Welcome to my writing world

Random Thought: Long before I was married, I dated a vampire. What a pain in the neck!

Sorry, but you should be thanking me for all the even worse ones I could’ve laid on you. Welcome to my special Halloween edition. This week’s 101-word tale was originally written four years ago and was inspired by a prompt sent in by Stephen Choi. One of the things I love about taking a deep dive into the story vault is that it gives me the opportunity to make small fixes that greatly improve the original take. With only 101 words, every one of them counts, and after having done this a while, I see a lot of things I didn’t see back when I was pretty new to the world of flash fiction.

Here’s the new(ish) tale.

Shit show in Pumpkinville

“What I saw was…horrific.”

The other pumpkins shuddered as Pete recounted his brother being eviscerated.

“After they disemboweled him, they cooked and ate his seeds!”

The crowd stirred. An escape plan formed as Pete said the humans turned pumpkin flesh into pies.

The pumpkins stampeded, crushing several farmworkers. Pumpkins with sharp stems impaled others, leaving a trail of bodies behind.

After they successfully escaped, Pete smirked, “The FBI is trying to blame I.S.I.S. (Independent State of Insurgent Squash) or even the P.L.O. (Pumpkin Liberation Organization).”

Pete smirked. “What? Those cops are out of their gourds.”

Prompt: Pumpkin Pandemonium

NOVEL NEWS & OTHER NOTES…

Last time out, I told you about a couple of upcoming events I had on the calendar, and they were … amazing. One was a Writers Roundup, where our own Central Coast Writers put on an event all about the craft of writing. Ten club members combined forces to live the “Writers Helping Writers” motto. By all accounts it was a major success. See visual proof below.

The other outstanding event was the Mystery Writers of America panel I moderated at the Capitola Library, featuring five fabulous fiction females (nice alliteration, right?) discussing their awesome mystery novels. If you like great reads in the genre, look up Cara Black, Heather Haven, Kate Joyce Hopkins, Michelle Chouinard, and Robin Somers. You won’t be disappointed. They all put on a great show for the riveted crowd, and I was really grateful for the opportunity to interview them about their craft.

Meanwhile, back on the novel-writing front, I’m enjoying pushing ahead on book two (my working title is Bad Timing), while my editor reached out the other day to let me know she is now actively working on the latest draft of Questionable Characters. She thinks she’ll have it back to me soon, telling me she likes the new opening. Perhaps I’ll have an update for you next time.

As always, thanks for listening.

Scotty out

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