I remember that day in early March when I swung over to Target after dropping my kids off at school and picked up a jigsaw puzzle and a bucket of sidewalk chalk. All the way through the self-checkout line, I patted myself on the back for my foresight. With this pandemic coming, we might have to hunker down for a…
Strategic Happiness Initiative Toward Safety, Health, and Onsite Work (Flash Fiction)
FOURTH PLACE, NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge, September 2020. Genre: Political Satire; Prompts: “basketball court” (location) and “buttercream” (object). These prompts gave me an immediate headache when I received them, but I ended up having so much fun writing this epistolary-style story! As the pandemic drags into its second year, management wants everyone back at the office. They find a clever…
Good Intentions (Flash Fiction)
Flash Fiction with a dose of Dante. 900 words. Oh, hell. Ten minutes to the end of my shift and here comes this lady. A last-minute Wanderer. I rise from my roadside chair and straighten my orange vest. Her features come into focus as she steps out of the Grey Area and approaches my post. “Cheers,” I say, launching into…
Delicious (Flash Fiction)
Have we reached the point where something can be vintage-Covid? Eight months in, I think so. This piece (which is absolutely fiction, although heavily influenced by life) hits that summer 2020 note. Written for a comp in which it didn’t place, and I don’t have anywhere else to submit it, so sharing it here. [500 words] *** Five toes. I…
Pepper’s Revenge (Microfiction)
FIRST PLACE, NYCM Microfiction Challenge, November 2019. Genre: Horror; Prompts: “washing dishes” and “talent.” 250 words. *** “Ginger, Samson, Felix,” you sing softly, unpinning a dishrag from the clothesline on the patio. Their names, I assume. It’s been years since you said mine. The screen door bangs as you return to the kitchen. I count the bowls as you wash…
For Good Reason (Short Story)
A rookie poltergeist faces her toughest assignment yet—and this time, it’s personal. Written for YeahWrite SuperChallenge 14, October 2019. Prompts were: Location, outside a family member’s home and Object (which must be plot pertinent), a “pretty rock.” I never thought I’d write a ghost story in an open-genre competition but here it is! 980 words. *** Yellow? They painted the…
Sweet Dreams (Short Story)
It’s a totally bitchin’ summer for Anna, working at the Fotomat…until she realizes life isn’t all Kodak moments. Third Place, NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2, September 2019. Genre: Suspense; Location: A drive-through; Object: a boarding pass. 998 words. *** “God, these people!” Mandy flips through the glossy snapshots. “Piano recitals, graduation parties. Gag me.” “Can you not mess everything…
SHORTLISTED: The Carnival Fish (Short Story)
My 500-word flash piece THE CARNIVAL FISH made the shortlist for AWC’s September Furious Fiction competition! With only two days to write and a slew of unconnected prompts, I was really pleased with how this came out and I’m thrilled, of course, to be recognized in a field of 1000+ entries. Read it here. Scroll down to the second story.…
Table Twelve (Short Story)
Originally written for Writer’s Weekly’s 24-hour Short Story Contest, Summer 2019. The prompt was a rather long paragraph of text that had to be incorporated somehow in the story (either verbatim or in spirit). I won’t even bother to post it because I hacked it to bits. Many of those bits got flushed in post-submission polishing but a few are…
The Perfect Match (Short Story)
Young, literate, and Earthborn: female Six-Four-One is a perfect match for Muldoon, the casino tycoon. Things are about to get dangerously hot in the Ice Orbit. Originally written for NYCM Flash Fiction Challenge 1, July 2019, where it scored fourth in its heat. Genre: Science Fiction; location: a casino; object: a paper shredder. 1,600 words. *** The metal chair is…