Welcome back to the home of #ThursThreads for Week 717. 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, Facebook, Discord, and Mastodon, etc.
Our Judge for Week 717:
Scottish Word Slinger, Dauntless romance author, gluten-free baker, and #ThursThreads host, Siobhan Muir.
Discord | Bluesky | Patreon | Eden Books | YouTube |
And now your #ThursThreads Challenge, tying tales together.
The Prompt:
“No one paid much attention.”
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!
HEATRAGE 2029
I could’ve been a Martian with one giant Cyclopian eye sticking out of my forehead and it would have been just another day at the beach.
I wasn’t of course. I was just me; greased up, a fat-assed sombrero plopped on my head trying to keep my hair from burning.
And it wasn’t just another day at the beach. It was one hundred and twenty degrees and rising. The sea was jampacked with everybody imaginable. People who hadn’t been to the ocean in their entire lives had flocked here, and, so I had heard, to any body of water they could find.
No one paid much attention to the fact that the water here, a formerly chilled ocean, was almost kettle-boiling broiling.
We had become numb to the impending end.
No one paid much attention to the fires that were burning all around, fires that the authorities had declared unstoppable.
We had become more than numb. Way passed numb. Those of us who were still alive had become living zombies., each of us seeking some relief from the inescapable.
It had started in Europe. Europe was a charred mess of ancient times and death.
And here in North America, the choking smoke from our inextinguishable flaming forests, our homes, businesses, hospitals, our everything we held dear, was suffocating us, incinerating us, and so we flocked to the closest coolest water.
Everyone and their dog paid attention to the fact that the earth was a fiery mess.
Apocalypse, anyone?
250 Words
@billmelaterplea
@sterlings-son-2.bsky.social