You were the hero. You were there first. You faced the dangers and braved the odds.
Crowds cheered. Massive pictures of your face hung on billboards and on the sides of buildings. Schools, libraries, and roads were named after you. Every child on the face of the planet wanted to grow up to be just like you.
Then it all went wrong, and you were all alone.
Forever.
This month's challenge is about a character (who does not have to be human) that is marooned--but not on Earth. More specifically, it's about something that happened on that person's most important day there, whether it be current day, the past, or the future. Maybe it was the day he, she, or it landed. Maybe it was the day they were left alone. Perhaps it was the fateful day they decided to live or die, or maybe it was the day they escaped. Maybe it was the day they put a face on a volleyball & called it Wilson. Wait. That one is copyrighted.
It's wide open and left in your hands.
I challenge you to write your best tale about some part of a marooned character's most notable day. See the story at the end of this post for an example.
Come on, give it a try.
REQUIREMENTS: (1) Your story must focus on some element of a marooned character's most important day; (2) The character must be stranded on some place other than Earth. (3) No other physically present characters may appear, unless they are incapable of noticing the main character; (4) Any technology level or point in history is acceptable; (5) Include a doorknob and a dog whistle (may be for something other than a dog, as long as it is inaudible to the main character); (6) 1,000 words or less; (7) This is a Rated 'PG-13' challenge; (8 ) The characters and setting must be fictional, original, and not previously published in Aphelion; (9) No fan fiction or derivative works; and (10) Give your story a title and include a byline for when I post the list of authors. Do not bother sending me a bio. I won't use it.
If, in my judgment, any requirement is missed, I won't post the story for voting. Sorry, but rules are for everyone.
HOW TO ENTER: Stories should be submitted to me by PRIVATE MESSAGE, and NOT posted into the thread. If you've never sent a PM, all you have to do is log into this forum and click the 'PM' button at the bottom of this post. That will take you to a special message board, a kind of Aphelion-only email, where you paste your story into the body of the message and then send it to me. You are responsible for doing your own formatting, and for the sake of uniformity, leave an extra line between paragraphs, just like when you see them in the 'zine. I'm allowing different colors for now, but I'm not going to allow changed fonts or sizes, artwork, or any other embedded or external links. I want all the stories to display the same on everyone's computer. DO NOT send a regular email to me--I don't want to risk a spam filter blocking someone's hard work.
NOTE: ONLY REGISTERED MEMBERS who have posted at least one message may submit a story. Without that one post, the system will not let you send a PM. So if you wish to join the challenge, post a hello or introduction, or just put your two cents worth in on any of the discussions going on anywhere in the Forum. We'll be glad to meet you.
DEADLINE: Stories should be in by 10 p.m. Central Standard Time, Thursday, January 22, 2008. The stories will then be posted for voting. Voting will close automatically on Jan. 28.
VOTING: Stories will be posted "blind"--without the author's name on them. This is to make things as fair as they can be, without favorites to be played, and allows for anyone to enter, from newbies to editors. Names won't be on the poll for voting, and all the story titles are literally tossed into a hat and chosen at in random order. When I close the poll after the voting week, I'll post a list of the stories and who wrote them.
If more than two stories are tied at the end of voting, there will be a succession of one-day runoff votes until a single winner is chosen or the number of winners is reduced to two.
No guest votes are allowed. You must register to vote.
WHAT YOU WIN: Pride and the knowledge that your story was voted by your peers the best against strong competition--there are some outstanding stories each time. Writers get improved short fiction skills, increasing their chances in the marketplace, without the lengthy investment in time a longer story would take. When the challenge is completed, all entries will be reposted in the Flash Archive with the author's byline.
If the challenge can stay in good graces, winners may once again be published in the annual "Best Of" issue in February. Many thanks to the Editors for that.
An example of what may be done follows.
Example story, not eligible for entry:
Infinite Conundrum
By:
N.J. Kailhofer
Barry existed.
There was nothing to eat or drink, but he didn't starve and was never thirsty. He didn't understand how, but he kept breathing nonetheless.
'Nonetheless' was one of his favorite words. Barry told it to the squiggles beneath him every day. He composed a tune by that title on his dog whistle and played it for them, but they never seemed to notice. At least, he thought he did, since he couldn't hear the whistle himself. It occurred to him that maybe it was drowned out by the constant droning of the loud, vibrating noise that was everywhere.
"Sounds like random notes on a didgeridoo--almost a tune, but never quite catchy enough." He demanded, "Is it too much to ask for two minutes of peace and quiet!? And honestly, why does it smell like pine?"
The endless, flat, white plain around him didn't answer. The black squiggles and lines on it kept wandering to and fro like they always did. The dark, featureless sky above remained nonplussed.
'Nonplussed' was another favorite. It was in the crossword he did that morning before he wound up… wherever the hell he was.
Maybe this is Limbo, he thought. Was it months ago, or years?
A round squiggle passed on the 'floor' in front of his feet. Barry told it, "I hated the Limbo! Stupid dance!"
Barry jumped on it, stomping up and down, but its movement didn't alter in any way. He grumbled, "Lousy, two-dimensional jerks. Never stop to listen."
Barry waited for the 'current' to carry him away from the rude shape. It wasn't like he was swimming in water, but he knew he was moving nonetheless in a current just as if he was. His favorite word made him smile again.
He used to throw things ahead and behind him and time how fast the objects would catch up or outpace him, so he knew he was moving, and that he moved more slowly than lighter objects. He wasn't sure how fast he was going because he lost his watch in one of his experiments when he couldn't run for long enough to catch up with it.
"How am I supposed to tell time, dammit?!" he demanded of a different shape that kind of looked like a dog.
"I miss my dog. Hell, I miss finding shapes in the clouds instead of the floor."
He yawned. Lying down on the white plain, he fell into a sleep as dark as the empty sky above.
[align=center]* * *[/align]
Something struck Barry hard in the face. The salty flavor of blood flooded his mouth and he rolled over, his other cheek flat on the floor instead. He saw something round sticking out of the black and white plain. It was moving away fast.
It looked like a doorknob.
"Wait!" he shouted. He scrambled to his feet, running for it. Some part of him knew it wasn't really moving away, and it was really that he was being carried away from it, but he didn't care. The doorknob was the first thing he'd found that wasn't something he brought with him.
He wanted it.
He ran as hard as he could, gradually gaining on it. "Stop, damn you!" He panted. His sides burned. Finally, painfully, it was within reach, and he dove for it.
"Gotcha!" He held it in both hands, above his head as he lay face down on the floor. The 'current' pushed hard at him, harder than he'd ever felt it.
It looked in every way like an ordinary doorknob mounted into an ordinary, rectangular metal plate, just like you'd see on an everyday perfectly normal door. The metal plate was flush with the white floor.
Barry realized that the doorknob wasn't moving. It was fixed in place, and the rest of this crazy, mixed up universe moved past it.
He tried turning it, but it just jiggled like it was locked. Barry took off his belt and hooked it around the knob. He fished his arms through, and it held him in place without having to hold on while he examined the object. It looked like it was made of brushed aluminum. There was no keyhole, no manufacturer's mark.
"Now what the hell do I do?" he asked a passing squiggle. "C'mon! I mean, really. Can one of you open this for me?"
He took out the dog whistle and blew it. "Locksmith, here boy!"
He giggled at the idea. "If I ever get out of here, I'm getting a dog & naming it Locksmith. That'll make the neighbors talk."
He scratched his head.
"What do I do now? I'm flummoxed. Vexed, even."
He felt the current stop. A loud cracking sound made him jump. Sitting up, he saw the squiggles were gone. Everywhere was white, except for a ten-foot, black square formed on the floor next to him. Beyond that, across the plain, black lines marked out equal-sized open squares with the letters for 'VEXED' in them, just like in a crossword, with a double-wide black square after that.
"Cruciverbalism. I'm making a crossword puzzle, but without any clues."
Standing up, Barry rattled off every difficult word he could think of. Several of them appeared on the plain around him, filling in more of the puzzle.
"It's only a 15x15, British style!" Knowing the dimensions, he pressed on, guessing the connecting words until only one four-letter space was left, starting and ending with 'O'.
"Oreo. Oslo. Olio. Oleo--"
The doorknob clicked and Barry dove on it. It turned, and he fell through the opening.
He landed hard on another flat, featureless, white plain.
Random squiggles wandered at his feet.
A tear rolled down Barry's cheek, but now at least he knew that he had to solve the puzzle to move on. He hoped someday he'd find a way out of this hole between the dimensions and back to the colony. He'd destroy the teleport experiment himself.
It wasn't one of his better ideas, anyway.
[align=center]The End[/align]
