21 Entries this week and 21 unique entries at that. We have everything from Contemporary to Science-Fiction, and Middle Grade to Adult. I noted two as Must Reads based on either uniqueness or impact of story. All the stories were good and worth reading twice. I say that because I do read each one at least twice. I wouldn’t if the story was bad.

The order appearing is the order in which the entry was received.

GL below stands for the reading Grade Level. Harry Potter is a GL of around 5. Tolkien is around GL 6.5.

Passive Sentence percentage is included as Active Sentences are considered the preferred form of writing by most editors and publishers. Active moves the story along. Passive is not always bad. Sometimes a story works that way, perhaps through the language of a person or the type of story. Even then, keep the percentage low.

The Prompt for the Challenge was:

Ticks and tocks of essential time, sink the spirits lower than wine.

1. Include the above sentence somewhere in your work of fiction. (Required.)
2. Keep your word count at no more than 500 words this week. (Suggested.) Do NOT let your story suffer because of the word count limit. Remember, it is a suggested part of the prompt.

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Tick Tock
Jane Dougherty (Jane Dougherty Writes)
Jane gives us a wonderful piece of fiction, capturing the feelings of the one remaining after all the years gone by. 298 Words, 4.5 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @MJDougherty33

Melancholy Through a Looking Glass-Part 2
Nandini Bharadwaj (Pages That Rustle)
I’m still wondering what is going on with this 14-year-old girl in the story. So many possibilities and that is part of the attraction of this piece. 37 Words, 6.1 GL, and 13% Passive Sentences.

Eternity
Wes Hollifield (NearlyWes)
Wes goes philosophical melancholy a bit with us in this story of a person wondering out to cope with a situation. 231 Words, 5.6 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @Nearly_Wes

Waiting
by Ritu (But I Smile Anyway…)
Having worked in a place mentioned in the story, I know exactly the feeling being given to us here. A little more agony would have been a true story rather than fiction. A good Contemporary story. 358 Words, 6.o GL, and 14% Passive Sentences. @PhantomGiggler

The Lesson
by Teresa Smeigh (Writing is my Life)
Last week a baby was kidnapped, and this week they prepare to get it back. 485 Words, 4.6 GL, and 7% Passive Sentences. @TeresaSmeigh

Old School Gumshoe
by Kat Myrman (like mercury colliding…)
AI love the way Kat used the prompt sentence this week. An excellent crime/detective short. Would be nice to see something come of it. 498 Words, 4.5 GL, and 4% Passive Sentences. @kat_myrman

Waiting
Kim Russell (Writing in North Northfolk)
A poem of life, time, existence, and whatever else you as the reader come up with. 76 Words. @kim88110

As Time flies still.
Geetha Balvannanathan (Geetha Balvannanthan’s Blog)
Wondering where she came up with this one. Very interesting story. Might make a good starting point to something more. 396 Words, 6.1 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @geethap2007

The Collective
Clarence Holm (PrairieChat)
A Sci-Fi piece of sorts, with temporal tendencies abounding, but never escaping. 452 Words, 5.1 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences.

Haste Makes Waste A MUST READ
TJ Paris (La vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin)
When reading this, you’ll get the feel of a classic type of read with humor and word usage to challenge the mind and tongue. Incredibly original. 515 Words, 11.2 GL, and 15% Passive Sentences. @Roccoco_a_GoGo

Time Takes Us All
Lady Joyful (The Joyful Soul Creates)
Very good inner look at a child’s point of view of loss. 506 Words, 3.2 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences.

In The Attic
Solveig Werner (Solveig Werner~eclectic, multilingual…)
Some science fiction I think. I won’t say much more about that. We get to visit with two children in an attic, a creepy attic, in their grandparents home. You know that’s creepy for real. 965 Words, 4.5 GL, and 1% Passive Sentences. @SolveigJW

Some Wounds Even Time Don’t Heal
Neel Anil Panicker (AnilPanickerWrites)
A story found in the comments of the challenge, and by clicking the link above you will end up there. The story is one that is all too true in the world today. I’m not sure how people do things like this, but they do. 758 Words, 7.7 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences.

Superbia’s Story – The Fruits of Labour
KL Caley (new2writing)
With this offering a young man learns a very important lesson. 717 Words, 5.5 GL, and 3% Passive Sentences.

Barry Balloon Lungs Baker
Bill Engleson (Bill Engleson Writings)
Not sure if I was surprised by the ending or not. It could have gone so many ways. Bill left enough up to the reader’s interpretation to get them comfortable in their own thoughts and then gave the truth of it all. 496 Words, 4.5 GL, and 3% Passive Sentences.

Remembering the Ancient Past
Natalia Erehnah (Weaving Gold)
A different take on the prompt. Using one of her characters to make an entry in her Super-Secret Diary from her work Spinning Stardust. 265 Words, 7.2 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @weavinggold

Shared Pain
Michelle ‘Nato’ Lunato (Chasing Life and Finding Dreams)
Nato takes a turn from Romance to, well, I suppose if you look at this a certain way there is Romance in it. The romantic heart. 582 Words, 2.8 GL, and 1% Passive Sentences. @MichelleLunato

Time Lost
Florence Thum (Meanings and Musings)
A regretted moment, or a lost past? And the ending? You decide. 317 Words, 4.3 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @FTTHum

Ticks and Tocks
R. Todd (A Flash of Fiction)
Another unique take on the prompt. I didn’t see what was happening until almost the very end. 566 Words, 3.3 GL, and 1% Passive Sentences. @psibrone

Feverish-Part Three
by Melissa Barker-Simpson (Author Blog)
Mel ends her three part story with Maddison doing everything she can to help find the cure. 1103 Words, 4.9 GL, and 0% Passive Sentences. @mbarkersimpson

Trash A MUST READ
anghulinghugotero (anghulinghugotero)
I don’t believe in coincidence. Here is a story of fiction based on true places and people, if not the actual people of the story, but those living in the same conditions. This story is in the Philippines. What is strange is how this story mirrors a book I reviewed for my LitWorldInterviews.Com site. In that book is a city and a people living in the exact same conditions as the people in this story, but in Guatemala instead. No coincidences. Two stories coming for some reason. I also interviewed the author of the book and you can read the interview HERE. I don’t normally link to other people’s work in a review but this story hit pretty deep. 1658 Words, 6.8 5.4 GL, and 11% Passive Sentences.

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Ronovan Hester is an author, with his debut historical adventure novel Amber Wake: Gabriel Falling due out Valentine’s Day of 2016. He shares his life through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge, a new Friday Fiction Writing Prompt Challenge, and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.com.

@RonovanWrites

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