Category Archives: Stories

Miska, The Girl Who’d Be A Sailor

Posted on by Henry

lorraine

Miska is a character who’s shown up in several of my drafts of various stories in the Elven Progenitors universe for a while now.  She started off as a secondary character in the backstory of another secondary character, but quickly took on a life of her own in my imagination.  I always wanted to find out how she’d come to be where she was, and I tried, again and again, to write it.  But every time I tried, I lost interest within a few pages.  I was just dead *bored* with what I was writing, which I took to be a bad sign.  I tried, and tried, and eventually I gave up and put the story on the backburner, but yesterday I had an epiphany and started writing down notes like mad.  My first scene based on those notes follows.  It turns out, I wasn’t going back far enough; I needed to see how it was that Miska, the Pirate Queen, went to sea in the first place…

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Flash Non-Fiction: Why I Write

Posted on by Henry

This week’s challenge from Chuck Wendig isn’t about fiction at all!  This week, he asked people to write 1000 words about why they write.  I took about that many words to think it through.  Some of my answer feels final, some of it doesn’t, and I’m sure there’s more to be said.  But my response begins below…

***

Why do I write?

That question makes me uneasy.  I don’t feel like I have a good answer to it, or maybe it’s that the answer I do have isn’t “good.” Part of the answer is very simple:

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Flash Fiction: Her Maritime Scowl

Posted on by Henry

Gale-Force-Winds

This is a bit late, but this week’s (last week’s?) flash fiction from Terribleminds involved using a randomly generated phrase.  I got “maritime scowl.”  This is what followed…

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Henry Bit Off More Than He Could Chew

Posted on by Henry

I know I have a big mouth, but apparently I tried to fit too many words in it this time.  Sorry.  Normally I’d have a piece of flash fiction for you right now (and I have started it), but instead, here’s the beginning of a nonsense sonnet I’m in the process of writing.

The King begged the peasant, “Please sir won’t you
Deign to grace my table with thy good name?”
“I could not,” he replied, “give credence to
Your reign.  I think not, if it’s all the same.”

I’ll have more for you on Friday. Really.

Last Days of Loneliness: Revisions

Posted on by Henry

Hey folks.  No flash fiction for you at the moment, just another piece of story from Last Days of Loneliness, the YA horror novel that I’ve been working on for a while.  Here’s the most recent piece I posted.  I think I’ve rewritten this scene about five times now, but this opening for it just came to me while I was lying in bed last night, so I had to give it a try.  Enjoy!

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Flash Fiction: First Healer

Posted on by Henry

WW2_Combat_Medics

This week brought another random title challenge from Chuck Wendig, and while this particular post is a bit late for that challenge’s schedule, it’s still done.  It turns out that my Nonsense Literature class is awesome and also takes up more time than I’d first anticipated.  It’s nothing unmanageable, though some of my poor poor friends are taking Nonsense along with another class that has an absurd reading load (and I say that as a Reedie).

This is another experiment in not really knowing where things are going until I start writing, and I think I like it.  Enjoy!

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Unfinished Flash Fiction

Posted on by Henry

Serengeti-Walkabout-Rifle-In-30-06

Last week I mentioned that I was writing something to submit to a contest.  I didn’t finish it.  Instead, I submitted something else (Cosmo Katie, from earlier this year) to Flash Fury.  Wish me luck.

I’m currently rather busy with schoolwork, so all I have for you today is the unfinished piece which I tried to write last week.  I still haven’t decided what my new schedule should look like, but it will probably end up being a post on Tuesday or Wednesday, and another on Friday.  Read on for violence.

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Whoops!

Posted on by Henry

I goofed up!  I was writing a piece of flash fiction earlier today (something I intend to submit to the Flash Fury contest run by The Molotov Cocktail), but then I got distracted by life here visiting my mom.  I’ll have this piece of flash fic up for you in a bit (maybe tomorrow, maybe next week), but I’m afraid I don’t have the usual stuff for you today.

Actually, I’m going to have to change my schedule starting next week, because I’ll have classes on Mondays and Thursdays and I have no desire to try going to class and post on the same day.  I’ll figure that out soon.

Flash Fiction: Thin Line

Posted on by Henry

0171.-Jurassic-5-Power-In-Numbers

This week’s flash fiction prompt required me to come up with a title by randomly selecting a song from my music collection.  I got “Thin Line,” by Jurassic 5 (featuring Nelly Furtado).  While we weren’t required to use the song itself as an inspiration, I, uh, listened to Thin Line on repeat while I was writing.  The result feels very different from most other pieces that I’ve written, and follows the song’s theme of questioning how romantic / erotic relationships can coexist with friendships.  I was, quite honestly, surprised by the end.  And that’s all I’ll say about that.  Enjoy!

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Flash Fiction: The First Is The Worst

Posted on by Henry

Bloody.Hand.with.knife

This week’s flash fiction challenge from Chuck Wendig involved a 1000 word story that starts with a dead body.  I ended up with this piece without even knowing where I was going, but perhaps you’ll like it.  In case you’re wondering about the setting, I think it takes place in my Elven Progenitors story-world (though I still feel like it desperately needs a punchier name).

Enjoy!

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