BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 09:39 PM

"it all" must have been pretty bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ed T
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 08:48 PM

The room was hot. The bright flourescent lights created sharp, cold shadows.
There was a rumbling sound, from a motor somewhere afar.
The walls were painted a putrid yellow-green, reminicent of bargain paint bins.
There were many ink scribbles and poorly drawn images on the walls.
I read a few, and chuckled at the mildly funny, sex-themed poems.
So, why was I sitting here- for hours, pants down, in a public washroom?
Well, it was not just any cubicle. It has been my "home away from it all"
for the past three weeks.

Weird?
Maybe so.
But, true.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 08:14 PM

There wasn't anything out there, but it was too quiet.

Maybe that was just her nerves. She eased off the tension a bit, letting herself relax just a trifle. Not much, just enough to ease the pain in her back,

These nights are too dark and too long, she thought. Noise? No, probably just the wind.

Then the mortars hit and the fuel tanks lit up the area lit a flare – and then the flares came with their actinic light.

There were people out there who really wanted to hurt her. And now, for the first time, she knew fear.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 12 Apr 14 - 07:43 AM

More poem than story, but all your interesting minds and words inspired me this a.m.:

brother crow, sister mockingbird holla
come for breakfast and love!
they don't mean me, but I go anyway
nautical dawn pajama walk and garden contest
nature does not bestow evenly
torn-apart, bedraggled trailer, you win! you sprawl hungover in a lawn of cool, smooth jade clover simmering with violets, bluets.
smarty-pants pretty little cottage, someone sheared your poor acre to stubbles of already-tired grass... and it's only April! Come again.
For long, the only windsounds were from objects being hurled at me. I don't remember how to trust the shushing, caressing sound I hear through newborn leaves.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 10 Apr 14 - 10:14 PM

100 words??..Yikes, what if I stutter???

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Apr 14 - 10:54 PM

Texting Suga Santa

Sit on my lap, said Santa. Wat u want 4 Xmas? (Some1 who wants me just for me)
U r ez on the eyes (danglin' his bait) U been good? Bet u r

O i c. Droolin' benjamins 4 me. Don't want no sparkly things.
Need 2 make rent, pay my cell. Help a grl out?

Well now, we'll c wat we can do. The camera likes u in them fuk-me pumps. Got kids? (got deep pockets? No, they got they own daddy - wouldn't want you 'round my kids neways)

Well, gtg (Maybe Macy's Santee got deep pockets)... Next.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 07:07 PM

The old man sighed to himself, picking up his guitar with ancient arthriticy fingers.

Suddenly the soft swell of her hips was upon his legs once more. His chest nestling into her waist, one hand gently caressing her neck, the other reaching lower to the very place where his fingers could sense every musical vibration, deep within the warm, sensuous body that he knew so well.

Thousands of miles away an old woman stirred, sighing, sadly smiling, feeling the tender caress of the man she had never got to meet, knowing they would love one another from afar, into eternity.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 03 Sep 10 - 06:02 PM

Quiet down and listen up, said the messenger. She is grieving, mourning her latest loss. She needs to know that you are all right. If you want to go, go now.

Then my lap was full of happy, laughing dogs all squirming to get closer to me, the closest one Meggie. her grin as wide as mine. My arms lifted as I hugged all five. Off the farthest was Mimi, her gentle soul reflected in her serene smile. She knew she was the one who would be closest to me through all time.

I cried. Through my tears I laughed.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Aug 10 - 02:36 PM

I too have frequent dreams about houses. Dreams that don't seem as significantly connected as yours, Helen. Actually, I like my dreams very much. One of my favorites is of a four story apartment building. Over the years I have lived in just about every unit. Different floor plans and different views and different floors; sometimes I have no idea that it's the same building until I step out into the hall and realize that two doors down is an apartment I previously lived in. I don't know what these dreams signify, if anything, but I enjoy them. 100 words.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 09:28 PM

All right, here it is. A true story, and the reason why I've been absent from Mudcat for over a year - knocking our old weatherboard house down and getting a new one built.


Dream house
-----------

I've had dreams about a house for thirty years. I go through dusty rooms which aren't used very much, parallel to the main rooms. The room at the top of the stairs is stacked with furniture, with things everywhere.

I've never recognised the house.

Morning. I walk downstairs in our newly built house. I look through into the formal dining and lounge rooms, the rooms we don't use very much. They are full of dusty timber waiting to be laid on the floors downstairs. The room at the top of the stairs is piled with downstairs furniture and stuff.

Revelation!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 08:50 PM

Indeed, yes, Helen. We are highly incensed. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 08:46 PM

Hi everyone,

I only drop into Mudcat every so often now, but I am surprised at how often I see either this thread or A Flea, An Orange & a Bicycle Seat on the list of current threads.

Maybe I should write another 100 word challenge story myself. I think Ihave contributed only one story to each of the threads, so I'm obviously not pulling my weight here.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 02:11 AM

It is startling how different 100 words look when they are in different formats. First I checked the most recent entries- great stories; Guest's especially will make me ponder the what-ifs- and yep. 100 words. Then I rechecked mine - it looked so much bigger than the others - but yep, 100 words.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 01:17 AM

(It needs so more work; it's been a long time since I wrote one of these!)


20 August 2010

All morning she was on the phone. He played the music keyboard, interspersing his own compositions with pre-programmed tunes.

"Oh, I love that one!" she said coming into the room. She smiled and held out her arms just as he came to meet her.

"I'll play it, again." He restarted the tune, turned and reached for her.

He waltzed her round, barely reaching to the top of her soft breasts. Taking another turn round and ending in a loving embrace, a magic moment of pure love distilled in her heart forever from her precious grandchild who loved her so much.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Aug 10 - 12:25 AM

ClaireBear and Guest, great new contributions!

Helen, I agree, it's nice to know you are still around. This is one of my all-time fav. threads.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: ClaireBear
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 11:29 PM

Such a very little distance, from me to you and the life I led. And yet I do not think to regain either one.

It was hard when you brought me here and strode away, hard -- and you in my moccasins, and I barefoot. Harder still it was to see the smoke rising from your council fire, and to smell your judgment on the rising wind: clear, even from a mile away: yes, I am guilty indeed.

I survey the distance I may not cross and watch the approaching flames, sighing. It is a good day, I concede, to die.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Amos
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 04:11 PM

Helen:

It is delightful to know you are still here and guarding this excellent thread!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 03:22 PM

Guest, 20 Aug 10 - 02:25 PM

I like your story. A lot.

Helen
(the initiator of this thread, 9 years & 13 days ago)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 02:45 PM

I have three stories going on at the same time, very different from each other. One is a meaty saga following several generations. Another is a book length story of loads of money and an altruistic life style. Another is an adventure story, aimed at people between the ages of 10 and 20 years. I flip back and forth as though honing my multi-tasking abilities. One is now being edited and tightened.   Another has me jumping forward , fleshing out as yet un-encountered scenes. On the other, I am still plodding along. I do love the life of the mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Aug 10 - 02:25 PM

Lift

My heart stopped on the thirteenth floor. She stood, framed in our history by the open doors.

"Chilly out," she said. "So . . . how are you?"

"Going . . . down?" I inquired.

"'One,' for me," she said.

Memories descended silently through successive floors. I'm leaving, she'd announced, washing dishes. I always dried. I wasn't sufficiently attentive to glassware rims where lips touch.

"I don't blame you," I said presently. "People excel at leaving. I'd leave me too, if . . . ." We stopped.

"Safe journey, then" she said airily, floating away. I pushed 'Door Close,' savoring the insular motionlessness momentarily before pressing my floor.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 08:39 PM

When he was a whole month overdue she couldn't sleep. Her nights were spent staring into the back of her closed eyelids while her exhausted mind darted hither and thither, proposing, discarding. She had been fired from each job she had tried this last month; should she, could she, do what Suzanne so flippantly suggested? It was drastic, it was scandalous, but who would ever know? When Edwin came back - if he ever came back, she thought bitterly - she could handle him; he was so in love with her. And with that thought she knew she had decided.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ed T
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 06:12 PM

A true story:

Telephone rings. "Hello".

"This is the school. Your son initiated a racial incident, report to the principal's office, after school."

Concerned, we arrived , teacher, principal looking up, sternly.

"Your son refused to hold the hand of a black child in a class game today.

"Odd", we said. "We have always stressed racial respect."

"Can we hear what happened from him", we asked.

Our son arrived escorted. "Hi Mom, Dad", he nervously uttered.

The teacher asked, "why did you not hold Johnny's hand at game time today"?

"Because, I saw him picking his nose just before", he replied.

Meeting ends.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 04:31 PM

I walked the streets of the town on Friday night, looking at my reflection in the shop windows. I spotted him staring at me. He engaged me with his velvet voice. Such was my comfort we went to the pub for a drink and sat engrossed in conversation for hours. As we entered my luxury flat, his arm brushed mine erotically and I was eager with anticipation. We entered the bedroom where he gently stroked my eager body. Sadly I climbed into my bed alone knowing that I would never recover from this affliction of mine which they call schitzophrenia.
(c) Mike Hill

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 03:33 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 11:35 PM

(Beautiful, esp. that last revelation, CU! Goodonya, Ebbie! I just did another edit with your helpful eye! Love this thread!)



The model she chose was the latest in Heat-Seekers. Invariably, it turned toward any heat source. It didn't actually glow, but one could feel the emanations of heat soaked in. It might actually heat a small domicile unit. If one ran their hand along the ridge, there was a noticeable transference of glowing warmth. It even matched their new decor: sable brown with cream and hints of azure blue. There were also dual outputs for the patented Comfort Rumble and it was guaranteed to be a True Descendant of Bast. "Come, Kitty" she said, "Let's go home."



(Inspired by Kipling the Cat curled up in a chair above our heat register.)

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Ebbie
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 04:39 PM

Inspired by katlaughing and her 50,000 word Novel-in -30 -Days I am returning to a story I began several years ago. I stopped at a certain point because research was needed and I didn't have the time just then. Now, I do. I just reread the chapters I have completed and it's an interesting story, if I say so myself.

I was right; it will take research. Sigh. Luckily I enjoy the process and I always end up knowing more at the end than I knew at the beginning. Someday I will be a wise woman.   Tongue firmly in cheek.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: CapriUni
Date: 22 Dec 08 - 02:43 PM

I wrote this for the latest Art Garden (which is an oral-performance evening set up like a literary magazine). It had the theme "Shopping." I explained the rules of a "drabble" (100-word-exactly story), and said that hyphenated words were argued about, but that since this story was being told for the ear, I was counting the hyphened word as two words, instead of one.

---

BAH HUMBUG! ...On the Other Hand...

Visiting the mall during the Holiday Season has always been, for me, an exercise in gauntlet-running: maneuvering my wheelchair through overcrowded aisles, warding off the elves at the Santa Station (who seem convinced that I am five years old), and maintaining my sanity after hearing "White Christmas" for the hundredth time that week.

But still, there have always been things that manage to raise my spirits: The exuberance of the garlands and the lights, the notion that people are all buying gifts for other people, and realizing, looking at all the opulant window displays, that I want for nothing.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: s&r
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 05:25 PM

Slowly down the central aisle you came
I did not turn around
I knew what I would find
I knew that you desired to share my name
You said you liked the sound
We were of common mind
The music I had chosen for this time
An old familiar tune
They all had heard before
It had no words there was no need for rhyme
No spoon no moon no June
For by the churchyard door
Lay flower on flower and on the casket lid
Of where you lay a rose and lily wed
As down the aisle you came

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 11:43 AM

RR!! Great to *see* you!! I had an ex-mother-in-law who DID scribble on walls!*bg*

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 16 Nov 08 - 11:23 AM

Another contest, another chance to lift my aging pen and agile hand to paper.
I thought,"If only I could reestablish some brain patterns to make thought come alive once again".
My pen quivered with excitement when it began to touch the paper. It danced words that were actually tangable and the paper soaked up ink with glee.
Letters, words and thoughts poured from my hand with a recollection of poetry and prose of years gone by.
The nurse entered the room saying, "Here, take your meds" , and mumbled "She has got to stop all this scribbling on the walls".


Good morning all! I still love this thread!
Peace.
Rustic

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Nov 08 - 05:23 PM

Seems there ought to be some good ones in these threads:

100 Words or Fewer Writing Contest for short fiction that will make us shiver, any genre: whimsy, allegory, mystery, romance, fable, humor, love, fantasy, even horror. Awards: $500, $200, $100 plus publication on Web site. Also 20 honorable mentions. All entrants will receive free checkmark evaluations of their submitted stories. Entry fee: $15. Deadline: extended to December 30, 2008. Info: www.100wordsorfewerwritingcontest.com.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 27 Sep 08 - 12:07 AM

**Oops, I did it again! I re-opened this thread. It appears above the line in Non-BS-Land but that is because it pre-dates the border-crossings of the BS-ers to and from BS-Land.

A challenge:a flea,an orange,a bicycle seat



**Not sorry, really! ;->

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Bluegrassman
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 09:09 PM

A hot day in June 1986, when on holiday in India, a very young Dan met up with a young bull elephant who had a piece of wood stuck in its foot. With his knife Don carefully removed the piece of wood, the elephant trumpeted and walked away. 20 years later visiting Chicago Zoo, Don and his son saw the some elephants, and one walked over to Dan The elephant then stamped his foot three times and Dan remembered 1986. The elephant gently picked Don up and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly. Probably wasn't the same elephant!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 08:16 PM

Helen:

Here is a brief history of the Drabble; the first use of the term was in a Monty Python sketch.

Students in the Birmingham University Science Fiction Club adopted the name and devised the rules. Three anthologies of 100 drabbles have been published, in limited runs of 1000 copies, the first in 1988. The proceeds have gone to a charity for the blind, I believe so that libraries could buy book-reading machines.

The genre's origin is probably why it is almost unknown outside the geeky circles of sci fi and fantasty fandoms.

---

Yes. That explanation was a drabble.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 07:29 PM

Capri Uni,

As I posted in my initial post to start off this challenge (which was 7 years one month and 19 days ago - Oz time. I love that this thread keeps re-surfacing at irregular intervals) I was first alerted to the existence of these 100 word stories by a book we had at the library where I worked. So at least one book has been published - and that was in the mid 1980's so there may be more now.

And I didn't know they were called Drabbles.

Helen
**********************************************************************
Subject: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:44

"Okay, the next Mudcat Challenge is here.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to write a complete short story which is exactly 100 words long - no more and no less.

"It has to be a proper story with everything you want to express in those 100 words.

"When I was working in the library we had a book of these from a British Sunday Telegraph competition. I saw one of the stories as a short film on tv a few years later. Very clever. And very economical use of words to convey the complexity of the story.

"(Note: the above paragraphs are exactly 100 words.)

"Your mission starts.....NOW!

"Helen"

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 05:34 PM

Just as John McCain was about to reach across the aisle to the House Republicans, hundreds of cell phones began to ring, jingle, vibrate and play 'where the eagles soar'. With so many phones going off at once everyone made answering theirs a priority.
It was text , a link or a staffer telling them about the CNN tape being played on the air. It was Ossama bin Laden apparently on his death bed with an IV and monitors at his bedside. He said "I told you that America would be defeated by bankruptcy. Your businessmen did it for me."

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 04:37 PM

Thanks, Kat!

I love "Drabbles" (as exactly-100-word-stories are called, in my neck of the Internet). I think the strict precision does just as much to sharpen the writing as the brevity.

Someday, I would love to see drabbles as a recognized genre of fiction in the mainstream, and to find drabble anthologies on the shelves of bookstore chains and libraries.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Amos
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 11:26 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 10:38 AM

*smile* great stories, CU. It's great to see this thread, again, too!

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: CapriUni
Date: 26 Sep 08 - 04:12 AM

Recently, on my journal, I asked friends for some 100-word story prompts in the form of a name, a verb and an object.

These two are my favorites of the ones that emerged:

---

(Andy, Hug, Button)

Andy stood in the parlor, as tidy as Nanna left it, but for five years of dust, and winter's accumulated chill.

Something green on the table drew him. He picked it up: a button from his overalls when he was... Two?

Then, he saw the needle with green thread... and something in the knitting bag.

He carefully pulled it out.

A teddy bear, with "C" on its chest, and one blue button eye.

Five years ago, Christina had outgrown teddy bears, especially homemade and funky.

Now? Maybe...

Sitting down, Andy finished her work.

He smiled, and hugged it for Nanna.

---

Charlie, eats, Chicago)

Charlie paused in his foyer. Something was different. He straightened his tie -- nervous tick.

There was a clang from the kitchen.

Charlie hurried toward it, and stopped in the doorway. "Sam?!"

Sam turned, grinning. "Your father kept his spare key in the flowerpot, too – so alike."

Thirty years. Sam had hardly changed. "Still like spagghetti?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

Sam pulled a wallet photo from his pocket, dropped it on the table: Sam and Dad by a highway sign: "Chicago 237 mi."

"Found that," he said, turning back toward the pot. "It has a story and the story needs a meal."

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 02 Nov 06 - 10:21 AM

200. Exactly.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: bobad
Date: 01 Nov 06 - 10:51 PM

I got pissed and failed my driving test today. Yeah, you heard me right. I'd had this driving test booked for five weeks now and had forgotten all about it. The office Christmas party got underway at noon and by three o'clock I was just beginning to get into that pleasantly delicious state of not giving a fuck about this miserable job and the colourless people I was forced to spend my days with when I remembered there was something I had to do today. The instructor wasn't amused when I hit the curb and nearly sideswiped that parked car.

With apologies to jacqui c.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 01 Nov 06 - 08:30 PM

No, Guest, it reminded me of the enigmatic premise of Engine Summer. You wouldn't get what I meant until you read the book, if you decide to read it. One of my favourite books, by the way. It haunts me by popping up in my brain at unexpected moments. (I read it originally about 15 years ago.) It's like Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game, in that way, because that novel is a part of my brain's architecture now, too.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Nov 06 - 07:12 PM

Helen,

Thanks for the Engine Summer recommendation. I read an online synopsis of the book.

If you find "The Listener" enigmatic then perhaps I have failed this one hundred word challenge.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST,Anonymous
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 09:53 PM

The stranger burst into the tavern, a whirlwind of snow battering its way through the open door. Ptar peered up from his book, cloaked in shadow. A single snowflake drifted through the inn, settling upon Ptar's book. The stranger, swaddled in cloth, limped along the stone floor towards the blazing hearth. The stranger stopped; began to cough, violently and forcefully hacking up blood. Ptar rushed over to help, seizing the stranger by his shoulders. "Are you okay?" The stranger's agony ceased abruptly; receding unto nothingness, and he looked upwards. "Sir?" He spun desperately. "Sir!" There was naught there but shadows.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 09:37 PM

(The idea for this one, for Halloween, came from my Rog.)

He pulled on the skin-tight Levi's with the silver studs along each outer seam. They were tucked into pretty pink dyed alligator skin cowgirl boots with the oh-so-pointy toes he loved so much. Next he tucked in a fancy Western shirt with a frilly ruffle down the front. Then came the shiny six-shooters with pearl handles, buckled around his hips in shiny black leather holsters. He topped it all off with a bright pink cowgirl hat.

"Okay, Laur-aaa, Diiiick, Karrrl! Let's play Trick-or-Treat!" said George.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 05:15 PM

(For Halloween/Samhain)

She was dirt poor, worked so hard her fingers were only skeletons.
She found the graveyard to be a place of respite and peace. There was no fear for her, this All Hallow's Eve. The residents were quiet and respectful, unlike those she lived among.
"Do you come here, often," he said?
"No, I've not much time for dancing and men want more than bones to hold onto."
His fleshless jaw flapped with a teeth-clacking laugh. "Well I ain't most regular men, darlin'. Let's go dance on my grave and do the monster mash!"
Her eyes flashed with surprise.

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: Helen
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 08:26 AM

No, Guest, it wasn't purloined, but your enigmatic story reminded me of Engine Summer, which is possibly the most enigmatic novel I have ever read. I read it as an "experience" more than the "I wonder what happens next" kind of book. You may like it. Then again, you may not.

I think there is a... not a similarity ...but a connection to the premise of the book that you might like. You won't get the point of the connection until you read all the way through, though.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: KT
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 11:07 PM

Wonderful addition, EJ! Wonderful! I agree, it's an outstanding exercise!!
KT

Subject: RE: BS: Mudcat challenge: 100 word story exactly
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 06 - 10:54 PM

No Helen, GUEST 29 Oct 06 - 10:06PM has not read "Engine Summer." I am assuming that my plot line was purloined for that book? ;-)

Any resemblance is purely coincidental. My 100 word story was based on an incident with a coworker at work. Does it have some similarities to Crowley's book?