First, here’s the prompts for the August 2023 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. Then my usual long-winded explanation:

A Science Fiction Story

Involving an Umbrella

Set in a cave.

Now, on to the details.

Hi! I’m Mike Mayak, I also write as Jeff Baker and I’m the current moderator for the monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, which was started by ‘Nathan Burgoine a few years ago and carried on by Cait Gordon and Jeffrey Ricker. It’s a monthly writing challenge mainly for stress-free fun that anyone can play.

Here’s how it works: the first Monday of every month I draw three cards; a heart, a diamond and a club. These correspond to a list naming a genre, a setting and an object that must appear in the story. Participants write up a flash fiction story, 1,000 words or less, post it to their website and link it here in the comments. I’ll post the results (and hopefully have one of my own written!) the week of August 14th, 2023.

As I’m no good making videos I did the drawing offstage and the results were the Jack of Clubs (an umbrella) the Two of Hearts (science fiction) and the Seven of Diamonds (a cave.) So we will write a science fiction story, set in a cave involving an umbrella!

So, get to writing and I’ll post the results next week!

Thanks for playing, and I’ll see you next week!

And have fun!

——mike

(Science fiction! Whew! Easier than faking Kipling again!)