This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: Use a McGuffin in your story. McGuffin: An object or person in a movie that has no use other than to drive the narrative forward. (originally coined by Alfred Hitchcock) examples: The Maltese Falcon in the movie of the same name; the suitcase in Pulp Fiction This is a new one for me; I’ve never written anything like this before. And I must admit, writing a McGuffin into the story is harder than it seems. I didn’t know exactly what to do with it, but I gave it a whirl anyway. A disheveled fourteen-year-old Kelly Martin sat on the curb at the corner of Fourteenth and Vine. She had a look about her; tender and young, yet experienced and mature. Her hair hanged in dreadlocks, peeking out from beneath her … Read entire article »

This week’s Fiction Friday prompt: In her right hand a woman holds a loaded gun, in her left, a coin that just came up ‘tails’…NOW WRITE… Annie lowered her head in defeat. Yesterday she was the Vice President of a Fortune 500 company; three kids, several cars, a yacht, a house fit for a king (or a queen in her case), she even had her own airplane. Thirty-six hours ago she signed her name to a contract that would net Wilder Holdings close to a billion dollars by the end of the year. With that money they could expand into the Asian market, and with that expansion came an offshoot company – one which she would become President of.  It was quickly becoming her dream to move to Tokyo and live … Read entire article »