August Flash Fiction Draw Roundup

It’s August, and we’re on to the eighth collection of stories! Before anything else, though, this just gets more fun every month because so many of you give this a shot with me, so a big thank you to all the writers who wrote something. We even have some newbies this month, which makes me really happy.

Speaking of newbies, I recently did a conference, and there’ve been some pretty awesome discussions online about a few things of late, so if you’re new to my blog, it’s possible you have no idea what am I talking about.

Well, the Flash Fiction Draw is a randomized card-draw that spits out a genre, an object, and a location, after which writers have a week to come up with up to 1,000 words that fit the criteria. It’s meant to be for fun and inspiration, rather than for serious competition (stretching writer muscles, not stressing writers out). I make the draw on the first Monday of every month (the next draw will be September 3rd, if you want to join in) and post results the following Monday, updating the post as I find new stories writers have written.

These were the cards drawn (and what they meant):

With “Ghost Story,” “an Earring,” and “Tobacco Shop,” what would the authors come up with? Well, if you’ve followed along at any point this year, you know some authors tend to deliver the laughs, others the shivers, and with a ghost story up for grabs, it was all the more varied. I hope you enjoy!

Here they are, alphabetically by contributor:

Lilly Amadu wrote “Up in Smoke.”
Jeff Baker wrote “A Good Cigar Story.”
‘Nathan Burgoine (that’s me) wrote “Ghosted.”
“The Dark Netizen” wrote “Smoke.”
Alex deMorra wrote “The Last Drop.”
Cait Gordon wrote “When There’s a Ghost of a Chance.”
Bruce D. Gordon wrote “Export, Eh?” A Canadian Ghost Story.
Jeffrey Ricker wrote “The Drag Queen with the Emerald Earring.”
E.H. Timms wrote “Pearls of Wisdom.”
Jamieson Wolf wrote “Family is Everything.”

Did I miss your entry? Let me know and I’ll add you to the list! And by all means join us next month, when I do the draw again on September 3rd. And if you want to see what people came up with for previous stories? The roundup for January (which was “A Fairy Tale,” “A Tattoo Machine,” and “A Prison”) is here. The roundup for February (which was “A Crime Caper,” “A Compass,” and “A Soup Kitchen”) is here. The roundup for March (which was “A Romance,” “A VHS Cassette,” and “A Firewatch Tower”) is here. The roundup for April (which was “Historical Fiction,” “Rat Poison,” and “A Dirt Road”) is here. The roundup for May (which was “Science Fiction,” “A Dog Whistle,” and “Above the Clouds”) is here. The roundup for June (which was “Fantasy,” “Hot Chocolate,” and “A Junkyard or Scrapyard”) is here. And the roundup for July (which was “Mystery,” “Typewriter” and “A Dam”) is here.