Happy November folks! For the last Thursday in October, the Fiction Forge critique group met to discuss our first contest. We asked the group to write a story not in your regular genre that either start or ends with “Jack, the Pumpkin King, bowed his head sadly.” Yes, we used an adverb in our prompt. We also made the submissions blind. This gave us two contests: guess who wrote which story and who best hid their writing style by having the fewest correct guesses. The contest was great fun, and we agreed to do more next year. I hope you’ll be able to join in the fun.
I set my contest story in a post-apocalyptic world where a massive, thick-skinned beast devastates an unnamed city. An army battalion confronts the beast, but it decimates the soldiers. The captain calls in four Air Force jets to defeat the creature. The extensive missile barrage is effective. Only one soldier survives. This soldier is known to Jack, the Pumpkin King. He’s possessed his body before and is using him, against his will, to end all life on the planet. Although Jack is sad the humans killed his creature, he vows to create another one. One that is faster and has more power. Yesterday, I wrote the next scene in this story at the Tulsa Night Writer’s conference. The soldier is reunited with the pilots, and they review the fight and what weapons they have left. I’ll keep this story in mind and see if I can turn this contest piece into a full novel someday.
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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what book is open on my Kindle. I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read a variety of authors and topics. Currently, I’m reading Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael series. I’m on the sixteenth book The Heretic’s Apprentice.
Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is available on Amazon, as an eBook, and in physical formats. It is also available on the Barnes and Noble website.