After weeks of anticipation and build up, the time has
finally arrived! Gather around one and all,
there are plenty of good seats left. Have you punched your ticket by signing up
on the Linky List? No voting allowed unless you’ve done that first.
WRiTER’s from far
and wide, spanning the globe, representing all ages and multiple styles of WRiTING, have gathered here today to
witness the inaugural bout of the 2012 version of WRiTE
CLUB! Our illustrious WRiTER’s are not only from all walks of life, but they also occupy
various levels of the publication world.
I’m told by my wife that within our ranks we have everything from newbie
bloggers to the recently published. But none of that matters today, because inside
the ring they stand as equals.
The submissions have been steadily pouring in, so much so
that I’ve decided to break one of the rules of WRiTE CLUB and hold two bouts per week. I’ll be hosting new bouts every Monday and
Thursday for twelve weeks and the voting for every fight will last one full
week. So a you can vote for a Monday battle all the way until midnight on
Sunday, and you can vote for a Thursday brawl up until midnight the following
Wednesday.
Here are the first two randomly selected WRiTER's.
Standing in this corner, weighing in at 493 words, please
welcome to the ring……..Ratz
As he poured tea into his wife’s cup, he fantasized about
pulverizing her head with the iron skillet. A wistful smile flitted across his
face, but quickly faded. Hell, he’d never be able to smash the smirk off her
face. With his luck, her head would break the skillet.
“What’s taking so
long?” she screeched. “Do I have to call Daddy?”
He muttered a
curse before going to her. “No need,” he said, fighting the urge to dump the
oolong into her lap.
She snapped her
cellphone shut. “Good. Another satisfactory stalemate.”
He winced.
According to her, they reached stalemate a dozen times a day. She’d never
played a game of chess in her life, and wouldn’t know a stalemate if it bit her
in the ass.
“Don’t give me
that look. It’s your job to keep me happy,” she said. “Or you’ll lose
everything. That’s the deal.”
“Some deal,” he
muttered. “Here,” he said, handing her a plate of cookies. Maybe he should give
that rat poison another shot. Put it in the cookies next time. It didn’t even
upset her stomach when he put it in her tea. If anything, it made her meaner.
Maybe she was part cockroach.
She opened her
phone. “Guess I better let Daddy know you want out.”
The pulse pounded
at his temples, and he narrowed his eyes. “Screw you and your half-assed
bluffs! You’re damned right I want out.”
He ripped the
phone out of her hand and threw it. “Want it? Fetch!”
She glared at him
and pushed herself out of the chair.
He shoved her
back down, and snarled, “Stalemate!”
She sat in
stunned silence while he tied her hands and feet, and gagged when he waved a
pair of panties under her nose. “Disgusting?” he said. “Two words for you:
toilet paper.” He stuffed them into her mouth. “Now that you’re gonna be
washing your own damned underwear, you might try using it once in a while.”
He turned on the
TV. “Before I leave this hellhole, I’m going to spend five minutes watching
what I want to watch, and eating what I want to eat.”
When he returned
from the kitchen, he tossed a piece of popcorn into the air and caught it in
his mouth. “Is that a tear I see? Don’t worry, darlin’. I’ve got some cash
waiting for me offshore. Oh, but you aren’t really worried about me, are you?
You’re worried about you.” He laughed. “Don’t worry. Your old man might find
you before it’s too late. If he gives a damn.”
He caught three
more pieces of popcorn in his mouth, and then abruptly stopped laughing. With
eyes wide and watery, he banged a frantic Heimlich maneuver on his own chest.
When he fell to
his knees, his face was already turning blue. He gaped at his wife’s triumphant
smirk for the last time.
Stalemate?
He crumpled to the
floor and closed his eyes.
Nope.
*******************************************************************************
And in the other corner, weighing in at 451 words, let me introduce to you……Word Whittler
“Oh my g - …” Julia breathed heavily and scrambled
to Faith. “That thing – it’s a…”
“A dragon.” Faith said
the word, but the beast towering over them looked nothing like the creatures
from her dreams. Lacking scales and
muscles, its grotesque form consisted of ligaments, tendons and bone. A pea green flame wove along its frame,
fanning out to a thin web upon its unfurled wings. Its body filled the room, enforcing a pressure
so intense Faith’s fingernails cut through to the padding beneath
the carpet. Her arms trembled, fighting
to regain her crouched position.
The skeletal dragon craned its neck down, bringing its
skull close to the girls. Top points of
its wings scraped the ceiling. A
whimper escaped Julia’s lips. Faith’s
throat constricted. Her heart drummed
triple time.
It hissed through jagged teeth. “I am an infernal of Jie lieth. I seek the keys and girl of dragon chain.”
Its breath was like a blast of heat, singeing the round
tops of Faith’s cheeks. Her ears tingled. Her eyes stuck open, all the moisture sapped
away. She forced a dry swallow to free
her voice.
“You, you, you have the wro-wrong place,”
Faith stuttered. One empty eye socket,
the size of her head, locked on to her.
Not an eyeball to swivel, yet it glared down at her. With godlike speed, it thrust its
claws forward, pinning Faith and Julia against the wall. Their feet dangled above the floor.
“It is one of you!” It pressed its skull even closer. “One
of you has…” The creature turned its
focus upon Julia then cackled. “…the dragon chain.”
Faith wondered what the beast found so funny. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed
a small chain around Julia’s neck. At
the center of her chest rested a piece of silver reflecting the
firelight…the shape, a dragon with a round belly.
The beast – its words - made sense to Faith, at least part of
it. The silver dragon was a locket
hand-made by her father, a gift from a time too long ago to remember. What could this thing want with me? She
shuddered at a dawning truth. The
creature had its sights set on Julia instead.
The wrong girl.
Her apartment had been invaded, torn apart and
set ablaze. Now the very same beast
mistook Julia as the girl of dragon chain…and for what, some blasted keys she
knew nothing about? A bitter cold
swelled deep inside her belly. Her
growing anger fueled it into her veins.
The chill coursed to her fingertips and the soles of her feet. A violet glow shined between the spaces of the
creature’s claw. And it noticed.
Shifting its focus back upon Faith, it rasped, “Ejule marks
you, tarode! Such cannot be.”
*******************************************************************************
Enjoying two talented writers at work is only part of the price of admission, now it’s up to you to decide who moves forward to the playoffs, and who will return to WRiTE another day. In the comments below leave your vote for the winner of round 1. Which one tickled your fancy? Tell all of your friends to stop by, sign up, and make a selection as well. The voting for this round will remain open until noon Sunday. Yes, it’s subjective, but so is the entire publishing world. It’s as much about the readers as it is about the writers. Here in WRiTE CLUB, it’s not about the last man/woman standing, it’s about who knocks the audience out!
It’s also not too late if you want to submit something for
possible selection in future rounds. You
can enter the fray at anytime during the first twelve rounds by submitting your
own 500 word sample and become a full-blown member of WRiTE CLUB. Just check out
the rules here…then
come out swinging!
See you for round 2 on Thursday! :)