A competition caught my eye last Friday (7/5/2019) – write a flash in 24-hours this Sunday (theme to be announced). The website looked rather new, and I’m not sure the e-zine has been published yet, but I thought, why not? If I have time. The time would be weird because the host for the competition was clearly overseas (prices for other competitions listed in pounds instead of dollars, though this prize was just publication).
On Saturday a little afternoon, I say the theme pop by “Loss”. Ugh. I rolled my eyes. Ten thousand people writing about death and hurts. Well, count me out. A little later my brain said, what if … you don’t focus on depression. Can you make it an action-packed Urban Fantasy? Suuuuure, why not stick all that in only 500 words? Well, you were just talking to someone about your “Archaeology is the Best Major” for it’s creep factor and thinking about creating a new series for Martini Martinez, an Urban Fantasy Monster Hunter – and that boyo from Archaeology is a monster in human form. Nah, that would be … well, maybe. And I went to sleep, playing with the idea.
Sunday morning I wrote the untitled story and it came out to 683 words. The flash, including the title, for entry had a 500 word max. So I chopped out some of the backstory for the series for Martini and her Intern Brandon. Then I chopped character actions and streamlined and hacked some more. Finally I had 495 words and I titled it “Three Losses”.
I placed – didn’t win. That went to Mermaids and Monsters, a flash close to what I expected most submitters would be putting forth. I broke the rules – although all three of the characters of Three Losses lost their battle after a fashion – so I’m not surprised I wasn’t number one. I was surprised to place in the “runner-up” category with five other writers. There had been 37 entries.
So “Thee Losses” is published in the July E-Zine “Dare to Write It” ) put out by All For Writers. I will publish the flash sometime next year as part of my normal Sunday materials.
It’s a sequel to Archaeology is the Best Major. Let me know if you want the third installment. By the way Martini Martinez, as the name kind-of indicates, is meant to have a humorous story approach. I do not know why she showed up here. This is much more a Younger type of story.