24/7, Divination 16

I am participating in Folded Word's writing month event, called "24/7," during August. Participants spend the first 24 days of the month writing short works, then spend the final week in revisions. The second part of this entry gives more details.

I'm not required to give a central theme to the entries, but I chose the theme "Divinations" and am using a pair of dice to generate prompts (values shown below). My prompt for August 16 is to write divination-themed micro-fiction that uses birth.

Six Characters In Search of An Escape From Their Author (100 words)
(with apologies to Luigi Pirandello)

"There!" Protagonist points toward blinding light, holds Companion close. They splash into the sea.

"We'll drown!" Companion cries, alarmed.

"We're too important to drown."

Dog paddles close behind. Happy.

Unbeknownst to them, Antagonist has already pushed through, rising off the page. Assistant follows, dripping. The manuscript is soaked.

Assistant stares in wide-eyed wonder. "So this is where we were born."

They rifle through a messy desk and find foreshadowing, history, scenes to come.

"The future." Antagonist holds a notebook high, triumphant. "Protagonist hasn't got a prayer!"

Assistant whispers, "We can't let Author catch us."

But Author, disgusted, has fled reality.


Staging for the Art Center of Citrus County's 2007 summer musical, "The Music Man". Click here for a video of preparations.

Key to dice values:

Blue Die
1 (CE logo). Twitter poetry (140 characters or fewer)
2. Twitter fiction (140 characters or fewer)
3. short poetry (8 lines or fewer)
4. prose poems (under 100 words)
5. micro fiction (40-100 words)
6. flash fiction (101-500 words)

Purple Die
1 (CE logo). Birth
2. Water
3. Air
4. Earth
5. Fire
6. Death

My Random House College Dictionary, Revised Edition, defines "divination" as 1. the attempt to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge by occult or supernatural means; 2. augury; prophecy; 3. perception by intuition; instinctive foresight. One meaning of "occult" is "hidden." That gives me a broad range of interpretation.

Elissa Malcohn's Deviations and Other Journeys Promote Your Page Too










Vol. 1, Deviations: Covenant (2nd Ed.)
Vol. 2, Deviations: Appetite
Vol. 3, Deviations: Destiny
Vol. 4, Deviations: Bloodlines
Free downloads at the Deviations website and on Smashwords.

Go to Manybooks.net to access Covenant, Appetite, Destiny, and Bloodlines in even more formats!

Participant, Operation E-Book Drop. (Logo credit: K.A. M'Lady & P.M. Dittman.)

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