I'm BAAAaack! And what a weekend it was at the New England Crime Bake conference for mystery writers!
As part of the conference fun, attendees are invited to participate the Flashwords Contest. The challenge is to use 10 words from a list of provided words (culled from the titles of the books written by the keynote speakers) to create a 150-word bit of fiction that includes a crime or at least the hint of the crime.
This year’s speakers were Barry Eisler and Nancy Pickard. The words to be used were: Assassin, Bitch, Body, Coast, Confession, Detachment, Die, Fall, Fault, Ingredient, Killing, Marriage, Murder, Rain, Requiem, Scent, Secret, Storm, Truth, Virgin.
I accepted the challenge and submitted the following:
Our neighbor, a criminal lawyer, once said, “If you want to murder someone and get away with it, cover the floor in plastic and leave your cell phone at home when you drive to dispose of the body.”
My marriage had been rock solid then. But that was before that bitch, Kitty Kline, moved back to town. Kitty was my sworn archenemy. The reason: she’d sprouted breasts in 5th grade and they’d still been growing when we’d graduated. The way I saw it, I could hire a professional assassin, or…
* * *
“Honey, are you painting--”
I knocked Ken upside his head with a paint can, killing him instantly. He fell on the drop cloth.
Despite the pouring rain, I drove to the coast and, with cool detachment, heaved my husband over the cliff.
What I did with Kitty Kline is a secret I’ll take to my grave.
I’m throwing down the challenge flag down now. Go ahead and give it a try. And feel free to post your flash fiction in the comment section for the rest of us to read.
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