The winner of the December 2009 Review Fuse Flash Fiction Contest is “Unwrapped” by Mike Ermitage (Review Fuse user mermitage).

Second place is “And so blows the winds of change” by Antram444 and third place is “Not A Bad Day” by AC.

All of these authors have given us permission to publish their winning pieces on our blog. We will post first place on Tuesday, second place on Thursday, and third place on Friday.

Thank you all for participating. It was fun to read your entries and hard to pick the winners.

Jacob

Chapter One of Estaroth by EstarothAvestas is the winner of the book first chapter writing contest.

Ordinary by jokrupinskiyahoocom is second place and A Game of Risk by artemisx5 is third place.

We have been given permission to publish Chapter One of Estaroth and Ordinary on our blog. These two chapters will appear later this week.

Over 300 members entered the September 2009 poetry contest. We are proud to announce that “Unending Thread” by jomicn776 is the winner of the September poetry contest.

“Through Death Row” by WordEngineer was second place and “Faiths Crossing” by Nagazel was third place.
All three authors have given us permission to publish their poems as part of this announcement.

Unending Thread

by jomicn776

Unending thread, between your heart and mine,
awaits the tug of distance to reveal
a purpose borne of using the divine
to loose our forms, yet strengthen soul’s appeal

that we not tarry in the ether mist,
behind a tattered veil for feigned delight.
Sweet nymphs and stirred emotion, lightly kissed,
are not the true love promised by the night.

The thread pulls back, we reel through space and time
believing all we see is here and now.
Illumination bares the truth in rhyme,
existence rests its head on lover’s brow.

Returning from the dream to find you there,
a halo brume encircling your hair.

Again I want to sleep and travel far,
beyond the earthly boundaries of my form,
and meet you near the heavens’ blazing star;
the kindly light feels safe and free and warm.

We circle round the azure shrouded world,
the thread has bound us surely down the nave.
Remains of day and night before unfurled
and carried on a crimson, golden wave.

Forever we will journey through this life,
no fear of crossing to the farther plane.
Between the two, the best room truly rife
with charity and love in His domain.

No matter if we wake or if we sleep,
Love’s bond a truer marriage couldn’t keep.

Through Death Row

by WordEngineer

Passion overtaking senses, overcoming life’s defenses,
It’s values split upon the ground, a last protest the only sound.
The sound: a cry for recompense, a call for justice to commence.
Unheard at first, but echoed round, until, at last, a man is found,
And is impound.

The man, who’s called, “devoid of heart,” his life had long fallen apart,
Without a plan, acting on whim, his actions mean little to him.
His mind: unlearned, jaded and scarred; his heart: untaught, unloved and barred.
He stands accused, he does not care, for broken kin, he’s not aware,
Of their despair:

Torn asunder, hearts a’bleeding, on their anger, hatred feeding,
So hurt from shattered, trampled laws, they blame this man; call him the cause,
And from the darker parts of men, one thing, it seems, could make amend:
They call for justice to prevail, they call for blood to balance scale–
His life to fail.

Through the trial, hardly blinking, hard to know what he is thinking.
He pleads no guilt, accepts no blame, he takes no thought, and shows no shame.
But solemn statements harvest truth, and pile against, and give no ruth.
Perhaps a shadow’s doubt remained, but juries verdict is arraigned–
And guilt proclaimed.

The victims’ kin prepare to read, and state the impact of the deed.
Most read with rage, and wrath, and hate, and yet his stupor won’t abate,
His heart is hard, they cannot reach; nothing, it seems, his walls can breach.
‘Till one forgives, without despise, and man’s indifference knows demise,
And the man– cries.

At this, he starts to comprehend, as judge decrees his life will end,
Regret, at last, for ill-timed death, for squandered time, for wasted breath,
For actions taken with no thought, and for judgments these actions bought.
He is strapped down, his fear–it grows, a needle poke, through blood it flows,
His eyes– they close.

Unable, now, to change his route, dawn takes his life, and snuffs it out,
But, if he could regain the chance, could both his heart and mind advance?
Or would this chance just bring the stain of further sorrow, death, and pain?
Still sits untouched: his final meal; a man who’s heart just learned to feel,
And also– heal.

Faiths Crossing

by Nagazel

My foe and I sought to clash on the rocky shore,
amidst the sweeping wind and ocean’s roar.
We both sat sweating beneath the scorching sky
and watched the other, locked eye to eye.
Our blades were brilliant lengths of light;
a testament from faith, we were in the right.

I was a hero from my native land,
said to wield the power of God in my hand.
He was an enemy whose prowess spread wide
but a heathen, beneath my blue eyes and pale hide.
Reputation, if nothing else, made us both nervous,
the man before us was rumored to be impervious.

Before we met in combat, I offered God a plea
to spare my life next to this shimmering sea.
I held my brazen brand tightly in my grip
But the sight before me almost made it slip,
The tanned man was also praying to his god
much like myself, and I thought it real odd.

Despite the similarity, I pressed on with fury
Because in heaven and earth I’d receive glory.
We both charged forward, driven by belief,
And once our weapons met we knew no relief.
Our roars of fervor and blind rage sang
As we both leapt into the Sturm und Drang

The swords met with the clang of steel
as we both pressed onward with iron will.
With each metal meeting the gulls cawed a retort,
bothered by the discord of our bloodthirsty sport.
For all of our effort neither could deposit
a solid blow into the flesh of our opposite.

With each attempt to strike and fell
An unsettling feeling within me began to dwell.
This man before looked less like demon spawn
And more like myself, defending with brawn
the things he loved and believed to be absolute.
Suddenly, I found I wasn’t as resolute.

Somewhere I knew, as we sought an end,
That another time and place he would’ve been a friend.
But the truths we were taught forced this conflict
And I could no longer avoid what he sought to inflict.
So, against my heart, honed reflexes struck him dead
And painted the glittering sands crimson red.

I burst out in despair and dropped to the ground
The crusader’s armament that’d spilled the blood all around.
We two men were the same in heart and in mind
but what we’d been taught sent us to kill and made us blind.
So there I cried, wracked with sorrow, holding him with my arm
knowing my beliefs had unjustly dealt my reflection fatal harm.