JANUARY FLASH FICTION CONTEST WINNERS
This Month's Theme — NEW BEGINNINGS

(Stories Listed In Alphabetical Order by Author's Last Name):


A FRESH START by David Bernard

The sun rose over the Himmelhorn, its icecap aglisten. I had ascended halfway when I stopped to gaze upon Hasselburg below. Yesterday, the burgomeister exiled me for “my own safety.” One cannot explain the difference between science and magic to superstitious peasants, so I, the most accomplished chemist in Bavaria, was forced to flee like a common thief.

I lit the fuses. In a moment, my handmade explosive would trigger an avalanche. I would take the burgomeister’s words to heart and make a fresh start in a new town. He never specified it couldn’t be on the site of Hasselburg.

12.21.12 by Joanna Parypinski

In the folds of a cyberreality, time shivered and stuck. The machine whirred histrionically as thousands of equations stuttered on the series 1221122112, where the virus corrupted the alien entity of electric intelligence.

The Scientist growled in frustration at the frozen world of coding paused upon the screen — an entire universe of virtual evolution vanquished by a calculation error. Why was it always this spot where the system crashed?

And how did the virtual people all know it was coming?

The Scientist unplugged and reset the program. Time imploded. He hit restart and the universe banged into existence once again.

THE IMMIGRANT by Brian Rosenberger

The cape, an added touch. He thinks it suggests royalty. If it adds points to the approval ratings, so be it.

His story, now accepted as fact. Sole survivor of a destroyed planet. He traveled light years, defying the odds, to his newly adopted home. A new beginning.

They embraced him, called him hero, amazing, super. Fools. A sole survivor, it’s true. His previous planet destroyed but by his hands. Its inhabitants, one at a time. A serial killer times infinity.

This, his newly adopted home. The immigrant rubs indestructible hands, anxious to get started.

HONORABLE MENTION:

(Stories Listed In Alphabetical Order by Author's Last Name):

HIGH DIVE by Mark Angevine

Didn't recognize my surroundings at first, although the smell seemed familiar, kind of like chlorine.

A huge head came vaguely into focus as I gasped for air. The last thing I remembered was diving off the high board. Who was this stranger giving me CPR, though?

Suddenly a tremendous pain as someone wacked me on the ass.

I began to cry.

REKINDLED by Naryssa Eve

The smell didn't matter. Marie could get used to that. What mattered now was that everything was perfect.

The table was set, lights dimmed, candles lit. Sitting across from Evan, Marie looked at the man she loved. His face ghastly; jaw slacked, eyes rolled up in his head. She cast her eyes onto the jar that sat in front of her plate: the one with Evan's shriveled heart inside, and smiled.

The candlelight dancing in her eyes, Marie raised her wine glass and said: To second chances. And hearts that never stray... again."

 

PROPERTY 127 by R.E. Gofstein

Beth had been counting the days until this getaway. Work was hell. She rarely saw friends, didn’t have a relationship. She needed a new start.

She opened the door of the rental house, dropped her luggage and breathed in the scent of burnt wood. She would start her weekend by building a fire, something she couldn’t do in her apartment.

There was wood near the hearth. As she leaned in to place twigs, she saw a singed piece of paper. Blowing soot away she read the scribbled word: Run.

The chilling sound she heard told her it was too late.

 

OFFICIAL RULES FOR FEBRUARY 2012:

February is so short that this month, we're not even going to count words ... we're going to count SYLLABLES!

This month's theme — HORROR HAIKUS

We know this is an over-simplifcation of the beautiful minimalist Japanese form, but this month we're looking for submissions of SEVENTEEN SYLLABLES (broken into three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, respectively). Any and all horror themes are acceptable, as this month the challenge is in the form rather than the content.

Necon E-Books reserves the right to republish all WINNING and HONORABLE MENTION pieces (i.e. all those published on our web site) in our annual Flash Fiction Anthology. Otherwise, all rights revert to the authors as soon as the winners are announced each month.

Submission deadline is February 29th, 2012.
** PLEASE NOTE!! NEW SUBMISSION RULES: Authors are now free to submit however many stories they want. However, only your top voted submission will be considered each month. Part of the purpose of this contest is to give exposure to as many writers as possible, and we feel limiting authors to one publication per month is a fair way to assure that.
Please submit work either directly in an email or attached as a text, RTF or MS Word document.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT

The first week of each month, we'll announce as many winners and Honorable Mentions as we see fit and publish their work on this site. Then, at year's end, we'll collect all the pieces previously published on our site into the NECON E-BOOKS FLASH FICTION ANTHOLOGY In addition to having their work published online, all included authors will receive a free copy of the anthology.