“Can anyone tell me what illegal means?” Miss Flannerty asked with a very serious expression on her face.
Billy and Bobby and Suzie said it meant bad and wrong and against the law.
“Those are good answers,” said Miss Flannerty, “but it really means ‘don’t tell anyone about it’. Deal?”
“Shocking, isn’t it? Can you take the heat? Try not to lose your cool!”
Bullman sighed. “So that’s why you have the electric eel, the soldering iron, and the snowball? Give me a break. This is embarassing.”
Doctor Awful shrugged. “I have a plasma shotgun behind me, if you’d prefer.”
Normally today’s story would be from a guest author, since it’s a Monday, but during the Contest period Mondays will be used for normal stories.
Edit: Submissions for this contest are now closed. Winners will be announced soon!
FiftyWordStories.com is excited to present its first official 50-Word Story Contest: “A Mere 50 Words”!
How to Enter
The contest is open for anyone and everyone to enter. To submit your story for consideration, send it to mere50words@fiftywordstories.com and include the phrase “Mere 50 Words Entry” in the subject line. Please also include your name or a pen name under which the story can be posted.
Submissions will remain open until 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8), on August 21, 2009.
Entry Rules
All submitted stories must be exactly 50 words in length, not including the title. (If you are unsure of how to count hyphenated words, numerals, or other nonstandard words, use your word processor’s built-in Word Count function.)
The content of submitted stories should be appropriate for all ages.
There is no limit on the number of submissions per person.
All submissions must be the submitter’s original creation and must not have been previously published in print, online, or in any other format.
The rights to all submitted stories will be handled like regular Guest Writer submissions. For details, see our Submissions page.
Prizes
The prizes are as follows:
Grand Prize – $50 Chapters or Amazon gift card
First Runner Up – $20 Chapters or Amazon gift card
Honourable Mention (x3) – $10 Chapters or Amazon gift card
The winning entries and honourable mentions will be posted to the site after judging has been completed. Other high-quality entries may also be used for future Guest Writer Monday posts.
After the winners have been determined, they will be contacted through the email address their story was submitted by, and arrangements will be made either to have an online gift card purchased for them or to have a physical gift card mailed to them.
Judging
Entries will be judged by Tim Sevenhuysen, the creator of FiftyWordStories.com.
If you have any questions about the contest, leave a comment or send me an email at tim@fiftywordstories.com.
Timothy Thicke peered through the binoculars, watching as Evan Edgelow lobbed a smoke grenade. He paused a moment to wipe condensation off the binocular lenses.
When he looked back, Edgelow was gone.
“Mission accomplished,” Edgelow whispered from beside him.
“How do you do that?!” Thicke asked, amazed.
“Optical illusions, mostly.”
They arrived early, as usual.
They sat right at the very front, as usual.
They ordered a single glass of wine to share, as usual.
They heckled the performers relentlessly, as usual.
Unusually, the final act was a Chinese kung fu group.
After that, the hecklers stood in the back.
A song on the radio triggered. She knew immediately that she had a destiny.
She quit her job, hitch-hiked to Vegas, and spent three days wandering aimlessly, waiting for a sign.
The cute waiter who served her fettucine asked her why she was eating alone.
They lived happily ever after.
Every Thursday, Maxwell brought his Mum to Bingo. She never said thank you.
One week, she won fifteen thousand dollars. She took a limo home.
Next Thursday, she called him. “I need a ride to Bingo,” she said. “I spent all the money on clothes.”
He said, “Take the bus.”
“I prefer kleenexes, because they’re soft and comforting, like you.”
“I prefer napkins, because they’re tough and effective, like you.”
They had this conversation every single time they went out to dinner. Then she would sneeze, and he would spill on his shirt, and they would go home feeling rejuvenated.
Once there was a very ugly duckling. It got a lot of sympathy from people in the park, who thought it was so ugly that it rounded the far end of the spectrum and was somehow cute instead.
So the normal ducklings got jealous and beat the ugly duckling up.
Henry was sitting in the park, his wife and son beckoning him to join them.
He felt peace, but he was in pain.
He stood; stepped; stopped, struck by a force so great he felt he had no breath.
Then, “He’s back!” And the beeping on the cardiac machine resumed.
Larissa occassionally makes time to write down the meandering thoughts in her over-critical mind. She also wrote A Good Place.