Flash Fiction Contest: Haiku by I. Michael Snyder

Roosting on dogwoods
Birds grace Purple flowered trees,
Nature's Glockenspiel

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I. Michael Snyder is an IT Manager in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area.

Flash Fiction Contest Honorable Mention: "Rachel's Request" by Laura Sherman

Rachel knelt carefully by the side of her bed. A fat, blond curl fell over her eye. Patiently she swept it back into place behind her ear.

"God," she began. Then she stopped. Hm, maybe the maker of trees and rain might not want to be addressed so formally, without feeling.

She cleared her throat and started again, "Dearest God. I would like to ask you for something. You see, at school we have every instrument you can imagine in our music class. I wanted to play the French horn, but Johnny got to it first. He's fast.

"So, then I tried to get the Tuba, but Jenny said I was too little for such a big instrument. I tried to tug it away from her, but it wouldn't budge. Jenny's right. It's way too big.

"All that's left was a sad little xylophone. It was sitting all by itself on the shelf. Old and worn out. I looked up at the teacher, hoping that there was something else. he said, 'You're a lucky little girl. You get the Glockenspiel!' He sounded so excited I didn't want to disappoint him, so I picked it up.

"Jenny laughed at me, so I told her to mind her own business. I hope that was OK. Was it? Um, so I'm figuring, since you're all knowing and all, you probably saw me stick my tongue out at her. I'm sorry about that too.

"So, I'm asking you for forgiveness. That's what mama said I should do. But since we're talking, I thought, while I was at it, I'd ask if you could maybe turn Jenny's tuba purple. I thought that would be really funny."

She stood up and then knelt back down quickly. "Sorry, I forgot. Amen!"

THE END
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Laura Sherman is a freelance writer and chess coach who lives near Clearwater, Florida with her husband and three young children. She blogs at Friendly Writer and Say Yes to Chess
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Thank you again to all who entered this contest. The rest of the entries -- all wonderful indeed -- will be posted over the course of the next two weeks. I hope everyone will stay tuned and read all of these fantastic short pieces. Trust me, you will be entertained!

Flash Fiction Winner: "Bad Fit for the Crit Group" by Simon C. Larter

"Her muscial voice tinkled in his ears like a glockenspiel?" Frank's snort of incredulous laughter had cut short Sara's reading, and now she stared at him, blinking, mouth opening and closing, goldfish-like. "Seriously?"

"I . . . I-" Sara began.

"No, honey. Just . . . no." Frank chopped the air with a bladed hand. "You just can't use similies like that. Can't. That's godawful."

The flush started at my collar and worked its way over my cheeks to my temples.

Stunned silence weighed on the group, until Don coughed into his hand. "Er . .Sara, would you like to go on?"

Frank folded his arms across his barrel chest and leaned against the seatback, eyeing Sara balefully from beneath bush brows. One boot heel tapped against the tile floor in jittery rhythm.

"No," Sara mumbled, crimson to the dark roots of her blonde hair. "Someone else go."

He let Sophie get all the way through her story. A muffled sigh of relief breezed through the room. Frank frowned and nodded to himself. But Don's tentative encouragement stumbled to a halt a few sentences in when Frank harrumphed and sniffed loudly.

"I don't think so," he said. "Don, is it? No. You're wrong. Missing the forest for the trees. Sophie clearly intended the moon as a veiled reference to Artemis, not merely as scenery. Well done, good lady!" He frowned and nodded brusquely in her direction.

Sophie blinked three times in rapid succession, then made a show of fumbling in her handbag for a tissue.

He told Craig his prose was purple. Mary used too many adverbs. Ralph's "voice" was twee. Twee?

After he'd gone, I apologized to the group. "He seemed nice when I met him in the bookstore," I said. "I'm sorry."

It took months for them to forgive me.

THE END.
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Simon Larter graduated from Drexel University with a degree in Civil
Engineering. His work has appeared in Per Contra and Flashquake, and
is forthcoming in LitNImage. He lives with his wife and three children
in New Jersey.

He blogs at Constant Revisions

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Check back tomorrow to see who won our "Honorable Mention Award."

FUN FLASH FICTION CONTEST!

We have a winner! The winning entry will be posted tomorrow, Monday, March 8th and the Honorable Mention will be posted Tuesday. All others will be posted in random order, one each day over the next two weeks. I will send emails to all entrants to let you know what day to look for your story.

Misha and I want to thank you all for providing us with so many amazing and fun stories to read! It was a joy, except that the decision was NOT easy! These were all very well written, well told stories. It was a CLOSE race. Bravo!

I will definitely be holding similar contests in the future, so I hope everyone will check back often or subscribe to receive my blog by email to stay updated.

So remember to stop by tomorrow and see who won the first, Fun Flash Fiction Contest!

My First Blog Award

Wow! Thank you Sam Liu at Thoughts, writings, coffee. . . for giving me my first Blog Award. I proudly add this to my blog. Part of the rules of accepting this award is to pass it along to fifteen other blogs and I love and follow. Therefore, I hereby bequeath this award to:

The Sound of Splinters
A Blog of One's Own
Always Musing
Angel Guided Mentoring
Constant Revision
Dear England: A Letter From America
Muse Ink
Musical Musings
Pics and Poems
Tangerine Kitty
The Book Buff
The Comedy That is My Life
Short Stories by MLockridge
The Journey Toward Publication
Rice in the Cupboard

I love these blogs, and recommend them highly.

If you are on this list, go ahead and grab your award and please pass it on to fifteen other blogs you feel deserve such recognition. Let them know they received their award by leaving a comment on their latest post.

And as always: HAPPY BLOGGING!

Announcing Parenthood Week -- Seeking Stories

Well, the Fun Flash Fiction Contest has been a tremendous success and it has been so much fun reading the entries as they come in! We're judging over the weekend and posting the winning entry Monday, so check in and GOOD LUCK to everyone who entered. Don't forget to those still sitting on the fence: the deadline is Friday at midnight EST. You still have time!

NEXT ON THE CALENDAR: Parenthood Week -- March 22 - 26

I'm calling all writers to flex their literary muscles and pen a 1000 word or less fiction short story with parenting at the heart of its theme. It can be funny, sad, reflective -- ANYTHING with parenting in its story will be accepted. OR maybe you already have a story sitting around. Just remember to please keep it clean (no excessive bad language or violence, etc).

Send your submission to: kcantwell02@comcast.net and write PARENTHOOD in the subject line. You can paste it into the email or attach as a Word file. Also add a short bio and website/blogsite addresses.

The Recollections of Rosabelle Raines by Karen Cantwell

"Rosabelle Raines had lived at least a thousand lives, and much to her dismay, she could recall them all."

That's the opening line of my newest -- and now PUBLISHED -- short story, "The Recollections of Rosabelle Raines." This, and nineteen other exciting and bone chilling mystery short stories are featured in Chesapeake Crimes: They Had it Comin', now available on Amazon.com or at Wildside Press.

Rosabelle Raines lives in post-civil war Alexandria, Virginia and must deal with the unusual ability to see her past lives. The problem for Rosabelle is that whenever she has a glimpse of a past life, she knows that very soon in her present life, a similar experience will befall her again. After touching the hand of handsome Eli Witherspoon, she recalls a life where she witnessed a vicious murder. Knowing the same is certain to happen again, she seeks to stop the crime before it occurs. Can she unravel the mystery of Mr. Eli Witherspoon in time to prevent another death?