Joshua-Graham.com Flash Fiction Winner Announced!

I’m pleased to announce that our independent judging panel has chosen a winner for the Flash Fiction Picture Prompt.  Contestants were to write a short work inspired by the picture to the left.  Before we get to the winner, I had promised to explain the origin of this picture.

And yes, that is my blood in the tub.

What in the world happened, you ask?

Good question.  In fact, I asked that myself, when I saw it.

Here’s the long and short of it:

On a dark and not-so-stormy night, around 2 AM, a sharp pain to the legs and a sudden drop jolted me awake.  I found myself on my hands and knees.  For the life of me, I could not understand where I was.  Until the smooth cold surface of the floor and narrow walls to my left and right sent a chill through my body.

“What happened!” my wife called out into the gloom.

“I fell!”

“Where are you?”

It took me a moment to process and articulate it, much less comprehend how I got there, but no mater how uncanny, the facts were irrefutable.  “I’m in the bathtub!”

The sheets in the bed across from the master bathroom rustled.  The soft padding of feet grew urgently closer.  My eyes stung as the bright glare from the overhead canister lights blasted on.  “What happened to you?” My wife said, as thunderstruck as I.

“I…I must have…” I stood, and a sharp pain, focused like a needle, impaled my right shin.  Glancing down, I noticed a bright red stream from the center of my tibia running down to my foot, then through my toes.

My wife must have seen it at the same time, because she gasped, “Oh my!”  Immediately, she grabbed a wad of kleenex and pressed it to the wound, just as I lifted my foot to the edge of the tub and rested it there.  Deeply concerned and repeating “Oh my, oh my,” she applied pressure, neosporin, and a bandage to my wound. And a bit of TLC.

We both took a look into the tub and found the multiple drops and blood spatter.  It send pins and needles up my back.  “Looks like a murder scene,” I said.

“You’d better clean it, or people will think I murdered you.”

“Don’t worry, I know how to destroy evidence.  I’ve killed many people…”

A blank stare.

“In my books,” I said, not expecting her to laugh.

And she didn’t, she just rolled her eyes and lifted the tissue paper to look at my wound.  “There’s hole in your leg!”

“Wow.  That’s something.  Don’t worry, hon, it doesn’t hurt much.  Looks a lot worse than it feels.”

“What were you doing?”

“I guess I was coming back from the bathroom  half asleep, and I probably missed a turn.  Must’ve hit the edge of the tub and fell in.”

“You know, you really had me worr–”

I left the bathroom briefly, and returned with my shiny new Samsung Galaxy SII Android cellphone.

“What are you doing, Josh?”

I ignored the spreading spot of blood in the padding of my bandage and I winked at her.  “Picture tells a thousand words.  That’s four manuscript pages for me.”

She rolled her eyes and went back to bed.

 

And now, for the winner of the Flash Fiction writing prompt contest!

(drum-roll please)

The winner is….

 

(pause for effect)

 

Doug Dutcher!

Congratulations, Doug.  The independent judging panel has chosen your flash fiction as the winner!  We’ll be in touch with you soon to send you your prize (ANY ebook of your choice)

I’d like to thank all the other participants for their entries.  There were definitely other worthy contenders, and I wish you all the best.

 

 

 

 

Joshua Graham is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, winner of the International Book Award and Forward National Literature Award. His thrillers include DARKROOM, LATENT IMAGE and BEYOND JUSTICE, and TERMINUS. Graham's works have been characterized as thought-provoking page-turners.

Legal Notice: All information on this website and blog are from Mr. Graham's personal experience and insight and should not be viewed in any way, directly or inferred, as qualified professional advice.

All creative writing on this website or Mr. Graham's books: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. (novels, short stories)