Theme this week is “Mercury retrograde in Scorpio”, suggested by Jess West (@West1Jess), inspired by this.

Go here to post the video or post the text as a comment here or on the Ticckle Tuesday FaceBook group.

Note
Things have been a bit hectic at work, so I haven’t had a chance to record many submissions for #TicckleTuesday. However, responses to a flash fiction podcast have been positive. Watch this space!

Mike

Theme this week is “Superstition”, suggested by Jess West (@West1Jess), possibly inspired by my own run of bad luck”¦

And the image prompt”¦

“¦ is in your worst imagination”¦

Go here to post the video or post the text as a comment here or on the FaceBook group.

Note
Things have been a bit hectic at work, so I haven’t had a chance to record many submissions for #TicckleTuesday. However, I’m taking over editing of a board games podcast soon, and wondered whether that format might be a good one for audio versions of flash fiction. Please comment below and tell me what you think.

Mike

Same rules as usual for #TicckleTuesday, but a video prompt instead. Hetty and I are at Kentwrll Hall in Suffolk, reenacting life as Tudor bakers.

“The thing that played chess and answered all your questions?”

“Right. I’m the Mechanical Quirk. I solve your problems. I ‘fix’ the ‘Dispossessed’.”

“The dis…”

” Ok… God… Screw up… Universal glitch…. Everything built ’11 inches to the North’… Some can ‘feel’ it… Makes ’em ‘different’. I fix.”

“Different? How?”

“Sadder. Madder. Badder. Usually sadder. Creative though. Driven cos NOTHING fits.”

“What if I don’t want to be fixed?”

Image Source

Instructions
Remember, your stories can be up to 60 seconds long. Go to the FaceBook Group (will need membership approved) or http://ticckle.com/ and reply to the video entitled #TicckleTuesday #7 part 1 and part 2 has further instructions.

You can either record 30s for extra credit (about 50-60 words on average) or 60s (which would be two Ticckle videos, so please label them part 1 and part 2 when you respond, and reply to part 1 with part 2 so they are linked. A minute is probably 120 words from my experience.

Alternatively, record a FaceBook video or an audio file (AudioBoo or SoundCloud are both good, as they allow you to share directly with the FB group). If the sound of your own voice horrifies you, please do push your comfort zone if you can, but I’d rather have a text entry that I will record for yoy than no entry at all. And we have all week but extra extra credit for submitting today, Tuesday.

General Chat
Now I’m feeling a bit maudlin. Last week was even busier for me, due to my family having to vacate our house at short notice for three months of building work to fix damage caused by a neighbour refusing to fix his roof. All the arrangements have finally been made, with a lot of help from our insurance company, and we move a week today; next week’s challenge will, hopefully, go ahead, but there is no guarantee we will have Internet, so fingers crossed.

Outstanding stories that need recording will get done tomorrow, and I will re-record a couple on ticckle.com using the TicckleTuesday account. Giving feedback on stories has been, understandably, delayed, but I’ll try to mop that up in a post here on the blog tomorrow. #TicckleTuesday is slowly growing, but still friendly – hence Jess suggesting the theme this week. Something that I as your benevolent dictator am always open to – but following @TicckleTuesday and RTing #TicckleTuesday announcements and Ticckles will help grow the community. Thanks.

Image Source

Instructions
Remember, your stories can be up to 60 seconds long. Go to the FaceBook Group (will need membership approved) or http://ticckle.com/ and reply to the video entitled #TicckleTuesday #6 part 1 and part 2 has further instructions.

You can either record 30s for extra credit (about 50-60 words on average) or 60s (which would be two Ticckle videos, so please label them part 1 and part 2 when you respond, and reply to part 1 with part 2 so they are linked. A minute is probably 120 words from my experience.

Alternatively, record a FaceBook video or an audio file (AudioBoo or SoundCloud are both good, as they allow you to share directly with the FB group). If the sound of your own voice horrifies you, please do push your comfort zone if you can, but I’d rather have a text entry that I will record for yoy than no entry at all.

And we have all week but extra extra credit for submitting today, Tuesday, but in honour of the theme it IS an extra long Tuesday if you think about last week’s theme, Time Zones

General Chat
Ok, #TicckleTuesday is still rather small and friendly – hence Catherine suggesting the theme this week. Something that I am always open to. – but following @TicckleTuesday and RTing #TicckleTuesday announcements and Ticckles will help grow the community. Thanks.

Last week I asked about plaudits and prizes. Feedback I got was that a badge of some kind and feedback would be good. As it is, last week was very busy for me, but any outstanding stories needing recording will get done today, and I will re-record a couple on ticckle.com using the TicckleTuesday account. I will also start giving feedback on each story, in a post here on the blog, with my picks. However, I am just me. Who am I to give feedback? So, please do your own individual feedback on the FaceBook group page. I will post select stories in full as a blog post from now on, with my own comments.

Image Source

Instructions
Remember, your stories can be up to 60 seconds long. Go to the FaceBook Group (will need membership approved) or http://ticckle.com/ and reply to the video entitled #TicckleTuesday #5 part 1 and part 2 has further instructions.

You can either record 30s for extra credit (about 50-60 words on average) or 60s (which would be two Ticckle videos, so please label them part 1 and part 2 when you respond, and reply to part 1 with part 2 so they are linked. A minute is probably 120 words from my experience.

Alternatively, record a FaceBook video or an audio file (AudioBoo or SoundCloud are both good, as they allow you to share directly with the FB group). If the sound of your own voice horrifies you, please do push your comfort zone if you can, but I’d rather have a text entry that I will record for yoy than no entry at all.

And we have all week but extra extra credit for submitting today, Tuesday, but in honour of the theme it IS an extra long Tuesday this week

General Chat
Ok, ticckle.com is nowhere near big enough to expect uploads from all four (?) corners (???) of the Globe. To be honest it probably never will be, and is more likely to evolve into a vox populi site for lazy TV news networks, if they can spot a good thing when they see one. Furthermore, #TicckleTuesday is at best a humble handful of submissions on ticckle.com and the FaceBook Group, but hey, we can dream… which leads me on to how to grow #TicckleTuesday. Not much. Just a bit; I don’t think I’d want it to be huge. We are still very small, so following @TicckleTuesday and RTing announcements and Ticckles will help grow the community. Thanks.

The best flash fiction compos get a few dozen submissions – Trifecta being consistently high. It certainly gives this blog the most feedback for my stories – but what marks out the better competitions is some kind of feedback beyond just announcing a declared ‘winner’, which is a bit ‘X-Factor’ really. The questions are:
1) Who should give the feedback: Me? Guest judges? Everyone?
2) What kind of feedback should be given? General good/bad? Grammar and Style (spelling is moot given this is an audio/video challenge)? Presentation?
3) Does there need to be any kind of prize/badge?

You can either record 30s for extra credit (about 50-60 words on average) or 60s (which would be two Ticckle videos, so please label them part 1 and part 2 when you respond. A minute is probably 120 words from my experience. Alternatively, record a FaceBook video or an audio file (AudioBoo or SoundCloud are both good). If the sound of your own voice horrifies you, please do push your comfort zone, but I’d rather have a text entry that I will record than no entry at all.

And we have all week but extra extra credit for submitting today, Tuesday! We are still very small, so following @TicckleTuesday and RTing announcements and Ticckles will help grow the community. Thanks.

Lillie McFerrin hosts a Five Sentence Fiction competition on her blog. This week’s theme is Fabric. This is great. My brother works in the Fashion Industry, mostly with models – not as glamorous as you may think, he tells me. They’re all mad! – so this one is for him.

Here is my entry, which is a bit “far out” for the theme, but trust me:

The needle entered the skin with no accompanying hesitation; she’d clearly done this before. Several previously hidden needle marks would be exposed until she pulled it together and covered them up.

The needle’s precious cargo was the only thing she could rely on now to keep up appearances. Her reputation was hanging by a trembling thread, and she’d nearly lost it.

How embarrasing would it have been to pop a button on a new leather jacket during a photo shoot!

Here is my offering in video and text form:

Title:
“Three Sisters”

The slides were the highlight of the family trip. Caution followed Fear down the first, while Care looked on. When Caution reached the bottom, Fear had been whisked away by Adventure.

Caution tried to direct Adventure out of the path of Care as she threw herself to the wind. With Fear and Caution banished by Adventure, Care too departed. All that was left was Happiness.

The images I took the story from: