

4. If you could delete one word from the English language, which one would it be? 
Oh wow… this is not something I’ve ever even considered! Off the top of my head though, it would probably be one of the most derogatory words used in reference to a woman (HINT: It starts with a ‘c’).

5. Suppose you could travel to any place in time and history. When and where are you going?

I feel like this is where I should pick some significant moment in history. But the truth is… I have never had the opportunity to travel. And there are so many people I love in THIS time, that I’d use this wish for right now. I’d want to take a world-trip in 2013. I’d go to Disneyland with Kate and to the opera in Vienna with Kris. I’d go to a carnival in Germany with Sue, and I’d go shopping in Delhi with Sri. I’d go lounge on an Australian beach with Mabso and I’d go buy chocolate with Sharon in SC. These people and so many others… they’re the people I want to travel to.

And now ...

Here's what @HummingbirdFF had to say about the entries ...

This was so tough for me… I found something to love in every single entry! Each entry was so very different in its own way, that I had no idea how to compare them. It took me forever, but I finally came to a decision. I still wish I could give everyone a prize!

*drumroll*

FIRST PLACE – @spanglemaker9

I absolutely adored this. I could feel his pain—the indescribable feeling of losing your other half. Wanting to forget the happiness instead of living with the loss… it made my heart ache in the best and the worst kind of way.

~~~

Days and days and days. How many still to go? Too many. A life takes too many days to live. I can’t face them all.

“It will get easier.”

“Just deal with one day at a time.”

“Be grateful for the time you had with her.”

“Better to have loved and lost…”

People say a lot of things when someone dies. I’ve decided most of them are lies.

Every day without her is harder than the one before. The memories of her –of us –don’t soften and glow, they burn and hurt. They don’t make me stronger. They’re crippling me. I can’t move forward, and I can’t escape.

I dream of erasing her. I dream of that first day, when she ran into me on her way to class. Our shoulders slammed together, her folder emptied on the ground, my notes exploded, mingling with hers until it took us half an hour to sort it out, full of nervous laughter and fingers brushing and names, numbers awkwardly exchanged…. Instead, her shoulder missed mine. Our lives never collided. She passed by and one day died and I never knew it.

Then I wake up, still in love with a ghost.

SECOND PLACE – @TiramiSue84

This story resonated with me on a very personal level. I just loved how you described the moment of realisation. It makes my heart hurt all over again!

~~~

It was a long time coming and yet, it hit me out of nowhere. It crept and crawled within me undetected, through the pores of my skin and into my veins. Up, up right into my heart. A stab. Further even – into my mind. Was it a punch or a bullet?

This realization.

It's taken me years to see, feel and grasp what's been hinted to me by others right from the start.

You are not good for me.

It wasn't pink-tinted glasses I'd been wearing where you were concerned, but rather blinders and earplugs.

I was blind and deaf to your fake and phony, your resentment and hypocrisy thinly veiled by the cover of your pretend caring.

You felt no love for me.

You kept me around so that my misery could make you feel better about yourself. For you to soar, you needed to see me fall.

And this realization hurts. So much so that I'm breaking a bit as I walk out on you now, but I have to. If I don't, you'll further use me up until there's nothing left.

It's too much to ask, too much to take.

I have to let you go.

HONORABLE MENTION – @BedeliaJane

This interpretation of the imprinting bond was just beautiful and heart-breaking all at once. But the feeling of unrequited love stood out to me—sometimes we can’t help who we fall in love with.

~~~

We cut our teeth on their hearts. Hiding in blanket forts and tree houses, we giggled and schemed. Our wolves would be anything we wanted—our very own pair of grownup puppets, dancing to our whims.

Now they stand before us, their faces unchanged by time. Jacob stares at the place where my fingers link together with Claire’s. My voice freezes with my breath, hands itching to let my power do the talking for me.

“We’re in love,” Claire says, meeting Quil’s gaze with her shoulders straight. “Have been for a long time.”

“Ness?” the ghost of my Jacob says.

I nod. “The imprint makes you be whatever we need, right? Well, we need you to be our friends. Just that, nothing more. No one asked us if we wanted…”

Trailing off, I swallow the unfair words. No one asked them, either.

Claire gives my fingers a squeeze. Time to cut the strings. Time to let go.

We don’t say we’re sorry. Hand-in-hand, we run away from the devotion everyone claimed we’d never be able to refuse.

Neither of us look back.

HONORABLE MENTION – @Aleeab4u

I simply loved the descriptions in this story—so vivid!

~~~

Another dingy bar. Company found in minds as lost and lamenting as his own. Despair bled into the walls, and floors, and the whisky in the dingy shot glass before him.

He swallows down liquid self flagellation, wincing, though it's regret that burns not fermented grains aged in charred oak casks. The hint of smoke in his throat is the essence of irony, the palest illusion of her. His gut reminds him it wants red, not amber.

Memories are his only sustenance now.

Smiles, shy laughter, and sweet-pain kisses. Breathless sighs carrying the promise of passion barely breeched, and, oh, how he longed to breech. Claim sweet innocence, bring it life, spark it with fuel and let it burn him alive.

She would have ignited for him so sweetly if he'd only known to trust the tenderness within to love her that way. Instead, he sits here, a million miles away from his one true weakness, leaving her fire to fickle human fates.

But time waits for no one, least of all him. He stares at the clock, knowing he's losing the will to stay gone.

Until then, he raises his empty glass, one more for the empty road.

CONGRATULATIONS @spanglemaker9!

I look forward to seeing the prompt you choose for next week's #fanficflashfic.

Thank you to Ari for judging, and to everyone who participated!

See you next week.