February. Often the coldest month in London. Winter's last stand before she melts away for another year. Luckily we had some lovely warming island stories to keep out the cold this week. Lots of great writing and a whole archipelago of ideas: islands of mystery, paradise islands, shipwrecks, dreams and island homes.
We also had some nice takes on isolation and men as islands and I particularly liked this story by @dinavice:
https://steemit.com/fiftywords/@dinavice/no-man-is-an-island-fiftywords-challenge
An entire novel in condensed form, a lovely twist, fifty words on the nose and some zombies to boot!
Lots of new fiftywriters to welcome this week. Hopefully this picks up everyone after my previous query issues; do shout if you're not there. And welcome!
@ablaze, @austinebizzy, @bryarose23, @cbrayst, @dinavice, @divineinyang, @ebitularmbert, @evgsk, @fitinfun, @godwine, @janine-ariane, @kainos-success, @kamalkennedy, @summertooth, @thatlovechild, @theblackcrow, @tony-duke, @udayakumarage, and @zen-art.
Do visit their blogs and their stories to give them a welcome start.
And of course a congratulatory round of applause and pat on the back for all of you who are still bringing your stories each week. Here's the up to date list of active writers if you want to visit your fellow fiftyworders:
@ablaze, @austinebizzy, @awhsarada, @bentheredonethat, @bryarose23, @busdriver, @calluna, @cbrayst, @charlesmackenzie, @deirdyweirdy, @dinavice, @divineinyang, @ebitularmbert, @elementm, @ellievallie, @enjar, @evgsk, @felt.buzz, @fitinfun, @gearup, @godwine, @gonzo, @isa93, @isufbakaj, @janine-ariane, @jayna, @jesusalbertorios, @kainos-success, @kamalkennedy, @korfiatis, @lonestarpoet, @metzli, @miniature-tiger, @mydivathings, @navaneeth, @niallon11, @pixiehunter, @preparedwombat, @pyrowngs, @saoirseronan, @saryn, @simgirl, @spalatino, @sukhasanasister, @summertooth, @thatlovechild, @theblackcrow, @thekittygirl, @therosepatch, @tibra, @tin-tin, @tony-duke, @udayakumarage, @vaitelavicius, @weirdgoose, @whitewizard and @zen-art.
I very much enjoyed the historical fiction last weekend so let's stick with the genre prompts at the weekend for now. This weekend challenge yourself to produce a fiftywords story in the genre of SCIENCE FICTION. It's not everyone's favourite (although it is one of mine) but it doesn't have to be spaceships and laser-beams. Feel free to stretch out into the science side of things, like in Jurassic Park, or the ideas of utopian / dystopian civilisation seen in "speculative fiction" such as Brave New World or The Handmaid's Tale. With the passing of Ursula Le Guin last month the world is in need of some great new science fiction authors - time to try your hand!
I'll round up again probably on Tuesday as I am late again with the weekday theme. I will be happily resteeming one of the stories I like best and no doubt I will be offering some of my small upvotes as encouragement.
Thanks for reading everyone and knock me out with your stories. And enjoy the rest of your weekends!
If you would like to join in, particularly if you're new to the platform, or recently returned, and looking for somewhere to start, please do! Just post your story with the "fiftywords" tag. You can follow the theme / genre or simply take your inspiration where you find it. The only unbreakable(!) rule is to keep it to fifty words - ideally fifty on the nose - and also try and produce a complete and contained scene, moment, or story. In a future post I'll try and put some thoughts together as to what I think makes a good fiftywords story. But everyone will have their own ideas and all are welcome!