In A Flash (Fiction) It Was Gone...

I had a really tasty short story to share with you today.  One to give you the shivers and get you ready for Halloween. But something happened on the way to this post.  What should have been a spooky, chilly holiday tale, suddenly morphed into this wonderful picture book story and in a flash, my flash fiction today was gone like a gourmet cookie and all that was left was a hint of what might have been...

That's one of the things I like about writing  The freedom to twist and turn your words into something different than what you originally envisioned.  A fleeting thought can become an idea which blossoms into a story which before you know it, becomes a five book series.  In real life, I'm an organized person who takes only calculated risks...never straying far from the path I planned out for my life.

In the world of my imagination...oh, that wonderfully twisty, turny, never-ending world in my mind...I am free to create whatever those unlimited boundaries will allow.  And so, when my flash fiction laughed at me, removed it's mask, and revealed it was a picture book manuscript I decided to go with it.  Instead of capturing one moment in time, I find I have stepped into yet another world of my own making and I will follow it wherever it might lead me.

But just in case you are wondering what you might be missing, here are the first couple of lines from what WAS going to be my flash fiction piece as well as the picture that inspired it...

Its dark and creepy, for just a little peeking,

As we sneak up to the gloomy ghoul hall.

While outside drooping, silently swooping,

Birds of the night will eerily call.

With eyes gleaming, glowing, and gnashing teeth showing

A scary scarecrow welcomes one and all.

A dark lumbering cloud drapes the moon like a shroud

Lightening our way to the gloomy ghoul ball.

Now, don't you wish it would have stayed a flash fiction piece so you know what happens next?  Just wait to you get the book...