Pretty Spry for a Dead Guy's picture
Pretty Spry for... May 8, 2012 - 11:07am

Also, thanks to everyone who thought Angel was their second favorite. 

It certainly was a flash finish for me.

These were quality entries.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. May 8, 2012 - 8:48pm

Thank you, Chester.  I sent you my address.  Don't send anything weird lol

Fritz's picture
Fritz May 8, 2012 - 9:11pm

Looking forward to some hardcore workshop. (I mean hardcore like arnold scharzennegger (sp?) intensity level off staying hungry, not... well you know.)

Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons May 8, 2012 - 9:44pm

Oh wow it's third place but my first "win" of anything here. How exciting. I really liked all the stories. It's an honor to be in the competition with such good writers. I'm so glad I found you guys.l

And Utah, my real name is Lisa.

Wanted to let you know  my dad died rather unexpectedly Monday morning. That's why I'm a bit absent here lately. Visitation is tomorrow, funeral Thursday. My two sisters and I just tried to write a "joint" speech of our memories of Dad to present at the funeral. We fought and got really mad at each other during the process. We tried too hard to write something, and we were sleep deprived. (Plus they aren't even writers at all, but they kept trying to tell me what to do!)  It turned out pretty good in the end though. Read our first paragraph: 

"My sisters and I sat down to write a speech about how grateful we are that our sweet Dad showed us the qualities of kindness, patience, strength and love. But after two tense hours and several stony silences we realized that what we inherited from him instead  was bossyness, stubernness, jealousy and a hot temper."

It flowed unbelievably well from there, when we stopped being flowery and got honest. We came up with funny true stories and a nice speech that I have been elected to read at the funeral. The whole process was interesting. We went form happy to stomping mad at each other to crying and hugging. Mom washed the dishes. Really miss Dad.

Profunda Saint-Sylvain's picture
Profunda Saint-... from Calgary, AB is reading Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series May 8, 2012 - 10:25pm

Oh, Cove, I'm sorry to hear that. Hope you and your family are doing okay. <3

Bill Tucker's picture
Bill Tucker from Austin, Texas is reading Grimm's Fairy Tales (1st Edition) May 9, 2012 - 6:38am

So sorry to hear that, Cove.  My thoughts are with you and your family.

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. May 9, 2012 - 1:39pm

I too, am sorry to hear that. All the best!

 

As a way to wrap this thread up, I'd like to thank everyone that posted Flash, or who voted on Flash. Congrats to all the finalists. I thought you might like to hear my feedback on why I chose these stories.

 

Piano Concerto - Because it's brutal and ugly and it surprised me with it's vehemance. Nothing else had the same raw aggression that this one did. This should be tattood on an inmates back, or scratched into a wall somewhere.

Angel - Bless. This was cute. I love sci-fi, particularly golden age sci-fi and this put me in mind of the cautionary tales from the great sci-fi minds. With a bit of work this could be as good as one of Asimov's positronic robot stories.

The War - Harsh realism from hicks-ville. Grim, almost as hard as Piano Concerto, but with a nice chunky side order of setting and atmosphere. EVerything so well characterised. I had to get a plane to get home from this one.

Jack? - Weird as hell. Asks more questions than it would have if it were comprised entirely of questions. Speculative sci-fi, eeirie and broody. Paranoia looks pretty in Zero G. Why the hell is this guy, this particular guy, in space? Strange stuff.

Afterlife Mixer - Classic surreal Danny. I doubt many people were left guessing as to who wrote that one. He's like Roald Dahl gone sour and septic. The story is funny, bizarre, and unpredictable. And it's 100% accurate in it's renditions of historical characters.

Gulls - Post apocalyptic noir in so few words. I adore this one. A last minute entry, last but certainly not least. The shortest of the finalists, but perhaps the one that paints the biggest picture. The word economy here is what swayed, me, it does a lot for such a short piece.

Cheers again guys. And congratulations!

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz May 9, 2012 - 2:18pm

Nice summation.

Broody. 

And on that note...on to eggs.

Profunda Saint-Sylvain's picture
Profunda Saint-... from Calgary, AB is reading Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series May 9, 2012 - 3:10pm

Thank you for the kind words, Voodoo!

My vote went to Piano, after reading all the entries a few times over, this is the one that kept coming back into my head when I wasn't expecting it. Great imagery.

I probably should have saved the seagulls for this month, though, what with birds falling out of eggs and all. Maybe something new will come to me... Maybe.