55 Word Challenge:
Week Twenty-Two
Welcome back to the #55WordChallenge. This weeks judge and contributing photogtapher is Miranda Gammella. Miranda is a regular here and I love her stories, but I had no idea she was an amateur photographer. Amateur? Wow, I am impressed. The three photos that she selected for the contest are amazing. I think you are going to have fun with this.
For those that are uninitiated, the 55 Word Challenge is a contest to write a story in 55 words or less. Not an easy task, but fun and I have been blown away by some of the entries. See for yourself, all the past contests can be found here.
The challenge begins at noon Eastern time every Wednesday and ends at noon Thursday. The story is based on one of three photo prompts and can be written in any genre you choose. My only request is no porn. I don't want to hear graphic details. If it is erotic, make it titillating, not obscene. I know that can be done and done well.
The story is to be posted in the comment section below, along with your twitter handle or email address, so I can contact you if you are the winner. If you don't want to list your email address, send it to me at jezri@writing.com. I promise I won't distribute it, but if you are the winner I need a way to notify you and to send you your prize.
And what does the winner get? This purty badge for one. For two, a gift card for $5.00 from Amazon. (The prize will be rewarded within a week and sent to your email.) Also new, I will be offering a monthly prize to the story I liked the best between the winners. That will be announced at the end of the month who gets this.
If you are an artist that would like to have your work featured, let me know!
Photo Prompts:
LET THE WRITING BEGIN!
M L Gammella has been writing on and off since high school, where she was often found scribbling in her notebook instead of following along in class. She is currently working on her first paranormal suspense novel that began during NaNoWriMo of 2011. When not picking away at her novel, she participates in several flash fiction contests throughout the week. M L Gammella is also co-creator of the Daily Picspiration (#DailyPicspiration) blog where herself and other authors create new stories every day based on photo prompts. When she's not writing, she can be found toiling away as an office manager or what she prefers to be doing: spending time with her husband and their three pets (and taking way too many pictures of them).
Check out M L Gammella's writing on her blog, the Daily Picspiration blog, or Facebook:
Shadows painted the landscape in ephemeral brush strokes. Dry warm air bloomed with the scents of sage and sand as the sun reappeared. A single raven watched me from a dry Mesquite tree, his attention both intent and wise. He knew I’d succumb to the drowsy heat, and then my dreams would belong to him.
ReplyDelete55 words
@SiobhanMuir
I couldn't resist using two of the photos, but the top one is really a crow, so I embellished. :)
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ReplyDeleteIsn't that what writers do, embelish? Love the image your words evoke. Kind of puts me in mind of the crow on The Stand... watching, waiting... Wonder if Randall will walk in at the last minute and offer some water.
ReplyDeleteYon black bird there
ReplyDeleteYou do me wrong
And taketh thy plight
Against a worm
A worm that fashioned
A fish so fine
That fed me complete…
So well…
So kind…
So where will thou go
Upon this day
To beckon yet another
Worm today?
Ah, I think not
For you see…
Tis the night.
55 words
Ooooh! I like that.
DeleteIndignity
ReplyDeleteCecil strode, disgustedly, down the beach. What was the bloody point of having wings if one were reduced to tramping about like any common mammal? He’d have gladly foregone the indignity and winged directly to his nest if he thought it likely he’d survive. Damn the bloody Air Force and their bloody new gunnery range!
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ReplyDelete“This is where we keep Congress” said the tour guide.
ReplyDeleteThe Bureaucrats United Madly Society (BUMS) wisely locked up Congress in the windowless Leviathan. The Leviathan also housed the zoo’s primate pavilion. A competition was held to see who could produce the most laws between them. The monkeys won. No one could tell the difference.
Too funny, especially since I just found out that a group of gorillas is called a Congress.
DeleteCrow On The Cradle
ReplyDeleteHe waits in gray light by the silver lake, talons grasping the bleached log. His body is hunched against the chill air. Time moves slowly, then the Call comes.
He enters, perching on the cradle, looking down on the babe. A woman’s scream sounds, and he flies away, a bright spark clutched in his claws.
55 words (without title}
@Angelique_Rider
OMG, this is creepy!
DeleteThank you!
DeleteThe new pictures arrived, and the crowd gasped at the image: vegetation that spread as far as the eye could see over the foothills of Mt. Sharp. And the sky, blue and filled with puffy white clouds, was so vastly different than just a few days ago. Something had happened there. Mars now harbored life.
ReplyDelete55 words
@rastrohman
CROW
ReplyDeleteWe’re both here for the same reason. Where the land ends the sea begins, and the surf’s roar is the most perfect silence. Here we two are alone in the elements. Whatever our contemporaries may think of us, the ocean does not judge.
All the same, I can’t help feeling he’s really let himself go.
55 words
@DavidALudwig
The street was empty and the building repeated itself beyond the horizon into infinity. Where it ended, if at all, I didn’t care to find out. The place gave me this sick feeling like on another plane of existence leaving a taste of stale paper in my mouth.
ReplyDelete“Brother, do you like your new home?”
55 words
@theglitterlady
He staggers down the street, without noticing that he no longer sees color. People skitter out of the way so they don’t come into contact with his rotting flesh. He sniffs after them—not his prey now. He finds the place and waits for the man that made him the first zombie of the apocalypse.
ReplyDelete@ChuckWesJ
55 Words
ADVANCEMENT
ReplyDeleteLast thing I'll see is that flag flying.
The colors have bled out, like me.
It used to be true blue, like you,
'til black and white lost its toehold.
Ten years we been partners.
You know I hate red stains
on my white uniforms.
Damn, you look good in dress blues,
for a traitor.
-----
55 words / @bullishink
Been a while since I've done this. I might be rusty, so excuse me.
ReplyDelete"Monochrome"
If he’d have understood the concept of walking to the beat of his own drum, he’d have tired of the rhythm by now. But the lack of color in his life had sapped his individualism, had lobotomized his emotion. And he was only one more drone, a static complement to the black and white universe.
@J_M_Blackman
55 w.o title
You guys are all so clever! I want to play too! ... but I haven't had enough coffee.
ReplyDeleteThe gray prison loomed before me. This was it. Here, my life changes forever. I took a deep breath as he walked in. I sat at a little stool before the glass wall.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side was an older woman in an orange jump suit. She picked up her phone.
“Hi, Mom,” I said.
@blanchardauthor
55 words
A phantom cry
ReplyDeletea distant voice
whispers in the wind
A haunting sound
that echos around
searching for a friend
Black bird seizes his prey
then flies away
to canyons vast and wide
Finally coming to rest
atop a city ledge
he casts his prey aside
Sorry, first time poster to this site. I guess I should have included "55 Words" @ http://twitter.com/notesonlife2012. I know I incorporated all three photos -- I couldn't help myself.
ReplyDeleteThe raven crouched down on the piece of driftwood, head tilting left and right to hunt for bugs. Its beak opened to let loose a loud caw, wings stretching.
ReplyDelete“Why are you doing that? You look silly.”
The velvety nose of the horse stretched towards the bird.
The bird gave a titter. “Because I can.”
55 words
@solimond
I look to the ocean. I poise my hands for a prayer. A crow lands in front of me as I address God. I reach for a heavy rock. I look to the heavens, to my dad, before knocking the bird to the sand. He hated crows.
ReplyDelete55 words
@NightOwlWrites
(Very morbid. Don't mistake; I'm not a fan of animal cruelty. While writing, this story morphed into a being of it's own. They tend to do that, ;) )
I was out buying school supplies for my kids... yay, lol, so I am late with this, but #55WordChallenge is closed. I'm sure ya all knew that though. Winner and HM's to be announced later. I don't envy Miranda having to choose. They are all great stories.
ReplyDeleteSo who won? I went back to work, so I didn't find out.
ReplyDeleteJ. M. Blackman. This is the link. http://www.lisamccourthollar.com/2012/08/winner-55-word-challenge-week-twenty-two.html
ReplyDelete