Posts Tagged ‘story’

Final challenge of NYCMidnight's Creative Writing Championship. Now down to 40 writers left, all with the same restrictions: "Genre: Fantasy, Location: car wash, Object: kitten." Stupidly I thought I'd pop in and watch the Emmys just long enough to see Dr. Horrible, ended up watching all of them and having only an hour left to polish my first draft. Damn you, maddeningly entertaining Neil Patrick Harris! Here's what I submitted.

The Kitten, the Flame Demon, and the Car Wash
by C. A. Bridges (1,000 words)

Jess watched from the car wash lobby as the screaming flame demon roamed the streets. It wasn’t charging yet, but it was definitely rampaging in their general direction.

“The heat is on, ladies,” she said. “Maybe this can happen faster?”

“Gimme a second, OK?” Amanda said, before turning back to kneel in front of the weary young girl they’d rescued the day before. She was maybe 7 years old, but her eyes now belonged to a very old, very tired woman.

They had found her in an abandoned mall surrounded by roaring flames and smoldering bodies. She didn’t respond to them, wouldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep. She’d been utterly silent and listless since they brought her back, as if she knew she was already dead and was vaguely wondering when she would fall over. “Honey?” Amanda asked her gently. “I need you to listen to me.”

There was an explosion. “Just torched the McDonalds,” Jess called.

“That thing, that fire thing that attacked your… that you saw? It’s coming this way. No, no, hold on,” she said soothingly as the girl stiffened. “We can stop it, but we need your help. Do you know where those horrible things came from?”

A pause, and then the girl shook her head.

“Do you know what magic is? Casting spells?”

A nod.

“Well, some very foolish people thought they could teach a computer to do magic. They thought they could program it with all the spells, the knowledge and the rituals of thousands of years, and then push a button. Do you think that was a good idea?”

The girl looked out at the angry towers of smoke rising from all around the city and shook her head violently.

“That’s right. They learned how to do magic, but didn't understand that power without wisdom is dangerous. Last year they accidentally called up a host of demons, and we’ve been fighting them ever since.”

“The boutique’s gone now,” Jess yelled. “If we’re gonna do this, we need to do it now!”
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Second round, challenge three of NYCMidnight's Creative Writing Championship. New writing group, new restrictions. Mine were: "Genre: Romantic comedy, Location: arcade, Object: coffee pot." And we're off…

The Final Score
By C. A. Bridges (1,000 words)

Being a coffee shop barista, even an emergency temp one, was everything Aly thought it would be. “Here you are sir, have a nice day, die in a fire,” she muttered before turning to her mother, who was filling the large catering pot. “How do you keep from murdering your customers?”

“That gets you talked about,” her mother said. “Try making terrifying designs in their latte cream instead, that always cheers me up.”

Aly sighed. Helping out her mom was one thing, but she couldn’t take being back in this town for long. At least she didn’t have to go near—

“You know where Electricland Arcade is, right?” her mother asked suddenly. “I need you to run a delivery… Aly? Why are you hitting your head?”

—

Matt stood ready, his hands dry, his shoulders loose, a retired gunslinger here for one last battle. Looming in front of him was his old archenemy.

“So, Donkey Kong,” he said grimly. “We meet again.”
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The January edition of The Writer magazine (on sale now) has a feature on writing flasher stories and there's an entire story on the cover with a familiar byline. Turns out I can write short stories and three years of newspaper columns with little recognition, and a quickie story I wrote for the heck of it for BirdandMoon.com's 55-word challenge gets me the cover. Gotta love it.

Here's the whole thing (but you should buy a copy anyway, for more comments from me and a nice long article on short, short stories). 55 words, not counting the title.

He Met Her

He met her at the club, lights flashing, music battering.

"So, you heard about my job."

"Yeah."

"But you know, I've learned something. With your love, I can go on even without the big bucks."

"I've learned something, too."

"Really?"

"Yes. I'm much more shallow than I thought."

And she smiled, sadly, and walked away.

When Merril answered the phone Liza was in mid-cry. "I found Vincent!" she sobbed.

"The gorgeous dream guy you met last summer? Where?"

"I ran across him today, his real name's Phil. Turns out he takes vacations, finds some babe and gives her the perfect boyfriend for two weeks of hot sex. Then he goes back to being Phil. Gah! I'm so stupid!"

"Liza?"

"He's shorter in real life, too. Asshole."

"Hey, you got vacation time, right?"

"Yeah, but–"

"So go be someone else's fantasy."

There was a long silence, and then Liza chuckled.

"Maybe I'll call myself 'Phoebe…'"

My ongoing post-Serenity novel. 

Chapter Three – The Man Who Fought Back

It began slowly. Stories like that always do.

When the riot was going on and blood was being spilled no one stopped and pondered over who did what first. Fists were flying, buildings were burning, the cursed soldiers were easy targets everywhere you looked, there were plenty of weapons in the form of bricks and lumber and dad’s old rifle, who had time to chat?

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The next installment of my post-Serenity novel.

Chapter Two – Dinner Belle

“What do you think, Zoe,” Mal asked. “Should we just surrender now? Or go out with guns blazing?”

“I’m not the blazing type, sir,” Zoe replied.

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Hey, if I can't pimp my own stuff on my own site, where can I pimp it?

This, if all goes well, will be a Serenity novel. It will, in fact, be the one I plotted out before I got sidetracked by my "Visit to a Weird 'Verse, Re-revisited" idea, but I'm all better now.

This takes place immediately after the BDM. Rated PG-13 for adult situations and language, no explicitness unless things get out of hand. Comments welcome.

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Chapter two of my Serenity post-BDM fanfic is now up at serenitymovie.org and fanfiction.net.

An excerpt:

“Damn straight.” Jayne stuck out his leg and planted his foot on top of the counter directly in front of Simon’s face. “Got kind of a cheese-ish texture, don’t it?” Simon spun around, gasping for breath and quickly turning the same color as the offending gunk. “One of them soft, oozy cheeses, like broo,” Jayne said happily.

“That’s brie,” Simon said, coughing. He lunged at his shelves and thrust a small bottle into Jayne’s hands. “Here. Rub this between your toes, coat it on thick, leave it on. Do it every day until this runs out.”

“Instead of washing?”

“After you clean your feet. Both of them. Every day.”

Jayne scowled. “I might have to get me a second opinion on that."

Just posted the last chapter of my Nathan-Fillion-in-space fanfic. It had to end some time, folks…

Read it at FanFiction.net, FireflyFans.net, or SerenityMovie.org.

If you're following my fanfic — and of course you are — a new chapter has just been posted. Nathan's trial is over and he's been sentenced to a fate worse than death. Oh, and death.

Check it out at FanFiction.net, FireflyFans.net, or SerenityMovie.org.