Another Friday, another year… Welcome to Microcosms 156, the first post of 2019. Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all had a great festive period.
Yes, we’re moving effortlessly (I wish!) into the fourth year of Microcosms… astonishing! I trust you are all raring to go with a new set of flash fiction challenges in the next 12 months.
January, as you probably know, is traditionally thought to be named for the Roman deity Janus, the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages and endings. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past.
With this in mind, once again, I’ve been looking back at the entries received during the last quarter of 2018. I’ve taken one of the favourite / favorite lines chosen by the judge in each of the 11 contests – the last two posts were ‘Just 4 Fun’ challenges .
There’s no “slot machine” of elements in this round. Your task is simply to select just ONE or TWO –DEFINITELY NO MORE! — of these lines and incorporate it/them into your entry:
143 – There were always interesting treats lurking in his pocket.
144 – “We opened the gateway to the wrong dimension!”
145 – Also, never tickle a person who has diarrhoea.
146 – It’s early days in the history of time travel and teething problems can be expected.
147 – Doctor, I’ve already told you, you can’t do that.
148 – Is that why you hate cabbage so much?
149 – I’m retired. I’m just an ordinary member of the public now.
150 – Nosy old fart.
151 – Tell me everything! Our readers demand it!
152 – Hurt anything enough and it will hurt you back.
153 – Man, they cranked them out like counterfeit bills back then.
*** DO NOT USE THE CHOSEN LINE AS THE TITLE OF YOUR ENTRY ***
*** Incorporate it somewhere in the story / poem ***
You may change the chosen line(s) slightly – names, gender, tense, punctuation, etc. – but it must still be recognisable. You may use whichever genre you like this week.
Please tell us the word count – excluding the title – plus the Round Number AND the favourite / favorite line(s) you have chosen (in the format used above). There’s no need to specify the genre this time round.
And don’t forget to give your entry a title.
Geoff
*** NO FAN-FICTION, PLEASE, and NO USE of COPYRIGHT CHARACTERS ***
Judging this week is Microcosms 153 Judge’s Pick, David Lewis Pogson.
All submissions should be a maximum of 300 words in length.
You have just 24 hours from 00:00 to midnight TODAY (FRIDAY, 04-JAN), New York time (EST), to submit.
*** If you are new to Microcosms, remember to check out the full submission guidelines. ***
All being well, results will be posted on Monday.
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