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Have You Read Flash Fiction by Stuart Nager?

By 25/08/2011writing
Flash fiction A to Z stories by Stuart Nager

Pops Sat Under Pig and Duck, Copyright (C) Andrew Graeme Gould.

If you haven’t, here’s your chance. And believe me, you don’t want to miss it.

I met Stuart during the A to Z challenge, which resulted in the book of flash fiction A to Z Stories of Life and Death. He was one of the few who wrote fiction on all the 26 posts for the 26 days of April, and I loved his work.

For today’s post, he wanted to work on prompts.

So I sent him this picture to the left by wonderful photographer friend Andrew Graeme Gould and the word prompts: Pencil, Hourglass. I specified the word count at 250.

The following is what Stuart created from this bizarre mix I provided him, and I LOVE it.

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Pops sat under the Pig and Duck, waiting.  His juju bag sat at his feet, and his divining material set up on the ground in the proper order: plastic bottle of juice; name tag that he found in the garbage; and three copies of Cavo-Relievo Magazine.  Squinting in the sun, reading another copy of the magazine, Philippa sauntered up.

She had an hourglass figure, with long legs and long, jet black hair. Philippa took off her sunglasses, put her hand on her hips, and glared at Pops. Putting down his reading, Pops looked her squarely in her eyes. He reached into his shirt pocket and took out a pencil, circling the air around her face.

“Stop that. I want to…”

“Shh, …shhhh! Ah, there. It’s off to the left of your head; your thoughts are wide open to me. Philippa, he does not love you.” He pointed the pencil down to the last magazine to her right.

“Shit.” She looked down at the top magazine, and there was a picture of Jorge with another woman. The photo moved: Jorge and the blonde embracing; Jorge taking off her dress; Jorge running his hands along this other woman’s body. Philippa shed tears, watching this unfold.

Pops put his foot on top of the magazine with Jorge, grinding it back and forth. The paper tore and shredded under his feet. Philippa started to scream “NO,” but felt that urge drift away.

She put money into Pop’s hands and went back to her car.

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Bornstoryteller.com

Stuart Nager is a creative individual with many areas of passion that he explores in his daily life:

Professional Storyteller; NYS Certified Drama Specialist/Educator; Teaching Artist; PUBLISHED Writer of Fiction; Playwright; Professional Development Coordinator & Facilitator; Workshop Leader; Arts-In-Education Advocate; Puppeteer;  Director; Performer; Curriculum Writer and Developer; and sometimes more, as the needs arise.

Check out his fiction writing blog (Tale Spinning) at: stuartnager.wordpress.com/  and his Arts-in-Education blog at:bornstoryteller.wordpress.com/

Stuart can be contacted at: [email protected];  website: www.bornstoryteller.com

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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