Stories

Advert: A Cautionary Tale

/ Liz H-H / 7 Comments

For FlashNano Day 24, we were challenged to write a flash in the form of an advertisement. Many players had fun with this. Here is my answer:

A middle aged man with a bad comb-over of fading blond hair, dressed in khaki dress pants, a short-sleeve shirt and man sandals, rambles down a city street, bending to pick up dollar bills from the sidewalk right in front of him. He stuffs them in his pants pockets, front and back.

[Announcer: Dick spends his entire life chasing the all-mighty dollar]  Continue reading →

Modrigal’s Gift

/ Liz H-H / 15 Comments
Vintage Unicorn

Source: Rawpixel LTD/Flickr

The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: LINK. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on  Six Sentence Stories  

He wore many chains about his neck, mostly gold, some mixed and linked to polished stones, some of these gemstones.

The mirror in front of him showed their glint against his naked chest and graying hair, and though his eyes had been brilliant blue in his youth, they’d faded over the years, both of color and of the life force that supplied their vitality. Continue reading →

New Style

/ Liz H-H / 14 Comments

Simple line, scissors cutting three down-waving lines

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (11/17/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

Odd had told her the barber shop was three blocks over from the warehouse they were squatting in. It wasn’t that they didn’t have money. They just didn’t want to use it for nonessentials. When he’d seen the ragged job she’d done cutting her hair, he’d decided: a proper clean up was essential. Odd always had the final say, so here she was, ambling down the street in the early hours.  Continue reading →

A Place Where Stories Begin

/ Liz H-H / 15 Comments

golden dragon

So, Charli Mills, over at Carrot Ranch, has challenged us to write a story, in exactly 99 words, that begins with “Once Upon a Time.” Or something from another culture or from our own pickled brains, that invites the reader to enter that space where stories begin. So, of course, I present to you three microflashes that I hope are fun.

Nope, Nu-uh

Once upon a time, in the before times when tigers smoked, and fish farted unicorns on black sandy beaches, before Noah built his ark and the Wright brothers flew their plane, an egg hatched. Continue reading →

AI Dating Fail

/ Liz H-H / 23 Comments

Clear vase with wilted rosesThe challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: VISION. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on Six Sentence Stories

The image is too perfect, too symmetrical, with none of the off-kilter that would give it the semblance of life, of moving and breathing humanity.

This whatever-it-was before me is dead, or more accurately said, has never been alive. Continue reading →

Dreamtime Travel

/ Liz H-H / 3 Comments

Steaming coffee mug

The coffee is good today. Michaela must have set up the brewer, after a thorough wash of all the parts that even the Mom and Pop shops seem to need to have for a decent cup, at high traffic volume. I sashay over to a single table in the corner. The table has one chair and a padded bench seat that extends from one end of the wall to the windows opposite. I prefer the bench because I sit here several times a week to watch the customers wander in, sit or hurry out, all versions of my past and future selves filing through. Continue reading →