The Batch of Micro-fiction #31
Micro-fiction contributions from all around Substack!
Hey there!
Welcome to the first Batch of the Holiday season! As promised we’re going to do a banger of a Batch today with the last 9 microdosing prompts!
But first! Prepare your pens and get ready because The Fiction Dealer will host its very first:
Microfiction Contest!
The contest is simple: write 50-100 words on the prompt The Holidays! In contrast to the benevolent approach of Microdosing, please make sure your story doesn’t go over 100 words (excluding the title)
Your stories will be judged by your favorite racoon, our microfiction addict
and the queen of 100-word stories herselfThe deadline for submissions is Friday December 13th. The winners will be announced on December 20th.
The winning writer will be awarded the ultimate bragging rights and a free copy of my book. I would love to offer more prizes but unfortunately don’t have the resources. (If anyone wants to sponsor the contest, feel free to hit me up)
I can’t wait to see what stories you folks come up with!
Special Shout-out
Before we get into all of your amazing work. I wanted to dedicate this space to
who as far as I know wrote a Microdosing story with us every day since April. 👏 And is a nice and kind part of our humble community❤️Nomad
Stories coming from here to there came from
&Car
Stories of love or hate towards a piece of metal on wheels came from
Bet
Cards, dice, roulettes, dares—all of that and more from
Proximity
Proximity apparently often evokes stories about perfume
Lantern
Ligths in the dark were carried by
Coward
Stories of cowardice were presented by
andBoogeyman
Monsters under the bed, some bad some good, some cute were given us by
andSnowman
Men of snow were built by
Morning
And the stories about my least favorite part of the day were written by
andThank you all for joining in on this adventure!
Special thanks to the paid subscribers of The Fiction Dealer who support the publication financially.
Have a great rest of the weekend!
~Miguel
Enjoying Microdosing? Consider supporting the Fiction Dealer with a paid subscription!
A cup of coffee also keeps the creative juices running here in the lab!
Thanks for the Special Shout Out! That is much appreciated. The new Christmas graphics look great. The little racoon with the Santa hat is particularly fun! Haha! The Contest for the Holidays is a brilliant idea, too. Good luck to all who are planning to enter. And this was a wonderful, bumper batch of stories. Well done everyone... 😎
For Chris~
Small Fictions, Large Years
_______
There's something holy about the first cup of coffee,
and something holier still about the first word written.
Chris Franklin knows this—has known it since April
when he started dealing out stories like playing cards,
one face-up tale after another.
.
Some days the words must come easy,
spilling onto the page like honey from a jar.
Other days they probably hide behind the furniture,
peek out from under throw pillows,
dare him to catch them before midnight strikes.
.
But that's the thing about promises to yourself:
they don't care if you're tired, if the dog needs walking,
if the refrigerator starts making that weird sound again.
They just sit there, patient as monastery bells,
waiting for you to show up.
.
And show up he does, with his daily microdoses
of wonder, of wisdom, of whatever walks through
the door of his imagination that day—
whether it's wearing galoshes or glass slippers,
whether it brings thunder or butterflies.
.
I like to think each story is a key
to a door we didn't know was there,
or maybe they're all doors themselves,
lined up like dominos through the months,
each one just large enough to step through sideways.
.
April, May, June, July...
The calendar sheds pages like a tree sheds leaves,
but unlike leaves, these stories don't decay.
They stack up, build their own kind of season:
a perpetual spring of small beginnings.