A brief note on this story -- it was created as an entry to the NYC Midnight 2024 Short Story Challenge. For Round One, entrants received their genre, subject, and character assignments and had to complete their 2500 word stories within 8 days. I was randomly assigned suspense/an emergency/a vending machine owner, and Bitter was the result. I won first place from my group and advanced to Round 2. For the next round, I received the assignment of comedy/against all odds/a medalist and had three days to submit a 2000 word story. After judging is completed on that round, I will share that story here as well. It's been a fun contest to participate in -- I highly recommend it!
So well done. Enviable pacing and tension. Damn, HAD to keep reading. You definitely deserved first place. Good luck with the rest of this interesting competition. Hats off to you!
A brief note on this story -- it was created as an entry to the NYC Midnight 2024 Short Story Challenge. For Round One, entrants received their genre, subject, and character assignments and had to complete their 2500 word stories within 8 days. I was randomly assigned suspense/an emergency/a vending machine owner, and Bitter was the result. I won first place from my group and advanced to Round 2. For the next round, I received the assignment of comedy/against all odds/a medalist and had three days to submit a 2000 word story. After judging is completed on that round, I will share that story here as well. It's been a fun contest to participate in -- I highly recommend it!
So well done. Enviable pacing and tension. Damn, HAD to keep reading. You definitely deserved first place. Good luck with the rest of this interesting competition. Hats off to you!
The first line made me want to read the second line and so on and so on….well done and thank you for making my Monday morning interesting!
Riveting from the start! Worthy of a first-place finish, indeed. Thanks for sharing.
Loved it. Thank you.
TK, I like this one a whole heckuva lot. You did a great job here. Thanks for sharing. - Jim
Well, T, this may not be your favorite genre, but I *loved* it! I was hanging on every word!