Week 409 of #ThursThreads had many fantastic tales. I’m honored to see all the writers come to tie a tale as we close in on the end of our eighth year. If you’ve been doing it a while, thank you. If you’ve just found us, welcome! May you come back again and write more great flash. Thousand thanks to Mary Decker for judging this week. Check out the #ThursThreads #flashfiction group on Facebook or the #ThursThreads Group on MeWe to keep up with news, etc.
Entries:
- Bill Engleson | @billmelaterplea
- Siobhan Muir | @SiobhanMuir
- Rose Sharon Sogioka | @SSogioka
- Katheryn J. Avila | @katheryn_avila
- Daelyn Morgana | @DaelynMorgana
- Silver James | @SilverJames_
- Sheilagh Lee | @SweetSheil
- Mark A. Morris
- David A. Ludwig | @DavidALudwig
- Joel Sandersen | @jsandersen76
- Kel J. Heinen | @Aightball
Mary says: When I get the stories from Siobhan, I strip out all identifying information and copy each entry into a Scrivener Project. Each story gets its own document with an index card for notes. I next check the word count on each document (Yes, I’m a stickler for the word count). Then I randomly move the stories around so they don’t appear in the same order as they were posted. The last preprocessing step is to make sure that every entry contains the prompt and then I let them sit for at least an hour, more if I have the time.
Then I read through the stories and make notes about what I’ve read… and I wait. I come back and see how memorable the stories were and I start sorting through them and depending on the number of entries, I put about half of them aside as the top entries.
Lather, rinse repeat.
After the second cut, I had 4 entries (out of a winner and two honorable mentions.) You all took me through adventures, from alien takeovers to humorous reviews. There were Pirates, and Aliens and Easter bunnies. Stories that amused and delighted me. Choosing is always hard, but there were a few that really stood out.
Honorable Mentions
Katheryn J. Avila | @kathern_avila
Mary says: Your story was intriguing and gave a unique point of view – the Omniscient narrator is seldom a god. Well done!
Silver James | @SilverJames_
Mary says: I don’t usually keep my summary, but for this one – I did because it sums it up completely – A story/argument build on a glasshouse of cliches. This one had me laughing
Siobhan Muir | @SiobhanMuir
Mary says: Ineligible to win, but a delight to read and deserving of a special if not honorable mention. Your story filled my senses and immersed me in the sensations of the story – In less than 250 words, you drew me in and made me want to read more— and who can pass up a heroine in a top hat?
winner announcement
Week 409 Winner
Mary says: This story started off sounding like a rescue, or maybe research – And then, you hit us with a plot twist – this story is neat, compact and hard-hitting. I did not see that ending coming.
Geode floated in free-fall, watching the cruiser fragment. It had taken five hours to come apart, and it seemed that most of the passengers and crew would survive, almost all the lifeboats launching safely. It was to be a merciful escape for them all, the elites and the rich surviving and coming down to earth safely.
“It’s impressive, but it’s still a mission fail.” The voice in his ear seemed disappointed, its tone icy and devoid of emotion. “With a little more planning and expenditure, you could have killed them all. Or you could have overridden the nav-com, plunging their ship into the sun. Or you could have crashed it into a city, killing millions. But you, you just destroyed the ship: well, I’ll give you ten out of ten for effort, but your planning and insight leaves a lot to be desired.”
“I think you may need to reconsider,” Geode said, uploading his strategic simulations to the rebel captain. “Those people have a saying; don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I think you’ll see that that applies here.”
And so, they watched as the lifeboats landed, the airlocks engaged, and the people disembarked, releasing the nanobots that swarmed out into the world. A few more hours and they’d doubled in number, attacking flesh-based and electronic systems, destroying everything man had made.
And the next day, the simulants landed. There was no resistance. There were only raw materials in abundance, waiting to be used.
~~~~~~~
Congratulations Seventeen Time Winner Mark, and Honorable Mentions Katheryn and Silver! Don’t forget to claim your badges and display them with pride. You certainly earned it!
Pass on the great news on Twitter, Facebook, MeWe, shiny mirrors, Morse Code, and signal flags. Check out all the original tales HERE. Thanks for stopping by and happy reading! 🙂
