Word economy: New Fiction 440 offers challenges for local authors

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English composition teachers take heart. The Lansing area has had its first public taste of flash fiction and the samples were clever, funny, imaginative, poignant and, at all times, pithy. The event was the kick-off for a series of monthly happenings; the next will take place Jan. 25.

The inaugural Fiction 440 was the creation of Ivy Hughes, Jeff Grabill, Suban Noor Cooley and Aaron Matthews, one more shot of adrenaline into the capital cosmos from the umbrella group called Young, Smart and Global. This loose collective founded Ignite and TedX Lansing.

According to its Facebook page, Fiction 440 fosters creativity in the Capital City, asking writers to complete a work in 440 words, with “no excerpts, no poetry, no exceptions.”

But there was a hitch. Each work in the Dec. 6 event had to include the words “cufflinks,” “balls” and “glassware.”

Fourteen writers took the bait and 24 men and women gathered at Moriarty’s Pub on Michigan Avenue to hear their short stories. The stories ranged from science fiction and deranged fairy tales to erotic mysteries and tragic epics.

Over savory sliders and spiced-up fries — washed down with varying forms of drink — writers, lawyers, musicians and more heard the original works of the Lansing area’s budding Hemingways and Rowlings.

Standing before Moriarty’s fireplace, softly wrapped in pub-ish darkness, some people read their own submissions or stories offered by others.

First up was Bill Hart-Davidson, a Michigan State University professor of rhetoric and writing. He strode to the fire place mantel, and confidently began his story, titled “Dave Loses Balance.”

“It was an improbable situation for anyone but Dave. It would end badly.” And thus, his audience hooked, Hart-Davidson painted this word picture: “A mouthful of ping pong balls, he sat on a six-foot unicycle, left foot gyrating the cranks in frenetic circles. A tower of glassware — teacups, saucers, a cream pitcher, a compote — perched on his right foot.”

Seeing how various writers worked in the required terms was part of the fun. Glassware appeared not only on the juggler’s foot, but also as part of a Victorian landscape, a dying grandmother’s estate, and broken shards used as weapons.

Bob Metzger, by day a special projects manager for the Michigan Economic Development Corp., seized his pen and captured the challenges of an event manager, not working for the state but for a king seeking a bride for his son.

It was his most memorable and most difficult “ball,” Metzger groused, using one of the other required words, and casting a new version of the Cinderella story.

He recouped his event expenses with the sale of another piece of glassware, the glass slipper, sold to the famous fairy godmother.

Selecting the key words for use in the inaugural Fiction 440 was just a case of four people sitting around over drinks, said Hughes. The key words for January event were selected by the group at Moriarty’s: “hospital,” “kumquat” and “frenetic.”

Those key words are seen as prompts. How people worked in “cufflinks” at the first event was entertaining. Dan Hogan, videographer for Michigan Government Television, wrote about a battle between robots and ninjas. At one point, “cufflinks bounced off the robot’s lone red eye.”

Chris Van Wyck likened cufflinks to handcuffs in prison. Matt Penniman works at Message Makers but sent himself to another world, writing about Double 0440: “I can’t stop staring at James Bond’s cufflinks.”

“Thus ends the inaugural Fiction 440,” intoned Matthews, succinctly and without extra words.

And we add: To be continued.

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