Talebones Weekly

Flash Fiction Contest and Serial Excerpt!

Jun 06, 2023

white spiral notebook on brown wooden table — Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Dear Reader…

Welcome to another week here at Talebones…and a pretty exciting one, at that!

First, a bit of housekeeping:

Ever since launching our Summer Season with our horror short story, A Thing Must Be Loved, along with the first issue of TALESTACK NEWS, we’ve had a not-insignificant boost in readership…which is WONDERFUL!

If you’re new here…WELCOME!

Here at Talebones, you’ll find my original short fiction, serialized fiction, and occasional flash fiction on a seasonal schedule. Check out our Current Publishing Schedule to see what’s on offer!
Our sister publication, TALESTACK NEWS, can be found here. The NEWS is a functionally separate newsletter from Talebones, but S.E. Reid writes/edits both.

I have lots to share here, and I want to make sure that everyone gets only what they want. No unnecessary emails need apply! So you can use this simple tutorial to make sure that you’re getting exactly the stuff you want from me. Only interested in Short Fiction? Go for it! Want TALESTACK NEWS and nothing else? No problem! You get to pick the mix that works best for you!

With that sorted…

Welcome, one and all, to the Talebones Summer Season!

Ivy & Ixos is on its way!

This Friday, June 9th, my magical realism novella—Ivy & Ixos—will begin serializing here on Substack every Friday until the end of August! This twelve-part weekly tale may seem like a slower, gentler story on its surface, but be assured: it has some tricks up its sleeve!

After all, I can’t resist an unusual twist!

Official Synopsis: Set during the uncertain days of March 2020, 10-year-old Ivy is sent to live with her estranged father while her aunt, a hospital nurse, is unable to care for her during lockdown. What starts as an adventure turns into a mystery, as at her father’s home in the western Washington forests Ivy finds uncanny quiet, a cabin full of hidden memories, and a family secret too strange to be believed.

If that sounds like something you might be interested in, check your settings with our simple tutorial to make sure that you’re signed up to receive Ivy & Ixos—and any other Talebones goodness you’re excited about—in your email inboxes!

And READ TO THE END to find an excerpt at the closing of this missive!

Flash Fiction Contest!

First of all, there isn’t a THANK YOU big enough to express my gratitude for your incredible responses to A Thing Must Be Loved! I still can’t quite get over it, but I won’t get too blubby here. Just know that I’m blubbing internally. ;)

Instead, as promised, we are hosting a flash fiction contest to celebrate both our Summer Season launch AND reaching a whopping 200 subscribers and climbing! We’re using A Thing Must Be Loved as a jumping-off-point for our prompt, so giving it a read isn’t a bad idea, BUT I want to see YOUR unique takes!

So for those interested, here are the details!

CONTEST DETAILS
PROMPT: Write a story—in ANY genre—giving the limelight to a character who is normally in the background. (The background of what? YOU interpret as you will!)
LENGTH: No minimum, up to 1,500 words
ENTRY: Please post your story to your own Substack newsletter, and then share the link with us in the comments of THIS POST!
JUDGING: The winner will be decided by Talebones readers! So it’s up to everyone to read the entries and click the “like” button on the comment containing the one(s) they enjoyed best. (You may vote for more than one story.)
DEADLINE: Voting will end at 9pm PST on Monday, June 26th, and the winner will be announced in the Talebones Weekly on Tuesday, June 27th. For your best chance to be read and voted for, try to get your entry in as soon as you can!
AWARD: This is mainly for fun and to spread the fiction love around, but I will award the winner one full free year of Archive Member status when the Archive opens in September! (If the winner is already an Archive member, we’ll figure something else out, I promise!)
Talebones Archive Members receive full access to all Archived (paid-only) stories from past seasons, as well as exclusive Seasonal Summary posts with behind-the-scenes info about each story, questions answered, and some pretty cool bonuses that are still in the works. It’s gonna be a fun time!

I hope you enjoy this contest! If it ends up being a success, we may make it a regular feature here so that we can revel in the community’s creativity. As much storytelling as we can share, the better!

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with!

Before you go, please enjoy the following excerpt from Ivy & Ixos…

Excerpt - “The Arrival”

“Ivy?”
Auntymack reached out to hand her niece a granola bar, shaking spilled oats off of her own teal-blue scrubs onto the floor of the Prius with her other hand. “Ivy, you want one?”
The little girl shook her head, breathing against the passenger’s side window and tracing a heart in the mist. “Can we get out and look for seals?”
Her aunt said a muffled “no” through a mouthful of granola bar.
“We always look for seals.”
Auntymack gave her niece a gentle but firm glance, swallowed her bite. “You know we can’t. Not this time.”
Ivy craned her head to look behind them. The ferry car-deck was nearly empty. Everyone else was still in their cars. “There’s hardly anyone here. Just for a second? I promise if I see anyone else to keep my distance.”
“It’s not about that,” Auntymack said. “The railings and stuff.”
She trailed off, realizing she had left an opening.
“I won’t touch anything,” said Ivy, quickly.
“No, Ivy.” Auntymack toyed with the hospital ID name-badge clipped to her scrubs, with meaning. “It’s just not a good idea. I’m really sorry.”
Ivy slumped in her seat and tried to imagine how the cold March wind felt right now, sweeping up from this blustery corner of the world where the Puget Sound met the Salish Sea. So cold it stole the warmth from your fingers and the tip of your nose. Whipping by so quick it stole the breath from your lungs. She imagined the gulls riding alongside, looking like they were hovering in place, and how exciting it was to spot a pod of porpoises or a big jellyfish or a playful seal. She usually loved riding the ferry, but she had never had to ride it trapped in the car, before.
And she had never been to Ferris Island, before, either. She and Auntymack had been all over the place, or so she thought. They had ridden the ferry to Kingston, and another ferry to Whidbey Island, and they had even taken a ferry to Vashon Island and Bremerton. But Ferris Island was new; it might as well have been another country.
Ivy tried to imagine, for the hundredth time that day, what her dad’s house looked like. She had seen an old picture of him from before she was born, and he didn’t really look like anything special, so she hoped the house made up for it.
She had asked Auntymack about it, over and over, ever since this plan had been revealed to her and she had gotten over the initial shock.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Auntymack had said. It had already been a week into the pandemic with no end in sight and there were bags under her aunt’s eyes. “It’s been so long since I was there. It’s a big property. Lots of trees. Woods, I mean, you know...forest. I think there was a garden. A pond? Sorry, Ives, it’s just been a really long time.”
“What about the house?”
Auntymack had shrugged, sighed. “It’s just a house, Ivy. It’s different than living in a condo in the city. I’m sure you’ll love it. And remember: it’s not for forever. Just for now. Just until this whole thing blows over and it’s safe for you to come home.”
So Ivy had very little to go on, and her imagination filled in the blanks. She had seen pictures of country houses in magazines and that was the closest her imagination could conjure of what her dad’s house might look like. Woods and forests and ponds were a good sign; Ivy had never spent much time around those outside of excursions to the park. There would be plenty to do and explore. A garden? Was her dad a farmer? Did farmers have gardens? Were gardens and farms the same thing?
The ferry horn blasted. The dock at Ferris Island had materialized out of the mist.