So we’ll see how this goes for my first blog competition thing. If you read my previous post then you may already know about it and what it concerns. I’ll be this week’s judge.
I may even select a few other people to be judges in the coming weeks (there will be heavy vetting but no heavy petting), but this depends on how well it goes.
And there is the badge I made. To promote/find other participants you may use the twitter hashtag #SatSunTails. And yes… Tails does refer to the Sonic character that I drew on the badge (’cause I think he’s cute).
Rules!
- Post stories in the comments
- Stories must be 150 words (margin of 5 words either side) AND based on the picture and written prompts.
- If you title your entry this is not counted in your word count.
- Only one entry allowed (so make it count)
- End each entry with word count and name/twitter handle (if you forget these REPLY TO YOUR OWN COMMENT with them before judging closes)
- You may enter until Sunday midday GMT.
If you do not comply with these rules your story will be disqualified from judging. Good spelling and grammar will also help to make a better impression on judges – the odd typo, however, will be overlooked so please don’t worry about that.
Winners!
There will be ONE OVERALL WINNER and THREE RUNNERS UP. After that there will be THREE CRITIQUES of three stories that didn’t make it.
It would also be nice to those participating if you could promote your fellow competitors and those who win.
Today’s Prompt!
The following may be used as a sentence in your story or provide a basis for it:-
It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
And here is your picture prompt:
Good luck!
You have until lunchtime tomorrow.
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Seriously? A lightbulb and a post about silence? Pretty mean, I say.
OK, now that I've insulted the judge and host. Here's my story. Good thing Britts have good senses of humor.
First Parliament fell, then Congress, then the governing bodies of the world, but It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
It’s funny when you think of it. Fuckin’ politicians. One day we’re complainin’ about taxes, the next the bastards are growing tentacles and eating us. Of course, they could see in the dark. What with the mandated brown outs and light bulb shortages. But we had a chance. No great chance, but something to hang our hats on.
I can’t speak, so I write. This is how it ends. A tunnel under their palace. A bomb. A single light snuffed out by a stray bullet. A shock wave bursting our ear drums. They descend, enraged… hungry.
They feed off the carrion strays of man. They revel not in flesh, but the last vestiges of our hope.
Our first line decimated, and second line faltering. I watch, I write, in silence.
@leo_godin 153 words
It is mean, but then it will produce much better entries than an easy prompt ;P And it really is a good thing Brits have a good sense of humour!
The birds were silent. That was the first sign.
The second was the absence of wind.
And then the lights went out. All the lights. The headlights that beamed from Leif Eriksson’s battered campervan, the tiny reading light embedded in the roof. He saw the leap of a flame, as though a bullet had shot through them and then they were gone. There was just darkness and starlight. Until the stars too, began to fade.
He swallowed, steadying himself against the tree. The knowledge of what was to come had been passed from father to son through three hundred generations. There should be peace in the knowledge but he felt no peace. Just cold terror that tore his throat and sucked the air from his lungs.
In the darkness, he smelt the acrid scent of burning, the chill of frost. Fire and ice. The earth will bleed.
Ragnarok. Twilight of the Gods.
@charitygirlblog 152 words
The United Nations had granted the panel absolute control. They had the authority to impose sanctions against any entity considered to have too great a "carbon footprint."
First, they had declared certain methods of power generation illegal, requiring offending countries and companies to make enormous expenditures to become compliant. Next, they had banned the use of certain materials in manufacturing processes, adding even more costs to production and driving many businesses to close. Finally, they had prohibited barbecues, saying that they "contributed to global warming." The edict forced everyone to switch to the exorbitantly priced power.
Clearly they had not considered the consequences of their decisions and, one by one, entire national economies had begun collapsing.
Now someone was addressing the panel, suggesting – even pleading – a return to previous ways.
There was silence after the committee shot down the idea. It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
#150 Words
@LupusAnthropos
Great ending. I love it. "Fire and ice. The earth will bleed." Powerful
Clever. Nice job. Only problem, is this is supposed to be fiction… 🙂
By'Lat waved his arms in frustration as he left the council contemplating its decision.
One by one the glass bulbs suspended in the air exploded, shattering the silence within the enclave. The Masters of the land had doomed the world with their decision, 'no practitioner of magic is allowed to live' they had decreed. Everything in this world depended on magic – the light, the food, the people. Without magic the people would lose the water they drank, the food they ate and the knowledge they had.
First the ferns that purified their drinking water had to be destroyed, torches were taken to the trees and the books that had once taught them to survive were burned in piles.
It took years for the full ramifications of the masters' orders to take effect. Species became extinct, plants stopped growing and no drinking water was left. It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
@TimonySouler – 155 Words
Nice. You fit a lot into 155 words.
Extinguished Lights
Spring had come early. The woods were alive with the sounds of rebirth. None of that mattered a lick to Becky.
To her, all was subsumed beneath an impenetrable shell of silence. It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth. It scoured away anything with the slightest potential to distract her.
Her scarlet hair was bound up under a kerchief. Her pale skin was concealed beneath layers of lamp black. In dark homespuns, she was an unseen wraith.
An incandescent bulb sprang to life within the cabin. She waited until the glow illuminated the face of the man who had taken not only her innocence but her heart and then cast her aside so casually.
Her first shot struck that handsome face and it vanished in a burgeoning cloud of crimson. Her second shot transited the bare bulb, extinguishing its light as easily as she had extinguished the light in her betrayer's eyes.
155 words. @klingorengi
I like it a lot. Well done indeed.
Night Castle
The Spartan stone chamber was lit just long enough for Caldwell to get its lay. The light bulb exploded under the burden of trying to illuminate this forsaken hole. Taking one last long drag from his stub of a cigarette, Caldwell flicked the butt away and felt the smoke burning his lungs. It had been too much to hope for electricity in this old castle.
Caldwell exhaled, the smoke consumed. Stepping into the room he waited for his eyes to re-adjust to the darkness with his hands deep in his coat pockets. The mad man’s castle and forests beyond teemed with death. With every living thing other than Caldwell too afraid of its own shadow to make a peep, the flow of electricity to the light had been thunderous. The explosion deafening.
Caldwell waited in silence. It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
The monster would come.
150 words
@DavidALudwig
Following the nuclear bomb blast that killed 6 million New Yorkers and deafened thousands of others, it was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth. When he first emerged from the shelter and looked at his surroundings, William was sure that this must be a very cruel joke. He stood in the middle of one of the world's busiest cities and there was nothing left. There was no evidence of life, people or otherwise. No plants, animals or water for that matter. A wasteland that was filled with the rubble of what had once been a thriving metropolis.
William spun in circles, desperately hoping to see his parents. They last time he saw them, they were shouting for him to go down to the shelter and stay there. It started to snow. He stuck his tongue out. It was bitter.
Falling to his knees, he looked up and screamed, "Nooooooo!" Incongruous silence replied.
154 words
@wendyreid2
Great ending paragraph. It'd be hard not to vote for this one.
It was an incongruous silence that bled dry the earth.
People didn't realize what had happened, and stared blankly at the breaking bulb. Watching on their TVs and streaming on the net, the world had expected a new bounty. A new source of energy from the alien technology.
Instead, the light bulb shattered in a stunning display of glass and debris. Scientists scattered in real time, but the plume of radium-fixed chemicals moved slowly into the room, little sparks of fire dancing across several billion screens. Glass danced and shone in a minute dance of destruction.
And the silence was everywhere.
The technicians' mouths were moving as they shouted orders, but no one heard them. No one heard anything anymore, and began to look at each other in disbelief. They questioned and wondered, but their voices weren't heard. Even in their own heads, no one heard themselves.
No one heard the aliens begin the conquest.
word count 155. twitter @ravencorinn
I left it open for an extra two hours, but now the competition is closed. Results shall be revealed later on.
Thanks for all of your contributions. =)