FLASH FICTION TUESDAY: The Crystal Ball

crystal ball

 

Now on Tuesdays…at least for the foreseeable future…welcome to Flash Fiction Tuesday. In case you don’t know what flash fiction is, it is an extremely short story (sometimes created in 100 words or less) with a beginning, middle, and an ending,

But in my case, I write flash fiction with an open ending. I allow my readers to draw their own conclusion as to what happens. This week’s story honors the gypsy culture and the magic to be found there…

 

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A nervous giggle escaped Mattie’s lips as she glanced around the tent once more. Her friends came with her to the gypsy camp outside of town, Had even dared her to seek her future with the fortune teller. Now that she was actually standing in front of the old woman dressed in rich colors and sparkling jewels, Mattie was beginning to think it a bit foolish to have agreed to her friends’ dare.

“Sit down.”

The voice was surprisingly strong, even though it was a mere whisper hanging in the air around them. Mattie sat on a low stool in front of a velvet-covered table. A single crystal ball balanced on a small pedestal in the middle of it. She could have sworn something flickered in its middle, but before Mattie could peer closer the old gypsy covered it with blue-veined hands and began to chant in a low singsong voice. Mattie gazed at the woman, mesmerized as a small band of smoke began to swirl inside the ball, twirling faster and growing larger until it completely filled the ball. The fortune teller’s eyes seem to bore into Mattie’s as that shivery voice filled the tent once more.

“Why are you here?”

Another nervous giggle escaped as Mattie attempted to make a joke of her reasons for entering the tent in the first place.

“Uh, my friends dared me to come in here. I thought it would be funny to see my future.”

The old gypsy stared into the smoke for a long moment before gazing back at the girl sitting opposite the now glowing orb.

“Ahhh, but don’t you want to know about the treasure first?”

***Okay, it’s your turn! What happens next? Is the old gypsy woman for real? What is the treasure she is talking about? And what does she really see in Mattie’s future? Put your creative cap on and add a sentence or add a paragraph in the comments below!***

 

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***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!***

I’m happy to announce the winner of week two of my TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR free giveaway! Sherry Hudson has won the fairie house for following this blog! Congratulations Sharon! She should be receiving her fairie house soon…

 

Week Three
***DON’T FORGET! It’s week three of THE TWELVE WEEKS OF LUNADAR giveaway and this week you get a chance to win the audiobook DARK CURSE by Christine Feehan shown above! Just click on the pile of presents to the right of this post and choose how you would like to enter the FREE giveaway. Winners will be announced every Monday in my INDIE AUTHOR’S JOURNEY post, so enter the FREE giveaway and check next Monday to see if you’ve won!***

***ALSO…it’s not too late to tell all your educator or school librarian friends about their chance to pick up a FREE copy of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound during my LUNADAR Pay It Forward FREE giveaway! I’m giving away THOUSANDS of ebook copies between now and Friday, November 2nd, in exchange for an honest review on Amazon. All they have to do is send me a Facebook message or email with their valid email address and I will send them their FREE copy, along with a copy of the LUNADAR map I sketched. Hurry and share the good news about this FREE ebook giveaway before time runs out!***

***AND…it’s countdown time to the release of LUNADAR: Homeward Bound on 10/15/18! You can now pre-order your print copy through Amazon and other online retailers, so get your copy today!***

 

LUNADAR cover jpg

Ruler by day, a reluctant pirate by night, 18-year-old Princess Ariana fights for her subjects in the waterfall city of LUNADAR. In a kingdom surrounded by fairies and mermaids, and ravaged by deadly Drundles, only a chosen few are trusted to guard her daughter, Candra, as the secret heir to the throne.

But it only takes one ill-fated meeting for Ariana to suddenly be plunged into an escalating web of secrets found in her father’s journal, a deadly kidnapping, and an ever-weakening resolve to turn her back on the call of the merman’s song.

With Ariana’s world falling apart and the future of LUNADAR at stake, how will she bring her father’s murderer to justice and fulfill a deathbed promise to protect Lunadar’s legacy?

 

donna

International best selling, award-winning author, Donna L Martin, has been writing since she was eight years old. She is a 4th Degree Black Belt in TaeKwonDo by day and a ‘ninja’ writer of children’s picture books, chapter books, young adult novels and inspirational essays by night. Donna is a BOOK NOOK REVIEWS host providing the latest book reviews on all genres of children’s books, and the host of WRITERLY WISDOM, a resource series for writers. Donna is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators and Children’s Book Insider. She is a lover of dark chocolate, going to the beach and adding to her growing book collection. Donna’s latest book, LUNADAR: Homeward Bound (a YA fantasy), ebook edition, is now available from Amazon, with the print edition coming October 15, 2018.