flash

FlashNano 2025: Day 9

/ Liz H-H / 6 Comments
Smashe Marlboro butt on pebbly ground

It’s the final year of FlashNano, by Nancy Stohlman, where we write a flash a day in response to a prompt, or just because. This is a quick write, but it was kinda fun. And again, I just happened to have the right image!

Day 9: “Write a story where the ending comes first!”

“I prefer door number 2,” I stated tremulously. After all it had taken to get to this point, I hoped I hadn’t chosen wrong.

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I picked him up outside the Morningside apartments at 9 am. He stood leaning against the rusted black iron banister, arms crossed in front of him as he bent to take a final drag off his cigarette, before tossing it on the sidewalk. Tipping his head back once to indicate what? Greeting? Acknowledgement that I was there? Irritation that we were sharing the same air? Attraction?

He liked it that way. I suspected that I did too.

Continue reading →

Finding the Right One

/ Liz H-H / 25 Comments

green eyeballThe challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: BENEFIT. Visit, comment, and write & post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES. The Café is open. Come as you are!

[I have no explanation for this one, but still, I’m not sorry!]

Glorg gripped his leather belt at either side of his round belly, and stepped boldly into a shop that smelled like fresh mown grass and cooled barbecue grill, tipping his head as much as his neckless body would allow, smiling in satisfaction at the sheer masculinity (as he imagined it to be) of the enterprise.                    Continue reading →

Time 7: Goodbye

/ Liz H-H / 11 Comments

Tree of Life

She sighs, runs knobby fingers through graying hair. The increasingly wiry strands slide silky still through veined hands, and she smooths them down, twisting them into a tight knot just above the nape of her neck. Surveying the scatterings of UPS boxes, packed a little heavy for professional movers, she wonders at how a woman’s entire life can be reduced to the wreck and rubble before her. 

Or not.                  Continue reading →

A Moment

/ Liz H-H / 21 Comments

The challenge? Write a story in exactly 6 sentences based on Denise’s one word prompt: SWIRL. Visit, comment, and write & perhaps post your own on SIX SENTENCE STORIES. The Café is open. Come as you are!

They’d hiked up the lower reaches of the hillside, beyond the altitude where trees turn to shrub, where a glacial waterfall tumbled through the Saga Sister caverns and down to the ailing peoples of Walden’s Hold by the sea.          Continue reading →

Song of the Sea

/ Liz H-H / 25 Comments

© Ayr/Gray

From Jenne Gray and C.E. Ayr’s photo prompt, The Unicorn Challenge (03/24/2024). No more than 250 words in length.

“So many to choose from,” Douglass breathed, mouthpiece in one hand, carefully considering his next step. He’d waited under the dock, saving the oxygen in his scuba tank. The docks ceased their sway and rattle as the heavy footfalls of captains and crew stumbled up to the clubhouse for an exclusive marina fundraiser. They’d strung lights on boom, mast, and stays, sure that the sea gods wouldn’t rain on their parade.           Continue reading →

Microflash on Fire

/ Liz H-H / 13 Comments

cat behind a cauldron

About a year ago, these three were accepted for an anthology that disappeared in the wind. The prompt word was FIRE, the constraints to 1. Write a story (beginning + middle + end) and 2. Write the story in exactly 99 words. Creative challenge…I share to show how easy and fun it is, and that it’s a great way to warm up for longer projects. Hope you enjoy!

First Flame

Cora nestles her belly into black granite, stretching to catch the sun’s heat. Her legs scrabble amidst a low sizzle as leathery wings unfurl. A perfect pearl hardens under her curled tongue. She is scarlet, precious, and utterly alone.          Continue reading →