Category Archives: Five Sentence Fiction

Five Sentence Fiction: Abandon

dragon tail, abandon, five sentence fiction, last krystallos

© Lisa Shambrook

Sabrina clasped Adam’s hand as they dashed into the split of rock at the foot of the towering cliff, and they tumbled to the floor in a giggling tangle of limbs and sodden clothes. Their hearts pounded and adrenalin surged, and the thin cotton t-shirts plastered to their skin held no further secrets.

Sabrina stared up into Adam’s dark eyes and let her fingers drag across his thigh, across his drenched jeans, her breath rasping with both exhaustion and desire. She forgot their picnic down in the meadow, now drowned beneath heaven’s cascade, and decided not to forsake her hunger…

The storm growled through the cave, like a rumbling belly, and behind the amorous couple a silent tail whipped patiently back and forth as the amused dragon’s main course and dessert quickly removed their packaging…

five sentence fiction

This prompt spoke to me in many ways…abandon…and this story idea made me smile, so I hope it tickled you too!

Fly over to Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction to see more!

Five Sentence Fiction: Offering

FSF_Offering_The_Last_Krystallos

© Lisa Shambrook

Thanis sighed as the punishing wind swept billowing clouds of dust through the bare limbs of the grey elm forest. The vast apocalyptic landscape spread beyond her cracked windows and she hugged her child close as she glanced at the limp crop of leaves in her dusty yard.

A prayer slipped from her lips, a yearning petition to the gods, amid quiet words of desperation…

She turned from the grimy window and a gust howled across the basin, echoing her lamentation, and as she turned back a smile spread across her weary face. High above the valley, above the regimented elms on the mountainside, the wind blew the clouds aside and a shaft of light lit a glittering spray of rain – a true gift.

000. FSF Badge  June 2012

Dipping back into Five Sentence Fiction over at Lillie McFerrin…take a look at the other stories for the prompt word: Offering.

Five Sentence Fiction: Envy

© Lisa Shambrook

© Lisa Shambrook

Kate’s eye twitched, and the corner of her pinched mouth began to rise, almost imperceptibly, but it did, curling into a sneer that even Kate wasn’t aware of. Slugs, not butterflies, churned in the pit of her stomach, writhing in the green acid of resentment as Kate sat across from her cheerful sister.

Emma chatted with purposefully casual words, and Kate gazed distractedly at the halo caused by the shaft of sunlight behind her sister’s bouncing ponytail.

Kate ignored the prickles that danced across her own skin and hurriedly retracted her hand as Emma tentatively reached across the table, squinting as both time and the sun moved slowly across the hall. Kate’s chest tightened as the warden called out and she caught Emma’s swallow and barely concealed smile, and her sister left with a spring in her step that her own stiff, burdened pace hadn’t seen in over two long years.

000. FSF Badge  June 2012

A visceral piece for Lillie McFerrin’s renowned Five Sentence Fiction…have a go yourself, with the prompt word Envy

Five Sentence Fiction: Falling

Autumn's Shroud - © Lisa Shambrook

Autumn’s Shroud – © Lisa Shambrook

He gently gripped the damp park bench, his gnarled fingers slipping against the lichen, soft and wet, on the underside of the silvered wood. Shivers scrambled up his knotted spine, cold and sharp like a spider with frozen legs, and he clutched at the collar of his worn jacket, his trembling fingers attempting to fasten the topmost button. Giving up, he sighed, and pulled his arthritic legs up tight; for a moment his teeth chattered and his legs shook uncontrollably and then his frail body stilled.

Frost glistened on the ground and a crinkled brown leaf, reminiscent of his wrinkled weathered face, slipped from the tree rooted beside his bench, and silently fell.

As the early hours dawned, autumn’s confetti floated down, finally draping humanity’s loss with nature’s shroud.

000. FSF Badge  June 2012

My Five Sentence Fiction for the week, based on the prompt word Falling

Five Sentence Fiction: Hunger

Rain © Lisa Shambrook

Rain © Lisa Shambrook

The rain fell, heavy and abrupt, and before Lily had a chance to move she was soaked, the sky’s tears drenching her t-shirt and darkening her mud-splattered jeans. Shaking, dirt-ridden hands hung at her sides and she stared up into the roiling clouds as the heavens wept with her.

Lily bit her lip as her fingers trembled through her straggly tresses then she flung out her arms in defiance as she twirled; starved vengeance served as she whirled. Her hair spun out in heavy, water-laden rat-tails as she ravenously kicked up earth, and the rain danced on her skin and drummed upon the fresh mound under her feet.

Her laugh echoed as she buried far more than a corpse beneath the hammering of dawn’s heavy downpour.

000. FSF Badge  June 2012

Another Five Sentence Fiction for the word prompt Hunger…make of it what you will in its ambiguity!

Five Sentence Fiction: Grief

© Lisa Shambrook

© Lisa Shambrook

“Pillarbox red…you know, red like that sexy scarlet lipstick I could never quite pull off…” Aggie’s laugh tinkled in the crisp morning air and she squeezed Harold’s arm. “Orange, well that speaks for itself, then there’s yellow, the kind that we all wore in the sixties or that they make those rubber ducks out of. Green…” she sighed, “the kind of green that spreads across the English countryside…fields and trees and hedges, that kind of green. Summer sky blue, and indigo, like a summer storm, a storm bearing down, broiling and threatening…and violet,” Aggie’s voice broke,  just for a moment, “like the stone in my ring, amethyst, like my engagement ring…that’s what it looks like…remember?”

Harold’s foggy eyes crinkled at the edges as he smiled and clasped Aggie’s hands tight within his own; he couldn’t see the tears, that rested like dewdrops on her wrinkled cheeks, any more than he could see the rainbow arcing across the sky, but he didn’t need his sight as long as he still had her.

000. FSF Badge  June 2012

My Five Sentence Fiction for the prompt word ‘grief’ over at Lillie McFerrin’s.

Five Sentence Fiction: Conflict

Conflict © Lisa Shambrook

Conflict © Lisa Shambrook

It’s the weight, heavy and constant, which tightens my determination.

Gunfire rattles across the barbed wire and I run, my legs aching and my shoulders on fire. Nerves tingle as the metal within my grip bites into my fingers welding the weapon to my hands. Cold sweat forms, dripping from my brow, and I shift my hefty backpack, but the weight sits firm.

Guilt and desire battle in equal measure and my heart resounds and ricochets like a cannon locked within my ribcage, as I lift my gun…and kill.

 

000. NewFSFBadge Bekahcat June 2012

This week’s prompt over at Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction is conflict…go and read the other tales!

Five Sentence Fiction: Fenced

Barbed_Wire_FSF_Fenced_TheLastKrystallos

Please do not use without permission © Lisa Shambrook

She stared at the metal chain link, just as she did every day, sitting cross-legged, chin cupped in hands, elbows on knees.

There was nothing beyond, truly nothing, but sky…and clouds. The sandy, dirt scrub, ten feet from the high, barbed wire fence, dropped away, away into nothing, a void, and everyone knew there was nothing below, nothing at all. Though the world, the whole rest of the world stretched for hundreds, nay thousands, of miles behind her, she preferred to stare at the precipice beyond the fence; it both calmed and excited her at the same time.

So when hands, scrabbling, dirty and grazed hands, appeared clawing over the top of the cliff, at the very edge of the world – her mouth dropped and she grabbed the chain link, and she knew life was about to change!

000. NewFSFBadge Bekahcat June 2012

Just five sentences…go read the other great entries for the prompt: Fenced over at Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction.

Five Sentence Fiction: Fairywings and Marriage

Fairywings_wood_anemone_by_last_krystallos

Fairywings © Lisa Shambrook

Stars twinkled in the indigo sky and the tiny chain of fairies made their way down through the purple aubrietia, just inches from Tally’s dirty knees. A small crowd had already gathered beneath the hawthorn, but Tally’s beady eyes remained fixed upon the tiny fairy that sashayed at the head of the procession.

Diminutive drops of diamond dew glistened upon the pink London pride that weaved through the imp’s hair, and wood anemone petals draped her body, tied with a delicate belt of gossamer silk. She carried pale speedwell and tiny alpine blooms, and trailed dandelion wishes and baby’s breath as she fluttered her gauzy wings, and elegantly walked down the nodding forget-me-not aisle to her princely suitor.

Six-year-old Tally blinked incredulously, shrugging off the chill as she wriggled beneath the rhubarb, ignoring the shrill call from her mother; she wasn’t going to miss this for anything, and certainly not for bedtime!

000. NewFSFBadge Bekahcat June 2012
Another Five Sentence Fiction…this time dedicated to Lillie McFerrin and her forthcoming nuptials…this is for you Lillie… x

 

My Creative Process – The Grand Blog Tour

Thanks go to Nettie Thomson for nominating me for this Blog Tour…I got asked when it was named My Writing Process, but I was too busy to take part, so this second chance is much appreciated! Go take a look at Nettie’s answers here, then see what I’m doing…

Flash_Fictioneer_Last_Krystallos

Writing © Lisa Shambrook

What are you working on?

Right now I’m editing ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ and I’m very appreciative of beta readers! Sometimes you can be too close to your story and your writing and only someone else can catch the little things – or maybe the big things…

‘Beneath the Old Oak’ is the sequel to my debut novel ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ and continues seven years later following Meg, Freya’s best friend. Meg is now fourteen and her life is in turmoil. This story is close to my heart. They say write what you know – many of both Meg’s and her mother’s problems are things I’ve fought and done myself. Depression and anxiety affect entire families, not just the sufferers, and it’s a subject I’ve enjoyed tackling. Those who know my writing will appreciate a tough subject, but dealt with in an uplifting way.

The tentative blurb for ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ is:

‘Meg’s mother is anxious, depressed and neglectful. Meg thinks her mum is broken and wonders if she’ll be next, or is she already broken too? Meg wants to escape, but her mum beats her to it. Solace is found in a huge, old oak tree and Meg begins to learn to grow…’

Prior to resuming my editing, I’ve been writing flash fiction and enjoying submitting to contests and anthologies: Audiomachine’s Phenomena: Epic Heroes Event, The Anthology Club’s Pirate Anthology, Dirty Goggles 2014 and J.A.Mes Press Rebirth Anthology to name a few, along with traditional flash challenges like Blues Buster and Five Sentence Fiction.

World Book Day 2014 Quote

World Book Day © Lisa Shambrook

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I write eclectic flash fiction and enjoy experimenting with genres!

‘Beneath the Rainbow’ is placed in contemporary fiction, but it’s been enjoyed by everyone from 9 to 99 years old. ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ will hit the market as YA contemporary fiction.

How does my work differ? My writing definitely has its own voice, vibrant, lyrical and emotional. I work with the senses, description and colour, and my imagery stands out. If you really want to ‘feel’ what you read, try mine…

Cobalt_Last_Krystallos_Lisa_Shambrook

Cobalt (my art and photography) © Lisa Shambrook (All Rights Reserved)

Why do you write/create what you do?

I write because it’s an urge I cannot deny. I’d go mad if I couldn’t lay down my thoughts on paper! I’m a creative soul, I need an outlet and it takes whatever forms my inspiration demand, from art to short stories, scrapbooking to photography, and craft to novels…

 

 

Last_Krystallos_Notebooks

Notebooks everywhere © Lisa Shambrook

How does your writing/creative process work?

My heart is in control of my process, and I often have to rein it in, or nothing would get done!

I keep my inspirations jotted down, but generally only work on one big project at a time. Right now I will finish and release ‘Beneath the Old Oak’, and then work on the final book ‘Beneath the Distant Star’ which waits in its first draft form.

After that…who knows? I have a lovely children’s dragon adventure trilogy, and an epic dragon fantasy in the works…

I’m a planner. NaNoWriMo taught me discipline and that I need to plan! I pretty much work out a novel with a chapter-by-chapter plan, which will then spawn scenes and then writing. I also keep scrupulous notebooks of information eg: chronology, dates and times of sunsets/rises, flowers in season, character info, eye colour…it’s so easy to switch eye colour half way through a book, or a car model…been there!

My heart will determine my next work…

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Fairywings Anemone © Lisa Shambrook

What I love about this Blog Tour is all creatives are catered for…and you need to look out for the following on the 26th when they take the baton for this tour:

Amanda Makepeace: www.amandamakepeace.com Her art is not to be missed!

Ruth Long: www.ruth-long.com Her words just blow me away!

Bekah Shambrook: www.bekahcat.wordpress.com If you want scary zombie make up, she’s your girl!

lisa_shambrook_com

Website © Lisa Shambrook

You can also check out my website: www.lisashambrook.com

And find ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ on Amazon UK and Amazon US.