Friday, 10 February 2012

Lily's Friday Prediction

I'm having a Banshee moment. I caught something on BBC4 about Siouxsie Sioux and have been thrown into a whipped-up sea of reminiscence.

I can't count how many times I saw this extraordinary woman perform. I love everything about her - her look, her voice and lyrics but perhaps most of all her determination to be herself in a very greedy and narrow-minded music business. Hail Siouxsie Sioux!

(Oh and I'll always remember getting thrown out of a friend's parents' snooty Golf Club dinner/dance for my personal performance of Mad-Eyed Screamer back in Siouxsie's Creatures days. It made my, and the DJ's night.)

Talking of highly-talented women, please don't forget to read the incredible dark fiction in this month's FEBRUARY FEMMES FATALES showcase. Several Predictioneers are sharing their work and would love your feedback.

And Gentlemen, just because the showcase pieces are written by women it doesn't mean the stories are only for women - please dip in and support your fellow writers. You can flip back through the posts here on the Feardom, or go to the FFF page where the posts are listed in date order as they go live.

Thank you!

Winner of Last Week's Prediction Challenge

A healthy pot-load of Prediction entries last week despite that 'mangle' word! We have one - my hubby uses it for print-making.

I've read and re-read your wonderful words - even with fewer entries than the previous weeks it doesn't make it any easier to chooser a winner. But the job is done:

My winner is Jack Holt with the atmospheric and intriguing vignette Fallout. This strange nameless woman and the even stranger location stayed in my mind for days. Is this a derelict casino? And what is she about to do? Do tell. Oh, and congratulations!

Runner-up, with Big Boys Don't Cry is AJ Humpage. The vivid description of this horrendous accident is so powerful you can smell the carnage. Well done AJ.

Words for 10 February 2012

I've rambled on for England so I'll make this quick...

This week's words are:

  • Conserve 
  • Hare
  • Crucify
(All verb and noun forms accepted on the first and last words).

Good luck!

Rules

The rules are: 100 words max flash fiction or poetry using all of the words above. Please add your entries in the Comments box below. You have until 9pm UK time on Thursday 16th February 2012 to enter.

The winner will be announced on Friday 17th February. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it. Do give feedback to your fellow Predictioneers - we all appreciate it.

Slide down your Helter Skelter and finger some great fiction. I want to be left Spellbound...
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Party Guest, and I Cling Inside the Border-Wall by Amber Taitague - February Femmes Fatales

Amber Taitague is new to the February Femmes Fatales feast. Regular readers and contributors to my weekly Friday Fiction Prediction challenge will better know Amber as MuckieDuckie.

Amber's writing delivers naughty wickedness, a dark and dangerous outlook that makes you smile - in guilt. Here she revisits two of her Prediction challenge pieces. They are well-chosen and present her intriguing style so well.

Little dabbles with delicious drabbles. Read on...

PARTY GUEST

Balloons drift limply to the floor; the party decorations hanging haphazard throughout the house. A dazed girl in a torn party dress wanders about, wincing at the loud music. She ignores a platter of congealed London broil on the dining table, making her way to the front door.

Her head cocks in puzzlement at the bottleneck she finds. Bodies with empty eye sockets that glare red are piled about like pillow shams.

Softly singing Portishead’s “All Mine” she grabs a jar off the floor, smiling at the eyeballs it contains.

Marie is a collector and she has only just begun.

_________ The End _________

I CLING INSIDE THE BORDER-WALL

When love’s rotation gyrates on fear’s axis, the strain of years doesn’t strengthen the glue of you. The toll bears down heavy.

The cracking you hear is not of bones breaking but of self shattering.

His angry face is on again. He shouts the words that show the border between us and little pitchers hear; small eyes shimmer soft as the television tries to hypnotize.

I’m ice to his flame, no more moved by his rages.

The border-wall recedes, but the space between us is different. We’re half-remembered strangers or half-forgotten friends, but I cling.

Cling to keep us whole.

_________ The End _________

Bio: Amber Taitague has been writing since she was a child, dabbling with short stories and poetry. She recently fell into flash fiction and has been working many years on a novel, however she's guilty of procrastination. She can be seen in 5x5 Issue Four: Smoke.

Lily Childs is a writer of horror, esoteric, mystery and chilling fiction.

If you see her dancing outside in a thunder storm - don't try to bring her in. She's safe.