Stories

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 →

And Only I Am Left To Tell the Tale

/ Liz H-H / 24 Comments
Red Phone booth overlooking a lush country village with a marina and a few boats, mountains and blue sky in the background.

© Ayr/Gray

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge(11/10/23). No more than 250 words in length. Otherwise, let your creative flag fly!

In the days of yore, a peaceful village nestled in the arms of a twinkling ocean inlet and rolling flat fields, graced with beautiful and unique birds. For years, the village was content with its few sailing boats, small school, single church, and a millenary that made the finest hats. Each hat was graced with an iridescent tail feather from those birds, who monthly shed just one tail feather, enough to suit the vanity of the townsfolk. Continue reading →

Balance

/ Liz H-H / 24 Comments

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

Late night, long day, one after the other, until I’m sure I’m going to drop from lack of the basics to keep this aging body going; I’d grazed my way through too sweet and too salty snacks at the various exhibits, and gotten the bargain basement liquid refreshments that were typical to these professional conferences and their bleary evening parties, but what served me in my twenties is unsustainable for a woman in her sixties. Continue reading →

As Meat Loves Salt

/ Liz H-H / 7 Comments

blue butterflies x 3

Day 2 of FlashNano2023. Prompt word: AMORANSIA

Mary was practically perfect in every way. Men loved her. Women adored her. Young and old were drawn to her like moths to a flame. And each time she entered into a relationship with one or the other, she really tried to love them back with all her heart, and all the fullness of her lissome frame.  Continue reading →