Monday, July 25, 2022

Final flash fiction contest results

It was REALLY difficult to narrow the field to five.
 
 
 
 
 
Michael Seese
 

High in the Hollywood Hills, billionaires are a dime a dozen. Many earned their money through perfectly acceptable means, such as going all Elon then price gouging the world. Others profited through more shadowy endeavors.
 
The bottle blonde—peroxide and whiskey—dropped on me a bombshell of an offer.
 
"My richer-than-god dumber-than-dirt husband is testing his home-built airplane Saturday. Make it look like an accident, and you'll get a cut."
 
Pity that the signature on her ill-advised "miscellaneous expenses" check was carboned to two other documents.
 
A confession.
And a power of attorney.
 
Life is good here in the Hills.

 
 
I like how the story curls back on itself.
It's a nice twist.
And Michael Seese is a deft word wrangler of course!
 

 
S.D.King
 
 
Blonde curls. Pressed khaki uniform. 127 Badges. 21,566 boxes of cookies sold. That’s billionaire equivalent for Junior Russian Girl Scouts. Her prize? Present cookies to the President.
 
Marching Bands. Bunting fluttering. Shadowy bodyguards forming a perfect semi-circle on the podium.
 
She stepped up. Smiling, she held out a box of home baked cookies. He took two and patted her on the head while cameras flashed. No one noticed her ruffled blue and yellow anklets.
 
It would be almost 12 hours until the bombshell hit. She would be high in the Ural Mountains by then, practicing wilderness life badges 26-54.

 
I'm not a big fan of Girl Scout cookies, but that's a soapbox topic for another day.
This is nicely subtle.
 

 
 
 
 
 
Brigid
 
Dad was right; Evvie should've been a copyeditor. Marketing influencer was all dreary sponcon and shadowy TikTok contests for creepy billionaires.
 
This promised world-changing bombshell turned out to be a slogan contest for 'the perfect blond roast', which the world needs like another indie hole in the head. Still, $1000 and a tropical vacation was worth it. Evvie only grumbled a little that 2019 marketers got salaries.
 
It was the surprise of her life when she showed up to collect her prize. It was 'the perfect blonde roast', and she should never have accepted that free dye job from L'Oreal.

 
Ah yes, the perils of peroxide.
Shadowy TikTok is a nice unexpected turn of phrase.

 
 
AJ Blythe
 
Meeting of the Banished, Craig F’s bar, 10am
Present: Colin, JDF, NLiu, Dena, Craig F.
Colin: JDF is right, I have a clever escape route out of here.
(Excited chatter from group)
Colin: Janet has her eagle eye on character cliches. Let’s mix it up, slip out when she’s chomping elsewhere. Take a cliché and re-pair.
NLiu and Craig F.: We’re shadowy and blonde.
(They side-step a renegade cop and flee)
Dena and JDF: We’re a bombshell life.
(They abscond past a beautiful female)
Colin: That leaves me with billionaire and…
(Realises he’s alone)
Colin: ...an almost perfect plan.

 
The only thing wrong with this otherwise perfect entry is that if you aren't in the know about Carkoon and the players here, you wouldn't understand what's going on.
 

 
 
Megan V
 
The day Jenny turned ten, M.A.S.H. dreamed up her perfect man. Blonde. A billionaire. (He had to be a billionaire on account of the mansion they’d live in).
 
She’d be an architect, busy drawing up plans. He’d be Bruce Wayne, minus that whole shadowy alter-ego. (Bats were definitely not her thing).
 
The day she turned twenty, Jenny married him lakeside at the country club. (Too good to be true).
 
His fist dropped the bombshell a week later. (Followed by his boot).
 
Suddenly, Jenny realized she’d never had a reason to pick up a bat before. (Now, she had a billion).

 
I like the two meanings of bat being a key element of the story.
 
 
There were a lot of terrific entries that weren't quite stories.
 
I had to gnaw on this for a good long while, but the prize goes to S.D. King this week.
S.D., if you'll drop me a line with your mailing address and what kinds of books you like, I'll get a prize in the mail to you.
 
 
Thanks to all of you who took the time to write and enter the contest.
It's always a pleasure reading your work.

 
 
 

21 comments:

Steve Forti said...

Congrats SD! Well deserved.

Luralee said...

These were all so good! Congratulations SD!
I’m bummed missed this one. This weekend was all taken up with my kids summer league swim finals—fun but exhausting, not to mention hot, and not good at all for the creativity.

Beth Carpenter said...

Congratulations, S.D. and all the finalists! Great stories.

Megan, I really want to know what M.A.S.H. stands for.

Lisa Bodenheim said...

Congrats SD!! A big win among so many stand outtstandingly good entries.

Melanie Sue Bowles said...

Yes to SD... "her blue and yellow anklets" *tears here.

S.D.King said...

Thank you so much. I am humbled.

Colin Smith said...

Congratulations, S.D., and well done to the other finalists.

I have updated the spreadsheet in the Treasure Chest

Just Jan said...

Great job, S.D.! And congrats to the other finalists. I loved reading everyone's entries.

Megan V said...

CONGRATS SD! Really stellar work!

@Beth M.A.S.H. is a childhood paper fortune telling game--the letters for the title of the game stand for Mansion Apartment Shed and House, respectively.

Amy Johnson said...

Congratulations, S.D.! I'll run to the supermarket for fake Samoas and Tagalongs so we can all celebrate your win. Way to go!

Thanks for the contest and the nod, Janet.

Thanks for the nice comment, M.R. Howe. :)

NLiu said...

Congratulations S.D.!

Beth Carpenter said...

Megan--Oh, the little four cornered dealies! Love it! Makes a great story even better!

Michael Seese said...

SD, you penned a great story.

The win was well deserved.

LynnRodz said...

Congtats, SD, well deserved!

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Awesome job, S.D.

Ash Complin said...

Congratulations, SD!

Karen McCoy said...

What great entries! Had family in town, but am still hoping to jump on the "flash train" at some point.

Leslie said...

Congrats, S.D.!

I enjoyed every entry, and I'm more than a little envious of people who write fiction so well. It was incredibly fun to see how each writer used the prompts in uniquely entertaining ways

Brigid said...

This was such a fun contest. There were so many entries I admired, but S.D.'s absolutely took my breath away.

Congratulations!

french sojourn said...


Congratulation S D King! Great entries all the way around.

Cheers Hank.

AJ Blythe said...

Congratulations, S.D.!! Not that it changes the impact, but are anklets socks?