Story Chat Digest 2025 Any type of story is acceptable as long as it doesn’t contain profanity or erotica and would appeal to a large audience. It must be between 100 and 300 words and be about the topic.
Story Chat is more than a writing challenge. It is a unique and proven online program encouraging interaction between authors and readers. It’s part writers group, part beta readers, part fun fiction and pure enjoyment.
There will not be a summary post for this challenge. The post itself will be a compilation of all the stories that have been submitted. As comments come in, I will keep attendance by linking the name of the commenters’ blog to a link of one of their recent posts like I do in the summary posts. I won’t summarize their comments.
Happy reading!
The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse
The Fourth Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Death, astride his pale green horse, rode over the hill, bringing Hades with him and leaving the ashes of trees and dwellings in the mouths of dreamers.
The recent storm has put out the bushfire but the smell of burnt gumtrees and livestock still hangs in the air. At the relief centre, ash-grey ghost faces atop automaton bodies, straggle in to be recorded as being worthy of pity.
Under a marquee near the community hall, an exhausted fire crew shelter from the steady rain, as 44-gallon drum braziers sizzle on the perimeter. The experienced hands are watching for worrying signs amongst those whose properties have been devastated; too much beer, not enough water; too much toughness, not enough despair.
Several pairs of eyes are on a young farmer who’s lost everything, apart from his family. He’s just returned from shooting his maimed next year’s income, strewn in their singed wool coats and burnt feet across his smoldering land. His eyes are seemingly alert but glazed, his left leg is twitching and he has a tic under his right eye.
The rains come, the donations come, the volunteers come but the money to rebuild remains in the charred distance, dependent on the devastated counting and re-counting their losses. Again and again and again, they relive Armageddon on government forms.
In time, God is back in his Heaven, and the paddocks turn a deep green, as if to cry victory over Death’s horse. But the smell of Hell is primal and is etched into the people’s souls until the day they die.
*****
Bambi & Co.
by Marian Allen
We watched as the people all got into their deathmobiles and rushed away. We watched them all rush back and carry loaded paper bags into the house. The ones who had stayed at home asked, “Did you get the milk? Bread? Toilet paper? Bottled water?” and the ones who had gone said, “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Do you think I’m an idiot?”
We snuggled deep into our safe places and watched the rain fall and freeze, fall and freeze, fall and freeze, and we watched the snow fall over it and turn all the deathmobiles into icymobiles and then snowymobiles.
Even if it gets warm tomorrow, it’ll be days before everything thaws.
Until then, the world is ours again.
Now It’s Your Turn
Feel free to discuss either or both micro-fiction stories. The questions are not a test! LOL They are here to help you interact with the stories and with each other.
- What compelled you about these stories?
- How did you visualize the scenes?
- What was left out to make the story short?
- What were the points of view? How did the POV fit the stories? Would you have told the story in a different POV?
Attendance
- Jan Sikes
- Keep It Alive
- Marian Allen Author Lady (author) Link
- No Facilities
- Raj
- Roberta Writes
- Six Crooked Highways
Exciting Story Chat Volume II Video
Thank you for all your orders and reviews of Story Chat’s 5 Star Ratings on Amazon! Tell your friends and share on Social Media!
Story Chat Volume II Book Blog Tour Schedule
- Colleen Chesebro – November 24, 2024 (US) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- Gloria – November 29 (UK)
- Robbie & Michael – November 30 (SA)
- Diana – December 1 (US)
- Doug – December 2 (AU) December 1 (US, UK, SA) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- Cathy – December 4 (UK) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- Amanda – December 9 (AU) December 8 (US, UK, SA)
- Dan– December 11 (US)
- Philip – December 14 (UK)
- Cindy Georgekas – December 16 (US)
- Esther Chilton – January 30 (UK ) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- D. L. Finn – February 4 (US) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- Yvette – February 5 (US) Thanks for reviewing on Amazon.
- Hugh – January 27 (UK)
Story Chat: Online Literary Conversations
Our video from Volume I is still up and getting views. My goal was 100 views, and we’re over that now! Yay!
Upcoming and Ongoing on Always Write
- February 4 Story Chat Digest 2025 – “All About Sofia” by Nigel Byng
- February 18 – SCD Micro-fiction #2 – “Romance” by you
- February 25 – SCD Poetry Day #2
- February 28 – SCD Summary “All About Sofia”
- March 4 Story Chat Digest 2025 – “Sir Chocolate and the Gingerbread Chapel” by Robbie and Michael Cheadle
- March 18 – Story Chat Digest 2025 – “A Slight Delay” by Philip Cumberland
- Most Wednesdays – Over a Cuppa
Thanks for reading and commenting! Story Chat thrives because of all of you!
Marsha Ingrao Always Write 
36 responses to “Story Chat Digest Micro-Fiction Challenge #1 Winter Storms”
[…] February 10 – Let’s Chat About Blogging #1 […]
LikeLike
[…] January 31 – SCD Micro-Fiction Challenge #1 Winter Storms […]
LikeLike
[…] January 21 – Story Chat Digest #2 Micro-Fiction Challenge “Winter Storms” […]
LikeLike
Doug’s story was so vivid, it hurt my heart. I may be projecting, but I got a strong feeling that the young farmer was more devastated by the suffering of his livestock than by the destruction of his livelihood.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Marian, you are so kind hearted. Sadly, my first thought usually goes to livelihood, but the poor wildlife have no clue. That is a devastating picture. In California, we have wildfires constantly during the summer. This huge fire in the winter is a rarity, but shows how dry things are here. Sadly, we don’t have enough water to service the needs of the state to move it from one part to another. Our lakes in Tulare County, a very poor county, but rich in agricultural production was ordered to let water out of our dams. The water went to replenish our groundwater, but did nothing for the fires in Los Angeles. Hopefully the rain and snowfall this spring will replenish the man-made lakes. But even if it does, it won’t help the needs of the southern Californians. We need some of Indiana’s wonderful rains.
LikeLike
[…] January 21 – Story Chat Digest #2 Micro-Fiction Challenge “Winter Storms” […]
LikeLike
[…] I’m bragging because I got a flash fiction story accepted by Story Chat Digest and you can read it here. […]
LikeLike
The second story, even more brief, also gets us the whole scenario succinctly. What humans do when faced with unpredictable or unprecedented events is maybe the cause of amusement for the animals. Lovely story Marian.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Someday maybe we will know more of what they really think, but I think Marian has a good handle on it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true. An excellent story
LikeLiked by 1 person
Doug has written a very concise and succinct story. The plight of the community after every thing has been destroyed by fire is so well described in the few sentences he has poured a lot of implied emotions. Beautiful writing
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, the tic says it all, doesn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very true.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We snuggled deep into our safe places and watched the rain fall and freeze, fall and freeze, fall and freeze, and we watched the snow fall over it and turn all the death mobiles into icy mobiles and then snowy mobiles. What great words written.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Isn’t that great, Raj. If deer could talk, I think that’s just what they would say. 🙂 xxx
LikeLiked by 1 person
yes, Marsha deer talk 🤣!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We live in the woods, and the deer are all around us. Sometimes they come up almost onto the porch! More than once, I’ve gone outside to hang laundry or water plants or sit and drink coffee, and deer at the treeline have just gone about their business. Sometimes we have to stop the car on the driveway and wait for them to move out of the way. We feel like we ought to frighten them so they’ll be wary of people, since hunters sneak in during hunting season. But we just content ourselves with not feeding them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That explains your story a lot, Marian. You have a great familiarity with them. We have an occasional deer in our home in Prescott. But they are not as frequent as coyotes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Loved the set up and the great last line, Marian. Congratulations.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That was very cool!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved both stories. And my mind is racing to come up with a contribution. We shall see. 🙂 Thanks, Marsha!
LikeLiked by 3 people
There’s a new on coming on Feb. 18 – Romance. Meanwhile, if you want to write a longer one up to 1,500 words, just send it to me, and I will schedule it. 🙂 xxxx
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Marsha, two terrific and different stories. Doug’s is very tragic and reminded me of a terrible forest fire we had here a few years ago. It destroyed numerous homes and businesses. Not much help came from government but most people were insurance. The second story reminded me of Covid and all the ridiculous hoarding that took place.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Covid wasn’t the first time, either. I can remember when I was a kid. I forget what the panic was, but Grandma had enough toilet paper stored to last several years. When she moved from her house, she had to take rolls and rolls of toilet paper and all her old spices. No wonder Costco sells toilet paper in gigantic packages.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think it was such a big deal here. A lot of people here couldn’t afford toilet paper to start with, never mind hoarding it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
hahaha It was probably before you were born anyway! LOL I was probably a teenager. Grandma was thrifty, there’s probably still some left somewhere! 🙂 xxx
LikeLike
Probably during the war years.
LikeLike
That depends on which war you are talking about. It was way after the World Wars and the Korean War, but about the time of the War in Viet Nam. Vince served in the Viet Nam War, my brother who is 7 years younger did not have to because the draft had ended in the US.
LikeLike
Okay, that is later than I thought.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeah, people always think I’m older than I am. LOL
LikeLike
The Y2K thing, maybe?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m not sure. I was ancient by Y2K. Well, maybe not ancient, but definitely not a teen. 🙂 xxx
LikeLike
One of the best things about Story Chat is getting to sample new (to me) authors. That’s the case with Doug, and I love this story.
The story is heart-wrenching, especially in light of the recent fires in California and people returning to a charred landscape.
I don’t think anything was really left out. Doug painted a scene around which is was easy to fill in the blanks.
Marian is an author I am very familiar with. I have read several of her books, and I delight in reading her Story-a-Day stories each year in May.
Her story relies on an all too familiar pattern to help us fill in the blanks, but I had to laugh at the way the humans are portrayed. We are so less capable than the animals and it doesn’t surprise me that they mock us.
It also doesn’t surprise me that Marian can tell a complete story in so few words. It helps that I live through scenes like this on an annual basis. We work very hard to not have to shop the day before a storm is forecast.
Great job by both authors!
LikeLiked by 2 people
One of the best things about Story Chat is getting to sample new (to me) authors. That’s the case with Doug, and I love this story.
The story is heart-wrenching, especially in light of the recent fires in California and people returning to a charred landscape.
I don’t think anything was really left out. Doug painted a scene around which is was easy to fill in the blanks.
Marian is an author I am very familiar with. I have read several of her books, and I delight in reading her Story-a-Day stories each year in May.
Her story relies on an all too familiar pattern to help us fill in the blanks, but I had to laugh at the way the humans are portrayed. We are so less capable than the animals and it doesn’t surprise me that they mock us.
It also doesn’t surprise me that Marian can tell a complete story in so few words. It helps that I live through scenes like this on an annual basis. We work very hard to not have to shop the day before a storm is forecast.
Great job by both authors!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dan, this is my introduction to Marian. I am so glad to include her in our Story Chat lineup. I loved her story, too. It was very cute to tell it from Bambi’s viewpoint.
Doug weaves a great tale as well. In CA we live with this on a constant basis. We always need rain. When it rains too much we get a flood, but since 1961 we have had dams to help with that. What’s missing from most people is the respect for where food comes from as Doug mentioned, and the huge sacrifice it is to spend your days to grow it. Some years yield very little. In plentiful years, the prices go way down. So it’s a very risky business. No wonder his protagonist had a tic.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Many thanks, Dan, for appreciating the detail and still filling in the blanks. It’s what authors love to hear.
LikeLiked by 2 people