Wordsmoker

Congratulations to all of the participants in the past week’s Micro-Fiction Roundup XVIII: The Work We Do That Goes Unappreciated and Unnoticed. Things have been going along swimmingly since we brought this feature back. Personally, I like to see multiple entries from the same people. No 101 word limit can contain these guys. Shall we have a quick look at all of the entries before announcing a winner? We shall. Umm, I really kind of wanted this paragraph to line up with the bottom of the artwork, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Unless… now! No, damn it. Here are the entries:

• Chillbear Latrigue – “Passdown Log Woes”
• Lady Day – “A Mother’s Work is Never Fun”
• Blix – “B-A-T-H: Dead Dog Walking”
• Latter Day Lenin – “Fixing Dawn” (I was told that this was a close second, despite falling outside of the theme.)
• Mama Penguino – “Look! A Kitten!”
• GeoDeJane – “Two Dogs”
• GeoDeJane – “Faithful”
• Blix – “God’s Little Furry Bundles of Love *Head Tilt*”
• Vox Populi – “Finder’s Fee”
• Militant Rubber Ducky – “Last Line of Defense”
• Sapphire – “Precious” based on the novel “Push” (Not really. I just wanted to see Sapphire finally get a little credit for writing “Push.”)

Let’s have a hand for them. In a way they are all winners. However, in the only way that really matters, Vox Populi is the actual winner. Here is the triumphant piece that our judge, Strawberry Shortcake, in spite of Latter Day Lenin’s shameful pandering:

Finder’s Fee

“She heard the static on the TV and poked her head around the corner. Dare she turn off the television or would he startle awake? Best to leave it alone.
His jacket was draped over a living room chair. She pulled his wallet out of the pocket and extracted three twenty dollar bills and slid it back into the pocket. Grocery money, in case he drank his pay away during the week.
She tiptoed up the stairs and gave two twenties to her mother. “All he had,” she said, evenly. Her mother nodded as she stabbed her cigarette into the ashtray.”

Congratulations to Vox Populi. This is exactly why I wear a plastic watch and carry very little cash when I know that I’m going to drink myself into a coma, even at home. In this celebrated work, we see a woman who has to resort to nefarious methods to deal with the desperate situation in which she finds herself. It is a justifiable crime, which is the theme of this week’s competition. Have you ever had to kill someone to save your life? Ever stalk a starlet because you really love her, and just knew that if you had that one chance to tell her how awesome you are that all would be forgiven? Ever start a war because you really knew in your heart that you would find WMD’s? Would you just rather make something up? Well, then this contest is for you.

The Rules:

• Your entry must be 101 words or less; if you choose to title your piece, the title will not count against your 101; there is no limit on the amount of entries you can submit.
• The deadline will be Sunday night at midnight. This will give the judge 48 hours to submit his or her selection to me by Tuesday night at midnight.
• If I don’t receive the judge’s selection by one of the established methods (e-mail, Wordsmoker messaging or Facebook private messaging) I will be forced to make the selection so as not to delay the next week’s competition.
• The winner of Micro-Fiction Roundup automatically assumes the responsibility of judging the next week’s competition. Obviously that person can still submit writing, but can’t pick himself or herself as the winner. Otherwise we could end up with some sort of ridiculous perpetual judge situation.
• In the interest of keeping tradition, I will try to select themes based upon the previous week’s submissions when possible.

Vox Populi, I like you, but this is one of those bigger-than-life assignments that transcend friendship. As of now, it is Samurai Panda Poetry’s week. He will need your selection no later than Tuesday night at midnight. You can email it to him at SamuraiPandaPoetry@Yahoo.com, do the Facebook thing or just contact me and I’ll make sure that he gets it. The way we find out your pick is the one thing we’re pretty lax about. Good luck 101 worders.

Image via Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern