“Papa Panda! Papa Panda!”
There it went again.
“Papa Panda!”
It was incessant, unceasing, never-ending. (Synonyms were one of Papa Panda’s few pleasures.)
Papa Panda rolled over, half-opened one eye, and gestured impatiently at the annoying, agitating throng.
The tourists roared with glee.
Papa Panda found zoo life emotionally taxing.
One day an evil wizard turned a lizard into a goat. “I am the evilest of wizards!” he said. Then the goat kicked him. He turned it back into a lizard so it couldn’t kick him again. Then the real evilest wizard sued him for misusing the Evilest Wizard trademark.
It seemed like they were made for each other, the boy and his elephant.
They ate, played, and slept together. They worked, lazed about, and made friends together.
They rode on each other’s backs and washed one another with their trunks.
They were almost indistinguishable, the elephant and his boy.
This story is based on a title suggested by @salmir.
“Will she be faithful? I must find out.”
“I can divine the future from anything you own – pass me that jug from your breakfast table.”
“Whoops! Sorry! Thought it was empty…”
“Idiot! Your fate cannot now be foreseen.”
“Why?”
“All men know: there’s no use scrying over spilled milk.”
Nick Johns lives in Sandhurst, UK. A retired cat wrestler, he now breeds mongrel flash fictions for release into the wild.
“How will the end begin?” my daughter asked me one night. “And I don’t want you make any jokes about the letters ‘T’ and ‘H’ or tell me I’ll find out when I’m older or change the subject!”
Just then, a billion trumpets sounded.
“Whoa,” she said. “Never mind, daddy.”
This story is based on a title suggested by @stealingzen.
She stood at my door
one black glove, one red
and a lacy half-veil
Good evening, ma’am
icily
I didn’t want what she was selling
but my kids did
Of course, they hadn’t heard
the asking price
the surcharges
the cost-to-benefit ratios
Just the allure
the affect
I’ve been there
This story is based on the prompt “one black glove, one red,” suggested by @big_poppa_G.
Editor’s Note: for clearest interpretation, read affect as a noun, which has been, lately, one of my favourite words.
Sunsy was a real chirp flirt. He went after anyone who had wings and a beak and laid eggs.
The dove turned him down gently.
The owl lectured him on Breed Loyalty.
The eagle just stared imperiously until he went away.
The peahen merely scoffed.
And then the pigeon attacked.
This story is based on a title suggested by @Vigafray and a prompt offered by @NekoDaimyo.
An ostrich, a penguin, and a barn swallow walk into a bar.
The ostrich and the penguin seem uncomfortable. “Are birds like us allowed here?” they ask nervously.
“Follow my lead,” says the barn swallow. “No one will bother you as long as you sit at the bar ‘n’ swallow.”
This story is based on a prompt suggested by @Matt_LRR.
Today www.GeekingOutAbout.com shared a guest post I wrote for them, about my experiences writing fifty-word stories and some of my other favourite microfiction formats and websites. This post has taken a little while to put together, and to find the right timing for sharing it, but I’m really excited to get it out there for people to see, and GeekingOutAbout is a great place to post it. Head over there to get some insight and recommendations from me, including an excerpt from the Tips and Tricks section of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One.
In addition to sharing my guest post, GeekingOutAbout is also running a 50-word story contest, to celebrate their one-year anniversary (congratulations, by the way, guys!). The details are all here. The best three stories sent to geekingoutabout@gmail.com by May 31 will win a free Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One ebook bundle, and the first-prize winner will also receive $25 to the online retailer of their choice! That’s a pretty awesome prize, in my opinion, so get writing, and I can’t wait to see all of your submissions.
“Look at that!” says Bandylegs.
“I know. Children don’t believe anymore and now the grownups are melting us down and squeezing us into those!” Pinknose says, pointing to a bottle. “And look, they’ve even put our names in plain view!”
Next to the sink is a bottle of Fairy Liquid.
Martin Shone is a cleaner who is getting very close to being fifty, but he’s only twenty-eight, really.