THE FAN (flash fiction)

Don Drysdale walked into the dugout and smiled at Maury Wills and rookie Charlie Neal, before throwing his mitt on the bench and giving everyone that smug smile.

The night before, a bunch of fellas from the team were out sucking down bourbans at Toot’s Shor’s joint in Manhattan and made a little bet about that bouncy little fan with the cute overbite.

Drysdale pulled out a torn cocktail napkin from his satin jacket and bragged, “You all owe me a finske because she gave me her phone number.”

Wills snatched it away to inspect and said, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, I thought you owed me five bucks.”

Charlie Neal leaned over and piped in, dejected, “Whoa, whoa, whoa... she told me dark meat was her thing.”

After deciding which one would call her first, the boys from Ebbets Field looked at one another and decided where tonight's challenge would be.

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THE BEAST WITHIN (flash fiction)

He took their million dollar advance but now he owed them a book. Problem was that he was plum out of ideas and moreover, drier than August in Death Valley.

So out came the scotch - used to work in the past - but this time it only made him angry and suspicious. Even the clickity-clack of his vintage Underwood and dopey trip to the cabin where he wrote the first one didn't spark the juices.

When he saw his face on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, the mania grew worse and only after barricading for days in the back of a dark closet did the inspiration to type arrive:

"Despite writing well over 60 novels and countless short stories, Hank knew the beast he'd have to slay in his next adventure would be the one buried deep within the bowels of his demented soul."

---

This is the original challenge post

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RECOGNITION (micro flash fiction)

18 words. That's all we had to use to create a story on the latest Six Sentences challenge. 3 words per sentences. Six Sentences. This is what popped out.

She didn't say.
I didn't ask
Didn't matter, though.
We both knew.
She loved him.
I didn't care.

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FROZEN IN THE KINGDOM (flash fiction)

Recently at Six Sentences, there was a challenge posted that had entrants use the concept of cryogenics. This is what I came up with...

The Magic Kingdom was obviously filled way with too much sword and sorcery for Little Sally not to wander off at closing time.

Intuitive and knowing full well her parents would find her eventually, she took a quick left turn at Captain Jack Sparrow's wooden knife sculpture (a new logo for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride) which led to a secret winding cement path.

Yup, if only the 'Mouse House' geeks knew that finding the infamous Disney tunnels was that simple.

Funny enough, in the brightly-lit labyrinth of corridors, no one seemed to question the little girl with the Cinderella wand who seemed like just another prop after hours.


Six left turns led to a drippy stairwell where she found him behind a plexiglass enclosure -- frozen and blue -- surrounded by duplicated liquid nitrogen canisters and refrigerated at minus 180 degrees.


Just barely able to read and staring at his blank smile, she was able to muster out the four letters on the brass nameplate into one full-sounding word, "WWwwwalt..."

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AUTHORS WHO CRAPPED OUT MASTERPIECES

Via Cracked.com: So what does it feel like to write something that will inspire audiences for generations? Apparently it feels like another day at the office, as it turns out some of the greatest works of all time weren't intended to be classics... and often were just dashed off for the hell of it.

To read the entire list, click HERE.

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WAITING FOR THEIR HUSBANDS (flash fiction)

My latest piece is once again inspired by the work of the great artist Edward Hopper is 1929's "Chop Suey."

Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929

Agnes and Edna met at Chop Suey, the first upscale Asian eatery to open up shop in the greater Wall Street area, and chatted as if they they didn't have a care in the world - and they didn't.

Even though their financier husbands have been irritable of late, three Gin Rickeys were all it took to reaffirm their excitement for The Jazz Age.

Agnes went on and on about this new radio show called "Amos and Andy" and Edna just couldn't understand why that new comic strip - the one where the cockeyed sailor eats spinach - was so funny.

When Edna debated whether Henry Ford should've accepted Stalin's invitation to build an auto plant in Russia, Agnes changed the subject to riding the Grand Trunk Express through India.

As the first ruined tycoon hit the pavement, they both knew the Roaring Twenties were over and, amid chaos, quickly ran outside hoping their husbands wouldn't be late for dinner.

---

If you liked this, my other two Hopper Sixes can be found here and here.

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THE BEACH GIRL (flash fiction)

Somewhere around 5 a.m. Davina left the Vanity Fair party and completely blew off Elton's bash because something didn't feel quite right.

She told the limo driver to head up the Pacific Coast Highway until he saw Paco's Taco's, an all-night gourmet stand smack dab in the middle of Malibu. For all the hoopla of winning her first Oscar - which she aptly tossed into the Pacific - she knew deep down nothing would change.

It would only magnify only what was. Oh sure, the phone will ring louder now off the hook, the meatier roles will come and a better class of men will never seem to leave.

But for all those absolutes, though, the only thing Davina questioned slumped at 6 a.m. was: 'Will people only remember that god damned sex tape?'

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