Talk about a great prompt idea. This one, or something like it, may show up again. Wow. Some great entries. If you’ve never read the entries of these Fiction Reviews before, start with this one. They are short, and very good.
A Must Read designation does NOT mean an entry is necessarily better than the other entries. It means that entry clicked with me in some way in that moment I read it.
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:
January 22, which is Friday’s date, is Celebration of Life Day.
- Take a moment in your life of which you would celebrate and use that as inspiration for a no more than 750 word story, but don’t let that stop you if you are enjoying yourself and the story is going well. (SUGGESTED)
- If you are not doing a series, write the story as if the characters were animals living in the roles of humans. An example would be the policemen might be German Shepherds and other Police type dogs. (REQUIRED if not in the middle of writing a series.) OR
- Use the same experience for a story in one of the following Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller. (Required if not using the above.)
NEW MEMBER!
Bella’s Reward
Annette (Annette’s Place)
A new member and a first time ever fiction writer. A great start with Tiny Dance from Elton John as her song choice. I can see Elton in the story. 270 words, 4.0 GL, and 3% passive sentence structure.
“Hello! I am new to blogging and I have fallen in LOVE with it! I am 47 years young and have 3 grown son’s I adore. I am a fairly new grandma also of two kids. I simply believe they hung the moon! I was in… [read the rest of the story].”
A Must Read.Golden Earrings
TJ Paris (La vie est trop courte pour boire du mauvais vin)
TJ is insane. Certifiable. There is no doubt. No one can convince me otherwise. And it’s not because he chose Peggy Lee’s Golden Earrings. 293 words, 12.1 GL, and 0% passive sentence structure. @Roccoco_a_GoGo
Ludwig’s Friday Morning
Kim Russell (Writing in North Northfolk)
What a nice story. It sent me to the search engines to read about one of the characters. 358 words, 4.3 GL, and 10% passive sentence structure. @kim88110
Fear no Tear
Neel Anil Panicker (NeelWritesBlog)
An emotional charged piece. I think a lot of men go through something like this. Perhaps not the end result but the events through the story. 897 words, 6.1 GL, and 1% passive sentence structure. @PanickerNeel
A Must Read. The Perfect Illusion-Part 4
Nandini Bharadwaj (Pages That Rustle)
I’m not certain I’ve ever had an error free entry before. Whoa. I recommend you listen to the song used for this one, even if you aren’t a fan. I did. Excellent. 292 words, 4.0 GL, and 3% passive sentence structure.
GateKeeper
1000hoursleft (Work in Progress)
You’ll never guess what this one is about from the title, and it may even take you several lines in to figure it out. 283 words, 8.7 GL, and 7% passive sentence structure.
Teenage Lobotomy
by Teresa Smeigh (Writing is my Life)
I haven’t even read it yet and I’m already scared by the title. Okay, it turned out better than the title led me to expect. There are no zombies in the story! 281 words, 2.1 GL, and 0% passive sentence structure. @TeresaSmeigh
Swan Song
by Kat Myrman (like mercury colliding…)
Different. Wonder if she’s ever seen Hudson Hawk? 294 words, 3.6 GL, and 2% passive sentence structure. @kat_myrman
Within the Sounds of Silence
Clarence Holm (PrairieChat)
Dude gone dark on me. Well done. 288 words, 5.2 GL, and 4% passive sentence structure.
Just Friends?
A Must Read Ritu (But I Smile Anyway…)
Well this is well done. Ritu keeps bringing the goods each week. 311 words, 3.7 GL, and 3% passive sentence structure. @PhantomGiggler
The Moon’s Death
Geetha Balvannanathan (Geetha Balvannanathan’s Blog)
Another take on celestial beings. Such a creative take on the prompt. It amazes me where a suggestion can take a person. 366 words, 6.8 GL, and 10% passive sentence structure. @geethap2007
When the thorn bush turns white.
A Must Read Ruby Manchanda (Whispering Thoughts)
This short story could be about a young man in many parts of the world … during so many different eras. I enjoyed the simple quaintness of this, if that’s the correct way of saying it. Something peaceful about it in a strange way. Strange because in a way it shouldn’t be peaceful. 239 words, 5.2 GL, and 5% passive sentence structure.
I don’t hurt any more.
Janni Styles (JanniStyles1)
Probably a story familiar to some in a life they know. A shame really, but true. You can call me Sheila if you like. I’ve been there. 300 words, 2.8 GL, and 0% passive sentence structure. @jannistyles1
A Chance to Heaven
Wes Hollifield (NearlyWes)
That was unexpected. An interesting ride to an interesting ending? 221 words, 5.7 GL, and 11% passive sentence structure. @Nearly_Wes
Another and here we are again.
A Must Read Florence Thum (Meanings and Musings)
Very nice. Not sure what else to say. 342 words, 3.3 GL, and 2% passive sentence structure. @FTTHum
Always Searching for Something
A Must Read Natalia Erehnah (Weaving Gold)
A very strong entry and part of a novel in progress. Great suspense and sense of urgency. 170 words, 4.3 GL, and 0% passive sentence structure. Not a single grammar or spelling error of any sort, even stylistically acceptable errors. Impressive. @weavinggold
De Composition
A Must Read Bill Engleson (Writings)
Okay, this guy is a serious writer. But I knew that already. The way he links together the lyric and that ending … nice. 248 words, 7.0 GL, and 6% passive sentence structure. @billmelaterplea
Broken Heart Drive
A Must Read Michelle LuNato (Chasing Life and Finding Dreams)
If this woman doesn’t write a Contemporary Romance, it’s a waste. 455 words, 2.4 GL, and 0% passive sentence structure. @MichelleLunato
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.
© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2016
ronovanwrites 
Thanks Ron for the pingback. I have never seen Hudson Hawk so I googled it. Not sure what your reference meant but I’m hoping you didn’t think this week’s entry was a horrible flop! 😊 “Different” I get…I get that a lot actually. 😊
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In the movie Bruce Willis would use the length of songs to time things to be done. He would sing them quietly. The beginning, although not like that reminded me of it.
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Ah! Thanks for the clarification Ron. Sometimes you have me wondering! 😊
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As is the intent. 🙂 You guys and gals send me to the search engines all the time in the Haiku Challenge, I like to get revenge sometimes. 😛 By the way, you are an awesome writer.
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Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without Google and of course my Thesaurus. 🙂
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Ask me random questions. 🙂 Since my concussion, I lost all my memory of people in my life except my son. That includes a great deal of events and pop culture, but if I get asked a question out of the blue, I can often times answer it. Or if I see someone on a TV show as I pass through a room, I can tell you what show he used to be on 15 years ago.
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The mind is a mysterious place. I am excited for your book release. Just a few more days! That is quite an accomplishment! 🙂
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Thank you for the ‘Must Read’ tag and your valuable inputs. 🙂
I took your suggestion and got Grammarly, which I found very useful. Being a student, I can’t afford the Premium version, but the basic one should suffice, in my opinion. Thanks for this tip as well. 🙂
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Can’t wait to read these stories! I think my pingback didn’t work, but here is mine: https://chasinglifeandfindingdreams.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/broken-heart-drive/
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Love the stories, and getting to know the writers through their writing. Thank you, Ronovan! I don’t know how you do all you do, but I appreciate it.
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What is the passive sentence structure and GL?
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If you look at the top of the post you’ll see a better definition, but PSS is a sentence structure that either slows the story down or interrupts the flow. It doesn’t push the story forward. GL, is Grade Level of reading. Around grade 5 is where most fiction is. That doesn’t mean people can’t read higher, but to enjoy reading you want to be able to escape into it rather than run to a dictionary or get caught up in the big word usage.
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Great to know 🙂 Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.
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Though now I see I just skipped over you explaining it in the actual post. I apologize for my blindness.
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Another great bunch of stories! Thank you for the Must Read tag too Lovely Ron! ☺
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