Emily June Street's Blog, page 18

Fresh

Here’s my story, Fresh, written from a prompt of an oyster picture. Fresh was selected for first runner-up at The Angry Hourglass this past week. I wrote three different oyster stories based on the difficult prompt. The first was about a couple arguing over oysters (and infidelity) at dinner, the second was about the demise of Drake’s Bay Oyster Company as its farms were turned back to wilderness land, and the final one was this campy romp. If you’d like to see Fresh in its natural statewith...

Flash Fiction

Flash fiction isn’t my preferred mode of story-telling. I read and write novels. I like big, chewy ideas and intricate plots with many fingers. I like games of perspective. I have to force myself to write a short story, and flash is the extreme ofshort. But I’ve been trying to write some flash fiction for a few reasons:

Thevery short format works perfectly with my limited schedule. It can be hard to jump into my novels when I only have thirty minutes to write. Also, I’m always looking for ways...

What a Body Can Do

My dad asked for a verb list after my last post, so here’s one of my favorites:

Body Action Verbs:

arch
bounce
climb
dart
emerge
flop
gambol
hunker
invert
jiggle
kneel
lean
mince
nestle
oscillate
plummet
quiver
roll
slither
tuck
undulate
veer
writhe
x (I haven’t got a body-action verb for x. If you do, let me know!)
yank
zip

All the Interesting Stuff

Confession: I make alphabetical lists of all kinds of words for different purposes. I have action verb lists, plant lists, things-buildings-can-do lists, and all-time favorite word lists. Here’s my alphabet list titled “All The Interesting Stuff.” I use it when I need a story idea.

Addiction
Adultery
Belief
Betrayal
Civil War
Cyborgs
Defiance
Disobedience
Espionage
Ethnobotany
Flukes
Forbidden knowledge
Gambles
Gods
Hexes
Honor
Incest
Iniquity
Jealousy
Jeopardy
Longing
Love
Magic
Murder
Nature
Netherworlds
Outcasts
Oute...

Writing Process Blog Tour

Introduction

Beth Deitchman tagged me to be one of her three victims for the Writing Process Blog Tour. Beth wrote last week that she had seen the phenomenon of theWPBT on the Interwebs and she “secretly longed to be invited.” I laughed. Beth and I make good partners at Luminous Creatures Pressbecausewe have such opposite yet complementary ways of looking at things, and this reaction only serves to prove my point.

I heard about the WPBT and was secretly dismayed that someone might ask me to do...

My New Blog

Hello! This is my new space for posting a wide variety of writing, including updates about what I’m doing, flash fiction, short stories, and my rants on all kinds of topics. You can also follow my writing progresses at the Luminous Creatures PressBlog, or engage in occasional contests and activities there.

Today I am posting a little flash story I wrote for the prompt in the final week of our Summer of Super Short Stories Contest over at Luminous Creatures.

Here’s the prompt picture:

And here’s...

New Blog

I now have a personal blog for sharing my thoughts on anything and everything! Updates coming soon.

Week Nine Winner: The Harbour of London by Mark A. King

I want to swim in the sea, to feel it, to cleanse my sins, to wipe away the viscous blood from my hands. But…I know the sea will kill me, almost as quickly as the authorities will.

My husband was a powerful man. They never approved of me, and now he has lost warmth, they have opportunity and motivation; I will surely get my comeuppance.

I sit and listen to the Thames tide lapping at the edges of the synthetic golden shore. I try to appreciate this folly, this profligate profanity, for soon the...

Summer of Super Short Stories Week Nine Winners!

What is it about the sea that brings out the poetry in even the most hard hearted of writers? It can be powerfully destructive or pure and cleansing, a Biblical flood or the gentle tide, wiping away our fleeting footprints. It’s said that it gave us all life, and it’s taken away its fare share too. Personally, I find it a terrifyingly alien environment and had I been writing this week, I would have filled the depths with all manner of scary beasts, hungry for my tender flesh…

But instead, we h...

Summer of Super Short Stories Week Nine

Welcome to week nine of Luminous Creatures Press’s first Flash Fiction contest! Our guest judge this week is flash master Karl A. Russell.

You have until 6 pm (PST) on Saturday to submit a 500-word story based on the prompt picture below. Post your story in the comments section; include your name, a title, the word count (not including title), and your Twitter handle if you’ve got one. Only stories submitted before the deadline will be eligible to win. We’re on San Francisco time; check the wo...