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Loose Lips

"Working with wine," said The Bore, "has the perk of allowing one to really appreciate cheeses." He took a nibble of aged Brie and looked down his nose at everyone.

"And crackers," drawled The Self-Conscious Rebel (no bow tie at a formal event). 


The group tittered.

Maxine, Recently-single, First-year sociology student re-discovering her passions in life, and People-Labeller, took a drink of wine to counter the dead-end conversation.

Thankfully, a bell commanded everyone to dinner. 

A handsome stranger pulled Maxine aside. "Where's the key?" He hissed. 

A Thief? A Blackmailer? An Adventurer? 

Maxine decided to find out. "This way."



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This story is based on a rather unusual set of prompts - a set of words drawn from overheard conversations in public places. I've nicknamed this approach to prompts OOPS (Occasional Overheard Prompts for Stories); one, because character count is important for Twitter and the shorter, the better, and two, I'm a sucker for silly acronyms. The name may yet evolve into something more elegant and appropriate, but OOPS it is for now.

OOPS was born out of a Twitter conversation with Roger Jackson (@jabe842) and Dee Lancaster (@dee_lancaster). You can read the OOPS genesis story here (Roger's) and here (mine). I think OOPS may have also successfully tickled the interest of the Queen of Flash Fiction, Marj (@whithernow); we'll see :-)

The prompts for this latest OOPS were: dead end; cheese; bell; perks; passion.

Because the first OOPS attempts were 99 words, this has become the default word limit. (After all, there are other avenues for, say, 200-word stories... ;-)

Edit to add newsflash: Marj took up the gauntlet with aplomb; her story is here. Roger sharpened his creepy muse to a fine point here

It is actually Roger's turn to provide the next couple of OOPS. But... I forgot my phone one day last week, and my commute is long and rather painful without it. Fortunately or otherwise, there were a couple of old boys on my train having an animated and wide-ranging conversation. So I eavesdropped shamelessly. However, I will (be trying to) cut down on any further OOPSes until everyone else has had the chance to share their respective OOPSes (unless of course I encounter some that are too delicious to not share!)

Thanks for reading! :)


Comments

  1. Love this! Great story. Makes me want to know more. Great OOPS story. And thanks for the mention.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Dee!! It's in the (unruly) good ideas pile! :)

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  3. What an awesome idea. Love it. Also, I am a huge fan of the flashing. Fiction that is. And love the 99 word limit challenge. Great flash! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Teehee! I will have to quote you on flashing! ;)
    I've added you to the OOPS list (hope that's ok). I find 99 words a huge challenge - thanks for the encouragement :)

    ReplyDelete

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