July 2023 Furious Fiction
Every month, the Furious Fiction Flash contest challenges writers worldwide to write a 500-word flash story in roughly 55 hours.
The July 2023 prompt had an unusual set of criteria:
It must be 500 words;
the story had to include a child (16 or younger) as its main character;
the first sentence had to contain two colors;
it had to include the words BUMPER, PRIZE, and IMPOSSIBLE.
My entry was The Last Harvest, a science fiction / apocalyptic story about Maya, a teenager, sent on a scavenger hunt in an arid landscape beset by climate change.
This story is about adaptation and resilience. The reality is that we humans - as a species - can no longer prevent climate change. Instead, we must adapt to survive. This story paints a bleak picture of our inevitable future, where humanity races against time to preserve plant life in an increasingly drought-stricken environment.
For me, the most difficult aspect of writing this story was including two colors in the first sentence. My opening line:
“An orange and purple sun crested over the horizon, its light glinting off the dilapidated service station sign.”
The orange and purple colors of the sun would relate to a future with a higher concentration of methane and carbon in the atmosphere than there is today.
The Last Harvest didn’t win a showcase, place, or receive an honorable mention, but I enjoyed writing it nonetheless!
