Flash Fiction Friday 2023 – Week 1

Flash Fiction Friday continues in 2023. New pieces appear every Friday on my Patreon throughout the year. The minimum pledge to read them before anyone else is $3 per month. and the number of pieces available is tied to the monthly pledge total so the more you support my efforts, the more you’ll get to read. Find out what they’re all about and check out some excerpts from this week’s update in this post.

Excerpts

A Lady and Her Ring

It was the first interview Allison Palmer had agreed to, to promote her new novel, A Lady and Her Ring, an erotic fantasy adventure, unlike anything the former journalist had ever written before. Matthew Clarke had been given the honor of conducting it, a surprising choice considering his religious upbringing and known disdain for sexual extravaganzas partially inspired by literature classics of old. Then again, perhaps that was the point: to fight against his bias and come out victorious.

Because of her over thirty years of experience in the media business, Allison wasn’t afraid of tough questions and had readily accepted to confront him in her Florida beach house on a weekend. Despite nearing her sixtieth anniversary, she was still a charming woman, one mostly spared from the growing pains of getting old. Looking at her radiant face was like being in the presence of a forty-year-old at max and all with no known plastic surgery or any other radical procedure. Had the beauty secrets of the Elven creatures in her book spilled into the real world through her vivid descriptions? That was actually a good question, but Matthew was more interested in the obvious comparisons to…

“… Tolkien’s seminal work, of course. Mrs. Palmer, Allison, isn’t it a major risk to go for an erotic re-telling of such a universally loved book?”

(…)

Disciplined

Megan inspected the living room floor with her eagle eyes, vertiginous heels clicking on the varnished wood with a single purpose: to assert her rightful authority once more over the one society called her ‘husband’. While the designation was true from a civilian and religious standpoint, what happened within doors was not an equal relationship. She was in charge as she was meant to be and he was her property, albeit a still reluctant one

A kneeling Francis watched her circle him, gazing downward at every nook and cranny. He had already cleaned the area three consecutive times at her demand on account of some (in his opinion!) negligible dirty spots and hoped there wouldn’t be a fourth, yet his gut was already signaling otherwise.

“Well, would you look at that!” she pointed at a circular red mark right at the far edge of the carpet he didn’t remember seeing before. “Unsurprisingly, you were sloppy again! Is this how you wish to serve me? Is this the proper way to honor your owner?”

(…)

New Management

Danielle buried her head between her shoulders as she entered the department store at exactly 7 am. Was there anything more disheartening than going back to the crushing world of retail after spending the entire Holiday Season at home? She didn’t think so and was not in a good mood to talk to anybody about it. Bellingham’s Emporium, the largest chain in Eachtraville and the surrounding cities, had given her more troubles than pleasure in the last five years. She knew it was time for a change, yet the odds were against her every step of the way.

The late-twenties platinum blonde removed her burgundy leather jacket as she walked past the main entrance and sneezed. As always, The air conditioner was already turned on inside the premises, and at a temperature that invited disease to proliferate. It was as if Management relished making their workers’ lives miserable, which probably wasn’t that far from the truth. Danielle was so caught up in trying to contain another sneeze that she didn’t notice the store’s new colors at first. Gone were the bright blues and oranges that were like a constant cry for attention, replaced by various shades of gray and strange bioluminescent lines running across the walls. They resembled living circuitry growing all around her, a thought that simultaneously intrigued and frightened her.

(…)

Snap Out of It

Harry put down the bottle of beer on the kitchen table and rolled his eyes. Usually, two were enough for a get-together with Jonathan but not when his friend was in an altered state of mind. The slightly defocused eyes were a clear giveaway, but so were the long ramblings about women, especially the one he called Mistress. Harry considered himself quite the patient individual yet he was no saint, and patience was already running thin.

“I’m sorry, am I bothering you?” Jonathan asked when he saw him reach for another drink.

“Yes, you most definitely are,” Harry nodded in reply. “I understand that it’s not entirely on you, but still… sorry, bud.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” Jonathan leaned over the table like an angry beast about to strike.

“You’ve been hypnotized and brainwashed again, so it’s not your fault,” Harry shrugged. “I get it, I honestly do, but I wish you were able to resist her now and then instead of always going with the flow.”

(…)

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