Flash Fiction, and Other Good Things

For the second year in a row, I am participating in #NYCMidnight’s Flash Fiction Challenge. The deadline is in five hours, but I’ve already submitted. My method is this: Wait up late to get my prompts on Friday night, then sleep on them, hopefully dreaming up a good idea or two. Then wake up and brainstorm, then start writing. I had a draft ready by 10:30 a.m. Last year I had my husband and kids read my story and help me make revisions, but this year I have some awesome beta readers, a breakout group from the NYCM forums. They helped me tremendously. I generally edit and revise as I go, though, and can finish fairly quickly. I submitted my story before noon Sunday, a good 12 hours before the deadline.

In this challenge, the prompts I received are as follows:

Genre — thriller

Location — a carnival

Object — a hairbrush

Once we’re given the go-ahead, I’ll post my story here. For now, the title and synopsis:

Baptism by Fire

A child’s first time at a carnival, a young couple’s first date, and an older couple’s celebration of their first kiss 50 years ago converge with a secret agent’s first mission: Find a bomber before the fireworks start and they all get blown to bits.

And that’s my first good thing for today, a thrilling writing weekend.

The rest of my good things:

2. Finding treasures

For various reasons, I stumbled upon a hidden box full of drawings and writing that I did as a kid. Those were always my two favorite things, drawing and writing. It is such a delight to go through old boxes like that, and I set aside one of my drawings that I want to get preserved somehow and hang in my classroom. I drew it in April of 1988, when I was 15.

3. Enchiladas

During the school year, my husband normally cooks dinner, but during the summer, when I’m home, it’s my turn. I have discovered this summer that I really love to cook. Tonight I made chicken enchiladas, which tasted pretty good (if you ignore the slightly soggy tortillas).

4. Amazon deliveries

This is the time of year when teachers are ordering things for their classrooms for the coming year, and I am no exception. Today’s deliveries included a handheld label maker and a 44-compartment storage cabinet. I was totally jumping up and down and clapping as I opened these boxes; not even exaggerating.

5. Magazines

So I’m not even a magazine reader, which is why I’m astonished that we have so many of them lying around the house, but for the past two days, I’ve been grateful for them for the following reason: Wasps. In my house. I’ve had to kill three of them. So, yeah, the magazines came in handy.

6. Goodreads

I love having an account on Goodreads.com and keeping track of the books I’ve read, am reading, and want to read. My want-to-read shelf is getting excessively packed, though, so I’d better get busy reading.

I’ll leave you with one reminder (other than to find the good things in life): Check on your menopausal friends; they are not well.