NEWS: Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One Book Preview

News, ,

I’ve been working hard to get the fifty-word stories book ready to go on sale, and it’s very, very close! In fact, it’s so close that I’m able to give you a preview of the book’s contents right now.

To check out the free preview of Fifty-Word Stories: Volume One, click here. You will need the free Adobe Reader program to view the file, which includes the book’s Table of Contents and Introduction, as well as the first few stories.

Bear in mind that the contents of the book may still change before the book is made available for purchase. This preview may not be a perfect representation of what the end product will look like.

Comments are welcome!

The Narcoleptic Turtle

Amusing, Odd, , ,

“Sink or swim” was not a particularly relevant idiom for Nelson the narcoleptic turtle. He floated, and good thing, too, or he’d probably fall asleep, sink, and die. Instead he just bobbed along on the surface, snoring softly.

One day Nelson floated ashore and fell asleep there.

Narcolepsy is boring.

This story is based on a title suggested by @Vanguard1219.

TAMMY CROSBY: Both Light and Darkness May Blind

Artistic, Submissions, , , , ,

Because I am an angel, you said you believed in them, and so I believed in you.

Yet here at the door of death who should come for you but Him.

The light of your love for me outshone the darkness in your soul.

And for that we are doomed.

Editor’s Note: This story grows on me a little more each time I read it, as I start to tease out more meaning from each sentence. At first it was an enigma, and now I find it appealingly haunting. I recommend coming back for a repeated read later, so you have time to explore and digest it.

Tammy’s poem “Twas the Night Before Blood Moon” will be published in Pill Hill Press’s Leap Year Edition of Daily Flash 2012: 366 Days of Flash Fiction, and she is a proud mother whose son is the joy and light of her life.

TIM SEVENHUYSEN: In Death as in Life

Artistic, Poetry, , , , , ,

Thrashing through the midnight darkness,
he stumbled
but did not cry out.

Silently he lay
listening to silence.

Then he fumbled
in his pocket
for a match.

In the flame’s flickering glow, he was struck
by irony
and the traitor’s arrow.

He had assumed
he would die
by the sword.

“Ah! My Knee!”

Odd, Touching, , , , , ,

The emperor, being in a good mood, invited a peasant to ask him any question he desired.

“What,” inquired the peasant, “is your favourite body part?”

The emperor circumspectly intoned, “My knee!”

That is why the revolutionaries severed it from his leg and mounted it here, on this pedestal, in 1747.

This story is based on a title suggested by @Graham_LRR.

Sydney the Stuttering Snake

Odd, Touching, , , ,

Sydney the snake slid down a slippery slope.

Since getting stuck in a snare made of sticks and some string, she’d somehow succumbed to an embarrassing, sibilant stutter. She was sneakily slithering in search of a slimy, secret spot where she could sink into obscurity.

Sadly, she never found it.

This story was based on a title suggested by @danzama.

Run-Off of a Civilization

Artistic, , , , ,

A bubbling creek wended its way through the sun-dappled wood, between the wild apple trees and the bushes drooping with juicy purple berries.

An inquisitive fawn dipped its tongue into the creek and pulled away with a frightened bleat.

Upstream, where the beavers built and warred, the bricked-in bayou boiled.

TINE SCHÜTZ: Death in the Springtime

Amusing, Submissions, Touching, , , ,

It made me mad that I couldn’t hide my sadness from them.

As the sun transformed my smile and let me age prematurely, I couldn’t  forgive them for already moving on.

My last thought when my coal eyes hit the ground? “You little rascals will know the feeling soon enough!”

Originally from Germany, Tine moved to California about a year ago. Since then she has become a full-time mom taking care of a four-year-old chatterbox, which makes the fifty-word story a perfect format for her.

NEWS: 2010 in Hindsight; 2011 in Foresight

News, , , , ,

Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope and pray that you had time to relax and enjoy family and friends, and to remember what Christmas is really all about.

Christmas means, for this site, that another calendar year is nearly over. This year I finished my first year’s worth of stories, took a hiatus, came back refreshed, and have been going strong on Year 2, which started July 5. I’ve been fueled by all of the comments, star-ratings, suggestions, title submissions, and retweets supplied by everyone who reads the stories on this site. Thank you so much to everyone who provides me with feedback and reader interaction! It’s a huge encouragement, and it’s the reason I write.

I had hoped to have the Fifty-Word Stories book out this year at some point, but unfortunately a variety of circumstances have prevented that. I’m expecting to have the book ready some time in January or February, though, so even though it won’t be a Christmas present, you’ll still have a chance to get some microfiction in paper form for your shelf, your coffee table, your bathroom, your ceiling, your front door, your fireplace, or wherever else you may want to put it. The draft copy I received has been getting pretty positive reactions, especially from people who haven’t been following the website for the past year-and-a-half, so I’m feeling pretty good about how this is going to turn out, and I think it will make a good gift, for yourself or for people you know.

I have some other thoughts and plans for the coming year, including another Mere 50 Words guest-submission contest, live-writing events, site enhancements, a possible return to nanofiction, stories from special guests, and as much reader-interaction as I can make available. I want to break out of the box a little and make this a unique and interesting year.

I’m excited about 2011, and I hope you are, too! Keep on reading, and I’ll keep on writing…

Rudolf the Red-Nosed

Amusing, Puns and Wordplay, , , , ,

Rudolf hopped on one foot, pirouetted, leapt to and fro, wiggled his hips, do-si-doed, executed a graceful plie, moonwalked, discoed, waltzed, two-stepped, wriggled like a worm, jigged like a hillbilly, and slapped his knees, but no matter what he did, it kept snowing.

Apparently he wasn’t a raindeer after all.