Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 714. Year Lucky 13! The last year of the cycle, the Moon Year. To those who keep coming back, I’m delighted to see you again!
Today is Thursday and that means it’s time to start flashing on #ThursThreads, the challenge that ties tales together. Want to keep up each week? Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Discord and the group on Facebook.
Need the rules? Read on.
Here’s how it works:
- The prompt is a line from the previous week’s winning tale.
- The prompt can appear ANYWHERE in your story and is included in your word count.
- The prompt must be used as is. It can be split, but no intervening words can be inserted or tenses changed.
Rules to the Game:
- This is a Flash Fiction challenge, which means your story must be a minimum of 100 words, maximum of 250.
- The story must be new writing, not a snippet from something published elsewhere with the prompt added.
- Incorporate the prompt anywhere into your story (included in your word count).
- Post your story in the comments section of this post
- Include your word count in the post (or be excluded from judging)
- Include your social media handle or email in the post (so we easily notify you)
- The challenge is open 7 AM to 8 PM Mountain Time US.
- The winner will be announced on Friday, depending on how early the judge gets up.
How it benefits you:
- You get a nifty cool badge to display on your blog or site (because we’re all about promotion – you know you are!)
- You get instant recognition of your writing prowess on this blog!
- Your writing colleagues shall announce and proclaim your greatness on Bluesky, MeWe, Discord, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 714:
Most Consistent #TT Winner, Newfie mom, and Romance Author, Silver James.
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“I’m afraid it’s a hostile takeover.”
All stories written herein are the property (both intellectual and physical) of the authors. Comments do not represent the views of the host and the host reserves the right to remove any content. Now, away with you, Flash Fiction Fanatics, and show us your #ThursThreads in the Moon Year. Good luck!
The Somnambulist’s Sonnet Society
I didn’t want to say it but I wasn’t surprised. We’d been in decline for several years. Sonnets just weren’t au courant these days as I am sure the centuries dead sonneteer, Pierre de Ronsar, might have said, if asked…in French, n’est pas.
Not only were sonnets not in favour with a younger tribe of poets, but the public had also moved on.
Spoken word was alive and entertaining.
Free verse was epidemic.
Not only was everyone a critic; everyone was a poet.
Though our membership had been dwindling, what with death and boredom infecting us at every turn, there had been an odd uptick in a certain sort of new member.
I finally mentioned it to Elvira Sneed, our President. “Elvie, have you noticed those two new members…I don’t want to besmirch them but they seem out of sorts.”
I used a gentle expression to describe something I sensed was not quite accurate. Elvie was a dear soul but not confrontational in the least.
“You mean Zip Rebel and Slash Wonder?”
I nodded. We didn’t actually know their real names but they were two of a small contingent of angry poets…very Ginsbergy, I thought.
“Yes, dear,” I said. “I hope I’m wrong…I can be quite wrong these days about many things but I fear…oh, gosh darn it, I’m afraid it’s a hostile takeover.”
There. I’d said it. We had been asleep at the sonnet wheel.
“It’ll be okay,” Elvie consoled me. “We’ve had our day.”
250 Words
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