• “This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time studiously ignoring his fundamental ones.” The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris

• “I think it may be true that these people have for the time being at any rate more intelligence than they can handle and that the reduction of intelligence is an important factor in the curative process. I say this without cynicism. The fact is that some of the very best cures that one gets are in those individuals whom one reduces to almost amentia [simple-mindedness].” Dr Abraham Myerson (Quoted in Mad in America by Robert Whitaker)

• “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.”

Best of the Best:

The People Factory by Pepper

Best Flash:

Holy Water by GARYMARKBE
The People Factory by Pepper
And Then There Was Man by JayMG
Transorbital by Mark DeMoss
After the Deluge by fayfran

Best Narrative Voice:

Luck Has Nothing To Do With It by RomanWilderness
The Whole Of Humanity by Anonymous
Exponential by Copperstone
Holy Water by GARYMARKBE
Inside An Executive’s Diary by Cat Carlson
And Then There Was Man by JayMG

Best Characterization:

Luck Has Nothing To Do With It by RomanWilderness
And Then There Was Man by JayMG
The People Factory by Pepper

Best Setting Development:

Luck Has Nothing To Do With It by RomanWilderness
After the Deluge by fayfran

Best Dialogue:

Crossdimensional Aliens by GARYMARKBE
The People Factory by Pepper
After the Deluge by fayfran

Best Use of Topic:

Holy Water by GARYMARKBE
The People Factory by Pepper
After the Deluge by fayfran

Choose any two  or more among the following prompts.  You can ignore the really ingenious or complicated ones if you so choose.

Pick one of the following reflections (although you may choose more than one if you are a glutton for punishment.  Although this instruction tells you to “reflect” you need not include such a reflection within the flash story but only briefly refer to some product of your reflection):

• 1)Reflect upon something from the Hippie Era (or whatever term you find non-prejudicial in reference to the time of Peace and Love in the 1960s.) however loosely connected and  show some contrast between it and  the modern era (or another era such as historical period where your flash may be set).   You do not need to refer to the aspect of the Hippie Era by name; for example, you might mention the Bohemians of 19th century or Prague, or the wild abandon of the mauve age (the 1890s.)  Hippies would be easiest, I think. Neither the character nor the narrative voice need mention hippies, as events can indirectly resonate with the hippie age in the readers mind.

• 2)Reflect upon some aspect, technical or moral or nationalistic or psychological, of the war of the Greatest Generation upon the Nazis, and show some contrast it to the modern era or another era such as historical period where your flash may be set.

• 3)Reflect upon some aspect of how technology of communication affects culture, and you can use communication in any period or two periods of history you chose.

Hey, this “reflect upon” thing is a pretty cool prompt-except that it is too damn hard to simply read.

• Fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.
  George Bernard Shaw

• If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
  George Bernard Shaw

Best of the Best:

All the Tea in China by JayMG

Best Flash:

Scion by Michael Smith
All the Tea in China by JayMG
Half and None by Errid

Best Narrative Voice:

Scion by Michael Smith
Anzio, 1944 and 1961 by fayfran
All the Tea in China by JayMG

Best Characterization:

The Shrunken Distance by Copperstone
Royalty Free by Pepper
All the Tea in China by JayMG
Half and None by Errid

Best Setting Development:

Royalty Free by Pepper
The Face Pressed to Mine by Anonymous
Political Potential by Roman Wilderness

Best Dialogue:

The Effect of Technology on the Will to Rise Up Against Oppression by Mark DeMoss
Political Potential by Roman Wilderness

Best Use of Topic:

Scion by Michael Smith
Anzio, 1944 and 1961 by fayfran

• 1. Round up five books. Select them by any means you feel is appropriate. Examples include: five closest to you; five favorites; five least favorite; random selection; or anything else you can think of.
  
  2. In each book:
  a. Turn to page 42. (If the book doesn’t have 42 pages, choose a different book.)
  b. Go to the second paragraph. (If the page only contains one paragraph, use the first paragraph of page 43.)
  c. Record the third sentence. (If the paragraph contains fewer than three sentences, continue with the next paragraph. [ex.: If your paragraph has only two sentences, the first second of the next paragraph would be sentence 3.])
  
  3. You should now have five sentences recorded. These are your prompts.
  
  Note: Be sure to include the five sentences at the end of the story, marked as your prompts, so that people can vote for “best use of prompt.”

Best of the Best:

Folding for the Mad Dadaist Kidnapper’s Demands Like Origami by GARYMARKBE

Best Flash:

Folding for the Mad Dadaist Kidnapper’s Demands Like Origami by GARYMARKBE
The Differences Between Us by JayMG

Best Narrative Voice:

Syntax of Love by Errid
The Differences Between Us by JayMG

Best Characterization:

We’re Not Related by Mark DeMoss
The Differences Between Us by JayMG

Best Setting Development:

To Build a House For You and Me by Copperstone
The Envy of the Rich by Cat Carlson

Best Dialogue:

Syntax of Love by Errid
The Highest Law of the Land by Pepper

Best Use of Topic:

Folding for the Mad Dadaist Kidnapper’s Demands Like Origami by GARYMARKBE
The House by just-me5

• The effect of a successful hero is the unlocking and release of the flow of life into the body of the world

• We are all victims of some form of irrationality. Like-minded crazies build “social tunnels” that connect to reality at weird angles – like spirochetes on acid.

• The crack in the world was much too large for him to get his head through.

• A long moment passed – a lazy, sun-baked, flower-scented moment. He wanted to follow it, this moment, remain inside its protective flower-scented bubble, leaving the present – or was it the future? – forever behind.
  Lew Berney

• Grub Street The former name of Milton Street, London, once frequented by needy authors and literary hacks. Can also refer to impoverished literary hacks as a class.

• “Who, if I cried, would hear me among the angelic orders? And even if one of them suddenly pressed me against his heart, I should fade in the strength of his stronger existence. For beauty is nothing but beginning of terror . . .
  Rainer Maria Rilke

Best of the Best:

Prognostication Never Pays by Michael Smith

Best Flash:

Prognostication Never Pays by Michael Smith
Memory and Mind by fayfran
Homicid.Fun by V V Saichek

Best Narrative Voice:

Stuck by Pepper
Oedipus Wrecks by RomanWilderness
Frankenstien: Study by Brent Powers
Release Me by klutterfly

Best Characterization:

Summertime by Copperstone
Untitled by Anonymous
Memory and Mind by fayfran
Jawless by RomanWilderness
Release Me by klutterfly

Best Setting Development:

Stuck by Pepper
Summertime by Copperstone
Jawless by RomanWilderness
Homicid.Fun by V V Saichek

Best Dialogue:

Prognostication Never Pays by Michael Smith
Jawless by RomanWilderness
Homicid.Fun by V V Saichek
Frankenstien: Study by Brent Powers

Best Use of Topic:

Prognostication Never Pays by Michael Smith
Jawless by RomanWilderness
Snapped by JayMG

• Perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
  - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

• Dream as though you’ll live forever; live as though you’ll die today.
  - James Dean

Best of the Best:

The Criss-cross Christ Meeting House by V V Saichek

Best Flash:

The Criss-cross Christ Meeting House by V V Saichek
On the Proper Construction of Musical Instruments by Michael Smith

Best Narrative Voice:

Inside by Roman Wilderness
The Criss-cross Christ Meeting House by V V Saichek
The In-Between by Anonymous
Chalk by JayMG

Best Characterization:

Inside by Roman Wilderness
The Parting Gift by Mark DeMoss
The Fiddler by Errid

Best Setting Development:

The Criss-cross Christ Meeting House by V V Saichek
The In-Between by Anonymous
The Fiddler by Errid

Best Dialogue:

The Parting Gift by Mark DeMoss
The Owl and the Rooster by Cezarija Abartis

Best Use of Topic:

Untitled by GARYMARKBE
The Music of the Spheres by fayfran
On the Proper Construction of Musical Instruments by Michael Smith

• This week, choose one and only one of the numbers below. Put the one you choose at the top of your story, before the title. If you forget to mark your story, PM Errid with the info. As each number is chosen and used, I will delete that from the options for the remaining players. In your story, incorporate the number, the word, and the picture. For example, if you choose 1 for the money, you must somehow use the number 1, you must use money, and you must use the picture. You can use them as directly or as abstractly as you wish. You can use any form of the word you wish (ie: judgment could be judge, 12 could be dozen). I expect there will be times when I won’t get around to deleting a number before another person uses it, so there could be duplicates. I will give an extra 7 minutes this week for the effort of choosing and of putting the topic at the top of your story, thus, you will all have 97 minutes to write and submit. All the pictures are thumbnails in deference to those on dial up. If a picture interests you, you can click on the url to see a larger version. Have fun!

• 1 for the money

• 2 for the show

• 3 to get ready

• 4 to go

• 5 for the present

• 6 for the thief

• 7 to get drunken

• 8 for grief

• 9 for the entrance

• 10 for the rain

• 11 for the question

• 12 for the lame

• 13 for the judgment

• 21 for the mind

• 24 for the pensive

• 31 for the sign

• 52 for the initial

• 66 for the spent

• 99 to get smarter

• 365 to repent

• Avogadro’s number for the distant

• pi for the cherry

• google for the brilliant

• speed of light for the hairy

Best of the Best:

A Lame Excuse by fayfran

Best Flash:

Inevitable by Michael Smith
Stroke of Life by Errid
A Life Of Crime by Mark DeMoss
A Lame Excuse by fayfran

Best Narrative Voice:

Stroke of Life by Errid
A Life Of Crime by Mark DeMoss

Best Characterization:

Stroke of Life by Errid
A Life Of Crime by Mark DeMoss

Best Setting Development:

Stroke of Life by Errid
A Lame Excuse by fayfran

Best Dialogue:

Stroke of Life by Errid
Best with Bud by Pepper

Best Use of Topic:

Stroke of Life by Errid
A Lame Excuse by fayfran

PERSON
An old woman of uncommon vitality
A successful businessman with a fear of open spaces
A hiker, lost and hungry
A child with no friends
A very clever housewife
An unemployed college/university graduate

OBJECT
A hideous knick-knack, passed down for generations
A brand-new book, but the spine is already cracked
A piece of fruit on the border between ripe and rotten
A large flock of birds
An old knife, rusted and bent
A dead tree, split by lightning

EVENT
An injury gained through foolishness
A group outing
The sudden reappearance of an old acquaintance
The discovery of a curious mechanism
An inauspicious change in weather
A card game is played

Best of the Best:

The Thing by Errid

Best Flash:

Card Game by GK Adams
The Book with the Broken Spine that Broke the Old Ladies Back by GARYMARKBE
The Crows Take the Cowardly by Michael Smith
The Thing by Errid
Another Level by Roman Wilderness

Best Narrative Voice:

Admiration by Cat Carlson
The Crows Take the Cowardly by Michael Smith
The Thing by Errid

Best Characterization:

Admiration by Cat Carlson
The Book with the Broken Spine that Broke the Old Ladies Back by GARYMARKBE
The Guarded Door of 1400 North Square Road by Anonymous
The Thing by Errid

Best Setting Development:

Admiration by Cat Carlson
A-lone-ly by just-me5
The Guarded Door of 1400 North Square Road by Anonymous
The Crows Take the Cowardly by Michael Smith
Another Level by Roman Wilderness
Amelie Observed by fayfran

Best Dialogue:

Admiration by Cat Carlson
The Book with the Broken Spine that Broke the Old Ladies Back by GARYMARKBE
I Write Like by Pepper

Best Use of Topic:

Card Game by GK Adams
The Book with the Broken Spine that Broke the Old Ladies Back by GARYMARKBE
Ruin by Cat Carlson
The Thing by Errid

• The sun is up, the sky is blue
  it’s beautiful and so are you
  Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play
  – The Beatles

• “a song from lips long dead on forgotten hills”
  – Lord Dunsany

• “Politics is the entertainment branch of Industry.”
  – Frank Zappa

• “The clouds are full of wine, not whiskey or rye.”
  – Don Van Vliet

• “A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.”
  – Maxim Gorky

• “True literature can only exist when it is created, not by diligent and reliable officials,
  but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and skeptics.”
  – Yevgeny Zamyatin

Best of the Best:

Old Devil Blues by Michael Smith

Best Flash:

Splash by Pepper
Enemy, Opponent, Foe by RomanWilderness
Old Devil Blues by Michael Smith

Best Narrative Voice:

Arcadia in Antarctica by fayfran
Old Devil Blues by Michael Smith

Best Characterization:

Splash by Pepper
Knock, Knock! Please Let Me Be by Cat Carlson

Best Setting Development:

Arcadia in Antarctica by fayfran
Old Devil Blues by Michael Smith

Best Dialogue:

Splash by Pepper
Enemy, Opponent, Foe by RomanWilderness

Best Use of Topic:

It’s Got to Be You by RachelCarter
Supernova by Errid

• She had lost the art of conversation, but not, unfortunately, the power of speech. – George Bernard Shaw

• fall

• History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. Maya Angelou

• Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean. Maya Angelou

Best of the Best:

Chicken Limbo by Roman Wilderness

Best Flash:

Chicken Limbo by Roman Wilderness
“EVERYTHING MUST GO” by Pepper
On the Way Down by Michael Smith

Best Narrative Voice:

Neighbors by klutterfly
Lose, Desire, Self and Other by GARYMARKBE

Best Characterization:

Neighbors by klutterfly
Moonlit Mountain by just-me5

Best Setting Development:

Chicken Limbo by Roman Wilderness
Lose, Desire, Self and Other by GARYMARKBE

Best Dialogue:

Zero Days Without Accident by Mark DeMoss
Silly’s Tongue by Errid
Chicken Limbo by Roman Wilderness
When the Cradle Will Fall by GARYMARKBE

Best Use of Topic:

Silly’s Tongue by Errid
On the Way Down by Michael Smith

• touch

• We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves. ~Lynn Hall

• What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want. ~Mignon McLaughlin

Best of the Best:

Crayola by GK Adams

Best Flash:

Crayola by GK Adams
Colors of Life by Errid
Raw Sienna by Mark DeMoss
Late One Night in the Wrong Alley Michael Smith
Touch by fayfran

Best Narrative Voice:

Crayola by GK Adams
A Light, Shining Through by Cat Carlson

Best Characterization:

Crayola by GK Adams
No Hope Can Have no Fear by GARYMARKBE
Colors of Life by Errid

Best Setting Development:

The Infection by Roman Wilderness
Colors of Life by Errid

Best Dialogue:

No Hope Can Have no Fear by GARYMARKBE
Raw Sienna by Mark DeMoss

Best Use of Topic:

Crayola by GK Adams
Colors of Life by Errid
Raw Sienna by Mark DeMoss
Touch by fayfran