All posts by Tim

MERE 50 WORDS: Recap

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Congratulations to all of the winners of A Mere 50 Words!

If you’ve been following the stories this week, you’ll see that the five winners have now been posted. For your convenience, here’s the list:

Grand Prize: Michael Penny, “The Future’s Bright”
First Runner Up: Seamus Dobbin, “The Future of Humanity is Now”
Honourable Mention: King Kool, “Beneath Large Scallop Shells”
Honourable Mention: Proteem Bhaduri, “The Intruder”
Honourable Mention: Jeremiah Lewis, “The Other Girl”

I want to say thank you to everyone who entered. I got way more response than I expected, and there are a lot of entertaining stories sitting in my email inbox! I realize this is something that gets said after every single contest, but I did have a hard time picking the winners. There are a lot of people who could easily have qualified for an Honourable Mention or better, but in the end I had to limit myself to five prizes.

The good news is that I’ll probably be sharing a lot of the other submissions on the site in later days as guest-writer stories, so if you submitted something you may still get a chance to see it go up on the site!

In the future I’m sure I’ll do something like this again. It was a lot of fun, and it was really encouraging to see how many people were willing to sit down for a few minutes and put themselves to the challenge I’ve been facing every day for the past seven months.

Let me know what you thought of the stories by leaving a comment or sending an email to tim@fiftywordstories.com!

Thanks again, everyone!

Tim

MERE 50 WORDS Grand Prize Winner: “The Future’s Bright” by Michael Penny

A Mere 50 Words, Amusing, Submissions, , , , , ,

“…humans gained ultraviolet vision, but found that its effect when combined with ordinary sight was disorienting.  Hence the initiative to recolour our everyday surroundings to a sufficiently distinct hue….”

Dave hurriedly threw the lever, and the Twenty-First Century reasserted itself around him.

“It’s true, Jimmy! The future really is orange!”

This story won the Mere 50 Words contest, with a $50 prize. Congratulations!

MERE 50 WORDS: “The Future of Humanity is Now” by Seamus Dobbin

A Mere 50 Words, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

“I’m sorry, sir, we’ll simply have to assign you an entirely new model.”

The Hardware Maintenance Commission representative smiled sympathetically, leafing through his papers.

“I know this procedure can be painful, but unfortunately your current version is no longer the standard.”

I sighed, lifting my son out of his stroller.

This story earned the First Runner Up, with a $25 prize, in the Mere 50 Words contest.

MERE 50 WORDS: “Beneath Large Scallop Shells” by King Kool

A Mere 50 Words, Amusing, Submissions, , , ,

“You find me attractive?” the mermaid asked the derelict sailor.

“Absolutely,” he nodded. “Don’t you agree?”

She frowned. “No merman did.”

It seemed impossible. “Why?” he asked.

“My figure,” she said. “I’m not streamlined.”

“Is that why humans only ever see mermaids with curvaceous figures?”

“We go where we’re appreciated.”

This story earned an Honourable Mention, with a $10 prize, in the Mere 50 Words contest.

MERE 50 WORDS: “The Intruder” by Proteem Bhaduri

A Mere 50 Words, Amusing, Artistic, Submissions, , , ,

They weren’t there before I slept last night. I would have noticed for sure. The dusty shapes stood out in stark contrast on the otherwise pristine surface. Size 9 at a guess. Two sizes larger than my own. Two clearly defined footprints.

Why the hell were they on my ceiling?

This story earned an Honourable Mention, with a $10 prize, in the Mere 50 Words contest.

MERE 50 WORDS: “The Other Girl” by Jeremiah Lewis

A Mere 50 Words, Artistic, Submissions, Touching, , ,

When Grace asked me out I was already in the limousine pouring gin, feeling her fingers on my cheek. That blood-red dress—like she was poured into it and some splashed on my skin.

Later I saw her kissing Alex. People said she played games. I thought it was love.

This story earned an Honourable Mention, with a $10 prize, in the Mere 50 Words contest.

Blinded by Passion

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When you’re in love, everything looks like a butterfly.

That was Barry’s experience, at least. He’d just met The One: she was beautiful and smart, and she had an amazing voice.

Unfortunately, Barry discovered, not everything was a butterfly, and blue jays like him can’t digest candy wrappers very well.

TIM SEVENHUYSEN: Low Expectations

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The helicopter buzzed over the city like a truck-sized mosquito.

“I can see my house!” cried little Jeremy.

“You’ll never see it again if your parents don’t pay up,” grunted one of the masked men.

“You want money?” said Jeremy. He gave them his allowance, and they let him go.

TIM SEVENHUYSEN: PRO-BONO PRIVATE EYE Chapter 2

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It’s Friday. I hate Fridays.
Some Fridays I have nothing to do, so I sleep through lunch and gag down cheap booze at the diner all evening.
Today, I have a job. It’s a freebie. I hate myself.
She’s a brunette. Thinks her husband’s lying to her. She’s probably right.

It’s Friday. I hate Fridays.

Some Fridays I have nothing to do, so I sleep through lunch and gag down cheap booze at the diner all evening.

Today, I have a job. It’s a freebie. I hate myself.

She’s a brunette. Thinks her husband’s lying to her. She’s probably right.

TIM SEVENHUYSEN: Siestas Are For Hot People

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It was so oppressively hot outside that I could’ve fried an egg on my forehead (so long as I was wearing a camping stove as a hat and had a tank of propane and some matches handy).

So I went inside, turned on the air conditioning, and took a nap.