Predictions and Poetry

The legacy of the weekly fiction Prediction challenge is that this week it has spawned bountiful fruit, in book form.

Firstly, I was absolutely delighted to receive through the post, a signed and dedicated, fully-illustrated booklet of Prediction contributor and artist Sandra Davies's extraordinary series:
The blacksmith's wife.

Such was the rolling, roiling emotion of this epic tale - packed with debauchery, manipulation and vice - that we were carried along on the journey with the characters as they battled between love and hate, passion and abuse.

How anyone could perpetuate such a story using only 100 words at a time, that had to include three words given by myself or Phil Ambler - well, it is a stunning skill.

Fans of The blacksmith's wife can buy a copy of Sandra's book from Lulu.com. And Sandra? Thank you for this wonderful gift. I shall treasure it.

~ * ~

The second pleasure of the week was to finally see William Davoll's unique poetry up on Amazon, as a Kindle ebook. I am conscious of the pain and experience that went into writing The Five Daughters of Spite, some of which made their way onto The Prediction in one form or another.

William has brought together fifty poems under the headings of Fear, Revenge, Betrayal, Injustice and Loss. Some will chill your soul, others make you laugh in dark appreciation. And then more will make you question your own moral responses or perhaps bring a tear to your eye.

William was kind enough to thank me in his opening acknowledgements; it was genuinely a pleasure.

Please support our writer friend, and poetry as a whole by downloading The Five Daughters of Spite ebook from Amazon. As they say, you won't regret it.

~*~

As a last nod to The Prediction; it is on the move again. Phil Ambler kindly took on the reigns from me last year and did a mighty fine job of posting the words from the old tome and judging the many posts from loyal and new 'Predictioneers.'

Phil's final judgement comes on Thursday 31 January - so rush on over, there's still time to enter! From Friday 1st Feb the tome will fall into the capable and talented hands of Colleen Foley over at http://predictionfiction.blogspot.co.uk. Do pay her a visit and perpetuate what has now become a tradition.

Thank you Phil; thank you Colleen! And the very best of luck and success to all Predictioneers.

___________________________

Lily's Friday Prediction

She is waning, the moon - in strength but not in beauty as she stares through the morning sky. I proffer humble thanks, watching her quickly slip into slumber as her backdrop  turns from red to duck-egg blue. 'Twill be a crisp but sunny one today, methinks.

Winners of Last Week's Prediction
Were my Prediction words cruel last week, I wonder? I felt so. The big book didn't treat us kindly, but still you managed such diverse wonders.

My winner from last week is William Davoll with No Rest For The Weekend. Even with a little typo (Your next" ;) ) there was something so wicked about this concept, and so rampant was the carnage that I couldn't help but love it to bits or stop thinking about it. Congratulations William; I seriously think you should develop this into a full length story.

The runner-up is John Xero with the extraordinary construction Cartography of Provocation. I was truly overwhelmed at the enormity contained with 100 words. Very well done indeed.

Words for 14 October 2011

Will the big book provide sweet relief this week? Let's see...

• Ascend (all forms acceptable - ascension, ascent etc)
• Newspaper
• Shrivel

Interesting. Good luck everyone.

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 the whole week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 20th October to enter.

Winner will be announced next Friday 21st October. If you can, please tweet about your entry, using the #fridayflash hashtag, and blog if you feel like it.

I'm so enjoying these longer, darker nights; my pen trembles all by itself in anticipation. And yours...?

_________________________________________

Prediction Winner

I love the diverse use of the words this week. Let's quickly summarise, and see which entry won...

• Chris throws an ace card at Milton and Blackwood as the crime-beating duo discover another murder(er) in Coming Up Trump
• Steven's manic pseudo-surgeon gets off on gore in the blood-spattered Rupture.
• Antonia's narrator has enough of her date, however 'ace' he thinks he is, in Escort Duty.
• Amber's dancer almost falls victim to the psychological damage of her defiler's Unwanted abuse, but catches herself just in time.
• AJ exposes the horror of starvation and neglect in a very unbalanced world in Dying Away.
• Aidan brings The Ossuary back to our plates with invitations by the Bone Mate to sculpt and worship skulls.
• Kim puts the homeless Out With The Trash to suck on rats until Death whisks the poor man away.
• Phil delivers a bliss of birth as Rhechévah releases her offspring in Flash.
• William falls foul of his Toxic Girlfriend 1993 as she tears at his soul in an attempt to bring him down to her desperate level.
• Paul's old butcher wins the game and sets up the twisted vic for hungry William in his untitled piece.
• Kallandra freezes our perceptions as the PI grasps the evidence in this untitled thriller.
• Jack chucks a pie at the slimeballs as The Flaming Ace's waitress knocks her abusers dead. (Good riddance).
• My tale shows we shouldn't mock the tarot - or, at least we shouldn't try to hide the message. Love, Ill-Dignified. 

With a brilliant title and a fantastically crafted, caustic poem - the winner this week is William Davoll with Toxic Girlfriend 1993. Congratulations William!

My runner-up is Phil Ambler with his beautiful 'portal to the imagination' Flash. Very well done Phil.

Loved them all; everyone should be very proud.

Advance notice: the winner of the next challenge will get to judge the following Prediction. Ooh!

_________________________________________