@Ooorah and @LayethTheSmackDown sponsor this flash fiction contest each year. We Smackdowners write stories on prompts for (hopefully) several rounds, based on a theme, and the last writer standing is the winner. These are my entries.…
What do you do when a teenage movie star makes it seem as if you've kidnapped him? After working two summers at his father's health club as a towel boy, Peter Fisk saved enough money to visit California. He literally runs into Lance Hardwood in his hotel lobby - and Lance just wants to have fun, incognito. Pete gets caught up in a mad escape from Disney reps, paparazzi and a trio of Lance's superfans; and finds that maybe, just maybe - Lance has kidnapped his heart.…
Oisin O'Malley is the victim of a two-timing liar and a Divine Work Force F***up: declared dead before his time. He finds aid in the Moon God Tsukiyomi - whom he's fantasized about since childhood. To uncover the reason for his attempted murder, and expose an eager beaver Reaper in the DWF, he'll need all the help he can get.…
The West Throckmorton (UK) Library holds a secret - it's an Intergalactic storage facility for dangerous creatures, magically kept in its tens of thousands of books. But there are those who would release its frightful inhabitants upon Earth. Enter the last remaining Gulper, who ate everyone on his planet, and is now Head Watcher Eliza's familiar. He looks like a giant Flemish rabbit. Fluffy to the rescue!…
This is a cautionary tale about a book that drove our world to self-destruction. An unlikely quartet - a waitress, an ex-librarian, a cat and a book that's not a book - travel an alternate-reality America torn apart by conspiracy theories, mistrust, natural and man-made disasters, in search of Melon Uskogee, the greatest coder on Earth. But is he a savior, or is he...an author?…
Earth, 35th Century. You can cheat death by downloading your consciousness into a Virtual Universe, with thousands of imaginary worlds to choose from, and countless 'lives' to be 'lived.' But someone of vital importance to the Virtuaverse has been murdered offline. It's up to Daniel Crow Feather, Missing Persons Specialist, to find the virtual Zack Murkerberg in 30 days, because he may hold not only the key to finding his still-at-large murderer - but to the Virtuaverse's survival and that of the 4 billion bodiless virtuals who inhabit it. And in 30 days, without the code to permanently release his consciousness, Murkerberg will be deleted. But things are not what they seem.…
When the world goes mad, and people look to Heaven for answers - what if the Deity in charge isn't there to provide them? Three remaining Archangels - Michael, Chamuel and Raguel - have done their best to keep the heavenly afterlife running. But the school massacre in Texas provides a challenge, as the arriving souls reject heaven and fall back to earth. The Archangels decide to find the Holy Trinity and their disgruntled angelic brethren and bring the Vuelda children and teachers back to heaven. They need a miracle of their own making. Then there's Esperanza Santiestevan, a 6-year-old Vuelda victim who may be the key to their miraculous success, or their hopeless failure.…
William Poulet lost a bet and has to accept the very first teaching job he's offered. Now he's teaching at a Military Academy he'd never applied to, in a State where gay porn is a popular download yet it's still anti-LGBT+. One night a friend of a friend sets him up on a disastrous blind date, until a cadet's hunky father intervenes. The next day Will is barraged with anonymous online threats. Digging into the digital closets of Boxton, Mississippi's men and their secret societies, he and his new friend find themselves thrust into a dark maelstrom of debauchery, bribery and murder. Turns out Boxton's Good Old Boys are anything but.…
An old diary is given to the new owners of a house in Cambria, California. Designed by famous architect Julia Morgan, it has some oddities - including a spiral staircase in the backyard, leading to nowhere. What they discover involves old Welsh magic and the birth of the Tylwyth Teg King's half-human children. The house holds the key to bringing peace to Cambria and Wales - but it needs both women to mend a centuries-old rift.…
For information, check out: https://www.wattpad.com/1348925681-the-multigenre-mashup-smackdown-the-challenge. Lots of fun to be had, great people to meet and challenges to be met!…
The joyful city of St. Nicholas is shocked by the violent, grisly murder of its premier dollmaker. Evidence points to the awakening of a great evil. Citizens point to the Dark Elves, under the sway of the sinister Gift Exchanger. Captain Sunil Dey is unwilling to accept such an obvious culprit. And Santa's being evasive. Have yourself a creepy little Christmas with this fun but bloody holiday whodunit!…
Sheri Nightberry, star Mage Academy student, has been cursed. When she talks, she sounds like a cow. What's worse, she can't even use a public restroom. Because to the world, she also looks like a cow. The curse can be broken only if the caster dies. Which would be great, except the caster is dead and Sheri's still a cow. What's a brilliant, self-centered mean girl to do? Uncover the truth, travel to the Badlands and kick butt, that's what! Follow Sheri on her voyage of self-discovery, outwitting witless pirates, outsmarting clueless desert clans and making many four-footed friends while attaining demi-divinity.…
Sidhe and Sapiens shared the same world until the Schism and the Sundering parted them. The Agents of Shadow are afoot, asea and aloft, as Sidhe Agent Cray Zieh struggles with his attraction to Sapien Professor Wylde Thingh - who he suspects might be the Shadow's secret weapon. All Wylde wants is the key to Cray Zieh's heart (and a hit show!)…
Mind, Body, Spirit - these are all topics for heated debate at Beor's 1,125th SoulCon. But when attendee Prince Ampersand is kidnapped, it will take all the unusual talents of newly resurrected Dave Mortes and the Teenmagers to find out who the real enemy is, stop civil unrest, prevent a war and debug the city! And, just when you think he's dead, a loathsome enemy resurfaces...…
In the youngest of days, the last creation of the Gods - humans - faced extinction due to the murderously cold True Winter. On the brink of oblivion, four humans set out to find help, and hope. And a child will be the first to light the Winterflame. ('Lighting the Way', copyright 2015 Katrina Parry Photography)…
A father-daughter spat sends young necromancer Emilia Mortalis to seek out her real parents, beginning with a summoning in a cemetery, where she encounters a faceless Angel statue. When her foster father is killed while fighting in the Badlands, she and the Teenmagers seek revenge against his murderers, a plan that brings them in conflict with the Netherqueen. She'll need an Angel to succeed.But the Angel statue is much more than it seems.…
On Crossover Eve, a phantom turd appears in the bathroom of the Old Priest and Rat Tavern. Master Bard Marlee Nightfall tells the Feckin' Tale of Glenn Vikibod, who must become a pirate on the Dragon's Fiery Poot, learn fighting at the hands of the Ha'Penny Porkers (vicious were-guinea pigs), avenge his father's murder, find the pirate's fetching flame-haired daughter and retrieve the cursed Big Bean! Utterly silly and thoroughly delightful, with jokes scatological and gas most diabolical. If you're of legal age, play along with Marlee in her 'Huzzah!' and 'What Ho! drinking game.…
What begins with a simple question - Why does Artie Pendrake keep a horse that occasionally puts customers in the Tavern's infirmary? - becomes a tale about twin centaurs, a punk band led by a Dwarven Princess, a racist and unbalanced Dwarven King, and the Wizkiddles. Set during the Great Famine, this tale features assassins, murder, necromancy and plot twists aplenty!…
Shaka-La is a city outside of time and space. It's also out of magic. Until E-pop boy band sensation MOJO causes the Wonder Bowl's magic-powered lights to briefly flicker. That flicker spurs an unemployed Magic Academy professor to create a rival all-girl band to infiltrate MOJO's hormone-powered world. That flicker is noticed in Beor itself by an unusual pack of werewolves, who vow to help bring Shaka-La back. That flicker brings hope, in four-part harmony and four-pawed bravery, that will root itself in the soil of your heart as you root for The Return of Shaka-La.…