The Delusion of Arlecchino - dark verse from Lily Childs

The Delusion of Arlecchino

He dodges in and out of night
to dance the Tarantella.
And when the dance begins to slow
he looks for Lillabella.

He ‘spies her in a shady glade,
her arms around another
In that stark moment threats are made
to kill poor Lillabella.

He stabs the lovers, three times – more.
Their blood mingles together.
The Harlequin reveals himself
“You queen whore, Lillabella!”

He cries out when he sees her face
for this girl is no other
than his own sister, full of grace,
unlike dour Lillabella.

He launches forth to stem the flow
but she is gone forever.
Comes from behind them, gruff and low
“I’m not ‘your’ Lillabella.”

He swallows deep, her rancid breath.
The spider’s Tarantella.
She dances him straight to his death.
She’s no more Lillabella...
than Il Diavolo himself.

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Lily's Friday Prediction

Thank Faust It's Friday. I'm feeling all mystical today - sparkly thoughts and twinkly fingers that belong to weekends rather than the workday week.

Congratulations to AJ Humpage and MuckieDuckie for jointly winning last week's Prediction with Final Journey, and I Cling Inside the Border-Wall.

Words for 05 August 2011

What will the the old book throw up today? Let's see...

• Etiquette
• Stag
• Play

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 all week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 11th August to enter.

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

My eyes are open. My mouth is ready to read your words out loud. Can you fill it with something tasty?

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Prediction Winner

Good job I don't take it personally how you all throw me into turmoil with your talent each week. Let's cut to the chase and summarise the (stunning) entries:

• Tony throws us into the sale of a lifetime, but are these smoke-damaged goods the bargain they seem in (one version in my head of) Texas Chain Store Massacre
• Phil dances onto the floor with Takeout and finds himself with a very hungry date. Bet she never orders a home-delivery.
• Aidan invites us into a strange world where love is a curse that can end up as fatal. First Curse.
• Antonia sends A Wish For Summer Rain as the old ones dance around their Jack In The Green, unaware how huge a sacrifice it actually is.
• Chris sits us down to read a fairy story - with a killer ending in "Kill Them All, said the Magic Frog."
• William's dancing Clodovea sprays innocent(?) men with burning tequila. "You wanna piece of me? You got it"
• My ancient-British shaman saves her daughter, who in turn sacrifices her lover so that she can continue to live, in Of Warriors And Women.
• AJ takes us on an emotional Final Journey to a man-made hell on earth.
• Veronica throws us to the marauding zombies in Daybreak - and just when we think we are safe...
• MuckieDuckie exposes a family in domestic feud, trying to keep it together for the little ones in I Cling Inside the Border-Wall.

Brilliant - every single one. I'm kind of breaking with tradition here, in two ways. Firstly, because I have two, joint winners, and secondly because one of them won last week too.

My first winner is AJ with the terrifying yet exquisitely beautiful Final Journey.

Winner No. 2 is Muckie with her proud and violently emotional I Cling Inside the Border-Wall.

Huge congratulations to you both.

I'll return later today with the new challenge. Hope to see you there.

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Bane by Lily Childs

Original artwork by Laurence Ranger (c)
Copper drypoint etching

A dark, flash fiction tale of oral deceit...

BANE

Ten tales to terrify; Leofric gathers his words together in mind and mouth – and sets the sordid scene. Long had he travelled between battle-scarred lands and darker realms; some had feared the storyteller dead, but now around him children and warriors sit enthralled, with eyes ablaze.

Silence, but for the crackle of flaming logs in their pit.

Night begins its giddy dance, casting shadows over the crowds. Leofric’s humming resonates across the ground. It trembles into the seated thighs of all assembled to rise through their very being. Louder and louder the storyteller’s voice sings its single note until...

“Holler!”

The audience gasps. Children shriek at the sheer volume and slam pudgy hands over sensitive ears. Leofric stands as quickly as his aged bones will allow, raises his face to the sky and starts to talk.

Stories.

His first to third perturb, his face a shifting mask under the moon’s fleeting light.

Fourth to sixth disgust, another face for every tale he tells.

Seven and eight, his faces tear apart.

Nine, the face of a demon spills into the storyteller’s skin.

Ten, Aeglaeca steals every screaming face for himself.

***

The story writes itself.

Pestilence and plague.

The chronicles of death.

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Writer - or performer? Aaaargh!

An evening or so ago I sat amongst fellow writers at a monthly meeting. Some, like me, prefer the dark side. Others enjoy travel or script-writing. We have poets and non-fiction journalists, self-published authors and those who write purely for their own pleasure.

All is well. All is calm. Until I am 'encouraged' to read my work out loud. Suddenly (you can hear my panic; 'suddenly' is one of those words I've always been taught to avoid, like 'nice' and 'was') my heart palpitated. My normally-still hands began to shake. My mouth - OK, OK I'd had a glass of wine - laboured grey as cardboard; any juices lingering on my tongue were sucked dry. Even my vision became blurred.

What the f***?

Now, I have always had an inherent fear of speaking in public - oh yes. Doesn't matter how much I know my subject, or how comfortable I am with an audience... it means nothing.

I'm very aware that in conversation - with people I know and even those I don't I can ramble for England and probably sound lunatic. So for that I apologise - but - is it a surprise that this is why I write? This is my communication method of choice; this is where I can articulate rather than blab and burble. If I do espouse the thoughts that tease my head then people usually politely turn away  - and that's how I discover I am talking crap. Makes you kind of paranoid, but then... what the hell.

So. My question for you - writers or not - is how do you cope with speaking in public? I am not interested in method - I know all about pitch and pause - I want to know how you overcome self-confidence issues. How, when you read your fiction or verse out loud in the comfort of your own home, and it sounds so fab do you stop the subsequent monotone delivery that bears no resemblance to your private performance?

If you are a serious writer, at some stage you will be asked, or will need to promote your work by doing readings at book stores, libraries, public spaces and even theatres. Have a heart, think about it now...

Answers on a postcard, or below - please:

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Lily's Friday Prediction

It's late. Isn't it. But you don't mind - do you? I wish I could say I've been out climbing mountains or digging up buried treasure but you know that ain't the truth. So shall I just stop making excuses and get on with it? Of course.

Many thanks to Chris Allinotte for his great judging of last week's Prediction. Worthy winner and runner-up MuckieDuckie and Kim get our full congratulations for great flash fiction!

Words for 29 July 2011

If anyone is new to Lily's Friday Prediction, the rules are simple, and you can read them below this week's words:

• Gyrate
• Flame
• Border

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 all week until 9pm UK time on Thursday 4th August to enter.

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

So, let's be 'avin ya, guys and gals. Come and light my fire...

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Prediction Winner

The results are in - and I shall hand straight over to Chris...

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OK Lily, here we go. Do I need to say I've now got a huge appreciation for your task each week?

Excellent entries all this week, and an excellent breadth of tone and genre.

• AJ Humpage's Hackett earns his name as he plays and flays in the name of art and Silence
• Aidan shares an existential, futuristic Apocalypse on a nanoscopic scale
• Antonia's MC gets biblical, then goes medieval on her captive in An Eye for an Eye
• William shows us a true dark Cul de Sac of life, in a harrowing, affecting tale of neglect
• Lily speaks from the broken heart of talent and artistry destroyed by illness in We Don't Accept Fan Fiction, and then gives a wicked second turn with the ghosts of Watching Out, Looking In
• Rosie makes her Prediction debut with a tale of a twisted life in its final moments with Feathers
• Kim gives us a horrifying end to a wasted life, witnessed only by the shady Dark John, in On the Cheap
• My own entry gave a peak at an abusive relationship with a potentially pyrotechnic redemption in Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
• MuckieDuckie Captures the spirit of sibling adventure in an untitled piece. Mom must be a writer at heart - she can't leave a good story hanging
• Phil displays a grotesque massacre of an entire village in the name of Honor, truly displaying the dark side of what is so often romanticized
• Veronica delivers terror on an all too human scale, and a Monster in the back seat as well.

Alright. This was a very, very tough decision. I don't know how Lily does this every week!

First Place goes to MuckieDuckie - I was completely charmed by this depiction of the family dynamic, and the power of make-believe. The tone and voice of the children was spot-on.

Runner up is Kim - your gritty portrayal of a life used up and discarded by the most unsympathetic of companions was chilling.

Whew! Thanks again Lily for the chance to judge these amazing stories. Everyone's take was so different, and well done. (Kind of looking forward to being a simple contributor again tomorrow!)

All the best.

Thanks again Lily!

Chris

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Congrats MuckieDuckie, and well Kim! Great judging from Chris too - thank you.

New challenge on its way tomorrow...

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