Every month, the Furious Fiction Flash contest challenges writers worldwide to write a 500-word flash story in roughly 55 hours.

The January 2024 prompt’s criteria:

• Your story must occur on a character’s FIRST DAY OF A NEW JOB.

• Your story must include something being stolen.

• Your story must include the words TRIP, TRIANGLE, and TSUNAMI.

My story borrows from Japanese folklore surrounding Namazu the Earthshaker, a whale-sized catfish that created earthquakes with the swish of its monstrous tail. Namazu’s attacks were seen as punishments for human greed.

The story is soaked in tragedy and carries a somber, drifty mood.

Fingers crossed! We’ll see how well it does!

Well, it’s Friday, January 26, 2024, US Pacific Time, and the results are in … but I just woke up.

My story, A Song for Namazu, was longlisted!

Okay, so what’s a longlist? It’s a list of stories considered for the prize. Being long-listed is something like an honorable mention, which is still a win in my world.

Also on this list are a few other folks from my Blue Marble Storyteller’s writing group, Deidra Lovegren and Jamie Gregory.

Go team Blue Marble!