The World Series (RVFF #11)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Ebullient (ih BUL yunt) - 1. boiling 2. bubbling with excitement 3. exuberent

The World Series (RVFF #11)

Eddie scuffled toward the plate. Coach squinted into the crowd and spat. Coach looked at the loaded bases then at the scoreboard – two outs, last inning, two runs back.

Eddie was a hard hitter, but unpredictable. Coach hadn’t planned for the roars of an ebullient crowd and combined with Eddie’s timidity… Coach cringed.

Eddie knelt down, grabbed a handful of dirt, and drizzled it over his cleat.

“Hit it, Eddie! Team’s countin’ on ya.”

Eddie positioned his bat and swung.

“Strike,” the referee said, leaping over the bat flung from Eddie’s hands.

“Hold on to the bat, Eddie!” Coach said.

Eddie positioned his bat.

“Go, baby!” a voice yelled from the crowd.

Eddie’s mom – No! Coach hoped Eddie hadn’t heard her.

Eddie swung, hit, and ran – straight into the arms of his mother.

That was the day Coach decided to retire – the dream of a Pee-Wee World Series victory demolished.

Word count = 148

Fiction Today, Reality Tomorrow (RVFF #10)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction basically means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Acumen (AK yoo mun) - 1. keenness of judgment 2. mental sharpness

Fiction Today, Reality Tomorrow (RVFF #10)

“Global Progression troops – got the Markette family!” Allison was breathless.

“Calm down, honey,” Paul said.

“Yanked them - out of their house - stripped them, hanged them upside down - stoned them to death. Their neighbors found out they were Christians – grabbed stones and joined in the massacre.”

“How did the GPTs find out about the Markettes? We’ve been careful.”

“There must be a spy in the congregation.”

“They could be headed here. Grab the kids. Let’s go!”

“Suitcases - under the bed.”

“No, we have to get out now!”

“We need those suitcases!”

Paul opened a suitcase and was startled to find ammunition inside. “I thought we agreed to let God be in control?”

“God was in control when He led me to an underground arms dealer and told me to protect our family.”

Grateful for Allison’s survival acumen, Paul’s confliction melted away, and a slim hope seeped in.

Word count = 150

The Pick-up Line (RVFF #9)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction basically means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Hackneyed (HAK need) - 1. overused 2. trite 3. stale / I used definition #2 for this story

The Pick-up Line (RVFF #9)

“I think there’s somethin’ wrong with my eyes ‘cuz I can’t take them off you.”

Harriett cringed at the drunken man’s hackneyed greeting. “ I’m married.”

“Me, too. Jus’ not when I’m on the road - know what I mean?” The man grinned and caressed her arm.

She yanked her arm away and peered around the hotel lobby. “I’m not interested!” She returned to her reading.

“What’re ya readin’?”

Harriett held her book up.

“Uh… hell, my eyes ain’t that good. What…”

“Mere Christianity.”

“Oh! You a Christian?”

“Yes.”

“Me, too. Jus’ not when I’m on the road – know what I mean?” The man howled. “Let’s have some fun – jus’ for one night?”

Harriett shook her head.

The man cursed and stumbled toward the hotel bar.

Harriett watched him approach another woman.

“Hi, beautiful,” he touched the woman's arm. “Did ya get that bruise when ya fell from Heaven?”

Word count = 149

The Pain of Truth (RVFF #8)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction basically means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Wanton (WAHN tun) - 1. malicious 2. unjustifiable 3. unprovoked 4. egregious / I used definition #1 for this story.

The Pain of Truth (RVFF #8)

Willa watched her brother aim his gun at the three-legged dog lapping water at the river’s edge.

“Griffin! Don’t!”

Willa heard the blast and winced. The dog stood there for a moment, then hobbled forward and fell into the river. She watched in shock as the current carried the dog away.

Later, as Willa sat on the porch hating her wanton brother, a one-legged man appeared in the distance.

“Gracie!” The man whistled. “Here, girl.” He approached Willa. “Miss, have you seen a dog, black and white, missing a leg, like me?”

Willa wanted to tell the one-legged man everything. But looking into his worry-filled eyes, the pain of ignorance seemed more humane than the pain of truth.

“No, sir. I haven’t seen your dog.”

Willa frowned knowing she would carry the pain of truth for him, and ironically she envied the one-legged man.

Word count = 144

Overcoming Sinkholes (RVFF #7)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction basically means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Precipitous (pri SIP uh tus) - steep

Overcoming Sinkholes (RVFF #7)

Penelope slid down the precipitous slope of a sinkhole, trying to grab onto something, anything. The mud was sucking her in, and she was moving too fast to fight it. She landed with a slosh in the soupy base on the sinkhole floor. Something slithered around her legs and she jumped to her feet and froze.

The dark was disturbing, but twenty feet up, the daylight emphasized the hole she’d ridden her bike into. My bike… my phone. She moved cautiously through the muck until she found her bike. Reaching into the bike pack, she grabbed her phone – it was waterlogged, and dead. She began to cry.

She lifted her face toward the light. “You win, okay? I’m yours.” More slithering around her ankles - she screamed. “Please, I don’t like the dark. Get me out of here!”

A loud jingle signaled power to her phone and Penelope gasped.

Word count = 149

Becoming Known (RVFF #6)

What is Random Vocabulary Flash Fiction (RVFF)? I blindly select a vocabulary word from Word Smart, and write a flash fiction story using that word. Flash fiction basically means it's short - you can read it in a flash. Click here to read my rules.

Today's word: Kinetic (ki NET ik) - 1. having to do with motion 2. lively 3. active / I used definition #1 for this story.

Becoming Known (RVFF #6)

Kiethan's neck strained as he stretched it forward and gazed over the cliff edge at the river below. A psychological force, stronger than his own will, held his legs at a still uncomfortable distance from the unprotected drop. He thought it odd and humorous that he would be filled with such fear, and he smirked at the irony.

The river was angry; this stretch, a thrilling pass-through for class-V white-water-rafting enthusiasts. The stillness of the surrounding mountains made the raging river all the more vibrant. "Nature's kinetic art," Keithan said, bringing to mind all of his rejected art projects he was leaving behind.

In an instant, the invisible force vanished and his fear melted. Keithan moved forward and stood on tiptoes at the cliff edge. "At least they'll be worth something now. God, forgive me."

Word count = 135

Live It - Then Write About It

*I initially posted this on my Living Writers' Collective blog, but I think My Writing Loft friends will enjoy this message, too.*

This past June, my kids and I disappeared deep into the Allegheny Mountains in West Virginia for a week. In our log cabin in this remote part of West Virginia, there was no Internet or television, no cell phone access or landline telephone, and no air conditioning or microwave.

I love shedding off life's modern-day conveniences and getting cozy with nature - the bugs, the creatures that slither, the nocturnal explorers, the deer, the bears, the birds, the giant river turtles, and the frogs that are twice as big as my hand and whose sweet tunes lull me to sleep at night. I've always been a tomboy, and I still love exploring the forest floor for animal tracks, seeing how far a millipede can climb my bare arm, and catching (or trying to catch - I'm not as good at it now as I was when I was a kid) slimy frogs.

During this trip, I learned a few new things:

• Spotting the twenty-third deer is equally as fascinating as spotting the first one.


• Bear feces looks suprisingly similar to human feces.


• Spiders and crickets will seek shelter in your toiletries case.


• The mystery of the unexplainable loose dirt that keeps appearing in your bed will be solved on the last day when you realize you've been sharing your bed with a raccoon all week.


• The lack of modern-day conveniences/distractions will bring out the best in seven- and five-year-old boys.


• If your child has a loose front tooth, take him innertubing a few times. Hayden's tooth now rests somewhere in the Greenbrier River.


• Kroger-bought pears taste fresher in the woods.


• If you wake to the sounds of a curious bear in the middle of the night, when - if - you go back to sleep, it is inevitable that you will dream you are being attacked by a bear.


• Around day four, you'll start to wonder if anything major has happened in the world - like has our government been overthrown? Has California fallen into the ocean? Has the rapture occurred and I wasn't one of the selected? But then a deer and her fawn will leap by your cabin, and you'll decide it doesn't really matter what's going on in the crazy world outside these woods.

Last year, this same trip to West Virginia inspired me to write a short story called "Death of a Whippoorwill". I received an honorable mention in the 2009 Silver Quill Short Fiction Contest for that story. I want to encourage you all to find a special place, at least once a year, where you can disappear from your distractions and absorb inspiration for your writing. Don't go with the plan to write; go with the plan to explore and observe and enjoy. Live it - then write about it.

For me, getting as close to nature as possible seems to do the trick. For you, it may be something else, but whatever it is, make the effort to do it. Living it will flood you with ideas and inspire poignant messages through writing that shines.

Have you had a chance to "Live It" this past year? If so, tell us where you go to dissappear from your distractions and absorb the inspiration to write.