Friday Fictioneers is a weekly writing challenge hosted by the gracious Rochelle…
Writers are challenged to submit a 100-word (or less) flash fiction piece inspired by the photo-prompt. My offering for the week:
Friday Fictioneer’s prompt Picture’s courtesy of Marie Gail Stratford
My Dearest Emmaline,
I earnestly await your delight when at last you rest your eyes upon this wondrous land.
It is a sublimely temperate place, with clear skies and crystal waters. The natives are a goodly people: handsome, straight and honorable in habit. All manner of game abounds and the earth lies eager for seed and plow.
New Centre is a hundred souls strong and the men have agreed: we shall send for our families posthaste. Expect instruction soon to come–but first, I must tell you of my astonishing discovery! Today, I happened upon the most curious crystal.
——-
To read more Friday Fictioneers, visit the blue frog button: 
k. Rawson 
Brilliant and evocative. I was thinking of the lost colony at Roanoake. Croatoan carved on a tree. Well done.
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Someone should have checked Roanoake for crystals, I fear 😉 Thank you kindly Hardy.
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Something is going to happen, I just know it…
Claire
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and it’s not going to be good!
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Oh, lovely! Keep going… 🙂
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Thanks, I wonder if it isn’t an unfinished letter found at the scene… 🙂
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I personally like that idea a lot!
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You got the voice of the times spot on. Well done.
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Oh thanks! I love historical fiction but I’m afraid to write it. This was fun 🙂
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You have left me wanting more, more, more. Sci-fi? Historical? Fantasy? Don’t care. Bring it on. 😀 Favorite this week.
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Oh how amazing! You made my day. Yours tops my list too.
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i see that he didn’t have time to sign the letter. something terrible must have happened. i guess we’ll have to wait for the evening news for the answer. 🙂
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Or ye olde towne crier. That is, if he survives. 🙂
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This is liberally laced with misplaced optimism. Well done.
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Oh sweet, I love that phrase misplaced optimism 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
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Dear Karen, Great story and well written! The mysterious crystal is going to have an adventure in its story! Nan 🙂
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it may be the only survivor. Thanks for visiting Nan!
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Dear Karen,
I love your letter form. The language did sound a bit archaic and I first thought historical fiction. Then you brought in the crystal. Nice little cliff hanger, leaving the ending to the reader’s imagination. Well done.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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I’m not sure if it’s fantasy or historical fiction. It could be the prologue to your chapter, Rochelle 🙂 Thanks for the kind words.
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Move away from the crystal…
Love the letter form. Give me a letter, a diary, a map and I’m hooked. (Think I thought Blair Witch Project was for real.)
Lots of potential in these 100 words.
MJ
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It does beg for a map! Thanks for visiting MJ
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Brilliantly constructed and written. Loved it.
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Thanks for your kind words and thanks for visiting, Keith!
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Really done, Karen. The language is pioneer-perfect (wherever and whenever) and the dangling letter leaves us afraid that all is not well.
janet
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That’s so kind. The language had me worried. Trying to channel my pilgrim forebears. Thanks for visiting janet!
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I think this is how the first letter always look .. full of those sparks of enthusiasm.. and then fading into the colonial mistakes. Wonder if it is already has started to go wrong…
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It seems like just another a chapter in that Exxon story. Thanks for visiting Bjorn!
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Great story. That crystal he’s found sounds a little ominous though… 🙂
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Definitely ominous. Thanks for visiting and thanks for the follow!
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You’re welcome. 🙂
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Oh that crystal is most definitely the biggest diamond ever to be discovered. (I’m sure of it). 😀
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Eternal optimism 🙂
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😀
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Oh, the suspense, you know how to build it. I love the language, it’s so ‘real’. Beware these crystals, they have pointy ends…
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Thanks for the kind words and thanks for visiting 🙂
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That was great!
DJ
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Thanks Danny and thanks for the visit!
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I sense this may be his last letter home. Well done, Karen.
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Thank you kindly and yes–I fear it is the last letter home.
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I hope New Centre survives the discovery of the crystal!
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I fear it will not! Thanks for reading and commenting!
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Well done Karen, I need to know what happens next and I know its not going to be good news.
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Indeed, it won’t. Thanks for the kind words and the visit, Dee!
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Olde time letter was fine!
I wonder if the character shouldn’t be named GEMmaline, though?
The again it could be a case of my undue love of puns ❓
😉 Tay.
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You’re so right, Gemmaline would have been apt!
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Ooooo, I’d love to see more of this, very interesting start…. What is the crystal found I wonder!
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I wonder if anyone lives to tell about it 🙂 Thanks for visiting!
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Interesting response! Reminds me of reading Columbus’s journal, John Smith’s writings and others…evokes a lot!
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Very creative! Authentic voice, and a very original interpretation of the photo prompt.
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