Hello my Freaky Darlings,

With Jeffrey Archer

I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Jeffrey Archer’s new book, Sins of the Father, at Skoobs in Monte Casino last night. I have to admit that I’ve never been a Jeffrey Archer fan, even though every member of my family declared me nutts for not jumping up and down every time he released a new book. That being said, after having met him, I have to say, he was surprisingly awesome. He was not what I expected. He was an incredible speaker, probably one of the best I’ve ever heard. He was also incredibly charming and personable. He dispensed some truths about the publishing industry as well as some wonderful advice. He also issued a challenge to the writers/story tellers/authors in attendance. It was a challenge that was issued to him by Readers Digest. There were only a few of us writers there and I wonder how many will actually take up the challenge. I, personally, have never been able to resist a challenge.

The challenge was to write a story of only a hundred words. Not a hundred and two words or ninety-nine words. It had to be exactly one hundred words and it had to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. And you have to do it in under an hour!

So here goes:

The Cards

The fortune-teller shuffled the cards. The Querent’s lips moved as she silently asked her question. The fortune-teller turned over the three cards. The Lovers, The Tower, and Death. A tear trickled down the fortune-tellers cheek. The Querent slumped and nodded her head in agreement with the cards.

“I can shuffle them again,” the fortune-teller said as her lower lip quivered.

“You’ve laid them out three times already. We need to accept it.”

“Please,” the fortune-teller begged.

“I’m sorry my love,” the Querent said as she pulled out the gun. “The cards have spoken.”

That’s exactly one hundred words. What do you think? Are you up to the challenge?